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An Early Birthday Present

Just a quick post to put up a picture of our newest family additions.  Please meet Sherman and Panzer, our new 9 week old puppies!

 

They are just adorable!  Soft and cuddly and they get along with Bette just fine.  Oh, and they're standard Poodles.  [snicker]

Rest In Peace Bauer

Today after more than 13 years we had to say goodbye to the 3rd of the original 3blackdogs.  Skansen's JA Bauer was a big, lovable brute that never seemed to grow up.  He was always the low man on the totem pole but took it all in stride.  A bit goofy, he often invited the disdain of both man and other beasts, but I don't think he really had a mean bone in his body.  His misbehavior around strangers was born of nervousness more than anything else, and he was a devoted friend to those few that knew him well. Like those that have preceded hm, he will be dearly missed. 

 

Spring has arrived in Delta

Late Winter '06

Not much exciting news.  We started building a barn in October and it still isn't finished right.  Lots of issues with the contractor , you can read the entire story as I post and update it on TractorByNet.com. 

The Quintus action is final as of December, but here it is March and we still haven't gotten a distribution of the funds.  Seems our attorney has to get SS#s from all the members of our small class, but hasn't seen fit to do so during the past 6 years so we wait some more. 

The NC Telecom bankruptcy is still moving along, slowly.  We now have the framework for an asset sale to two groups, one is a regional electric generation facility who will buy the majority of the fiber and real estate, and the other is yours truly, who will buy the operating assets.  We're still 4 months or so away from finalizing a plan so things could change, expecially if we run into someone wanting to overbid at plan confirmation.

On the dog front we did get Bauer a companion, a sweet female Giant Schnauzer named Bette  (like in Middler).  Her ears aren't cropped like Bauer's and she has the standard or European coat which makes her body hair a bit coarser than the soft, long American coat that Bauer has.  She is small as Giants go, but as a 2-year old she has a ton of energy and that is just what Bauer needed to get him active again.  They just love one another and play all the time. 

After using it for almost 10 years we traded in the John Deere tractor at Christmas for a Bobcat Toolcat.  It is so nice to have a cab and heat and air conditioning!  Plowing the driveway this year has been something I look forward to!  We use it all the time and it goes enywhere we need to on the property since I put chains on all 4 corners.  A bit pricey but a great vehicle.

Well, that's about all I can think of right now, talk to you all later!

Fall '06

Well, a lot has happened since my last post.  The Fudgey Duck closed rather quickly, primarily due to landlord/tennant problems.  Its just as well, I'm happy to not have a business to keep Sandi away from home every day.  We may re-visit it later, but not for a while.

In May we lost big dog Enzo to cancer and two months later our big Lab/Newf mix Jessie joined him.  Bauer is now alone and seems to miss them both very much.  He does get a lot more attention now and we're looking into getting him a friend, perhaps a standard Schnauzer.

The Quintus Federal Class Action settlement was granted preliminary approval and the final approval settlement hearing is on October 19, 2006 at 2:00 pm.  Assuming final approval is granted on that date or shortly thereafter, we hope to have a distribution of the settlement fund in the State action before the end of the year.  We'll see.  There is some great reading about how badly Alan Anderson botched the company, read it here on the SEC site.

The NC Telecom bankruptcy is still moving forward under my excellent leadership.   There is going to be an auction of assets later this year. but the winning bidder will have to continue offering most of the services.  I'm not really too worried about things, there will likely be a position for me as a principal or manager. 

We have had the house up for sale for a few months while we work on getting some property locally to build a new place.  Had a few nibbles but nothing firm just yet.  We're looking for a bit more acerage and river frontage.  If it doesn't click together soon, we'll hunker down for another winter here since the real estate market just dies in late October or early November. 

Sister Diane and Roland came to visit in their motorhome; stayed about 10 days.  We had a teriffic time.  We took the motorhome up to Hahns Peak outside of Steamboat Springs where I'm part of a group that owns a 40 acre gold claim.  We ran the dredge and had a great time around the campfire.