John Coley

Since I have a waterfront lot listed for sale in Lake Martin’s The Ridge, I get a lot of questions about the various amenities of the Ridge. One of the huge benefits to owning a waterfront home or town home in the Ridge is access to all of the “stuff.”

Though I have been in the neighborhood countless times, I had never been by road to The Ridge’s Beach Park before yesterday. It was really nice, it has a big covered pavilion, changing / rest rooms, and, of course, a big beach. The water view is of Lake Martin icons Chimney and Acapulco Rock Islands.

While I was there, I also hiked a bit on some Ridge Trails (download a map). The developer, Russell Lands, has done a really nice job about incorporating off the water features here. There are tons of mulch lined trails through the woods, that explore common areas and various other parks in the Ridge.

One example is Red Oak Trail and Hickory Hill Trail, I took these down to Hidden Park. Hidden Park has its own gazebo, boardwalk, and fishing pier. It was really nice and peaceful. Now that the leaves are down, you can sit up on the gazebo and get a nice view of woods and water of Lake Martin.

If trail hiking is not your thing, you can stick to the sidewalks. There are many of those around The Ridge, too. Check out my video of the morning:

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO ON My Blog Lake Martin Voice

Between my cashed in kitchen passes and Thanksgiving break, it has been a while since my last post. I tried to keep the Lake Martin Voice “A” students informed with my Twitter updates, which are visible at the bottom right margin. I am enjoying using my Twitter account as a micro blog, a way to quickly update the world or link in to interesting articles or info from other bloggers.

Over Thanksgiving I mostly stayed away from the computer. I caught up on reading the WSJ. I helped my kids swing on a vine in the woods. I read a bunch of good books about Alabama and the greater Lake Martin area. It was glorious. As a side note, I have created a Lake Martin Voice Library page. Here I will post links to various books that I think the average fan of Lake Martin would like. I promise to keep it on point, refusing to indulge myself with too many books on too many topics. I will try to limit it to a.) Lake Martin history, and b.) real estate in general. If any of you have any suggestions, please leave a comment on the Library page and help us all out.

You out of towners should consider a visit to your Lake Martin home in between now and Christmas. If you have never been here when the leaves are gone, you’re missing a treat. Everything looks different (in a good way). Almost no one is here, so it is incredibly peaceful. Plus there are some things going on like opening of Catherine’s Market at Russell Crossroad, and shopping in downtown Alex City.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the post and see pictures on my blog Lake Martin Voice

One of the great things about working around Lake Martin is that occasionally you bump into some really crazy folks. The other day I met Kyle Walton and a bunch of his buddies who are professional wakeskaters and /or wake boarders.

click here to watch the video on my blog Lake Martin Voice

My family recently moved to a new-to-us home (fyi my “old” home sold in 2 days). The new home is on a septic tank system, whereas the old one was tied in to the sewer system of the City of Montgomery. This got me to thinking about a claim my father has long made, that is, those “flushable” wipes they sell these days may be flushable, but they are bad for septic systems as they do not properly disintegrate like toilet paper does.

I did some research, then an experiment. The results made me immediately think about homeowners on Lake Martin, as I would hazard a guess that 99% of waterfront homes on Lake Martin are on some sort of septic system.

THE EXPERIMENT: Do “flushable” wipes degrade like toilet paper?

Modus: Following the suggestion from this site, I took 3 separate Tupperware boxes, filled them halfway with water. In one I placed a ball of our walmart brand toilet paper (as a control to disintegration). In another I put 1 walmart brand flushable wipe. In the last I put 1/2 a square of our walmart brand paper towel (as a control to non-disintegration). I put the tops on, and shook all of them vigorously.

Results:

Click here for my blog Lake Martin Voice to see the results, and read my tounge in cheek recommendations to deal with life on septic......

In the November issue of Lake Magazine - Lake Martin Edition - Nikki Reeves sent out an email to interview local real estate agents. The topic was the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Lake Martin Area Association of Realtors (LMAAR). She also interviewed the past presidents of LMAAR about the past, present, and future of the Lake Martin real estate area. You can click on the above link to read the other folks’ quotes.

Of course, I am never shy about supplying my honest thoughts. I sent an email to Nikki with the below. The part that she used is highlighted in yellow. After reading the article, I can see why she didn’t use the other parts of my quotes. They wouldn’t have fit in with the tenor and tack of the others.

Here’s the text of my email:

Nikki-

some thoughts on LMAAR’s 20th anniversary:

PAST:

“It’s a funny coincidence that 20 years ago, as LMAAR was formed, the U.S. was in the middle of a different bank bailout - the Savings and Loan Crisis. It roiled the credit industry and hammered real estate, making a lot of people panic and expect the worst and wonder if real estate would ever ‘come back.’ Well, it did. Except for a slowdown in the late 90s, real estate roared until 2005 or so.”

PRESENT:

“Hunger is a powerful motivator.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MY TAKE ON THE FUTURE - LAKE MARTIN VOICE BLOG