ICE!!!!

The day after Christmas we decided to go to town and check out all the " after Christmas sales". Since we still have to park the explorer over at the neighbors, we had to walk through their field of "frost/ice". Chuck had to scrape the ice off of the explorer. Wasn't bad though....we laughed about it. In about an hour, it was all gone and it had turned into a pretty day. We sure hit all the stores and got lots of bargains. We went to both towns, Decatur and Moulton. ....the explorer was full! The bad thing is....we have to carry everything in the explorer about 1/4 mile to the TT from the neighbors. That part "isn't fun". We even left a few bags in the explorer until the next day. Poor Chuck, sure is getting his daily exercise up here with having to carry things back and forth to the neighbors. Gallon water jugs full of water aren't light. ...but someday that will end also. The walk behind trencher is being delivered today and hopefully, Chuck can get the water pipes buried and we can at least have water . Chuck says he can hook the water up to the TT and the only thing we won't be able to use will be the toilet. That doesn't come until the septic tanks are put in. ...and those don't come until the water and the gravel is in the drive ways. ......."rain, rain go away, come again (next summer) some other day. " The weather report this morning says the rain is coming again on Wed, Thurs and Friday. Even some snow maybe. ( that I can handle) YUCK! more MUD!

Lights for Christmas!

Yes, we had power for Christmas! Three days before Christmas, Chuck was able to flip the circuit breakers that evening and we went from room to room turning on the lights. You would think we had never had electricity before in our lives...lol. We ewwwed and ahhhhed and laughed. We didn't try turning the stove and oven on until the next day. Not sure what was going to happen with them.....either them working, not working or catching on fire. Happy to say, they both work. We are only using three of the four burners on the stove because the one looks " iffy". Not taking any chances of it catching the TT on fire. We ended up having a really nice Christmas. We missed our kids but they each had sent presents for us. We got up and Chuck made us pancakes for breakfast and then we opened our presents. We called and talked to the kids and that completed our Christmas. We didn't have our traditional turkey and oyster dressing and cranberry jello for dinner but we made do with what we had. There will always be " next year" for a good ole Christmas dinner. We spent Christmas night watching movies on the TV. Yep! we can watch TV as long as we want instead of having to recharge the TV every two hours. Life sure is different when you have power. Next.......WATER!!!!!

POWER to the PEOPLE!!!!!!!

After 6 1/2 weeks of darkness, dampness and cold.....2 feet of mud, a 4 foot ditch and miles of pipe and wires......we will turning the lights on in the TT tonight!!!!The Christmas tree gets to shine for at least four nights of it's life. There still has to be a couple things done before we will see if the oven, stove and hot water heater even works but at least we will have light to cook by, read by and oh yeah......the TV will work for more than two hours without recharging it. PLUS.... the microwave will work ( I hope.....Bud gave it to me a couple of years ago and we never did plug it in to see if it worked...lol) The next big thing happening is Jason and Chuck digging ( again....but only 18 inches deep....with a walk behind trencher) to put the water pipes in. I'm dreaming of that first shower in the TT ....BUT....it will be awhile for that dream to come true....have to have two septic tanks put in first. Boy! it sure does take a long time for my dreams to come true. My word for 2010 will be " Patience" ...again.

Book Signing

Last week, we had gone out for lunch at a local restaurant and while Chuck was paying the bill, he noticed a sign about a book signing being done at the Out Post on the edge of the forest. The " book" was " our "Alabama Canyons" book that we have used over and over and have been hiking in all the areas that the pictures showed in the book. We LOVE this book. It has the most beautiful pictures of the forest in it. The author is Jim Felder and the photographer is Charles Seifried I told Chuck we couldn't be late because if there were a lot of people there, I was hoping we would get to talk to the author/photo for a few minutes. Wellllllll, in the three hours that they were there, we ended up talking to them for two hours of it. lol. Only four people came for the signing. We became " best friends" and they told us all kinds of places to go in the forest and the best ways to get there. Come to find out....the more we talked, Chuck and Jim knew a bunch of the same people from back in the 1990's from the computer trade shows in California that they both went to for work. Charles and I spent most of the two hours talking. He went out and got his camera out of the car to show me. It's one heavy camera to lug around in the forest. The girl that writes for the "free " local paper up here, took our picture with Jim and Charles ...so who knows...we just might be in the paper. Charles has been a photographer his whole life and has been around the world twice with his work. What fun, interesting men to talk too. They treated us like they had known us forever ( just like everyone else does up here) and wanted us to keep in touch with them. ...said they would love to have us go kayaking with them. What a fun Sunday, Chuck and I ended up having.

Sunday morning in the forest

We got up early ....(well, we always get up early up here ) on Sunday morning and headed out to the forest. We wanted to check out some of the easy waterfalls that we can get too without hiking a couple of hours into the forest. We wanted to see how much water would be going over them since it had rained so much. They were " awesome!" We laughed about going kayaking and was trying to figure out how we could get over the falls. Think we will stick to kayaking in the spring and summer. We still can't believe that we have this beautiful place to come and play ...just minutes from our land. After spending the morning in the forest, we headed to the Out Post at the edge of the forest for a book signing. That was just as much fun as playing in the forest.

Marmalade

Marmalade hasn't been coming out of the bedroom very much but in the last couple of days, he has come out more. Maybe after being in the TT for almost two months now, he is finally getting used to it. Annabelle acts like she has lived here forever. I have to admit that Marmalade has done much better with the move than I had expected. With him being an outdoor kitty in Florida, he is handling being an indoor one pretty darn good. I know he will be much happier once we are in the house, but that is so far down the road, I don't even want to think about it.

Birds and the kitties

I just love watching the little "Chick-a-dees"come to all of our feeders. We have so many different birds up here than what is in Florida. Usually the Titmice share the feeder with the chick-a-dees so there is always some kind of bird on the feeder at all times when they are feeding. The kitties just love it.

On the First Day of Christmas....

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:

1 Dark, damp, tacky trailer.
2 Propane heaters
3 Mexicans digging
4 Layers of blankets
5 Bags of Ice
6 Hours of hiking
7 Cut cedar trees
8 Trips to the neighbors
9 Trips to the laundry mat
10 Inches of mud
11 Hours of snowing
12 Days of raining.

A little more Christmas

We finally found the candles that fit around the " Blomberg Christmas bowl". We love it! It gives off so much light at night. Just like having a lamp on in the TT. Christina had sent a bag of "German goodies" for us to enjoy ,with Shell last weekend, so my childhood memories are here again. Chuck had picked up some of the holly that Shell had used at Becca's party last weekend and he also brought home a clump of mistletoe that he had cut down out of Gene and George's tree for Shell. I cut some cedar from the land and while we were at Home Depot this morning, I picked up a small branch that they had cut from one of there Christmas trees.....this all made a pretty festive arrangement for the living room. Plus, we have all the Christmas smells from it. The little wooden trees with the birds is perfect for our kitchen table decoration, as we look out the window into our woods. It's a very special time for Chuck and I right now.......our first Christmas of living on the land. I told him this morning, we will look back on this year and laugh and wonder how we ever lived in the TT for six weeks without power and water in the freezing winter. Chuck added....yeah and how we had to walk 1/4 mile to the mail box every day in the wet muck!..lol. I wouldn't trade " Sweet Home Alabama" for Florida for anything. What memories we are making.

FINALLY digging

After five weeks of thinking they were going to come dig and they didn't.....they FINALLY came! For all the people that kept telling me that we should have come up and had the power and water put in before we moved up here.....well, it would have taken Chuck three years of vacation time at work, to have had it done....lol. Still not too sure when it will get done because it has started to rain again and is suppose to rain for several days. I am just happy that they have finally started. Chuck had me take the picture of him digging by the water meter and for me to tell everyone that he gave up on them and started digging it all by hand. ha. That would have taken a couple of years.....the ditch is 4 ft deep. Since we have had so much rain, they have hit water and there is a couple inches of water in the bottom of the ditch. Chuck says it will be OK....since they will be sealing the pipes any way. I'll let ya know when they finish. I'm not holding my breath about it all just yet. One thing, we sure do have some " red clay" up here.....and it smells soooooo good.!

Happy Birthday Becca

We met Shell and Rob at Gene and George's for the big 30th bash for Becca's birthday. What fun we all had...even if we did freeze unless we were standing around the huge bonfire or heaters in the barn. Shell was in charge of all the decorations so she climbed up into the loft of the barn and dug through the decorations from Becca's wedding from four years ago and did a great job. The count was around 75 people at the party along with the band. Tons of great food and drink were enjoyed all night long. Happy 30th Becca!! So glad that our Alabama family got to meet Rob.

Let is Snow....

I have always thought it was stupid for people to use decorations in Florida that said " Let it Snow". Now it means something. Chuck woke me up at 5:00 am on Saturday morning and said that I should go outside. I took the flash light and to my surprise....I was in a " winter wonderland". I couldn't wait for the sun to come up so I could see it in day light. We had almost an inch and it was still coming down. We walked all around the land taking in the beauty. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to live in Alabama. It was all gone by afternoon and now we are waiting for the next wonderland.

Funny people

Yesterday, we decided to go to Huntsville to explore and see what was there. We needed to find our bank, where Sam's was and a few other places. Well, Huntsville has everything that St. Pete has and more. First we went down town and stopped at the Welcome center. Two really sweet ladies gave us maps and all kinds of information that we might need. The first stop was to the bank. While we were waiting for the lady behind the desk ( since there was only one behind a desk and she was helping this little old man,) I sat down on this little couch. Chuck was standing a little ways from me. This little white haired old lady comes out of the bathroom and comes up to me and says real loud" ARE YOU ASLEEP?" ....lol. I said " no, I'm not asleep. Then she says...." is that your husband?....I said..."yes it is". Then she says..." is he grumpy?" I had to laugh and said " no he isn't? Then she says..." is he ever grumpy? " and I told her " no". I asked her if her husband was " grumpy" and she just looked at me weird and walked away. I got so tickled, I could hardly tell Chuck what she had said to me. I guess all the old people aren't in Florida....but the few up here sure are different. LOL.

Talking to strangers

We were past due to go to the laundry mat this week. We usually go on the weekend but didn't get there until Tues. As I was loading up the washing machines with everything in my bedroom.....curtains, bedspread,(because it's so damp in the TT, there is meldew all over everything) sheets and dirty clothes, little lady hollers at me and says.." You sure do miss a washing machine at home when you don't have one huh?". I said...." you sure do, we just moved up here from Florida and won't have one for awhile. She asked me where in Florida and when I told her St. Pete....she said " how old are you? " ...lol. When I told her, she said, nope you are too young. Then she preceded to tell me she was born and raised in St. Pete. ...until she was 12. Then it all started. She talked and talked and talked, about God, her church, how she used to weigh over 400 pounds and she weighs under 200 now, and how she hates Drs, about how smart her grand kids are. They graduated from high school at the age of 12 and college at 16 and is now going to go to med school, ....how she bought this motel sight unseen when they moved up here and they live at it and use it for a shelter for people who lose their homes in storms. How he husband was a truck driver. She went on and on and on....she never shut up the whole 1 1/2 hours we were there. While we were folding our clothes a man walks in and starts his laundry and she starts all over again talking to him. I kept getting tickled and had to walk to the other end of the laundry mat or outside. I told Chuck that we are going to make sure we go to the laundry mat on Sunday since everyone will be in church. Every one that knows Chuck knows that he doesn't talk to anyone...including me half the time. I am always telling him that it won't hurt him to talk to people...lol. Well, when we got in the explorer to leave, he said.... " that will teach ya to talk to strangers" ...LOL.

Corabelle

This is the "little kitty " that lives at the BNOE house. She is cute as a button and it's fun being able to play with a baby kitty again. Her name is Corabelle.

Officially winter.

It's officially winter when I get up in the morning and Chuck has on his Camo Santa hat to keep his head warm...lol. It was pretty cold in the TT this morning but the little heater, hot coffee and oatmeal sure helped heat us up.

Spoiled Kitties

Chuck says the kitties are spoiled. Marmie wants a " hand warmer" in his bed every night and every morning when Chuck gets up and lights the heater, Annie goes and lays in front of it. Plus, Chuck heats their wet food up on the camp stove because they don't like it cold. The TT is so cold, it's like their food has been in the refrig. They are dealing with the cold for being " Florida kitties" but spoiling them is ok too.

The Compost bin

Becca and Ro gave us this fantastic book about " living on the land" and it has all kinds of projects and things that you should know. We had started saving our kitchen scraps for our compost pile and Chuck found the instructions on how to make this really nice compost bin in the book. We decided to put it in the middle of the garden area so it would be in the middle of all of our gardens. The front boards lift out so you can turn the compost over and over, plus when it's time to get it out of the bin, it will be easy. While we were buying the wood for it, we bought a piece of lattice work for the back of the lean to. Next trip to Home Depot, we will get the other two pieces for each end. By the time Spring comes, we will have the whole area cleared and ready to plant.