Spring progresses, Dave does not.

While Dave has made little progress in Dump Demolition, spring has certainly taken over the landscape since my last post. A few days of temperatures over 70° have finally brought some green. The leaves are just now beginning to pop out on some of the trees, starting with the willows down by the creek. Green grass is finally rising above the matted down brown mess that winter left behind.

But spring brings interesting complications as well. With high winds and heavy rains last night and this morning, Herkimer Creek is looking more like a lake. Or else Canadarago Lake is overtaking the creek. I'm not sure which describes it better, I only know that the back 40 is swamped, more than I have ever seen it.

I did some quick playing in Photoshop to give you an idea of what happened here since last night. This view is approximately 180° going from south to north (left to right). We very rarely get water in between the creek and the house, and the creek itself is usually barely visible. You can also see on the northeast side, that the lake is taking over the horse field, combining with the creek and almost washing over the road.

We are happy to be on higher ground, although with more rain expected, I hope it's high enough.

I couldn't wait to also add my first photo of the new babies across the street at the horse farm. So far, I think there are 6 new foals, and a few more are expected. This little one was very curious about meeting me, until a neighbor stopped in his car to say hello...then the curious one ran back to momma for safety. I will try to get some more photos of the rest of them when the weather clears a bit.

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Not much progress!

If you look at the previous posts, you will see very little progress has been made in The Dump Demolition. From March 22 through April 22, you can barely see a change.

Dave and Donnie put in about 8 hours total in a really good week. We are getting comments from folks who know Dave that we will be lucky if he is finished by December. And this is how he leaves our lovely Dump, right on the road, all dressed up for Easter weekend.

No progress on selling our NJ house either. We had a few showings in the past month, but no offers. Just this week, someone inquired about a lease-to-own deal, and also a realtor said she had someone interested in renting. One or the other may be the temporary fix to our dilemma. Maybe some rent money will get us through this sucky housing market!

Hope that everyone has a lovely Easter, or whatever other holiday you celebrate...including Earth Day! We are having friends Jane and Mac over for dinner on Sunday. We give Jane all the credit for helping us when we bought the property (and The Dump!) in 2005. She was Land Use Officer at the time, and if it were not for her advice, we would have given up on the deal.

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Video chat on the Mac

I often let the screensaver on my iMac run a slideshow of all the photos that are on there. It's better entertainment than television! (Truth be told, we don't have any TV reception up here, and we are too cheap to pay for cable.) Sometimes the cat statues, especially Dave, sit there and watch the show. They seemed especially interested in this photo of Lester and Sophie back in NJ.

I am headed to NJ myself today—escaping the snowy North Country. We still have patches of snow left in the areas where it had drifted, but for the most part it is finally gone. Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid-50s today and tomorrow, and even warmer in the South Country—possibly hitting 82°on Monday there. Yikes! that could be too hot for all the garden demolition I have planned.

Since no one is looking at the NJ house, even after we lowered the price to basement level, I have decided to dig up as many of those spring-flowering perennials and bulbs as I can dig. I'll just buy a big bag of grass seed to replace my years of hard work. If all of the money we spent on my fabulous garden is going to be wasted on the new generation of homebuyers, I might as well save what I can.

My realtor and others keep telling me horror stories of young couples buying houses and bulldozing all the landscaping so that they have the more "traditional" carpet-of-green perfect lawn with a few lollipop shrubs around the foundation. All they want is a low-maintenance yard. All I can say is YUCH.

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Demolition continues, spring declines

The Dump demolition hit a snag when Dave had a less-than-communicative conversation with The Husband last week. Both got angry, work was threatened to end.

Magically though, anger was the solution, and Dave and Donnie have been out on a more regular basis since.

March went in and out like a lion. Although most of the snow is melted, we are still getting regular "snow events"...one again today (see photo). Thankfully, the ground is warm enough that it doesn't stick.

Headed back to NJ to do some more cleaning up and digging up of my precious plantings from the old house. I am convinced by realtors and others that no one will appreciate all of my gardening efforts there, so I plan to rescue as many perennials as will fit in the CR-V and bring them back here.

Not only do the new house-shoppers seem to want a bigger house than my favorite old house, they also want a no-maintenance yard...which mine is not.

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