I could have skipped the commentary and just done a newsletter with photos.  The past two months have been a plethora of photo ops. From BIG BEARS to baby bears, I was too busy chasing them out of the fish pond to grab my camera.  A profusion of flowers to match every set of dishes I own.  And, of course, sunsets.  Which reminds me to point out- you don't HAVE to go out to dinner.  Feel free to use the grill here.  There is a microwave now, on the top deck, in addition to the fridge located in the cabinets. You bring the food, I provide plates and utensils, and the sunset is front and center. However, if you live locally, and you haven't tried Maryville's Foothills Milling Company Restaurant, you are missing out...

I was working through some health issues in April and May, and the doc gave me a clean bill of health three weeks ago.  Ten minutes later, my cell phone rang with the news the house had been struck by lightning!  So Friday of Memorial Day weekend, guests are driving up the road 20 minutes after the fire department drove down.  I couldn't have asked for better house guests, and the fact that they didn't have televisions for the weekend didn't seem to put them out.

The lightning strike took out most of our low voltage stuff, which is considerable, but with some back up plans in place (our water system), and some great subcontractors, it didn't affect guest services. Once I got over pulling my hair out, I was doing the happy dance that Gracehill hadn't caught on fire and we had our busiest June ever.  The good news is we needed to replace the televisions in Key Largo and Roman Holiday anyway, so kicking and screaming this low tech gal went high tech and got 40" and 47" LED flat screens, and Key Largo has a blue ray DVD player.  I know that doesn't sound like much to most of you, but I would rather hit myself with a frying pan than buy anything that requires an electrical outlet and an instruction manual.   Blessings, mizkathleen@