Mud crystals?

The strangest thing happened to our yard after this week's snow.

I looked out our back window as the snow melted and saw what looked like loose top soil had been thrown around our yard.

I've never seen anything like it so I bundled up and went for a closer look. The photos above are what I found.

My guess is that the water soaked into our hard-as-nails red dirt yard, then froze. The ice had nowhere to go but up, so our yard is now laced with strange mud crystals.

Good news for us though. Now perhaps we won't have to aerate when we sow grass seed this spring.

Perfect timing?

I read somewhere that the days of 100 percent home financing are over. The days of forgoing the down payment are over.

I'm glad we got in the real estate game before the door closed. We would be years away from a home if we would have needed a down payment.

On another note I'm a little worried about our neighborhood. The for sale signs posted when we bought the house last summer are the same for sale signs posted halfway through winter. We don't expect to be here for more than a couple years, and the apparent selling freeze doesn't fare well with me.

Of course I'm a very firm believer in the idea that the path makes itself clear to you. The path to this house did. We were just going to "look" at houses, then this house was added to the MLS the day we set up visits. We moved in just before our lease ended. Now the door of opportunity closes behind us.

I'm not very worried about selling this house. When it's time, I think we'll know.