This will probably make more sense if you read this post first, and maybe follow the links in it to some of my earlier posts.

I'm posting the part of this I have now, then I'll add to it as I'm able. Help may or may not be on the way but it's pretty clear at this point that we aren't going to make it through the week without some help. I'll try to explain what's going on better sometime soon but it the mean time if you can afford to click that PayPal button on the sidebar please, please, do.

First, some pics you can skip by if you want to. At least I had sense enough to just post thumbnails this time; click 'em to see 'em bigger if you're interested.

Click any image for a larger view.

I've posted that first image a couple of times before but maybe some of you haven't seen it yet. It's a satellite shot of this area from not too long before they decided we needed a bigger Wal-Mart. The triangular property with the red X on it is our (more precisely, Mom's; it'll be my sister's eventually if we don't sell part of it) place. The large building just right of center near the top is a Wal-Mart that's been there about 15 years. The new Super Wal-Mart's going to be somewhere in that field behind it, with access from James St.

That next shot gives you an idea what our back property line (the long side of a right triangle) looked like before things started changing. The northeast corner of our place is about a fourth of the way over from the left in the picture; to the left of that is our north property line, part of the neighbor's back yard, and farther away part of the existing Wal-Mart.

In that third shot you can see what they did to the southwest end of that fencerow. The trees weren't ours but the fence was and if we don't end up selling part of that back field they're going to have to fix it.

I took the fourth shot from right next to that tree in the middle of the third one. Just to the left of that big backhoe you can see the beginning of what we've heard will be about a nine acre lake, a lot closer to our place than I'd have preferred. I liked that area a lot better as a cornfield like it was for at least the last 50 years.

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2007.08.28.00:09 ***

It doesn't look like Mom's going to be selling part of the place to my brother after all. Apparently it came as a big shock to him (although I'm pretty sure he was told several years ago about the same time I was) that Mom's will leaves the place to my sister. I don't know what he thinks he's done to deserve part of it. I'm told that even when I was living in Texas I made it by here about as often than he did, and I know for a fact he hasn't been the least bit helpful with the financial problems we've been having since my sister lost her job and didn't look for a new one because Mom needed someone here to help take care of her. (With my hearing and health problems I'm not qualified for the task.) As far as I'm concerned if Vicki hadn't been here to take care of Mom we'd have had to sell the place and put Mom in a nursing home by now, and if Mom wants to leave the place to her she has my blessing.

It's also looking pretty certain at this point we won't be selling any land to the contractor/developer who bought that field behind us. He still wants it, but at a price nowhere close to what it originally sounded like he'd be willing to pay, and what he's offering just isn't worth worrying about what would eventually come of what we sell him. If the guy who owns that field in front of us had been willing to sell it we would have ended up with a road across that field and our east field to whatever ends up in that field behind us. Since the field in front of us isn't for sale, if we sell that east field we're liable to end up with a business of some sort 50 feet from the house in a few years. I guess for now we're going to keep the place intact and if someone offers enough for part of it in  a few years reconsider the situation then.

On the "maybe we might make it after all" side, my sister started a new part time job Saturday night, something I have very mixed emotions about. She's going back to work, at least temporarily, at the gas station/convenience store where she worked years back and left when McDonald's offered her more hours and better wages (due to her having worked for Druther's, a McD's wannabe, right out of high school.) When she lost her job at McDonald's it first looked like she was going to be watching her two youngest grandkids while their mother worked so she'd have some income and still be here with Mom. When that fell through, as things involving said daughter invariably do, we decided to see if we could make it without her income, which it's become painfully clear recently we can't. After training she's supposedly only going to work evenings, when there will be someone else besides me here in case Mom needs help -- basically counting on my 10 year old nephew to be my ears. Since her son has been working at the same place for the last few months it sounds like management would be OK with him covering for her if something comes up and she needs a night off on short notice. Supposedly she's just working there temporarily while one of the regular employees is on maternity leave, but there's no knowing whether the other employee will actually come back and even if she does it sounds like management will still want Vickie to work a night or two a week to keep her on the payroll so she can fill in when someone's sick, etc. It's not a good situation but maybe it's a way to hang on without help till the Social Security people quit stalling and I get what I should be getting from them.

To help out a little more, it sounds like we may go into the horse boarding business on a small scale. I've never really been much of a horse person but there have been horses here off and on in the past. Dad bought Dixie for my brother in the mid 60's, then bought Ginger for my sister a few years later. My memory's not what it used to be but I know that somehow my ex-wife ended up buying Ginger some time in the late '80s and still has three of her colts in a pasture on what used to be her (my ex's) granddad's place about 15 miles from here. The youngest of the three (who I think they've told my grandson is his, the middle one being my daughter's) is in the process of going blind and needs to be in a smaller, flatter, more open pasture than he's been in till the last few days. Some friends of my ex's (horse people to the core) have him at their place temporarily but don't have room to keep him long term. It's not a sure thing yet but it sounds like my ex may put up the money to put a fence across the north side of our east field --  I can't for the life of me remember when or why the one that used to be there went away -- and bring him here. She's not offering huge amounts of money for watching him but she has offered the first year up front, and we'd much rather have one of Ginger's colts in that field than whatever might end up there if we sell it. The next step in the decision making process is for my daughter, who was already planning to come up for Labor Day weekend, to go by and see the horse in question while she's here and report back to her mother on his condition. Obviously we'll work on my grandson while he's here to "Go home and tell Grandma you think Sunshine should come and live with us." I hope we're not getting set up for another disappointment; my sister's already getting excited about having a horse around here again, and if we can make a little money for keeping one so much the better.