I am so happy to have Loves Travel Center coming to Santa Rosa County Florida.
Read all about it at https://www.santarosa.fl.gov/CivicSend/ViewMessage/Message/113448
It was a privilege having Terra in my life for 15 years, she was a dear sweet soul. I have a lot of video and pictures but I’m not up to the task of putting all that together at this time. I will put together a tribute to her some day but for now I will grieve and miss her sweet face and wagging tail and the little licks she would give me on my hand or arm when she used to look at me with her sweet soulful eyes as if to say thank you lady who takes care of me.
After the tests and seeing the x-rays I agreed with her doctor that it was time to send her over the rainbow bridge because she was suffering with a multitude of conditions that were not fixable. She was 15 years old – that is 105 years old in human years! From her neck to her tail, her spine had multiple herniated discs and fused discs which is very painful. One of her kidneys was very small while the other was extremely large, which Doc said may have been her body trying to compensate for smaller kidney. I reckon that is why she used to get up all night drinking water and wanting to go out. When she could still get up and walk on her own she used to get me up by coming to me while I was sleeping and licking my hand. I would open my eyes and her sweet old sad eyes would be looking into my face. She did that most nights about every 2 to 3 hours and so I would get up and let her go out to pee until she started falling and after that I got the lifting harness and would put harness on her to hold her up while she walked so she wouldn’t take a nose dive down the step on porch or down the ramp. As she got worse I would wake at every little sound she made to spring up and put on her harness and get her outside to pee but before she lost all ability to walk she would pee before we could get out of the house. She couldn’t help it and my heart broke for her going through it because I could tell it upset her and she must have been in severe pain from the discs in her spine. For months I would get up and put her diaper on her then her harness and help her outside and the diaper saved my feet and the house floor from her pee, she got where she couldn’t squat anymore without falling backward and I’d try to help her holding up her back end. You can imagine what it’s been like with her bed ridden for the last three weeks, she would try repeatedly to get up and was flailing arms and legs all over flopping and bopping her head on stuff and off the bed she’d go. It’s been quite a ride that I honestly couldn’t have sustained much longer. To make it even worse is the fact that she had no voice due to the laryngeal paralysis so she couldn’t bark, she couldn’t even cry out when in pain, and that is what worried me most of all because I never knew for sure if I was hurting her when I put on a diaper or turned her over to her other side so she wouldn’t get bed sores. I have went though lots of pee pads, diapers, towels, and bedding. The washer was operating nearly non-stop round the clock to keep everything washed up. All her organs were getting worn out and she was tired but still such a sweetheart and she would lick me when I petted her and talked to her telling her how much I love her and she would give me a little lick with her tongue on my wrist as I petted her as if to say, I love you too.
Here are a few pictures from yesterday, her last day. I will put together more with videos later but for now I have much to do and still caring for Terra’s sister Zoie and our foster fur kid Tango. I still need to continue sorting and packing and looking for my new home base.
I wanted to share this part of my life you guys, my friends and family. Thanks for following along on our journey. Stay tuned….
Oats and Peanut Butter Doggie Treats
Ingredients
2 cups water
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 cups rolled old fashioned oats
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
Directions
Mix the oats, and flaxseed meal together, set aside. In large heavy bottom pot add water, bring to a boil, stir for in the peanut butter until thinned out by water, add oats and flaxseed meal, keep stirring, lower heat to low and stir constantly until the mixture is all mixed well and has thickened. This will take just a few minutes. Then set aside and cover the pan, let it cool, refrigerate to chill and then you can form patties and grill in iron skillet with the peanut oil or bake in oven.
This recipe made 16 patties that were about 2” diameter and ½ thick, I baked in oven about 350 F bake about 15 minutes then shut off oven, flip patties, and let finish in residual heat for about 15 more minutes. This helps firm up the patties so that they hold together. They are actually already cooked before baking but baking changes and improves the texture and the taste.
It feels strange after 28 years of owning this property to think that soon I will be a tenant here. If closing goes well today I will be a tenant on my old homestead with the equity from the sale in the bank and the journey will begin to buy a new homestead. I bought this place 28 years ago in 1993 owner financed with a partner. At the time I thought it would be our retirement fund and we would live to together the rest of our lives. In 1995 we parted ways, he went back to Tennessee but I stayed and made the payments on this homestead. In 1998 he signed a Quit Claim Deed and then the warranty deed was put in my name, just me. I actually paid off the loan and received a satisfaction of mortgage but later due to Hurricane Ivan I ended up taking out a SBA disaster loan for rebuilding; that is the mortgage that I am currently paying off with the sale of my property. So now I can buy another homestead and not have a mortgage, no financing for me because I want to be debt free! I would rather buy land and take time to build a small home and shop myself for cash rather than have a mortgage! I would rather have a garage/workshop with small apartment attached and have an RV to be able to travel part of the year. I had to travel most of the year for my job in construction so that I could pay for this homestead but now I hope to travel for the enjoyment of seeing our beautiful country. I want to visit the public lands and camp for free in many of our camp parks.
Thing I won’t miss is the mess from the oak tree on the house roof and decks.
Zoie and Terra have lived here all their life, they have been here with me on this homestead for 15 year. I have never had a dog live to be as old as these dogs are. They both take round the clock care now due to their many physical and medical ailments. Their Veterinarian told me he wants me to think about quality of life and who am I doing this for, them or me. It’s a good question and makes a soul ponder. I know that the 24-7-365 care I’ve been giving them won’t last forever because they are so old already. I haven’t wanted to rush them over the rainbow bridge by euthanasia, or at least not until I had a better reason than my own convenience. It is heartbreaking and physically difficult for me caring for them in their condition due to my own physical and medical issues. My entire schedule revolves around their needs. It reminds me of having a baby because you are up at all hours and you better grab a nap when they do or you may not get any sleep. I will soon be having all their tests run that will reveal exactly what it is that ails them. The x-rays and blood tests will possibly reveal a solution or perhaps give me the reason to let them go on to their reward on the other side of that rainbow bridge..
Stay tuned and I will keep you up to date as best I can with all I have going on.
My closing is set for May 3 – and I have an agreement with buyers that I stay on land using the buildings and land for at least 6 months and up to the end of the year after closing so that I have plenty of time to find a new home base and move everything. I also retain ownership of my doublewide mobile home that I can move to new home base if I find that my best option. I have lots of plans and lots going on in my life right now. I am hoping to find about 5 acres where I can build a workshop garage and have a place for RV hookups. In this county in Florida if you have 5 acres or more zoned Agricultural then you can live in your RV on your land the statute actually reads that RV living “seasonally” but there is no set season or length of time and the zoning planning supervisor told me I can live in RV and in the future it will be “seasonally” when I am able to travel part of the year. On my new home base I want to have a little apartment inside the workshop/garage for kitchen, bath, laundry, and a nice area for dogs that is air conditioned and equipped for their disabilities in order to make their life that they have left enjoyable and keep them as healthy and happy as possible. I have more news that includes sad things about my sweet old fur babies Zoie and Terra who are 15 years old with many old age and genetic issues. They are most of the reason I deactivated my FB and IG so that I could spend that time helping them instead of interacting on social media because they are a fulltime job at this point. I just don’t have the heart to have them put to sleep and so I am trying to still move forward with my plan for home base and building out a rig for travel but the travel will come later after they go over the rainbow bridge. Zoie had a stroke or some sort of episode in her sleep one night and it was scary for a couple weeks but she seems almost back to herself now but she couldn’t walk and was in diaper and I was very scared for a couple weeks. The Vet said it may have been her heart due to her heart condition, or could have been the laryngeal paralysis that she has which is a paralysis of the larynx and that cuts off air sometimes when they get upset and pant or overheated. After Zoie was able to walk again then she walked in circle and fell down, but I have a lifting harness and helped her and it’s a miracle to me, prayers answered. The first day after it happened she seemed totally confused and didn’t want to eat or drink but that was misleading because I found that she did want to eat and drink but couldn’t seem to remember how to do it. She kept turning head to left and so I held food bowl to her left and she seemed like all of a sudden she knew it was food and she woofed it down while I held bowl. I got her set up on bed where she was sort of twisted left with pillow behind her right side to prop her up and put a table cloth on the bed and put her bowl there at her belly area and she could eat on her own like that. I had been doing the same for Terra on her bed just because her back legs were not working very very. She would get up and then fall because her back legs and maybe her spine at lower back the way it curves over. If you noticed in videos I had posted before on IG and FB (before deactivation) you can see on those the gradual change over past few years in her way of walking. Terra has had gradual progression of losing the ability to use her back legs, it is long and heart breaking to see but sometimes you get what you pray for and my prayer was to have them with me and now with Terra I have a 65 pound baby in diapers who wants to get up and run around but can only drag herself. The problem is genetic I believe because her mother had it too and was put to sleep at a younger age than Terra is but I just don’t have the heart to do it and thankfully I am retired and don’t have to work because I’d have to euthanize if I had to leave her alone because she takes constant care. I am planning on buying a doggie quad wheel chair. I have invested in lifting harnesses and other things to help cope with her disability. I have a new bigger full body lifting harness ordered that will be in next week and I’m anxious to find a way to be able to hoist her with that harness and then lower her into a quad wheel chair because as big as she is those chairs require two people to put her in and I am a loner ya know. One more thing I want to update on is Tango. He was 11 years old last September 2020. He still gets around really well but has issues with his joints. He thinks he is still a puppy and takes off running like a barrel racing horse only to end up limping due to twisting ankle I guess. Then he limps around for a couple days and then seems fine again. I have been his foster dog parent now since 2017 and before that I was his dog sitter from 2012 to 2017. That is a long story but to “be nice” I guess I could say the owner moved and decided I’d be a better home for Tango than they were. I would still like to find him a good home but honestly I want him where I can see him to visit and know he is able to sleep inside and has nice big fenced yard and taken care of like I do or better, and I haven’t found that right fit yet.
Stay tuned for more on “Around Maggie’s Homestead,” and follow my journey with dogs and finding new home base! Comment below and let me know if you been through this sort of thing with any of your pets. Also if you are a traveler and have a home base I’d love to hear how you enjoy your place and traveling part time. I also enjoy hearing from the fulltime RVers who don’t have a home base and are just nomadic. Drop me comments below!
Tomorrow at noon will be 14 days since I got the 2nd dose of Moderna vaccine. I am anxiously awaiting closing on my property, that will be in about two more weeks then the search for new homestead will begin in earnest because then finally I will be able to make an offer on property I like. Many of the properties I have been following on realtors on line shopping have sold and the ones that haven’t sold probably have something wrong. I know for a fact at least one of the properties I like have tenants who refuse to leave and so I know myself personally I would not buy a property with tenants on the property. Another property I like has been off market and back on market several times so that tells me buyers may have found problem with title search, survey, home inspection report, or who knows what else the reason might be. Another one that I like has been on the market over a year, it’s in probate and so that one is not selling for that reason I would think. Then of course there are the ones that the price is too high or the neighborhood is undesirable. I been trying to go drive by some of the houses for sale to see what the neighborhood is like. I want to live in a culturally diverse neighborhood but I don’t want to be the only white person. I also don’t want to live in a neighborhood where all the homes have bars on windows and doors and dirt for yards covered with debris and broke down automobiles no matter the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood. So driving around the neighborhood definitely is helpful to let me know not to get interested in a house in that area. I was in love with a great little block home on a slab with a nice fenced yard big enough for huge garden and safe play area in yard for my dogs, it was beautiful and the price was to dream for but when I drove around the neighborhood I didn’t feel that I’d be safe. Later I looked up statistics for crime in that area and that area has much higher crime than other parts of Pensacola. I am also still looking in the countryside for small acreage because I will retain the ownership of my mobile home when I sell my current homestead property and I could move it to new homestead property. I am keeping my options open and whatever is the best property economically and practically will be what I will do.
Much of the reason that I deactivated my Facebook and Instagram pages was my dogs Zoie and Terra. It has become more and more difficult and heartbreaking watching them decline over this past year. They say dogs age about 7 years each year and so if that were true then Born Dec5, 2005 – Dec5, 2019 is 14×7 = 98 years old and then this past year in 2020 they would have went from 98 years old to 105 years old. The ramp I built in spring of 2020 has been a blessing but last few months it has become difficult for them. I sure you who follow me on Instagram and FB this past year 2020 saw the difference in them between January 2021 and up to my last posts last month before I deactivated my pages.
Zoie and Terra have been declining physically and somewhat mentally too. I am doing my best to make them comfortable, safe, happy and to feel loved by me. I have lifting harnesses for both that I put on them when I take them outside to potty and during day they wear the front half of harness most of the time. Sometimes I take it off when they nap and I do take it off at night for better sleep for them I think. I have to take Zoie and Terra outside individually now due to their frailty they can’t go by them self and I can’t safely handle both at once. I have them wear diapers sometimes, like mostly I put on in the wee hours of the morning before they wake up because once they wake up and I have to get the harness on them sometimes they have accident before I can get them outside. I am getting good at putting diaper on the girls without the girls waking. I have disposable but I also bought reusable ones, the reusable ones are the ones I prefer. I modified on my sewing machine to suit our needs better. I been taking lots of videos but not posting anything for now. I may publish some videos on my youtube channel later and embed in one of my blog post in the future. They both have a good appetite which makes me happy. I will talk more about what I feed them in the next post and maybe will include pictures of them next time. Tango is doing well, he is a good dog and deserves a loving family that will give him loads of attention that he craves. I try to give him some but the girls take most of my time. I bought him special treats that are just for him because he can chew them but I dare not give to girls or they would choke. He loves the treats, they are dried sweet potato wrapped in thin dried layer of chicken. I think they are very healthy for a dog and wish the girls could enjoy them but they need soft food and they get plenty of cooked chicken and turkey that I cook for them and add into their regular dog food.
I need to go get some work done, sorting and packing never ends as well as regular household tasks still need doing. The girls are napping so I’m going to take my chance a go outside to work for awhile in garage!
Stay tuned and watch for posts! I’d love to hear form you!
I said I’d follow up in a few days to let everyone know how I been doing since the 2nd dose of Moderna vaccine that I had on the 25th of March 2021 and so here I am telling you that I had a bit of a sore arm on first day but I made sure to exercise my arm and do a lot of movement to get the vaccine to work into system. I don’t think this sore arm lasted as long as first dose. I had 1st dose in left arm and although I am ambidextrous I would say my right arm is the dominant arm. I had my second dose in right arm. I’m sure everyone reacts differently to shots but I do think that a general rule of thumb would be to move that arm and flex that muscle because it does help work it into system and soreness out of system. I also think my strategy of going into a relax mode when getting shot is very helpful for it not hurting much. I sit and totally relax and breath slowly and concentrate on relaxation when I get a shot in my arm. I find it really helps in the respect that it doesn’t hurt as much during the shot or afterwards either.
So I can report that I feel wonderful and very happy to be done with the immunization. I am counting down to the two week mark which will be April 9th when I will achieve full immunity or at least to the extent that the vaccine can provide. I will continue to use a face covering in public because of respect for others. I have started scheduling all the medical testing and appointments that I been putting off for over a year now and I will be catching up on visiting some of my favorite pubs and restaurants that I haven’t felt comfortable doing in over a year as well.
I will be posting soon about my progress in my journey to find my new homestead so stay tuned for that!
I hope you all are enjoying good health and happiness!
Until next time, bye for now.
I am so happy and thankful I got my second dose of Moderna today! I am now counting down the 14 days to full immunity! Or at least to the extent of immunity that the vaccine can protect me. If I remember correctly the data so far shows about 98% immunity.
You may ask how this will change my daily life, and I would tell you that I intend to start doing some of the activities again that I haven’t done since March 2020. I do intend to continue wearing a face cover in public but mostly out of courtesy to others more so than to protect myself. I haven’t went to a restaurant since March 2020, not even fast food! I’m not sure I’ve ever in my life went an entire year without eating out at least picking up fast food but I did that last year and so far this year. I also haven’t been to the Pub to enjoy my favorite brew! I haven’t even stopped at Starbucks drive-thru! So those are some of the things I hope to resume after my 14 days waiting period is up!
I will check back in a couple days with a post to let everyone know how I am feeling and if I had any reaction after the second dose. So far so good!
Stay tuned!
Last year 2020 raised awareness in many individuals about food safety and sustainability. Many people who never gardened before became interested. That interest led to shortages of gardening and other homesteading supplies, and of food and other household supplies.
The interest in gardening and homesteading doubled and tripled subscribership of many YouTube Creators who produce gardening and homesteading content. Surprisingly not so for one YouTube Creator, that is Siloe Oliveira’s the YT Creator of Suburban Homestead.
In 2021 he has started making longer videos in which he presents not just planting through harvest and on to the table but interesting facts about the particular crop he is featuring. He is presenting facts with a mixture of animation and actual film excerpt as well as showing his own home and garden. I enjoy every aspect and since I found his channel I been watching some of his older videos like his how to build those very unusual looking and fabulously economical yet attractive raised bed contraptions with the removable sides and the adornments on top. His older videos are much shorter which is good for me to catch up on the older ones. He has been producing videos for 7 years but I had not run across his channel before until I was doing a search to see videos on making paper planting pots to start seeds in because paper is biodegradable.
I want to share his latest video here with you all and I hope you will share this video with others who may be interested. I think school teachers could use many of his videos as enrichment resources, and most especially this video on how beets changed the world!
I commented on this video saying “Brilliant! Outstanding! Yes your channel is fast becoming one of my favorite channels. I hope everyone shares this with everyone they know. I know some homeschool teachers and some public school teachers who may want to use this as part of their enrichment programs. You Sir are amazing!”
Let’s share his videos and subscribe to his channel ( I already subscribed) and encourage others to subscribe to his channel. I can’t understand why his channel didn’t gain subscribership last year as many other YT creators channels did.
I think it’s more than YT algorithms and hashtags. Many channels have a knack for promotion and marketing of their channel.
As many of you know, I don’t have television (by choice) and I don’t have internet at home. I have a smart phone with a hotspot that I use to access the internet via my computer which is where I like to watch YT channels for enrichment and community. I usually get on YT to look up how to fix something that broke or to get new ideas for something I been doing and think maybe others may have a better way of doing it. I subscribe to many different kinds of channels such as, gardening, homesteading, cooking, sewing, basket making, knitting, woodworking, welding, and loads of camping off grid nomadic traveler type channels. I subscribe to many channels but I watch only a few regularly. My favorites are the ones that have the particular vibe that resonates with me. I especially loved the video where Siloe Oliveira did the pampered plants; the plants were animated talking and didn’t want him to carry them outside, I laughed and thought that his channel will probably become one of my favorites.
Another thing that resonates with me is the love of vintage stuff. I believe in keeping the old handcrafts alive but I differ on his view of technology. He says he uses and works with technology but doesn’t really like it. I believe it was in the video he did on the 30 random things about himself where he mentioned that he doesn’t really like technology.
I grew up in the southern USA in the 1950’s and our first big technological advance I can remember is television. I think what we have nowadays with internet and smart phones is like magic compared to the television that’s why when my TV broke in 2017 I decided I wasn’t going to replace it. I felt it was dictating to me instead of me using it as a tool. I don’t see a need for TV when I can do what I need to or want to online. Technology makes my life easier, it enriches my life, I can do everything from ordering supplies online to pickup curbside to utilizing a vast array of public library resources online. I even had virtual doctor office visits last year so I didn’t have to leave my house. Technology is a wonderful tool for me that allows me more time to do the things I want to do like gardening, cooking, sewing and playing with my dogs. Having that extra time also gives me more time to do all the old handcraft ways like baking bread, fermenting veggies, making homebrew, and so many of the other things I enjoy doing, Oh and of course, watching Suburban Homestead on YouTube! I hope you will too! OH and let me not forget to say that Siloe Oliveira is quite the artist, check out his work in his Etsy Shop.
With no further ado, I bid you adieu!
I hope everyone had a wonderful 2021 New Years celebration despite the many restrictions and concerns of the times we live in. I been meaning to write a post but time slips away, so today I decided to catch up my blog posts. Sometimes I think this blog is more of a journal for myself because when I reflect on decisions I’ve made or activities I’ve participated in I end up turning to this blog to my posts in order to backtrack for a date or reason I started a particular activity. This morning I was thinking about when I took a sabbatical from Facebook, that was February 2019 I deactivated my Facebook account but I continued posting often on Instagram. I didn’t reactivate Facebook until March 2020, that was over a year deactivated! When I reactivated the account I was only going to delete my business account and adjust setting on personal account. Time flew by in 2020 and I continued posting on both Facebook and Instagram up until a few days ago when I decided to take a break from both. I deactivated both Facebook and Instagram one night without warning to anyone that I was doing it. I admit that is because I made a snap decision which I usually don’t do, normally I think about a decision mulling it over chewing on it for quite awhile before I decide but on occasion I do make a snap decision to do something that I know is best for me to do and that was the case with taking a break from both Facebook and Instagram. I simply don’t want the distraction right now because I need to concentrate on many changes that are happening in my life at this time.
I think that without the distraction of my Facebook and Instagram activities that I will have more time to get things done that I’d rather spend time on. This blog is one of those things that I hope to spend some of that time that I had been spending on Instagram and Facebook. I plan to share in my upcoming blog posts the journey I am embarking on in 2021.
That journey is selling my current Florida homestead and finding a new Florida homestead property. I have been negotiating with a buyer since December 2020. The buyer contacted me via USPS in late November 2020 and we came to an agreement that I could accept which will make it possible for me to payoff mortgage and pay cash for a new homestead which means no more mortgage, and that is the major reason for selling my current homestead to this buyer. Anyone who knows me or who has followed me on social media knows I have turned down offers to buy my homestead property because the offers didn’t meet my needs. For those who don’t know, I bought my rural property in 1993 as a home and a retirement investment plan. I thought one day it would have commercial value due to the road being a major highway and only 16 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. This buyer recognizes the commercial potential and made me an offer I could accept. The offer isn’t just about the money it is also the 6 month period after the sale closing that clinched the deal for me. I will remain on this property as a renter for up to six months with full use of property and buildings. I retain ownership of my mobile home. Yes, I may move the mobile home if I find a piece of rural land that I like. I have done a projection of the cost using figures I put together from a local mobile home mover who gave me an estimate. If I find a better deal on a property with existing home then I have the option not to move the mobile home. If I end up buying a property with an existing house then I would be able to take my time to do any repairs or what ever the new homestead may need before moving. If the new property doesn’t have a large garage workshop I would have time to have one built. If I buy existing home I will be able to actually move my things in and set up new homestead and get the girls used to the new place slowly and safely because at 15 years old the poor old fur babies are quite frail and I have to be sure to accommodate their needs. If I move the mobile home it will be more complicated because in addition to having to move things out of mobile home and storing them in the old house on current property, I will need a place to live during the move and reset of the mobile home. There is also the cost of removing all the existing porch and ramps that will have to come down in order for the mobile home mover to move the home. There is also one more thing I can do and that is if I find rural land with old house at good price I could also move mobile home if there is enough acreage for two homes on property and if zoned for mobile homes because that would give me additional storage and could serve as a guest house for family and friends who visit. All the many potential costs must be considered when comparing to buying an existing home instead of moving the mobile home, or doing both as I mentioned earlier; I am thankful I have that option built into our sale agreement. With all those incentives to sell I agreed and we signed the final draft of the purchase agreement in February 2021. The buyer agreed to pay all costs of title search, survey, and closing. The title search and survey have been completed. I have one hiccup that the title search found that I was not aware of and so I been remedying that legal issue which is holding up our closing at this time. I will write more about this journey I am on in future posts. Stay tune if you are interested!
One more bit of news I want to share is that I received my first Moderna dose in February and I am on the waiting list for second dose that hopefully will happen next week. Then two weeks after that 2nd dose I will feel less apprehensive about participating in some activities that I have abstained from since March 2020.
So for now I bid you adieu and wish for you health and happiness!
