How did I get here?

First bit of advice - never buy a house in the winter when the ground is frozen. My husband and I fell in love with this place almost forty years ago, handed over our hard-earn down payment, and moved ourselves, our three daughters, one dog, and two cats without a backward glance. Actually, for two theoretically responsible adults, we didn't give it much forethought, either.

When the ground thawed out, we discovered we'd bought two and a half acres of marsh. There are five springs in the front yard alone!  We don't call this place "The Rice Paddy" for nothing!

We wanted to put in a garden, but it was like trying to plow chocolate pudding. We finally simply gave up, rented a back hoe, and dug a HUGE pond, which is home to a gazillion tadpoles, a fair number of blue gills, and at least three snapping turtles, one of which is a bit more enthusiastic about his meals than I'd really like, frequently trying to climb out of the pond to grab at the store-bought white bread that is staple diet for the pond critters. There are many things I will do, but actually hand-feeding a thirty pound snapper is not one of them. And he's free to stay there as looong as he likes. My momma didn't raise me to be no alligator wrestler!