South Carolina (updated 12/20/16)

We drove to SC on Saturday and met our new workaway hosts.

Right from the first introduction we knew we made the right choice.  JoAnne and Duke are great.  They welcomed us with open arms.  We went to dinner with then and their friends that night.

The house is beautiful.  It was built in 1803.  We have a nice bedroom with a private bath.  There is a slave cabin, carriage house, a separate building where the kitchen used to be (in those days they had the kitchens away from the house in case there was a fire), some chicken coops, garden beds, and several other structures.  There is one modern convenience though, a built in pool.

door to orig kitchen

JoAnne and Duke had to go to Florida for a few days and left us with a list of things to work on and the keys to the house.  What a difference from Jamaica.  We have been chipping away at the list and exploring the small towns near by.  This weekend we will be going to David’s to help with some yard work there.

Till next update…   Just because things don’t always work out as you planned, you can’t give up.  Just put yourself out there again and you may be surprised how things can turn around.

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UPDATED 11/29/16

So sorry it took me so long to update the blog, but things have been crazy with starting to work in SC and the holidays.

Anyway…

Joann and Duke are planning to turn their home and cabin into a B&B, calling it the Crazy Blessed Farm (cute right).

We are helping to get the rooms ready.  They have 40 acres to work with. Duke is busy clearing out some fields for gardens, walking paths, and eventually an area for campers and tents.  Joann wants to have yoga, cooking, small farm, meditation, etc. classes in the future.  Lots of things to do.

So work wise we have stripped the kitchen cabinets of some brown stain someone tried to put over white paint to make them look old.  It ended up looking like a monkey took his poop and smeared it all over them.  They look much  better now.

1/2 the stain removed        one done                                                                      what a difference

We weeded and started to fix up some raised flower beds and trimmed and thinned the hedges (see pic of house above)

We “unstacked”  and laid out some lumber so it could dry

We cleaned the 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, the hallway and painted 1 ceiling and 1 closet in the upstairs and cleaned the dining room, entrance hallway and staircase.  (pics later)

I just finished cleaning the cabin in the back.  I will be taking pictures of it in the next few days and will post them.  The cabin is so cool.  I feel like the Hatfields or the McCoys could have lived in it.

Mike has been working at another house Duke and JoAnn own.  They are renovating it and plan to rent it out.

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It is not all work.  We have been exploring the towns/cities around.  We went to Myrtle Beach for Mike’s birthday.  We enjoyed the 2 hour scenic ride.  The beach was quite, but we found a little bar to eat at.

We stopped at a place for breakfast and bumped up their egg count to 112866  🙂

One night we went into Hartsville for the Christmas tree lighting celebration.  There was free hot chocolate, cookies, and hay rides.

Hartsville is a cute little town with a Mystic Village feel.  It was a nice night.

We went with Duke and JoAnn to a couples night at their church.  It was such a fun night.  The steak and potato dinner was great. Afterward we played games.  You know the one where they put the name of a person on your back and you have to guess who you are by asking others yes or no questions.  Mike and I were Ronald and Nancy Reagan (hey we could pull it off).

Duke and Joann played the newlywed game.  Kinda funny that the couple who won have only been married 1 year.  They beat out the others who where married 16+ years.  Guess that’s why they call it the Newlywed game.

They also had a photo booth

There is a lot of cotton fields here.  I had never seen one before.  Really cool looking

Mike calls the fields, “Tee shirts, some assembly required”

I forgot to mention a REALLY cute part of Duke and Joann’s family… Trixie.  She is so sweet.  Whenever Duke and Joann go out, Trixie loves to come in our room and hang out.

It is nice being close to North Carolina for the holidays.  We end up going to see David and Tristen every other weekend.  We had a wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend at David’s.  Since my brother also lives in NC, I will be visiting him also.

As you can tell, it all worked out when we left Jamaica.  We will be here in SC till Christmas.  We will spend the holiday week in NC and then we plan to travel to Florida to see a few friends.  We will head to southern Texas, just a few miles from the Mexican border for February and March. We will be workawaying at an Inn located in a ghost town there.  It is VERY unique and different (more on that later).

I have kinda been unorganized getting stuff together for the blog, with the holidays and all.  I will work on that and have more pics to show soon.  I guess you could say I have taken a little time to stop and smell the roses.

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12/20/16

Wow, how time flies.  We have been so busy during the week helping Joann and Duke.   I bleached and cleaned the two porches on the house.  There were lots of mold as you can see from this after/before pic…

Mike finished removing the texture from the ceilings in the rental property while I finished cleaning the cabin and the porches.  After that Mike and I both worked on the rental.  I painted the walls and ceilings while Mike did all the trim.

Off-hours…

We tried to go out at night to local restaurants and bars.

One weekend we decided to visit Mike’s cousin in North Carolina.  We had so much fun.  They live in a really cute little town with small shops, some winery’s, and just a good neighborly feel.  On Friday night I went with Sally to a pajama party at a lake house, while Mike went bar hopping with the “men” downtown.  On Saturday we visited the shops, a winery, and a small bar with a good vibe and a band.

Locals playing Christmas carols in front of the general store

Sally and I ended the night with a glass of wine in the hot tub.  Mike and Bill enjoyed watching football .  All in all a wonderful weekend.  Thanks Sally and Bill (and Max -their dog).

Something they have down here in the south is a deer corn corn-venience dispenser.  These are dispensers that are located on the side of the road that hold corn where you can go and put money in a slot and get deer corn for all your hunting needs.  Who knew???

ANYWAY our time in South Carolina has come to an end.

Duke and Joann had to travel up north for some business, so Mike and I finished our time there on Friday the 16th ( a week early).  We really enjoyed our time with them and Trixie.  We did a lot of work and explored parts of SC.  We decided to buy a new car, since we will be driving a lot in the next year.  We got a good deal on a 2017 Chevy Impala at a dealership in SC.  Took us a week to get the car.  One issue we didn’t know about was the fact that Bank Of America only has 2 branches in SC.  Kinda a pain, but we finally got the car.  (if you know my family, you know we are Mazda fans, but Mazda just doesn’t make a comfortable touring car for long distances – sorry Mazda).

I did manage to get some pictures of the cabin…

and the rest of the property (I was hoping to get more pics but it rained for 4 days and the yard was muddy).

We are ready for some “down” time.  We will be spending 2 weeks at David’s and visiting my brother and niece in North Carolina and then heading to Florida for some fun.

I will try to update the blog as we travel through Florida, but our next “workaway” will start on Feb 1st.

We are looking forward to continuing our adventures next year.

Till then…  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  .

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