Pinesage is the subdivision we now live in. The mailing address is West End, NC but it is 6 miles North-West of Pinehurst - about half way between Pinehurst and West End. The entrance to the subdivision has a landscaped area and stone columns; much like a gated subdivision would have. My first thoughts when we first came here was, “Snob Hill, restrictions. Do we want this?” The place is the second house on a gravel driveway off a cal-d-sac. There are trees and shrubs that block the view of other houses. The main house faces a pound. The front and back yards have tall pine trees and the ground is covered with pine straw. There is no drive to the front of the house. The cottage is about 100 feet behind the main house.

View from the front of the main house

When Pinesage was developed, county water was not available in this area. The near by small town of Taylortown had a water system and agreed to include Pinesage in their town even though Pinesage is not quite adjacent to Taylortown. We have Taylortown water. Now that county water is available, the Pinesage Owner’s Association has started the process to have us de-annexed from Taylortown. This may leave us open to annexation by Pinehurst. We’ll see.

There are restrictions: Only one family per lot, Only one outbuilding no larger than a three-car garage, no trailers longer that twenty feet, no unlicensed vehicles, etc., etc. We notice some violations. However, the lot we are on was added to the subdivision after the restrictions were drawn up. The restrictions refer to lots up to this one but this lot is not mentioned. Technically we are not bound by the restrictions but I think that is only an oversight. We want to stay in good graces with the community so David contacted the Owner’s Association about us living here and about adding a storage building. We are considered extended family so we can stay. Also they approved a waver for the storage building.

The cottage was built five years ago for a Craft Shop with a large display room and a larger work room. It also had a bath room and storage area. The work room was the size of an oversize one car garage with an overhead garage door to the outside. The display room had a closet with sliding mirror doors; also some built-in book shelves. The bathroom had a door into the display room and another door into the work room.

With two doors the bath room did not have room for a vanity. We closed the door to the display room and added a vanity and a wall cabinet. I put vinyl flooring with a wood grain pattern in the work room. The display room and bath room already had vinyl flooring that is in good shape. We divided the work room to make a nice sized eat-in kitchen and a smaller room for the desk, filing cabinet, computer, safe, sewing machine, small chest of drawers and a rocking chair. It all fits in a seven and a half foot by sixteen foot area. We closed in the garage door and added a double window that has a view of the garden. I did a lot of the work, but a carpenter and helper did the sheet rock and hung the kitchen cabinets. David, Jeanie’s husband, moved the breaker box to the new wall and added receptacles for the stove, dryer, etc. He also changed some lights and added a phone jack for the computer. We got new Hot Point appliances: cook stove, refrigerator, dish washer, washer and dryer. There is a door from the kitchen to the outside. We had a small awning installed over the kitchen door. The display room is our living room/bed room.

Front of cottage, facing Jeanie' back door

Kitchen door

There is a recorded right-0f-way to another house next to us across the back of the lot. The right-of-way is not being used. The house next door has a drive way across a dam to the front of the house. The right-of-way is where the storage building needed to go. I planted garden on some of the right-of-way. David checked with the county to see if we needed a building permit. The answer was, ”Yes, it must have a permanent foundation and you will need a septic tank survey.” Why? We wanted to put the building on cinderblocks. A man down the road builds what we wanted off site and hauls it in on a truck; does he need a permit? “No, he can bring in whatever you want and put in anywhere you want but you can’t build it on site.” We had him build a twelve by twenty and put it on the right-on-way for just a little more than I figured the material would cost if I built it. I added a lean-to twelve by twenty garage.

Storage Building & Garage

Remolding and building kept me busy for a while. I usually worked only about three hours each morning. It took about that long for me to run out of steam. Cleaning up construction debris and gardening occupied me some. I cleared scrub oaks from enough area to plant two apple trees, two pair trees, a fig tree and some blue berries. Digging up the stumps was quite a job.

I went overboard gardening in 2005. I had some garden behind the cottage and cleared even more of the woods for more garden. There was already asparagus that I planted the previous year. I had planted rhubarb but it never came up. In 2005 I planted spinach, kale, mustard greens, beets, onion sets, Salsify, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, peanuts, okra, two kinds of corn, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, three kinds of snaps, butter beans, carrots, two kinds of peppers, three kinds of tomatoes, pumpkins and black-eyed-peas - not in that order.

The beet, spinach and carrot seeds look much the same. I meant to plant the carrots and beets in sandy soil and spinach in clay soil. The carrots came up in the clay soil and didn’t grow too good. The spinach was too thick but did fair. Later in the season I transplanted some of the spinach but it soon went to seed. The beets did OK. The mustard went to seed before we could use any of it. I mowed off the mustard and some of it came back with nice leaves. The kale produced on into the summer and never went to seed. The onions started to rot in the ground. We used some of them but they never got very big. The Irish potatoes were already rotten in the ground by time they were ready to dig. The snaps and butter beans did fair but not like I had hoped. The tomatoes did OK. The peppers produced a lot of small peppers. I don’t know why they didn’t get very big. The squash died without producing. I planted some more squash that didn’t do much. The corn did fine as did the okra, sweet potatoes and watermelons. The Salsify came up but didn’t get big enough to use. The tomatoes did fair. The cucumbers were bitter so I pulled them up. There was one good cantaloupe.

We planted the largest garden we have had since we moved to West End - Sugar snaps, beets, carrots, onions, kale, mustard greens, Spanish, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, butter beans, green beans, pinto beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers, corn, peanuts, Irish potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, cantaloupe, watermelon and okra. I think that’s all. The first twelve items I listed did fair to excellent except for the beets. They didn’t get a stand. The corn, cantaloupe and watermelons did excellent and the potatoes did fair. Deer ate the rest. I put up an electric fence that worked for a couple of months. Then they decided it was easy enough to just hop over it. Fall greens and turnips are doing fine so far.

After clearing another area,to solve the deer problen once and for all, I strung electric fience wire about one foot apart from just above the ground to a height of ten feet. I actually electrified two of the strands. However, that was not enough. Rabbits ate the first planting of broccli so I put chicken wire at the bottom of the fience with some of it barried.

Before                                             Doing the clearing.

Now the garden looks more like this, in season.

The Spring of 2014 found the deer fience in need of repair that would require a ladder. My enegry level and stability convinced me not to repair the fience or even start another garden. I was able to remove the lower part of the fience. Nolen helped me remove the few upper wires.

Along about August we saw a small camper for sale beside the road. It looked pretty new. It is a 17 ft. 1999 Bantam Travel Light. Of course we didn’t trust the Impala to pull it so we not only bought the camper, but also bought a 1999 Chevrolet S-10 pick-up truck. The truck had 132,000 miles on it but it looked and drove like new. I did have to buy tires for it and had a little front end work done. It pulls the camper fine. We have had it out three time so far (this is November, ‘06).

As you can tell by the picture, there is not much room for bed, bath, kitchen and table. Beds fold out on each end. The front bed is queen size and the back bed is double bed size. Also, the table folds down to make another queen bed. Mary Ellen says it is like living in a closet. It is equipped with gas stove, heater and water heater. It also has air conditioning, storage tanks and water pump. We added a micro-wave oven.

We sold that camper after a couple of years or so with the idea of buying one a little larger. We didn't find one we liked, or could afford, right away. Now (2014) we just don't feel up to doing much more traveling and quit looking for another camper.

I guess my joints are wearing out. Occasionally my right knee would catch and hurt if I put any weight on it. I soon learned that if I shook my right leg, my knee would pop and be OK for a while. Sometimes it would pop loud enough for other people to hear. I called it my Elvis Knee.

I had noticed blood in my urine off and on for a month or two before I went to a urologist. He found tumors in my bladder. The biopsy indicated cancer in the bladder wall. I have scheduled the operation to have my bladder and prostate removed near the end of this month (November, ‘06). I will have an external sack for a bladder. This is considered a serious operation that will have me in intensive care for two days and seven to ten days in the hospital. The recovery period is expected to take about a month.

I will take what comes when it comes and do what I have to do (maybe). I think Mary Ellen is inclined to take what might come before it comes. I feel more for her than I do for myself. So far I feel fine.

The operation went well. It was Monday Nov. 27 and I came home the following Monday. Home Health Care sends a nurse to help with the dressings, etc. The incision is healing nicely. I am having some trouble with the external bladder leaking where it glues to my skin. Of course the trouble has gotten worse on a week-end. The urostomy is supposed to be changed once a week. We have changed it at least daily (twice today). The one I have on now has been patched up so many times I took it off, cleaned it up and put it back on. A no, no but what could I do? I didn’t have a spare that would mate to my night bag. The nurse did not realize that it would not fit. It is starting to irritate the skin. And supplies are running out. There is also some swelling the nurse is concerned about. The Doctor said to come in Tuesday. The nurse said, “Go to the Emergency Room.” I think I irritated the Doctor by calling him on the week-end. I didn’t go to the Emergency Room.

Medicare and my Health Insurance is supposed to pay for supplies. Home Health Care is supposed to furnish supplies as long as I am under their care and leave a supply to hold me over until I can order some more. My Home Health Care provider has run out of the supplies I need just to get over this week-end. We found a supplier in Southern Pines that was open this morning. They don’t wait for Medicare for payment but they do apply for me and Medicare will send me a check. We got what we need but that was even a hassle. The supplier said they need a prescription and Diagnostic Code. The doctor said the Home Health Care provider should take care of it. I agree - they are supposed to furnish the supplies. They did come up with a Diagnostic Code and we got the supplies. I went in my pajamas to sign the papers for Medicare.

The pain was controlled while in the hospital (I think I was in the hospital for a week or maybe 10 days.) In fact, pain was never a problem.

There were problems at first. Apparently Urostomys are rare in this area. I asked the nurse how often should I change the flange. The reply was, “Oh, I guess about a week.” Medicare and my insurance allowed for Home Health Care until I adjusted. I chose Liberty Home Health Care after contacting another provider who said they were not equipped to handle Urostomy patients. Liberty nurses were very dedicated and caring but apparently with no Urostomy experience.

At the hospital they changed the flange at least every day. I was almost always leaking. The leaking problem continued at home. I could get only 2 or 3 days without a leak. Another problem, or at least we thought it was a problem; a white substance built up around the stoma. The nurses didn't know what it was but it threatened to cover the stoma. The doctor and hospital nurse said it was probably just mucus and should not be a problem. The Home nurse removed some of it with tweezers.

I checked the internet for advice. There are many blogs about leaking. Some said they changed manufactures of the devices and settled on Coloplast. Most said they settled on a 3 day wear time. That worked for me too but I wanted a longer wear time. We tried sever methods of cleaning the area. It didn't make much difference. One thing all the nurses did was to use as medicated powder and blot with a '”Skin-Prep” wipe. Home Health was not getting anywhere so I dismissed them after a couple of weeks so I could get out some.

I got the most help from the Coloplast Repetitive, Teri Barbar (ustdb@coloplast.com). Her father had the same operation. She said the white build-up around the stoma was the Turtle Neck effect; it is normal and will not completely cover the stoma. Why did the other nurses or doctor not tell me that?