Hi, Everyone!
I'm embarrassed by all the fanfare. Mr. Ideasguy makes it sound as though I'm thoroughly experienced with the software and have loads of experience in gardening, traveling, etc., etc. Truth is... well, I've had the software on my computer for a very long time and at first I worked with it, trying to catalog my extensive plant collection. Then Life stepped in and interrupted my play. So, in actual fact, I'm a newbie just getting back to the software and will have to learn it all over again, especially since I just upgraded to the Pro version and lost all my saved data in a hard drive crash.
So, to tell you a bit about myself:
I'm a short, fat, little old lady who loves to get her hands dirty. I spent most of my childhood on a very small farm in Kentucky where my city-raised parents tried their hands at farming. The only thing they really grew or produced well, though, was kids... and so I'm the oldest of 8 children. We moved back to the city when I was 16 years old but I was never really happy after that. Something just seemed to be missing in my life.
I spent three years travelling with my husband (at the time), who was in the military. A few months in South Carolina, another few in New Jersey, followed by two years in Germany.. When his tour was over, we settled in Southern Ohio, just across the river from the Kentucky area where we both had grown up. Still, it was a city setting and something was missing.
It was quite some time before I made it back to a farm, and a second marriage. We purchased 127 acres of rundown old dairy and turned it into a grade A dairy with 100 head of registered Jersey cows and a gang of registered show-quality dairy goats. I was happy once again.
The marriage broke up, I moved to Florida to be near my parents (my own sons were grown by then) and once again I was in a city life.
Three years ago, my sister and I (both single) decided we should retire together. And so we found 2-1/2 acres on the outskirts of Punta Gorda, FL. My sister went back to work as a nurse and I'm the farmer.
We have a small herd of meat goats, a small group of rabbits and a flock of hens. After a major struggle trying to learn how to farm year-round, I finally have a garden that is producing food for us. Now I'm beginning work on the aesthetics, trying to get some flowers and decorative plants going. One can only look at so much grass before going totally bonkers!
We won't even go into the years between the time I purchased Ideas Genie and now, when I bad my quadruplet grandchildren with me daily and barely had time to think. They're in school now and I only see them occasionally except when they're on break. The they're here every day.
Life has shifted for me once again and I have a bit of time for myself and my own pleasures... like gardening. And so here I am.
Did I leave anything out?
