From many comments, I can see that there are quite a few wondering why we don’t just stay where we are when we retire.
We still have our old car that didn’t come with a built in GPS but our old Garmin works just fine.
GPS
When I looked up and saw the screen along our route through east Texas, I thought “A picture is worth 1,000 words!” I need green grass. I need to be able to grow a garden and flowers. Here, no matter how much watering I do, I’m never going to have a great garden. We need rain. Our water is very alkaline, as is our soil. Gardens struggle. Some things grow better than others. All of our water comes from a well and I’m so afraid that I’m stressing the well with watering the garden so we rarely water our grass so, we don’t have grass. We had a storm here in May and it rained again in December. That was it for the last seven months of 2017. Around us got some rain but none at our house.
Vince needs water. He wants a lake or a pond or nice water type recreation areas nearby. We have Lake Brownwood but it doesn’t compare to the the lakes of east Texas or western Louisiana.
Every trip we take, we learn more about where we might want to be or might not want to be. Dang, it’s hard to find a place that has green grass, sufficient but not too much rain, good water, low crime . . and an Aldi! 🙂
Erin says
We have water green grass Aldi pools warm weather mountains beaches four seasons wink wink … New England 🙂
Sherry Moran says
Snow, snow, snow!
Diana Edwards says
Patience….you all will find just the right space.
Carolyn says
I’m surprised property taxes aren’t on your list with green grass, water and recreation. It’s there is an Aldi in ET that will surprise me.
Virginia says
There are a couple of Aldi’s in ET and more are being built.
Judy Laquidara says
Oh, yes! We’ve already checked that out. The Aldi in Longview is less than 40 miles to Carthage and Vince really likes the Carthage area.
Judy Laquidara says
We’re going to pay taxes anywhere we live. Louisiana and Missouri both have state income tax and it costs us less to pay property taxes so long as we’re in the county and not in the city. We like Carthage and the Aldi in Longview is less than 40 miles from town. One of the houses we like, it’s less than 30 miles to the Aldi.
Carolyn says
Yep, Tyler and Longview both have one. So does Wichita Falls, but I don’t travel there to buy groceries.
Judy Laquidara says
We do travel to buy groceries. We go to Abilene to HEB. It doesn’t bother me at all to drive less than 40 miles to a good grocery store, plus we can usually go out to eat and do other things when visiting other towns.
Sherrill Pecere says
Don’t they call that Camelot? LOL
cassews says
Good luck on whatever you find in the future when its the right time to find the right house ..
Nelle Coursey says
Do you have the water recovery system where you catch water in the barrel and use that for your garden? You can get the plans at the County Extension Agent’s office on Fisk (across from the Presbyterian Church and the post office is behind it on Center). Tractor Supply has all the supplies you need!
Judy Laquidara says
No. We don’t get enough rain to make it worth the effort. We had that in MO but it rained at our house in May and didn’t rain again til November. My garden is 100 x 100 and we have 50 fruit trees. We calculate that we use 800 gallons of water per week in the garden so to get from the rain we had in May through August, we use about 13,000 gallons just on the garden. Even if we have 3 – 3,000 gallon tanks (which would cost about $6,000, that wouldn’t last us through the summer.
The water recovery systems work for small gardens but it isn’t cost effective for the size garden we have, plus it would also require a pumping system to power the irrigation lines.
We can put in another well for less $$ and it would be way more effective.
Brandy M. says
I’m excited to see where you land and I’ve enjoyed reading about your adventures in your current home, how you’ve changed things & made it your own. You’ll find the perfect place, then it’ll be someone else’s turn to love your place (thanks to all you’ve done to make it amazing!)… 🙂
Judy Laquidara says
I always hope someone else will come along and appreciate the fruit trees, garden area and the bluebird population we’ve worked so hard to establish.