From my home to yours, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

  for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

I spent early 2021 moving items to MS and readying the NY house for sale and had offers 3 days after listing.  I took the best one and closed in July so New York is now behind me, save for friends and family still there (have trailer, will travel, make sure you arrange a spot for me to pump out!).  I invested my capital gains in the new house before inflation could eat it up, new roof, new furnace and ductwork, took down 4 60’ or bigger trees, and had a septic tack installed in the barn and ran a water line there.  I ran the barn interior plumbing and have 2 outside spigots for chores and such, a 1/2 bath is in the near future.

    I called for a quote on an open pole barn, 3 weeks and no price so I guess the supply problems are real.  The house itself is 1/2 renovated with 2 baths, the master, and the kitchen to go.  Any capital gains are gone with price increases on building materials but luckily the low cost of living allows for me to continue with all my plans.  A whole house generator, hot tub, new driveway, and excavation of the pond are my big ticket items still remaining.

     Yard work to clean up after all the construction will start in the spring, which is March here.  I am hopeful to have one bath and the kitchen done by spring and the master bath and bedroom by the end of summer.  I’m doing all the labor myself so progress depends on how healthy I can keep myself, which hasn’t gone well as I lost a month with a hamstring pull from moving my furniture.  My bi-yearly injuries seem to have increased to annual events with a trip to the physical therapist for a month or more.  I’ll see if I can’t break that habit.

     Speaking of old, Daisy, at 14, has announced she is no longer a guard dog given that the farm has no stock to guard anyway.  She is now the official greeter walking to each vehicle which pulls up, forever hopeful it is the delivery guy who has dog biscuits.  Her favorite activity is to walk into the pond then lie in the sun or shade depending on temperature, several trips a day.

     I call the house the Randle House after the first owner and have named the farm “Hays’ Hermitage”.  My pioneer ancestors had a Hays Station, a place where they gathered when attacked (such as a block house or fenced in cabins) and a Hermitage was a larger compound used for safety during attack (such as Jackson’s Hermitage, land which he purchased from Hays ancestors). Hopefully my Hermitage serves the same purpose although it was government which put upon me which there isn’t much of here in rural MS, as was in NY.

     I hope to return to my genealogy research soon and to writing my blog at AmericanMan.org.  If I get the house done I can start to travel back through Hays’ history (OK, TX, TN, VA, and PA) and visit the locations my pioneer ancestors settled.  I’m Currently reading “The Dying Citizen” by Victor Davis Hanson and continue my history lessons at Hillsdale College and their free courses.  And I spend mornings drinking coffee and watching the birds eat the fish out of my pond.  Then I spend some time with my brother working on a project.  

   Life is good, praise God and may he bless you all and America too.  

Jim and Daisy