Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

Ever since we worked with Veronica on evolving the look and feel of this particular barn house, it's been a big hit.  Bit hit.  We keep changing it up, both from a design perspective and a floor plan perspective.  This one added a really nice front room, that takes a lot of pressure off the entry logistics.

It's on a bunch of acres, straddling Beaver Brook.

Nice sunny morning.

I don't think I need I need to even comment on this home's awesomeness.

(the key is to read it slowly)

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez
And it's Easter time too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs
When you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outta you

Now if you see Saint Annie
Please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move
My fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength
To get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor
Won't even say what it is I've got

Sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the Goddess of gloom
She speaks good English
And she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind
And careful not to go to her too soon

And she takes your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon

Up on housing project hill
It's either fortune or fame
You must pick up one or the other
Though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly
You better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you
And man they expect the same

Now all the authorities
They just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms
Into leaving his post
And picking up angel who
Just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first
But left looking just like a ghost

I started out on Burgundy
But soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me
When the game got rough
But the joke was on me
There was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City
I do believe I've had enough

(Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, Nina Simone version - I recommend it one an early thursday melancholy early dark pre-winter evening)

My friend Eric, who runs the go-to local insurance shop that insures pretty much anything one could need insured, also runs (along with his wife and full-time employee) a property services company named Nest.  I think it's a good addition to the local services landscape, one that seems logical and needed and we've invited them to advertise on our website (first ever) and give our clients a shot.

Offering pretty much the gamut from a fully managed property including house check-ups and responsibility for all day to day needs of a house, to one-off tasks such as firewood delivery (and stacking, hopefully), room painting, snow plowing, house checkin's during long absences, etc…

Like any company we refer (and there aren't many), we recommend trying them out on smaller projects and see if they meet expectations and take it from there.  With our homes being modest in size, I believe the value lies less in full-time, whole house management, than with the 'go to guy, one-stop shop' for your country's house many one-off needs - be it lawn care, snow plow, firewood, chimney cleaning, furnace maintenance, power washing, exterior painting, landscaping facilitation.  One call, wallah, taken care of (at least that's the what the marketing asserts).

We've been asked many times to do this job, but we just don't have the resources (emotional or time) to tackle the smallest of projects and to be honest, we have surprisingly found our clients and companies like Nest have better resources the smaller the project becomes.

Nest - Maybe it's something you've been thinking about.

They say that like 99.9 % of all blogs are abandoned, living lives of quiet desperation - unread, un-updated, and un-taken down.  Just out there in cyberspace, casualties of lost enthusiasm.  Of big plans scaled down.  Of hyperbole tamed.

So our 2 blog posts a week, for 7 years, stands out as a remarkable effort of retained enthusiasm and effort.  It's one of those things that just can't be faked, and one of the first things to go when a business hits a bump of prosperity or outlook.  On the same hand, it's one of those things that can be out prioritized as a business grows and demands on time grow severe.

The Blog of Catskill Farms is a regular testament to our legitimacy, our survival, our progress, our focus and our belief that our clients get what we are doing, not just with our homes, but our general approach to business and life.

Very few marketing efforts trust their clients and potential clients enough to tell the truth.  The personalization of our message, from Me to You, is an easy thing to take or leave - and luckily for us, enough families choose to take it to keep us in business for 11 years.

And to me, as the writer and editor, its a neat way to organize my thoughts and efforts when so much is won and lost on a daily basis.