Hi Everyone!
Life is good here in
Oakham, MA and we hope that all is well with you.
We’re not going to
include any pictures with this letter but we do occasionally about what’s
happening with us. You’ll find our blog post (and lots of pictures) at http://LifeInRuralMass.blogspot.com.
We've found MA life to
be a much more strenuous life than we were used to in CA but we're loving it.
Our 2.6 acres is about 1 acre of lawn with the rest dense woods so there's a
lot to take care of. Gardening/lawn mowing in the Spring/Summer, leaf
blowing/snow removal in the fall/winter and, now that the leaves are down,
we're working on thinning out and burning the underbrush and dead trees so that
we can safely utilize our woods (there's an old stone well out there someplace
that we hope to find this winter!).
 |
| Found the well on 11/29. It's in the highest corner of our property. The concrete cap is about 6" thick and 6' across. |
Our big project last
winter was to finish off the unfinished space above the kitchen. When this 1837
house was restored in 2006, the kitchen wing was razed and rebuilt. The
upstairs was closed in but was, essentially studs, a couple of outlets and a
bulb in the ceiling. The new room is now our family/TV room and we love it. (More & with furniture)
Jeff's Mom was able to
fly back and spend an enjoyable week with us last May.
In June, we spent a
couple of weeks in Florida. We flew into Orlando and, after visiting Disney
World, the Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, Miami, Key West, Key Largo and
Everglades City, flew home from Fort Lauderdale. (More)
In August, we shared a
house in the White Mountains in New Hampshire with Briar, Gus and the kids. We
did some tubing, miniature golfing, shopping and a lot of hiking (Jeff even did
some zip lining). (More)
During the Summer, we
realized that our trailer hadn't budged since we moved in on 7-23-15 and that
the truck that we'd purchased that October had all kinds of trailering features
that we'd never put to the test. We decided that it was due for an outing and,
after replacing the tires and making sure that everything was clean and still
worked, we took off for a couple of weeks in September.
After visiting Quechee,
VT, we crossed over the North end of Lake Champlain to Lake Placid, NY
(Adirondacks). Our next stop was Thousand Islands, NY (East end of Lake
Ontario) and then Medina (convenient base for day trips to Niagara Falls and to
learn more about the Erie Canal). Heading toward home, we stopped at Oneida
Lake, NY and Copake, NY (Berkshires). (More)
Truck and trailer both
performed well and we're planning to take them out at least once a summer in
the future.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
K & J
