Hello Hivers!
I am scrolling on my photo gallery thinking of what to write and share to you today that will give some insights or meaning and even purpose for you. This will be quite a long read as it has history to it and it's also dear to my heart so I have to let my emotions flow, I don't mind my thumb, fingers aching while typing this on my smart phone. Some snacks would be handy, good to have something to nibble on while reading this somewhat of a pocket book post.😍😄😅 I hope my story won't bore you!
Hubby and I have acquired 3 different properties in our 28 years of marital bliss. Next week it's our 29 years on the 22nd. But for me it felt like we are just newly-married! Yahoooo!hahaha. Well, if you find your soul mate every day feels like your wedding day! Arf arf!😍☺️🥰 It's true! No kidding!
Well, going back to my post,hahaha. This is the very first one we purchased last 2016.
Last Christmas day, my hubby decided that our little family visit our property which we haven't visited for quite some time already. He wanted to do some grass cutting, clearing and cleaning to the whole area for we know it's infested with grasses already and surely it did! While hubby was doing the grass cutting my son and Ai were the one's doing the raking of all the cut grass and dried leaves for the property is surrounded with trees.
The downside of having a property with no caretakers is that your neighbors are the ones harvesting your crops, cutting down your trees, thinking of it as their own. One time when we visited all our coconut trees were shaved, like all the branches where taken down except for the tiny young that is about to grow on top of the tree. It's like seeing a Hari Krishna monk with a little hair tied at the back. Hubby and I were really angry but we didn't do anything even if we knew who did it. I just took videos of all our chopped down coconut leaves which they used to make coconut broom.
So funny, you can see all their trees lush with leaves but they didn't harvest theirs, they harvested ours!!🫣😭🥴🤐😬
Well, we didn't do anything just so we can't create any neighbor wars. They know we know they did it. So far they haven't touched our coconuts ever since. I guess being silent is a great attack at times.
But on this Christmas day, last year our next door neighbor, a different neighbor cut down our Gmelina tree which really pissed my husband and me as well. I guess our neighbor was planning on using it to build his pig fence.
You can see those galvanised sheets? behind? those are his pig pens that are still under construction. Since there was no one living in our property, he happily has his own farm. Now he has turkeys, chickens, goats just happily free-ranging at our yard got his dogs too were barking wildly at us, thinking we were trespassing his territory!! Haha. Hubby chopped what was left of the Gmelina tree trunk and we brought it inside our house for we cannot use it anymore but as firewood.
Gmelina trees are used as light construction materials, carpentry wood, wrapping, handicrafts, household furniture, decorative veneer, flooring, musical instruments, lighters, bodies of trains and ships/boats.
(Source: Wikipedia)
So lesson number one, make sure to have a care taker when you have a property but pick the ones whom are honest and reliable.
Well, we have a caretaker before but the problem was he wasn't honest. When we got this property we wanted to help our neighbors as well so we hired one family, the father to take care of the land but the problem is that the whole family's problem is your problem. They kept asking for advances without working for it. We pay them to plant on the land
but ended up them harvesting the fruits first. So we got tired of all their problems and decided to not be needing their services anymore.
Having a huge property is a lot of hard work so be prepared to take in the task of regularly maintaining it. Let me take you back in time, the story behind this purchase.🥰♥️
🚒The History
Hubby worked in the local Water District here in our city. As part of their program to the community. They give out free water to those barangays that have water problems during the peak of the Summer months. Usually the affected areas are the one's on the higher parts because water is scarce so the water pressure from the water treatment plants is not enough to push the water up on the highlands. Hubby is the one in-charge of the motor pool department. He handles all the vehicles of the company. He drives the water tanker to these affected areas every summer just so they can provide safe water to the people. One area is where we acquired our lot. This place is the resettlement area of the affected indigenous tribe from Zambales called the Aetas during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. This is where the then Mayor of our city placed them. Since this is an ancestral domain area, the local water district cannot put their facility on the area without their approval. It has been 30 years now since they are here. I think this year, there has been an agreement between the local tribes and the local government to put up water facilities on this land. Hubby was able to know of this property during his frequent visits to the place bringing water for the people. The property that we acquired is not part of the resettlement area. It is just on the entrance going to the Aeta's resettlement place or barangay. He came to know this when he and his fellow colleagues were looking for areas that might have a source for water. When they came here and asked about the property and its owner the people said it is not for sale. So they never bother asking again. Then one day while hubby was on Facebook, he came across a post about a lot for sale. He inquired on the owner and asked for the details of the property and its price. He then went back and looked at the place. This was really a surprise, Hubby did not tell me about his of purchasing a property. It was all a surprise. We have some saved up money in the bank so he purchased it. He then asked me to go with him stating we will just look for some lot with a water source for his company. Little did I know when we arrived there he showed me the Deed of Sale to the lot. What can I say, I was really happy. Owning a land? what!! His plan of surprising me really did work out. My hubby knows where to put his money. He always plan for the future and he is very good at handling our finances. He knows where and how to put our money to good use. Going to this place, you must pass a zig zag going down hill with steep roads beside a river below. I can't imagine him driving the big water tanker filled with water going up and down the steep road. Just behind that curve is the steep descent the entry to where the resettlement area is and where we have our property. For small vehicles its okay but for the big trucks like the water tanker it is really very hard. One must be a very good driver like hubby. I am really super proud of him.
🌟PINAGPALA or The Blessed Place
Would you believe that the name of the place is called PINAGPALA which translates The Blessed in English. Yah, the name of the place seals the blessings from God. I think owning this property was a blessing for all his hard work and his service to the people in this barangay. Imagine he would be going here with his water tanker full from 5pm til past midnight because the trip and the delivering of the water would consume two hours going back and forth refilling the tanker from a fire hydrant inside the Base then going back again. Then the following day, 8am he will go to work. That's how hardworking my hubby was. He has no reason to say no because it was only him who has the guts to drive the water tanker going to this zigzag road dark at night.
🏠The House 🏡
This property has a house but still on it's skeletal form when we acquired it. Basically it was just hollow blocks no plastering yet. There was no toilet and bath everything was rough and still needs a lot of budget to make it look like a house. Over the years, We have already done a lot of work on this house and have spent a lot as well. Since we really don't have a big amount of money for its construction so we do renovations little by little. Now we were able to plaster the walls, put some windows and added some grills and jalousies inside the bedroom area. We designed it to have two big bedrooms. A living room upon entering and adjacent will be the dining area then it has a kitchen on the side then the toilet and bath at the back part. We are not really in a hurry in finishing this house because we just come here when we have the time. We don't rent it out. We come here to do some grass cutting on the grounds and when we have the time. It is our escape from all the hustle and bustle of the city. Our quiet and happy place.
We purchased it because this property has free flowing spring water. Our neighbors who were living there said that ever since they moved here 25 years ago this was their source of water because this Community has not been reached by the local Water District up until now. They don't have water line connections. So for them having this spring water was really a blessing to them. Several families use this as their water source so when they found out that it has been sold and we were the new owner they asked us if what will be our plans for the place because they were afraid we will not give them the access to the water anymore. We told them not to worry about it, they can get water there freely. They put up some hose from the source of the spring and then connected it to each of their respective homes. We never took their privilege of having water from our property so up until now they are freely using the water. Since we don't live here it is okay. We love to share what we have to people. When my sister came and lived here last 2020, we placed a plastic container so they will have their own water supply. as well. Great thing about this spring water it has never dried up ever since even during hot summer days and during the droughts on the previous years. Water just continuously flows. Which I am truly grateful for. I consider this a blessing having flowing water which helps our surrounding neighbors and my sister as well.
They boil the water for drinking just to be safe because this is not treated. For their baths, we told them to add in some chlorine on the deposited water in their basins and big buckets inside the house. So it will be safe for the kids because they might have skin rashes or any skin problems just to be sure.
This land is about 1,700 square meters. It has lots of fruit bearing trees around the backyard like Coconut trees, Bananas, Mango trees, Jackfruits, Cotton fruit. We have fig trees (tibig) as well, Mahogany trees, Big Lush Colonies of Bamboo Trees among others. Our coconuts have lots of fruits. We were able to harvest some last June 2022. The bananas behind hubby, we planted them ourselves. Which our neighbors have benefited as well now. It's like we are playing a game of who sees it first harvests it!!
Now, hubby and I are thinking of putting it up for sale. Well, that was our original plan as well, this is just an investment. Now we want to liquidate it so we can use the money to build other apartment units to add to our existing three.
It is really a good investment, property is a good investment for the value does not depreciate but appreciates over time.
We still have other two lands, we will do some grass cutting and clearing on it on the coming days. Still planning on when because we are currently busy on some other things still. The two properties are mango orchards, one is 3,000sqm and the other is 8,000sq m.
I will share this on my next post.
Thank you for reading this far.
