Wednesday, December 19 - Decisions, decisions

We've made an offer on a 3br 2ba double-wide in Parksville, on an acre of flat, fertile land right beside the Salt River. Actually the river rises about 1/2 mile from the place, then flows all across central Kentucky until flowing into the Ohio downstream from Louisville.

The initial offer was rejected so we countered. Hopefully, they'll accept our counter. If not, we'll up it again -- it'll be difficult but we can do it.

We're now renters here, and can't wait to get out, not just because of the cost, but because this deal turned so totally sour, we need to move and start over. But oh, the cardinals and chickadees at the feeder, and the pileated woodpecker excavating the tree stump -- they're SO beautiful. We'll have birds in Parksville though.

The farm pond froze over completely last night, but melted completely today. We finally came to the realization that the pond is a wonderful feature and we have enjoyed it greatly, but that we've really made pets out of the catfish, bass, and bluegills, so it would be difficult to EAT them! How can one eat a pet?

We drove over to Loretto today to the Maker's Mark distillery, where we bought some Christmas presents -- in another week I can tell who got what...but right now that's for Santa to know. It's weird -- the distillery can't sell any of its bourbon because it's in a "dry" county. You can get Maker's Mark almost anywhere else in the country, but not in the county where it's distilled. Kentucky's prohibition laws are a patchwork of local ordinances with virtually no standardization whatsoever. In one county one can buy booze at Rite-Aid, but 5 miles away one can't even order wine with dinner. A golf course can sell beer, but restaurants must earn 70% of their income from food or they can have their liquor license taken away.

Anyway, we drove to Perryville, then on to Springfield (where Lincoln's parents lived and Jefferson Davis went to school), then overland to Loretto (the Catholic center of Kentucky) through some of the most beautiful land in Kentucky. One farm outside Springfield had green grass, black cows all over, and the sun was shining on it. It looked like a picture postcard taken in June -- except that there weren't any leaves on the trees. It was warm enough for us to take our jackets off most of the day which is also weird because friends and family in Maine are suffering through temps in the teens and 20s and experiencing snow.

In fact, that's what's missing. It's the Christmas season and though we expected it would be warmer than Maine, we didn't expect to miss the snow quite as much. Lights, decorations, everyone saying "Merry Christmas" without SNOW! I guess it's all in what you're used to. What the heck, in Australia, Santa arrives in the middle of Summer on a surfboard and people open presents at the beach!

We'll see tomorrow what our offer on the new property brings. It would be SO nice if we could close before Christmas, or at least have a contract to close.

Stay tuned...