Neighbouring

This morning winter has really set in with an 18 deg. F temperature and very hard ice on the road.  We have had several snowfalls over November but now the snow is staying in spite of a very sunny days.  The 100 amp breaker to one of our barns fried on Monday, so we called Mike (our neighbour) to have a look.  Mike runs an electrical company in London and he got us a replacement for the 40 year old part.  We decided to go for a walk and pay him for the breaker and take a few pictures. 

Going into Mike and Dana's.  This house is across the road from us but we are 80' higher and 800' feet to the east on the Thames River valley rim.  You cannot see the river, but it is about 300 feet back of the house.  This is a beautiful spot. 

What looks like a paved road is just gravel and ice.  Our township plow driver has been doing what Mary calls 'practicing'.  She stopped Bill the other day and had a usual chat.  It always seems a little strange to stop the yellow monster, but that's the country for you.  Bill's been driving the plow longer than we haved lived here.   

Another lovely spot.  This is one of the older houses on the road belonging to Sue and Frank.  They have recently put on new siding and other improvements and the house looks great.

This is Gregory Creek at the end of our road.  It drains into the Thames about 300' away.  For 39 years we walked a path beside the creek down to the river.  Last year the small piece property was sold to the owner of the adjacent house.  Apparently he has his nose out of joint over some dispute and decided to fence the property off.  It's a pity that one person can have such a negative effect on the neighbourhood.  Fortunately we have other access to the river.   

Our house has had a few problems this year.  Upon our return from Portugal in April we discovered that our oil tank was leaking.  We had been forced by our insurance company to put in a new tank seven years ago and we were very surprised to see a leak.  In fact the tank had a hole in it.  We called our oil service company and our insurance agent.  Those calls started a chain of events lasting over seven months.  Ontario regulations require a complete environmental assessment so in addition to removing the oil and tank we were faced with complete removal of all soil to a six foot depth.  The environmental assessment company assigned the job botched the whole affair (in my opinion) and made a terrible mess of our property.  By the time the tank was replaced the cost for reclamation was $25,200.00.  Fortunately our insurance company paid everything.  We are members of a local mutual insurance company and they didn't cut any corners or attempt to short us in any way.  On Dec. 6 we finally signed the Proof of Loss form concluding the whole affair.

To add insult to injury our furnace failed after the tank was refilled costing us over $500.00 to fix.  Oh well, as they say 'life is what you get when you are expecting something else'.