The book club has grown – from two book readers to now around 7 or 8 when all attend!
Each month a different book is suggested and read.
The meeting place is determined month to month – this time it was OIB Surf & Java –
right next to Lowes food market in OIB!
While some could not make the short hour-long discussion –
and it was not only the book discussed – but get to know your neighbors!
A comfy setting – great chairs and company.
This time I tagged along – I know this place has great coffee – and I just relaxed and read the paper.
I have belonged to another book club back in Va. – but my reading material differs from these.
I am more a Syfy or a good murder thriller reader.
But – I have collected some five books to help supply the future lending library!
This little library hopefully will be outside at the community center –
Where you can grab a book to read for free and if you have any – leave them there for others to read!
Inside Surf & Java coffee shop.
This coffee shop also has sort of upscale clothing –
sports (surf) equipment – shoes – men and women – and some are marked down.
Large screen TV and really comfy chairs.
View of the items for sale.
The book club is young – and growing – and the next meeting will be moved to another coffee shop to be announced on the Cameron Woods Community Facebook site!
Good company – good books and good coffee!
You can notify Diane or Sherry if you wish to come – to the site.
I will be going back again to just sit back – sip my coffee – read a paper –
When we walk – we can go in two directions – this walk is to the East – and the Pond.
E Lindley Lane, S.W.
Here we turn right and walk down the street – there are maybe six houses down here that are still in construction – and all are at the end of this road and then onto the cul-de-sac that winds around to the back of our house through the woods.
But before you get to that other street – the entrance to the trail that walks all the way around the pond – is on the left. Past the only two true story homes in the entire development.
Here you see my wife Sherry starting on the path and the pond is to her right – and in the middle, some 100 feet away is a somewhat raised portion – almost like an old farm road.
This is where WOODIE – THE GATOR – likes to sunbathe!
When the temps rise and the sun comes out – most times you can find WOODIE!
Although I have only ever seen one gator in here – neighbors have seen TWO – both this size!
I would estimate it is 6 plus feet long!
Maybe seven feet!
These neighbors who live on the pond have also seen Otters – lots of Turtles – and have caught a big mouth bass out of here!
The next blog will be “ENTERING THE WOODS” where I am on watch for snakes!
We have seen one rather large Black Snake laying on the path before you go into the woods –
East end of Ocean Isle Beach and the project “The Terminal Groin”
For the past twenty-plus years – the beach here has eroded away – taking with it the ends of first and second streets. Third street and fourth street were in danger as the waves came up and under some of the houses. They started building the break wall that extends some 900 feet straight out and into the ocean, and then a right turn and a short distance – the boulders are huge granite – three boulders to a forty-foot long trailer bed – hauled in by the truckloads.
All the beach you now see in this picture is being pumped in from the dredging of the channel behind the groin – which they do anyways to keep the channel clear for boats.
The water came up to the huge sandbags to under the pilings of these houses.
The “GROIN” will continue until late April when it will be completed. Here you see the pipes blowing out sand to form the new beach.
Large bulldozers spread the sand out and the next picture shows how deep the sand is.
The beach access after some sand addition – the last storm – water came under the steps to the sandbags and over them.
A look West along the new beach – graded – the sandbags were put in place to help keep the water back.
Sherry walking in OIB.
I will continue with the next blog on The TERMINAL GROIN PROJECT”
As the day begins at the condo – the build of our new home begins some six-teen miles away – in Cameron Woods at Ocean Isle Beach – N.C. We searched and searched – but all in vain as the cost to buy was equal or more than to build what we wanted!
Our view here I shall always remember – in all we will be here for nine months!
I captured this shot as a flock of geese were coming right at me before
rising up over the lanai and roof.
We decided to build – that way we would have everything we wanted
A single story – no stairs – covered front porch – screened in covered lanai.
Close to the beach ( four miles) in the country!
Close to golfing ( over 20 courses near by)
And with in 6 1/2 hours to travel back home
or family to travel here!
Materials for the new home – ground is ready – all utilities in and inspected – waiting for pour of concrete!Forms and moisture barrierSome view in one direction of neighborhood – I think in total maybe fifty homes will be here.When done – a two car garage with pull down stairs and finished storage overhead.
We will have around 1900 sf. of heated space –
in addition to a 140 sf covered and screened in lanai
and a open 10 x 14 concrete patio.
There will be a covered front porch
and views of the neighborhood.
The back will be woods with no one building there
as it will be a conservation area.
We will be four miles to Ocean Isle Beach and six miles to Sunset Beach
A thirty minute drive back to North Myrtle Beach
and a fifthteen minute drive to Calabash
and a fifthteen minute drive to Shallotte.
All this in the middle of some twenty golf courses we will be playing!
The concrete is poured – and rain is now slowing up everything!
But – all the inspections have been completed
and our contractor calls us every Monday to give updates
and answer any questions!
The forms are out – concrete is in – framing will be next!View of the garage and the woods behind the new build.
We drive over every Sunday – no one is working!
That way – if it is not raining – we can get out and look it over!
This will be our third house together building.
All three were unique and we have input on all of them.
Thank you for reading Papa’s World
WHERE FRIENDS MEET THE FAMILY
FAMILY MEETS FRIENDS!
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Many times when her father was alive – we would go on vacation with them –
then when he passed away – we continued taking GIGI with us where ever we went.
The grandchildren all loved their GIGI – and today – the grandkids call Sherry – MORMOR – Swede for MOTHERS – MOTHER
You see GIGI ( Barb) was Swede through and through – her mother was born in Sweden.
In Mount Jewett where they lived – was an early Swedish settlement from immigrants.
The men in 1886 built a replicant of an eight-sided Swedish church – and the one in Sweden still stands as does the one called Mount Nebo in Mount Jewett – in NWPA!
Every year in that little town in NWPA – a Swedish festival is held.
Both Barb and Bill at one time were the king and queen of that festival.
GIGI – holding Taylor – Maddy holding Cassidy – Sarah and Ella
Memories of GIGI for the grandkids was she was always laughing – smiling – red cheeks –
Holding her hand as they walked or climbing up and sitting beside her.
Learning how to sing a song in Swedish and singing it to her.
Those are memories not lost – but retained in our minds.
GIGI is ever there watching over us.
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – where memories come alive and live on.
Living in Ocean Isle Beach – Cameron Woods – 7 miles to the S.C. border –
the weather is what I like – yes – we have had that rare ice and snow –
but then you get days such as this where it is tee shirt – shorts and sandals!
That is when our resident pond Aligator comes out to the sun itself!
We have a walking trail around this pond and sometimes we see it and other times we do not.
We have seen tons of turtles in here – all types of birds hunting for fish and some have seen otters.
I think there are two gators in here and some babies although I have never seen the little ones or two gators at the same time.
And then it is but a short ten-minute drive to the beach – where the sound of the surf and warm sand entice you to bring a chair and just sit in the warm sunshine!
Tee shirt – shorts and no shoes – toes in the sand – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Welcome to CAMERON WOODS – OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. 28469
Sitting off Old Georgetown road – just past the back entrance to Ocean Ridge Plantation –
sits a brand new community – about four years old.
Amongst the tall N.C. pine trees and the live oaks.
It is a gated community – and will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 homes when completed.
The last phase is set to be started with the roads and infrastructure have been completed in half of it.
Sunset in Cameron Woods from our back patio.
Beyond these woods will be the final construction – there are no roads in there yet except one access road – and a very large pond – although all the trees have been cleared.
To the right of this – that section has paved roads and infrastructure!
It is to the far right that the roads are in – and another beautiful sunset!
We are getting to know the neighbors – as they move in.
Our close friends Steve and Diane are actually from back in WNY and know our old stomping
grounds there.
We have abundant wildlife here – turkeys – deer – raccoons – gators – and some say a bobcat.
It is at the end of this street where the final phase of construction is!
If the sky is somewhat clear – and most times it is – we can see the sunset from the end of the driveway
to the back patio each night – and then do stargazing – as the view is clear.
View of the beginning of sunset over our home.
In the mornings from the opposite view here – we see the sunrises!
So we have the perfect sunrise and sunsets each day and night!
SUNSET FROM OUR FRONT EDGE OF THE DRIVEWAY!
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – there are a lot of lots left to build on –
COME ON IN – we would love to meet new residents!
CAMERON WOODS – OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C.
Four plus miles to OIB and seven-plus miles to SUNSET BEACH!
SHALLOTTE seven miles away and CALABASH six miles away.
In the midst of the Alleghany hills – amongst the green and lush valleys – sits a little community-
Population – around 800 souls – and back then – I knew almost every one of them!
Eldred Pa.
The town sits on the Alleghany river which eventually flowed into Pittsburg – but – it flowed North first!
Yes – it left Pa. and flowed into NYS before flowing once again South through Pa.
It ends up in Pittsburg some three-plus hours away.
We would be considered the snow belt – some 80 miles south of Lake Erie and Buffalo N.Y.
I helped a friend of mine growing up with his paper route – his name was Brent – and we hung out.
He bought a go-cart with his money and he would let me ride on it.
He was two years older than I and eventually married my cousin.
Funny how that worked out – he graduated and I lost track of him.
The town nestled in the hills.
I would ride my bike everywhere – I had to be home each night for dinner and before the street
lights came on. Every night at 10 o’clock sharp – the siren from the firehouse would blow-
You could hear it all over the town – that was “CURFEW” for the streets –
I think no one under 18 could be out and about!
My first friend I can remember is the girl next door – her name was Sharon – and she had a big brother whom everyone called Sonny “KING” – and he dressed in a black leather motorcycle jacket and slicked his hair back like Elvis!
Sharon and I were like brother and sister – we would watch Lassie together – play on the front porch –
sneak a corncob pipe and gather silk from the corn and smoke –
puff it – in the big red barn behind the house.
We would walk to school together – and our route always was behind the main street along the tracks.
Behind the Eldred Garage and then on the tracks themselves.
Just before the creek – Lynches lived and behind their house was a tree –
like a little island raised up on a piece of land.
We would sit there and play our Kazoo’s together –
“THREE BLIND MICE”
That was all I knew how to play! LOL
She moved away and my sister and her husband moved in right next door!
Bill Luce – on the left – my brother-in-law.
Over his shoulder is the greenhouse I grew up in – my bedroom was the two windows on the second floor –
after my older brother Roger left for college.
Every morning I would wake up to the birds singing in the tree outside that window –
the Sunlight would come streaming in –
There was the main street – highway right out front –
and I would sleep and hear the sound of cars – trucks rolling by –
and then – the accidents that happen right there –
crashes would hit the cars parked there.
Some – I sept right through – others – would jolt me right out of bed.
That curb was where my best friend and I were sitting one early morning after midnight –
he was sleeping over and my parents had gone somewhere –
we got into the hootch under the sink.
My sister came out and grilled us –
“ARE YOU GUYS DRUNK”?
No I said and right at that time a car came
and the lights showed right on my friend – and he got sick –
and threw up all over the place!
” HE IS,” I said! LOL,
my sister always laughed at that and would tell the story many times over and over!
My friend and drinking buddy – lower right-hand corner!
We have reconnected about fifteen years ago at a class reunion –
he spent about a week here last October –
and we played golf once again – after some 55 years have gone by since we last played together!
My brother Roger and Sherry – a few years before he passed away – gone but not forgotten.
He was my hero growing up – ten years older than I –
named WHOS WHO in American colleges
OFFICERS TRAINING SCHOOL and a Lt. in the navy.
His bedroom became mine – when he came back I would sleep on the floor.
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – to be continued in livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Just a little over a month later from our New Years Eve beach gathering and toast to 2021
We once again were back to see the sunset – only it was windy and cold –
far from the 65 degrees of NYE!
The approaching sunset peeking through the trees!
Papa – Diane and Sherry
We first parked and walked to the end of the street – here the last of the end of the houses –
and this then begins Bird Island – marshland protected and wide-open beach.
Our neighbor Diane
The tide was going out!
Here you see the last of the houses on the marsh and bayside – with the tide going out – This is the end of Sunset Beach and the beginning of Bird Island.
Sun setting – time to go to the beach.
This is where we gathered for NYE and drank a toast to 2021!
The pier and people walking the beach.
Sherry – braving the wind chill – it was cold.
As we looked out on the ocean – to think we can do this every night if we want to –
and there still is Ocean Isle Beach – living our dream.
One final look before we returned home – Sunset at SUNSET BEACH, N.C.
After walking through the paved road area where the infrastructure is already installed –
We decided to walk the access road beyond the huge mound of dirt to the pond.
Diane Sherry and Betsey waiting for me to come down off the mound of dirt.
We now are on the access road – through the cleared area walking to the large pond!
Sherry and Diane walking the road with a huge drainage ditch on the left – I call this the “GATOR HIGHWAY”
Yes – we have seen a small gator in this pond – but as Sherry says – “WHERE’S THE MOTHER”?
This is the old access road that they put in to make the pond and clear the land.
This old access road runs right behind our house – the tree line here is protected –
That is the back of our home in the picture – these woods will not be cut or cleared and this old road is blocked off – where another new home has been built.
I hope they make this part of the already trail system we have that goes around the other pond.
This now seems to be where they dump and storm drains – pipes, etc.
This area will be the last to be done in the next phase – suppose to be according to map site plans
A third pond somewhere to the right of this picture eventually.
The second pond – looks to be as big as the other one or larger.
We have seen many tracks of deer around here as well as other tracks.
People have said they have seen Bobcat tracks and coming home one night –
I saw something bigger than a normal cat on the main highway – ?????
I took this picture a couple months ago – right behind the new community center.
Betsey – Diane and Sherry – heading back up the road away from the pond.
There are five houses to be completed in our phase – and then they are done there- I was told the construction will commence here in the finished area with paved roads sometime in March.
They are selling the lots now – LENNAR is the builder now – new designs and new elevations will be the difference from what we had to choose from.
We shall see what this all looks like a year from now as aI think it is a two-year build-out or more.
PAPA’S WORLD – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
CAMERON WOODS – off Old Georgetown Road – Ocean Isle Beach – across from the back entrance to Ocean Ridge Plantation – home of the BIG CATS golf courses.
Phase one completed – Phase two is almost done – no idea what phase the garden homes are in –
they are conjoined town home-condos across from this entrance but part of our development.
There are numerous homes there completed but looks like less than halfway done.
We walk almost daily weather permitting.
Phase three – all the infrastructure is already in – and two of the roads are paved.
The lots are ready and have numbers on them.
I assume that some have already been sold as I was told construction is supposed to start in March.
It is hard to tell now but they look similar in size to our lots – perhaps a little bit bigger.
The far tree line to the right has a cul-de-sac behind it and I assume will not be cut down.
The neighborhood in Phase two that is complete
In this picture, we live beyond this view to the right.
Behind these homes is where the community center is to the right.
This was all woods when we purchased our lot.
I stand where a huge hill of dirt has been piled up – separating the sites here from the clearings behind it. I think this mound of the earth will be pushed back to cover the cleared space or used as a fill when they put in the remaining infrastructure.
According to the site maps – one more pond is yet to be added to the right somewhere in the trees.
This is the cleared area behind the mound and already a very large pond is there to the left and one more is to be added according to the site maps.
There already is an access road right back to the pond which is either the same size as the one completed at the end of our road or bigger.
Diane and Sherry walk up the mound of earth.
If you could continue to walk – straight ahead of them is our new home through the woods.
A view from our back yard through the protected trees to the cleared land beyond the mound of earth.
To the right beyond those trees is the mound of dirt.
Thank you for reading Papa’s World – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
The next blog will be THE WALK CONTINUED through the cleared area to the pond.
From that little one to an adult and a junior in college. Maddy was the first and now there are six.
TAYLOR and Papa.
Cassidy – TAYLOR – Bode
TAYLOR – today – who is going to be taller than all the rest – no longer my LITTLE ONE!
ELLA ( tiny) and Maddy
ELLA ( tiny) now a Freshman at Randolph College
We called her the nickname from her father – she always had a soccer ball or basketball in her hands.
Today – she is the starting midfielder for the college – playing almost every minute of the games.
Tiny now is taller than Sherry who is 5′ 9″.
CASSIDY and Taylor
CASSIDY – the caring little mother to Bode.
Today she is the smaller of the twins – with the biggest heart – always protecting Bode when not arguing with him! LOL, They should have been the twins they are so much alike!
She is the one who counts the days down to when she can see us – who zoom calls every week.
A little fireball with the biggest heart of them all.
SARAH and Ella
SARAH – Bode – Cassidy – Taylor and Ella.
Today – Sarah is almost as tall as Ella who is 5’10” – the fashion girl who wants to go to NYC!
The twins adore her and whenever we get together – they are three peas in a pod.
She is only a Freshman in H.S. – already was a contender for prom queen.
She is her own self – funny – outgoing – and just might have been a very good soccer player like her sisters.
Cassidy BODE Taylor
Taylor BODE Cassidy
So much like Cassidy that they should have been the twins – yet – he is growing –
and someday I think will be taller than Taylor who he is built just like at seven years old.
Full of energy – always on the go – wear no socks or shoes most of the time.
Or a jacket or gloves!
Out of the six grandchildren – the only boy.
Bode Ella Cassidy Taylor Maddy and Sarah
Here today at Christmas day for presents – memories from the past to the present.
Thanks for reading Papa’s World MY BLOG: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog fitztdf@aol.com
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