Living and working in Door County, my one regret is that I don’t have the time to take advantage of all there is to do here!  The choices are almost endless!  For instance, this weekend - June 18 through 20 - is the annual Fyr Bal Festival in Ephraim.  In those three days alone here are just some of the things you can do for fun and entertainment:

Historical walking tour, museum opening and reception *** Midsummer’s Music Festival Concert *** Used book sale *** outdoor Arts and Crafts show *** Fyr Bal Regatta *** Kid’s Craft *** Cake Walk *** Free Trolley Rides *** Silent auction *** Acoustic Music *** Annual FUR Ball Pet Parade *** for kids bubbles and face paint *** Traditional Scandinavian Music and Costumes *** Make your own tie-dies t-shirt *** Fish  boil *** American Folklore Theatre’s Doc Heide and Friends

There’s more and that’s just in Ephraim!  Throughout the summer months there will be many more special events plus just the “regular” things to do — explore art galleries, antique malls, take a full range of great classes at The Clearing and the Peninsula Arts School, golf and mini-golf, fun parks for kids with games and go-carts, beaches and parks, cooking schools  . . .

I am so jealous of you people visiting Door County and can do all this stuff!  Okay, I admit, I do take classes at the clearing, and I do explore the galleries and do whatever else I can with what free time I have.  Someday maybe I will join Door County’s many retirees who stay young-at-heart because they live in such a wonderful place!

Please remember, for now I sell real estate; so if you want to live here, call me!

I’ve been told that since this is a blog attached to a real estate site that I should, at least occasionally, write about real estate.  Okay, I get the point.  So, here it is, a report on the status of real estate sales in northern Door County, Wisconsin, today.  (”Northern Door County” being everything north of Sturgeon Bay)

After three bad years, the light is shining through the end of the tunnel.  The number of sales is well above last year (the worst year in decades) and is almost even with 2008.  Almost all the homes and condominiums sold are selling for under $350,000.  Vacant land sales are still slow but well ahead of last year, and most sales are well under $100,000 with many under $50,000.  Few commercial properties are selling, but that is normal. 

It is a great time to be a buyer in Door County (as a Realtor, you would expect me to say that, but it is really true).  This is my 31st year selling real estate in Door County, and I have never seen bargains (for lack of a better word) like I’m seeing now.  One reason land sales are so slow is that you can now purchase a home for far, far less than it costs to build one!  Yes, there are also some foreclosures, but that is still a small part of the Door County real estate market.

Is mortgage money available.  Simple answer — yes.

Do you want a list of possible properties for you?  Call me.  Signing off now, Kathy Hollister, your Door County Realtor!

Do your remember looking forward to going to your mailbox and the happiness of receiving a letter from a friend or loved one?  I do, and I miss it.  From the time I learned to write I wrote letters to my grandad and grandma in Michigan, and they wrote to me way down in Miami, Florida.  I only saw them in the summers, so letters were so important to us.  All my family was in Michigan, so I’d also get letters and birthday cards from my aunts and uncles.  Getting mail was actually fun!

More than just the fun of receiving mail, a letter saved is a tangible rememberance of the person who wrote it.  Saved letters are a huge part of human history.  It is something the person actually touched.  Their handwriting, their words, their signature all give us so much insight into who the person was.  Even the envelopes with the old addresses (remember zones?), cancelled stamps, and the battle scars of the U. S. postal system are a part of it.  Going back and reading letters from loved-ones long gone can be bitter-sweet and can bring forth a tear or two, but will also bring back precious memories.

The most important documents of human history are hand written.  How treasured are the letters of the founders and leader of our country!  The letters of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln — each one is a part of our story, our history.  Even simple postcards written by ordinary people tell a story. I have a collection of Door County postcards dating back to the early 1900’s.  (I keep them at my office—stop in and see them anytime.  They are wonderful bits of Door County’s history!)  They show Door County as it evolved and what it was to its residents and visitors 100 years ago.  Seeing and understanding the past allows us to see the present more clearly, and those old postcard photos and notes written long ago are important bits of history.

Yes, postcard, notes, anything hand-written can be meaningful to us.  In my wallet I carry a small card that came with a bouquet of flowers from my late husband.  He simply wrote, “I love you,” and it means the world to me. 

So, today, write someone a letter, and put it in the good, old U. S. mail!  You will make someone very happy. And the next time you are tempted to send one of those e-mail greeting cards, STOP.  Go buy a card (or make one) and write a thoughtful note in it.  Put it in the U. S. mail.  You just may be creating someone’s treasured remembrance of you.

Are you as disturbed as I am about the declining level of civility and discussion in today’s society?  What has happened to us?  Why is intelligent conversation and discussion about really meaningful topics and current events in public to be avoided at all costs?  Could that be one of the reasons our country is so polarized today?  People are so adverse to discussions with those with differing opinions that common ground is never found.  Instead people rally together with their ideological clones and parrot their leaders to avoid having to read, investigate, and gather information on their own and actually formulate and express their own ideas and beliefs. 

Tragically, Congress seems to have degenerated to this level.  Hostility, mob mentality, and a total lack of civil discussion has taken over.  It is shameful.  Intelligent people have abandoned all reason.  I, for one, am totally disgusted.

Any relevant comments, readers?