Well, the McCoy family is now firmly ensconced on their little two acre piece of heaven in NE Ohio.  The house (modular of course !) sits perfectly located in the middle of a two acre hay field.  Two acres doesn't sound like much until you view trying to mow it with a gas powered push mower. Then, it looks HUGE.  The front yard is roughly 120 ft x 120 ft, and the BACK yard is 120 ft x 750 ft.

Besides the fact that we can host either a soccer game or a football game LOL, we are quite happy.  We have our very own Burn barrel (country folk will know that that is), a septic tank and well, and the grass is greener over the leech field (which for those of you in the KNOW, has FIVE lines, running at an angle and going the width of our yard, so we have LOTS of leech room).

 

The central air is broke, but I don't care as we get the most MARVELOUS breeze almost non stop from our patio door which is off the dining nook.  Our new dining room table barely fits in there, but I don't care about that either. Barely fits still fits and I am sitting here as I type with a gentle morning breeze wafting gently over me as I drink my morning caffeine.

 

The only sounds I hear are birds, the occasional Moo, Whinny or Bray (someone near by - within hearing distance which is a LOOOONG way has a donkey).  We get the occasional car go by, but not very often. The mail lady once a day.

 

There is a Catholic church about 3 minutes away, and we went to Mass last Sunday.  The church is beautiful, and there were an astounding 150+ people at the 10:30 Mass.  The priest was off on sick leave, but the substitute priest was a man whom we already knew and in fact, we had attended his Ordination last month, so that was nice. There appears to be LOTS of children around, so we are hoping that NEXT week (the youngest had to pee right after Mass and so we did not get to hang around meeting everyone) we will get to meet some kids the girls ages before school starts.

The kids are a bit bored.  We put out about $4500 for the move and are DEAD f'ing broke right now.  As soon as Dave's pension check hits the bank on the first, we are purchasing a trampoline and a easy set pool for the kids.  That will help enormously.  If we can find a swingset on clearance, we will add that to the backyard toys.

It's a bit of a bummer moving right at the end of summer calendarly speaking. (I am not sure calendarly is a word and the spell checker doesn't recognize it, ah well).  I am wanting to landscape, but there really isn't much point right now.  It's too late to really plant a whole lot except maybe perennials, and they would all be very confused.  Maybe some late summer varieties.

I can, however, start hardscaping.  Living FLAT will present a bit of a challenge I think.  The good bit is that being toward the end of summer, most of what I will get will be on clearance so that will be good.  The bad part is I had BEST get all of what I need, cause there will not be any going back to get more!!

We are approximately 1/2 hour from anything.  Two of my closest friends  made the trip.  One, who is married to a farm boy but they now  live in the thriving metropolis of Chester WV (population 3000 on a good day) was good with the drive and loved the property and house.  The other is a totally city girl (but lives in Chester) and all she could say is  "but there is NO Wal Mart and no McDonalds ANYWHERE near here".

Yes, but they still carry Starbucks at the Walmart and it is only a 1/2 hour drive away.  I am good with that.

The girls have decided to forgo the private Catholic school. They are going to attend the local school and the bus will pick them up at the end of the driveway.

First on the list it to build a bus shelter.  Other country folk will understand.

We also have to build a set of stairs, there aren't any. Well, there is a set of dilapidated fiberglass stairs by the utility room door, but they are flat on the bottom step and badly cracked on the top step.  Dave is afraid to step hard on them or he will go right through!

The house is only 3 bedrooms, which means NO ONE can move in with us.  The girls each have a fairly large room, and all their stuff fits in well.  They both have walk in closets.

My parameters were met with a large living room (no TV in it, Whoooooo HOOOOO) a largish bedroom in which all our massively oversized mahogany furniture sort of fits, although the tops to my cool as shit canopy bed won't fit on due to the cathedral ceilings which are shorter on one side......and the shorter is shorter than the top of the bed, a dishwasher, satellite TV and satellite internet.  Its a bit more expensive that what we had, but this family does NOT do without internet. 

I still have my coffee pot in which you pour Starbucks whole beans (sumatra please), cold water and set the timer and presto! in the morning I have freshly ground, freshly brewed (with cold well water no less) starbucks coffee when I awaken.

Dave's needs are met with a brand new Yardmaster 20 hp tractor and a wagon to match, a shed to put it in (don't EVER buy one of those metal put it together yourself with a screwdriver sheds) and a new weed eater.

The dogs love it.  Lots and lots of room to run.  Fenced in on three sides by an electric fence, (Titan found out NOT to pee on the electric fence, I haven't laughed so hard in years) and Spikey tried to run under it.  She would have made it too if I hadn't yelled at her. She wanted to go visit the horses next door.  They would have made short squished work of my chihuahua. Titan was IMPRESSED with the horses, something BIGGER than him!!

 

We have met the neighbors, lovely people.  She has three horses and two goats.  They have four grandchildren who are of an age with the girls and the six of them played together all day Sunday last.  The girls are looking forward to school and 4H and FFA (future farmers of america).  The oldest is wanting already to build a barn in the back corner of the property so she can do a 4H project.  She is thinking of starting with a goat (which meets with my approval, goats are easy to take care of).  Country life rocks.

I am no longer working (due to health concerns ) and LOVING it.  I am so looking forward to school starting and having all day everyday to devote to the things I love to do, write, garden, build and think.

My oldest daughter bought me the newest Paul McCartney release. I love it.  My favorite songs are 1, 2 , 9, 10 and 12.

Thats it from the Cracker Factory folks.  Until next quiet morning!!

Fractally yours.

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