Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This
is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,
a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,
none of it would be possible if it wasn't for
this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I
talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's
time that you get to know what has inspired me
for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.
Welcome back to the forest. Inside this forest, there are
several different homes. I say homes because people who live
in these homes have a lot of.
Speaker 2: Love for their home. There's a lot of family love,
there's love for the land, a lot of love for
the forest. Every now and then we'll have a home
that'll sit empty for a very long period of time.
I remember Herb's home, which is next to the lake,
I stayed empty for almost four years. A man from
China bought the home. He brought his little girl from China.
She must have been maybe four or five years old,
stayed there for about one and a half years and
then moved on. And the reason why he moved on
was because he wanted to go back home. His daughter
was wanting to learn more American things, especially English, and
it was bothering him deeply, and through her studies, she
wanted nothing to do with Chinese tradition. So he sold
the home and moved back to China. The home sat
empty for maybe maybe six or seven months. But still,
when you see a home in a forest and it
sits empty, you can't help but feel the chilliness of
the air, the warmth that a home brings. Now, ken
On Loma's home sits empty a lot because they traveled
the world. It's not that they've moved out. It's just
that it's empty once again. If you don't see the
lights on, if you don't see movement, if you don't
see ken out there working on the lawn, trimming the trees,
or even a stack of branches ready to be picked
up by the city, it's chilly. It's cold next to them.
Ron and Carroll's house which sold almost three years ago
and the owners have never moved in, never, But they've
got two cars there that have no license plates, thinking that,
oh well, if there's cars in the driveway, somebody must
live there. It's cold. It's chilly. Empty homes in a forest.
Some people might say it's our investments. You don't have
to live in it. Every now and then we might
stay there, but it's our home. We'll do what we
want with it. Really, an answer like that is cold.
It's chilly. Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation.