Back from the Holidays

We spent twelve days in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, visiting with my family and checking on our houses. Lexington is holding up well, and the contractors we hired to plow snow did their job. They didn't shovel the paths I requested, though, so I emailed them to do that for the coming snow this weekend. There will be another open house on Sunday.

Everyone likes the house, but price is an issue and we have received no offers. We have lowered the price one hundred thousand dollars already, and are unwilling to go lower. We'll just sit on it for as long as necessary. We already purchased three months of "vacant house insurance", and if we have to purchase three more months, so be it. We have plenty of people checking on it and feel confident that our buyer is out there somewhere. It's just a matter of when they show up. At this point, we will not make any money on the house to upgrade "The Lakehouse". We'll just be able to "break even". So be it. With the market the way it is right now, we have no choice and no control. We just have to get out from under. This house constitutes half our monthly expenses by itself. Enough already. We'll be on a fixed income in two weeks.

Since returning to "The Lakehouse" we haven't done much renovating or work. Lots of trees are down, and to save money, Larry now has time and his chainsaw to cut up felled trees rather than buying a cord of wood. He has been keeping up with the wood supply and is getting his exercise at the same time. Maintaining a nice fire not only takes the chill off our house, but warms our souls too. We have a great fireplace.

I got a cold, so I have been laying low and trying not to get what family and friends up north have gotten: bronchitis and sick for two weeks or more. It's been mild here. The temps are mostly in the low to mid 40's at night, and into the mid-50's during the day. So, I bundle up and walk around the yard when I let the puppies out just to move around. My butt hurts from all this sitting and my lower back is tight. I stretch it out, then sit again to read or lay down to nap. Larry's job right now is to take care of his sister, while I am a germ factory. Not a good thing to be around cancer people.

We got some rain last night and it is dark and cloudy today. This must be what we'll have when snow hits New England on Friday. I'm happy to be here.

We are busy making plans for Libby's surgery on Tuesday in Charleston, SC. Larry, Libby and her husband, Ed, will have to drive the two hours down there to a hotel Ed found so she can be in the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) at 6:00am on Tuesday. Ed found a hotel six miles from the hospital that has suites with a kitchenette for $179 per week. We discovered that the Ronald MacDonald Houses only take families of cancer patients nineteen years or younger. Otherwise, hotels with MUSC discounts are $75 per night. Not a good deal when we'll be there ten days or more. We hope she can be shipped back up to Lexington Medical Center, which is our hospital, and would make staying with her much easier and cheaper.


The beavers here at the lake felled another tree. We found it when we got back. It was one they had already chewed. They decided to chew lower down on the trunk and it finally fell over. They have also been continuing to enjoy the bark on top branches of the previously felled tree in the water. They do love their bark!

The camera we set up to capture their activity has been a huge bust. We haven't gotten any critter pictures, and are very disappointed. We'll keep trying, though. We're bound to get something sometime. We keep moving it around to what we think will be the best vantage point. We're bound to hit the mark sooner or later.