RetroMan

Most Blog writers create pseudonyms for their family members.  I thought I would do the same, especially since it isn't fair that people they don't know read about them.  

I already made my daughter City Girl, but my husband's nom de guerre was a little more challenging.  First of all he is the most private person I know, so just the idea of me writing about him makes him very uncomfortable.  I told him that I liked the reference 'Rennaissance Man', but he didn't.  Seeing that ignoring me on this issue wasn't going to work, he picked RetroMan.

Mostly because RetroMan likes old things.  Nothing we have is new.  We have an 80 year old house, old cars, a 70s moped, tools made in the 20s.  The furniture in our living and dining rooms was made in the 30s.   His idea of fun is antique shopping or going to the Pawn Shop (mine too).

This is our kitchen refrigerator.

You get the picture.  

He throws nothing away because it might be useful someday.   I have to admit that he generally uses it all.  Or intends to....  

You can't fit a hamster in our garage.  

Everything works, but maintaining it is practically a full time job, and he can fix it all.  Of course this is because he has every tool known to man.

Here he is working on one of the many chain saws we have.

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

Going to Home Depot is a last resort for him, not the first.

He is a person who does not lie, who tells you what he thinks (whether you like it or not), who is trustworthy.  A man of his word.  A meticulous man.  A moral man.  Someone who can always be relied upon.  He never talks about anyone behind their back.

In this world of navel gazers, he really stand out.  Men with his character were more often found in days past.  There aren't many around in today's times, and I worry for our daughter.  At 16, she doesn't appreciate him very much, but I know that will change some day.

He likes quiet, target shooting (though I always beat him), boating, welding, and Ratrods.

He dislikes crowds, the growth of government, watermelon.  And cold, which is why we live in Florida.

He is an awesome cook.

He wants to be a Tree Farmer, though he doesn't know much about trees and doesn't like cutting them down.

So that's RetroMan.  He required a little introduction, since I know that many of my blogs will be about his view of the world, which I love, and will be the subject of more than one blog.

It's All Marie's Fault

10 years ago my co-worker, Marie, told me that she and her husband were going to sell their 1970 Pop-up camper.

My husband and I decided to buy it, thinking that we'd had enough city and needed a bit of country.  We could take our kindergartner and our dog camping and get some fresh air on the weekends.  Some true, quality family time.

Don't you just love the decor?

Little did we know that campgrounds have become kind of like frat parties, what with all the people, the sites crammed together so tight you can see each others' butt crack, the party lights strung up between the palm trees, the alcohol, radios, TV sets, and guitar circles.

And I can't forget to mention the raccoons.  

As we pulled up to our first campground spot with the Retro Camper, a racoon jumped into the truck bed, flipped open our cooler, stole a loaf of bread, dashed into the trees, and began fighting with a posse of other raccoons.

Well, you catch my drift.  Maybe it's just campgrounds in Florida, I don't know.  It seemed like we were the only ones looking for peace, quiet and solitude.

So after numerous camping trips, we decided that we should look for some of our own property to camp on.  It took us 10 years to find it, and it wasn't cheap.

As soon as we bought our piece of paradise, we realized we needed other things.  Expensive things.  Like another truck to pull the camper, since we sold the first truck during the 10 years we never went camping.

After going to the property a number of times, we also realized we would need something that could get me around the property that was smaller than the truck, since I can't walk very well.  We started out thinking a golf cart would be a great idea, but one day in August, I found a used 2004 Polaris ranger 2x4 with 240 hours at a dealer on the internet.   Of course it was at a price we couldn't refuse.  We didn't have a trailer, so the dealer let us borrow one to get it to our house in the city.

We figured it wouldn't take us long to find a trailer, but low and behold we'd run out of money having bought all sorts of "things" we "needed" now that we had a "Property".

And there it's been sitting while we've been saving.  And saving.  And saving....

Isn't it cute?  It even came with horse-chewed cup holders.

I'm thinking someone spilled some Coke in those cup holders.

Yesterday my husband went to give it an oil change, since we've just about saved enough money to buy a trailer, and we'll finally be able to use it soon.

But it wouldn't start.  He was totally bumbed out thinking he would have to give it a carb clean.

Fortunately, it was just a stuck selanoid.

So in the next month or so, we hope to buy the trailer, to haul the Polaris, with the new-to-us truck, so I can go explore our new Tree Farm that we had to buy because we bought a Pop-up.


Thanks Marie.  If you didn't sell us that Pop-up, we wouldn't know how much fun we were missing.

Livin In The City #1

What In The World Is It? #1

The only thing we know about our Farm is that it's beautiful.  Beyond that, all we have are questions.

Like what in the world is this?

The picture looks very strange after Blogger loaded it, but it is a mound of sand about one foot around.

The mound can be found near other mounds, often in what appears to be a crooked line.  Here is a picture taken in May.

Another taken a year ago.

At first we thought they might be ant hills, but then you would see ants and there are none.  

Gopher holes were our next guess, but there is no hole at the top as we saw with gopher holes out West.

If anyone has a clue, please leave a comment.

Mystery Solved:   Many thanks to Alan from Suwannee Refugee who figured this one out.  It is a Geomys pinetus, or Southeaster Pocket Gopher.  Also known as the "sandy-mounder" or "salamander".  As Alan indicated, more information can be found here.

Not the most cuddly animal I've ever seen.  Yikes!  Eeeww!

Hmmmm.  This may not bode well for future gardening endeavors.  According to the article they depend on "herbaceous" plants.  That's garden plants, right?

Something To Smile About

I went to lunch yesterday, began to eat my salad, and this was looking up at me.  Every time I look at this picture, it makes me smile.