And just when i thot all was lost, and these wonderful trees were going to go the way of the local sawmill....

Actually they are going to stay put...what has happened is that on the other side of this line of trees, somebody has partially cleared a lot space, but this tree line is staying put, for something like a buffer zone. I was just about to go over to the clubhouse office and pitch a fit..yell, scream, throw things around the office, shouting about ruining the forests and being detrimental to the environment. All that and more. Then I actually walked around and read some of the fine print on the sign, saying "For Sale", an' realized what was going on. I felt so dumb. Almost walked over to the fishing dock an' threw myself in the river. But THAT would be all together wrong, so I just turned around an' came back in the cabin.

It's so weird, to see all the woods surrounding our place, an yet we are completely surrounded by water. I'm gonna hope for clear skies tomorrow, an' take some pictures of what we're surrounded by. We are on a little finger of land...not sure of the dimensions, but large enough for a spattering of homes. About 6 roads, all intermingled, some paved, but for the most part, gravel or dirt. We have 2 rivers that run alongside the land..the Yeopim River on the right side, while coming down the main road to get to our little dirt road. There is another river to the left of the spit of land...for the life of me I can't remember it's name. A small one, tho, that joins into the larger body of water making up the Ablemarle Sound. If I was a huge swimmer, or more easily, if I had a boat, I could go across the sound, and be on the Outer Banks. Some of the houses on the main road into our little "subdivision" are located directly on the water of both rivers. I, however, am not brave enuf to have a place on the water, as both rivers are subject not only to occasional flooding, but during storms such as the one we had a couple weeks ago, Hannah, the tidal surge can proove to be a BIG PROBLEM...bigger flooding problems. But, even tho some of the properties do have flood issues, we have the fortune of being above the flood line, so we aren't terribly concerned with flood issues. If a BIG storm comes along, and there are warnings and yelling about Tidal Surge, then I think we are ordered to evacuate. And since we only have one road into the area, then of course, once it floods, there's no way in or out to our place. We haven't had that issue to face -- yet. Hopefully the Hurricane Season will just go quietly away, before we have to seriously think about tidal surge and flood problems.

~~ Don't know why I went into all THAT detail..but I guess it just felt like the thing to do. The area has a great number of farms, too. Going down the main road, you can see cattle grazing, happily chewing their cud..or whatever their chewing. We also have cotton fields, soybean fields, peanut farms, and other fields that have been harvested..corn. We are very fortunate to have found this piece of property, and tonight we have the chance to meet some more of our neighbors, as it's the Saturday Night Social, at the clubhouse. Bring A Covered Dish kinda thing, and see what's going on in the neighborhood. It's mostly families here, a good number of retired folks, and couples who just like the quiet life. We find that we can leave our windows open at night, and listen to the crickets and other assorted bugs, and occasionally hear a Hot - Hooot of one of the many species of owls. One very large one swooped down over our yard light the other morning, as Tom walked outside to get to his car & go to work..WHOA!!.. That was something of a suprize...big ol' bird swoopin' down catching something on the wing. I couldn't even say anything out loud, it suprised me so much. And what do you say?? "Look out for that big A*** Bird!!??" no, maybe not. And Tom moves so slow, the thing coulda hit him in the forehead before he'd realize what happened.

So that's the story from here -- I gotta get tom up from his nap so he can go to the grocery store & get STUFF -- always somethin', ya know? And noak's clammerin' for somethin' he needs to do too...never a dull moment around here, I'm tellin' ya...

Lady of The Tulips -- wondering who it is that is mowing their yard RRREEEAAALLLLLLYYYY slowly...sounds like they have their tractor set on about 3 miles an hour...they may be done by, oh..wednesday of next week...