Blog Archives

It’s Thanksgiving

11/27/2014

Today is Thanksgiving.

I suppose I should write about everything that I am thankful for today, however, this is the accepted norm and I have never been accused of being “normal”. We have missed being with Greg and his family in Pennsylvania but we have felt quite blissful being on our property quietly enjoying the day. The sky has been blue and the sun has been shining, although the temperature hasn’t been all that warm, but warmer than some places in the U.S., so I am not about to complain! I have happily sat by the fire and read while Thom has “piddled” around DrumTopia. We have had our hot dog dinner on sticks held over the fire and we haven’t missed eating turkey one little bit.

I found out that an emu sounds like 2 plastic buckets clanking together, or at least that is how they sound to me. Who would have thought they would make that type of sound??? It’s good to know that many of the animals next door to us have been rescued…the emus, the macaw, the dogs, the little donkeys, and more.

Thom is happily playing drums by the fire and I am ensconced in the tent writing this blog. We didn’t really take any pictures today, so I am going to just put one up of the beautiful Blackwater River that we are fortunate enough to be near. We anticipate many happy days kayaking and canoeing here next year. You should come and join us!

I hope everyone had a glorious Thanksgiving and that everyone spent a moment remembering our military men and women and people who are volunteering their time away from home who were unable to be with their families this year. Thank you for being available to protect and help the inhabitants of the earth.

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The first day

11/26/2014

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Yesterday was a slow trip from Knoxville to our property in Florida, although the weather was very nice and the traffic was pretty light for 2 days before Thanksgiving.

We are excited about getting back to our property and renewing the serenity that we once had on this little piece of acreage. There have been a lot of changes over the 8 years that we have not been able to be here very often. A natural gas pipeline company has cleared a couple of the acres so that they could put in an additional line and also to park their vehicles while it was under construction. This was not done without a fight on our end. It took them 5 years to get our approval and then only when we were threatened with court and imminent domain. As it was, we made them wait until they were sitting on the outskirts of our property and had to move forward. Did we get enough money for the destruction they caused? Absolutely not. You can’t place a price on hundred year old trees and nesting for hundreds of birds and mammals. Did we get as much as possible? We like to hope that we did.

Things have grown up in places that we once had cleared, so we will begin again with those areas. The things that matter, our fire pit, our well, and what is left of those hundred year old trees are still here and waiting with anticipation for us to return home permanently.

Sleeping in our small tent that is set up in our small room was pretty wonderful. The anticipated rain was just enough of a sprinkle to hear it on the metal roof of the building making for very pleasant sleeping. Our neighbors (who are drummers incidentally) have a cornucopia of animals and we listened to them this morning as they crowed, baaed, hee hawed, quacked, gobbled, oinked, and cackled. I don’t know what type of sound an emu makes (if it makes one at all) but I will listen for anything that sounds out of the ordinary.

We have spent this beautiful, sunny day cleaning up the fire pit and getting the restroom and showering facilities set up. Sadly, the shower has a mind of its own and has decided that today is a holiday so we are probably going to have to revert to the old way of bathing…a turkey fryer and a bowl…because it's just to cold for bathing in the river right now!

It appears that I may have tweaked my elbow and I sincerely hope not since this is the first day of 14 days here. I guess I will just have to wrap it up and suck it up! We have a lot on our plates for the 2 weeks getting everything ready for the move we have scheduled the first week of January, so I don’t have time to lollygag around with an injury.

It is time for rest.

It is time for happiness.

It is time for rejuvenation.

It is time for a dream to be fulfilled.

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the last day

11/14/2014

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Today was our last day of work with Remote Area Medical®.

It is sad to be leaving a job that we have loved doing for so many years, however we are looking forward, with great anticipation, to the new adventure that we are beginning. So, if you can be both happy and sad at the same time, this is where we were today. Our co-workers gave us a luncheon and a beautiful plaque and several of them said things that made many of us cry. It is a day that we will remember for many years.

We enjoyed building the Reach Across AMerica program from the ground up. It gave us a great sense of accomplishment to help the many people from coast to coast that needed free quality healthcare and we like to feel that we have paved the way for our replacements to make a seamless transition so that the patients don’t feel the consequences of our leaving.

We have taken that big old semi, RAM-1, from small towns in the Appalachians, to Native American Tribal Lands, to the large urban cities of America. We understood that people were dependent on that truck, with all of its equipment and supplies to be on time. Some of the trips were more challenging than others. Sometimes there was snow that slowed us down or dust storms that shut down the interstates or tornadoes just ahead of or behind us. However, many of the days were sunny and provided us with breathtaking views of this beautiful country that we call home.

Over the last 6 years, we have met so many wonderful people. Many of them have remained our friends and we have enjoyed watching students who helped in the vision lab grow up and become productive, caring members of society with careers and families. And we have loved getting to know people of all ages who have come into the vision lab to learn how to make a pair of glasses and stay there for 2 to 8 days for 12 to 14 hours making those glasses so that others could see clearly again.

Has it been easy? No.

Have we always wanted to get up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and work until 8 or 9 at night? No.

Have we gotten frustrated? Sometimes.

Have we ever regretted doing it? No.

Has it been worth it? Yes.

So, for those of you who have been in our vision lab, or that we have worked with over the years, we say “Thank you”. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without each and every one of you.

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