Stratheden Farm: The Blog

Apologies for the long gap in posting, dearest readers. Mr. Fuzzy has returned to fill in the blanks - at least for a few posts... he has enjoyed retirement from blogging.

Two years and four days ago, (see blog post Dec. 15, 2008) Miss Lilly and I rolled up to our new abode. The stress of packing was extreme and finding the new digs too dirty to move into was almost too much. I had wrongly assumed that the farm house would have been cleaned professionally before we moved in - instead it was just as the movers had left it a couple of ours before. Worse, with a major winter storm swirling about, I discovered that there was absolutely ZERO propane in the tank and temperatures dropping into the teens with high winds. Oh my goodness, that first weekend sure was a doozy.

Things have settled down some but similarities to that night still remain. Every little bit of work on the house reveals something else not built correctly - or done in the very cheapest manner possible. We've sunk an inordinate amount of money in the house already: the roof needed to be replaced, the shop roof also needed replacement, the well went out and needed extensive repairs due to substandard work, the exterior paint had vanished in many places leaving bare wood - so an immediate repaint was needed to preserve the integrity of the structure... and as an option, we replaced all of the original cheap windows, an expense equal to the cost of roofing - but with recent days not reaching 20F, we are so glad that we bit the bullet on this... the house is amazingly warmer, even on dead still nights.

Do I regret the move? Absolutely not. Do I wish the house was not a money black hole? You betcha.

A trip back to New Mexico recently (subject of the next blog post) was wonderful - and hammered home how glad we are to be right here in paradise, in the Blue Ridge mountains.