Author: admin (Page 14 of 89)

Not much exciting happening, but I thought I’d post just to let you know I’m still here.

We had a pancake breakfast fund raiser this a.m. at the Center. The attendance wasn’t really good. Probably has something to do with the lawsuit and people not wanting to “take sides.” Anyway, we made $175 and only had about $25 in expenses, since we had a lot of stuff left over. So we cleared $150, which will take another $1.50 off everyone’s Christmas party.

I got my new glasses yesterday. I really like them.

Two weeks until Dad and I head for Nashville! This week I drive to Eau Claire Wed – Fri for the Wisconsin Assoc. of Senior Centers annual conference. I’m excited about both. I won’t be at work much. I need to write the whole newsletter on Monday and Tuesday, if I get my computer back. It crashed and has been at the repair shop since Wednesday afternoon. UGH!

Hope you are all enjoying the fall weather!

I pretty much cleaned out the garden today, except for the winter squash and muskmelon, which aren’t ready yet, and the chard, which is still good for picking.

I have to say this is the best crop of potatoes ever. In all my years. Notice the number of really big ones and the size of the really big ones, compared to a one cup measuring cup. And I didn’t have a whole lot of plants. I tend to just plant the little ones from the previous year, and you can see how few of them I end up with. I probably had 30 hills. Some years each hill has one big or medium one, maybe another medium one and 3 or 4 little ones. This year, there were 3 big ones, maybe one or two medium ones and little ones here and there.  All the plants didn’t have really huge ones, but they all had lots. Quite a crop!

Did you know that soap bubbles can get caught in virtually invisible spider webs and hang there for 5 minutes or more without popping? Neither did I. I don’t know if it had something to do with the very high humidity this a.m., but here are some pictures I took.  Keep in mind that these bubbles are stuck where you see them – just hanging there. I never did see the web, but I did observe a fly get caught in it. At first I thought it was some sort of air current that kept them in place for so long.

I’d been planning to get a better cabinet for the left of the stove – possibly bigger and moving the hutch out, so it is nicer for when we rent it out.

We were driving out to the property and there, beside someone’s driveway, was a 6 foot cabinet with a top that matches our island. So we stopped on the way home, decided it was worth salvaging, and brought it home. It was quite dirty and still needs new pulls, but it actually cleaned up nice and is a good quality cabinet. So here are some pictures of the kitchen now. We also added the two shelves above the cabinet, for some of the glasses that were in the hutch. The hutch is now in the t.v. room with dvds and videos in it.

Then there is a picture of our apple trees – the Winesaps are full of apples this year! 

You just can’t get pictures like these if you don’t go up!

Here are some pictures from my trip with the seniors to Chicago.

Tomorrow through Friday I am off on the first of the two senior citizens’ trips. We will be enjoying the sights in Chicago, where the weather promises to be splendid (although probably windy!). I’m just finishing my laundry and packing and double-checking that I’m not forgetting anything.

We worked on decks yesterday. Here is the 1208 Sexton deck, with the stain on. I love the color and how it (sort of) matches the shutters. The next picture is Bumpa with the latest addition to his collection. And a  gladiola picture.

I know you guys never believe what we say we are going to do, because we change our minds so much, but that doesn’t stop me from believing I mean what I say.

We almost had a big upset in the plans, but we think it will be okay. Tyler was not approved for his loan to buy the Toccoa house, because they assessed the house at less than we were asking. No big surprise for us, which is why we were not actually trying to sell it. We figured we’d just keep it until its value increased to more than we owe on it.

But he still wants it. He doesn’t agree with their appraisal and thinks what we are asking ($47,000) is a fair price. So we are back to having the lawyer draw up a lease to purchase agreement, whereby Tyler pays rent to cover our costs (like he is now), then extra to buy the house. He thinks he can pay between $800 and $1200 total a month, which would buy the place  in between 4 and 7 1/2 years. We won’t be charging him interest aside from our interest that he pays when he pays the rent. So he will be putting between $400 and $800 towards the purchase each month. We will still pay the taxes and carry the insurance but, again, he will be paying most of those costs in his monthly rent, like he is now. I think we owe about $42,000 on it, so we are not going to end up with a lot of profit, but at least we won’t lose money on it and we’d much rather have him in there than have to find other renters!

So we are still planning to move to Johnson City. We are thinking more like the spring, though. We plan to take a couple weeks down there in January, once Dad gets his next year’s vacation time. Then, if we can find a place to rent and a job for Dad (any job with insurance at that point), he will move down in early February and I’ll finish up the contests and college and Roselawn concerts and follow him down the end of April. I’m planning my student piano recitals for April this year and I don’t feel like I have to be here for the spring concerts with John Dutmer, because he always plays keyboards for those, anyway. So we can be in Tennessee just in time for the hot summer!

So, yeah. One more winter in Wisconsin.  Hopefully, it will be mild, like last year.