Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

It was just about the end of my workday.  Neta had been getting alerts on her phone about the "Severe Thunderstorm Watch", then eventually the "Severe Thunderstorm Warning.  I was blithely sitting at the computer, but I could see the through the window that the wind was really picking up.  It was really blowing at one point and I took notice that it was more than just a breeze.

Not Neta. Not Emily.

Neta and Emily went outside to grab some plants that were perched on the wall of our carport.  I decided I'd get up and look around.  The wind got even stronger.  I walked outside and Neta and Emily were scrambling to grab potted plants.  One large one had already blown off the wall and broken.  I was surprised at how strong the wind was.

It blew a cushion off one of the gliders as it whipped around a corner of the house, but we recovered it before it got too far.  It almost blew a rocking chair off the front porch.  It appears that the one plant pot was our only casualty.

I've seen plenty of Thunderstorms and strong winds from those storms, but this was different.  As we're surrounded by cotton fields, and have all of that open space around us, the wind had plenty of room to blow, and blow it did.  It reminded of me the Derecho that blew through the DC/MD/VA area a few years back.  It was ferocious.  I've never heard the wind whistle during a thunderstorm before, but this time it did.  And the funny thing was, we never really got much of a storm, just a lot of wind and a little bit of rain.  It was more of a wind storm or a strong front pushing through very fast.  I took some pictures looking out over the field from under the huge oak in our front yard, but it couldn't do it justice.  Trust me when I say it was awesome to watch.

What are we thinking?

Some of you know why we moved to Georgia and some of you don't.  We thought it might be best to explain ourselves.

Neta's grandmother has lived at the farm for at least 50 years and the farm has been in Neta's family since before the civil war.  The main part of the current house was built in the 1890's.  The property itself is just a little under 50 acres.  Neta's dad currently lives on the farm and takes care of the place. 

Google Map Link

LEGEND

A. Main house
B. Large barn
C.  Small barn
D. Small pond
E. Old shelter
F. Big pond
G.  I-16 (Savannah - Macon)
H. Goat barn
I.  Delmas Strickland Rd.
J. Starling Rd.

Last year Neta's grandmother had to be put into a nursing home due to Alzheimer's.  The family was worried they were going to lose the farm due to Medicaid rules.  Neta and I had always talked of owning a large piece of land, though we'd always thought it would be someplace in the mountains of Colorado or out west, areas we both love.  We'd always wondered what it might be like to own the farm in Georgia, but never gave it any serious thought.  So when the possibility of the family losing it came up, Neta and I had the crazy idea to approach her Uncle Donald, as he oversees everything for Grandma, and see if he would consider selling us the farm.  He was open to the idea, even somewhat relieved, as he was happy to keep it in the family and also getting tired of maintaining the place.  Later we found out that the farm was not in Grandma's name (she has a "life interest"), so Medicaid wouldn't be able to take it as her asset, but Donald was still willing to sell it to us, again to be rid of the headache of keeping the place up. With a handshake agreement, we started down the path to owning the farm and figuring out how to buy it.

We figured we'd take out a second mortgage, buy the place and eventually move down.  We came up with something of a 5 to 10 year plan of eventually moving down here.  The more we looked at things the more it made sense to make the move as soon as possible.  We would sell our house in Vienna, get remote jobs hopefully in the DC area and escape the rat race of the DC area.  We'd rent a house near the farm while we fixed the place up and start living a better, quieter and much simpler life.  Of course a "simpler life" is a relative term when you have to get all of that in place first.

So far we've managed to get the remote jobs in place.  Neta will be working remotely for a company out of Raleigh, NC and I contract through a DC company that supports the DC Government. Our house still isn't sold, but we're under contract (again) and things are looking positive on that front.  We have our rental "starter farm" in place down here.  We live just a few miles outside of Statesboro (think: Allman Brothers) about 15 miles from the farm.  And yes, now that the moving trucks are unloaded and the essential boxes are unpacked, life is quite a bit simpler, much quieter and considerably cheaper...well...once we no longer have that Vienna mortgage to pay.

Our ultimate goal is to fix up the main house for Neta's dad first.  After that (or possibly simultaneously) we plan to build our own home where the shelter is, overlooking the big pond.  Eventually we envision adding a large vegetable garden and a variety of fruit trees.  Along with the blueberry bushes that are on the farm there is also a pear tree, a grape vine, a couple of fig trees and about 25 pecan trees.  The big pond is stocked with bass, crappie and bluegill.  There is also a gator or two and tons of frogs.

So there you have it.  As you can see there is a ton of work to do.  We have land to clear, barns and buildings to clean out, a house to remodel and another to build from scratch.  We don't think we'll be bored.  With all that HGTV watching we've done over the last few years, it should be easy!

Blueberry Picking Time!

Today after meeting with family to celebrate Neta's grandmother's 98th birthday and go out to lunch, we did a little shopping for some household items, then we headed to Pembroke to the farm for some blueberry picking.

There are about 10 or so blueberry bushes on the farm and every year they are full of berries around this time of year.  Usually we get the last of them when we come down for the family reunion, but now we'll have access to them during the entire season.

Today was a nice day, weather-wise, as a front came through and cooled things off to the mid to low 80's with a nice breeze.  There were a few storms around, but they managed to hold off so we could do some picking.

A very small sample.

6 delicious quarts (there is more not pictured)

As you can see we brought home enough to snack on, have blueberry pancakes with and perhaps allow Neta to make her famous Blueberry Buckle...and probably freeze some for future rounds of those previously mentioned treats.
So now that you know, if you ever want lots of fresh blueberries, all you have to do is come visit us starting around the last weeks of June through about the middle of July. 

Settling In

Our rental house is somewhat of a "starter farm" for us, though we have no intentions of actual farming, or even gardening for that matter.  There is, however, a lot of lawn to maintain.  The overall property sits on about 8 acres, but we only have to keep 5 acres cut.  The other 3 acres are part of the "farm" that a local farmer uses and he handles all of the grass cutting around the adjacent barns.

The temporary homestead

The house is well shaded, especially with the huge oak in front.  The property is full of pecan trees.  There is also a wild cherry, a pear tree, some large pines, several large camellias, some dogwoods and a couple of grapevines (they appear to be scuppernong grapes).

As for grass cutting, when we looked at the place several weeks ago, we noted that the grass was quite high and asked if it would be cut prior to us moving in.  We were assured that it would be and saw some emails back and forth between the rental agency and the property owner, where he told the agency to have it cut and perhaps multiple times if necessary.  We arrived to a "field", some of it almost 3 feet tall.  Good thing the owner left us his lawn tractor.  After almost 7 hours of cutting (Robert helped) over the course of 3 days, we finally tamed the beast.  It should be much easier next time, though I will point out to the rental agency that they really let us down on the grass-cutting front.

A few other items of note, it's been cooler (off and on) than expected.  Oh sure, it's still in the mid to upper 90's everyday, including hitting 100 on Monday, but we've gotten a lot of afternoon clouds and storms each day, so the clouds make for a much cooler opportunity to be outside and cut the grass.  This weekend is shaping up for a cool down to the upper 80's.

Speaking of storms, we had the lights flicker off and on a few times on Tuesday.  This caused the not yet armed alarm system in the house to start beeping.  In the process or trying to silence it, it appeared that I'd armed it.  It told us we had 50 seconds to exit the house.  I wasn't worried that the place was going to explode, just that it thought we were leaving for a spell (note my use of southern phrasing).  Pushing more buttons, while silencing it, only seemed to add to the fact that things were not well with the system.  I called the alarm company and when they called back (I was outside) they had Neta "disarm" the system by pulling out a wire from the control panel.  We called the alarm company on Wednesday to get things set up, but he wasn't able to fix it and get it back online immediately.  He is supposed to call and return today to get things operating.  The landlord would like us to use it and it'll help with insurance rates (his and ours).

I wish I had some funny stories to tell about our wacky adventures, but so far, it's just been the normal, day-to-day stuff.  I do have some encounters with nature I can share.

He thinks he's a "ninja" turtle, but I could see him.

The other day while I was working, Neta and the kids came back from grabbing lunch and they walked out to the end of the driveway instead of coming in the house.  They'd discovered a turtle.  I went out a bit later to discover this:



He had buried himself in the tire tracks of the road in front of our house (yes, we live off of a dirt road, or "off the paved road" as they like to say down here.  I decided to "rescue" him and picked him up by the back of the shell, discovering that he was what appears to be a Florida Softshell Turtle.  I placed him in the grass across the road.

Be free!  Go play amongst the other turtles!

Later that evening, Robert and I discovered either this guy or another one just like it making its way across our front yard, heading again towards the road.  I figured that whatever happened I would let nature run its course.

Back to the grass cutting one more time.  As I was finishing up the lawn yesterday evening, I noticed a snake slithering away from the roar of my mighty lawn tractor.  I decided to investigate.  I wasn't, at the time, able to distinguish what kind of snake it was, but he wasn't aggressive as he was high-tailing it away from me.  I followed, partly to identify and partly to keep him moving away from the yard.  I took a visual note of what he looked like and managed to figure out (through the use of Google Images) that he was a black rat snake.

Not the actual snake that I saw.

As I was cutting grass I did not have my phone with me so I did not get a picture.  I'd pretty much figured that he was harmless.  He was between 3 and 4 feet long.  I figured he wasn't a cottonmouth and I couldn't see a rattle so I wasn't worried.  Not that I was going to check his dental work or see if he'd like me to hold him, but snakes in general aren't high on my worry list.  I may change my tune the first time I encounter my first poisonous one.

The next wildlife issue is figuring out a way to give our dog, Sammie, a place to run around in the yard without turning her completely loose.  We're working on it...

Feel free to comment, say hello, subscribe to this blog...whatever it is you can or want to do.  We'd love to hear from you.

Arrival!

We're finally here!

For those of you hoping for farm stories filled with chickens, goats and large swaths of tilled land full of fruits and veggies, you will be sadly disappointed.  Instead you're getting a tale of a harrowing journey, exhaustion, lot of sweat and tons of gnats.

We left Northern Virginia on Friday evening and drove our convoy into the driving downpours that blew through the area that night.  The fact that the big truck could only do about 60 - 65 mph coupled with the rain and typical DC rush hour traffic, we only made it as far as Emporia, VA.

HOUSE UPDATE - If you read the first post you would know that the buyer's were trying to salvage the deal after having their financing fall through.  We had to place the house back on the market.  Well, we're back under contract with them.  Their underwriter feels confident that the financing will go through and we should have the house sold by July 7th, if not sooner.  We remain hopeful.

Back to our story... The next day was a long, long drive.  We stopped a lot, but for good reasons: food, bathroom breaks and to give the dog a chance to walk around and drink some water.  We arrived at the rental house close to 7pm.  Neta took her car, drove into town and got the key from the rental agency's dropbox (along with some much needed dinner items) and we quickly unloaded the small truck, which we smartly packed with just a few essential items, such as mattresses, some kitchen and bathroom stuff and whatever was left that wouldn't fit on the big truck.  We crashed hard that night.

As you can see, the truck was packed
full and very intricately.

The guys we hired to help us unload arrived at 9:30am on Sunday.  They were great.  We contracted them for 4 hours and they had us unloaded in 3.  After that, it was all up to us.  We were surrounded by boxes, chaos and one very bewildered dog.

The unpacking has moved steadily along.  The dog has settled down and gotten used to things, though she can't seem to decide where to lay as there is so much room and we are so spread out.  This house is huge; about 3100 sq ft.  The high-speed internet - vital to our jobs and therefore survival - has been hooked up, or else you wouldn't be reading this.  The grass needs a serious mowing; there's 5 acres of it.  We need to go grocery shopping.  There is so much to do.

Today the temp was 100 and the gnats have been relentless.  We had storms roll through around 5 or 6pm this evening, putting the kibosh on my plans to cut more of the lawn.  We had stuff just outside of the carport that we had to pull under it.  Later we loaded up the remaining rental truck with stuff that we're taking to "our farm" tomorrow.  About that time the breeze blew in and the temps had dropped into the low 80's.  Neta and I sat down on the porch glider, watched the sunset below the low clouds and enjoyed the nice breeze.

Every night since arriving, when I step outside I see nothing but stars, and I hear nothing but tree frogs.  We're a long way from city/suburb life...and I'm happy.

The first steps...

I guess we have to start somewhere.  In order to make this move and huge (and very happy) change in our lives, we have to sell our house.  It went on the market and we accepted an offer in just 4 days.  Not so fast!  The buyer's financing was denied with about 10 days left to go until our closing date of June 17th.  By this time we'd already signed a lease on a rental in Statesboro, GA.

Back to the beginning we go.  The buyers are still trying to salvage the deal, so stay tuned.  As of today, June 18th, there appears to be hope, but we are being cautious and not getting our hopes too high.  In the meantime, the house is back on the active market and we're rolling with whatever happens as it is out of our control.

Tuesday was truck packing day.  Turns out it was a two-truck (also known as "Tu-Pack") packing day.  We hired pros to help us pack the truck and when they couldn't get even a sheet of paper wedged in any further, we looked at the remaining pile and knew we were doomed to renting a second truck.  Not part of the original plan.  So now I am driving the big truck (27 footer) and towing Robert's car, Neta is driving a 15 foot truck, Emily is driving her own car and Robert is driving Neta's car.

We are enjoying a bit of a break visiting my mother, relaxing in the pool, recharging our batteries and making a quick (long-promised) trip to NYC before heading south.  We hope the unpackers that we hired on the GA end are just as efficient and personable as the ones we had in Virginia.