Two things of interest:

The first from an article (presumably in The Richmond Times-Dispatch) which my mum recently sent to me. The gist is, a woman in Alexandria, VA, is offering five of her properties in a raffle. One has to pay $100 to enter, and also has to write an essay - so, it's at once a raffle and a contest, which apparently it needs to be for legal reasons. A few of the properties sound nice enough - maybe not ideal, but one, a 124-acre tract along the Potomac, valued at $1.69 million, wouldn't be a bad haul, either. It's just a thought, but perhaps by pooling our resources with some other folks, and writing out (in no more than 75 words, as the contest stipulates) what we'd like to do with the land, we might appeal to her philanthropic nature. There's time to bandy the idea about - the contest ends on the 26th of June, 2004, with the winner to be chosen the following December. There's more info at http://www.usdreamproperties.com

The other bit, also an article, and also from my mum, comes from the Parade magazine often inserted with the Sunday edition of most cities' newspapers. It deals with the subject of "earth-friendly garage sales," at which one can get, says the subtitle, "everything from furniture to feed, plastic to plywood, even a planetarium...much of it is free." These are the handiwork of material exchange agencies, usually run by state gov't agencies in an effort to to keep useful goods out of landfills and to help companies give their materials away. Apparently, oftentimes the only stipulation is that you have to arrange for the pick up of the goods, as these agencies don't deliver. This, obviously, is a huge resource; I'm reminded of the deal I witnessed on eBay about two and a half years ago, where a company in New York offered, for no cost, 19 pallets of computer monitors to whoever would come and get them. Apparently, it's not unheard of for these companies to pay you to take their materials, even. It seems that building materials are among the most common of the goods being given away in these material exchanges. It would behoove us, then, to look into material exchange agencies in and around the state where the place to put our books, and make good music, comes to be located.

I still have a rather longer post to make, too; an excerpt from my written journal concerning my recent trip to MA and the subsequent trip to visit my cousin in MD, who has done something very similar to this, himself. I hope to post this soon.

If anyone else has anything to add, go for it - the list has been really quiet for a long time. Is anyone else still out there? Is anyone else still interested?

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2003