Going to be writing about backyard wildlife and landscape….This is how it got started….
January 13, 2020
We bought this house more than 25 years ago trading Sarasota for Lutz. I was working more than fulltime at the Southwest Florida Water Management District—a job I loved. It was big and busy. When I got the job, I took 6-months off from my Ph.D. program at the University of South Florida. It fell to Jim to find a home for Sassy the orange dog and me. I hate the house. It was baby shit yellow on the outside and green inside. It would be like living in the bat cave with all these tiny rooms, I told Jim. All that wallpaper. Low hanging cabinets in a tiny kitchen which came to a point jutting into a screened back porch. “Look at the property,” Jim repeated as I pointed out how truly awful the house was. “No matter where you end your day,” he said, “you’ll be 30 minutes from home.” He meant the District or USF. “I will start remodeling the house within a year,” he promised. I reluctantly agreed. The house has been remodeled inside three times, the last time we got it right. Outside we added a pool and a deck out back. Out front we added a carport, having enclosed the garage for a mother-in-law suite that is now a bar. And a big circular driveway, the old one so broken up the backside of my car took a hard bump every morning as I left for work.