New direction for 2015

It has been quite sometime since my last blog update.  The reasons have been many but nothing of real importance.  Truth is I have just been lazy.  I will do my best to get back on schedule.

We finally made settlement on our Rogersville, TN. log cabin.  The closing date was delayed due to the mortgage being held up over finding comps that would justify the actual appraisal.  It seems that log cabin structures are in a category all to themselves.  It was frustrating as the process seemed endless, one delay after the other.  Finally we closed the loan on January the 8th 2015.  That was some 30 days longer than what it should have taken.

Once we moved into the cabin the real fun began.  My younger brother helped me wrangle the new furniture into place and haul all the old stuff off to the local Goodwill.  After we got settled into the interior of our new home I set out to do some cleaning up of the landscape.  It was a job I have fun with, cutting trees.  I cut tree after tree and cleared away the brush to open up the views.  Once that was completed I had to burn all the brush.  My next big job will be to rent some heavy equipment and go about the task of landscaping and planting back trees and flowering shrubs and flowers.

There are two stocked ponds on the property.  I have noticed some very large catfish in the lower pond and some good size bass in the upper pond.  If nothing else I will enjoy fishing after my long days of area beautification and home repairs.  I have lots of plans for the changes and repairs I'd like to make.  Not sure if I will get it all done this year or if it will be a process over the next couple of years.

The weather during January was very mild for that time of the year.  Then came February with a mixed bag of weather and heavy snow the last week, lasting into the first week of March. I wasn't prepared for all the snow that fell during that time.  I was looking at the Seymour House parked in the drive way and the dully covered in snow, wondering why I was in a log cabin in northeast Tn. covered up with snow when I didn't have to be.  I could have very well been in Florida freezing as that area too had bad weather.  It seems that there was no place that was warm.  We endured and now are enjoying a mix of highs and lows of the spring time weather.  If we can just get thru the next 30 days we should see a big change with nicer weather.  That will be a welcomed relief as we are ready for the change.

 

With most of what we have in storage in Georgia, we need to plan a trip to pick it up.  That looks like a trip planned for this weekend.  Most is household items, pots, pans, bedding, bath, pictures and such.  No furniture, we sold that with the Ga. house last February.  We rented a 10'x10' storage and filled it full of those items we didn't either give away or sell.  We have paid a years worth of storage on contents not worth the cost. Some of it is sentimental value, items like family pictures that we could never replace.  Other items we didn't want to give away or sell, no value again except for sentimental.

 

Plans are to spend the summer getting the cabin in shape and making changes that better suit our lifestyle, then escape to a warmer climate before the winter season.  That's the plans for now but that could change, depending on how much we get done between now and then.  The winters for the most part aren't that cold in this area.  A couple of weeks of cold temps but it changes quickly.  The snow this year was something that only happens around here about every five years or so.  Usually we don't get heavy snows like what we had this year.  It could have been a lot worse and therefore no reason to complain.

There will be updates as we go thru the summer.  Mostly about the cabin and the changes as they occur or after they have taken place.  Not a lot of side trips are planned during this time, just getting the needed work and changes made around the cabin.  We hope you will follow this adventure with us as well.  It may not be as adventurous as our many travels, but exciting just the same.  At least it will be to us and we hope to share it all with you.

Until our next update. Dutch and Kathie settling into a life of catfish farming in northeast TN :).