Alabama the Beautiful

After owning the land for seven years, Chuck and I decided to explore the National Forest not far from our land. It only took one hike for us to fall in love with Alabama all over again! Beautiful waterfalls and canyons, are there to be discovered. Every time we go up to the land, Chuck and I take one whole day to go "play in the forest". We pick a different trail head to explore each time. We pack everything we need for the day in our back packs, like: maps, compass, water, first aid kit, gun, bug spray and lunch. No sense in taking the cell phone. They don't work once ya hit the forest. If you get lost, you are on your own. The compass has saved us once so far...lol. We usually hike around 8 miles at a time, enjoying our packed lunches by streams and waterfalls. Once we move, we plan on doing a few "over night hikes"....for it will take 6 to 8 hours to reach our destination. Our plans also include kayaking down some of the rivers. So far, the only animals we have come across are 8 wild boars. We were lucky they were scared of us and took off up the hill. We can't wait to share all of this with our friends when they come to spend "time in the country" with us.

Bush Hog

Hey, ya'll.....I've been going through some of my pictures to see if there are any I could post on the blog so you would get more of the feel why we want to move to the land. Besides, living in the middle of the forest and having all the wild blackberries ya can eat, living with four seasons instead of two, (if you can say we have two here in Florida), being in the country is the best!!!!! Meet "Bush Hog" the goat! He belongs to the neighbors, south of us. I fell in love with him the instant I saw him. The neighbors acquired Bush Hog a couple of years ago when who ever raised him had to get rid of him. He was raised like a dog and was taken for car rides when he was little and he loves to "play" with you.... BUT....and "butt" is the word for it. He will " BUTT" the hell out of ya. He thinks he is playing but it's no playing matter. Chuck and I have both learned that one. Once he got untied while the neighbors were gone so we thought we would take care of Bush Hog. Well, we were the ones that got taken care of...lol. Since then, we have learned how to control a goat. You have to grab him by both horns and lead him that way. I like to walk over to the neighbors with our left over bread or hot dog buns to feed Bush Hog. He " naaaaa's" when he sees me coming. I laugh every time I see the "Aflac commercial" with the goat now. I can't wait to have a goat of my own when we move. I want a "nanny" goat and her name will be "Olivia Jane". I am hoping that I can teach her not to "butt" me since I will get her when she is little. Goats hate water so you can train them with a squirt bottle...here's hoping it works. I have all kinds of dreams for living in the forest. I'll let ya in on more of them later.

Naming our land

When we first bought the land in Alabama, it was so grown up with wild blackberries, we couldn't even walk on the front 17 acres. We could only walk the back five acres through the hard woods. Chuck rented a hand bush hog to cut through the brambles to make a drive way from the front to the back of the land. It used to be a soy bean farm years ago and has very fertile soil. Nine years ago there were lots of little pine and cedar trees covering most of the land. Now, it's a forest! The locals refer to us as "living in the pines". Hence the name...."Brambly Pines". Now that we have our very own tractor, it's much easier to keep the paths cut through the pines and blackberries. Our last trip to the land, Chuck staked out where the house will be built. Clearing of those trees will be next.

Reap what you sow

What a nice surprise ! I got an email from our neighbor in Alabama yesterday, along with this picture She and her little boy went down to check on our little garden that we planted in April and rescued from the weeds in July. Even though we aren't there to "tend to the garden", it's doing pretty good on it's own. The weather report has been " tons of rain" on the land all summer. Just what we want to hear. The flowers are on the neighbor's kitchen window sill and they steamed the squash for dinner the day they were picked. I am so jealous but happy that someone is enjoying the fruits of our land. Maybe next year we will be there to plant a huge garden like we have planned. The update on selling the house in Florida is..... we never heard from the interested party again. What a let down that was. Our super RE guy is holding Open House this Sunday so maybe we will get lucky with that. I'll keep ya posted.

Our First Garden

In April when we were at the land, Chuck went off to "rent" a tractor for the day like we have been doing for the past nine years. It only takes about an hour to drive to town, rent the tractor and return to the land with it. Well, he was gone for three hours and my daughter, Shell and I got worried about him being gone so long. We were in the middle of painting the front porch of the tacky trailer and I decided I'd walk down to the road to see if Chuck had come back with the tractor. Sure enough...there was a big ass pickem up truck with a trailer on the back and a used John Deere tractor sitting next to it. Chuck didn't rent it....he BOUGHT it!! ..and the man even delivered it to our land. We were such proud owners of this used bright green and yellow tractor. Only in our dreams did we think we could afford a "real John Deere". lol. That trip, we also bought a new red tiller and decided to till and plant a little garden. What fun we had! We planted watermelon, cantaloupe, radishes, three different kinds of squash, gourds, corn, peppers and flowers. When Chuck and I went back up in June, the first thing we did was go check out the garden. The poor thing was covered with vines and weeds. We started right in and uncovered everything that we had planted in April. It was so exciting seeing the little watermelons and squash that were trying to grow under all the weeds. I asked Chuck to teach me how to drive the tractor. OMG! ...and ya think it's hard to drive a "stick shift" car? Get this! the tractor has a clutch, a brake but NO gas pedal. The gas is a gear shift knob...along with a real gear shift that has two sets of gears. THEN....there is a shift to lower the bush hog and another shift to make the bush hog turn. Try and remember all of that!!! and don't run the tractor into the trees. Oh what fun I had. Better than any ride at Disney! I was just "mowing away" and Chuck was afraid that I was going to hit a tree or the cement bench we have down by the garden, with the bush hog. Heck, I wasn't looking behind me where the bush hog was going. lol. I have to say....the tractor turns on a dime. Oh! how I can't wait to be a full time "country girl". Someone "PLEASE" come buy our house in Florida. !!!! Check back in a few days...for another fun adventure that Chuck and I have already had in Alabama.

my first post.....

I have had so much fun setting up this blog. I am hoping to write all about the adventures we will have with selling the house that we have lived in for the past 30 years and moving to our land in Alabama. We will be living in our "tacky trailer" while we have the new house built. We have had the house here in Florida for sale for over a year now and some days I think it will never sell but we did have someone interested in it last week. I'll keep ya'll posted if anything comes of it. I am looking forward to posting to my blog every day. This is going to be fun! .............good night...sleep tight...don't let the bed bugs bite.