Second Thoughts

When I started this blog, my intentions (always good intentions!) were to post at least once a week. As shown by the dates of the postings, that went well! It is not that we do not have things happen to us, or that there is nothing to write about; it is just the usual inertia that occurs in everyday life.

We started this adventure in the Poconos knowing many of the difficulties, problems, anxieties that would occur as a result. Still, I must admit that the things happening lately have made us start second guessing our original motives. Of course, there is the economy - this area in the Northern Poconos was a little depressed to begin with. The commerce of this region relies heavily on tourism and, fortunately, gas prices made the area a very attractive place to vacation this summer. Now the whole national economy seems to be tanking and history shows that tourism is one of the first things to be affected. Jobs are being cut everywhere, and this area is no different.

Then there is the weather this year. It has affected us a lot, first with power outages and 16 inches in October, then 10 inches last week, followed by freezing rain making roads very treacherous. My husband had a bang up with our car scraping a guide rail to avoid a deer - again! And our other vehicle has somehow 'lost' its Drive and Reverse - it now only goes forward in 1 or 2 (automatic transmission), but if you rev it up, you can shift to Drive. Just do not get caught where you have to back up. However, now that the Christmas holiday is over, we should be able to take it to a 'guy' - he seems to feel it is an easy fix. Hope it is not too expensive.

As a result of these incidents, we are becoming very cautious driving with any type of inclement weather. I hate living in fear that the next incident could be really bad... I am beginning to think Delaware - near the ocean and not that many storms. Could buy a foreclosed house, but then there is selling this one and after what we went through with selling the house in NJ, I don't think we want to go through that again soon.

Then we see the beautiful sunsets, or how the snow sparkles on a clear sunny day. We remember that we do not get the summer heat. We see an eagle fly over our property, and we remember that we have property and rarely see or hear our neighbors. Utility costs and property taxes are relatively low and the people we meet are, by and large, friendly and helpful. Just last week, a guy with a tractor saw my husband digging the car out and asked if he could help. He plowed our driveway, and drove off before we could offer him any sort of remuneration! We have to find him and thank him somehow, even though I know he does not expect it.

I just have to remember the good parts.

Transitions

Just went through another birthday. As one of my friends used to say when I would complain about getting older, "Consider the alternative!" However, an important birthday does make a person evaluate how things have changed and what needs to be accomplished in our lives. The 'alternative' affects more aspects in my life and those of my friends. I do not mean to be depressive, just introspective.

A good friend and former boss recently lost her husband. I envisioned how I would feel if that happened to me - every married woman does. There is an empathy that goes without speaking and a part of you aches. Another friend whom I have known since childhood lost a brother - I can relate to that directly, having lost both of my brothers. We have a bond that does not get expressed, but we read in each other's eyes. A part of childhood is gone. An expectation for the future is removed.

These events, and several others, made me think about the transitions in life. My husband and I moved up here to relieve some of the stress in our lives; stress that would most certainly have killed us far too soon. Neither he or I have any immediate family left, so we hold on tighter to each other.

Begin Again

Our country has just been through a major election. During the campaigns, things are said, accusations are made, and even if they are not true, the accusation cannot be un-said. Why do we believe George Washington chopped down a cherry tree? Because it was said - once - and even though miles of information has disproved the story, people still have the image in their head. The old joke "When did you stop beating your wife?" Never said you did, but now the words have been said and the image is in your mind. Left to germinate, the image becomes an idea, then a truth. It is easier to say the lie than to disprove it.

Thanksgiving is next week. To most people this means getting together with family, eating and reconnecting. In our house, we decorate for Christmas and evaluate the coming year, then my husband goes to work (service/tourist industry, remember?) Turkey can be eaten any day, as long as we have each other.

Surprise!

The end of October, when people are preparing for Halloween, Election Day and SNOW? On October 28th we had the surprise of our lives with a Nor'easter that dumped over a foot of snow on our little mountain top. The weather forecasters (as my husband says, people who never get fired for getting it wrong) predicted 1 to 4 inches with a slight possibility of more 'in higher elevations.' Where are we - Mt Everest? We are only a little higher than Scranton, but we got creamed when they received only a dusting to 2 inches. Of course, we are on the weather line, but people in the next town over did not get even 3 inches of snow.

Okay, so the snow is one thing, but we also lost the cable/Internet connection first, then all power for over 24 hours. My husband and I were so unprepared. We should have drawn water, gotten lanterns/flashlights/candles ready. We should have had wood for the fireplace. We should have had food. We should have parked the car at the end of the driveway. We should have had our winter clothes unpacked, including boots...

For a total of two days we were stuck at the top of our hill, one car in a snow bank, the other buried and without snow tires. We had no heat, as the new boiler furnace was to be installed on October 30 (there is timing gone wrong) and with no electric we could not run space heaters. We had no water, because we have a well with a pump, so we got our old charcoal grill out and melted snow to flush the toilets ("a hobo fire") - fortunately we had just bought bottled water for drinking. It was cold, dark, and we were just getting to the point of calling a taxi, mushing through the snow to the road - which was clear - and staying at a motel when the power came back.

So why didn't we leave and stay somewhere else sooner? Well, experience tells us that power does not stay off that long and we wanted to stay here for our pets and in case anything else happened - like pipes bursting, or whatever.

Things work out eventually. We have power, we have our new heater, and we got one car out to make it to the store. The other car is still stuck in a snow bank, (that happened when we tried to drive it out of its parking place and skidded down another hill on our property) but we are expecting a spate of 60 degree days, so it should be melted out soon. Then again, can we trust what the weather people say??? I think we will be buying a large, gas powered snow thrower soon - our current model is electric and a lot of good that did us.

Foliage

The autumn colors came in perfectly this year in time for the three-day Columbus Holiday weekend. Reports came in about the 'bang-up' business, and resorts being very happy and busy. The gas prices are making people who come from the NY and NJ areas stay closer to home, come to the Poconos, and enjoy the warm, beautiful weather we had this year.

I truly hope people took the time and rode around to view our foliage. There are places even on the major interstate highways where you drive around a bend and are literally awe-struck with the beauty. The colors intertwine before you like a patchwork quilt; a heavy, sturdy quilt that is full and warm and bright. The evergreen trees serve as the counterpoint to the reds, golds and oranges perfectly stitched by Mother Nature. I take pictures, but something about the here-and-now, real-time sense cannot be captured by film or digital images. There is a feeling, a smell, a grandeur that can only be experienced in person.

The people who live here all year do seem to appreciate this time. Locals remark to each other that they try to find the time in everyday life to enjoy our leaves. But there is a time limit on the beauty, a profound concept. Today, many of the leaves have fallen off the trees, still pretty on the ground, but not as grand. We had our warm spell of 70 degree weather - a short burst of steam, if you will - but now the crispness is coming back (okay, crisp is another way of saying cold!). The leaves crunch under the feet and probably need to be raked. I am going to wait; after all, the winds we will be getting soon usually take care of that. Not sure where the leaves end up, but I imagine there is one family who feels as if with all the leaves landed on their lawn. They are probably not too wrong.

Crime is Relative

It is inherently peaceful in the Poconos, at least our part in the northern tier, but we are seeing an increase in crime in the more tourist-oriented areas. Still, the amount of crime is relative, based on the reporting we see and hear on the local news. In the "If it bleeds, It leads" journalism, murders and fires lead the newscasts. However, in comparison the sheer number of reports, we still are feeling pretty safe.

Our local cable allows us access to the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia broadcasts; and we still watch those in order to maintain our perspective. Which leads me to a recent couple of crimes lately that hit too close to home. There was a murder in one of the towns on the other side of the lake and the murderer has not been found yet. And there was the child pornography ring that was found working out of our town. This says to me that there are many places to hide up here and we live out in those woods!

Being a large place with a relatively small full-time population, differences are noted immediately. After all, not to make a characterisation, but there is a large contingent of hunters up here; in other words, people who make it a point to notice the things around them. I believe that is why the fugitives who try to 'hide' up here in plain sight tend to be noticed and reported, such as the terrorists who were in training up here to attack Ft Dix in NJ. However, a source of concern is the increase in gang activity. The gang graffiti symbols are prevalent in the areas young people congregate, marking territory. It scares me that kids still think it is a cool thing - to be in a gang - when their parents moved to the Poconos to get their kids away from the violence. Pity.

So do we feel safe? Relatively, as we still have our defences up from all the years we spend in the metropolitan area. We still lock our doors whenever we walk outside, still look immediately whenever one of our motion-sensor lights go on (just the fact that we felt we needed to add those on the house is a clue to our mentality), still eyeball the parking lot when we bring our purchases to the car. We still behave defensively, but it is getting relaxed and we are becoming more open. I still want to hold on to some of the defensiveness, but I feel safe leaving stuff outside that would have gotten lifted where we lived in NJ.

Last Weekend of Summer

Autumn is arriving with a vengeance. It is the last weekend of summer and the overnight temperatures have gone down to 30 already. But it is a wonderful crisp cool that makes sleeping so enjoyable.

I love this time of year up here as much, if not more than the after-season at the Jersey Shore. It is always quiet up here, but I have noticed even less traffic than before. What I am seeing more of now is motorcycles - I guess to get in their last ride and enjoy the foliage.

A dear friend of ours lent us her beach house this week. It was nice to get re-connected to the shore, but I found it to be noisy, as the houses are close together, and not as cool as I have become used to up here. Still, it was nice to sit on the beach, watch the seagulls and boats and feel the cool water on our toes. But I have to say, I became a little homesick. Still, if someone walked up to me and said here is a beach house, on the water, with plenty of space between you and your neighbors, would I say no? I would say, "thank you very much" and "how much are the taxes?"

This is also the best time of year to do those home maintenance things that you didn't do during the summer because it was too hot, or you were too busy. Life slows down more this time of year, so somehow you find you have the time to do those things like caulking, landscaping, painting, etc. We are now getting bids on our new boiler for the heat - that should be fun! Strange people coming into the house to pass judgement on our heating system and to recommend various ways to take our money. Yippee!

Wildlife

Let me start by saying that while we have had close encounters with wildlife, we have not had direct encounters. I am afraid that if some of our friends read about the wildlife here in the Poconos, they will never come to visit. I want to reassure them, but also to state that we are in the mountains! I am pleased that humankind has not destroyed all the natural wildness in the world.

It is still a little unnerving when you have encounters with wildlife, especially if you were raised in the city, like my husband, or in the tourist area of the Jersey Shore, as I was. Wildlife to us very often consisted of an occasional bunny, squirrel, bird, or drunken person. But now, living surrounded by forest areas with trees over 200 years old, we see flora and fauna that we used to see on TV documentaries. We have a nesting pair of eagles in one of our trees! How cool is that!

Deer are a way of life around here. They prance about our property and set off our motion sensored lights regularly. The previous owner 'caged' his prize bushes and flowers to prevent deer from eating them; we took the fencing down and while the deer eat some of our rhododendron bushes and hedges, the plants seem to be okay. My husband hit deer with the car one foggy night last year - the deer was fine, our front end was a mess! Part of living up here, I guess.

Our real first encounter was with a bear. We had come up to our cabin (before we bought the house) on New Year's Eve and we saw evidence that bear had been in the area. Since we did not see him/her/it, we figured get inside and just keep an eye out if we go outside. Later that night, around 8 PM we heard a scratching on our sliding glass door. I asked my husband to look and he said "What if it is the bear?" Well, I speculated that it would not expect to find anyone 'home,' so we would scare it more than it would scare us (Yeah, right!) So he got the flashlight and a broom (I guess so he could sweep it to death) and looked out the patio door where the scratching was coming from. "I don't see anything." But there was a little white paw near the bottom of the door. "Look down." There, outside the door, in 20 degree below zero wind chill, was a gold cat! As my husband opened the door to look closer, the cat walked right in, went into the guest bedroom, onto the bed and made himself at home - happy, purring and treading! The cat we had brought up with us for the weekend gave this intruder the usual greeting - growl, hiss,fitt, all the cat-anger noises!

Now what? This little cat was obviously well fed, used to people - he had to belong to somebody. So we boxed him up and my husband rode around the area to see if anyone had lost a cat. After 2 hours and subjecting this poor cat to inspection by numerous people, he brought the feline home. We named him Little Bear. And we did see the real bear a couple of weeks later - glad we didn't let him in!

We do get mice in the winter in the house - brave little souls with all the cats around. We discovered that our girl cats are much better mousers - the boys just like to watch. There is a comment there, but I will not make it.

Just this week we had another wildlife encounter. We were keeping our extra catfood in a locker outside and it was broken into. Okay, we should have known better, 20/20 hindsight and all, but we usually only do that in the summer. In the winter, we keep the locked container in our garage, and all bagged groceries in canisters or the refrigerator because of the mice. But whatever broke into this locker this week took about 9 pounds of catfood, bag and all. Maybe it was another bear?

Experience vs. Expertise

Do It Yourself is all the rage now, between HGTV, DIY Network, PBS shows such as Hometime and This Old House. I find the information very useful, but it frightens my husband when I watch them. He is always afraid that I will get 'ideas' - and I do - but he means big ideas. Okay, I admit it, I am addicted to home improvement!

My feeling has always been that it does not hurt to try to do something as long as you have the ability and the funds to get started. I also believe the planning what to do and thinking it through before you start are even more important than 'just doing it.' How are you going to get experience unless you research how something is done and then try? We will never be experts, but we have enough knowledge to determine our limitations - sometimes.

I do pity my poor husband. He will come home from work and I will start to regale him with the information I have found out about how we can do...oh, it does not matter what. He is tired and I know whatever I told him will be quickly forgotten. But he agrees to - whatever - and then when we have the time and I bring it up, I can easily say "I told you about this the other night." I am not playing him, really, but I get excited about the project and the outcome so I tell him as soon as I see him that day. I just have to remember to tell him again in the morning!

You see, this is the influence of my father again. He taught me a lot about how to fix things, especially after my older brothers entered the armed forces and he needed help around the house. "I'm a girl" meant nothing to him, because we could not afford to hire anyone to fix stuff and if he needed someone to carry, hold, lift - and I was it! I grew to find the process of building/repairing things fascinating, which was a good thing, because I was not going to get out of it! Besides, the boys found the work fun, so there must be something to it.

I think I started as a 4 year old, holding a hammer and threatening a nail. My father probably figured it kept me busy and out of his way. Imagine. One day he was on the roof, repairing or re-shingling or whatever - and I thought I could help, so I climbed the ladder! Four years old! My father saw me standing on the roof, so he put me by the chimney, the safest place he could find, and yelled at me not to move until he could get me down. As he went over to the other side of the roof to secure his tools, etc., I saw my mother coming outside to hang clothes. "Hi, Mom," I shouted down to her. I did not know my mother knew those words! My father brought me down, but boy, did she curse him out for having me up there. (I learned later that my mother had a deathly fear of heights.) I kept saying I was only trying to help.

So home improvement means we do the improving, hands on, all that stuff. With limits, like certain electrical, heavy stuff like heaters, some plumbing. Over-our-head means that a project takes longer than one day. My Poor Husband!

Connections

While I had mentioned that we had a vacation 'cabin' up here near Lake Wallenpaupack, I guess the real reason we ended up settling here was a connection to my father. My father was a 'coal jockey,' which meant that he would transport coal from the mines up here near Scranton, etc. to the supply yard in central NJ. He did this from the early 50's through the early 60's, which is when the coal industry started to fall out of favor due to issues like pollution, price, safety, etc. He would drive the three hours each way, sometimes two hauls per day, so a total of 12 hours daily on the road.

Amazingly, to me, he never tired of the beauty of the area and he would bring the family up here occasionally after he stopped 'jockeying coal' to show us the little areas that he found fascinating. I remember he stopped by the side of the road somewhere up here so we could taste the water coming out of a rock on the side of the mountain near the Delaware Water Gap. Being a little girl, I just did not see the attraction to water coming from a rock! But, my mom held me so I would not fall while I worked my way down to the side of the road to cup some water in my hands and drank this miracle. You know what - it tasted like water! Did not understand until years later that it was important that it was clean water, coming out of rock. Nowadays, that is probably bottled and people pay big bucks for 'natural, mineral' water.

So I guess that somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to understand what he found so fascinating up here. I know we did not have much money when I was growing up; in fact, our family was on 'public assistance' (welfare) while he was working for the coal industry, so I guess he was not paid very well. But gas was cheap and it did not cost anything to go and look at something, so we would take rides as a one-day getaway. Mom and Dad in the front, three kids in the back, three hour drive - oh, what fun! And Dad had a good reach, so we learned how to maneuver to avoid the inevitable swipe that came after the "shut-up." No seat belts, so sliding was an art on the wool bench seats.

Years later, it became a tradition for my husband and I to take a day trip up to the Gap for my birthday in October at the peak of autumn foliage. Moving up here just seemed right.

Holidays

Living with someone who works in the 'service industry' often means that you do not get to celebrate holidays with that person, as those are the days when employees are needed most at work. This means holidays like Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc. have to celebrated on alternate days. That is okay, as we are not big on the 'big day' celebrations and the togetherness can be celebrated on another day - besides, most of the stuff you need for commemorating a holiday go on sale the day after!

This year something different occurred. Somehow my husband had the 4th of July evening off - the planets must have misaligned or something. We did not know what to do, so we thought we could go out to dinner. You would think people who work in restaurants would figure out that you need a reservation! Okay, so we'll get some 'to - go' food and picnic out by Lake Wallenpaupack and watch the fireworks.

A note here - I have not gone to see fireworks since I was a kid at the Jersey Shore, so I forgot how crowded the area gets prior to the display. These crowds were professionals! They must have been camped out at the lake all day! And park - where? People were parking practically on the road, not next to the road. Then my husband and I remembered why we never go out on the holiday, besides having to work. The crowds and the yelling and the general mayhem is very stress inducing. We looked at each other and I said that there are the fireworks from DC and NYC and Boston being broadcast this evening and he said, lovingly, "get the heck out of here!"

On a positive note, in spite of the gas prices and the food prices and the economy, the fact that there were crowds at the lake was good to see. Maybe the advertising to the NYC market about the Poconos being close by has worked. At least some of the local businesses should be happy.

We enjoyed our meal at home, set off some sparklers, and watched fireworks on TV. Togetherness...

Working

This may be the main difficulty in living in the Poconos - finding a good-paying job. The tourist industry is big, but it does not pay very well, unless you are working to get tips. The 'life span' of these jobs can be a little disheartening, as tourist season is pretty well defined as being summer and ski season. Really, I wish people took more advantage of the beauty here in the spring and the fall foliage, but the traditional summer vacation is still king.

The people up here as a resourceful lot, as mentioned before. If they have a skill such as being handy around the house, they market it to the fullest extent. We have a 'guy' who works for the county during the week, but on weekends and evenings he is doing electrical, plumbing, roofing, etc. If you are good at what you do, the word-of-mouth will get you more jobs than you can handle.

Most people seem to have at least two jobs in order to make ends meet. My husband has joined that brigade, working at a tourist destination and a local restaurant. There is also a large contingent who commute to NYC everyday to get the higher-paying jobs. Really, a bear of a commute, but to some people it is worth it. Ironically, this area was populated by many coal miners to supply the railroad industry, and many of the innovations in railroading were developed here, but the passenger railroad was abandoned in the 1970's. I know those people who commute each day would welcome a train, but now we have to get approvals, etc., to start the lines up again. And the rails are already there, being used for industrial shipping!

In spite of all that, the living here is worth it. The cost of living is lower, the stress is less, and the people are friendly.

Spring at Last

One day you are getting ready in the morning and you realize that you do not need to put on a sweater or a jacket. That is my new definition of Spring! You ride down the roads, which are riddled with potholes, (another story there) and the trees are many shades of green and the flowers are little bright spots of color on the roadside. The nights are still crisp and cool - jacket worthy, actually - but the days are bright and warm. The rain is refreshing and when it leaves, there are rainbows. (However, for the life of me I cannot get a picture of a rainbow - do I have to glue a camera to my hip!)

So, of course, the one time of year when you want to drive around and really get an eyeful (okay, autumn you want to drive around, too), gas prices become so high that you really feel that it is a waste on money. We sincerely try to bundle trips - to the store, and the bank, and the cleaners - but now we also try to appreciate the beauty around us as we do our errands. We have even added a picnic at the local state park as part of our errands, to try to enjoy the beauty.

Speaking of gas, PA has pump-it-yourself gas stations, so when we pulled into a small station two towns over, we were surprised when the owner comes out and starts to pump the gas. My husband asked him why and the gentleman said that it is easier for him to do it, less hassle to clean up afterward because, "after all, there is a limited gene pool up here and they get confused easily." We did not know if he was kidding, but he looked serious about his comment. We came to the conclusion that he was having a bad day.

Pocono People

This past winter gave us a true idea about the people who live in the mountains year around. Because the winters can be rough, a self-sufficiency is developed. We have one neighbor who will drive to the store on his tractor when the roads get too covered. Pretty inventive, especially when he is wearing his bright yellow rain suit over his winter clothes - on his bright blue tractor. At least he is visible and he is not going to let a little snow keep him home! I see that this is where a four-wheel drive vehicles were developed to be used.

The common point of conversation becomes "How about that snowfall?' or "How did you make out driving in that weather?" or "Any damage to your (choose one or more) house, car, boat, shed, truck, etc?" We wanted to get inventive this year and use our old Volvo, which could not pass inspection and should not be driven on the road, to plow our driveway. We had a large sheet of heavy aluminum left out by our barn, so we thought we could tie it to the front of the vehicle and plow - right! That so did not work the first time, so my husband went to the local hardware store to get something stronger to tie the metal to the car. Two hours later he came back from the hardware store with so many ideas he did not know which to try first. The concept intrigued the salespeople and most of the customers in the store - it became a real brain storming session! For months afterward, anytime my husband went into the store, he was asked if the concept worked at all (it didn't) or did we try another way (we did). We ended up selling the Volvo - we still see it being driven by a guy who was willing to put in the time to get the thing to pass inspection - or something like that.

A little thing can become a big event, especially during a dull winter. My car was totaled after sliding on ice and banging into a rock and a tree on my husband's ride back from the closing on our old house in NJ; he was just three miles from the new house. Fortunately, someone was riding by the accident when my husband was getting out of the car and stopped to help.

This was a strange phone call for me to receive:

"Hello, your husband just had an accident with your car and he asked us to call you to come get him."
Excuse me?
"Your husband asked us to call you to tell you to come get him."
Why didn't he call me?
"No cell phone signal where he was, so we rode down the road so we could call you."
Thank you and I guess he is okay?
"Oh he is fine, but he is afraid of how you will react."
Right...

I never got the woman's name who called, but thank goodness she did. By the time I got to the scene, there were (no exaggeration) 8 cars of first aid and fire volunteers, 5 cars of looky-loos and a state police cruiser. It was like everybody came look at the excitement of a car wreck on a Tuesday night! And I show up - in my nightgown with a winter coat thrown over top! But really, everyone was so kind and concerned.

Weather, continued

We lived through winter, so we expect spring to be absolutely fantastic. And, to my mind, it is - the trees are blooming, the grass is getting green, the snow is coating the ground... Well, we should know better, since one of our biggest snowstorms came last April - 6 inches on the ground and the temperature went up to 60 the next day. Really, winter and spring starting dates are relative. As the local weather casters say "we have had snow as late as June.' Please!

This year we were living on borrowed time with our heater and the time ran out 2 weeks before the temperature hit 50 for the first time. The heater/boiler has been in use in this house since the 1930's - a good long run, I think. So we have been using electric space heaters when it gets too cold and we are back to wearing layers. Still, I cannot complain - the flora and fauna believe it is spring and winter is over. The bugs say its spring, too. No mosquitoes yet, but annoying little gnats and flies.

If summer is anything like last year, we only needed air conditioning about 2 weeks out of the whole season, when it hit about 85-90 degrees and was humid. We ran our AC from May to September in NJ, so this is great.

Weather

Okay, we are in the mountains, so a person should expect some drastic changes in the weather, right? And we were prepared, since we had a vacation home up here for the past 5 years, right? Well, not quite....

It turns out that our little house on the hill is higher than much of the area, so we do get some interesting weather patterns. The sunrises and sunsets are gorgeous, and the clouds are so close and easy to observe. (Okay, we are not that high. But compared to NJ, we are.) It also turns out that we are on a weather line, which means that it can be sunny in the front of the house and snowing/raining in the back of the house. Remarkable! When we watch the weather on TV, we have to take an educated guess as to what we will get. I do know that whatever temperature they predict, we can usually subtract 10 degrees.

So how do you prepare for the weather? I know we have more sweaters in use than before, and dressing in layers becomes a fashion statement of necessity. I used to laugh at the locals who walk around in shorts and t-shirts as soon as the weather hits above 50 degrees. Now I understand - you really want to get out from under the heavy clothes by the end of a long winter. And, yes, you do get used to the cold. Not that you don't feel it; but it does not hurt so much, and when you go to warmer climes, you now laugh at the people bundled up! (It's only 45 degrees, so I don't need the coat with the sweater!)

Moving In

We decided that we should move up here as soon as possible after closing so my husband could start a job that he had managed to find in-between looking for houses. Have I mentioned that we have cats? I will not tell you how many, but enough that moving takes the planning and coordination of starting a new company. Certain members of the feline family are okay with the moving process, (the 'zen' cats), while others feel that any movement away from their usual spot is an affront to their whole well being and must be punished by any means possible. So we loaded them into their carriers (That was fun! When one sounded the alarm, they all hid!), buckled them into our cars and headed off for three hours of the most ear piercing cries and moans that humans were ever meant to hear. And crying is not the only means of expressing displeasure, and it goes without saying (but I will) that much cleaning had to be done to the interiors of the cars!

So why move them out of the old house first? Because the realtor selling the NJ house said that the only way to get the house sold was to de-cat the house. Now, I kept a very clean house, but we did have litter boxes that some people found objectionable and I understood that. So, welcome to your new home kids!

The Mechanicals and Fix-ups

The house was really move in ready, but everybody who moves into a different house has to put their imprint on it. That means paint, clean, and fix the flaws as you see them. The house when we first moved in had one very small bathroom, so we knew that we would have to add a bath and remodel the original bath to make it a little more 'roomy.' The heater worked, but needed oil. And the previous owner left a washer and dryer in the garage, which worked but had to be dragged back into the house and hooked up.

Quite frankly, there was no real rush to get anything accomplished at the new house - the one our realtor said needed a lot of work - so we concentrated on getting the house in NJ sold. We had to paint that, do some minor repairs, stage the house to sell - and then wait a year to get someone to buy it. What housing downturn? I week after we had listed it on the market, we had an offer from a business man from Guatemala - who promptly disappeared! So our lives for the first year here consisted of shuttling between NJ and the Poconos.

Moonshine House

There were other houses that we looked into besides the ones I reviewed in the previous blogs, but sometimes you see a house and the potential as a home is there in your heart. Let me say here that the potential was not entirely 'visual' by any means, especially in the snow and the cold weather, with very little light inside and the remnants of whatever was left behind by previous owners. But something hit my husband and I as we pulled into the driveway of "The Moonshine House."

I had seen this listing on-line, and had asked our realtor about seeing it, but he seemed to feel that it did not meet our criteria and showed us quite a few other houses first. But one day he was showing us another listing on the same road and offered to let us see for ourselves that this house needed too much work. The long driveway went up a hill to a modest little house with a two car garage - so far, so okay. We went inside and it was like a time warp to the 1930's - even the phone was a rotary dial wall phone. (By the way, try making a call to an automated system with a rotary phone - the system does not recognize the number you are dialing and hangs up on you!) Paneling was the decorating style of choice for the couple who had lived here - dark paneling. Initially we called the house 'the dark house' but the moonshine house soon seemed a better nickname. We think - educated guess - that the previous long-term owner, the family who built the house - made their own wine. We found wine jugs, wooden baskets, remnants of a grape trellis, etc. So, Moonshine House! That and there was a flower vase out on the side yard that, for all intents and purposes, looked like - a butt! We all saw it and thought the same thing! Oh, and the moon shine comes in the picture window in the living room.

So we put in the offer to the owners, who had just purchased the property 6 months before but then found out that the husband was being shipped out to Afghanistan. They were just starting to renovate when they received the news, so they had to sell. Unfortunately, their renovation left a lot of garbage in the garage that we had to get rid of. So we paid pretty much what they had paid and moved in April 1. Profound.

The original owner had been a caretaker for one of the big resorts in the area and had been very selective in his plantings, besides the grapes. We could tell that there had been love in taking care of the property, as well as the finish details in the carpentry. The place had good bones, but needed work to bring it into this century. And so the story begins.

Finding a Home - Continued

As my friend who accompanied us reminded me, I did not cover all the houses that we reviewed. If there is a piece of advice that I can give about looking for a new home, it is to bring a friend along. The friend can look at the property without prejudice - without thinking of how the furniture will fit in that room, or why something appears out of whack, or even how to get back to that street the 'special' house was on. A friend is also a great person to bounce ideas off of, since your spouse will be considering his or her concepts, or, in my case, involved in a conversation with the realtor!

More Houses

In reviewing the MLS listings, we saw a 'fixer-upper' for a really low price that was described as a 'Doll House.' It was, although I think most doll houses are larger. There was off-street parking, for one car - small car - and the 'driveway' ended in a large rock on the side of the hill. Oh, and you wanted to get out of the car, too? Sorry, no room for that!

Inside, the living room was cute, the two bedrooms just fit the twin bed in each (I guess the hubby and I sleep separately?) and the kitchen was another 'step-saver.' The listing said there was a second floor, which there was, with steps that you had to lay down to climb up. Something out of an old war movie "We're taking the hill, Clancy, one at a time." My husband did climb up there, but he could not stand up. We heard there was another apartment downstairs, but I could not climb down the hillside to get there. Okay, if I were 30 years younger, wanted a place for my own, maybe..

Then there was the house overlooking the creek (Blue Creek House), very blue exterior, but what a view! The kitchen was smaller than the Doll House, with an eat-in dining area for very small people, but the rest of the house showed a lot of Craftsman details and wood finishes that made us consider it seriously, but... Next door to a biker bar, small bedrooms upstairs that did not seem to have any way to get furniture to (the stairs were narrow and had a landing half-way up), and the mechanicals (heat, water pump) were original from the 1930's. We seriously considered it, but someone else bought it while we pondered.

The Raised Ranch was built over the large garage, which acted as its foundation. At this point, we were not quite desperate yet, just getting tired of looking. Still, this place was in very good shape and had been on the market for quite a while, but was in a community. The older people who had this as their second home did some unusual wiring outside for lights on their driveway, etc. that consisted on indoor extension cords strung through the trees, over the front deck, under the leaves on the ground - can you say fire hazard? And I would like to say that if you have your house for sale, put away your medications and personal information - these poor people were on some pretty intense medications!

This house we seriously considered as well, but when we went back to see the house again - second look - the owners were there and the gentleman told my husband that he really did not want to sell, but his wife wanted to move closer to the grandchildren. Well, so much for negotiation, as he also said that he would make no concessions on anything, 'he could wait forever.'

Home Sellers and House Pets

The homeowners we encountered, which were few, were an interesting lot. Some were very forthcoming about information on the house, others appeared to resent anyone looking at their house. I guess they really did not want to sell. Then there was the house with a tenant, who insisted that there were only certain times to look at the house, since he worked odd hours. We understood that, but could some accommodation be made for when he was not home? No, so we saw the outside of the house and gave up.

A couple of houses had pets, which is nice, but some pets are not friendly. When the listing sheet says "Beware of Dogs," you take heed, especially when one of the 'puppies' almost knocks the door down trying to get to you. Kitties are cute - "is that cat supposed to go out?" - and we are eternally sorry to the pretty kitty whose tail was stepped on by my husband!

Finding a Home

When do most people look for new homes? Spring, right? Possibly Summer or Fall, but not Winter. Well, we started in Winter - January, in fact. Fortunately, the realtor we used was young and willing (read, hungry) to go through the cold and snow and show us all the houses - many, many houses - that we wanted to see. Many of the houses, because it was off-season, were not heated, driveways not plowed, in some cases entire screen rooms and windows boarded up. Required some imagination to determine a potential in some of the properties!

We discussed our needs with the realtor, set our budget, reviewed the Pike/Wayne Realtors' website and off we went. There are many roads that do not get plowed in winter and we found most of them! And no, we did not have the requisite four wheel drive vehicle that appears to be pervasive up here; we soon found out why everyone seems to have them. Good thing my husband and our realtor had good upper body strength. But it was only a small car we had to keep pushing out of snow drifts, off ice, etc - only called AAA twice. (Did you know they do towing out of drifts?)

The Houses

Many homes in the area are in communities that provide trash collection, plowing, possibly a pool, sometimes security. After realizing many communities are iffy in the plowing department and consider themselves more seasonal second homes, we determined that a home outside a community would be better. That limited the search a lot. To keep things straight, each place acquired a nickname.

We wanted a view- lake, mountain, forest, but something to look at besides another house - and on a limited budget! One house we called the garage house, had a view that went on for years, with mountains, river, etc., but small - when we say small, the garage was bigger (hence that nickname). Imagine, tiny house, huge garage. And the living room was taken up by a huge stone fireplace, so there was room for maybe two chairs. The kitchen was a 'step saver' - if you took one step, you were no longer in the kitchen! But we seriously considered it - that view!

Another house we were greeted by the owner watching her granddaughter who had the 'croup.' Could we get out any faster? The house was okay, but who noticed after that? So, the "Croup House" was eliminated.

Then we looked at one we called the 'ice house.' We actually had to form a human chain to get down the hill over the ice to look at the house. This one had everything - a view, open concept, ability to add on if we wanted to, but only one bathroom and some strange right-of-way through someone else's yard from the road. But once there it was 5 acres overlooking a greenway preserve. So we put in an offer. The owner wanted to make his fortune on this house, as he was unwilling to budge on anything - wanted to sell strictly as is, at the listed price, no concessions. Amazing, since the house had been on the market for almost a year, empty. Disappointed, we had to walk away - too many 'ifs.'

Another serious consideration was the first one we looked at, which we called "three rivers" because it had 10 acres of property next to where several creeks met to make one river. (I didn't say the nicknames always made sense to everyone, just us.) It had its own pond, two bedrooms, two baths in a manufactured home, some say a trailer, but a big trailer. Some people had built huge luxury homes nearby, but this property was 'rustic.' It also included a small travel trailer near the river, which my husband immediately had envisioned as a music studio. So what was wrong with this place? Nothing, really, I just did not feel at home. Maybe because the owner was very ill in a nursing home, I don't know, but we looked at it three times to be sure. And this is why our realtor deserves his commission - we were not easy people to please, I guess. Still, he considered it all an adventure and we are still friends.

Why The Poconos

My husband and I decided that there was very little keeping us in NJ. We had just celebrated our 25th anniversary, have had our share of crisis and perils, and felt that we needed a new start. We had a small vacation cabin near Lake Wallenpaupack since 2000 and we always felt more at home there than we had in NJ for quite some time. So when I retired from my state job, and my husband was between jobs, we figured that there was no better time to consider where we can go with the rest of our lives.

Okay, some would say mid-life crisis. Maybe. Nothing wrong with that either, but we had no family in NJ anymore, and our friends were willing to come up to see us, probably more than when we lived near them. You know, absence makes the heart..., but more like a visit is like a vacation, as this area is so beautiful.

I hope to post our feelings and reactions to starting a new life here in the Poconos. In spite of a few snags, we love it so far.