Drought in NC

It is November and normally, North Carolina would be soggy by now. But no, with the recent lack of rain in the Southeast, we have been on a severe drought status since the summer. Our lakes are dangerously low, and we are now on mandatory water restrictions. We cleaned up our garden finally last weekend. Husband pulled up all the tomato plants and cleared the beds for a sprinkling of greens. I don't know that the greens will do well seeing as they hadn't seen any water since they were put in the ground, but we'll see.

I posted several ways to conserve water at our new home.

Guest Bearing Gifts

He visited our backyard a few weeks back. He is the most adorable and friendliest pup I’ve seen in a while. He wanted to stay and rub up against our legs. He wanted to have his tummy rubbed. I would have gladly complied if he wasn’t crawling with fleas!

The poor thing, no wonder he was rolling around and rubbing on us, on rocks on leg tables. He was miserable!
Read more about him>>>

In Our Neighborhood

We live in a very old neighborhood. Most of the homes on our street are still owned by the first owners or at least the family of the first owners, like ours. When my husband's grandparents built this house sometime in the mid 40's, theirs was one of the first houses on the block. Well, there weren't any blocks then either, just a dirt road. They paid to have water and electricity routed to their house. Apparently, back then, when they had the utility lines put in, the first houses had to shoulder most of the cost. Then, as new houses were built and connected to the lines, the owners reimbursed the first people on the block for laying down the utility lines. Interesting, huh? I didn't know that!

Anyway, that is why there are still seniors living on our block who have been here since they first built their houses and established the neighborhood. They are all getting on in age, so they can't work their own gardens anymore. They will all tell you how they used to keep gardens in their backyard. Now, they are more than glad to share the bounty of our garden. It seems there aren't many in the neighborhood anymore who keep a garden.

Window through the trees

Looking through the trees in our backyard, I can see through our neighbor's backyard and the back of their garage that they are in the process of tearing down.

Sunset

On days like this, I miss sunset on the water...

Looking Back

Saturday Mornings

Some Saturday mornings, I still have to get up anyway to take the girls to their various activities. Empty parking lots are the norm at the crack of dawn.


Middle school parking lot, waiting for the bus.


The usually crowded Costco on a Saturday morning. By the 9 a.m. opening, this parking lot will be packed.

American Tobacco Factory

Durham, NC is a town founded on the tobacco industry. However, with the decline of the tobacco industry many of the plants have lain empty and abandoned for years. During the last decade though, a revitalization of the downtown area has been in progress and this American Tobacco project is one of those. These group of buildings formerly home to the Bull Durham Tobacco Factory have been converted to business, entertainment, and living spaces and is now called the American Tobacco Historic District.

The Street Where We Live

Ninth Street

Ninth Street is a stretch of businesses just down the street from our house where many university student go for something to eat. There are a number of good eating places in the area that are also affordable. My girls and their friends, even thought they are not quite at university level yet, meet her on occasion for dinner. This time, they decided to have some pizza before their sweetheart's dance.