Never thought retirement would be like this

Really strong winds today after the rain yesterday caused power outages. Power off here 3.5 hours this afternoon. I see a couple of loose shingles on the roof. Now broadband connection won't come back up. What's with that? I'm connected using the cell phone as a WiFi hotspot again. If I'd known all this was going to happen, I'd have gone to check on the goats today, instead of tomorrow.

But the really important thing is...my neighbor in town just came over and told me she is moving to a new house, closing May 17th. Hasn't put her house up for sale yet and wanted to let me know in case I wanted to buy it. She said she would *never* sell to the rental guy who is buying up all the property on the block. They hate each other.

At first I wrote the idea off as impossible, but it's not really. Her house would make good rental property. As I said the best thing about my house is the location. I can't imagine ever finding a better one. My gut feeling is that this may be an opportunity I might be sorry if I miss out on. I just called her and let her know I was interested and to let me know before she sells. I could make it easy for her. Probably need to talk to a rational thinking person right now.:rolleyes:

Update: 4/7, 1:55pm:
Broadband (DSL) still out. Finally called AT&T and got to talk to a real person almost immediately! :eewwk: She couldn't fix it from her location, though. Made an appointment for someone to come out Monday, but I'll keep trying to fix it myself in the meantime, and hopefully can cancel. Sometimes these things automatically resolve themselves, just as mysteriously as they come up. I suspect the rain had something to do with it. Maybe some wires/connections need to dry out. Meantime, I'm eating up data on the cell phone.

Update: 4/7, 6:30 pm: Broadband is back up!!! :banana:

Now the appointment. She said if the problem was *outside* the house, there would be no charge. Obviously it's outside, I didn't do anything inside. This has happened before, after a rain. Maybe this is a good time to get him to check my outside connection? Or check the connection on the pole? Nah, he wouldn't believe me anyway.
 

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We had very high winds yesterday and today but no power outages! Thank goodness. So you think you might want to be a Landlord? Is her house in good shape? I would have a house inspector check it out first. Might cost a little money but well worth it in the long run. Also, if you do want to be a Landlord, check out "ClarkHoward.com" he is the local Atlanta guy that has great advice for many things. I think there is a Georgia Rental Agreement you can download. Also, do a credit check on any potential renter. I think if it all works out, you could have a good source of income. After all, you are around a college town and rental property is prime! I say, go for it!

We have Comcast Cable and have had outages in our area. They sure do not want to give you a "credit" for the time you were without cable service! Go figure?
 
maggiemae said:
So you think you might want to be a Landlord? ....
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I don't know. Maybe I could rent it to some younger guy cheap, in return for handy work around my house and lawn mowing. :) I may have to do the same thing out at the farm in exchange for fence-checking and goat-sitting soon. It's getting to be a bit much.

She is going to invite me over soon to look at her house. I've only seen the living room and kitchen. I guess it would depend a lot on the price she can get for it. I'm just dreaming. Probably need a serious reality check. I'll look at Clark Howard's website.
 

From today. The recent winds caused the tree that was dangling above the fence to fall down, but not completely flat to the ground. It hasn't broken the fence wire, just scrunched it, and I can reach it now. Maybe I'll have a go at it Sunday or Monday. It's been dead a couple of years, but it's an old native pine (versus a new planted pine), so it will likely still be hard.

It's in a separately fenced section I use a lot to lock up the goats when I need to keep them out of trouble, so it's not as important as if it were on the main fence around the barn. Don't know if my little saw is big enough. Another challenge. Bring it on. :)

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Ha! Ha! Pappy. I hope you don't need to pull a cord to start Big Gus.
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The picture makes that tree look a little bigger than it really is I think, but it might be the biggest one I've cut that wasn't hollow inside, or completely rotten.
 
maggiemae said:
Be careful Nancy cutting that pine!
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Accidents seem not to happen with special projects, more likely when doing simple routine things. Maybe because I get more careless when I think I know what I'm doing. ;) Or maybe it's just because you spend a lot more time doing routine things, than you do special projects.:confused: Ha!

They had a Maine Cabins Masters marathon today on DIY. I watched another one, and kept peeking in now and then. I read there are only 11 episodes total.

Is this going to be our final cold snap? Supposed to get down to 41 tonight. Might better get those ghosts out in your yard again.
 
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Taxes done---both Federal and State!

They have Federal online e-filing software available free for more people now (called Free File). Don't know when that first became available, but I just tried it and had several problems, so sticking with paper forms still. This is another outsourced/privatized partnership---between IRS and an alliance of tax software firms. IRS could do this easily and more efficiently on its own. Instead they are likely paying a huge amount of money to these private companies for the service. Maybe the software does not work too well on purpose?

BTW all this just reminded me of what a headache taxes would be if you had rental property. :p

I get to use the Standard Deduction now. :)

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Is this going to be our final cold snap? Supposed to get down to 41 tonight. Might better get those ghosts out in your yard again.

LOL, I have learned a lesson....I cannot believe I was out there in the freezing cold with 25 MPH winds trying to cover plants and putting bricks down to keep the sheets from flying off. And my azaleas still half bloomed this year. But to make matters worse, the neighbor across the street did not cover anything and they have the most beautiful blooming azaleas I have seen! Note to self..."Let Nature take it's course". I'm still learning as old as I am!
 
"Is this going to be our final cold snap? Supposed to get down to 41 tonight. Might better get those ghosts out in your yard again."

LOL, I have learned a lesson....I cannot believe I was out there in the freezing cold with 25 MPH winds trying to cover plants and putting bricks down to keep the sheets from flying off. And my azaleas still half bloomed this year. But to make matters worse, the neighbor across the street did not cover anything and they have the most beautiful blooming azaleas I have seen! Note to self..."Let Nature take it's course". I'm still learning as old as I am!
 
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I was wrong! The dead tree was rotten, eaten up by insects half way through. :) Sawing was easy.

Made two cuts. Lucked out in choosing where.

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A little more tinkering around with the saw, and the whole thing fell down in 3 pieces, none even touching the fence. Pulled the fence up, and that was it. A thirty minute job.

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Fence is a little stretched, but not as much as at many other places on the property. Will just leave it like this. The log will rot soon enough and the goats will have something to climb on in the meantime, if they want.

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Doing stuff like this is a lot of fun (when things go well).

The first hummingbird of the year showed up today. Sprayed weeds around the barn, and did the routine things.
 
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Tabitha, the goats were locked out. They are not afraid of the saw at all. In fact they come running when they hear it, because sometimes I would cut down smaller live trees for them, so they could eat the leaves. They would be right there with me. We had one that would lick the oil off the saw chain every time I put it down. Silly goats. :)
 
I'm done.:p Just waiting for 2nd coat of polyurethane to dry. It was impossible (for me) to get a picture where the shelves don't look distorted on the edges.:( They *are* level. A lot of things I would have done differently.

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After first coat, with a paint can to indicate the size. Shelves are open on the sides, but front and back are attached securely to ceiling and floor.

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Hope it doesn't stay forever tacky. May add a little more mortar to the right bottom, and coat the blocks with something to keep them from flaking off on the floor (and look less gray;)), but I'm ready to move on to something else.

[Looks like several linked pictures in this thread may have disappeared from Photobucket. Maybe uploaded while I was using Edge? Not too happy about that. Can't be fixed.:(]
 
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maggiemae said:
...I don't think I am ever going to post a project I do...
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Please don't say that.:( I want to see your projects.

Working with wood is my favorite thing, since I was a kid playing with Lincoln Logs, so I waste too much time on wood projects. There are a lot of mistakes in those shelves, you just can't see them in a picture. And polyurethane has an amazing ability to make things look good, and shiny.
 
I don't think your shelves look "tacky", Nancy! They turned out great! Now the fun part....you get to fill them with "crap" and cover them with a curtain!:playful:
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Aw shucks! :eek: Thanks everyone. You folks are the greatest. :rose:

Just checked---finish is dry and hard (not tacky) already. Will start moving junk in tomorrow. There will be no curtains! The closet of my first apartment had a curtain instead of a door. Nope. But maybe I should put place mats under the junk to avoid rust marks. :confused: :rolleyes: :)
 
Thursday: Loaded the new shelves. Only filled 2/3 of them. Put shelf liners of heavy duty plastic down first.:) Good opportunity to throw away a lot of containers of stuff that had gone bad, and clean up the basement a little.

Friday & Saturday: Cleaned up the yard near the back property line in town. Grass doesn't grow there, so I never mow it, and it was just a pile of sticks and leaves, mixed in with English ivy, that had been collecting up for years under some red tips I planted a long time ago. The ivy is a nesting place for mosquitoes, and it grows up the trunks of the red tips and kills them. Tried the new oscillating saw thing to cut the big hairy vines on the trunks, and it worked really well. Will try to get rid of the ivy for good with a little Roundup this summer---paint it on carefully around the trunks of the red tips. They are like big trees now! Should probably have them cut down.

Three wheelbarrow loads of vines, 2 truck loads of limbs ready to haul off, and many, many, wheelbarrows of leaves and sticks. A good workout. I'll probably have to crawl out of bed in the morning.

Before and after. Doesn't look like a big job, but it was.

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Hope everyone has a nice Easter!

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I know how you feel about hiring someone to do work. Had a man take down some trees for me. Pin Oaks that were dying and threatening to take out my roof. He did work until it came to the clean up. Four foot stumps left and all the debris, from 7 trees down and many trees trimmed of dead limbs, left in my back yard. He suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth. My neighbor was even helping me find him. He did work for him and finished it all. The guy had business cards, truck, and trailer and all sorts of equip. He presented as a company but oh woe....what a nightmare. On the other hand, I have a lawn service that is more than good. He slowly removed the debris from my yard as part of the mowing charge so there would be no expense. My lawn service is fantastically marvelous. I'm in SE Georgia. Want to sell and downsize the house but the kids are too busy with their lives it is hard to get them to come up and help do some repairs to the house before I sell. So, I'm with you, will just have to learn to do all these things. My Dad used to teach me everything and my late husband was a gem at carpentry and repairs. Both being gone now since '92 and '93. So may be some time yet before I can sell but I'm determined. Starting to sell some of the furniture and household items now so I'm ready when the house is.
 


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