Its feeling a lot like spring this last day of February; this past week we have had warm temperatures and periods rain. I have seen the green tips of what I hope are lilies on the road bank near my driveway gate. I have been warned by the folks that have been living here a long time that March is truly a month of transition. I have heard tails of blizzards and ice storms where folks were stuck in their homes for weeks!!! March is promising to start off like a lion (cub), we are expecting a wintry mix tonight and tomorrow.

Things are moving along on the cabin. The windows and doors have finally been set and they have started on the soffits. While it’s predicted to be cold next week there is no rain in the forecast till Friday so hopefully something will get done.

What a nice day it has been. It started out with a snow shower and a walk with the dogs, followed by music and brunch with friends and finished with home brewed beer and snack food at a new friend’s basement Irish pub. Days like this are what life is all about.

I learned some interesting financial information the other day. I applied for a loan and was curious as to why my credit score went down. Now I have few bills and I pay all of them on time also I very seldom have a balance on my credit card. I have savings, not much but some and my monthly obligations are much less than my income (for now that will change when the cabin is finished!!) so why did my credit score go down, your not gonna believe this but you see, last summer I canceled 2 credit cards and had my one remaining credit card limit reduced. I never used the 2 cards I had canceled; they were tied into my home mortgage and my equity line, so I did not see any reason in keeping them. The one card I kept had a high limit, more than I could ever afford to pay back if I was dumb or desperate enough to use it, so I thought it would be responsible of me to reduce the limit. Boys and girls here is why we have the financial problems we have now, the credit bureau penalized me for being what I feel is financially responsible. Here is how it goes, if YOU cancel a card it reflects on your credit score the same way it would reflect if your creditor canceled the card because of poor payment, the same applies if you reduce your limit. Another little heads up if you have 10 credit cards each with a $10,000 limit as long as you don’t use more than $4,999 on each card it will not reflect on your credit score but if you have 1 credit card with a $500 limit and you put $300 on it, you will get poor marks on your credit score. You are penalized if you use more than half of your credit limit no matter what that limit is. If you were to have 10 credit cards and go to the bank to get a consolidation loan they use to tell you to get rid of 9 of them, now they say, keep the cards just don’t use them you don’t want to mess up your credit. This just does not make any sense to me.

My farmer friend moving his cattle from one field to another

This reminds me of a winter shot but its 55 degrees out

It’s been a nice few days. I can’t believe it’s the middle of February. Other than the breeze things here have been very mild. I have been assured that the weather will get cold again. I have been told many a story of March & April snows.

The dogs and I have been taking our daily walks and I have been looking for some nice photos to shoot but there is slim pickins in that department. I haven’t had much to talk about either. I don’t like to put too much politics in this blog and that’s what been on my mind as of late so I’ll just keep my mouth shut.

For the most part things are good. I have made some nice friends up here and they are getting me out and about. They are costing me money though; I have to buy blouses because I can’t wear my t-shirts on our outings.

My builder is threatening to get some work done on the cabin. He tells me it will be done in a month….. Ok…… we will see.

It was a nice day today. The week started out with snow and cold temperatures and now we have warm weather and mud. I did not do a whole lot today my project was to clean the chimney; I had that done by 9:30. I heat by wood stove for the most part and while the wood I am using is all hard wood its not truly seasoned, most has been cut with in the past 6 months so I have been sweeping out the chimney about every 6 weeks. I love the heat from a wood stove I also like to watch the hypnotizing flames as the wood burns. It amazes me how fire can be comforting and dangerous at the same time. I treat fire with respect and I keep the tools I need to control it in good working order.

We have had a few days of snow. This shot was taken yesterday morning. I did not go on a walk this morning, it was just too damn cold, 9 degrees,. Its a little after noon now and we are up to 20 degrees with a bright sun but I think I will stay in today and just listen to music and read.

• It’s the first day of February and the weather is great. This morning the sun was shining so it only made sense that the dogs and I should take a walk and we did. We took a different path this time and came upon these bones. I think it may have been a cow there are a lot of them around here.
  

• The dogs and I continued up the path, the path was up a hill and it’s easier to go up the path to start because on the way home when I can go down the path (hill) I’m lazy that way. Anyway walking along the path I looked to my left and saw this. To me it looked very inviting so up I went.

• I had never been here before but it’s a nice site. That is the Buffalo in the distance. I will make it a point to vary my walks from now on. I can actually drive the Jeep down a lot of these paths and then take to foot when the way gets too narrow.

• I’m a big The Daily Show & Colbert Report fan but with my work schedule I don’t get to see them every time they are on TV. These shows have to be seen pretty close to the air date to get the jest of the humor so I don’t worry about seeing them in rerun. I discovered something this week the Comedy Channel plays the previous week’s shows back to back on the weekend starting at 7am; the Daily Show is rerun on Saturday and the Colbert Report on Sunday. When I move I hope to have DSL and I will be able to watch what ever I want when I want on the internet, but since all I have now is Hughes Net I’ll watch the weekend reruns on TV if I have time.