Fantastic couple of days!

We've been busy the last couple of days. Last weekend I escorted some friends out to our property to stay for a few days. We met them years ago but hadn't run into them again. They got wind of our property for sale and after a fair amount of research wanted to see it and visit the area.

Stu got home on Tuesday, we got caught up on things on Wednesday (like laundry...LOL). Thursday, Stu took some folks from PA out to see the property and he got to meet and chat with the first folks. When done, he visited with our neighbors.

Thursday afternoon we had our friends over for a late lunch/early dinner. A simple meal, burgers - potato salad - chips. They brought several bottles of wine. One from their home area as a gift, and several others from local wineries they had visited this week. While we are more beer people, they managed to find some we both liked. By the time the evening was done, three bottles of wine were done as well.

Friday morning Murphy went to his second vet appointment. He had gained weight to 25.5# - WOW! He now weighs more than Cooper did at the same age. But he is definitely finer boned and has the more almond eyes of the Collie as well as the longer nose. Cooper wins in paw size with his bear paws.

We had made plans to meet our friends that afternoon to visit the local Mennonite community, Muddy Pond, just down the street from us. What a great afternoon. We visited several stores, bought a few things (some delicious cinnamon raisin bread that became French Toast this morning, cinnamon buns that were yummy and a sweet pepper relish that is very reminiscent of my grandmother's picalilli relish from growing up in New England). We had a wonderful lunch at The Country Porch. Here are a few photos - there are more in our SmugMug album.

These two signs welcomed up on our first stop at the Muddy Pond Variety Store.





Inside and out, there was, as the name told us, a wide variety of items. We all loved roaming the store.









Outside, I had to snap a couple of flower photos.




From there we continued on to the Muddy Pond General Store. They had a nice deli, a lot of baked goods, but we all fell in love with the rocking chairs.







From there we browsed the neighboring leather shop (there are three, we only visited one this time around).



Getting hungry we moved up the road to The Country Porch where we had lunch. Delicious sandwiches, free WiFi, too. A wide variety of items for sale. This is where we got the items I mentioned above. They had tables and chairs outside and we sat there for a bit after rescuing our friends' pup who decided to vacate their vehicle unexpectedly.









We came back to the house and chatted some more - and the big news - they are purchasing our property. Well, we broke the wine back out and enjoyed a couple more hours of getting to know each other better.

Saturday was another day of perfect weather and we took a nice motorcycle ride up to Jamestown for breakfast at the West End Diner. From there we headed home, we were expecting overnight company and I wanted to clean up the house a bit. We had another enjoyable evening getting caught up on her latest news and all crashed early. Sunday morning Stu made French Toast with the cinnamon raisin bread we had bought - thick slices of heaven! We will be getting more for sure.

So all in all, a great week! Good thing we got out and enjoyed the weather - this is what is headed our way. Eeek! Stu is going to winterize the RV in the next couple of days out of necessity.



Ciao for now!

A few more photos....

Stu has been busy with chores and while I was supposed to be busy writing, I ended up getting sick for 4-5 days. Sigh...not going to make my deadline of May first for Paradise Dead. Will work on it again when I feel better.

Anyway, here are some photos I've taken since my last post. I hope you enjoy!

View from our kitchen window...


Our pond, overfull from the recent rains...


Nellie Moser Clematis by our front door...


Pink and red roses at the front of the house...


Stu putting up new motion sensor outdoor lights on both the front porch and the garage...


Rainy day project, new blinds in the office to help block the afternoon sun...


Changing the oil in one of several vehicles that needed done...


Taking a well deserved nap...


While I watch silly SyFy disaster movies (photo courtesy of our security system camera)...


We've shown our original property once and have several others interested, time will tell. Any other showings will have to wait until we get back in July. Friday we head north to Maryland for 6-8 weeks. Never a dull moment!

Ciao for now!

Rambling, rumbling, grumbling

We've had a busy couple of weeks since we arrived in TN. Stu has been busy enjoying his lawn tractor, even using it to move things around back to the shed. He's also done some trimming of the bushes by the back deck and clearing out of wild blackberries (thorns) in favor of the cultivated ones (no thorns).







We also made an agreement with a neighbor for him to pasture his two young steers for the season in exchange for keeping our lawn mowed while we are in Maryland. They also did all the prep work making sure the pasture was secure and mounting the one missing gate. The cows are happy and so are we!







Spring is definitely here. We've had the windows open on several days, only recently resorting to open early then everything closed down to retain the coolness. I hope to not run the A/C until we return in June. Loving our $45 power bills. LOL!





We've gone shopping - Stu likes this giant crab we saw at Sam's Club. Me? I'm thrilled with my new, very spring looking, Tervis tumbler.





We had our first guests at the house - actually, our first guests ever. LOL! My son and his wife came down for the weekend. We enjoyed ourselves, spent an afternoon at Calfkiller Brewing and had a ton of laughs (as you can see in this video). Priceless!



We have sold most of our motorcycle camping gear, only left with the queen airbed & 12v pump, some camping pillows (which I will probably keep), a trailer hitch setup for specific year Tri-Glides, and the trailer itself. We know we won't be doing any long motorcycle trips and it makes no sense to keep hanging on to this stuff.

We have also listed our property for sale by owner. If we don't sell it by mid-July, we will list it with our realtor.

So, chores are getting done. Both our pickup and the trike are now registered and insured here in TN. The Freightliner and fifth wheel will be done when we return in July. The bug guy was out yesterday to work on getting rid of the carpenter bees (deck sprayed), mice, and various insects. That will be an April/October regular visit. In July we will get the termite boost done. Ahhh, the joys of home ownership. But we are enjoying it...for many reasons.

I'm still writing - desperately trying to finish the second novella in my Lei Crime Kindle World series. My deadline is May 1st and that includes edits. Gulp! We will be traveling April 28-30, so no writing then. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Ciao for now!

What's up with us? (part two)

We left you post our Disney adventure and busy packing for our trip to Tennessee....

We had an uneventful drive and stopped to see our friends who moved from MD to Philadelphia, TN to pick up a dining table and benches that they no longer wanted. Stu had put dibs on it back in MD when he was helping them load their truck for the move. The table now resides in our dining room. The short bench is in our utility/mud/laundry room. Perfect for sitting to put on/take off shoes and boots. The long section of bench is against one wall in the dining area. The bonus? Both seats lift for storage!

We planned on staying one night but the weather changed our minds for us. Snow, ice and below freezing temps delayed our departure until we felt it was safe to continue. We arrived at our timeshare condo in Crossville a day late. It was perfect! Half the price of a hotel, lots of room, free wifi, good television and a well equipped kitchen. It was reasonable because it's off season here. Worked out well for us.

We did our final walk through on Monday the 9th and closed on Tuesday the 10th. It was official - we were now proud but poor homeowners.

We have been swamped with buying things - lots of used furniture locally and even more items from Amazon. We got a duplicate of the floor firesafe we have in the RV, delivered free from Walmart. Our new office chairs were delivered free from Sam's Club. Yes, the mailman, UPS and Fedex drivers now know us well.

We found a small moving company that helped Stu unload all the stuff in our shed on our property. We then hired them to help pickup the last load of furniture and were glad we did. That stuff was HEAVY! Stu also got a great deal on a used lawn tractor and cutting torch from the folks with what became our guest bedroom. We have someone who picked up most of our trash and we will contract with him for regular service later. We met our new insurance agents at Farm Bureau, nice folks! We got our address changed and new driver licenses and as well as changed on the trike registration.

Many, many trips to Lowe's, starting with buying our new Maytag washer and dryer. After using them the last couple of weeks, I am very happy with what I chose.

We have donated three HUGE totes of clothes that will go to the folks who suffered in the recent Gatlinburg fires. Another box of books went to the local library. Some things left behind by the seller were taken to the dump (transfer station) along with a ton of cardboard to recycle.

We still haven't unpacked our safe and set it up, most of what will go in it will come out of the safe in the RV. I have several totes full of things to hang on the walls and sit on shelves, that will wait till spring.

We shared photos of the house before purchase in this blog post. Here are a few since we've moved in.

We have FIVE seats that recline in our living room! Not a fan of the TV stand but love our new 50" television.


Front foyer, cabinet needs contents but we have our marriage skeleton gnomes and my stained glass frog nightlight.


I LOVE my kitchen and all the pops of red!


Dining area works well...the walls are bare and we still need something on the other side, opposite the bench.


Master bedroom - need something on the walls for sure!




Mater bath -


Guest room, ready for company!


Guest bath is ready, too.


You first saw my desk here...


Now here is the office two weeks later. Yes, the elliptical is in the office. That encourages me to get up and MOVE more often.


We bought and installed a security system from SimpliSafe and are quite pleased with it. Inexpensive, easy to set up, good customer service (long phone waits due to how well these systems are selling) and portable if you move. We have all the doors and windows alarmed, several motion sensors, several glass breakage sensors, a web camera and just ordered carbon monoxide, smoke and freeze detectors.

If anyone is interested, PLEASE contact us and we will get them to contact you via email.

Oh, and we had our first snowfall today...well, this morning. All gone now!


We will probably be here another 4-5 days, finishing up all the loose ends. I hope to get some writing done on Almost a Touch while Stu works on "things". [giggle]

Ciao for now!