You know you are a Redneck if...

...you live in a trailer and your cars are worth more than your home.

Our First Home Offer

Our short home tour in Statesboro was a success. Our first round did not provide us with homes that met our criteria, i.e. doors that were not locked using nail concoctshuns, trees in yards, roaming dogs with pups around the neighborhood; I think you get the idea. We regrouped and took the advice of the realtor to expand our search range, i.e. bigger mortgage. We were able to find a few homes that met our standards, although from living in a trailer park you would think they were low, but apparently not. We found a great house in a well established community that will yield a solid return. I will admit it’s not our dream home on 20 acres with a pond and horses, but it’s a start. The home is almost 2,000 sq.ft. with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. I will admit the blue siding is not my favorite feature, but I’ll take a smurf home over a cheap trailer any day! The home is also by the country club, so I am looking forward to contrasting our poverty like, slum living with uppity, suit wearing, benz driving aristocratics’. Enjoy the photo album!

House Hunting in Statesboro, GA

Statesboro Visit

A Walk with Dogs in the Trailer Park

I decided to take the dogs on a stroll around the trailer park after their looks of neglect got to me. The trailer park is U shaped and approximately 0.8 miles. The trailers located along the U are fairly spread apart on 1-2 acres plots, what some call Plantation Style Living. It’s always an adventure! The first obstacle is the kid zone. These are unruly children who speak what seems to be a foreign language to us. Their mountain draws are so strong we are unable to interpret their gibberish. They are known to throw balls, kites, toys, etc. at the dogs through the fence, so I apologize if I sound callas. The next barriers on our stroll are two small loose yappy dogs. Their size conceals their rage! One gets so frustrated he attacks his partner in crime and they roll around in the middle of road until they realize their original mission. These monsters scare both our 80lb. labs, so we have to stand in between the snarling yabsters and Cooper and Maya. The rest of the stroll is relatively uneventful, although every trailer seems to have an average of 10 dogs chained to all available trees. As a result, you can trace our stroll by the barking. I think Sean, the dogs, and me are always relieved to arrive home unscathed. We are widely known in the trailer park since we are the only ones who don’t arrive home, lock their doors, and peek out the windows, but rather walk our dogs with our Chaco’s and designer dog collars and leashes. Sean always told me he would make my dreams come true! Just another day in paradise.

You know you live in a trailer if…

The temperature outside is the same temperature inside. Although you may have what appears to be a heating system and air conditioning unit, it’s only for temporary air flow.

You have two satellite dishes, one on the front deck and one on the back, but neither work. It’s high pressure to keep up with the Jones’s!

You don’t worry about parking or driving on your lawn.

When there are thunderstorms you hope your home will get blown away so you can be on the 6 o’clock news.

There isn’t pressure to cut your lawn because the neighbors’ length standards are very high!

Neighbors’ family feuds often take place in driveways, allowing for live Jerry Springer episodes.

And, you don’t call the popo (police) when they are fighting; you sit on your deck and enjoy the show!

More Reasons to Thrift Shop

One of my favorite hobbies takes place Saturday mornings in garages and yards; the buying and selling of other people’s stuff (even when I am riding my bike I put a deposit down and return later with the truck)! Although Sean (and other friends) joke with me about my antique (junk, thrift, etc.) shopping habit, I persevere. I get great furniture, home supplies, and clothes for outrageously low prices. I love bargains, but also I love the planet. The Compact blog discusses going beyond recycling by borrowing, bartering, or buying used goods instead of new. The main goal is to reduce waste, but also fight Americans’ consumer culture of buying and having more ‘stuff.’ This blog helps us reflect on our consumption and how it affects our planet.

http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/

The Improved Weddell Bike Trailer Blog

I decided to change the theme of our blog after viewing other people’s creative blogs. Of course, any time spent pondering over details of my life that do not include school, my dissertation, and future mortgage payments is a method of procrastination I enjoy! I came to the conclusion that our blog is boring! We post pictures of our adventures to stay in touch with families and friends and as it appears our life is picture perfect, but as we all know, nothing is perfect. So, I am going to post our secret; we live in a trailer park in rural South Carolina. How did we get here? That is a long story that goes back five states (sorry for all the address book changes). The short version is we needed a place to live fast and a friend of a friend had a nice trailer on 1 acre of land. It’s really been a great situation however, there are numerous amusing stories we want to share about our experience, not only living in the trailer, but the trailer park community. So look for these stories as we reflect on our past year in a culture we opened our minds to explore.