Eric Canal and Home sales

I’ve been on the bicycle since last Sunday, left home last Saturday, maybe even last Friday over 8 days ago.  Having 4-6 hours on a bike to think, ponder, conclude, rewind and reconsider makes for a difficult entry point for blog post - oh, where to start. I'll weave a little cultural commentary in here, like Bret Easton Ellis in his book American Psycho, whose narrator unexpectedly riffed on Genesis and a whole host of other tangents in between his murderous night-time activities. Ellis knows his subjects a lot better than i will ever hope to.

Let’s at least lead with the lead for once - successfully closed our big spread on Dymond Road in Kerhonkson, and our bread and butter Ranch in Narrowsburg.  2 completely different exercises of construction, strategy, finance and execution.

Dymond Road Barn house sits on 30 acres.  It also has a 26’x26’ 2 story garage.  The land was cleared for a view.  The house was over 4000 sq ft.  I cleared, grubbed and planted a yard which we tended and grew.  We furnished the house.  We priced it at nearly $2,000,000 - not that much of an outlier for the gold coast of Ulster County, and some of the much lesser stuff that gets priced mid $1,000,000. Compass Real Estate gets the assist.

The Narrowsburg Ranch sold for just under $800k - a good price. It’s on 5 acres.  We’ve built a lot of these, on spec and retainer.  They are fun, liveable, easy to understand. Easy to own.

Between the two, Catskill Farms brought in $2,500,000 in earnings and cash while I was on a bicycle near Canajoharie NY- one of the depressed canal towns we passed through on this 387 mile Erie Canal trek.  Most of that money came to the Catskill Farms coffers, since we build mostly with cash these days.

I had a lot of time to contemplate the current state of America culture on my ride, listening repeatedly to Ella Langley’s album Dandelion.  This Linda Ronstadt-inspired baddie, with front bangs and shirt skirts, produced a great album that has swept across the States and inspired a whole new men’s club, the Ella Fellas.

Linda -

Ella

A little slutty, drinks a bit too much, definitely spends a fair time in pubs and bars, likes her hard liquor and a mastery of the southern twang. The music industry find a muse for our general interests.

The question is, with all the attention, how long till Travis and Taylor show up in the front row of one of her shows, which brings me to another point since I’m vibing stream of consciousness, am I being unfair to these two since they didn’t show up at the World Cup finals, though that could just be attributed to Travis’ uppity and condescending view of soccer as a sport (shared by many of his fellow Americans).

Ella compared to Olivia Rodrigo is interesting, because while Olivia’s Vampire is all about the evil-doing’s of a player-paramour, Ella gives some worldly grace to love’s lost, reserving blame and generally letting and let live. 

The ride from Buffalo to Albany was a big accomplishment - 360 miles on a gravel bike, which is more efficient than a mountain bike but less than a road bike.  It’s a lot of miles, spread out over 8 days, hugging the Erie Canal, which by definition and purpose, is thankfully pretty flat.  But it’s still a lot of time in the saddle, a lot of rotation of ye ole legs.  We passed through dozens of canal towns, once rowdy and raucous and vibrant and promising, but for 125+ years having a future/fortune pegged to a canal abandoned and forgotten, towns existing out of inertia than economic vibrancy. The Canal, finished in 1825, expanded a few times to parlay its success, to flame out relatively quickly as the train took over in the late 1900’s.  A birth and demise based on a transportation revolution, much like the Catskills I home, which many people claim declined in popularity as the airplane allowed New Yorkers to travel farther and easier than the Borscht belt.

We were right in the middle of the forest fires smokes and to be honest, for all the hubbub 24/7 about the smoke, air quality and stay indoor warnings, there was relatively little overt concern on the ride - which was odd on one hand since we were outside and breathing heavy, but not as odd as you would think because anyone riding 400 miles while camping in this religious revival meets traveling circus meets Dead show meets military encampment is a bit out of the ordinary -not in a judgy good or bad way, but just not your average joe.

Smoky orange.