Uath

[Ross Warren]

Anyone heard from him? Not dropped in for a while

[merseystrangler]

last I heard he was off with a travelliing circus as a alligator wrestler across the souther states...

[joemynhardt]

Was wondering the same thing. He doesn't spend any time of facebook either.

[merseystrangler]

my guess is enjoying life, glad he's not corraling 7th graders anymore.

[uath]

Hi Guys,

Sorry I've been out of touch. It's been busy this last month and a half.

First was the forest fire. I've probably mentioned that I have a pine tree farm, 720 acres. We just had a huge fire in my area due to a drought. 220,000 acres burned. My land was on the edge of the fire and did very well. It's taken time, but I've walked almost the entire plantation. The undergrowth is gone and there is some loss of trees, but (in my case) very little. Almost all of my trees are putting on fresh growth. Best case scenario, I've lost about five acres total. That's tricky though, because the trees could be stressed enough to get bugs.

I don't think so. I think I'm OK. The great thing is that right after the fire we had several inches of rain. In my opinion, the fire was actually GOOD for me. It burned away the undergrowth and gave a shot of fertilizer right when the trees were coming out for spring.

My cousin and aunt wern't so lucky. They lost ALL their trees. Gone, 1500 acres. There's nothing alive. My cousin can only get about $30,000 of salvage. Replanting could cost up to $140,000, or more. There may be some state relief, he'll have to wait and see.

[uath]

I'm also having to clear out my parent's house. I've been lucky enough to find renters.

I targeted Morman families, because I knew they would be desperate for space and my parents house is very large (6 bedrooms). Sure enough, it wasn't a week before I had a Morman family of seven show up. They were really excited. The house is very nice and it includes a separate house that my aunt lived in before she died. It's almost as big as my parent's house. It's old though, so it's expensive to heat and cool.

Actually, the people aren't technically renting from me. I'm hiring them as caretakers. That way, if anything breaks, they fix it. They pay me $300 a month and pay all the bills. I know that's super-cheap rent, but it'll cover the taxes and insurance. Also, they'll keep the place up, fix anything that breaks (at their own expense) and look after the grounds.

The guy is a firefighter. He want's to eventually buy the place. I told him I might sell it, but only if I financed it. After this first year, we'll talk about using their rent to save up a down payment (minus taxes and insurance).

What I would like is for them to make a large payment to me every month for the next 30 years.

In the meantime, my son and I have been clearing out generations of antiques and moving them to my house. My grandparents and parents were avid collectors of antiques and there are some HUGE pieces, including a Steinway piano from the mid 1800's. I'm going to put as many pieces as I can in my house in Georgia and my house in Montana. Even moving out all of my old crap for the caretakers to use, I'll never be able to get it all in. I'm just concentrating on getting the best stuff out. The rest I'll store with them. I may sell some of it, but I'll try to keep as much as I possably can.

My house looks like a museum.

[uath]

Through all this, I've managed 8 new drawings. That's not bad.

I'm still working on my book proposal. I've got to find the time to work on the Ghastly Door this week. I'll put up the new drawings Mon hopefully and maybe post a new article.

The "Ghost Hunting In Glastonbury" article has done very well.

[joemynhardt]

Yay, welcome back, Will. Close one with that fire. Sorry to hear about your cousin and aunt.

[Ross Warren]

Welcome back mate! Have you received your copy of Dark Minds yet?

[uath]

Yes I have Ross. It looks great!