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

Ok, Ok - I get it - I haven't posted any Lucas pics lately.  Jeeezzz.  How about giving a busy guy a break?

Lucas and his Amish friend boy in Lancaster PA.

Gap Kids pose.

I've been dying since last winter till the time came to break out this winter's cap.

Eating some bread and saltines after some projectile vomiting.  Thing is, this meal is what he always eats, it's not some special 'upset stomach' meal.  I always say if he ever goes to prison he won't have a big dietary adjustment - he loves his plain bread and water.  Phoenixville PA.

It's a big milestone when these kids start dressing themselves.  it's so unexpected, and then like most growing up milestones, soon forgotten as it is taken for granted.

Lancaster PA - one of the finest places around, and where I was born and bred (and where I starred on the football and baseball field, which were surrounded by farms, breying cows, and the stink of manure).

Nephew at the restaurant in Bloomsburg PA watching the Auburn Alabama game.

So Thursday morning Lancaster, Thursday night Phoenixville, Saturday Bloomsburg, Sunday Eldred, then Monday up to Saugerties to move my upstate satellite apt from the cool town of Saugerties to the Cool town of New Paltz.

Goodbye Saugerties Apartment.

Hello New Paltz apt.

New wood stove at my home in Eldred NY.

The excavators getting ready to hit it hard this morning after we laid out Barn 9, in Olivebridge NY.

And our favorite cow next door.

And an update money shot of Barn 7.

30 yrs from now, people will be asking where you were during the Auburn (#4) and Alabama (#1) game of 2013.

I was sitting with my nephew in a medium-sized family restaurant with busy bar named The Scoreboard, in Bloomsburg in the middle of Pennsylvania (yes, PA still exists even though they have fracking) watching the most roller coaster, up and down, bizarre exciting endings  of a football game. Period.

I'm not even a huge football fan but was hanging with the 17 yr old, and rarely watch a game through to the end, regardless of how tight the score.  But this jaw-dropped and stunned wide eyed crowds - both for and against - motionless they stood as grasped for the right way to feel.

It'll be like when Kennedy was shot and everyone remembers where they were.  It was that type of game.

This has always been a fun and popular 2 bedroom, 1350 sq ft Cottage.  

Use it if you got it - so we found these stones and we build a retaining wall and some steps.  Free of course, at least to the clients.

Our hand-hewn, locally harvested, fast growth timber custom staircase (have I missed any trigger words, all you brooklynites?)  Great stairs could lead to home-brew craft brewery set up or jam making facility.

One of our carpenters helping out to finish things up.

Getting the kitchen set…  That time of year where we need some help with the heat.

And even another carpenter sneakin' around.

Snowing up, just 15 minutes 'fore dark.

First people into the office - Last out.  That's how we roll.

I'd say I'm most thankful that there are tons of things and people and clients and employees and friends in my life that get undervalued during the stress of fixing problems all day long.  The good far outweighs the bad, and it's important that that perspective isn't underweighted -

I think that one of the inherent maladies at being good at what you do - the self-criticism and process-analysis that got you where you wanted to be has a habit of lingering centrally when it's presence isn't as vital anymore.

Or put another way, as my wise-cracking ex-wife said, when I responded to something with -

"...that's why I'm the Man."

and she said -

" and you see where that's gotten you."

Ouch.