Our longest stay on the mountain

October 5

After leaving the Lantz's we came back to the Mountain House.  We're staying here until the end of the month - our longest stay on the mountain since we left here in 2001.

We've been considering selling the house because we just don't use it enough.  It sits here most of the year with no use and we've got to either sell it or figure out how to use it more.

We interviewed some Realtors to help us in determining what we may do.  After the interviews, we've realized that, like most of rural America, housing values have not recovered from the recession a few years back.  In fact, most homes in this area have actually depreciated.  And there is hardly any new construction because housing values are so low that you can't build a home for what you can buy one.  It's a problem everywhere it seems.  We're trying to sell two houses that my Dad owned in Nashville, and it's downright depressing to realize that values of home there are even further depressed.

So we've started looking at an alternative to selling and strongly considering vacation rental through Airbnb.

We've talked to a lady who will "host" the house for us and at this point we think we're going to do it.

But first, we need to get through some deferred maintenance.  So far, we've had the carpets cleaned, the garage floor painted, painted the decks, took bunches of stuff to the dump, cleaned up the garden areas  - and still a lot of work to do.

Over the weekend, we received the rain/wind of another hurricane that hit shore in Louisana.  It was interesting to observe that when we arrived on Thursday, all the leaves were green and there was no sign of fall.  However, after it rained all day Sunday, we found that the leaves had literally changed overnight.

October 13 - 15

Slade and family drove up to spend Slades "birthday weekend" with us.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Asheville and spent the afternoon at the Sierra Nevada brewery

Clara broke out a box of old Christmas decorations and Anna and Evan got the chance to each pick out decorations for them to keep for their future family Christmas

Sunday afternoon before they left, we went by the Orchard for little music and dancing.

Papa and Dad got the chance to dance with Anna. I don't believe I've ever seen such a smile on Anna's face.

Saturday October 21 turned out to be a real special treat.

First, we met a lot of new neighbors here on the mountain at our annual meeting in the morning and a party at a neighbors home for dinner.

However, most of the day was at the Buck Stove Factory, just down the  mountain from our house.  Buck Stove was hosting their first Bluegrass Music festival.

We went down around 1:30 and spent the afternoon listening to great music - not just good, but great.  We took a short break for dinner with our neighbors and then went back down for the evening show.

This is the first event of this nature that I have been to that 1) was held in a factory, and 2) we had the most comfortable chairs we've ever had at a music festival.

First, yes, inside a working factory.

We were surrounded by plywood, steel, machines of all kinds, while listening to great music

And the most comfortable rocking chairs.  We sat in one like this for several hours and never felt any discomfort.  They were so comfortable that we ended up buying two of them.

All the musicians in this group are 18 years old, or younger.  And they were fantastic.

The headliners of the show were Darin and Brooke Aldridge.  Brooke was selected by the International Bluegrass Music Association as female vocalist of the year for 2017.

Anna, how do you like these boots?  And she can really play that fiddle.

We know the owner of Buck Stove, Claudia.  She told us that this will be an annual event in the future.  We hope to bring Slade and family up next year for the show.  Fantastic.

After finishing all the chores, we decided to go ahead and see what might happen renting the house through Airbnb. 

So we packed up on Oct 29 and headed East.