OUR TRAIL and more....

I love to walk this trail! I love the brisk air that sends scarlet, yellow, orange and brown leaves chasing each other.......I love the greens of the pines, holly and cedar trees that are now so very clear as you see the landscape changing. The shuffling of leaves under my feet is simply a fun sound that takes me back to my childhood.

John took these pictures as he and Sparky walked. Sparky seems to love fall too.
I added some of my favorite Autumn quotes under the trail pictures.

"October gave a party;The leaves by hundreds came-The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,And leaves of every name.The Sunshine spread a carpet,And everything was grand,Miss Weather led the dancing,Professor Wind the band."
- George Cooper, October's Party

"Listen ...With faint dry sound,Like steps of passing ghosts,The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break free from the trees And fall."

- Adelaide Crapsey, 1878-1914, November Night

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn."

- Elizabeth Lawrence

This is standing in front of John's shop looking toward our home. He has lots of ideas to do natural landscape from seedlings in the wooded area. When you see this next year I know it will look better. We plan to replace the back door in one of the next months. This door had been entered by force too and was repaired so we could get by. John planted grass in all the bare yard. On this side of the car was a fire pit that I cleaned up. I look 6 wheel barrow loads of garbage back to the trash pile. It took me hours to do that and 3 loads of ashes on top of that.

I had to watch for the many needles in this mess......since there was not a stove in the house the neighbor said they cooked out in the fire pit as they would have a party that lasted a week or more......she was one scared lady and I sure do understand.

John loves this shed. He has organized inside and has a really nice work area. When we came here you could not even see this building. In the front was a mound of rotten wood, mangled tin and all kinds of junk along with bags of garbage. There were old tires and containers full of empty cans of lye and stuff that they used to make meth.....it was a sobering sight. John spent days working through all of this and than burning what he could.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Our front yard is such a wonderful and beautiful spot. Fall is beautiful and this dogwood tree is really a brilliant red.

I have meant to do this ever since we moved to Franklin, Ga. But as you all will see we had our work cut out for us. It has been the most rewarding adventure of my life. I have been so thankful for John's ability to see what needs to be done and the fact the Lord allowed him to have the strength to do it along with the help of Ryan and our friends Douglas and Jane. Without the 3 of them we would not have been able to do it as quickly as we did.

These pictures only show the before pictures after we took out bags of garbage out so that we could walk and see the place. The other reason is many of those bags contained raw garbage and the smell was a killer!

This is the kitchen before we cleaned it up. It had not had a stove of refrigerator for a long time. We were told they were sold to make the meth....The roaches were in plenty in this kitchen....it gave me a fit to even be in there but I toughened up and got it clean! Than as I cleaned John came behind and caulked so they would be sealed out. The furniture left here was full of stains, roaches and the smoke smell....the combination was horrible. We kept nothing.....

This is looking out the kitchen window now. John loves his plants and so we added the stand for the winter. I love doing the dishes and watching the birds. Our land goes back the path in the center of the picture.

The dinning area was piled to the ceiling with bags and boxes. This was a horrible build in that was also full of roaches and we had to pull it out so we could add a bit of room for our dinning table.

The dinning area is now a wonderful place to eat. I have the table set for John's birthday here and the pecan pie cake I made was a real keeper! We had our neighbor couple over for the meal and I used the china that Nicole gave me several years ago.

The living area was full of garbage and 2 huge sofas. The door had been forced open by the GBI when they did the raid on this house. Our friend Kenny was helping change the locks. This carpet was blue at one time.....these folks had at least 4 dogs in here and had never cleaned the carpet......full ash trays were in plenty and you would not have dared to sit on the furniture!

I am so thankful that we could change the carpets and make the living areas a wonderful place to be. I watch birds from my chair and just feel at such peace. We gave away over 1/2 of our furniture and stuff but we have now what we need. I like that we could simply our lives.

The yard was full of trash.....beer cans....an ugly fire pit with 5 gallon cans cans for seats all around it. John collected 45 tires from all over the yard. The barn/shed was full of 7 couches and garbage bags to the roof. It filled a 30 foot construction dumpster and John had to haul off a ton of junk beside that and burned wood for 5 days. We still have the tires to get rid of the tires.

The front yard had stuff growing as tall as we are and it took days to mow it down....all we had was a push mower and the neighbors joked it was a bush hog for John. But he got the job done.

I have more pictures but I think you all get the feel of the place......It is now a wonderful home and we love it! There is much work to be done but that will come. Right now John needs to rest and get back his strength. You all come and see us!