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Wow - who would know that a major real estate and mortgage crisis is on hand? Saturday was a good day for Catskill Farms, signing up a gentleman for our first mini-house at $195k, and most likely signing up Anna and Pablo for a cottage on 5 acres (we sold all our land so we are looking for more).

If you lost count, CF now has a 5 house waiting list, which should give some comfort to the entire Catskill Farms family. It's an enviable position for us all - owning real value, - that appreciates ahead of the market and depreciates behind it - in front of the fire, drink in hand - a toast to good long-term decisions the entire family has made.

When the market was overheated, realtors were arrogant, tradesmen non-committal, and the entire sales process bogged down by too much activity. Now, I get 5 calls a week from people looking for work (good people), realtors are bombarding us with listings to buy, land is becoming more reasonably priced.

At the moment, CF is negotiating to buy a bus garage in eldred, where we would hope to build storage units and build out the large garage into lofty open office space, so small businesses have a place to go when they out grow the garage and basement.

We are also actively looking and buying small and large parcels of land (we are still a small business so large overpriced parcels are still out of our reach). We hope to buy the entire price slide down, so we can continue to offer affordable getaways at all price points.

Back in the old days, these shingles would have had to be humped, bundle by bundle, up a ladder. In this case 68 trips up and down the ladder - I don't know if you ever lifted a bundle of shingles - but they ain't light, and definitely don't get lighter with each bundle trip.

In construction, many things - like siding, roofing, etc..., are measured in squares - a square is 100 sq ft, or a 10 x10 area. So this roof has 23 square of roof, or 2300 sq ft. 3 bundles of shingles make 1 sq, so for this job we needed 69 bundles.

These boys from across the Delaware River (PA) use rock-climbing harnesses and straps on steep roof pitches like this. It's a good idea, allowing more movement and flexibility than other safety processes.

Polaroid snapshot taken by Mrs Vaughn. Mrs. Vaughn was the woman who I bought the land from in Barryville/Eldred and built 9 homes, - Farm #7, Barn #1, Modern #1, Arts & Crafts #1, Farm #8, Cottage #1, Cottage #2, and Cottage #3.

This photo was taken when I closed on the land. Mrs Vaughn is over 90 and is a widower for the past 20 yrs when her husband Vincent passed away. They bought the 55 acres I eventually purchased from them in 1968. The Vaughns were from Eastern Europe and I believe their families had land taken from then during WWII, so they took their ownership seriously.

A lot of people offered Mrs Vaughn good money for this land over the years - and her retort was always along the lines of 'he's got enough money', 'he's a criminal', 'you own enough land', until one day I found out about the land through her 95 yr old boyfriend, and eventually agreed to buy it from her.

Note my Walmart sweatshirt - a thoughtful Christmas present from my step-mother.

As most of you know, I once owned a dog named Bella - part german shepard, part lab, part rot and several parts undefined. She was a good dog, a real construction dog, and she left us this past May, after getting hit by a car.


Bella was sort of my business partner, and she went pretty much everywhere I did. She was happiest driving around, and it's hard to believe I never left her behind on any job sites - but even when she was out in the woods, I guess she kept an ear tuned to my doings, because when it was time to go, she was there - which is impressive since many mornings I can be at 5 or 6 different job sites.

She was a funny dog - like when she would sit too close to the fireplace, her skin flaky, and be too lazy to get a drink of water until the last dying minute when she would lazily saunter over the water bowl and drink for half an hour. Or when she would fart, and quickly and quizically look at her backside like she was not responsible. Bella was the type of dog people volunteered to dog-sit.

Here is a pic of my dad, my uncle and myself, all with our respective companions, sitting on the front porch of the first house I built - Farmhouse #1.

Last night, for my new small project, I had to name a private road so we could get 911 addresses processed for the homes and homeowners. I named it 'Bella Drive', and it was unanimously approved. Next spring, I'll spread her ashes under a willow tree I am planting on the property. She always liked the shade.

It snowed 3" Friday night - kind of catching everyone by surprise. Quite nice though - with the snow hanging off the trees and erotically bending their branches.

Note the firewood - which wood benefit my family more if I brought it into the house.

This is my house - sort of an andirondack swiss mountain cottage.

Big day, regardless of the weather - Since the baby doesn't stop for weather, neither can we!

Here are the framers, working through the weather to get the job done. Don't try these high elevation gymnastic at home. Here the framers are lining up the lumber that will be the roof rafters of the Carr Farmhouse.



And here are the Carrs -