Thursday, September 14, 2017

the good ol' days...


Recently, my friend Steve Hills from upstate NY posted a photo of the view from his office from a carpentry job he is working on which prompted me to dig up this old photo of when he was helping me rebuild my house after my fire in Spencertown.  Note: My front porch back there was almost twice the size of my house here.  95,103,71,0,T

8 comments:

JohnnyM said...

Gosh, what a view . Lots of haed wirk went into the reconstruction - heart act of that project!

Todd said...

If you ever decide to move to greener pastures you might consider Arkansas. We are in the process of settling down here in Arkansas now. The area we are in, the Ouachita National Forest, is about 30 years or so behind the times which suits us just fine. The pastures are greener, good forage for cattle is abundant. Lot of fixer uppers, the area is economically recessed to some degree, and will likely be that way for at least awhile if not forever. But property taxes are very low (sales taxes are high), and it generally seems like a haven for do it your self pay as you go types. You had mentioned the possibility of seeking greener pastures at the ten year mark so I thought to mention it. We had planned to continue traveling full time, but something about the area drew us in.

I would consider it an off the radar location with plentiful natural resources where if what I think is kind of going in in the urban technological world might be a good spot for lower resource independent minded types to settle down (which kind of describes us).

I have been working on some wiring, in a not too old house, but debating internally on whether or not to upgrade everything to modern NEC standards. You spoke about a fire, which the risk thereof figures into my calculations. I have mentally noted a few areas of risk but generally stuck to the old school.

Would you mind sharing the cause of your house fire?

Rita B. said...

Tempted?

John Wells said...

The fire was caused by ash that I had cleaned out of a woodstove and placed in a bucket. It simmered for 12 hours before it burst back into flames.

Unknown said...

A neighbor suffered a house fire when she put stove ashes in a plastic pan and sat them on her back porch. The "ashes" burned through the pan and started the fire.

Margery Billd said...

That's nice. But long ago I realized that people liked the places they were used to. It's like the postman in San Angelo, Texas. A northern person moved there and complained to him that there was nothing but flat land and sand. The Texas postman said, "yes, ain't it beautiful."

Margery Billd said...

A Texas lady from Arkansas tried to get me interested. She was ecstatic that she had purchased a low cost property in an area she liked and she could have horses there.

Todd said...

Margery - It is a pretty state. I used to spend my summers at grandparents ranch near Ballinger. When school was out for summer I was on my way there, not to return until the week prior to school starting. When we went to the city it was either San Angelo 30 miles or Abilene 60 miles. I still visited the area often until about 2 years ago when grandma went into nursing home. That area was rapidly becoming desert until they finally had a rainy year in the last couple. Too dry for me. Ivie Reservoir that nice big lake they built filled up one time and then dried up.

I would trade those mesquite tree infested lands for the green pastures up here any day of the week. But to each his own. Lot of oilfield work out that way. One of my neighbors here works out in W Texas oilfield on 2 wks off 2 wks.