THE (second) BEST DAY EVER!!!

When I was turning sixteen (around 1978), all I could think about was getting a cool car.  I wanted one of the muscle cars of the early 70's.  They went fast, looked cool, sounded tough and could smoke their tires.  They were the cars most of the guys I grew up with dreamed of.

A car just like this filled my dreams as young driver.

I had my eye on one in particular.  It was a 1970 or '71 (I believe) Chevy Chevelle SS that a family friend owned.  It had a 396 cubic inch engine, " 4 on the floor", mag wheels, racing stripes up the hood, the works.  It was the perfect car for me.

My parents, and probably too my insurance company, didn't think so and I ended buying a 1970 Volvo sedan.  Not very muscle-y.  And telling the high school girls that I drove a "sexy European import" didn't make as much of an impression as you might think.  Still, my friends and I had tons of memories in that car including the night we had to stuff about 11 of us in on the way to homecoming dance because a friend's car broke down.  Good times.

See!  It's a sexy European import!

Anyway...cars come and go.  Dreams fade and reality sets in.  But sometimes new dreams emerge.  A dream I've been harboring since we moved to Georgia and bought our farm.  Finally that dream came true on, of all days, April Fool's Day.  No...this is not a joke.

In terms of best days of my life, April 1, 2017 has to be near the top.  Of course the day I married Neta was the best day...you know, having time to reflect on its overall impact.  And I'm not just saying that because she corrected me when I left it off the list the first time or two.  Just kidding.  No, this April 1st was one of the best days because finally, after almost 2 years of waiting, dreaming, researching and driving by the store enough times to nearly qualify for a restraining order, I bought a brand new...TRACTOR!!!

It's no muscle car, but it could pick one up.

Man, dog, tractor.  There is a country music song in that picture.

So far, I've only put about an hour and a half of time on it.  I've hauled a few loads with the bucket and cleaned up a pile of sand next to the house and dumped it in a hole behind one of the old barns.  Pretty standard stuff.

Next week my "tillovator" arrives.  I traded my old tractor for it and it's going to come in handy as we expand the garden and also create a wildflower meadow.

It didn't come with a "dog seat", but I'm going to investigate what accommodations can be made.

Along with tilling up more garden space we have a lot of areas we want to clear the timber debris from so we can maintain them a bit better and plant some other trees.  Just having the ability to scoop and haul stuff, in addition to bush-hogging, plowing/tilling and using the bucket to scrape and smooth areas is going to make my job and our lives so much easier.

Farm work just got easier and a whole lot more fun!

Oh Well

Sand!

If only I were referring to the beach.  Despite not living in the desert or at the beach, our house gets its fair share of sand on the floor everyday from what falls off of Lulu Belle after even a brief run outside.  She invariably gets wet - she likes to drink while IN the ponds - and then lays down in the dirt next to the carport (the grass hasn't grown in yet) to sun herself before asking to come inside.  However, that's not our biggest problem with sand.

The well at Terrell's cabin had always been known to pull sand from time to time.  It was a shallow well, unlike the well here at our house which is about 450 feet deep.  This was something we were aware of from other relatives who had used the well.  We figured it would be fine as he lived by himself and didn't use as much water.  On the advice of a local well driller, we had a filter installed in the pump house.  It was installed in mid-November when the plumber was putting the final fixtures in our house.  We figured we'd have to check it and clean it about once every 6 months or so.  By February it was filled to the brim and sand was passing through into the cabin.  Time for Plan B.  Looks like we're going to need a new well for the cabin.

Our well at the main house.  Pretty typical for this area.
Large tank, exposed to the weather.

I called the well driller and he told me that while he'd gladly take my money to put in a new well ($5000 - $6000), he had a cheaper solution for me (I like that guy!).  He recommended a local irrigation expert to tap off the well at my own house and run a pipe about 1000' to Terrell's cabin.  Interesting...and a couple thousand dollars cheaper.  He knew my well configuration as he's the one that put it in about 10-11 years ago.  He said it had a powerful enough pump motor (1.5 HP) to handle up to 6 houses if I wanted to put that many on it.  Good to know, but I only need one more.

I stopped by the irrigation man's office and put my name on the list.  He (Brian) returned my call after about 2 weeks (spring is irrigation season!) and said he could get started in about 4 weeks.  Today is 4 weeks from then.  The trenching has begun!

I told him that seeing his crooked line down the field made me feel better about the
edge of the garden that I plowed last spring.  It's not easy to do without a line or string.

We're taking advantage of the situation to add some outdoor spigots for the garden.  As the water line comes off of our well, it's running across the road and splitting off to a corner of our barn for one spigot.  Brian told me that he had the workings for a second spigot and he'd put it in (no extra charge) anywhere I wanted.  So we're going to have it pop up in the middle of the pasture so we can have water on both ends of our vegetable garden.  The orientation and the location of the garden will have to change so we're not plowing/tilling over top of the water pipe, though it is about 18 or so inches deep.

View from our well.

Spigot at the corner of the barn.

Spigot in the middle of the pasture, looking back toward the barn.
The spigot will be attached to a post (we had) laying next to the trench

It's nice to know that at the end of the day Terrell will have clean water.  If he doesn't, we're all in the same boat.  On top of that, we can irrigate our garden from both sides, which will really come in handy when we start to get our plants and seeds established.

Despite a rain shower that last over two hours and stopped work, they managed to do all of the trenching, dig out out around both well connections, connect all of the piping, cover up and tamp down the trench, smooth out the dirt/grass and get everything finished by the end of the day. A very nice and hard working group of guys.  I'll certainly keep them in mind if I ever need more work like this done.  They know what they're doing.  This is the finished product:

Recent happenings

News of our demise has been greatly exaggerated.  We're still here, despite a nearly month-long layoff.  We're going to try to get you updated on stuff that we've been doing on the farm with the next few pictures and paragraphs.

Neta and I spent a weekend about a month ago doing some pruning of trees, bushes and the huge, overgrown grapevine behind the house.  Neta pruned back some of the blueberries, leaving enough bushes so we'll still have a decent crop, but getting about half of them under control.  I climbed the ladder and significantly cut back the pear tree.  It had gotten to the point that its limbs would bend to the point of breaking as they were so full of pears.  They're not the best of pears, sort of grainy, and they're better for cooking or baking than just eating whole or sliced.  There are plans for other varieties.

Trimming the pear tree

The aftermath.  It needed it.

We showed a before/after photo of the grapevine in our "Looking Back, Looking Ahead" blog post.  Below is a more recent picture after we burned up some of what we cut out.  We are still going to do some more clean up and cut back the vine that was in the fire (it survived) and see how it fares.

After a good pruning and burning (far end)

On a lighter note...this little guy was trapped in a rubbermaid container on the carport.  He was release unharmed near our small barn.

He's a cute little fella, isn't he?

In the spirit of pruning trees, one of our big pecan trees got the ultimate pruning.  If you remember back in October, after the hurricane, we lost a huge portion of one of our pecan trees.

A few weeks back, after a thunderstorm, we lost another piece of the same tree.

We already knew that it had a hollow spot inside and part of the remaining tree was tall enough and close enough to fall and take out the main power line that runs through our property.  We, and the surrounding folks, wouldn't be too happy if it fell and we lost power.  So we decided to call a company to come take it down as it's too big and too precarious for me to tackle alone.  And so it came down, piece by piece.

Crisis averted.

Once it was all down and cut up, he hopped on his tractor with the grappler and hauled it all over in the field where we had some pines cleared last year.  That's when the next guy showed up and turned it all into mulch and dust.

He made pretty quick work of that tree.  In about 20 minutes it was all chopped up and we had a field full of mulch, which has come in handy as we've planted some new trees (details in another blog entry).  The only thing left to grind was the stump, which was probably about 3 feet in diameter at its widest.  It was no match for that machine.

Before

Nothing left but wood chips the size of my thumbnail.

That's all for now.  We'll try to be more regular with our postings, but no guarantees.  The busy spring is upon us and we have lots to do.  We'll do our best to document our adventures with pictures so we'll have more to blog about.  See ya next time!

The Life of Sammie

Sammie became a part of our family on August 13th, 2013.  I wasn't ready for another dog, but Robert was ready to have his own canine companion, so we were looking.  Our first encounter with her was at the house of a rescue volunteer who was fostering her until she'd weaned her puppies.  She came walking into the room and promptly curled up in Robert's lap.  She seemed so sweet and gentle and just wanted to be loved.  We couldn't wait for her to finishing weaning so we could bring her home.  We knew we could provide her with a much better life than she'd experienced so far, which was being left in an abandoned house with newborn puppies.

A few weeks later we brought her home and after only a few days I was experiencing buyer's remorse.  She was only partially house-broken, was aggressive (bossy, not mean) towards other dogs she met on walks, she pulled hard on the leash no matter how many obedience classes she went to and she wanted attention and to be played with...ALL THE TIME!  I knew that everyone else loved her, but I wasn't a fan.  I was going to have to endure.

She got into the flower gardens.  She chased anything that moved.  While waiting for us to let her in the backyard she would get into a crouch and tense up like a coiled spring before almost exploding through the door once the opening was just big enough for her.  She would grab her closest toy, usually a kong or tennis ball and thrash her head side to side, growling menacingly to let all creatures know - mostly squirrels - what she'd do if she caught them.

Inside the house she'd grab her toys wanting to play never-ending tug-o-war with us.  When we got tired of it she'd keep pushing the toy into our laps.  She'd eventually give up and just chew up her toys until they were shredded and the squeakers and/or anything dangling were thoroughly removed.  No toy survived Sammie.  She couldn't have nice things...except us, I guess.

She was a licker.  If you tried to pet her on the head, she'd turn her face up and lick your hand.  If you were wearing shorts, she'd lick the back of your leg.  Any body part that got close to her face got licked.  If you were putting on socks, it was a given she was going to try to lick your toes.

I tried hard not to love her.  She got on my nerves.  She would come over and just stare at me until I finally played with her.  She'd reach up and put a paw on me to get my attention.  When I'd tell her to go lay down, she'd do it again.  She had no manners when it came to leaving me alone.  She demanded that I pay attention to her and love her.

Sammie suffered from not being like other dogs I'd had.  She didn't measure up in my eyes so therefore I tried not to like her.  My other dogs were more laid-back and relaxed.  They didn't dig holes or chase birds or constantly pester me for attention.  They weren't demanding or high maintenance.

She was nothing if not loyal to all of us, even grumpy old me who had done his best to pretend she wasn't worth my time. You can't hold back a tidal wave and I had to grudgingly admit that I was starting to love this pestering, high-energy "no good dog" as I affectionately called her.  She had sweetness about her despite her "play-play-play" mentality.  She loved to lay under our feet when we watched TV.  She was usually positioned so it would require yoga-like moves for any of us to stand up from our chairs or the sofa.  Getting stepped on, I think, was like a hug for her.  It reminded her we were close to her.

She loved to go for a ride in the car...anywhere.  Even to the end of the street and back.  It didn't matter, as long as she was in the car.  She loved to go on walks.  If she could hear the jingle of the leash, she'd come running.  She loved the snow and jumping around in it.  She loved laying on our back deck in Vienna in the sunshine.  She even liked being on the gliders, especially with Neta and me. She had her own bed in Robert's room, but she "snuck" into his bed and slept with him at night.

We weren't sure how the move to Georgia would affect her, but she took it in stride.  The new houses, both rental and our new one, didn't seem to bother her at all.  The biggest change for her was when Lulu Belle came into the picture.

Their friendship was tentative at first.  They were fine for the most part, but if Sammie got too close Lulu would give her a low growl that she wanted to be left alone.  Sammie couldn't seem to understand why this other dog didn't love her when it was obvious that everyone else did.  Lulu Belle was older and more set in her ways and Sammie just had to figure it out.  Lulu did not like to play.  But it didn't take long before Sammie would be laying out in the sunshine of the front yard of our rental house and Lulu plopped down next to and almost on top of her.  Neither moved.  They were now best friends.

I had already changed my mind about Sammie by this point and really loved her, but seeing the two of them together and seeing how loving and caring Sammie was to the older Lulu really struck a chord with me.  Sammie was a different dog now.  She had a companion to run and play with...someone who fully understood her...one dog to another.  They both ended up bringing out the best in each other.

By the time we moved to the farm, we'd debated whether we'd let them run free or have a fenced in area.  We decided to test them off leash a couple of times.  They mostly stuck by us, but Lulu being the original free spirit that she was - finding her as a stray here on the farm - she ran off and Sammie followed her lead.  Sammie came back first, but left again when she saw Lulu off in the distance.

Eventually we started letting them run free around mid-morning.  They'd run off for a few hours and come back by early afternoon, wet, dirty and tired.  They'd lay in the front yard, barking at the rare car or truck that comes down our road.  Lulu would want to come in and sleep, but Sammie maintained front yard vigil until almost dark.  Sometimes she needed to be coaxed.  She loved looking over her domain.

This past Thursday (Feb 9), Sammie was in the front yard as usual and Lulu was in the house.  I went outside to cut up a large limb that broke off one of the large pecan trees.  Lulu ran out with me.  Both dogs hung around me for a few minutes then off they ran towards the big pond.  Within about an hour I finished up what I was doing and came inside.  Just about dusk Lulu came back from the direction of the pond, tail high and wagging, trotting along without a care in the world.  I figured that Sammie would be along shortly.

As the hours ticked by, we kept glancing out the window.  The house was ablaze with all outside lights so she could see it on her way home.  I drove around the property and some of the local roads looking for any sign of her, making one last pass around 11pm.  We left the lights on and fixed a bed for her in the crate out on the carport hoping to find her on the doorstep when we woke up the next morning.

The next morning, with no sign of her, the feeling that something bad had happened took hold. I took several walks around our farm and the farm next door looking for her.  Neta and I drove some other roads looking that evening.  On Saturday we called the people that own the next farm over to get permission to walk around their property where Neta and I spent several hours, but no sign of Sammie.

We knew that if she could come home she would, so our gut tells us that probably a coyote or something got her.  We've looked in all of the places that we can, but the reality is that she's very likely gone and somewhere we can't find her.  What troubles me the most is how with our previous dog Sadie, when she finally got too sick to go on, Neta and I took her to the vet and had her put down.  We were there with her to comfort her and did all we could to ease her suffering right up to the very end.  I think about poor Sammie, out there alone and none of us were able to be there to comfort her.  I've had that thought since the night she didn't come home and it fills my thoughts and makes me heart ache for her.

I think about her all the time and will for a while, I'm sure.  Despite my early attempts to ignore her and not like her, she just kept putting a paw on me, looking at me with those eyes and she asked me to love her.  She was pushy and wouldn't take no for an answer.  She was not like any other dog I've had...and like all the others she melted my heart.  What I wouldn't give to feel that paw again.  I will truly miss her.  We all will.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Before we get too far, we want to give a shout out to Neta's cousin Pam Hagan King for the housewarming gifts she brought us just before the holidays, including this sign.  It was the first thing we hung up in the new house!

So true!

One year (and two days) ago, we blogged about Looking Ahead to 2016 and had a list of our Top Ten items that we wanted to accomplish.  They were:

1.  Finalize our house plans - Done
2.  Clean out both houses - Done
3.  Renovate the Cabin - Done
4.  Clean up/grade the yard around the cabin - Partially done
5.  Demolish the farm house - Done
6.  Build a new house - Done
7.  Buy a new tractor - Not done, though we did get the newer one running, but it now has a flat tire.
8.  Get the land ready for gardens in 2017 - Done, ahead of schedule as we had a garden in the spring/summer
     of 2016.
9.  Clear/Thin the Timber - Done/Done.
10.  Clear brush and small trees along the lane - Not done.

So we're 7 1/2 for 10.  Not bad.  I guess we get a C, though we're inclined to give ourselves a higher grade based on extra credit for knocking out the bigger and harder tasks.

We've come up with a new list for 2017 and in a year we'll look back and see how we did. The list for 2017 is:

1.  Buy a Tractor - Still on the list.  Along with the normal garden prep, we've also added clearing the debris from the timber operations.  We want to clean up some of those areas so we can plant (fruit and ornamental) trees around the farm.

It looks fun, but I need something flashier...with a front end loader.

2.  Finish grading the front yard of the cabin - While our builder smoothed out one load of dirt, we still need a bit more to fill in some low areas.  We'll also do some landscaping and plant some flowers and shrubs to "class up the joint".

3.  Clear brush and small trees along the lane - Even though it's officially a county road, we see it as our lane.  We want to clean it up and make it a bit nicer as you approach the house.

4.  Prune the grapevine and pull the vines from the catawba (catalpa) tree  - OK.  This isn't entirely fair, as we did this one today.  But it's been on our "unofficial list" for a while. The grape vine had been extremely overgrown for quite some time and was barely producing.  It had grown up into the catawba tree so badly it almost didn't look like a catawba tree anymore.  We cut every vine going into the tree and pulled almost all of them out, except for a few we couldn't reach.  (Clicking on each picture will enlarge it for better detail.)

BEFORE

AFTER

5.  Start our orchards - We have no idea how far we'll get this year, but we will at least get started.  We hope to eventually have apples, cherries, peaches, apricots, plums, persimmons and many other fruits.  We currently have two mango trees and one avocado tree that will need some help from item No. 8.

6.  Get our gliders refinished and on the front porch - We're going to see if a local body shop can sandblast them and give them a nice, long-lasting finish.  They'll make a nice addition to the front porch.  Perfect for evening relaxing.

Our two vintage gliders from a 2014 picture

7.  Build a farmhouse table for the dining room - If all goes well, it will be built with a combination of salvaged wood from the original house and some new wood where needed.

8.  Clean out the little barn, make it a workshop and add a greenhouse on the back - Big plans here!  There is a lot of work that we want to do to this building.  New posts on the overhang, new siding, new windows, new doors, electricity, add the greenhouse, etc.

9.  Plant a wildflower meadow - We did a small corner of one field last year as a test.  It worked!  This year we go bigger.  WAY BIGGER!!!

10.  Put up some bird and bat houses and bird/hummingbird feeders - With so many birds around, we want to do all we can to be good neighbors to them.  We have a nice purple martin house and we'll get more for other varieties as well.  We can't wait to see how many hummingbirds we can attract to our feeders.

This gives us something to shoot for.  We'll be happy with the same success rate as this past year, though if I don't get a tractor there will be a lot of sulking, pouting and...overgrowth.

Farm Dogs

Since moving to the farm we've had to figure out what to do with the dogs for recreation and potty breaks.  We've been walking them every 3-4 hours.  Neta would walk them in the morning before she left for work and I walked them most of the rest of the time, including right before bed.  We also created a (cheap, simple) fenced area in the backyard for when we just want to give them some fresh air for a longer period of time.  At our last rental house, both dogs managed to find a way out.  Sammie seemed confused and was looking for a way back in.  Lulu Belle ran...and ran...and ran...until she got tired and then came back.

One is looking for freedom.  The other is happy at home.

After moving here the fence worked well for the first couple of weeks.  Eventually Lulu figured out that she could dig a hole, then use her head to lift the fence enough to squeeze out.  She's obviously part rat...or convict...take your pick.  She usually comes back when she's too tired for any more shenanigans.  Sammie knows how good she's got it and stays put, relaxing, watching birds, barking at squirrels and threatening their lives with complete and total evisceration.

It's wasn't much, but it let them run off-leash. Now it sits empty, like Alcatraz - minus tourists.

We'd thought about having a fence built (at some point in the future) to encompass the entire yard directly behind the house all the way to the pine trees, but figured we'd put the dogs to the test and see if they could be trusted running free.  We've got 50 acres so they've got room to roam and explore.  The folks who run the quail farm down the road told us that it wouldn't bother them as there was nothing for the dogs to get into as the quail are contained in houses.  Knowing there was little they could bother of our neighbors, we let them go on a test run.  Lulu took off like a shot, while Sammie hung around for a bit, not really sure about this "freedom" thing.  Eventually she ran off too.

They were both gone for about 10-15 minutes then Sammie came back first ("Are you sure I'm okay to run away like this?").  Lulu came back a few minutes later...in a full out gallop. She may be old (the vet estimates between 8 - 12), but the old girl can still run...like an Olympic sprinter.  Both dogs ran around us, tails wagging for a minute or two, then off Lulu ran again.  This time towards the big pond.  Sammie gave her a good head start, but soon caught up to her.  They were gone for a about 20 mins when Sammie appeared.  Walking slowly, out of breath and finally stopping and laying down.  Freedom will require some getting used to...and building up some stamina.  Lulu eventually came back.  She was wet and dirty, but not smelly.  After drying her off with an old towel she was fine.  First test went well.

Two exhausted dogs!

Last Monday, we tried them again.  Once again, Lulu took off like the dog catcher was chasing her, though this time Sammie did too.  In about 20 mins or so, here comes Lulu, dripping wet from head to tail.  Luckily the ponds aren't stagnant or stinky, just wet and cold.  Sammie came back dry as a bone.  Both dogs were happy, so we let them run around for a while longer.  Eventually Lulu dried off and they again came in and collapsed...dog-tired.

Tuesday, while I was the only one home and working, I let them go again.  This time both dogs came back wet and happy.  Sammie's really starting to get the hang of enjoying "farm life".

Yesterday I let them out around the middle of the afternoon while I continued working.  I would see them run by the window of my office from time to time, Lulu even stopped to look in a couple of times and after about 15-20 mins, she was done and ready to come in.  I brushed the dirt off her and she came in and laid down, her tongue almost dragging the ground.  A few minutes later I saw Sammie when I looked outside...keeping an eye on me.

Keeping an eye on the house.

While we still walk them in the morning and at night, both dogs seem to be getting used to the farm and their freedom.  They don't seem to stray too far, though the quail farm is a favored destination, as I'm sure it's tantalizing for Lulu's instincts as a bird dog.  Once the spring comes I'm sure we'll worry about them encountering critters that could do them harm (snakes, gators, hateful mockingbirds, etc.), but hopefully they'll gain a pretty good sense of danger vs. fun.  We don't worry too much about Lulu as she was a stray that ended up on the farm.  If you remember we found her, living as a "squatter", in this house while it was still under construction.  Sammie was also a stray (abandoned house in NC with her litter of puppies), but we have no idea what environment she grew up in.  Either way, they both seem to be adapting to life as farm dogs and ending the day like this:

Too tired to even eat dinner!
That's her throne - an old fold-up futon in front of my office desk.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!