The Lone Eagle Cottages

Better Hurry, only 6 remaining!
Starting at $179,900

Call Gail or Jim today at 334.749.8165

3rd Annual National Village Easter Egg Hunt

We had our 3rd Annual National Village Easter Egg hunt in the new park and had 63 agents from seven different real estate companies participate. The agents take their egg hunting seriously as evidenced by the shoes left behind after the starting whistle was blown. The Marriott did an outstanding job of catering for us. The winners of the “Golden Eggs” were: Sherri Tucker/Prudential, Rozi Dover/First Realty, Liberty Powell/First Realty, Shane Dunn/Prestige Properties, Sylvia Paul/Prestige Properties, Mike Bedsole/Prudential, Joe Vickers/Keller Williams, Claire Chester/First Realty, Ashley Miller/ReMax, Will Faulkner/First Realty, Michelle Hunt/Prestige Properties, Carl Miserendino/Keller Williams, Larry Keeble/ReMax, Carolyn Hataway/Keller Williams, Pene Gentry/First Realty, and Karol Hardy Kirby/First Realty was the winner of the I-pad drawing.

18th Annual AAR-AU Real Estate Education Fair

If anyone is picking up some valuable continuing education at the Real Estate Fair this week, please drop by our table and grab a snack during your afternoon break. Can't wait to see you!

Working Hard

Our bluebird houses are doing their job. We have a new tenant and he has been busy building their nest one piece of straw at a time!

Spring is Finally Here!

Warm weather has arrived at last and National Village is beginning to bloom! We encourage everyone to come and see us in the coming days and weeks as National Village will be absolutely beautiful in just a very short time.

One of the first trees that signifies the warmer weather is the dogwood and we have plenty of them in our lanscaping as well growing wild in the natural areas of National Village.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The genus Cornus comprise a group of 30-50 species of mostly deciduous trees and shrubs in the family Cornaceae commonly known as dogwoods. Some are herbaceous perennials; a few of the woody species are evergreen. The name "dog-tree" entered English vocabulary by 1548, and had been further transformed to "dogwood" by 1614. Once the name dogwood was affixed to the tree, it soon acquired a secondary name as the Hound's Tree, while the fruits came to be known as dogberries or houndberries (the latter a name also for the berries of Black nightshade and alluding to Hecate's hounds). One theory advances that "dogwood" was derived from dagwood, from the use of the slender stems of very hard wood for making 'dags' (daggers, skewers, arrows). Another earlier name of the dogwood in English is the whipple-tree. Geoffrey Chaucer uses the word whippletree in The Canterbury Tales ("The Knight's Tale", verse 2065) to refer to the dogwood. A large item made of dogwood, the whippletree, still bears the name of the tree from which it is carved. A whippletree is an element of the traction of a horse-drawn cart, which links the drawpole of the cart to the harnesses of the horses in file. Various Cornus are ubiquitous in American gardens: Donald Wyman stated "There is a dogwood for almost every part of the U.S. except the hottest and dryest areas" (Wyman's Garden Encyclopedia, s.v. "Cornus"). In England, the lack of sharp winters and hot summers makes Cornus florida very shy of flowering. Dense and fine-grained, dogwood timber was highly prized for making loom shuttles, tool handles and other small items that required a very hard and strong wood. Though it is tough for woodworking, some artisans favor dogwood for small projects such as walking canes, longbows, mountain dulcimers and fine inlays. It was an excellent substitute for persimmonwood in golf clubheads (“woods”). Larger items were also made of dogwood such as the screw-in basket-style wine or fruit presses;. The first kinds of laminated tennis rackets were also made out of the wood cut in thin strips. Most dogwood species have opposite leaves and a few, like C. alternifolia and C. controversa, have alternate leaves. The fruit of all species is a drupe with one or two seeds, often brightly colorful and sometimes edible. Flowers have four parts. Many species in subgenus Swida are stoloniferous shrubs, growing along waterways. Several of these are used in naturalizing landscape plantings, especially the species with bright red or bright yellow stems, which color up in winter. Most of the species in subgenus Benthamidia are small trees used as ornamental plants. As flowering trees, they are of rare elegance and beauty, comparable to Carolina silverbell, Canadian serviceberry, and the Eastern Redbud for their ornamental qualities. The fruit of several species in the subgenera Cornus and Benthamidia is edible, though without much flavour. The berries of those in subgenus Swida are mildly toxic to people, though readily eaten by birds. Dogwoods are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Emperor Moth, The Engrailed, Small Angle Shades and the following case-bearers of the genus Coleophora: C. ahenella, C. salicivorella (recorded on Cornus canadensis), C. albiantennaella, C. cornella and C. cornivorella (The latter three feed exclusively on Cornus). They were used by pioneers to brush their teeth. The pioneers would peel off the bark, bite the twig and then scrub their teeth.

Move In For a Song

We are looking forward to welcoming our new arrivals with the beginning of a Bluebird trail at National Village.

According to Wikipedia, bluebirds are territorial, prefer open grassland with scattered trees and are cavity nesters (similar to many species of woodpecker). Bluebirds can typically produce between two and four broods during the spring and summer (March through August in the Northeastern United States). Males identify potential nest sites and try to attract prospective female mates to those nesting sites with special behaviors that include singing and flapping wings, and then placing some material in a nesting box or cavity. If the female accepts the male and the nesting site, she alone builds the nest and incubates the eggs.
Predators of young bluebirds in the nests can include snakes, cats and raccoons. Non-native and native bird species competing with bluebirds for nesting locations include the Common Starling, American Crow, and House Sparrow, which take over the nesting sites of bluebirds, killing young and smashing eggs and probably killing adult bluebirds.
Bluebirds are attracted to platform bird feeders, filled with grubs of the darkling beetle, sold by many online bird product wholesalers as mealworms. Bluebirds will also eat raisins soaked in water. In addition, in winter bluebirds use backyard heated birdbaths.
By the 1970s, bluebird numbers had declined by estimates ranging to 70% due to unsuccessful competition with house sparrows and starlings, both introduced species, for nesting cavities, coupled with a decline in habitat. However, in late 2005 Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology reported bluebird sightings across the southern U.S. as part of its yearly Backyard Bird Count, a strong indication of the bluebird's return to the region. This upsurge can largely be attributed to a movement of volunteers establishing and maintaining bluebird trails.

Easy Living

Don’t spend all your time in the garden! Live at National Village where all the landscaping is done for you, including irrigation.

Just think, no more mowing, blowing, pruning, removing debris, replacing dead plants, or paying the water bill to irrigate your yard. While you're enjoying a round of golf, relaxing by the pool, or catching trophy bass, someone else is tending to all the mundane details that come with landscape maintenance.

Container Gardening Starts in the Spring

One of the most overlooked basics to getting your container gardens off to a good start each spring is a good cleaning of any previously used planters. A good scrub of all new planters is a good idea just to make sure no foreign or toxic substances, like herbicide, have landed in the pot. There's nothing worse that planting an exciting new collection of plants, only to watch them mysteriously wither away in front of your eyes. Of course, it's not hard to understand why you would want to clean used planters—you want to make sure no nasty pests, molds or mildew have taken up residence either in last year's soil.
Also, it is recommended to always re-pot perennials in planters each year. Again, you want to ensure your pot isn't harboring any problems and you should be checking the health and size status of the plant's root system each year too. Going back into fresh, nutrient-rich soil will keep your perennials healthy for much longer.Give your plants a good start with a nice clean pot, and soil, and you'll be rewarded with healthier plants.

Spring Fling 2011

Come on out and see us at National Village during our "Spring Fling"! To jump start the Spring selling season, we have reduced prices on the remaining homes at Stone Lake and at the Lone Eagle Cottages. In addition to that, purchasers of Lone Eagle Cottages will receive a 42" flat screen tv, refrigerator, and washer and dryer. As a matter of fact, we sold two of the Lone Eagle Cottages this past weekend! So hurry out to see us, we don't know how long these specials will last!

Great Weather!

Sunny and in the 70's so come on out to National Village and walk or run our trails.