Hi Carla and Redsox! Gosh, I haven't been back here in a bit. Just lurking today and saw your posts. I will be spending a week or so checking out a good portion of the South in early March. Eldest daughter lives in Florida, so my 2 other daughters & I will be going for a quick visit, and spending the rest of the time doing a very preliminary look-see in a couple of states. We took our internal and informal vote. That's three whole votes. The results, in order of preference for wanting to see: 1. NC and TN tied. 2. SC and GA tied. 3. If we had more time, we'd love to go through Mississippi, Alabama, etc. all the way to Texas, but we are not blessed with that many days off. :-) Of course, one week isn't enough time to do justice to any place, but it's a start, to kind of get a feel for things. Since we'll be driving mostly down the East Coast, we'll only see the tourist-y places in most states, so we have to narrow down the scope of places where we want to spend a day or two, and the easiest places to do that AND be able to spend a couple of days with oldest daughter. In the interests of time, I think we'll have to scope out the east coastal states. Everyone has decided that NC is a place we really want to look at, and we will spend a couple of days there. Folks from NC -- feel free to recommend favorite spots that would help get to look at local (not tourist) culture. If we have time, we'll swing over to parts of TN, but may have to save that for a late summer/early fall trip. I could get more time off, buy my daughters have been in their jobs for less than three years, so they don't get a lot of vacation time. We'll just have to plan another trip later in the year. Go ahead, twist my arm! I'd also enjoy checking out KY and WV, but they will have to be relegated to the next trip. I guess a Bosox fan in KY would feel a bit displaced. :-) But the Northeast "culture" has been oppressively brutal, although I will always love the "Yankee"/New England geography and flora and fauna. The small towns, especially. Truly lovely.

Lots of good information has been posted already, much of which I totally agree with. Winter is definitely the best time to do the heavy clearing because, as noted, no bugs, and the layers of clothing that are needed don't cause a problem. After trying many different garments I've decided that the Filson tin cloth stuff works best. The multi-flora rose is really tough on everthing else. I wear a pair of the double tin cloth chaps, and the logging jacket. I usually burn the stuff as I'm cutting. I've found that the rose and honeysuckle don't stack well, leaving large piles that just become breeding grounds for new plants that sprout from the seeds. Burning also makes it possible to work in some really nasty weather as you have a source of heat. I use a lot of hand tools, with a good pair of loppers and a hand saw (Fanno makes a wonderful saw for this) being the most useful. Hedge shears come in handy to cut a way into the base of the plant. If you are burning, once the plant has been cut at the base you can often just drag it to the fire. Spring, summer and fall I spend on maintenance of the areas cleared during the winter. In the spring I can usually cut back the new growth with a grass whip on a heavy duty brush cutter. As the growth gets older and tougher I change to the plastic blades and eventually the brush blade. Or a scythe (see scythesupply.com). That tool has been very useful, and very relaxing. I have been using sort of an all-purpose blade, but am thinking of getting a blade just for brush. For larger areas I use a DR mower. There are many things about the mower that I don't like, but it does what the DR folks says it will do, and more. As for the native plants, I do try to save them, but I've found that most will come back if given a chance. So my initial approach is to cut everything but the trees, then when I'm doing maintenance I can be more selective about what I'm going to trim back. A large supply of survey flags will come in handy. Whenever I see something that I want to look at again (like when it is leafing out in spring), or that I really want to save, I stick in a flag. I do this because after clearing the brush I usually scatter some grass seed. The ground is usually almost bare under the rose, honeysuckle and autumn olive. It's amazing how fast the grass will come up and hide all those interesting plants that I might want to save. Each spring I buy 50-100 lbs of seed from Ernst Seeds in western PA. They have an assortment of reclamation mixes that are not too expensive

I think you're doing the right thing in moving home. The joy of being with your grandchildren while they grow up will compensate for "projects." And having lots of social/family contact is even good for your health. You can take "volunteer vacations" where you do good works while traveling - that should help him get some of his projects out of his system. Or what about a woodworking class? I'm not being facetious - my DH and I are building a house next door to my son and his family, and he wanted (and we got) a large lot so he could garden. I know he'll enjoy that as a project and it was a life dream, so I am happy to support him. However, it is the grand baby that is the real motivation, for both of us. Love and people are more important than almost anything else IMHO. FYI, I gave up the fast track on my career to move back home with my family years ago and have never regretted it. I look back now and wonder why I thought it was such a hard decision at the time... Good luck!

I guess I am really getting depressed about not being able to retire because for several years I planned to retire this Oct. 31 and now that time is less than 2 weeks away, and I am afraid I will never get to retire. I have worked for 46 years and I want out. I worked hard for 6 years to get my credit cards paid off and they finally are, but I have a whole new set of problems. I am now faced with the prospect of my land not selling if it is not engineered. I will have to do the engineering and I have an estimate for $9,500 from an engineer. The town is putting in a sewer line by that property and I will have to pay for 2 sewer taps that could run anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 a piece, my car needs $2,000 urgent repairs, my house needs repairs, the roof leakes, the plumbing needs lots of work and I just don't know what to do. I could very easily end up $15,000 in debt, and I just found out that I need another major dental procedure that could cost up to $2,000. There is just no way I can see my way to retire and that is what I want so much.