Days 20 & 21

Spent hours the last two days online looking for houses. I thought I retired so I didn't have to spend hours setting in front of a computer. Prices are definitely lower than they were last year. I'd say about 10% in the price range that we are looking in. There's a good selection of properties available, too. That's the good news. The bad news is the property taxes. They are outrageous. Taxes on the $350K home can range up to $9K in some of the areas that we are looking. They are at least $5,500 anywhere that we look. It's frustrating to find what looks like the perfect property at an affordable price and then have to rule it out because the taxes are too high. I guess that's the downside of not having an income tax.

It looks like the property tax issue will prevent us from living where we want to. We'll have to live farther from a gun club than I would like. It could be as much as 50 to 60 miles from the club in Austin and 40 miles from the National Shooting Center. We are making up a list of properties to go drive by Saturday.

We also got the dog X-rayed on Thursday. This is the last step before breeding her. The vet said that he thought that her hips looked OK. Not perfect, but acceptable. Now we have to mail in the images and see what the certification people said. The timing for this was good. Lucy had been suffering from diarrhea for the last couple of days. She had a bout of it while at the vet. The vet said that it looked like something that should be treated. Now she's getting two pills a day. She won't eat them unless they are wrapped in brisket.

We are getting back into life at the trailer park. On Thursday I went to breakfast with a group of men from the park. I knew about half of them from last year. It's something that they do once a month. The conversation revolves around where are you from, where are you going, adventures in towing, and what kinds of things make living on the road easier. Saturday we'll be going to the pancake breakfast that is held every other Saturday at the park.