I am up here with my two daughters, my wife could not make it up because she had to prepare for the upcoming school year (she is a teachers aid). My brother, sister, and her two kids are here as well.

I make the trek here each year to recharge my batteries. Everyone should have a place like that in their life. It is so far removed from the world; my father can only access the Internet via dial-up! It is both a blessing an a curse.

This morning, my brother and I hiked one of the many mountains. It was overcast and the fog shrouded some of the higher peaks of neighboring mountains. I’ll post some pictures later on. It really is beautiful here.

I am not going to post any links for the time I am here. No productivity tips, no cool sites, nothing. I am going to be designing a couple of web pages for my parents (they are putting the house up for sale and I am going to help them market it), but that is the full extent of my work here. Instead, I am going to make reservations for tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House, sea kayak from Bartletes Landing, and maybe get a few more hikes with my brother and kids in while the weather is nice.

You can find his list of tools here.

One of the tools he recommended is ZOHO, which I also use and recommend. I find it a lot more robust than Google’s office tools.

Work on the house is coming along nicely. It is about at the midway point. I have some additional stuff that I decided needed to be done – there is no insulation in the crawlspace, and those leaks I mention earlier. It will cost, but it will save my tenants a lot in energy bills – happy tenants = good tenants; plus it will have to be done eventually anyway. In a day or two, I will meet with my lawyer, who himself is a landlord, and I will take a crash-course in Georgia Landlord-Tenant Law, and soak up as much knowledge as possible.

My Day Job, on the other hand, has been driving me crazy. I find myself in a situation where I am getting pulled from many different directions, and it is causing a lot of stress.  This has given me renewed motivation to get away, if only for a while. I am still working on a way to move to a freelance position.

While planning my escape, I found this great article on living long term and rent free. The travelzine itself is a great resource, so I have added it to my blogroll.