Spring is springing?
 

Well, that was a change today. Temp at the weather station got up to 82.0 degrees. Almost felt like I was back in Florida again.

I generally enjoy the cold weather but I'm ready for the snow and ice to be gone. And we had to shut down in Wyoming Wednesday because of wind gust approaching 80 mph. Of course in Wyoming that can happen pretty much any time of the year. Friends of ours video taped a camper blowing over in front of them after they had pulled onto an exit ramp due to the winds pushing their trailer sideways.

How much longer are you planning on doing the truck driving thing?

I can see the attraction of being paid to drive all over the country, but I think it would wear on me pretty quickly. And forget about the northern tier. I seem to be getting more and more sensitive to cold weather (for Florida, anyway) with every passing year.

Pollen is off the charts for weeks now. Won't be washing my car for a while. In 6 hours time it is covered in pollen at work.

Yeah, we are seeing heavy pollen here too. I keep the garage pretty much sealed up, but that doesn't stop the pollen from finding it's way in there.

Our fruit trees are all acting like it is Spring time. Lots of new growth and flower buds popping out. Hopefully we won't get one of those late overnight freezes that we get now and again to zap all the flower buds or even after they have been pollinated and developing fruit.

That Murphy can be a son of a bitch sometimes.

Maybe 5 years. The money is very attractive and we just bought the house in Georgia so I think we can pay it off in 5 years at the rate we're going.

Why did you decide to leave Florida, if you don't mind me asking?

We've been looking at houses for about three years and the market in the local area (Tallahassee, Jefferson County, Wakulla County) had just gotten ridiculous. We couldn't find what we were looking for in our price range as the median price kept creeping up. Some people are willing to pay $300K for 2000 square feet on a postage stamp of land, but we have never lived in an actual neighborhood or HOA and we weren't about to start now.

So I expanded the area to include Perry and southwest Georgia and I found several properties that offered much more square footage and acreage for a very reasonable price. We settled on a stately home that was built by the owner in a small farming community about an hour and a half north of Tallahassee. It needs some refurbishing but we were alright with that. My wife gets to do what she wants on the inside and I'm going to upgrade the grounds to compliment the southern charm of the two story 4600+ sq ft all brick exterior.

We're pretty excited about it and are still amazed that we were able to get it at a reasonable price. So once we retire our four kids and grandchildren will always have room when they come see us, what with six bedrooms and seven baths on 3.25 acres with beautiful pecan trees. And it gives us plenty to do on the weeks we come home!

Heck, I understand that! And congrats on landing such a nice home!

Wakulla County is constantly building new developments, and all the while claiming that they won't have any local impact. Now they are planning on putting in traffic control circles on roads, which in my opinion is the dumbest thing anyone has ever thought of. No one knows what to do when they come to a circle when other cars are there too. I'm thinking that the people who decide to put those things in either own interest in auto body shops or towing truck companies, or have close relatives that do.

Heck, we are constantly fighting with the county over the road that goes through the center of our property. They are constantly trying to widen it even though they only have an easement of 15 ft. And even that easement has never been officially designated anywhere.

Granted there are a lot of things to like about Florida, including no state income tax and being located in a "Second Amendment sanctuary county" which may become REAL important pretty soon.

Back when Connie and I were living in Maryland and planning on buying property further south, we could not consider Georgia simply because I could not have run my snake breeding business there. Georgia has (or had?) a very strange law such that I could not have retained the corn snakes I was working with, however had I been breeding eastern diamondback rattlesnakes that would would have been just fine. :crazy03:

Good luck with your plans. Seems like things are working out quite well for you. :thumbsup:

Well, today it felt like Spring got bypassed entirely and the temps jumped up to 94.6 degrees! Yowza!