Spring has finally come to Wisconsin and I can tell that easily when I get out around people. Everyone seems in a better mood these days as the temperatures start to warm up and we see some sun again.
It was a long, hard winter by almost anyone’s standards. While it wasn’t extraordinarily cold, we did get near record amounts of snow around here, and it seemed like winter was never going to end. And when it did end, the flooding started. Wisconsin was one of the states that got hit with early spring flooding from a combination of rain and snow melt.
Our yard is an absolute mess now that the snow is gone. Branches and twigs from the trees are everywhere. Dead grass and leaves cover everything. But the weather has still been too cold to really do much out there except some cleanup work.
There are some signs of life out there, though, like the flowers above and our Chives.
The chives are tucked away in a corner of the house where they’re protected and some winters they don’t even freeze back. They’re the first green things that pop up every spring and I suppose they’re really the first harvest of the year from the gardens here. But a few chives go a long way around here so once we have our fill of them early in the season they more or less go wild.
Of course it wouldn’t be spring in Wisconsin if the weather didn’t remind us that it can still pull some nasty tricks on us. We woke up the other day to find the ground covered with snow. We got about an inch or two. fortunately it didn’t stick around long and melted pretty quickly.
We’d hoped to get out and get some work done today (Friday) but it looks like that’s not going to happen. We’re getting light rain that’s going to shut down the chance of getting much done outside today. And the weekend is packed. The bi-annual quilt show in Manitowoc is this weekend and we always try to make that if we can. I’m not a quilter but the quilts that are on display at the event aren’t just quilts to throw on a bed, they’re works of art. I’m always amazed at the skill and talent of the people who make them. Hopefully I’ll have some photos next week.
The there’s the house next door…
This is what we saw when we looked out the window the other evening. Not exactly something you want to see, the local fire department with all their trucks and equipment setting up next door.
No, there wasn’t a fire. It was a training session. All they did was set everything up, get all their gear out, make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to, etc. It was still a bit of a surprise when we looked out the north window and saw that and took us a minute or two to realize what was really going on.
As you can see from the trailer, the big dumpster and debris pile, that place is being worked on at the moment. Someone finally bought the place. When our old neighbors moved out late last summer MrsGF and I seriously considered buying the place if we could get it cheap. The neighbors were just about the nicest neighbors you could possibly ever hope for. An absolutely wonderful young couple with two young kids. But they had more than their share of problems and ended up in bankruptcy and lost the house to the bank. Fortunately it worked out for them in the long run. He has a very good job now and they’re getting back on their feet.
But to get back to that house — MrsGF and I considered buying it if we could get it for the right price. We thought if we could get it for under $50K it would be worth it. But then we found out they were asking $80K for the place and that price was just absolutely ridiculous so we just let it go and talked ourselves out of the idea because, frankly, we couldn’t be bothered. We didn’t want the property badly enough.
It finally sold for $49K. Apparently the mortgage company wanted to get rid of the place fast. Do we regret not getting involved in this? No, not really. Yes, we could have afforded to buy it. We wouldn’t have even had to take out a mortgage. We could have just written a check or used an existing line of credit to buy it. But… Well, what the heck would we do then? Did we really want to get involved in dealing with almost 100 year old buildings, contractors, permits, etc? Well, no, not really. I’m rather relieved that the original sale price was so ridiculously high because otherwise now we’d be stuck with the place.
Turns out the town fire chief bought the place, so at least it went to someone local and someone we know, and not some absentee landlord. He and his son are gutting the place and remodeling it and eventually his son is going to end up buying it from his father.
Let’s see, what else? The move of my electronics gear, radio stuff and computers into the basement is proceeding slowly. I’m still working on cleaning the area up and patching and painting walls down there. I want to get that taken care of first because once I get work benches and equipment in there I’m not going to be able to get at the walls very easily.
I was finally able to get the bicycle out of storage! It’s still been on the cold and wet side to do more than ride around town but it’s still nice to have that out and get even a short ride.
MrsGF and I went to the bi-annual quilt show at the fairgrounds in Manitowoc yesterday and I took lots of pictures. As soon as I have free time I’ll get some of those posted. As usual we saw some absolutely beautiful work by some amazing people.
And that’s about it for now.
grouchyfarmer 