Urban Homesteading is alive and well in the Midwest.  I've had the good fortune to meet other like minded folks, although most of them are in KC or Lawrence.

If you're new to the idea, get started here . The Dervaes family raises over 6,000 pounds of food every year on 1/5 of an acre.  I know, it's mind boggling!!

If you're in the KC area, check out classes here and their Friday Night Market - yum!

And above is my beloved "hen" Lucy, which, as you can clearly see in the photo, is actually a Rooster, renamed Larry. Ahem.  As Roosters are not allowed within the city limits, Larry is on the way out of town, as soon as he's a little older.

We ordered our flock from My Pet Chicken and were assured that we would get 100% hens as we just want layers.  (As Cole says, " We don't EAT pets Mom!")  Alas, 3 of the 12 are Roos.

I'd highly advise anyone thinking of Urban Homesteading to read their CCRs (neighborhood covenants) and the city laws regarding poultry, livestock, bee keeping etc.  In my town, roosters and bee hives are outlawed.  Poultry and livestock are limited (by livestock, I mean a goat, not a heard of Jersey's.)   Funny thing I learned, most subdivisions in KC area do NOT allow clothes lines ~ is that crazy or what?! 

Here's a few more links to sites I enjoy: Mother Earth News, Countryside, Little House.

I read this article via a link from MSN.com that's a warning to buyers to watch out as agents try to sneak in Administrative Fees that are in essence, junk fee.

My company is not one that charges admin fees for sellers or buyers, but there are local companies that do.  There is even one company in town that forces the buyer to pay hundreds of dollars to have the house re-keyed and de-winterized, and they represent the seller!  (Yes, I have a problem with this!)

I have an issue with sneaking in fees of any kind.  I do agree with the author's opinion that as agents, we offer a bundle of services and therefore, shouldn't expect clients pay more money on top of the commission.  I also know "a la carte" agents... in that they offer a customized list of things they are willing to do and the clients can pick and choose from the list thereby setting their own services and fees.  (I find that one a head scratcher - why wouldn't I want to provide all the marketing that I do to every one of my clients?  Would having a seller that doesn't want an open house justify reducing my commission a few hundred dollars?  What about a seller that chooses to not want print ads? Should he be able to reduce the fee by that value?  What about a home that goes through 5 times the amount of color flyers that I budget for? Should I charge the seller more?)

My real complaint with the article is what I tend to take issue with the media's low opinion of Realtors and  their choice of inflammatory words... i.e.

• "Sellers pay steep commission" and
• "It's nice to go shopping with an agent without having a signed agreement, as that keeps you a free agent" and
• "Remember, no matter whose relative the agent is, he or she has a strong incentive to persuade you to buy something -- anything.  Agents make money by closing deals, period. So maintain an arm's-length relationship."

I'm confident that buyers are savvy enough to figure out that agents make money by doing their job.  I do not (and most of the top agents I know) view clients as dollar signs with legs, just waiting to pounce on the next couple that walks by.  My job, my career is much more than a commission check.

Yes, after 5 years of thinking about it, I've gone GREEN with Red Wigglers! 

I attened the local Lawn, Flower & Garden Show in Feb 2003 and saw a worm farm.  I was intrigued by the idea that I could compost year 'round, not just in warmer months.  The demonstrator had kits for sale that were just too expensive (well over $100 PER FARM) and I couldn't justify spending that kind of money when I'd rather buy more plants.

Fast forward to this spring. As we were tilling our garden, we discovered that we have a ton of worms because we have always buried our kitchen scraps in the garden rather than composting in the cute bins or rolling composters that several neighbors proudly own.  I am would love to own a $400 composter, but honestly, I'd forget about maintaining it and really, I just want to feed the worms and let mother earth break stuff down naturally.  But in the winter, I am in no mood to go out to the garden and bury my scraps... so into the garbage they went. 

On a whim, I googled "worm farm" and found instructions to make on out of stuff we had on hand.  Hubby drilled the holes, the kids and I had a blast shredding newspaper and getting it wet to toss in.  We hit up the bait shop and bought 12 dozen red wigglers.  They seem to be pretty happy but according to the various websites, we think we need about a pound more worms to consume all that our family produces. 

If you're in the Wichita area and would like to buy worms to get started, here's a few places we've found:

P&P Seed and Bait Shop, Nana Jane's Worm Farm and M&J Worm Ranch 755-4826

I've been meme'd by Greg Fox - a fellow Wichitan and well, gosh, thanks!  Here goes...

1. Who is your favorite Musical Artist?  Um, of all time, Rich Mullins. But, I really enjoy anything that's 'danceable' - (yes, I'm known for making up words too LOL).  So, I listen to a lot of Hip Hop music.

2. Who is your favorite Artist?   I tend to be drawn to Black & White photography and my favorites are Ansel Adams , Margaret Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange.   I also am intrigued by the Sistine Chapel (someday I'll see it in person) and my youngest son's name is Cole Thomas - as a nod to the famous Thomas Cole.

3. Who is your favorite Blogger?  Oh Wow! I can't just choose 1 AR blogger. So, I'll introduce you to 2 of my favorite non-rainers:  Big W and Matt

4. If you could meet anyone (alive or dead) who would it be and what is the most interesting thing about them?  Well, I am not really into knowing or wanting to know famous people.  I would give just about anything to have my Texas Grandparents alive one more day.  I'd love to have my Grandpa give me some more photography tips and I'd love to watch one of his infamous slide shows.

5. What did you want to be when you grew up?  A mom of 6.  In 4th grade, our teacher wanted us to make Career Day posters.  I picked a teacher (I know, unique, huh?!).  Anyway, she said I couldn't pick that because someone else already had!  She wanted a wider variety of potential careers so that our parents could ooh and aah at the posters on PTA night. I suggested a Mom but she said "A Mom isn't a career choice". Little did SHE know!  So, I ended up picking a cop, because no one else did. 

6. What is the most interesting piece of Trivia you know? I am full of useless tidbits of info which makes for fun times while watching Jeopardy!

7. If you could live in any period in History...when would it be and why?  1940's or 1950's but only if it's really like it was on Leave It To Beaver.  Actually, I would like a time machine to jet all around and visit different times because I'm fascinated by so many different eras.

8. What is the most interesting job you have ever had?  Every job I've ever had was interesting! But, by far, working with my Aunt Jennifer in my Ohio Grandparents pool store in the late 1970's was interesting because we got to run the tests on the pool water to see what chemicals it needed.  This was before the little insta-test kits like we have now and for an 8 year old, it was fun running that machine.  I once got a job as a grocery store clerk just because I wanted to run the cash register and scanner - I thought I could do it better/faster than their employees. It was fun... for a while. Then it just got to be a J-O-B so I quit. 

TAG - You are IT!  I'm meme'ing the following people: Karen Cheek, Sheree Wilkerson, Jennifer Allan, Carole Provenzale,  Rich Kruse, Karen George, and Melissa Marro. 

I got my Blackberry Curve less than 3 weeks ago.  I needed to upgrade as the old phone was gasping for air and basically, refusing to do much of anything.

I do love my Blackberry and I can see why people refer to it as a Crackberry.  Having my emails delivered to my phone before they even hit my In Box is exciting. Heck, just getting emails on my phone when I'm out of the office is awesome!

The Curve does so much and I'm happy with most of it... but I have 2 wishes:

(1) Touch screen. My old phone had one and I was sooo used to my stylus and touch screen. It is hard to get used to the Curve's little tiny track ball (which, is lopsided - is yours? or is it just me? How do you get it un-lopsided?)

(2) This is just a general plea to the world at large: don't list your phone number as 555-CALL ME because I CAN'T!!  LOL  The phone numbers are now imbedded in the keyboard and no longer have letters on the key so I am unable to call you since I don't have corresponding alpha/number keys anymore. Hopefully that makes sense. I know that the reason people use those types of numbers is so that you can remember them, and I do!  I just don't know what the corresponding phone number is. LOL

And, yes, I'm probably going to upgrade to the Blackberry Bold, when it's released.

I like to be organized, especially with paperwork.  My files are neat and orderly and the same system is applied to every single file, no matter if it's a buyer, seller or REO property.  But, we had a challenge when it came to our clients. We'd flood them with copies of "stuff" and expect them to figure out how to make sense of it all.

That is, until Melissa Krantz spoke at a RE/MAX convention a few years ago. She brought an example of a Communication Binder that she makes for all her clients. So, we tweaked it a little and now, we love handing a completely organized 3-ring binder to our clients.

We make binders for:

• Sellers Listing Paperwork
• Sellers House Paperwork (stays with the home, for the new buyers to enjoy)
• Buying a Home 
• New Construction
• Short Sale Clients Financial Binder

We use the 2" white binders that you can slip in a cover sheet as well as spine titles.  Inside, we use the 5-Tab dividers for various sections and my favorite thing we include is the Business Card Page.  It's Avery 76009.  

We give the binder at the beginning of the transaction.  For sellers, it's at the listing appointment.  For buyers, it's when we begin searching for houses.  Whenever we give them a copy of something, we hole punch it first and remind them to stick it in their binder. 

We give sellers a brown, expandable accordian type file to hold the appliance manuals, warranties or receipts that they'll want to give to the new owners.  When they're packing to move, they tend to find all kinds of things that the buyers might want, like plant/shrub care tags, service providers they've used, the garbage disposal key and spare house keys/garage door openers.

At closing, there is a place in the binder for closing paperwork or if they prefer the copies on disk, it can slip right into the front pocket.

Clients report that this binder is a hit.  We recently listed a house and the seller pulled out his binder from the 2004 purchase. 

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