The Squamidian Report – Nov. 8 / 14
Issue #650
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I think I'll keep it short and sweet this time. Its been pouring rain
for that last week so there really isn't much to talk about. And I do
mean pouring. This time of year, this is definitely the 'wet coast'.
The rivers are raging and high, every rock face has a temporary water
falls cascading down. Yes, its damp out there. I had hopped to do some
R/C flying this week but the rain has quenched that idea. Somehow my
little aircraft with their on-board electronics would not fair too well
under wet conditions, and the accompanying wind would just pick them up
and fling then far away. So, no flying for now. Actually, thats not
quite true, there was a break in the weather on Friday and I took the
little yellow Champ down to the ball field and flew long enough to
drain two of my rechargeable batteries. Next week looks good, fingers
crossed...
And then there is what has to be the last official ride of the season,
that same break in the weather let me take the Harley out for one last
toot down to Horseshoe Bay. It was glorious, with big billowing clouds
letting though a bit of sunshine. The waters of the Sound are a
different colour this time of year than in the summer. The plankton
bloom has disappeared, and the abundant runoff from all the rains has
washed sediments down the rivers and streams. Always changing. It sure
felt good to be on the bike one last time before tucking it away for
the winter. The bike seemed to like it too because it purred as we
cruised along. Sigh...
Something that I did do this week that was planned for ahead of time
was pick up my mandolin. I had dropped it off at that luthier for a
much needed re-build of the fret board and bridge. She did a great job,
the intonation is right on, the action is nice and low, making it easy
to tune and easy to play. All stringed instruments need to be fixed up
and set up every few years. The mandolin had never been worked on and
is now about 20 years old or so. The frets were wearing down and the
bridge was sagging from the pressure of the strings. She built a new
bridge and set new frets into the finger board and so no. Its not cheap
to have the finger board re-done, or have a new bridge carved but it
basically makes the instrument 'new' again. It cost close to half of
what I paid for the mandolin way back when I bought it. But, now it is
in perfect condition and yet it is old wood, with the tone of old wood
which is a good reasons for spending money on it. What I paid 20-some
years ago would not buy the same instrument today. This mandolin is
made from 'real', solid wood, not thin plywood. It has a spruce top and
maple sides and back with a maple neck, well worth injecting another 20
years of life into. I don't get to play it much anymore but I do use it
for adding accompaniment to the original material I come up with and
its nice to have good instruments in good condition.
Like I said, short and sweat.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
With winter approaching there aren’t many days we can spend outdoors
without a lot of heavy clothing on to ward off the cold. So Carole and
I decided to head out and do something we’ve never done before and that
something was to attend an auction sale. One that was planned to sell a
small bungalow on a one-acre plot of flat land on Hwy 7, just south of
Stratford. The owner had decided to auction it off rather than just run
it through real estate. The house is one that I have admired for many
years just because of the way it looked and also because of the nice
flat lot it was sitting on and also the fact that it had a lovely
matching but separate huge garage along with it. It was just a small
bungalow with no basement and a two door two car garage built in the
end of it. The garage doors were two different colours and I’d always
wondered why. Well, while waiting for the auction to start, we had the
opportunity to take a look inside the house. It was well kept but when
we wandered through the living area toward the bedroom end of the
house, we found that it was actually only a one-bedroom house but the
owner had converted one of the attached garages into a bedroom. Thus
the home only had one garage that actually held a vehicle. Hence the
two different coloured doors. I guess he didn’t want to make a mistake
and park his car in the bedroom some night when he came home drunk!
LOL! Why he never closed in the outside garage door wall of the bedroom
to look like the rest of the house walls I’ll never know. Anyway, in
actual fact, the house wasn’t something we’d be interested in owning
but it looked appealing from the outside.
The place also came with 50 acres of farmland attached to the sides and
rear of the “house Lot”. When we first discovered that he was selling
the place about two months ago we thought it might make an interesting
retirement home. However once we found out that he would not sell the
house and separate garage without including the 50 acres, our interest
was purely curiosity! We decided to attend the auction two weeks ago
just to see what a plot of such a size and the little house would sell
for. If he had been selling the house and 1 acre lot on it’s own, I
figured it might go for around $250,000.00 since it had no basement and
was short on a few other features. I did a little research on the cost
of farmland in Perth county and other areas of Ontario and found
that Perth was the most expensive of all Ontario regions per acre.
Elsewhere in Ontario one can purchase farm acreage for anywhere from
$500.00 to $3,500.00 per acre. Perth county is the most desirable and
fertile land for farming and therefore commands anywhere from $8,000.00
per acre to $16,000.00 per acre. That made this plot worth between
$400,000.00 and $800,000.00 just for the farmland. Add to that the
value of the home sitting on the 1-acre lot and you’re looking at close
to $1,000,000.00 for the package. Well, after learning this I figured
that the sale would likely go to one of the surrounding farmers whose
land already adjoined the property. Finally the sale got under way and
most of the people attending the sale that took place in the driveway
were definitely farmers. My lovely wife and I were the only people in
attendance that didn’t look and smell like the inside of a cattle barn
so that tells you something right there! LOL!
The auctioneer started his continual patter and within the first 15
minutes, finally secured a bid of $600,000.00 and within the next 5
minutes had built it up to a nice round sum of $900,000.00. He stopped
and held the sale at that figure while he went inside to confer with
the seller/owner. He came back out to his sale truck 3 minutes later
and announced that the seller was going to allow the sale to go through
but he wanted the auctioneer to try to get a tad more out of the
bidding. He tried his level best for another ten minutes but to no
avail. Finally, he announced that hearing no further bids the property
was SOLD to the bidder of $900,000.00. I guess when someone is selling
through auction they have the right to put a reserve bid on the
property and if it’s not reached he or she has the right to deny the
sale. In this case we figured that was the reason for stopping the sale
and conferring with the owner. Who knows what his reserve bid was but
obviously the auction had managed to surpass it or at least get close
enough to make it worth asking the owner if he would accept the bid of
900 thousand! The terms of the sale were that the successful bidder had
to put 10% down immediately after the sale ended and then had 30 days
to complete the payment to the seller! It was interesting just to think
that any one of the people at the sale would have that much money
available immediately but I guess farmers are used to buying farms not
just small city lots and when doing so, must have big financing
arranged well in advance. I said to Carole, “Which one of these guys do
you think has a roll of hundreds amounting to $90,000.00 in his
pocket?” Hahahahaaa…… Of course, it would likely be in cheque form but
the thought of such a thing made it interesting to watch.
The event was fun to attend and we learned something just being there on a cool grey Saturday in October!
If someone were interested in purchasing the house and small lot they
could always approach the successful bidder after the sale and they
might just get a good deal. However, looking at the person who made the
purchase, he’s likely going to bulldoze the tiny house and garage and
turn the lot into more workable farmland!
We’ll have to take a drive by sometime and see if things have changed!
That’s about all for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair! It’s been
found that an over abundance of zinc and copper in one’s hair can cause
premature baldness!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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