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Category Archives: nature

DeLand Florida, A Step Back and a Step Forward In Time, Part 1 of Two Chapters

Stepping out Friday nights at the Artisan Alley Farmers Market with Georgia, Barb and Teddy Roosevelt.
Pat & Toni’s Sweet Things! Talk about a treat to the eyes and tongue. Best candies we remember tasting, ever!!
Taste test offered-hard to ever forget!
Pat & Toni’s offeres everyone some of the sweetest tastes, anywhere!!
Breakfast at DeLeon Springs State Park at the Old Sugar Mill Pancake House and Fountain of Youth Boat Rides. Here, you cook your own pancakes, eggs and all the meat fixin’s you can want. This couple drove hours to enjoy the park and have breakfast there too! Sparkle Rex was our contact. She was terrific!! Go Floridastateparks.org to see all this park has to offer

American Press Travel News-Bob and Barb “On the Road Again.” June 14th-June 17th–We contacted our very favorite tourism specialist; Georgia Carter Turner to develope a visit itinerary to DeLand Florida, located in Volusia County. We rolled in to town on June 14th, and moved into a very comfortable apartment at True Trail Farms –www.mddensmore@yahoo.com Mike and Kathy Densmore, the owners were very welcoming and we found they loved farm animals and they had a bunch of them. We were also greeted by the goats, turkeys and more chickens than Kentucky Fried could have handled. DeLand is a bit like old time Florida meeting up with the modernity of today! After settling in at True Tails Farms, we headed into town to the Half Wall (half the wall was covered by beer taps) for a delightful dinner. For dessert, we went next door to Davids Sweet Things. David was the most  affable and interesting man we encountered during our adventure to DeLand.

GO: VisitWestVolusia.com and see all the greatness that this area has to offer. (end of part 1 of our DeLand Adventure, see part two shortly)

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Memorial Day 2021-No Good Excuse for “Happy.”

American Press Travel News–Bob and Barb “On The Road Again”-this time at our TN. Ranch. We made it through Atlanta from Florida, with just minor slow-ups on I-75, and got home to our “Goose Holler” Farm and Ranch last week. With virtually zero help, I (Bob) have to go it alone in late spring cleanup.  If I could get a Nickle-a-leaf, I would be a billionaire. So I rolled up my sleeves, grabbed the rake, the tarp and proceeded to slide mountains of leaves away from our buildings. I rake onto a ground-laid-out tarp, clip a little lock-jaw pliers onto the tarp and drive my golf cart to my designated leaf burial ground. I actually love the leaves as they force me to get a copious amount of exercise each spring, help me drop two notches on my belt and for ce me to eat a balanced, nourishing diet to assist in keeping up my strength and muscle tone. Our pond too, needs some TLC. Since the very unwise release of Otters in a wildlife area not far from our farm, these otters cleaned out the park ponds and streams and then headed south, passing through our pond areas, and I lost my koi, my giant catfish and big bass. Well, the koi kept the weeds down, so now the weeds are up, the bass kept the sunfish population regulated, so now we have a ton of sunnies, and the catfish ate everything along the bottom, keeping the pond clean of dead stuff and detritus. (More later)

One of my many dozens fly fishing classes. This one in Wyoming. My classes are for up to 25 at a time! NOW TAKING RESERVATIONS FOR CLASSES AT OUR POND SINGLE OR GROUPS—CALL 772-812-0933
Dinners at Newman’s will spoil you!

Diary of a Half-Back Lifestyle

A model Florida Crawfish aka, lobster.

Miss Kitty, my favorite farm member. Now gone!!

American Press Travel News—3/29/2021—Bob and Barb “On the Road Again”—-Why do we travel half way back to our old home, VT, to TN., from Southern Florida? Summers in Florida are humid. With my deviated septum (partially blocked nostril) I have a hard time breathing in heavy humidity. So, when the cooler  winter and spring breezes, with their lesser humidity devolve into more summer-like conditions, even starting from the first day of spring, we head for the hills of TN.. In Florida we eat seafood, in TN. its beef, chicken and garden vegetables. Fishing in Florida its sea fishes, in TN. its crappie and trout, and our favorite walleye pike. I can breathe in TN., and love the cool breezes throughout spring, summer and fall.

We live on a small farm at about 2000-feet above sea level. When the summer heats up all around our plateau, we are 8-10 degrees cooler than all the other areas, cities and towns, and just about every night is a no-AC needed event.

As an author, I find it easier to work at our farm in TN. than in Florida. Florida has too many things going on, and this causes me to divert, and avert my time from putting finger tips to keys.  However, the Keys is truly a paradise for a fisherman, like me. With boating, searching for marlin and dolphin fish, the schools of tuna, the occasional wahoo, I get lost in the Gulf Stream of life. My preference these days is to sight fish for permit, bonefish, seatrout, snook, and redfish inshore, in quiet waters.

My sons David and Brian were brought up in the Keys, and were my nearly constant companion on my favorite boat “The Shalom.” That is until their fancy turned to girls and cars. We gathered our own shrimp and saltwater crawfish called Florida Lobster ( I still prefer the real northern- waters kind, with succulent claws and tail).   Today, my sons have a fine boat that they own and enjoy, I have my farm and when I can visit the Keys to be with my boys and their life’s experiences!  STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!