Malcolm Johnston, Trenton Real Estate

Last month was a great month for me. Both of my kids had their reading weeks at college so they could come back home for a while. Unfortunately they both had different weeks off, but we did have one gloriously fun overlapping weekend. The upside of this arrangement was that I got to spend more one on one time with both of them than I usually would. This can be quite daunting, especially in the case of my son who isn't terribly loquacious.

Towards the end of the week I realized that most of the time I spent with him in public consisted of walking a few steps behind him exhorting him to pull his pants up. It drives me nuts, but he's the one with the droopy pants and it doesn't seem to worry him in the least. He seems to be an expert at hiking his jeans up just before they are about to fall to his knees. Seems pretty risky to me, but he's got it down to an artform. It shouldn't be terribly difficult to convince this generation that wearing clean underwear is important.

I found myself looking for topics to start meaningful conversations with him, It wasn't easy.

I tried to start a conversation about the merits of wearing a belt or suspenders. He didn't seem very interested in that particular subject. I talked about how important it can be to wash your jeans regularly so they cling a bit better to the waistline. Again, he wasn't too impressed and that ended up going nowhere. An attempt was made to discuss how to accurately assess the size of one's waist so that properly fitting pants can be purchased. This too was a non-starter. One final effort was made to talk about how inmates in prison have saggy pants because belts are verboten because they can be turned into a weapon. You'd think that this might interest a teenager, but no, he already knew this.

I had run out of things to talk about. Teenagers can be difficult, that's for sure. I was out of material.

Sometimes I guess it's just best to quit nagging and let him be.

We really don't need forced conversations and lectures to have a meaningful interaction. Sometimes we play Xbox, sometimes we listen to music, we go for quiet drives, and best of all is when he just tags along with me and helps me get some of my tasks done, we can both feel useful and happy at the same time.

Perhaps on certain occasions just a look and a smile can convey way more meaning than a conversation ever could. I also know that when the time comes he will pull his pants up of his own accord, or maybe the right girl will come along and entice him to dress just a little bit better. Either way, it's not something I should worry about too much.

Are you up for the challenge of becoming Canada's next property mogul? Century 21 Canada believes that you may be.

Century 21 Canada is launching their own video game and anyone can participate. It's much along the lines of those games that people play on Facebook (in fact, that's probably where you will see it the most.

The object behind the game is to buy, sell, renovate or lease out properties that bring in a decent return. The imaginary city of Realopolos is divided into different neighbourhoods, some primarily residential and some primarily commercial, but most having a mix of the two. Players are supposed to take their small opening stake and invest it wisely to make it grow.

I'm pretty excited about the game, not because I believe that I'm going to be the next big mogul, but because I might get some good exposure. I am a character in this video game. People logging into this game from my area will be able to choose a real estate agent, of which I will be one of the choices (probably the most sensible one in my opinion). when they click on my character, my real life business card with my contact information will appear. Sounds like a good way to get my name out there in my area.

Anyhow, if you would like to check the game out, it's launching on March 1, so we're only a couple of days away. Simply go to Property Mogul and register on March 1. It's very easy. See you in Realopolis, bring your mortgage calculator.

The village of Stockdale is not very big, if you blink and miss the road sign you probably wouldn't know you are in a village at all. It consists of a few houses, a few farms and an an old mill.

Stockdale is between the town of Wooler and Frankford on Hastings County Road 5.

I drive through Stockdale quite a bit as Stockdale Road is a pretty nifty shortcut if you want to get from Trenton to Frankford or Stirling. There hardly ever is any traffic on Stockdale Road, and the only time I have ever been inconvenienced is when I got stuck behind a rather slow moving tractor once.

The Stockdale Mill is just about the only destination in Stockdale. It used to be a grist mill in its working days. As well as being a cafe, restaurant and pub these days, it's an arts and crafts place where lots of colourful things are on display. It was recently bought by a new owner who is making a lot of positive changes to the place, so it's well worth the visit.

The mill is on Cold Creek which joins the Trent river in the town of Frankford. In the summer months I hear that Cold Creek is quite popular with canoeists and wildlife enthusiasts. It has been told to me by a very reliable source that there are a few very good fishing spots on Cold Creek. I have been sworn to secrecy as to where the exact locations are though. Buy a house from me and I might be tempted to leak the information.

Stockdale is just one of the communities that make up Quinte West. I can confidently say that it's one of the smaller communities. The residents of stockdale have all the services available to them that are available to all residents of Quinte West.

As a Quinte real estate agent, Stockdale is just one of the many small communities that I love to do business in. It happens to be less than a ten minute drive from the Trenton Century 21 office so I wouldn't mind picking up some listings there, it would be very convenient. You do have a listing for me, don't you?

If you are thinking of buying or selling a home or farm in Stockdale Ontario why not give me a call and we can discuss this some more.

I'm sure that by now most of you are aware of the new social network called Pinterest . It has suddenly appeared on the social network landscape seemingly out of nowhere. There was very little fanfare building up to its launch, it was just there. Pinterest combines the words "pin" and "interest"

Pinterest is based around photography. From what I understand (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) it's a site where people can post photographs of their interests with a brief description and not much else. People can then "like" the photographs and leave a brief comment. It's a very appealing concept to the amateur photographers out there who want an audience for their work. I can really see how this would be very popular with decorators, home stagers, and to an extent, real estate agents. It looks like it's very time-friendly.

I remember the launch of Google+, it wasn't that long ago. Google+ came lumbering out of the woods at us like a massive threatening bear who had been bellowing and roaring for months beforehand. Pinterest, on the other hand, came gamboling out of the forest like a little fawn looking for playmates. People seem to be lining up to play with it too.

Pinterest is catching on like wildfire. I signed up for it and I quite like it so far. Every day I get multiple emails informing me that more people are following me on Pinterest, and I haven't even uploaded a single picture yet. Wowee, it took me months to get friends on Google+. I have enjoyed many of the photographs on the site, it seems to bring out the best in photographers who are showcasing their best work. Of course, now we will all have to learn about the search engine optimization that can be achieved through the use of Pinterest, and soon enough people will be posting pictures of girl's bums and things like that under the guise of artful photography, but that is par for the internet course.

A lot of people were suspicious of Google+, and naturally so. What will Google do with the information they collect from people? How will this be used? Many folk are uncomfortable with Google and their privacy shenanigans of the past and are reluctant to give Google too much information about themselves. Pinterest seems to have escaped this scrutiny, it seems to be a very light hearted network, short on information but very long on visual appeal. I have yet to hear anyone grumble about their motives.

I would bet that there are a lot of social networkers who feel a twinge of guilt that they haven't worked very hard on their Google+ accounts and are not taking full advantage of the google juice that Google+ has to offer, yet are leaping into the Pinterest network with reckless abandon. They naturally feel more comfortable with Pinterest, as it just seems to be a less daunting task to get involved with the site.

Google+ is growing at an incredible rate, its membership will rival Facebook's in the next couple of years. Every day 625,000 new members sign on to Google+, I highly doubt Pinterest will ever come close to reaching such numbers. If one had to choose which one would be the best bet to add to their SEO arsenal, I'm pretty positive that Google+ would be the better option at the moment. I personally only have an absorbtion rate of two social networks per year, and I'm sure a lot of other people are struggling to cope with the plethora of platforms available to them to spread their good words (and images), so while Pinterest looks very interesting and fun to play with, other than posting the best of my best photos to it, I don't think i will be spending too much time building a network there. I will, however, stop by once in a while to play with it though.

The town of Glen Miller is only a couple of miles north of Trenton. It is a rather small community of approximately 500 or so people and lies on both the east and west sides of the Trent River. Glen Miller is the home of Lock #3 on the Trent Severn waterway.

The town of Glen miller has been around since the mid 19th century, it wasn't named after the popular American band leader with the similar name of Glenn Miller (although I probably would have believed it if someone had told me so).

Locks are very important on the Trent Severn waterway, there are 45 of them between the mouth of the Trent river in Trenton and Port Severn on Georgian Bay. there are also 39 swing bridges and 160 dams on the waterway. The waterway is controlled by Parks Canada who are responsible for maintenance and water level management.

Glen Miller is a rather quiet place, it serves as a bedroom community for the larger town of Trenton. Only minutes from the 401, it's also a popular spot for commuters to live. It is one of those smaller communities that make the Trent area such an interesting place to live.

Glen Miller is also the home of the Bleasdell Boulder (or Glen Miller Rock as it's sometimes referred to). This gigantic rock is belived to be over 2 billion years old and was deposited in its current spot when the glaciers retreated a few millenia ago. It's a very big rock and likely won't be going anywhere in the near future, it's almost three stories tall.

Glen Miller is one of the small towns that I happen to sell real estate in, so if you are interested in buying or selling a home in this very pretty little town, give me a call.