In Florida ...

Had a fine day. Did some clean up around the place. At the end of each 1,100 mile drive, the grounds present a need for whacking back the wilderness. Much like that Husqvarnah TV commercial. haha. However; in Florida ... I have a few neat toys to use. It's sort of entertainment, as well. Low tech and understandable.

We have a cat here. It came with the place. Simba. Young, lean, male, Gold striped. I've made friends with him, and he's a bud now. We leave food in the garden shed and he helps himself. He helped himself a bit too quickly this time though, and when he made his appearance today ... he was pretty pleased to polish off a bowl of dry dog food. He's a mouser. And, a lizard wrangler.

I find the atmosphere is causing the brain to began cooking up some neat projects. The back room is working on all sorts of stuff, in addition to the required placement of tools and machines.

Local yellow pages arrived in the mailbox. It has some insulation contractors listed. We shall look into that. I researched the foam kits on the net ... it's possible ... but I'd like a neat job if I'm going to have to look at it for some time. I would suspect the first job you spray might not be your best. And ... the kits seem to suggest that maintaining the temperature of the component chemicals within a certain bracket is key - and a potential mess if it warms too much. I'll talk to a couple of folks first. Finally - Monday is here. Weekends are nice ... but the world is a different place Sat. and Sun., and you can only go so far in researching.

Another one of our projects is panning out. When we arrived here ... we were struck by the wonderful "feeling" of the area around the shop and wooded lane. The tall long leaf pines. The slope to the land is just right to provide a sence of direction and placement - if you follow. When I am on a table flat landscape; there's no "up at the house" ... no "down at the shop". I'm happier with the gentle fall of the landscape here, and it seems to provide privacy around the shop area. We were pleased at how big the 4.11 acres actually seemed. But we realized much of the "feeling" was being created by "borrowing" from the natural state of the neighboring wooded areas. Hummm ...

And so ... we put our Realtor on the job of seeing just who owned those borrowed woods. It came back that the owner lived in .... Hawaii! Well, that was unexpected. I suspected this might have been a "previous idea". We asked our "people" to contact the fella. He was suspicious of the contact. Hesitant to respond. But ... our professionals smoothed thru that, and the guy warmed to the point of considering selling the adjoining 2 acres. This all took a fair amount of time to work thru from initial research. He finally made an offer. We countered. He accepted. We add 2 for 6.11 acres. More room to walk around and think. Better chance of our atmosphere staying as it is. A real luxury at this point in my life. Some solitude and a buffer zone within which I can think, work, and dream. And, at about 80% less then in Maryland!

The horribly depressed state of housing and property has been a huge help. It won't be as ideal when we sell our Maryland property, but things up there are close enough to Washington (50 miles) that it's more stable for selling. That was part of the model for the move. This has turned out to be a great choice for us. It's funny - the locals don't fully appreciate the things we see here. Most have lived here all their lives. And, they ask us ... "What made you pick here?" ... with a slightly bemused note to their question. However: when you talk to others (transplants) like the fellow we talked to today ...

This man is retired military. He was a flier. 27 years I believe he said. And ... he and his wife own a great diner we frequent here. He has a nice place on the town's lake community. He's actually from ..... Maryland. Imagine. Well, after moving all around for his service years ... he went back to Maryland to retire. His folks are still there. He's a couple of years younger then me. He and his wife were there for six months. Hated it. Hated what it had become. And .. when I told HIM what I saw here ... he knew exactly what I met. People who are respectful. "Yes Sir and Ma'am" are part of each exchange. He didn't seem real pleased with Maryland politics either ... hahah. And I told him of the vast difference between employees there and here. In Md., if you ask anyone's employees - "How are you today?" ... they will most likely tell you "Sick of my job, the boss is an idiot, I can't wait until my shift is over". Something like that. Here, you find people that will bust their back to help you, and will hold a genuine conversation with you while they help you. They don't just read the tags on the boxes.

Another thing here ... lest you suspect that maybe this area is just a bunch of bumpkins 50 years or so behind the national curve. I've specifically noticed that people of all origon, interact amazingly well here. You'd think that Maryland is right up with the state of the art sensitivities. That they have it all worked out. Well, it's not, and they don't. It's quite polarized and bitter. I've experienced dozens of confirmations to my observations both there and here. It was one of the things I particularly noticed on my scouting expedition early in our hunt. This is just a nice place to live, and people get along.

Well, guess you can tell I wasn't ready for sleep. Just felt like chatting a bit. Thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to getting these shops in order, and getting a bunch of work completed. I will have a stamp for the work begun in Md. and completed in Fla. And, I will have a stamp for the Fla. work. It will come to pass.

Take Care,
Gary

Glad you've found the South as welcoming as Kelli and I have. Neat that you could expand the wilderness 50 percent so quickly.

Just wondering, is the Corner Cafe the restauant you refer to? In any case, I found it very pleasant and family run.

Kent

Hi Kent
Yes - the Corner Cafe'. Great place. Good people. Perry and Gina. Hah - odd you found it. Glad you did.
Yeah ... I can put another couple of barbed wire perimeter fences to keep the insurance spies out! Haha.
Gary

That is great to hear you have more space. I think you will really like it here.You are moving quickly and you look like you made the right decision.

Hi Don,

I'm happy with the decision. I like the area. Good people. I'm sure the property will be good to us.

It will have it's things we have to be aware of. Cautions. We'll learn the best ways to do things. But - there is just soooo much to enjoy and work with. It's home now. Maryland is just something that we have to clean up so it doesn't hang over us. That will take time. But it will be one thing at a time ... like all processes.

Really looking forward to getting some work out the door from here.

Gary

Diamond back and small scorpions.

Thanks. Yes, I'm very aware. The threat has robbed a good bit of joy. Once the story is breeched, everybody has a story worse then the last. There are now a couple less poisonous snakes around here. I hate snakes. I am quite concerned for my wife, grandkids, even my simple pets. I am aware. But I can't focus any more closely on this or it just sucks the life out of the days. These horrible thongs are something God has seen fit to curse the earth with. I can't fix it. We will be as careful as we can. There are alternatives. But they can include poisonous people, poisonous environments, and poisonous lifestyles. Just the effort to remove all risk can become a poisonous mindset. I'll do my best.
Gary

No snakes here in Alaska.

Except here in Juneau, when the legislature is in session.

Here's the snake story from my recent visit to BPS.

Gary and I were discussing the plague that is the venomous snake. I then asked Gary if he had heard of the "The Irwin Effect" of course he had not because I had coined it. I explained that the Effect was named for the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, God rest his soul. The gist is that rarely is it the perceived great dangers in life that lead to our downfall or, in Irwin's case, death. Now, I know that was not very humorous, but as it turned out very prophetic. Our very next object to remove from the trailer was on of the heaviest lathes of the move. We we scratching our heads trying to remember how we had managed to get this off its rolling cradle and into the trailer for the trip down. We proceeded to lasso the base of the lathe with chain and pull against an I beam on the porch. We were both anxious about sliding the lathe onto it's castered base. We were so focused on the machine in front of us we didn't even notice the several hundred pound pentagraph until it slammed to the trailer deck inches from our feet. We commented on how close we had come to that "stingray". To this moment we still don't know how that wide based item was pulled over.

Gary, may you always see the stingrays coming and never fear the crocs, no matter how big.

Kent

People are just wired that way. We worry endlessly about events or situations that are low probability but beyond our control, like shark attacks or riding an airliner that crashes. We hardly worry at all about the things that are actually most likely to kill us, like heart disease or car crashes.

That perception of something being out of our hands or beyond our capability to handle is what worries us, when what we really SHOULD be worried about is the little things like always wearing a seat belt or skipping that next hamburger instead. Just knowing about it intellectually doesn't really help all that much, otherwise we'd all be at our ideal BMI and exercising regularly instead of eating microwave popcorn and watching TV.

Just human nature, I guess.

Geesh ... What a buzz kill!!! No hamburgers. No
Popped corn. EXERCISE!!!!

Yeah, I know. If I didn't have to walk the dog, I'd be even more of a couch potato than I am. Good thing there aren't any hamburger joints within walking distance though, or I'd gain weight even doing that.

Keep the shop door closed!

I do. And the trailer ramps.

Living down in diamondback / copperhead country, you're gonna have to get in the habit of carrying around a "reach-under" stick when you walk about the property. It's what you use instead of your hands when you're tempted to just "reach under" something out in the yard or in the darker corners of the shop / storage sheds. I suspect that it's not going to be long until you flip over an old plywood scrap or a blown-in half-flattened cardboard box that's been laying about in the weather and find an unexpected and unwelcome reptile "visitor" coiled underneath.

It'll get your heart rate up for sure no matter what, but you're far better off when you do it standing up on your hind legs and three or four feet away at the end of your stick. Finding a poisonous snake right in your face while you're bent over picking up a piece of litter off the ground is a sure way to see just how far you can instantaneously levitate, but it's going to be hell on your back afterwards even if you don't get bitten. .

You've probably got a half-dozen straight-handled shovels sitting in a shed somewhere anyway, so just try to leave one leaning up under the eaves nearby any place where you're likely to be out straightening things up in the yard. That way, you'll always have one within reach and won't be tempted to just "reach under" like you did back in MD. When you see old photos of farmers down south you'll notice that they're almost always carrying around a hoe over their shoulder, and the reason isn't just because of the weeds.

It also wouldn't hurt to learn the difference between the poisonous snakes and the more common king snakes, since the latter can and do eat the former and it's helpful to have them around the property. If you just go chopping off heads every time you see a snake down there you'll likely soon find yourself with a rat problem, since the winters thereabout aren't really cold enough to keep the rodents in check.

Well, thats comforting!

Comforting or not, there's few things that will get the 'ol blood pumping faster than a surprise face--to-face with a snake. Even if it's just a harmless king snake, there just seems to be a direct-wired connection to the adrenal glands when you come upon one unexpectedly.

Besides, Gary is a "carve a fancy walking stick" kind of guy anyway. He's probably got a half-dozen sitting around in a bin somewhere. Maybe it'll get him back into the air-cane business.

Hi Sean,
Gee ... Makes me long for snow!
Hey ... Somehow I missed this post. Funny you mention walking sticks. I've been setting aside neat sticks here and there. Can't bring myself to get rid of a neat stick. I'll have to make a therapy stick from time to time. NOT that I NEED a THERAPY stick!!!

Gary

Well, you will now.

And the first time one of those sticks saves you from getting a handful of rattlesnake or a closeup with a copperhead, it'll all be TOTALLY worth it!