About the Farm: Chapter 25

Wiggling: The folly of trying to wiggle out of a contract with a corporation

A bit of research tells me that with $14,500 I can pay for one of the following:

A low mileage three year old Toyota Corolla

A cosmetic overhaul of my kitchen, including new stainless steel appliances

One night at the Westin Excelsior Villa La Cupola suite in Rome

Roughly 12,000 donuts

The privilege of being allowed to sell 7.3 acres of my own land to the people who want to buy it. (And who discovered the magic swimming hole in the first place.)

That’s not the price of the land, mind you. That’s just what I would have to pay for permission to sell. That is what the Family Forest Carbon Program would require me to pay (250% of what they had already paid me) in order to terminate my contract with them. Nothing short of terminating the entire contract allows me to do anything with my contracted land other than letting the trees grow on it.

I’m not saying it’s wrong for them to require this. They can’t realistically have folks willy nilly trying to adjust their contracts after they have signed them, that’s just not practical. And yes, I can plainly see that only part of this should be considered “my own money” since part is what they just paid me. What I am saying is that if anyone reading this ever considers signing with a carbon sequestering program, I’d encourage you to wait until you are absolutely sure there is not anything else you want to do with the land. Give it some time before you jump.

The young folks at FFCP continue to be friendly and helpful as they guide me to consider my alternatives. I could sell the 22.7 acres of land not under contract now, and set it up so that the remaining 7.3 acres passes to Walker and Lily after the 20 year contract is up. But I need to be careful. If I accidentally sell even a fraction of an acre that is within the contracted area, then I will have to pay 250% of the entire amount I have been paid at the point it is discovered, which by then will be even more than 14.5K.

As a safeguard, I hire Anthony Pappas, the forester who evaluated the land for FFCP originally, to create a detailed map. He delineates the contracted area, the area I can freely sell now, and the area that will pass to Walker and Lily later. He works in conjunction with the mapping team at FFCP, and I get it in writing that the map is satisfactory.

This all takes many months. In the meantime, I write up a letter that states that it is my intention to sell the land and Lily and Walker are free to use it as if it is theirs until the sale is complete. This is to protect them in case anything happens to me, and also to simplify things as they don’t need to ask me if they want to make permanent changes or additions of infrastructure.

Lily, Walker and I joke that all these complications are the fault of the nature spirits who inhabit the magic swimming hole. They refuse to be bought and sold. The only way they are willing to pass to new ownership is as a gift.

Naiad Nymph, Greco-Roman mosaic from Zeugma C1st-2nd A.D., Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology. Photo from Theoi.com, a free reference guide. In Greek mythology, NAIADES (Naiads) were the nymphs of rivers, streams, lakes, marshes, fountains and springs.