Donnie, Noah & Suwannee Years
Donnie sailed into my anchorage in time to save me
from the brink of total self-destruction.
I was then living on my 67' houseboat in Coconut Grove anchorage.
He was like an angel to me, and he somehow was able to draw me back
from that brink of VOIDom, and back into the world of the living.
It was shortly after we got together that hurricane Andrew arrived to wreak
its havoc.
We stayed in the anchorage - living on the small island in a tent for a couple
months
until FEMA came through for us all. Then I purchased the double-cabin sailboat,
then sold it (living space was Way too small!) and bought the 50' pontoon
houseboat
that was always on a slight lean due to a leak in one of the pontoons.
We later moved to north Florida onto 1 acre Donnie bought right on the river.
It was actually only 1/4 acre dry land, the rest was wonderful swamp, and
then the river.
Later, after Dad died, I bought my 5 acres about a mile from the river,
where we lived for quite a while, and where Noah was born ('95).
After being together for 4 1/2 years,
Donnie went off back sailing with Noah.
I was in relapsing state.
The boys went back to Miami to stay with
Sharman for a while, and then with their friend's families.
I went to stay for a year with Mom in DC before going back to the Miami area.
We lived in trailers on Donnie's acre
when we first went north, and had great log pathways over the swamp to get to the river... This part is Before Noah... |
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 We had two trailers - Donnie and I stayed in the big one, the boys in the little one below. |
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 Jam, and his great bear friend :) |
 The dune buggy thingy. Lots of fun! |
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 Donnie did some great carving with his chain saw too! Besides this alligator, he made all kinds of cool statue people, and many other things. |
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 Donnie, being a tree climber by trade, taught a little tree climbing to the boys too. I just scrinched my eyes, and held my breath. |
 There was a great spring/swimming hole just a short walk from the acre, where all the locals came to swim. |
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 This pic is up the river a ways from Donnie's land. |
 This is the river right at his acre. We swam and played a lot there, even with the alligators and the water moccasin snakes :) |
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 In the cypress swamps, and in the river, the water level would rapidly rise and fall depending on what was going on up-river and in the Okefenokee swamp where the Suwannee begins. |
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 Boy, the cypress trees in some places along the river were positively HUGE!! |
 Who knows how old they are? |
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 Donnie made this small tree-platform by the water and the boys climbed up there a lot. |
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 And...our great log-walk over the swamp |
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 Even Buster, our dog, ran along the log-walk! |
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 Our road to the 1 acre was more like a path! |
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 Donnie and the boys tried this jump. I chickened out. And I think I want to jump out of an airplane someday? |
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 Mom came to visit the swamps too! Really she came to visit us :) |
 Here the boys are standing in front of the Elementary school they went to in Old Town when we lived on Donnie's land. |
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The Noah
era begins... Life on the 5 acres... |
 Yup, that's Noah in there! |
 We went into Gainesville to the Birthing Center there because the midwives were not allowed to leave the county, and we lived in a different county. But it was very similar to being at home, except that we barely made it there before he popped out! |
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 Just after birth - a neat story.. notice the "golden ring" in Noah's hand. He had grabbed the golden earring from the midwife just after birth! |
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 oops...here's another pregnant one of me. |
 Winn and Jam were both great big brothers, giving Noah tons of love and attention. |
 Here's a pic looking from behind our mobile home towards the front of the property. The dirt road is way in the far back of this picture. |
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 The beginnings of our vegetable garden.. |
 Donnie |
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 Besides the mobile home, there was a great garage building where later Sharman came to live for a while with his girlfriend so he could be close to the boys. I loved my 1967 side-step pick-up truck. Donnie's working on it, but it was MY truck :) |
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 Even Noah wanted to drive! |
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 This is the road my 5 acres was on - hard-packed dirt. |
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And other Donnie and Noah pics from later times... |
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 Donnie's sailboat, out of the water for repairs. |
 Donnie had rigged a motor on his bicycle and made a seat for Noah to sit in front of him. |
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