This is quite a surprise. My problems with strokenet is now gone, and I want to thank whoever was responsible. Computers! Guess you have to love them. but they can really mess up one's spirit when they decide not to work. Anyway, this is the blog, I had intended to put on Tues. past.

I sold my soul to the devil. I did it with my eyes wide open, but after almost 2-1/2 years and almost 1 of intensive searching, Part 1 has been accomplished. Hopefully, part 2 and all that follows will be a little easier.

As many of you know, I bought a rural piece of property in February 2005 - large enough to not have neighbors watch me each time I went out of my home. I have also hoped that I could have a small vegetable garden but it will have to be very small, although the land is about an acre and a quarter.

Being a city girl my whole life, the terms "wetland" and "ecological protection" really had no meaning to me, but did I learn really fast. They would be a lump in my throat for about 8 months and they actually haven't ended. The Department of Ecological Protection (a US government department) and I have just about parted. I received my fill permit, necessary for a building permit, today. Hopefully, the Corps of Engineers will accept what had been decided and the County will also kick in but after a possible "show down"on a technicality. You cannot allow 25' between the wetland and the house when the whole area, except for a small section which has to be used for the drain field, is wetland.. The part that irks me most is that once when I asked how they could allow a piece of property be sold that couldn't be built on, I was told not "let the buyer be aware" but that they are not responsible for sales and that some other organization is! Yet it is the county that set the 25' rule. What difference does that make? If it is ok for the government who is the Protection agent, what do they have to say about it? Guess I'll find out.

If any of you live in Georgia, I'm sure you know about Kudzu. If you don't know, it is a nasty vine that curls around plants and chokes the life out of them. Well, I agreed to a clause saying that I would inspect the lands and if I found any, I'd see that it is eradicated - by hand. Actually, I have done this on any I've seen whether on my own land or if I saw it on public land. So just think of me as the Kudzu Killer. This and about 20 others clauses was the cost of my soul.

But, when all is said and done, the peace and quiet of this piece of heaven where the only noise heard is birds singing, is exactly what I need. Hopefully, I am almost there.