:banghead: D'oh!
Dave, that was some pretty poor delivery on my part. I didn't mean it to come across as offensive but reading back what I wrote it does seem like I was attacking you personally. I can see why you took it the way you did and and I'll be more careful about that in the future. :thumbsup:
I was under the impression that the OP was looking for opinions on what to do in his situation, with the main focus of the 'situation' was that it was a hard decision based on the fact that he really cares about the land staying in the family, and cares about heritage of it as being part of his family for generations. If that wasn't important to him then it would be an easy decision.
I might be a little "too" opinionated regarding accepting the land, because land itself, and especially family history of the land, is very important to me. I will stand by my opinion that if at all possible, to accept the land from his uncle even if that means having to "let it go" for a while. It's very possible that one of Jeff's grand children will want to live on that land one day, and it's very possible that one of the things Jeff would enjoy most as a grandfather, is seeing his grand children fixing up that old "family farm" that he has such fond memories of as well. It's hard to tell what the future will bring, but one thins is for sure, once that land is out of the family, it will very likely never be back in.... :confused3:
My grandfather (on my father's side) bought some property in 1964 in NH. My father and his brothers remember playing in the woods as teenagers and taking care of the blueberry fields. They have tons of stories about that land and the home that is on it. My whole childhood life, I would go visit my grandfather for a few weeks in the summers, and visit on weekends with my uncle during the school year. I have tons of memories growing up on that land as well. I learned a lot of my backwoods skills on that family land.
None of my grandfather's children have any interest in the land. Like you, they could care less who owned it before them (that's not a bad thing, just different than the way I look at it). My grandfather knew that none of them wanted it. When I was young(er) my grandfather asked me to promise him something, he wanted me to promise that I would try my hardest to keep the land in the family when he was gone. I gave him my word. I'm now the only person who cares about that land, who goes up there to maintain and manage it. Sometimes I can't get up there for many months at a time, maybe close to a year now that I have children of my own.
I envision giving the land to my kids someday (and yes, maybe they'll sell it to a developer and make money on it, who knows) and I hope that my grand kids and great grand kids will play on that land. It may be more important to me than others but that is just my experience. I think I put myself in Jeff's "grandchildren's shoes" sortspeak. I picture one of his grand kids someday saying "thank god grandpa saved our family farm from being lost 40 years ago".
I have even more ties to my grandparents land on my mother's side, but I won't bore you guys with the history of that as well, as it would take many pages. In short though, I'm now living in a house that was once part of our family's 200 acre farm, that goes back to 1796, and for some people "who cares?" is the first thing they say, but for me, that's important.
I guess I'm taking this situation too personally, and should be more open minded from other's opinions where land passed down for generations means nothing to them. It appears important to the OP however, and it's always good to see the "other side" and get opinions both ways.
Again, I didn't mean disrespect or personal attack
Regardless, you did make some very good points from a different point of view, and I should have respected that. :drink:
Sorry.
