Climate Change

I always said if I had to live in the mid-west I'd live in Chicago.  I'm not sure in what scenario I would have to be forced to only live in one region of the country, but whatever.  Instead, not only do I live in the Mid-west, but I live on the prairie.  Now before all of you who ever read Laura Ingalls Wilder books start to romanticize the prairie you can just stop.  It's pretty flat (there are slight elevation changes), with tall brown grass, and not much wildlife.  Oh and very windy (although Chicago is the windy city....).  However, it's been a pretty good two weeks here for a couple of reasons.

First off, it's been sunny and warm here.  While most of our friends and family have seen snow or gray skies, it's been mid 60s to 70s here and sunny.  I don't care if this is "unseasonably warm", I'm going to enjoy every second of it!  We've barbecued a few times and Josh built a picnic table for our back yard (see below).  Josh and I both said that the weather has made living here a little more bearable.

I've realized how much weather effects you and even your reality.  Things that I thought were just true or ways of life, I now know are actually part of growing up and living in the Northwest.  For instance our car gets very dirty here (there is a lot of sand on the roads left over from people piling sand bags around their house prior to the flood) and I checked the weather report and it had no precipitation.  So I thought it was a perfect time to wash the car, that's how I've always determined when to wash my car-wrong.  A lot of sun here while there is still snow on the ground means puddles everywhere.  Another example brings me to the other reason it's been a great few weeks.  We (with another couple) bought a 5th wheel to rent out.  It's an older 5th wheel and I had been warned it needed some work.  To my surprise when I went in, it didn't smell.  When I think "old" or "needs work" I think smelly.  Josh reminded me that this vehicle came from Minnesota and it's not wet there so it wouldn't smell musty or like mildew..riiiiiight!

So we bought a 5th wheel/RV.  As most of you know our plan was to buy flooded houses, fix them up, and then rent them out.  When we told most people this plan a lot said something like, "well if there really are that many houses for cheap prices, why aren't companies buying a bunch all at once?".  Guess what-they did.  There are very few flooded houses left to buy and unless you have $30,000-$50,000 in cash it's hard to get a loan (I won't go into those details).  A co-worker of Josh's was saying a while ago that he had thought about buying trailers and then renting them out.  Before we moved here Josh noticed how much people in the area were paying to rent a trailer and how much less they were selling in surrounding states.  So since we came here to invest and make money, they went into business together.  We should have the first trailer rented in a few weeks and already have a second one lined up (I'd been told it needs no work, but costs a little more).

Josh and I point out patches of grass that have turned green on our way home everyday.  You can almost watch the grass turn green.  The last day or two it's been cooler and it's supposed to rain.  Today is the first really gray and cloudy day I've seen since I moved.  The forecast calls for thunderstorms this week, we're kind of excited for that because we've always heard about Mid-west thunderstorms.  I have no idea what to expect for the summer.  I've heard all different things, but I think I'll stick with one local who said, "Who knows anymore, nothing is normal.  We had a huge flood last year and then a very mild winter- you just don't know these days."