It's SNOWING

The day before we left the land to go down and spend the weekend with Gene and George, we heard that there was going to be a good chance of it snowing 4 to 5 inches on the land, Sunday. You don't know how badly I wanted to stay and see the snow. We packed up the explorer and headed to Gene and George's any ways. Little to our surprise, when we woke up Sunday morning, it was snowing there. It had started around 4:00 am. At one point in time, it was coming down so hard, you couldn't see across the back field. I kept running out to take pictures of it. It snowed the whole day and the four of us, kept going from window to window, watching it. Chuck and I took George's four wheel drive truck down to the bottom to see how much of it was covered in white. The ground was warm so it didn't stick very long but it sure was pretty to see coming down. The BNOE sent pictures of it at the land. They ended up getting around 4 inches. Some day, Chuck and I WILL be on the land when it really snows!!

Helen Keller

The day that it rained and rained, and after we got " unstuck in the muck", we headed to Mussel Shoals to see what we could fine there. Close by in Tuscumbia, we found "Ivy Green", the birthplace and house were Helen Keller grew up. The Keller home was built on a 640-acre tract of land in 1820(one year after Alabama became the 22nd State of the Union) by Helen's grandparents. During the War Between the States, the Keller home was used as a hospital. The birthplace cottage is situated west of the main house. Originally the small structure was an office, but when Capt Keller brought his second bride-Helen's mother-( who was 20 years younger than him) to Ivy Green, he furnished it as a bridal suite. Here, Helen was born, a normal child, on June 27, 1880. At the age of 19 mons. an illness left Helen blind and deaf. Since Helen's parents catered to her every whim, Teacher soon realized she would have to get Helen away from her parents in order to be able to control her tantrums and teach her, so this cottage served as the school house. Annie Sullivan's( her teacher) and Helen's bedroom was upstairs in the main house. Annie slept on the full bed and Helen, in the twin. The " pump" was where Helen learned her first word, "water" and it's located behind the main house. In six short months, Helen knew 625 words. By the age of 10, she had mastered Braille as well as the manual alphabet and even learned to use the manual typewriter. Helen had an IQ of 160, knew 5 languages and graduated "cum laude" from Radcliffe College in 1904 with Annie by her side at all times. Anne Sullivan Macy was Teacher and companion to Helen from March 3, 1887 until her death October 20, 1936. After that Polly Thomson who had been their secretary since 1914, became her companion. "The Miracle Worker", the play is performed on the grounds of "Ivy Green" each year on weekends from late June through late July. Chuck and I sure did learn a lot about Helen Keller and enjoyed the nice, Alabama story teller, who taught us about her. It was definitely worth the time to drive to Tuscumbia. It made me want to go to the library and check out " The Miracle Worker" and read all I can about Helen Keller. I just love "history" and it's so much fun to actually see where it happened.

Mr. Fix It!

Chuck has some kind of project to work on every time we go to the land. On top of building the lean-to in the garden area, he made much needed new steps to the TT. The old ones were still usable but not for every day use, so they got put at the back door to the TT where we didn't have any steps at all. At least now, IF we had to get out the back door fast, there are some kind of steps there to use. The new steps are much wider and easier to use. (and remember ....no power tools)

The roof to the front porch doesn't over lap to the roof to the TT, so when it rains, the porch and everything on it gets wet from the gap being open to the rain. Chuck thought he could fix the gap with a $3 piece of aluminum, but climbing onto the roof of the TT ( scary...I'll tell ya about that later) and messing with the aluminum, it didn't work. So, back to the drawing board for that project. I'm sure he will come up with something to use to fix it. ....he always does. Until the next trip to the TT.....the porch will just have to get wet and wet it has been. They have had a LOT of rain and tornado's all around them. Baseball size hail stones, last week. Sure hope our barn and TT haven't been damaged by it all. Maybe a trip to the land in our near future is in the cards :-)

The Goal Post Tree

We set out to look for " a tree in the forest" for the second time. "The goal post tree". The Indian's used to mark trees or bend them so they would grow a certain way to use for markers in the forest. Chuck and I didn't find this tree the first time we set out to find it. Since then, Chuck got on line and found information that would help us locate it. Within the first 15 minutes of our hike, there it was! Just a few yards off the trail. Since we found the tree so fast, we decided to hike up the trail to see if we could find the canyons. Sure enough...there they were so up we started. The whole time I was going up, up,up , I kept telling myself this isn't going to be a " good thing" when it's time to come down. I had just gotten my back aligned with the chiropractor and I kept thinking how he would frown upon me doing this. It sure was worth the climb though. It was just beautiful. A perfect place to have lunch and rest before starting down. We were so far up above the tree level that my cell phone actually worked and I was able to call Shell to tell her where we were. I had called her before we entered the forest and told her the area that we would be in and if she hadn't heard from us by dark to call the rangers. Don't laugh...we have been lost in this forest before...lol. Shell knew it was a good thing that she knew where we were going.She has been with us when we were lost...even though Chuck won't admit we were. After the slow climb down from the canyon tops, Chuck took me to see this old small cemetery that he had stumbled upon when looking for the tree first time. ( I had been sitting on a fallen tree resting) It's neat to think that people used to live in the forest a long, long time ago. On the trail back to the explorer, we ran into two "squirrel hunters" and their dogs. They stopped and introduced themselves and talked forever. We knew their life stories after 15 minutes of talking to them. That's just the way "southerns" are. We just laugh and enjoy their " tales". Another fun hike in the forest and we can take people to see " the goal post tree" because no one ever finds it on their first try.

Laundry mat 38 years later....

The first night we were sleeping in the TT, this trip, I noticed that my down comforter had meldew all over it. I couldn't figure out why. I decided instead of bringing it all the way back to Florida to wash it with bleach, we would buy some bleach, soap and find the "Local Laundry Mat". Well, that took some doing. It wasn't on any of the main streets in town, so we stopped at the local grocery store. I've been wanting to go in there to see what it's like, any ways. The teenager behind the cash register was cute. When we asked about the laundry mat, she explained how to get there by land marks cause she wasn't sure how many streets up the road it was. Then, she said to us...." Ya'll aren't from around here huh?"( in her real southern accent) lol. As we explain how we are trying to sell the house in Florida and move to Alabama, she says..." why would ya'll want to move here for?" We just laugh because everyone says that to us. We just tell them " to get away from a gazillion people and hot, hot, hurricane, no seasons weather. Then, they end up talking to us for 20 minutes and saying they can't wait for us to get up there. Just another example of how "southerners feel, think and act. It had been about 38 years since the last time we had been to a laundry mat. (good ole Navy days) What a shock on how much it costs. $1.75 per wash and .25 cents for 6..."yes SIX" minutes in the dryer. Oh yeah, you aren't suppose to wash your "horse blankets" in the washers either. Will have to remember that if we ever get a horse. lol. I think we had better start saving our quarters now for when we move and Chuck is working on putting the electricity and water in. It might be a couple of months before I will be doing laundry in the barn (until the house gets built)

something learned.......

It seems like every time we go to the land, we end up learning something. This time we learned that we have to save our money for a LOT of gravel for the roads on the land. We woke up the day before the last day we were going to be there and it was pouring down rain. I mean "pouring". By the end of the day, we had gotten 4 inches. It rained and rained. We decided that we would still take the trip to Mussel Shoals as we had planned because even just taking a ride in the explorer would be better than sitting in the TT all day,while it rained. Chuck had driven over to the BNOE to get some meat that we had put in their freezer and on the way back home, as he was coming up our hill, he got STUCK! When you are stuck in that red clay...you are stuck! So, he goes to the barn to get the tractor to pull the explorer out. First, he looked under the explorer in the front to see if there was some way of hooking up the rope but there wasn't. The only way to do it was to put the trailer hitch on and tie the rope to that. The only problem was.....there were four trees right behind the explorer. So off to the barn he goes again to get the chain saw. Number one tree came down ok. No 2. ...came down and No 3 was little one so no problem. BUT! No 4!!!! was the biggest and the closest to the explorer. I mean just inches. He had to cut that tree just right for it not to land on the explorer. I could see it now....driving back to Florida with the back half of the explorer caved in. Well, he sawed...and then yelled " WATCH OUT, WATCH OUT". The tree didn't land the way it was suppose too....of course not. It fell six inches away but right behind the back of the explorer. The whole back of the explorer was covered with saw dust. It took some work to cut the tree up and get it to the sides of the road. Then, the fun began. I jumped in the explorer and Chuck tied it to the tractor. With it still raining, I was hanging out of the window, looking backwards ( not really good on my back that the chiropractor had finally got put back together again) so I wouldn't run into the tractor, Chuck pulled me out of the hole of muck. He unties the rope and I got two feet and get stuck again. This happened three times and I finally told him to just pull me the 1/4 mile down our driveway to the road. We finally got to a point to where I could turn the explorer around and was able to drive it off the land and over to the BNOE. Driving on that wet clay was like driving on ice. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Hence we have decided that since we don't want to have to stay home every time it rains, we have to buy lots and lots of gravel to put down for traction on at least two of the roads on the land. We brought a whole lot of Alabama red clay back to Florida with us...that was stuck all under the explorer. I told Chuck that it made me sad to wash it all off. I felt like I had a piece of the land here in Florida with me.

Bird houses.....

We have several bird houses on the land. The first one I put up a couple of years ago, is wooden with a tin roof. It's on the path to the BNOE house and for two years, no one wanted it as a home ( just like our house in Florida) Shell gave me the cutest log cabin bird house and I hung it at the end of the TT by my bedroom window. Last Spring, someone moved in it. I was so excited. We also have the one we bought last summer that has the Alabama licence tag as the roof. It's at the other end of the TT by the picnic table. I am always looking inside of them to see if anyone has decided to make them their home. One of the first things that I did when we got to the land was look inside the little log cabin house. Much to my surprise, you couldn't even see inside because something had built a nest and the whole hole to the house was covered. I couldn't think of any little bird that would be nesting this time of year so I called my friend, Kathy in Maine. ( she knows just about everything about birds) She just laughed at me and said it was a "mouse". My bird house was now a " mouse house". I decided that the little mice can live in the bird houses as long as they stay out of the TT. The wooden birdhouse had been occupied , by a bird since the last time we had been to the land. There was also straw sticking out the hole to the Alabama roof one so I thought a bird had used it also but come to find out, when Chuck went to clean the two out that I had thought birds had used, a little mouse stuck it's head out the hole of the licence tag one so Chuck didn't clean that one out. The little mice needed some place to live where it was warm and dry for the rest of the winter. Heaven help them if they decide to visit the TT though. We have "decon" for them to taste but someday, two mice catching kitties will be living in there so " watch out you little mices". Enjoy the birdhouses all you want!