Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “product/produce.” Use one, use them both, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both. Have fun!

So Linda G Hill has given us this prompt for today’s SoCS and after our two-day trip to Zavalla in East Texas, the results we hoped for were not produced. However, we did enjoy getting away for a couple of days and staying in our tiny airBnB. It was your basic fisherman’s shack, but dolled up with a woman’s touch. Everything was in one room except the bathroom, which was nice and roomy for such a tiny house.

We had gone to look at a couple of prospects for a place to retire that had house and/or property close to a lake.

The first house we looked at was a log home on two and a half acres. It needed foundation leveling and a new roof, but the biggest issue was right behind the wooded acre. To be politically correct, I’ll just say some extremely trashy neighbors had let their property and belongings fall down and pile up around them. Not desirable in a retirement home.

The second house was the product of someone’s thirty-five year career. So many beautiful touches and extra features, I really wished we could have gotten it! Two drawbacks though, five people were already fighting to get it, and again, trashy neighbors right next-door and too close for comfort. We’d prefer to be on our own patch of land that no one can encroach with their junk.

I took a ton of pictures in there, but I hate to show you now that we have no hope of getting it.

On top of all that, Lake Sam Rayburn is difficult to access. Restrictions abound, there are no boat ramps (or very few) and no boat houses can be built. So the next day we went up to Toledo Bend. Many more possibilities, but we didn’t have the agent with us, so all we could do was look around. Beautiful area, gorgeous lake, pretty little communities (not all but some) with controls in place to keep out the ”trashy” element. I have to interject a note here so you understand I’m not being snobby. These woods are full of folks who engage in illegal activities, if you know what I mean. We do not want that element living on or near our property, especially considering we might be sinking our life savings into this!

So, its back to the drawing board for now. We’ll sit with it awhile, explore other options, and come up with a new plan. On the way home, we even considered the possibility of purchasing a motor home. That way, we could live by the ocean for a while, and then go visit the lake for a while. Who knows, we will definitely keep you posted!