the Youngest Snowbird:

Wondering About Southern 'Bama Weather?

Since we parked JohnnyDisco here in Alabama almost 5 weeks ago...

• 4 weeks have been perfect weatherwise, sunny and 25C during the day and overnight lows ranging from 7C to 10C
• there's been the odd sticky day with 100% humidity
• we've had two tornado warnings for our area (Baldwin County)
• and there was a massive rainstorm this past Sunday, with 24 hours of very hard rain - when you looked out the window it felt like you were in the center of a waterfall

We're back to beautiful sunny skies but it is starting to get cooler overnight. Which thrilled My Fella since he got to haul out the muttz winter clothes  :)  

Despite the look on her face, Shelbert loves the warmth of her pink hoodie. While young Norman prefers the more rugged style of his camo muscle shirt.

some days the dogs are dressed better than My Fella

We Don't Have a Christmas Tree

Our little RV family has a Flamingo Tree instead.  

It's really just a regular 2 foot Xmas tree, adorned with flamingo patio lights. Tropical, yet festive. 

My Fella and I don't spend a lot of cash at Christmas time, but we do buy each other a few small (practical) things. Over the past couple weeks, I've bought/wrapped most of My Fella's gifts so the Flamingo Tree is starting to look kinda lopsided.

His stuff is wrapped in blue paper and my presents are wearing green.

My guy is frustrated cause I'm really hard to shop for.

We're exactly one month away from Christmas and his list has six 'wants' while mine only has two. It's not that I'm all sweet and selfless; I just hate clutter and don't have much use for material things. But today I added something new to my list - a good quality MP3 player.

Every day I head out for a 5 to 7 km hike to burn enough calories so I can drink beer and eat peanuts  :)   Up til now I've been using My Fella's old MP3 player, which is on its last legs. So today we braved the Black Friday crowds, scouting out good deals on electronics.

Before heading out, we decided that if folks were lined up out the door or the parking lots were jam packed, we'd turn around and come straight home. But I can tell you firsthand, southern Alabama shoppers don't seem to embrace the Black Friday craze like the rest of the USA.

Not sure if it's a result of America's economic problems, the devastating Gulf coast hurricanes or last years BP oil spill (which is still causing financial hardship for folks around here) but at 11am on Black Friday, the local Best Buy was busy, but not packed.

Saturday afternoon busy as opposed to line-ups outside the front door busy.

And the legendary Black Friday sales weren't really much of a deal - at Best Buy or any of the stores we wandered into. But we did find a good quality MP3 player on sale for $30, down from $50.

So now I have 3 presents under the Flamingo Tree. 

And I'm happy to say that my first (and probably last) Black Friday shopping experience was pretty tame compared to these crazy consumers.

Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo: Part 3

Last Thursday, My Fella and I went to The Little Zoo That Could.  To read about how the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo got that nickname, check out my previous two blog posts.  And for a quick description of what you're seeing just hover your mouse over each pic:

This final Gulf Coast Zoo post starts with a big batch of cute, in the form of African servals.   Servals are a medium sized tiger cat, weighing only 15 to 40 pounds.  

The two young servals (below) were born at the zoo at the end of August and you can see here how much they look like baby kittens. 

These little guys were snuggling in the sun and wouldn't turn around, but they were adorable even from the back.

The Bengal tiger has the best hair of the bunch in that shot. 

I just shaved My Fella's head so he's hairless. And I am waaay overdue for a Nice 'n Easy root touch-up. Some shampoo wouldn't hurt either.

Mr Barbary Lion was only yawning here, but My Fella and I did hear him roar at one point.  The roar echoed clear across the small zoo so I can't imagine how loud it would've been up close.

It actually sounded like he had escaped and was stalking nearby humans.  When we heard the huge roar, I turned and ran towards it to try see him - while My fella started speed walking in the opposite direction.  You decide who has more common sense in our relationship  :) 

The Little Zoo That Could is a pretty spectacular place and has the best collecion of big cats I've ever seen in such a small zoo.  Or any zoo.

5 enthusiastic paws out of 5 for the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.

Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo: Part 2

Last week My Fella and I went to the Alamaba Gulf Coast Zoo, The Little Zoo That Could.

From wikipedia:  In July 1997 Hurricane Danny hit Gulf Shores. Then in 1998, Hurricane Georges hit, causing more flood damage. The zoo evacuated all of its animals in both cases, transporting them 15 miles (24km) inland to higher ground and becoming the first zoo to have a full scale evacuation during a hurricane. These expensive evacuations, and the repairs following the hurricanes, almost caused the zoo to close in 1999, but fund raising efforts were successful in raising enough money to keep it open.  Hurricane Ivan in 2004, caused $500,000 in damage, forcing another evacuation and closing the zoo for 14 months. Several animals were not caught during this evacuation, and were lost. More evacuations resulted from Dennis and Katrina in 2005, but the zoo was able to reopen fairly quickly in October 2005.

After bouncing back from so many fatal hurricanes, the zoo was aptly nicknamed The Little Zoo That Could. And now a local family has donated 25 acres of Alabama land for a new zoo site which is set to open in 2012.  The site is further inland and hopefully out of reach of the many hurricanes that hit this area. 

Shots from our visit are below.  Hover over each pic for a description.

Okay, I'm tired of editing pictures - the lemurs and lions will have to wait 'til tomorrow for their debut.

Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo

Yesterday My Fella and I went to the Alamaba Gulf Coast Zoo, The Little Zoo That Could.

From wikipedia:  In July 1997 Hurricane Danny hit Gulf Shores. Then in 1998, Hurricane Georges hit, causing more flood damage. The zoo evacuated all of its animals in both cases, transporting them 15 miles (24km) inland to higher ground and becoming the first zoo to have a full scale evacuation during a hurricane. These expensive evacuations, and the repairs following the hurricanes, almost caused the zoo to close in 1999, but fund raising efforts were successful in raising enough money to keep it open.  Hurricane Ivan in 2004, caused $500,000 in damage, forcing another evacuation and closing the zoo for 14 months. Several animals were not caught during this evacuation, and were lost. More evacuations resulted from Dennis and Katrina in 2005, but the zoo was able to reopen fairly quickly in October 2005.

After bouncing back from so many fatal hurricanes, the zoo was aptly nicknamed The Little Zoo That Could. And now a local family has donated 25 acres of Alabama land for a new zoo site which is set to open in 2012.  The site is further inland and hopefully out of reach of the many hurricanes that hit this area. 

Shots from our visit are below.  Hover over each pic for a description.

Gonna wrap up the zoo tour for now cause it's exhausting coming up with all these witty picture descriptions  :)

But come back for the next post, featuring:

• prickly porcupines
• leaping lemurs
• yawning lions with huge fangs
• a happy fat alligator
• and two very hungry Bengal tigers

Reporting from Summerdale, Alabama

My Fella and I are settling into our daily routines. 

Traveling south for the winter is fun but it's not just an extended vacation. I still need a regular routine to stay productive (daily exercise, stock stuff, errands, dog walking, etc.) We're planning a trip to the zoo tomorrow, but in the meantime, a few random observations about this area: 

Weather

Since we arrived the weather has been perfect: sunny and mid 20's during the day, with lows of 7C at night. But the past few days have been very humid.  100% humidity, a few big storms and a couple tornado warnings as well. My Fella has never been to the southeast and has some trouble breathing in high humidity. He says it's like constantly swallowing water droplets.

But it's better than shovelling snow.

Guns

Guns are a big deal here. It's weird to be sitting at my little desk in JohnnyDisco and suddenly hear gunshots nearby. Guess that's the trade off for picking a small RV park out in the country; if we wanna hear the neighbours rooster crowing at 5 every morning, we have to be okay with those wild turkey shoot-outs as well. Or whatever it is those shotguns are aimed at...  

Water

We've only seen the Gulf coastline twice.

Both days we were out driving around, checking out nearby RV parks.

The resort we're at is great but we like to know what else is out there.  After a few days of snooping around the competition we've decided this is the best park in the area with regards to price and pad privacy - which are the two most important things on our personal "RV Resort List". The other RV parks are a little closer to town and/or the Gulf coast, but the RV pads are basically on top of each other. We try avoid parks where RV's are parked thisclosetogether, packed in like sardines. Definitely not for us.

We've also been scouting out coastal beach houses for rent. Our little family needs a pet friendly spot to call home when we drop JohnnyDisco off at the Tiffin mothership for repairs.

My Fella found a few gulf coast vacation spots online through VRBO and most of them were clustered in this area.  

The homes are all built up on stilts and it looks much nicer than my pics. Very beachy. And very gusty. When I hopped out of the car to get this shot, I was nearly blown into a sand dune. The wind howls like crazy on the Gulf.

The beach grass and dunes are really neat... until you look off into the distance and spot the obligatory off shore oil rig in the background.

BP is still a bad word around these parts.

Edited (7:42 Thursday morning) to add this news link: nasty results from yesterdays tornados. 

Hamilton-Beach Slow Cooker for $26

After five years, we finally gave up on our old slow cooker.

Food had bubbled over the sides and baked into it, making the inside impossible to clean, even with steel wool. 

My Fella scrubbed out the pot and lid (both in great condition) and we donated them to charity. It's still a good pot for casseroles, but too heavy for us to haul around in JohnnyDisco.

Here's the new slow cooker we found at The Kitchen Collection in the Foley Tanger Outlet Mall: a Hamilton-Beach 6 quart 'Stay Or Go' - $24 USD, $26 with taxes.

We put it to work right away making a roast and I was surprised at how much roomier a 6 quart pot was compared to our old 4 quart one. The 2 extra quarts mean double the amount of veggies. 

The roast cooked very evenly and I love that the new pot is low and wide, compared to our former slow cooker that was tall and skinny.  

And it's called a Stay or Go 'cause it has this nifty safety feature - small metal clips on the sides of the pot that you can close if you wanna roast something, then pack it up and haul it around the block to a friends house.

2 enthusiastic Paws Up for the Stay or Go slow cooker.

Outside of food and a few items of clothing, we haven't bought much since we've been in Alabama, although consumer goods here (like most of the USA) are priced much cheaper than Canada. This cooker in BC would be about $40, plus tax.

On the downside, light or reduced fat foods are very hard to find in Southern Alabama.You really have to hunt for low fat Pringles, lite cheese, etc.

I basically had to knock someone over yesterday to get that last can of low fat sour cream Pringles. Good thing the kid was so short or he would've taken me down.  And it was super immature of him to kick me in the shins.

Arf, Arf, Oink

Our southern Alabama RV resort is definitely in the country.

I've mentioned this a few times already but now I have solid proof. A few days ago, this German Shepherd from a nearby farm came to visit the park.

And he brought a buddy.

Yup, that's a pig.

It's not like we have local dogs and assorted farm animals strolling through here everyday. This RV resort is actually very well taken care of and on the nicer side as far as small RV parks go.

But sometimes a pig just craves adventure. 

The local farmer who owns this little escape artist was pretty embarrassed when she finally tracked the pig down at our site.  And as I witnessed, trying to round up a pig is no easy task; she had her work cut out for her. 

Although Norman was thrilled to watch the drama unfold before his eyes since he's never seen a pig before.  

Our pup was glued to the dashboard until this little piggy went home.

'Bama Scenes

There was a huge college football game in Tuscaloosa last night: Louisiana State Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama lost a very close game but the locals are still proud of the home team, nicknamed Bama.

Local folks also use the term 'bama when talking about other things:  'bama roads, 'bama cotton, 'bama coast, etc.  So here are some 'bama scenes from the past couple days...  

When our little RV family was in Arizona last winter, we met lots of Americans who carried guns. They seem to be a pretty big deal down here in Alabama as well, but yesterday was the first time I saw these on the roadside during my daily stroll.

Nearby town of Foley, Alabama:

And the highlight of this post - the numerous 'bama cotton fields:

I swiped a great description of cotton growing from this website:

Seeding is done with mechanical planters which cover as many as 10 to 24 rows at a time. The planter opens a small trench or furrow in each row, drops in the right amount of seed, covers them and packs the earth on top of them. 

About two months after planting, flower buds called squares appear on the cotton plants. In another three weeks, the blossoms open. Their petals change from creamy white to yellow, then pink and finally, dark red. After three days, they wither and fall, leaving green pods which are called cotton bolls.

Inside the boll, which is shaped like a tiny football, moist fibers grow and push out from the newly formed seeds. As the boll ripens, it turns brown. The fibers continue to expand under the warm sun. Finally, they split the boll apart and the fluffy cotton bursts forth. It looks like white cotton candy.

And that, my feathered friends, is where cotton balls come from.

Where Do Cacahuates Come From?

Cacahuate (ca - ca - WA - tay) is the Spanish word for peanut.

And I still can't get over the fact that they grow underground.  We saw the evidence yesterday afternoon in this peanut crop near our Alabama RV resort.

I've been walking about 7k every day on the country roads surrounding our RV park and I pass several peanut fields along the way.  The crop below was all bushy green plants a few days ago, but now it looks like this:

A peanut harvester plucked all the peanut plants out of the ground and left them to dry in the Alabama sun.

Peanut tidbits:

• a healthy peanut plant will yield 35 to 50 peanuts
• it takes 540 peanuts to make a 12 ounce jar of peanut butter
• there are enough peanuts in one acre to make 30,000 pb sandwiches
• Marcellus Edson of Montreal was the first person to patent peanut butter in 1884
• 2 peanut farmers were elected US president; Thomas Jefferson & Jimmy Carter
• peanuts have more protein, niacin, folate and phytosterols than any other nut
• your kid will probably eat 1,500 pb & j sandwiches by age 18

Quick Peek at November Stock Stuff

Current holdings as of November 2/2011:

• Alaris Royalty Corp
• Student Transportation
• Data Group Income Fund
• Just Energy
• Inter Pipeline 
• AvenEx
• Chorus Aviation
• Pembina Pipeline
• BTB REIT
• Cash

On October 28th, I sold out of Superior Plus (2700 shares for $7.30) with a gut feeling that there was a yield cut coming. And after market close tonight, SPB announced a 50% cut in the dividend effective immediately.  Glad I got out early - there could be a rush to sell in the morning.

With the proceeds we bought more Just Energy, who should be announcing their November dividend payment tomorrow. They usually send out the release on the third of every month, and recent guidance indicates they are keeping the payout the same into the new year.

Alaris Royalty reported today and the numbers look good.  I started buying this one in 2009 around $6 and it has been one of our most consistent performers, along with Student Transportation. 

Our dividend income has finally hit $51,000 per year, tax free. We were actually on track to hit that figure back in May but then I messed things up by getting greedy with Yellow Media. That was a hard, expensive lesson that I won't be forgetting soon.

Anyway $30,000 of that $51,000 covers our annual living expenses and the rest is added to my cap gains (from trading) and reinvested back into the portfolio.

Stock investing isn't for everyone, but if you have the time and patience to read/research individual company info, it can pay off. And it's a great forced savings plan since you have to get the start up cash from somewhere. Better than spending it all the mall.

Usual disclaimer stuff:  I'm not your mother or your investment advisor.  Don't buy into any company I talk about on this very non-professional blog unless you've done your own dd and see value in the purchase, and blah, blah blah...  

Our Alabama RV Park

From the main highway:

• turn left on the country road just past Camping World
• take a right at the Southern Baptist church
• then make your first left after the peanut factory

Those are the unofficial directions to get to our RV park here in southern Alabama, and one of the main reasons we chose this place. It's pretty much out in the boonies.

Our immediate surroundings include peanut crops, cotton fields, Alabama forest and small acreages with cows, roosters and baa-ing sheep;  yet we're only 11 miles from Walmart, 15 miles to the Outlet stores and a half hour away from the Gulf Coast.

Location matters and we didn't want to be parked in a city.

Everyone has different requirements for the RV resort they choose, especially for longer stays. We need:

• large, treed sites that offer privacy
• max monthly pad fee of $650 (water/power/sewer)
• quiet neighbours, preferably 55+
• solid internet connection
• grass for the mutts to play on or a good walking path nearby 

Other things we'd like but don't really need:

• concrete pad
• cheap, clean laundry facilities
• 50 amp service, but we're totally happy with 30 amp
• recycling on site
• tennis or basketball court nearby
• free cable
• no permanent residents with messy yards

We got lucky last winter, finding Justin's Diamond J RV park just outside Tucson, Arizona. And this year we're equally happy to have stumbled across Peanut Park (we've nicknamed it that since the park is surrounded by peanut crops).

There are lots of shade trees here at Peanut Park and tons of space between each RV site. 

And the price is right:  $430/month, including tax.  Actually, the charge went thru on my credit card on an up day for the loonie, so the price ended up being only $418 for the month.

We've been here less than a week, but so far so good.  

Interesting observation:  Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi don't see a lot of Canadian tourists. The other RV-ers we've run into are mostly Americans from northern parts of the US. The Canadian snowbirds seem to prefer Florida, Texas, California, Arizona and of course, Mexico.