Spring?

So on the day after the first day of spring we had a snow storm. We only got about 3 inches but other parts of Kentucky got a lot more. First photo is of our house, second one is of the road near our house. Third one is of the short tunnel we have to go through to go under the freeway to get to our house. Next photo is the tunnel as we are leaving our house. The tunnel is about a quarter of a mile from the house. 

This photo got its self in the wrong spot. Supposed to be the last one. It is of Carrollton,KY Point Part. If you look at a previous post you will see the part as it looked under water from when the Ohio River flooded. In this picture it is under snow 2 weeks after the flood. The weather is a bit strange this year. 

Daffodils

We are at the end of the road, sort of. There is an old house a half mile past us - or not so old but it has been abandoned and vandalized. Nothing left but the outer walls. But when someone had lived there they had planted daffodils and they have multiplied very well. Here are a few photos I have taken of those 'wild' daffodils that are blooming so pretty right now as they welcome in the spring.

This is the road that goes by our place and then by the abandoned house to end up at the Carrollton Waste Water Plant which is fenced and locked so no one can get in.

This photo shows the abandoned house in the back.

River Flood

Of course as soon as we moved in the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers decided to do a spring flood. Carrollton, KY is where the Kentucky River runs into the Ohio River. I had never seen where two rivers that big came together and found it quite interesting. I had asked our realitor about flooding here and was told it didn't happen very often. In fact it had been 20 years since it had last happened which was in 1997 and it was a small flood compared to the one in the 1960's which was smaller than the really big one in the 1930's. We were told with all the locks and equipment on the rivers there was very little flooding. They even checked to make sure we weren't buying a house in a flood area. Ha Ha. We had only been in our house a few days when the rains came, and were worse north of us in Ohio causing the Ohio River to get above flood stage and the rains here caused the Kentucky River to get above flood stage. The 2 rivers coming together caused a lot of flooding in all the farm land around us (and most of this part of Kentucky is farm land). Many of the roads around us were closed as there were places where the water was across part of the roads. For 4 days we watched the water come up through one of the fields about a quarter of a mile from us. We weren't that worried but were ready to leave if we had to. Thankfully we didn't, but we had seen lots of homes close to the rivers that were under water. Here are a few of the photos I too. I didn't get a lot as I was down with a cold and sinus infection and didn't get out to get good photos.

First 2 are flooded farm fields. Next is one of a forested low area.

This and the rest of the photos are of Point Park in Carrollton where the Ohio and Kentucky come together. These trees are not normally in water. This is part of the Ohio River.

They had just finished putting in new lights in the park and now they were in water. The white sign had a bench under it that we had sat one one day and watched a couple of small boats on the river

 This is the basketball court - under water.

This is a pavilion where picnics are held and sometimes bands play music - under water.

With in a few days the water was mostly gone. What an experience when you first move into a new home in a new town.

A New Home

So we were finally able to close on the house that we put an offer in several months ago. It seemed to take an extra long time for everything to go through. But finally we have moved from my son's home near Bedford, KY to this place near Carrollton, KY. It wasn't what we really wanted but I came to the conclusion you can not find a home exactly like you dream about. The house is OK but their could have been a bit more land with it. We have an acre but wanted about 2 acres. We wanted a place we could have our ponies at but not sure we can do it here. But there is lots of land around us without any other house so we have great views most directions. One of the biggest drawbacks is that there is no garage with it, just a carport with a small shed attached to the back. There are lots of trees - oak, hickory, and sycamore. There are some evergreens and roses right in front of the porch. I can't wait for spring to see what else might be there, but I don't think the previous owner was much of a gardener. Neither did she clean much. Most of the house didn't look like it had been cleaned decently in years. Plus anything she didn't want she just left here. We have been here a month now and I am still cleaning and throwing out her junk. There are 2 old sheds in the back you can't see that are full of 'stuff', and have lots of mice living in that 'stuff'. I have filled 10 big trash bags from one shed and haven't even started on the other. So far the trash company has been real good to pick up everything I have put out. Oddly enough there were no towel racks in either of the bathrooms. So that was one of the first things we did after figuring out why neither shower would drain - hair and ladybugs packed into the drain. Yes, I said ladybugs. There have been ladybugs all over the house. I have vacuumed up thousands of them and still they keep coming out of where ever they have been hiding. All I can do is be thankful they aren't scorpions, centipedes or black widow spiders like we had so many of in New Mexico. I know there was a fairly big ladybug migration last fall and that they will invade homes to hibernate and can be a problem. I hope that eventually I will get rid of the. There are 3 big closets and one bigger closet in the house but none of them had the rod in them for hanging clothes on. That was even weirder than no towel racks. And, no, no one took them down as we could find no holes or any indication there had ever been any rods in the closets. Just to weird. But Lee but some in so now I can hang clothes up. Maybe no way to hang clothes or towels but there is plenty of mirrors in the house. Great big ones in both bathrooms a big one in the dining room and one on the coat closet. The cats seem to really like it here and are happy to have more room to play in the house. Ziva, or dog, seems to like it better, too. Especially as she can smell so many critters since there is a lot of deer, squirrels, turkeys, and small birds. We are still having to walk her on a leash as there is no fence around the yard. That is supposed to be our next project.

States and Towns

Thinking of buying a new house in a town I never, in my wildest dreams, thought of living in reminds me of all the places I have lived.

    Born on an Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico
Pampa, Texas - moved there when I was 3.
Burlington, Vermont - moved to a Air Force Base near there when I was 5
Pampa, Texas - we were there about 4 months that time when I was 6.
Los Vegas, Nevada - I was 7 when we moved to Nellis Air Force Base near there.
Tampa, Florida - moved to McDill Air Force Base near there when I was 11.
Tucson, Arizona - moved to Davis Monthan Air Force Base near there when I was 13.
Sandpoint, Idaho - we moved there when Dad retired from Air Force and I was 14.
Albuquerque, New Mexico - back to my birth place for last 2 years of high school when I was 16.
Chandler, Arizona - I lived there about 6 months with my parents and joined the Navy when I was 18.
Bainbridge, Maryland - 10 weeks here for Navy boot camp.
San Diego, California - Navy sent me here where I met Lee, we got married, I was 20 when we left.
Wakeigan, Illinois - we were here for 6 months while Lee had Navy schooling.
Silver City, New Mexico - I stayed with my parents while Lee was on a Navy ship.
Honolulu, Hawaii - was here 4 months with Lee before he was off on ship again and I was back to
      NM. Turned 21 here.
Silver City, New Mexico - Lee got out of Navy and we stayed here about 3 years when I was 24.
Albuquerque, New Mexico - moved here so Lee could go to school. Lived in several houses. Had
       our son, Dustin. I was 33 when we moved to small town near Albuquerque.
Rio Rancho, New Mexico - I would never have though of spending 35 years in this town but we did
       in 2 different houses.
Bedford, Kentucky - my son moved here and we followed. I am not sure why. I am now 66.

You can count them, that is 19 different places although I lived twice or more at a couple of them. This is just the towns and states. This list would be a lot longer if I added in all the different houses I lived in. I know there are lots of people who have lived a lot more places, but then I know of people who have never lived outside of the town they were born in. And even a few who were born, lived and died in the same house.
  Just another of the Different Trails that people follow in their lives.

White Tailed Deer

We took a drive over to Carrollton, KY yesterday and drove through General Butler State Park which is almost in the middle of the town. Its not the kind of state park I am used to out in the southwestern states which are usually don't have anything besides a visitors center and if you are lucky a small area for camping. The state parks in KY all seem to have big, fancy resorts and restaurants on them. General Butler includes cabins for rent, a golf course and a center for meetings. But it is a nice drive through several hundred acres of native Kentucky county and has lots of hiking trails. The Kentucky river runs through part of it and there is a large pond area where geese and other birds can be seen. We had stopped at a (so called) primitive camping area (another words for tent camping, not primitive by western ideas) that over looked the pond sort of. There was to much brush and trees to see the pond well from this spot, but we decided it was a good place to stretch our lets and let our dog, Ziva, get out for a bit. It was to muddy to do much hiking so we stayed to the paved drive way (remember this is a primitive camp area). Ziva kept acting like she wanted to go back to our Jeep so we wondered back slowly and she wanted to stand in front of the Jeep looking down into a gully. Ok, I thought, there is a bird or squirrel down there and she can see or smell it even if I can't. But I kept looking as did Ziva and then I saw some small tree trunks start walking. I realized there were about 3 deer just coming out of the gully onto the road we had come in on. Of course they were several hundred yards away with a deep gully in between and if they hadn't crossed the road I don't think we would have seen them. Lee and I discussed it thinking the deer would be far back into the woods by the time we could drive over there. But as we were ready to leave we did so. And we were surprised to see the deer still standing by the road when we got there. And not just 3. We were able to count at least 8. All does and their fawns from last summer. They didn't pay us much attention so I got my camera and started taking photos. You could tell they were really used to people. I got several of the doe that acted as if she was the leader of the group. But I also took several of all of them just to show how well they are camouflaged when standing in a bunch of leafless trees and shrubs. There are at least 7 deer in the last photo on this post. I know where they are (sort of). But they sure are hard to see.  

ICE

It doesn't show that well but there is ice on each and every little branch and twig on the trees and bushes. We had another ice storm the night before I took these photos. I can never get the photos to look the way my eyes see the ice on everything. It is beautiful but, oh, so dangerous. So far we have been lucky in not having to go anywhere on days like this.