Define Old.

10/26/2024 It was 11 years ago today that we arrived on Roatan with 2 dogs and a cat. Eleven years, it seems like it was a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then. I honestly thought that was my last move. I guess the joke was on me. In Dec of 2019 I moved to Arizona, in August of 2021 we moved to Kentucky and in August of 2023 I moved to North Carolina. Am I here permanently? No. No, I’m not. I hope the final move will be back to the Pacific Northwest.

It is still summer here, with temperatures in the high 70s—today, it hit 81. We’ve only had a few cold nights; in fact, I had a fan in the bedroom window the past few nights. It’s great weather, I’ll take it while it lasts. I think Max wonders why he can’t jump in the pool.

Bill decided to visit to do a few things, like put water seal tape on the roof seams where it leaks on the porch. The whole porch needs redone but that’s for another time. The boys and I live on the porch.

He got that done and also poured concrete at the edge of the garage. He did the other side last year due to water drainage.

This is what he did earlier to the side by the walk. Man, I need to pressure wash again.

This is what it looked like. I had a large plant sitting on each side of the garage.

He dug it out and formed it. However, he forgot to bring his concrete tools so he made do with what he had.

It turned out OK for not having tools. There are fire ant nests all along the edge on the left. I hate those things.

My friend who I worked with in PA now lives 30 minutes away. She invited me to see Motown at a theater in Goldsboro. We went out for dinner before. The show was OK, kind of humorous to be honest. They did Jump, which is not Motown but David Lee Roth and Van Halen. Then they did some Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson, neither of whom are “Motown.” They didn’t suck but it’s totally not what we thought it would be.

We closed the pool on Oct. 6, which was a sad day. I floated for about an hour before I was ready to get out and shut it down.

When we put the pool up we/I never did anything around the bottom of the pool. I couldn’t mow or weed whack there for fear of hitting the pool. I decided to get a 6″ high aluminum border for around the bottom. It was currently weeds and I was tired of looking at them. While Bill was here he started to do the metal border. It required digging a trench to put it in then using a board and a mallet and pounding it into the dirt.

You can see in this pic that there is nothing around the edge where it meets the ground. It looked bad.

However, Bill got partway around the pool and I wasn’t liking what he was doing. I think either he didn’t want to do it or, I don’t know. I told him to stop, and I would finish it. In this photo I was pulling out what he had previously pounded into the ground and starting over, about 1/5 of the way around the pool. It was really difficult to get the metal out of the ground.

I finally got it out and started digging a new ditch for it to go into. It was slow going and really hard on my poor hands. I was using the tool on the far right of the pic to dig. I found if I wet the soil it was easier.

Margy came over while I was cutting cardboard. She ran home quick, changed her clothes and grabbed some more cardboard and helped me finish this.

I went to Lowe’s and bought 10 bags of rubber mulch. I then sprayed any weeds that were left with weed killer and covered that all with cardboard. I wet the cardboard and flattened it down then dumped the rubber mulch on it. What a difference. Only 3 back-breaking days but it’s done.

It’s so peaceful here with no houses or roads behind us. I pretty much don’t like neighbors so this is the best spot in a neighborhood for someone like me.

Soybeans, the whole field behind me is soybeans.

The crazies. These two are such good dogs.

My garden ended with a pile of dirt with white stones in it. I hated it. I started picking the white stones out and putting them in the wheelbarrow. Then I took them around the fence and dumped them. There were already white stones around the A/C unit.

I raked and picked and raked and picked some more.

With most of the rocks out of there, I then decided to make the flower bed bigger. Just what I need, more flowers.

You can see where it used to be by the dark mulch. I only had to buy 3 more stones.

I think I ended up moving the rocks a few times. There were also more white rocks to remove.

While Bill was here we got a half yard of topsoil. Topsoil here is really sand with a little dirt in it. Notice my yard? It’s not really grass, more a grouping of different weeds.

In spring I’ll get some manure, peat moss and a few bags of soil raked into this before I plant.

Nothing fancy but Bill cut a timber to hold the stones in around the A/C unit on each side. Once it rains and the dirt gets washed down in it will look better. And the stones are not all over the yard anymore.

My neighbor messaged me that she had a turtle in her yard. I said, cool. She responded, can you come move it? I said sure.

I’m not sure how she got in their yard but she was desperately trying to get under the fence and back into the field. Joyce opened the gate and I picked her up and set her on the other side of it. She took off into the field. It was a yellow-bellied slider and I’m pretty sure it was the same one that attacked (J/K) Barrio and that we saw digging a hole for eggs.

It’s dinner time for the boys and then we’re going for a walk.

I was hoping it had cooled down some, but we just got back from a walk and I’m sweaty again. Damn humidity.

In other great news, Trace is coming for a quick visit in Nov. He has to go to Mississippi for work and then will fly to Raleigh and spend 3 full days here. Just me and the baby. I think it will be the first time in 25 years that we have been together alone. My friend Terry, who now lives on Roatan, is coming to the states to get some stuff done and is planning a visit here too. I love having things to look forward to.

I’ll end it with this.

Our island home is for sale again. The people are going back to Texas after 3 years.

And, riddle me this…..They’re poisoning us with sugar and all the dyes and chemicals in our food.

In two months Christmas will be over. I know, I’m just a harbinger of joy.

9 comments

Ralph Mecone says:

10/26/2024 at 5:12 PM

Hi Deb.Love your post & pictures!Ralph

1. Ledfutt says:
  
  10/26/2024 at 5:24 PM
  
  Thanks Ralph.
  
ewalborn says:

10/27/2024 at 7:15 AM

always love to hear your updates! I can’t believe all the moves in the last 11 years and the possibility of one more. You are amazing…. So glad Bill was able to visit, hopefully the Kentucky property sells soon. Let me know if you ever plan on going to Wilmington and I will try to meet you for a visit. The yard looks great!

Cheryl Miller says:

10/27/2024 at 8:19 AM

Glad to hear Trace is coming for an alone visit with you 💕 You mentioned several times about Bill not being there. Hope everything is okay with y’all.

Carmen says:

11/01/2024 at 2:06 PM

You did a nice job with the edging around your pool. I installed the same type of edging along the outside of my garden fence for a new flower bed.

Have you lived in the Pacific Northwest before? How do you pick the places you’ve moved to?

1. Ledfutt says:
  
  11/01/2024 at 3:42 PM
  
  Hi Carmen,
  
  Thanks, I love the new border, I weed-whacked today and it sure made it easy. Yes, we lived in the very NW corner of the US, in Bellingham WA for 18 years. My husband was transferred there in 1995. He worked for Grizzly. Then in 2013 we moved to Roatan, that was because we bought land there on our first visit in 2007. After I got tired of the third-world country mentality I moved to AZ. The main reason was that I didn’t think I could fly my 3 dogs out of Roatan and I was planning to drive, AZ made sense, right above Mexico. A month before I was scheduled to leave, Delta started accepting pets. I lived in AZ from Jan 2020 to Aug 2021. A year of that time I was alone because Bill was stuck on the island, COVID. Once he got to AZ he hated it so I found 31 acres for sale in Kentucky. We had never been there and bought the land sight unseen. We moved there in August of 2021. Our house was finished in Feb 22 and by August 2023 I was ready to move, I hated KY. I don’t know why I moved to North Carolina but, here I am. I’m not a fan of the fire ants and miss the PNW. My youngest son is there still and I doubt he’ll ever move. He’s a mountain climber and everything he loves is there. A lot depends on Trump winning because right now everything is so expensive, especially in the PNW, if things don’t change I won’t be able to afford to go anywhere!! Thanks for reading and tell Charlie hello. XOXO
  
  1. Carmen says:
    
    11/02/2024 at 7:52 AM
    
    Charlie said Hi and wonders when you’ll get back to PA? He’d love to see you again and I would love to meet you!
  2. Ledfutt says:
    
    11/02/2024 at 1:04 PM
    
    Carmen,
    
    I plan to visit in the spring. (I hope my brother doesn’t mind me coming with my dogs.) I’ll be sure to get in touch with you. I’d like to meet you as well and see my long-time buddy Charlie. I hope you have a good holiday. XO
Tim Selleck says:

12/26/2024 at 5:07 PM

Always interesting to hear what you’re doing. You have a great sense of humor, too! ☺