Looking for the Farmhouse

We've been in Murphy North Carolina now for about two weeks now searching for a farmhouse with about 3 to 5 acres or more.  We've seen the right land, with the wrong house, the right house with the wrong land.  And then we saw the one that said, "bring your own tools".  The land was gorgeous but the farmhouse was crumbling.  They should have said, bring your own bulldozer.  I still love the farmhouse I loved on the internet.  We will make a dream offer. If he does not accept it then we move on.  The house inside is ready to move in. But the outside needs new roof, paint, some new siding.  And some sort of heat for upstairs.  It is still my favorite of all the places we have seen.  There was one five acre place with a pond but it had restrictions and a home owners association.  I've been in those. Don't want to live with restrictions again.  Tomorrow we have one to look at up in Copper Hill which is almost on the Tenn. border. That would make a long drive to get groceries.  I am not leaving until we get a closing.  Tired of waiting.  Life is short.  More short than we know.  The dog is doing so well on the trip.  All his fur is grown back and hardly no licking or scratching which makes me think more and more he was allergic to our carpeting at home. So we are sticking to our rule of all hardwood floors. Here is the 1925 farmhouse.  Pray that he accepts Ralphs offer. I dream of living here.  I love this house. It has such warm.  There was much love here once. 

Feeling Well but not looking it

I cannot figure out why I feel good but I keep looking ill.  A year ago I had finished radiation and looked the best ever.  Maybe the radiation just hastened my aging process, after all I will be 65 in July. But I look in the mirror and can't even connect my face now to the me about six months ago when we last visited North Carolina.  Now I have other friends who have had radiation treatments and I do see the difference in their looks and face.  But it depends on where the radiation was.  If it was to the head or chest, then it affects their looks. But if it is radiation to the lower body, the face seems to be spared, but the internal organs are wrecked.  Long term effects of scar tissue, and damage can require surgery as many of my friends have had. It may take ten years, but radiation for colon cancer and breast cancer can leave long term side effects.  So, I guess I will learn to live with my new looks.  And try not to be so vain and age more gracefully.  I am on my laptop this morning so I can add more photographs from the other day.  Less than two weeks and we will be on our way to the mountains and visiting our grandbaby in Pensacola, Florida. I am ready. I am a person who is part gypsy.  We used to move every 5 to 10 years with Ralph's career field with IBM.  I miss that.  I don't enjoy staying in one place. I also love traveling.  Ralph not so much.  Reading the newspaper is dismal and depressing.  It reminds me of my grandmother's life, during the Great Depression, no money,  banks empty.  Grandma raised chickens for eggs and took in sewing.  Grandpa was a sheet metal worker and traveled to make cash.  They lived from hand to mouth.  But no one went hungry.  If before July our government does not deal with our debt, and defaults, you will see banks fail.  Retirement 401 K's will no longer be backed, even social security will be gone.  We realize now we should have gotten the farm last year.  At least if you have water on your property,  wood, and chickens and gardens.  You will eat.  You will have heat.  I hope our nation does not come to that. But it could happen.  I pray not.  For my grandchildren's sake.

Bluebirds.

I have bluebirds.  A house full of baby bluebirds.  I am so in love.  I put out mealworms for the parents. They appreciate the help in feeding.  The house next to the bluebird house has baby chickadee's.  Sometimes the father bluebird gets mixed up and tries to go into the wrong house. And then there is chaos. And a lot of chickadee shrilling and flapping of wings. I will try and get one of my bluebird photographs off of my facebook. I hate that all my photographs are on my laptop and never on this desktop.  We are going to leave May 7th for Murphy North Carolina (where we were for weeks last Oct looking for our farmhouse) But this time we are not coming back until we bought the farm, so to speak.   I may never come back at all. I am sick of no seasons in Florida, sick of heat, sick of no lilac's.  Can't even bring myself to plant zinnia's this year.  But I see some things like my purple cone flowers coming back anyway.  We had flocks of catbirds and Cedar Waxwings stripping our mulberry tree's.  My goal on our new farm is to plant way more stuff the birds eat naturally and buy much less sunflower seed.  I may even grow sunflowers commercially because the price at the store has skyrocketed.  I don't know what's going on.  But I need stock in black oil sunflower seeds.  So off  to farmhouse searching we go.  I had my two year followup with the radiologist in Tampa.  So far, so good. He said, "I think that after two years, you are out of the woods."  But I just live one day at a time and thankful for it.  Hope when we get settled in Murphy camping I will have more time for updating this poor blog.  Later.

Summer has arrived and the rain finally.

As I type this. It is raining.  We have been in a drought situation in North/Central Florida all winter. So the rain is welcome.  My azalea bushes had almost no flowers.  I have fifteen bushes.  Two bloomed. It had to be the drought.  As I type this, we are almost to April.  After my checkup April 19th in Tampa at radiologist we will leave for Murphy N.C. and be gone all summer.  We will not be back until we buy a new place to live.  And then, if we find and buy a place, we may be gone through the Fall.  I miss seasons living in Florida. 

The hummingbirds have arrived.  But my mulberry tree's are full of ripe fruit and no Cedar Waxwings this year.  The fruit is going to rot.   I should go out and pick it and make a pie.  Mulberries are delicious. Most people won't plant them because they are messy. But I love them.  I plant anything the birds like. I can't wait to get my farm in North Carolina and plant fruit and Berry ash tree's.  We were feeding one stray cat we named buddy.  He was beautiful.  Then suddenly four more stray male cats showed up. Now Buddy had disappeared. We have a bob cat, a black and white tuxedo cat, and a grey persian.  I have no idea who they belong to. Or if they have a home.  I would like to be able to have the magical gift of finding who owned these animals and making homeless and hungry.  I know, I have revenge issues.  When it comes to animals, my kids say I love them more.  Could be.  I could have worse issues. 

So, we will be leaving the end of April. But I will keep posting.  In fact I will be posting more. When we are camping I have less daily jobs to do.  Here are my photographs today and recently. Oh, my last checkup with my family doctor.  All my blood work up lab work was excellent. For the first time in two years since radiation treatment.  My WBC and RBC are in the normal range.  Later.  Enjoy your Spring wherever you can find it.  <3

Daytona Beach Meet Up

I met some online friends in Daytona Beach yesterday.  Now, I don't go to Daytona Beach as a rule because it's not my kind of beach.  And now I remember why.   Wall to Wall highrise hotels.  Even the pelicans don't go there.  Really.  As I drove from Flager Beach to Ormond Beach on A 1 A I noticed that there were huge flocks of pelicans flying right over my car roof all across the road.  And why is that? Because that stretch of highway is sand dunes and two lane roads.  No buildings.  I got to Daytona and while visiting and walking the beach with my friends, I asked if they had seen flocks of pelicans during the week.  They had not seen a one.  And it was then I looked up and out, and there were no spaces between the buildings, no sky except out across the Atlantic.  I hate construction and hotels.  Daytona Beach is horrible.  My kind of beach is just sand, ocean and sky.  That is it.  I don't even want wall to wall umbrella's.  Fishermen are fine.  They are there for a true purpose.  I want no cars parking on the sand.  I don't mind sand castles or jelly fish.  But just give me a natural beach.  Not wall to wall hotels with cabana's.  Meet Penny and Fred from Maine. 

So, on my drive back it was too late to stop at my favorite state park,  Washington Oaks.  But I still got to walk miles on the beach, and breath deep of the ozones.  The air is better at the ocean.  I don't know what it is.  But as soon as I open the car window I breathe deeply like no where else.  So, here are a few snapshots. It was a bit windy.   A high of about 68.  Not as warm as the last few days but still plenty of sunshine.  In February.  Love it.  I hope I can manage to keep a house in both places.  I would miss this beautiful February weather.  

If this is still Florida. It's way too cold.

It rained all night. And I believe the high today will be lower than the low this morning. Just went out to pick up the morning newspaper and it is cold and damp out.  All grey. No sun. I have friend who are vacationing in Daytona Beach in March and I sure hope this weather takes a change for the better. Because they are coming from Maine and do not want to vacation in cold weather at the beach.
I got my hair cut.  It was time.  It was so long and unmanageable.  Now it is about the length that it is in my profile from a year ago. Hard to believe that it has been almost a year since our big round trip camping trip all across the country.  If gasoline were not so high I would want to do it all over again. It was an awesome experience.  I definitely want to see Glacier Park in the Fall.
We have a new listing from our realtor. It is four acres, a house sold as is, a spring for the well, and another building that used to be a pottery shop.  The house needs a lot of work. But the land is beautiful.  And the price is fantastic.  A bit over 50.000 and up next to a mountain.  We need for winter to be over so we can go back up to North Carolina and buy a place.
I was just listening to Crystal Bowersox's new cd. She was a contestant on American Idol last year and in my opinion she was the winner even though she came in second place.  Tiny is experiencing skin allergies. So far the Vet keeps giving him an allergy medicine. But once it is used up he goes right back to scratching his skin raw. While we were on the trip he never scratched. We have changed his food to lamb and brown rice, organic.  The Vet thinking it might be a food allergy. Still scratching. I am lost for what to do.  I think it could be something in his environment but it seems like it started after our dog Girl died and all our cats died.  I think we are getting another dog soon.  This is all the news.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NR8tH9tDGQ

Tiny needs a Friend.

We are searching for another dachshund to be a pal and friend to our doxie Tiny.  He seems lost since our big dog Girl passed away.  And the pet psychic Sonja told me that Tiny wanted us to get another dog.  I wish Tiny could talk.  But I can tell he is sad.
We have been looking on the rescue Dachshund websites.  But it seems there are not a lot near here. The closest one we found was in Ocala.  And I think their dog was almost a year old and not really all dachshund.  I am thinking we will just buy a dachshund.  The rescue ones cost almost as much as getting a new puppy. But then they have done all the medical.  Spaying, shots, heartworm. So, they have to pass that cost along because they are volunteers.

We are also still hoping for a farm in North Carolina or Tenn. And there are a lot more homeless Dachshunds up there so maybe we will just wait until we move.  Because most of these rescue places do not allow you to move very far from where you adopt.

I just found out that Tim Tams are now being produced by Pepperidge  Farm cookies.  They are so good. A chocolate filled and iced cookie.  Very much like a little candy bar.  Tiny has been climbing into the folded towels again.  I must find a closed bed that he likes which gives him the feeling of an igloo.  The weather has been topsy turvy.  That is Florida for you.  I hate it.  If it's cold,  I want it to stay cold, if its hot, stay hot.  But we have had below freezing for two weeks, then up to 80 degree's and warm, then back down to 23 degrees for a week.  I am very tired of it.  I am ready for a move to a new climate. After 25 years of Florida winters I want something different.  And just maybe I'll be able to grow vegetables in the summer without them burning up.

I cooked Christmas dinner for seven family members and I survived.  I usually get very nervous if I volunteer to be a host for a holiday meal. I have never been good at timing things or getting multiple dishes on the table at the same time.  My husband was a great help.  He suggested getting casseroles ready and putting in the refrigerator until time to cook. This helped me not panic.  Our meal turned out very nice.  I wish everyone a Happy New Year and a healthy one.   So far so good.  One day at a time. That is all we have anyway.