It's a circus around here today.

The roofers finally showed up this morning and are removing the old roof. From inside the house it sounds like a football scrimmage up there.







It's a little bit sad for me to see this roof coming off because I remember 30 years ago when my folks remodeled this 100 year old house and put it on there. I comfort myself with the fact that we need the metal roof.

Then, the doorbell rang and it was the people who own the parcel to the north of us. They are finally putting up their private property signs after threatening to do it for several years. They own the land that our driveway goes through, for quite a way, but turned me down when I offered to buy it from them.

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This shortens our fishing area considerably, but he DID say that he doesn't mind fishermen on his part of the river. What has gotten him going is that fishermen (not ours) parked on his land recently and called the sheriff's office complaining that there was a decaying body smell. The deputies investigated and found there were at least two dogs buried on the property, plus the body of a pig with parts removed. Also, lots of road kill has been tossed down there - at least a couple of elk. The sheriffs told them they need to post the property as private so No Trespassing can be enforced.

There used to be a cabin down there, but it was the scene of keg parties and in 2004 it burned down. The land owners never bothered cleaning it up, so the public probably feels it is waste land that nobody owns. We think the highway department figures it's a good spot to dump the road kill.



It's not a good lot, trapped between a steep hillside and the highway embankment. The current owner has a dream of carving a road up the side of the cliff and building a house at the top.

This is the only flat portion on the whole 35 acres, and it looks right at the 30 foot high embankment:



He doesn't own enough on the other side of the highway from his place, along the river, to build anything. This is his part of the river adjacent to my property:



Then, after he left, some fishermen showed up for the legal part of the river, but I had to warn them to stay out of his part, at least while he's around today. He doesn't come here very often, because all he has is that vertical piece of land with no structures.

Guests are coming from Omaha to stay in the cabin next door. They have been here before, and will no doubt be back, so I'll probably just let them stay free all four nights as a goodwill gesture because of our roofing project here at our house.