Big Sky Guy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2018
- Messages
- 1,173
Lifelong hunting partner since I was 9, taught me the basics of hunting and instilled in me an appreciation and desire for the outdoors. The kind of partner you feel comfortable telling anything to.
When I was 24 his dad died and I was in a position to move in with the widow and help take care of the place. No less than 3 separate times I was verbally assured this would ensure the 250 acre Ohio farm stayed in the family and “I would be taken care of.”
I move to Montana at the age of 27. A year later the widow dies, hunting partner gets the farm with his brother as discussed and planned. Within a year he’s complaining of all the maintenance with mowing - dudes retired so it was hard for me to understand as I’m working 40+ hours a week how him mowing 5 hours a week for 5 months is such a chore, but whatever. I suggest no less than 3 distinct ways to mitigate it - renting, leasing, or just hiring. None of which he pursues.
Fast forward to when I’m 34ish. Find out he is giving everything to his wife when he dies - not what was discussed. I confront him over the phone and again in person when I visit and he provides zero explanation and claims to not recall any of our conversations from when I lived with widow and the verbal promises made. He stops calling me, we lose touch.
2 years later I’m 36ish he files lawsuit against his brother to force the sale of the farm. Farm gets parceled up into 9 pieces auctioned off for the tune of $2.5M with another 10% on top to the auctioneer.
Now for the kick to the nuts - that hunting partner is my dad and that was our family farm for over 200 years
. I told my wife I could walk in to her screwing another man on our bed and would feel less betrayed. Haven’t spoke to him in 4 years and likely never will.
He not only screwed over my uncle, my two cousins and myself but also his two other siblings and their children (literally his entire living family and IMO his dead parents - my grandparents) as my grandma redid the will when I was living there to ensure just my dad and uncle got the farm to “keep it in the family” because the other two “just want money.” All 4 siblings got $50k cash when grandma died but then my dad and uncle also got the farm account with like $60k and ultimately ended up with over $1M each when it was all ultimately sold not even a decade later. Crazy and sad to me the auctioneer ended up with more inheritance than my aunt and other uncle.
Lesson learned. Never trust anyone with an alcohol problem, which they both had. Sure makes me appreciate public lands though!
There is a lot more to the story and a lot more history there with my dad cheating on my mom, divorce, and losing a piece of the farm my grandpa gave him and his mistress during that marriage which he then lost in their divorce but then he remarried her.

When I was 24 his dad died and I was in a position to move in with the widow and help take care of the place. No less than 3 separate times I was verbally assured this would ensure the 250 acre Ohio farm stayed in the family and “I would be taken care of.”
I move to Montana at the age of 27. A year later the widow dies, hunting partner gets the farm with his brother as discussed and planned. Within a year he’s complaining of all the maintenance with mowing - dudes retired so it was hard for me to understand as I’m working 40+ hours a week how him mowing 5 hours a week for 5 months is such a chore, but whatever. I suggest no less than 3 distinct ways to mitigate it - renting, leasing, or just hiring. None of which he pursues.
Fast forward to when I’m 34ish. Find out he is giving everything to his wife when he dies - not what was discussed. I confront him over the phone and again in person when I visit and he provides zero explanation and claims to not recall any of our conversations from when I lived with widow and the verbal promises made. He stops calling me, we lose touch.
2 years later I’m 36ish he files lawsuit against his brother to force the sale of the farm. Farm gets parceled up into 9 pieces auctioned off for the tune of $2.5M with another 10% on top to the auctioneer.
Now for the kick to the nuts - that hunting partner is my dad and that was our family farm for over 200 years
He not only screwed over my uncle, my two cousins and myself but also his two other siblings and their children (literally his entire living family and IMO his dead parents - my grandparents) as my grandma redid the will when I was living there to ensure just my dad and uncle got the farm to “keep it in the family” because the other two “just want money.” All 4 siblings got $50k cash when grandma died but then my dad and uncle also got the farm account with like $60k and ultimately ended up with over $1M each when it was all ultimately sold not even a decade later. Crazy and sad to me the auctioneer ended up with more inheritance than my aunt and other uncle.
Lesson learned. Never trust anyone with an alcohol problem, which they both had. Sure makes me appreciate public lands though!
There is a lot more to the story and a lot more history there with my dad cheating on my mom, divorce, and losing a piece of the farm my grandpa gave him and his mistress during that marriage which he then lost in their divorce but then he remarried her.
