This old barn is falling down, falling down, falling down...

In the top photo, the poor old horse barn doesn't look too bad, but from the other side, it's another story. The roof has been in the process of rotting out and caving in for probably as long as we have been coming up here. Today, phase 2 of its self-destruction has begun.

We have had a fairly consistent 2 feet of snow still hanging around since December. Yesterday's 40° temps, and today's 50° melted just enough of that snow on the roof to make it too much for the old beams. I do hope that Susan will leave the stone foundation there even if she can't afford to build the barn back up.

The barn is part of the Quartier Horse Farm that is right across the street from The Dump. Susan has been the owner since Mr. Quartier passed away in summer 2009. A coincidence that the barn would choose to start coming down on the same day that The Dump was supposed to start being dismantled. But then David The Dump Remover didn't show up today. He did say it could be today or tomorrow. We'll see...

I am not sure, but I think the horse farm, our land, and Chazoo's barn and house were all part of the same farm years ago. If Chazoo is correct, it was the Herkimer Farm, and dates back to the 1700s. He says his own big brown barn was a hops barn, and our little yellow shed was a milking shed. I would guess that the shed probably dates to the early 20th century though.

Now that Chazoo's barn and house are up for sale, I fear for this changing local landscape!

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Sending peaceful thoughts to all

Seems like everyone is somewhat stressed...

Little Sister's house deal fell through. OR Sis was all excited by my blog post the other day...sadly did not happen...

(FYI Little Sister: Gas prices today were $3.33!)

Our realtor wants us to come down another $15,000, even though we have already come down $20,000.

My NJ neighbor kindly fostered a pitty pooch who needed a home because her owner died. Pitty pooch was great, but nervous, and peed in the house when left alone.

I am busy with work (a very good thing!) but couldn't even get out the driveway yesterday to get the mail because Mr. Kelley's snowblower broke down and blocked my exit.

All else is good, but sending positive vibes to anyone who wants them. Photo should have babbling brook sounds attached...I'll work on that...

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White, white, white

While I was taking the snowy pictures in the previous post, The Husband was out wandering in the back forty. I might have mentioned that I don't know why or how he does that, but I did make a point of sending him out with my little camera while I was using his. These are his photos from today, taken about the same time as mine.

The boots photo really shows how difficult it is to walk out there in 20" of snow (again, why?) and the second photo shows how white it can get when the snow starts flying. I would love to say that we are all warm and cozy sitting by the woodstove here tonight, but truth is we are running out of good firewood, so we turned the heat back on in the living room.

Still pretty cozy, considering.

Good wishes to Little Sister, who may have sold her own old NJ house today...

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Sun and snow and someone to rescue The Dump

Just a few minutes before I took this photo, it was snowing so hard you couldn't see the trees—a real whiteout. And then, like magic, the sun started shining and the snow just stopped. And then just about an hour later, it started again, as you can see in the second 2 photos. The Husband was out for one of his long walks on the back forty...I just don't understand why he likes to walk in this...or how for that matter!

I got a response to an ad for the Detroiter that I put on a website called Tin Can Tourists. I did a few searches on "Detroiter" and found them. The ad got almost 200 hits in just half a day. Fletch, from Fletcher's Vintage Trailers in Trumansburg, NY, called to see about taking all the louvered windows and the 2 exterior doors. He also wants the taillights. As long as we don't have another whiteout, he should be here sometime tomorrow morning to pick up everything. He's travelling a whole 100 miles to save The Dump from the dump! Check out his site, there's some pretty interesting stuff on there...if you're into that sort of thing...

The Craig's List ads produced a few folks who were mildly interested in other parts from the trailer, but they were supposed to call and come out this afternoon, and I haven't heard from anyone yet. And Jim (who worked on my house) said he might be interested in some of the other windows, but I still have to get back in there and measure for him.

So now I just have to say a little prayer that David The Dump-Remover doesn't change his mind about taking it away. His girlfriend just had a baby last week, so he's a bit distracted. Happy Birth Day, Cora!

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1959 Detroiter mobile home, free to (be) a good home!

As you may have noticed in previous posts, The Dump is headed to the dump.

I put up a few ads on Craig's List, but I am posting here as well just in case anyone on the planet would like to have some of these cool old things for free. The one thing I would save is the metal siding, but The Husband definitely does not see the beauty in it.

So take a look at these pics, and tell all your friends—FREE STUFF! Call it what you want: vintage, retro, antique...I call it yours for free. There's plenty of the metal siding in very good shape, there are 3 or 4 louvered glass windows and several pieces of extra glass, a couple of metal doors, wood cabinets, stainless steel double sink, and lots of large wood-frame regular glass windows that are part of the 2 additions.

(yeah, I know, it's not that exciting, but I am trying to be a green girl and save it from the landfill.)

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The Dump shall fall

Starting on Monday, February 14, The Dump will be dismantled and carted to the real dump, the landfill. An ad for it on Craig's List produced no takers, even for free, so when someone stopped by last week and asked if we would rent it out, we settled on having them take it down instead. In the photo above, it is behind the yellow shed, which we are keeping.

It's a shame that I can't recycle more than maybe some glass, but since we agreed with the town to take it down before March 1, this seems to be the best option. While we have someone willing to cart all of it away for the same price, we might as well let it all go. Our view of the horse farm will be much improved, and everyone else's view of Lester's Flat will be enhanced as well.

We are getting more sleet and snow today, it seems this snowy winter goes on forever. But spring is definitely on its way and soon we might actually see some of that green stuff they call grass...maybe by May 1?

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Layer cake and a lot of 2s

No matter how much snow we get, there still seems to be "only" 2 feet on the ground. I went to walk through the snow to try to take some more photos yesterday, and had trouble keeping my 2 feet on the ground! There are 2 thick layers of snow, with a layer of ice between and on top—a snow layer cake with ice for frosting (frost for icing?). I fell on my butt, and couldn't get back up—partly because I was laughing at myself, and partly because I couldn't push up from anything. My hands couldn't find the ground any easier than my feet.

I revived my old non-digital Minolta so that I could take some better photos of the eagle. Of course he has been in hiding since I got the camera running, but I did see a red-tail hawk in his absence.

Richie came back this morning to finish up 2 of the things on the punchlist from way back. The knots in the white dining room ceiling are now primed and painted (for the third time), and the drywall has been cut back from the woodstove flue to where it should have been in the first place (2" from the insulated pipe).

The only remaining punchlist items are to paint the knots on the tiny porch ceiling in the spring, and to work on the Andersen french door so that it stops leaking air. Of course if Jim the Builder waits long enough to take care of these piddly things, we are certain to find more things to whine about...but for all intents and purposes, the house is still done, and we are very happy with it.

I did not mention to Jim (yet) about my concern with the large icicles hanging from the roof (in photo) but Susan the Architect assured me that they should not cause an ice dam or leak because there is protection in place to avoid that. It's OK, Jim, we DO love our new house!

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Sweet Ariel and pup pics

I was all excited to post my puppy pics of the kids today (I just scanned them yesterday) and then I found out that my friend ME just lost her dalmatian, Ariel, yesterday afternoon. Goodbye, sweet Ariel, you know you were loved.

Lester was only 8 weeks old when we got him from the Humane Society of Atlantic City. This is my favorite puppy pic of his—with his handsome, ever so serious face.

Sophie was about a year old, maybe less, when we got her from the Burlington County Animal Alliance. She had been a stray, maybe for a very long time considering her skinny profile. We certainly wasted no time fattening her up.

Today and tomorrow we are getting hit with one of those snowstorms that seem to have missed us so far. They are predicting 13" to 20" for the Mohawk Valley, with some ice added in to make it interesting.

Next week I am picking up my first local freelance job at the hospital here. I am thankful to be able to work at home in the snowy North Country.

Bad news and good news

The bad news is that no one but my neighbor showed up at the open house yesterday. We've already come down in price as far as we want to, and folks just don't want to buy that great NJ old house. Praying that spring will bring out the happy house shoppers...

The good news is that we found someone to tear down The Dump at a reasonable price. We are paying taxes on 2 residences because of it, even though there is no more electric or plumbing in there. I will miss it with its charming turquoise and cream siding, but its removal will certainly improve the appearance of our property, and it will give us a clearer view of the horse farm across the street. I used to love to eat breakfast in The Dump while watching the horses, and in the spring there are always new babies to see.

We haven't seen our eagle since the other day when The Hub took that photo in the previous post, but I think he is probably still around somewhere. Here are some more pics that Hub took the other day. We have been getting some snow just about every day, but nothing to compare to the storms hitting south Jersey. I suspect that may have something to do with why no one is house shopping.

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Not as cold...with eagle sitings

I saw this eagle briefly yesterday...from a distance, from behind. Today, The Husband found him perched in the dead tree out back, where some interesting birds (red egret? owl?) and some crows like to hang out. The Hub caught this photo of him (above) before he flew off. Second photo is the eagle flying...you can get an idea of how large he is in this photo.

I think this is the same large bird I saw several times last year, but he must have been a young boy then because he didn't have this obvious coloring. I have seen enough red-tail hawks and eagles in NJ to know that he was eagle-size, not a hawk. But last year he was all dark without the chocolate and white markings that make bald eagles so easy to identify.

Also today we took an expensive trip to PetSmart to stock up on provisions for the kids. We made a stop at Target, and The Husband took a spin through the Sangertown Mall on his way from Dick's Sporting Goods back to meet me in Tarzhay. It is a new world up here: in NJ we could shop at at least 5 or 6 real malls, and probably 40 or 50 strip malls within a 20-mile radius—every possible store included. Here I think it is a relief to actually have to travel a half-hour or more to do the necessary other-than-grocery-shopping.

Possible local freelance work in the works.

Possible person to take/remove The Dump coming to meet with us tomorrow. They left a note on the door while we were out.

Open House on the NJ house tomorrow. Thanks to Brian and Evie for cleaning up for us, and big thanks to the O'Connors (across the street) for all the snowblowing they've been doing. Apparently south NJ has had more snow even than the North Country folks.

I'll keep you posted.

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Baby it's cold outside!

This video from last night says it all...all except for the part where it was down to -20° this morning, and we woke up (again) to no heat. To spare you all the whiney details, it is fixed, as of 11 am, but I am thanking my lucky stars for my woodstove. It took some time to get it fired up, but we would have all been mighty cranky if we didn't have at least that to warm us up from 6:30 to 11... As you can see from last night, all the kids know the best place to hang out, even when the heat is working.

Guitar accompaniment is by The Husband. I would have included him in the video, but he would have stopped playing and ruined the moment.

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