It's A Gorgeous Day

 It's a gorgeous day, a beautiful start to January, and to 2026. We are out on the property and I'm down by the pond-y area of the creek, watching wisps of dust and seeds float on by on the breeze, glancing sunlight and the haze making them more noticeable than usual.

The sun, reflecting off the creek water in the marsh, is warm.  It feels like a glorious Spring day.

My granddaughter, Jel, and her youngest, Samantha, are mowing for us, and Mark is using the tractor to cart dirt to fill up the ruts on the dirt track, and to level it afterwards. He was not happy earlier as it kept slipping and him being just one person, he couldn't be on both sides at once. Since I can't stand unaided, there's no way I can reach out and try to hold something in place, I felt so useless and sad at his frustration. 

He is def starting to feel his age though, so his looming retirement next Thursday, will def be welcome. Plus, as he says, he has enough on the "honey do" list to keep him busy. It's not all me though, he also has an "I need to do/I've got to do" list so he works himself, it's not always me asking him to do stuff.

It's so peaceful here, the distant traffic is like whispers through the trees for the most part, although - occasionally - I can hear someone gunning a motorbike or sportscar engine. Some of them don't sound healthy at all, but I guess their owners think they sound good or they wouldn't do it. 

Playing my song that I used Suno for the music, with my lyrics. It just reiterates how I feel about this place, I am well blessed, and very thankful. Totally undeserving, but I so love being here in this beautiful piece of God's creation.

And So It Begins

Happy New Year everyone! 365 new days to do with as we wish, for adventure, learning, exploring and relaxing. What are your plans for the upcoming year? 

Mine has started well, and productively. Chicken livers and rice, cooked and cooling for Brunel, Lightning and Rover. Pork tenderloin on a slow roast, in the oven, for us. The quiche that I made yesterday evening, and cooled overnight in the fridge, is now in foil and ziplocs in the freezer. A local group on Facebook, that I admin and had paused for a month (I needed a break!), restarted. Heaters on, and I'll soon be heading in the shower. Not bad for it only being just after 9am!

Our plans today are a trip down to the property to get a bit more done. I'd stay there all the while, if I could. Yesterday, even more of the creek and marsh water was visible. I just love it down there.

Just so much to do before I can get to stay down there.  The barn probably won't be built until March as it needs 2 months for the concrete to fully cure before they want to erect on it, and my concrete man is planning on starting the grading and framing probably sometime next week. Once the barn is up, I can take over the big camp bed, so that I can just lie down sometimes while I'm over there, and maybe read a book, or write, or whatever. Meanwhile, I sit in my car or on my ridearound, as I can't use my walker there, it's too uneven.

Dinner will be the roast pork, I have to make up stuffing from scratch, then roast potatoes, veggies and gravy. 

I am feeling that I'm starting 2026 on a positive note. Be blessed everyone!

 

Planting plans et. al.

Since we plan on starting a small "farm business" once we are established over in Belton, today I've been reading up on propagating some of the plants that we already have, from cuttings. I already do this with gardenias, and honeysuckle, with a lot of success. Apparently, I can do the butterfly tree (chaste tree) which is a vitex cannabifolia, and camellias, although they need different techniques to the gardenias and honeysuckle, which I start in water with rooting powder.  

There is also a difference in rooting times, my gardenias are pretty quick, 4-6 weeks before they have rooted nicely and are ready to be transplanted into pots to "settle" for a couple of months. The honeysuckle is sometimes a bit quicker.  Apparently, camellias have to be started in a potting medium, with rooting powder but can take up to 9 months to start rooting. The chaste tree cuttings also have to go in a potting medium, having been dipped in rooting powder, but they have to be under plastic, to keep moisture in, and can take 6-8 weeks. 

It seems I will be busy, but happily so, as I do love propagating plants.

I'll also be starting off some of my houseplants, the spiders as they have babies, and the traily pothos. Years ago, in Germany, and then - again - in Florida, I had pothos that trailed all around my living room walls. The barn we are erecting has plenty of window space, so I can position some tables in front of windows to get plenty of light.

I have bulbs to go in a "rockery" area near the pond, and under/between some of my bushes, as I want to provide as much bee/butterfly and hummingbird food as possible for as many months as I can, hence plantings that bloom at different times, and the fruit trees that fruit in different months, as well.

Finally got the engineering plans for the barn, that we needed to apply for the permit, so that's now been done and the wait for it begins. I can see that there are 2 lots of fees to pay during the process, but as long as it gets approved, no worries.  We just need to be able to put the tractor, trailer, mower, tiller, and all the plants inside out of the weather, and to keep them from being stolen. 

Even once we get the concrete pad done, it can take 6-8 weeks for them to come out and build the barn so it's not a quick process by any means. At least we are moving forward though, and that's a load off my mind.

So Much Has Been Happening!

It's amazing. In only a few short weeks the land is transforming, and becoming even more beautiful.

Where the greenery is dying off for Winter, more of the creek, and the natural ponding on the marshland, is showing, I love the way the Winter sun shimmers on the ripples. It's absolutely gorgeous.

The work is slow and laborious, since I am actually no physical help whatsoever. Despite having some help with mowing and filling in ruts, there is a good half of the property still to mow. Hubby has also started pulling up the broken front fencing, so that he can clear that area there of the grass and kudzu. We will eventually have a black railing fence down there but for now, we just need it cleared to plant the roses and gardenia that will be inside the new fence. We've been taking some of plants over every time we visit, along with some of the rocks for the (eventual) rockery area near the pond. 

Friday, with it being 70 degrees, hubby took me some more gardenia cuttings off of our bushes, and I got them set up, in my plastic jugs with plant food and rooting powder, to get them started up. I'm pretty successful with the gardenias.

We've decided that we will try to start a "farm business" over there, so gardenias will def be one of my plants to be selling when the time comes.

It's been a fast few weeks of money going out, as we plan and start on getting things done out there.

The first thing is def the well, we need a water supply, so we paid a deposit there and are waiting on the guy receiving the permit to go ahead and drill it for us.

We had some issues with the original company that was going to build our barn, but the lady - Cindy - who brokered the deal, stepped in and cancelled them and we are now going with another company, Quite a big chunk of cash on that deposit.

I'm def getting good at spending hubby's 401(K) money, that's for sure. Chris, the owner of the concrete company who is going to be doing the pad for the barn, is a sweetheart. It's going to be expensive, but he sees our vision for the land, and is going to be grading it soon and doing some extra stuff for us like terracing part of it. That'll be in the New Year.

Then we also made plans with our plumber-to-be, Nick, who is another smashing guy out to help us in any way he can.

They are all local people, and seem to share our values, so the connections were pretty awesome. We end up staying talking for ages, and they are busy folks so their phones keep pinging ... and we end up keeping on talking ...

The little dog hasn't shown up since that one day, but the big bag of dog food that we left over there in the shed, keeps getting dragged outside, so either she is doing it or we're feeding something else in the neighbourhood.

Hubby has been trying to find the markers for where the neighbour's property and ours merge down near their barn, as their fencing doesn't encompass all that's theirs. Hubby met them the other day, he said they're a nice young couple.  They aren't moved in yet, but I'm hoping that when they do, the young guy will help Mark find the borders and then they can fence it together.

Today is misty and cool, but we went back over anyway, and Mark actually walked down to the creek to take pictures and video for me, since I cannot get close enough yet. It'll be awhile, as he has to clear some of the weeds around the edge, and then build me a boardwalk out and down to it. Takes time and money, and just not the most important thing right now, so I'll make do with the pics and just hearing the creek's distant rippling.

A Beautiful Day

God is soooo good! The past 3 weeks have turned somewhat frustrating with all that needs to be done over on our new property. We had opted to have a metal barn built so as to be able to store the tractor and other stuff over there instead of taking it back and forth as needed. Having signed the contract for one, that company then ignored calls and messages when I needed their license number and type for the building permit causing us to basically grind to a halt on our plans (and worrying that our deposit was just going to disappear into thin air). Well, Cindy, the lovely lady at the place we ordered it at on Clemson Boulevard, stepped in and cancelled that order and got us the same deal with a better company who uses all-American steel to do the build, and so, today, we went over to sign the contract on that one.

We were already planning on looking for the nursing mama dog that I'd seen before, heading into the woods, up the road from us. We'd sat by the tract entrance where I'd seen her go in, and had left food, a few days ago when we'd last gone over. Today, my plan was to do the same again, and set up a spot on our property to attempt (over time) to coax her to, in the hope of trapping her and her puppies, and eventually getting them all vetted and adopted through one of the rescues. To that end, we'd taken over one of our dog beds, to put in the one wood shed that's over there, and were going to begin getting it cosy, for when we managed to catch her.

So, today, we had grabbed lunch from Arnold's and were going to sit down by our creek and eat before heading to Cindy. Lo and behold, as we're eating, out of the corner of my eye I see what looked like my Lightning and (yes, my brain sometimes is slow) I thought "what is Lightning doing running around?" before it dawnied on me that we hadn't brought our dogs with us.  It was the little mama, same colour, sorta looks the same but smaller.  Well, I put some of my fries outside my door and she gingerly came over, grabbed one and backed away, and repeated the action, with me talking to her the whole time. I took a chance and opened my car door but stayed still, and she continued grabbing fries while I talked to her.  Hubby snuck out the passenger side and grabbed the bag of dog food we had for her, and went around and out some down for her in the take out container.  She sniffed at him and backed away but continued to eat, only backing further away when he attempted to stroke her head. After she finished eating, she ran slowly away from us, and towards the sheds, where she then managed to disappear from view.

We put more food and water down, in the take out container, but decided to hit up the Dollar General after seeing Cindy, and getting better bowls and more food, which we then took back to our property, and Mark changed out the food and water, and we left the new bag of dog food there so that tomorrow, we can put more down for her.

It's as if she recognised my car from the time we'd sat by the wooded area up the road, when we'd left food, and when she saw us on our property she figured she'd take a chance.  So, we're going back tomorrow, with cedar chips to put on the ground under the dog bed, and then also on it, and a blanket to go on the top as well.  Since it's supposed to be bitter cold tomorrow night, I'm hoping she'll find it and get her puppies to it. We're going to use blocks to prop it open just enough for her to go in and out but hopefully shut out most of the wind and cold. 

It's just lovely that she came to us, I'm hoping to build up trust with her and (although I'm hoping a rescue will work with me to get the puppies vetted and adopted) I'm thinking she will probably end up as ours eventually. She has a very submissive nervous posture, so I don't think she'll end up as anyone's lapdog and wanting petting all the while. She's not as timid nor anti-people as Mystery was, but I just think she'd be happier with us so that she can be who she wants to be.

I'm pretty certain God had a hand in that! From about 1/8 mile up the road, in the woods, to just coming over to us on our property.  Yep, He def had His hands in it. Praying he helps mama find the savvy to bring her puppies to the shed so we can keep them all safe.

Diary Of Our Land Transformation #2 : More Mowing and Filling Ruts

 Today began cold and frigid, but once the sun came out it got a bit better. I did a quick run to Chick-Fil-A for chicken minis for everyone for breakfast as Our granddaughter, Jel, and great-grands, Daniel and Samantha, came to help hubby today and accomplished a lot (although we still have probably more than 1/2 the property to mow). That's a lot of overgrown pasture, that's for sure.

Jel and Samantha commandeered the lawnmower

and did some straight up and downs, front to back, and then some meanderings down by the marshland and creek. Daniel took charge of the tractor,

and made a small hit on an overgrown dirt pile, that he got buckets of soil from to fill the ruts in the dirt road from the front of the property,

with hubby levelling the spots out and then me, in my trusty Serendipity, going back and forth over them to pack the dirt in real well.  Trust me, my Kia Soul is a farm car, she LOVES doing this stuff!

We took some fencing over and one of the plants in pots, tomorrow we plan on taking more plants over, it's supposed to rain Monday so they'll be able to sit and get a good soaking, and on a nicer day, in a few weeks, we'll plant them out along fencelines to grow into bushes.

Diary Of Our Land Transformation. #1 It's All Go!

 Finally, we closed on the property, on Friday morning, and here we are, just 2 days later and it's just getting busier and busier. Yesterday the real work began. We have to have a well dug, so I had called Lee's Well Drilling Service on Friday afternoon and he came out there to meet us yesterday, and we began the process. We chose where to put the well (he found the perfect spot and it was exactly where I'd told my hubby I wanted to put it) and signed the contract for him to start the permitting process to get it done. 

Our next thing is to get the electricity turned on and all I have to do for that is get the number off of the meter we want to use off of the 2 that are there from when previous owners had mobile homes there, and they will switch it on! That'll be my first Monday morning call tomorrow. I's spoken to a lovely lady at the power company on Friday afternoon and she also put in a work request for an engineer to come out to see abut removing unused wires at the front of the property since I need to use a sod cutter down there to clear grass from where I'll be planting roses, gardenia bushes and privacy trees. I don't want to have to deal with the grass keeping on coming back, so am thinking a sod cutter will remove a lot of roots to help with that.  When we do start planting, then I'll have a weed barrier down and mulch on top, so hopefully that will help it stay nice.

Thinking ahead, we are also wanting a power pole installed and need a concrete pad laid for a metal storage building and then, said building erected. Having had a trailer stolen from here before, in a more inhabited area, we want to make sure that anything we take over there before we are actually living there, is locked up safely and well-lit.

Hubby's back was giving him gyp, so our planned canna lily transplant didn't happen. They've been growing in a big pot but we plan on popping them down near the creek as they help naturally draw out impurities from water. There is already one down there so when we saw that, we figured it could have a friend.

One of my goals, over time, is to put various cleansing plants in the marshy  area and creek so as to naturally purify it. The canna lilies are the beginning of that project.

My granddaughter-in-law and great-granddaughter came over to hang out with us and went on a wander. Our Miss Lily was enthralled at finding a turtle slide in one area of the creek so I have promised that we will pop a bench down there as we get doing things, so that she can sit and watch the turtles with her mum or dad anytime she is over. Ah, the magic of childhood and simple things.

I'd like to get a water barrel system going over there, and soaker hoses, so that we'll have water to water them with since we won't have running water until after we have the well. We've used them here, and I'm definitely wanting some by the orchard we'll be planting in January when the fruit trees arrive, and for the vegetable garden that will (hopefully) get started in Spring.  I'd considered a Fall one but I honestly think we have so much else to do and prep first, that we aren't really likely to get that done.

We're also planning on using a solar pump to use some of the water from the creek, but that's also going to be a "later on" project.

I just have such a lovely vision for this property. I have the  privacy trees for the front being delivered in February, and fruit trees for the "orchard" coming mid-January (these are during their recommended planting seasons for my zone). 

During our warmer Autumn days I'm hoping we can also get some of our gardenia plants transplanted out so that they can begin to flourish.  Those that are now bushes by our gate here began as potted plants 23 years ago. So I'm hoping my planted cuttings, once transplanted over there, will flourish and begin to grow into bushes. I'll be starting more cuttings over the next few days. There's an awful lot of fencing the plant my bushes along!

I did find out yesterday that my older ridearound, although much stabler/steadier than my lighter weight one on the uneven ground, was ok going down to the creek on a strip that my hubby mowed down for meto ride down, but did not want to come back up!.  He had to push me numerous times with the tractor and unfortunately, the last time broke one of my rear lights. It's great on the flatter areas but def not on ruts. My grandson was surprised at how heavy the seat of it was, when we had taken it apart to take it home. We actually left our trailer with the tractor and mower in his driveway overnight since we are going back over there today.  Save on gas and wear and tear.

Hubby mowed for about 3 hours. The grass was about 4 feet high last week, but then the rains had came, and beaten some of it down but it was so thick. The piles left that were blown out of the mower show how dense it was. He managed to do maybe 1/8 of the overall grassland. We think that by the time he gets it all done it'll be time to start redoing this bit again.  Obviously, once it's all trimmed and under control, keeping it that way won't be as difficult as this first cutting.

This is the overall picture of the property. It used to be a part of the home at the front, the barn of which is actually stables,

but now is separate. Our property used to be the pastures for the horses. Where Mark mowed yesterday is on the far right side, from one of the fences and down towards the marshy area near the creek. He got it done about 1/2 of the way, and level with the little "dirt road" by the tree up top. 

It was not an easy mow, that's for sure. The cut grass looks very untidy for now, but will decompose and replenish the ground.  This pic is from close by the tree looking down towards the creek.

Methinks though, that for it only now being our third day (and we are heading over there about noon for him to mow some more) we've made a pretty good start. It's beautiful out there, and we have such plans.

God is good! I can only hope we live up to His plans for us.