I'm no longer in the coastal flatlands of North Carolina. I'm temporarily back in the "middle of nowhere" Kentucky while I look for a place in WA state.
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.
Bill on the roof.
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.This is with the edging.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.Creeping Jenny is overtaking the walk.Misty mornings might be my favorite.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.I thought they were bigger.The crazies. These two are such good dogs.Sunsets are magical here.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.
Mermaid on a Raft 