Finally a new blog.

April 1, 2007 (3:07pm)
40º F, Rain, S wind 6 mph.

Good morning,

A lot has happened since the last entry, March 25 but posted a short bit ago today. Much of it surrounds these machines. Everything is still not working right, but I hope we are closing in on the problems. I was not able to post anything on the blog until last night, when I tried a short test which worked, then deleted it again. Intended to get at writing this one this morning, but that didn’t happen.

Our computer system still is not right. This machine has most of it’s capability back, but there are still some short comings, like the LAN not working. That is a very grumpy point for Margriet. The notebook has several problems. In the short time I had it online before getting the proper virus scanner in place, it apparently picked up some kind of bug. It progressively got worse, so this afternoon I just cleared everything off of the hard drive and will be reinstalling everything again. Not what I wanted to do, but I need to get things back to how we like it again. Enough of this fooling around. I will be setting the notebook up as the main computer, then use the "old" one for other things, but probably not on the desk.

Along the way of playing with the notebook, I discovered the mouse I use with it was in really bad shape. We picked up a wireless optical mouse for it. Boy what a difference! No more wires to tangle up in the carrying case when we travel. Only complaint I have is that it needs a surface with some kind of texture to it. Guess we can live with that. We also picked up a couple of new monitors, one for each at the desk. They are wide screen LCD units. Should make it easier on the electric bill and our eyes.

Just as the computer went down, we did get an email that pretty much killed the house deal in Amasa. The house was in an estate and the children didn’t want to lower the price any - just wanting to get as much money as possible. That put it out of our budget range. The cost of bringing in and installing necessary essentials is way too high, especially the electric service. The house has not been used for a couple of years since the father died and the kids figure they have nothing to lose by holdings firm on the price. It will depreciate without any maintenance and the market is a buyers market at the moment. Oh well. The relator was some surprised and upset by the deal too. He wanted to sell it. We really did fall in love with the place and spent untold hours planning for the purchase. We learned a lot in the process.

We did take a ride up to Iron River to look at some other properties. The relator had sent some other properties for us to consider before he and his family went west to enjoy a week skiing in Colorado. We left Wednesday morning and stopped at one property that was on the way, to the office, just to see the lay of the land, before getting to the office. We chatted with his "noble assistant" and got some information to see some of the others. We also made arrangements to view the property we saw on the way in, the following morning. Some of the properties were really out there in the boon-docks. Much like the camp I hunt from, but with a bit easier access. Others would work for us, but had some real down sides - like the railroad tracks 50 feet away from the house!

The ride the following morning holds the best prospect. It is a manufactured log house, a guest house, and a 40'x50' pole barn/shop on 18 acres of mostly woods. The man of the place apparently worked for a mining company in the area before he died a couple of years ago. There are lots of materials (probably "borrowed" from the company) in various places. Most of the place is in need of a lot of finishing. Much of the place is a series of "small" projects that still need to be finished. Everything is there to make it a permanent home with more amenities than we expected. We pretty much walked around and through the place, but not in any real detail. We will make another trip up after Jeff gets back and take a really close look. Then .... who knows.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><