February 6, 2009

There is still so much fog, you can hardly see in front of you. But because we got to bed so early, we are up before dawn. Once daylight has hit, I take Delores on a tour of the ranch, and we go to introduce ourselves to the horses (there are 9). They were very happy to see us, but very unhappy that we didn't come bearing food. And then there is the "fire truck" stored in Jack and Jane's extremely large storage building. They are volunteer fire fighters, and keep this truck at their ranch, should fires come up in this area of Polson.

Then it's back to the "big house" for breakfast. Plus deciding what we are going to do for the day. Since it is dark, grey, and foggy, we decide to drive around on the many little roads and "fingers" that exist around Flathead Lake. Jane knows I am looking for property, and I have sent an e-mail to one of her close friends who is a realtor. So we head into an area where I've seen property listed on the Internet -- it's called Jette Mountain. Thank goodness Jane is driving and we are in one of their big Dooley trucks with 4 wheel drive, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten 50 years. The roads are just covered with snow. We did find one lot which was 1.4 acres for the low, low price (I'm kidding) of $84,900. Jane and Jack had checked this out last October and send me pictures -- it was the same price then. We saw another lot that was 1.3 acres. Very little of the lot is flat, and it mostly slides down the hill -- the reason it's been on the market for 4 years and was just reduced to $30,000. On to the next one!!

One might think that real estate in Montana should be less expensive than many of the large, populated cities around the country. Not so!! It is pretty expensive to buy land or a home in Montana. We drove to a brand new development (roads and power in the development, but nothing build), and it was very pretty. The property sits at the bottom of some really large hills with lots of pine trees on the slopes. The largest piece is 42 acres, plus one lot for 40 acres (this is pretty steep on the hillside), and a pretty lot of 30 acres. There are 8 lots of smaller size, varying from 5.5 acres to 10 acres. It was priced from about $95,000 to $475,000 for the largest. We did go to the Internet and looked up the development to find that the prices had been slashed fairly dramatically. The 42 acre lot for $475K had been priced at $620K. It would be fun if Delores and I could split the 30 acre lot (priced at $300,000) -- but that's a lot of money.

Jane has a great GPS system in the truck, so we start driving down these very little roads around the lake, and down the "fingers" of land sticking out into the lake. Some very impressive homes that I'm sure cost some very impressive dollars. One was being built into the side of a hill -- it was hard to believe they could actually build a home there. But the views of the lake are great.

The other thing you find around the lake are cherry trees. There was one little field after another little field of cherry trees (imagine what this must look like in the Spring). For those who don't know, this area of the country is famous for FLATHEAD CHERRIES. Apparently the soil has just the right acid content to produce these cherries. And they are planted everywhere around the lake -- even on the smallest parcels.

By now it is raining and snowing (not a nice day). We are on our way to visit Jane's friend, Kate (the realtor). She has a fabulous house sitting on one of these beautiful hills with pine trees and the most wonderful view of Flathead Lake. And it is in "Big Arm, MT" (don't you just love the names? Towns like Bigfork, Whitefish, Elmo, etc.). Her house has been a work in progress for the last several years, and she and her husband Frank, have been living in the beautiful "daylight basement" with a full kitchen and 3 bedrooms. They like it so much down there, that they have not yet moved into the BEAUTIFULLY decorated upstairs, with views to die for (of course, they have that view from the basement) from the living room, beautiful dining room, febulous kitchen -- need I go on?

Kate is wonderful -- so welcoming to 2 visitors from Georgia. She has personality plus and a big heart. And she's a realtor (think I mentioned that), and has pulled some property listings for me. I definitely want to move here, and I'll definitely use Kate. We had a couple of drinks and a fun conversation.

So it's back to the ranch. Delores and I did not expect Jane and Jack to feed us as wello as give us a free room. But it was pretty much impossible to get out to a restaurant. THEY LIKE TO COOK. And cook they did. Every night we were eating a big meal, and they were all delicious. Tonight we had marinated steak cooked on their grill with fresh mushrooms and salad -- it was great. I haven't been on a scale, but I'm sure I'll be 10 pounds heavier when I go home.