It is bitter cold and windy this morning but I am hold up in the house with a warm fire and a hot cup of coffee. I love the wood fire heat but one of the disadvantages of wood heat is that you have to bring the wood into the house. On a cold day bringing wood in is not fun. I like to keep at least one day ahead on the indoor wood supply, I feel wood burns better if it is room temperature, so every morning right after feeding the dogs and my first cup of Joe I bring in the wood. This morning right as I stepped out of the house Mellow whinnied really loud at me and then just stared.

Mellow is a nice sized tan mare that belongs to my friend who is letting me stay at her house. My friend also has a mule named Amos. While she is away farmer Tim normally takes care of the horses but it makes no since for him to come down here every day while I’m here so for the next few months I have taken over that job. It seems I am being or have been trained by the horses to feed them on their schedule and Mellow was ready to eat. Dutifully I prepared their food, donned my shoes, heavy coat and gloves and marched my way up to the barn and fed them. I don’t mind feeding the animals and there is something about the feel and smell of a horse that I like but I wish they would be a little more patient in the morning. It would have been nice to have had two cups of coffee before I went into that cold windy barn yard.

The dogs are checking out the cows in the back ground.

This morning there is a dusting of snow on the ground and ice on the pond. The air is cold and damp with scattered snow flurries flying about on the breeze; perfect hot coffee and warm fire weather. I know in a few months I will most likely be complaining about this type of weather but today I’m enjoying it.

Today we had snow! Well actually it was more like the world had a bad case of dandruff but it was white and it did come from a cloudy sky. I’m not really wanting a cold snowy winter but it will be nice to see a little snow.

I had a good weekend. I spent both days enjoying food and the company of friends. I also took the scenic route around Floyd County to get to some friends house on Sunday and again on my way home that evening. I find it difficult to locate land marks while driving winding county roads at night; I call that taking the scenic route.

There was some progress on my cabin today. They started putting up the logs and my builder says weather permitting the walls should be done by the end of the week. Could be a good week; could be an even better week if one of my job inquires works out.

The weather for the past few days has been kinda dreary but on my way out yesterday afternoon I took this shot. We are back to cooler temperatures today; if the gurus at the Weather channel are correct the cooler temp’s are here to stay for a while. I don’t mind I seem to work better in the cold of course if this wind doesn’t let down I wont be working out side!!

Not much has happened this last week in fact I’m getting kinda board. I find myself looking forward to Thanksgiving not so much to see the family but to go to work. I’m soooo ready to get back to work. I keep telling myself that when they get really working on the cabin that my altitude will change but to be honest I like going to work. I’m doing a lot of physical work around here but I miss the interpersonal relations that you get at a job.

Today they are calling for rain all day so I guess I have to stay inside which is OK. I will do some reading and work on a new project I have started. I eat a lot of eggs so I decided to make Christmas balls out of the egg shells. Its really quite easy, I just remove the egg yoke and white from the egg through a small hole, rinse the egg shell out and then paint them with primer followed by a metallic acrylic paint and then a clear coat to make them shiny. It takes a little time in between coats and I usually only do one coat a day but since I’m stuck inside maybe I’ll get two coats of color on each egg. I have never done this egg thing before but it is turning out OK

Just a few fall shots

I awoke this morning to a low guttural growl emitting from both my dogs. It was dark and just around 5:30 am so I told them to be quiet! I felt that most likely there was some type of vermin out outside that they caught a whiff of so I just wanted them to shut up and let me sleep a little more. There was no quieting them in fact they became more agitated and after about 2 minutes I found out why. Its hunting season around here and the men who my friend allows to hunt on her property were driving down her long driveway and as the growls turned into barely restrained barks all I could say to myself is that its going to be a long.. long 6 weeks.

I woke up this morning to “change”. Barack Obama has been elected by a wide majority as the president elect of the United States of America. We as a nation needed a definitive win in this election. We needed there to be no question who won and that is what happened yesterday. Now comes the hard part, now comes the time of reckoning, now Obama has to deliver on his promises. I don’t expect the economic crises to be over tomorrow or even next year, it took along time for us as a nation to get into that mess and it will take along time for us to get out of it, but I do expect to see some true progress to a more stable economy. I don’t expect our involvement in the wars over seas to be over tomorrow, or for our status in the eyes of the world change over night, but I do expect to see great progress in both those areas. It is important for Obama to represent our country in a dignified way, to avoid scandal and extremes. To work towards a united country and to make me proud to say to anyone that I’m an American.

The election is over for the most part and it looks promising for an Obama win. Right now it looks like it may be a definite win, something this country needs. The last two elections left a very bitter taste in the mouths of many, there were too many questions about who "really" won. We need an election were there is no doubt who won. When I wake up tomorrow I hope we have Obama as the president elect.

It really is a small world out there. Yesterday I met a couple who like me moved to Floyd County in July from Virginia Beach VA. Virginia Beach is about 80 miles north of where I am from. They appear to be about my age, she is nurse and I think he is a chemical engineer. I have met a lot of very nice folks here, both local and transplant, I am really happy I moved here.

Now something I have mixed feelings about, mice. It seems my cat and girl dog are real mousers. That is OK except they feel the need to eat only half the mouse, I mean they seem to be Kosher. They eat the tops and leave the bottoms. Its disgusting! I appreciate that the animals are ridding me of a very destructive force that can also harbor disease but they do not have to show me what they are doing, they don’t have to share. If they catch them outside they can keep them out side I won’t mind. I am just tired of picking dead and often times half eaten mice off the floor. Country life….. gotta love it.

It’s been another good week things are progressing on the cabin and I have been trying to spend at least 4 hours working at the property a day. Tim the farmer and I moved my camper down the hill Friday, I have a little more clean up to do on it and then I will be putting it up for sale. The camper has served me well these past few years but I don’t need it any more. I can’t pull it with my Jeep so there is no need to keep it. Any one interested CAMPER FOR SALE!!

Another 10 days has flown by…. The fall leaves are starting to thin out and there is a touch of winter in the air. I find it all very refreshing.

I did go back to the beach this past weekend to see the family and to work for a few days. It was nice to visit the beach but even better to come back here to the mountains. I do wish I could bring my job here. Its hard to find a job you like going to with people you like working with.

Construction on the cabin is coming along. The guys are putting down the sub floor today who knows they may start the walls this week.

I haven’t been keeping up with the blogg lately I have just been too busy with “things” to hassle with blogging via dial up but I have moved from my 19ft camper into a small house that belongs to a snow bird friend of mine and it has satellite internet, not the best but better than dial up!!

Things here have been good. The weather last week was warm but the fall color has been just great. It has been many years since I have seen Fall. This past week, thanks to the mild temperatures, I put the top down on the Jeep and cruised a little of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was hard not looking up as I drove. I love the way sun light shines through the trees causing the leaves to have a glow about them. I also LOVE it when a breeze comes by and it rains leaves; it’s just so magical. I love fall!!!!

Things are coming along on the cabin. They poured the footings this week. One thing done a week, I guess that’s progress. What can you say? My builder is working on another house soooo

This has become

This

My friend Tim and I finished splitting the wood pile, a great accomplishment. Now I get to stack all this wood. Yea for me I get to be warm three times!!!

Skunk. I thought that I knew what a skunk smelled like after all I have driven by many unfortunate skunks that had been struck by cars; they stink. Well…… last night I learned that when your dog gets sprayed by a skunk it smells worse than you can ever know. When the girl dog came in last night just as I was eating my dinner my olfactory nerve was struck by a odor so noxious that it brought tears to my eyes. Needless to say dinner was over and the girl had a bath there and then! Not that it did a whole lot of good but had to do something. This morning I bathed her again this time in vinegar. It helped for a while but after she “helped” split wood and then ran round the yard for awhile and laid in the sun she stunk again. I bathed her again this afternoon. While at EMT class this evening I asked the folks who live here how they deal with skunk smell the consensus is use tomato juice followed up with a concoction of baking soda, vinegar and dawn dish soap. Tomorrow I will try their recommendations.

I saw my first lady bug today. Not the first one I have seen all summer but the first one of the fall lady bug blitz. These are not really lady bugs per say. These are the orange and black , real lady bugs are red and black. Every fall they congregate in my camper I am usually not here, this is my first full fall in Willis, but every spring I clean thousands of dead lady bugs out of my camper. They are attracted to the white siding of the camper and the warm interior but unbeknownst to them it is not a safe place to be; I spray the camper for bugs when I close it up for the final time in the fall.

Fall colors are starting to really stand out. The reds and yellows against the deep greens with bright afternoon sun light filtering through is just amazing. Ahhhh. I love the cool mornings and warm afternoons that fall brings and the night time sky is so deeply black that the stars just shine like bright clear white light. It could stay this way all year for me.

Today I have spent the day doing as little as possible. This past week has been very busy. My builder started on the house, I have been splitting and stacking firewood, I helped place a dog who needed a new home, spent a few days explaining to Amerlink why I needed my logs delivered, went to EMT class, took a friend to the doctor and I worked a little with the church yard sale (there must have been a million of those this weekend). Tomorrow starts a new week and hopefully Amerlink will deliver the logs tomorrow morning as promised; that would sure be a good start to what will most likely be another busy week.

Another week has flown by, almost another month. This week had kinda been a work week. I personally, with my own two hands (and a pick ax, shovel and post hole digger) built a fence where the old barn had been. The girl dog had stopped worrying about the “electric” wire fence I had put across the area and any time she thought she could get away with it she went through it. The road I live on is not that busy but it is my responsibility as a pet owner to keep my animal under control. I needed a fence and until I can afford to have a better one built this one will have to do!!

These past few days we have been getting some much needed rain (that’s what they tell me anyway). This rain hampers my ability to do stuff. With two good size dogs and a cat there’s not much use cleaning a 19ft camper when its raining so for the past few days I have reading and watching movies. This mornings view was a pleasant sight; patches of blue sky and morning mist. My living conditions are not ideal but I am so fortunate to live here.

When I moved from the beach I left a lot of my plants. I had tons of geraniums and hanging baskets. I had grown these from cuttings of plants I had for many years. Each year I would take my plants indoors for the winter clean them up and do a few more cuttings all in anticipation for the next spring. Getting things ready for the move up here I could tell it would take more than one trailer load to move all my plants so I decided to give all but a few away. My logic being that all the plants I had started out as cuttings so I’ll just do more cuttings up here. These are the first 6 new geraniums. If as in the past they all make it to spring I will have a nice spread of flowers.

My plants I brought up here seem to be doing well, the fox glove my #2 son gave me last Christmas is really happy.

It has been raining today, a nice light rain that brings with it perfect reading weather.
The rain has been coming and going.
I can tell when it starts and stops by the noise the rain makes on the roof of the camper.
When I stepped out of the camper during one of the times the rain had stopped I was confused for a moment, for while I did not see the rain I did hear it.
All around me was that soft sound that I have heard rain make on my walks in the woods.
So after that moment of confusion I was able to take in the gentle breeze that shook the leaves and caused the rain to rain again.
I love days like this.

For the young man who lost his mom and his friends surfing is a way to be together in this unfortunate time.
Two of these young men are my sons and one is like a son to me.

I’m back from my visit to the Outer Banks and while it was a trip I am sorry I had to take but I am darn glad I went.

September on the Banks is a great time to visit. The weather is still warm, this weekend was darn right hot, and there are a lot fewer people. As you can see from these photos the water is still good for swimming and surfing.

Sunset on the sound

A friend of mine passed away early this week and I returned to the beach for her funeral. It was a nice service; my condolences to her son and the rest of her family. It was nice to see so many young men attend the funeral in support of her son. She would have been pleased.

Living in a 19ft camper gets to be a bit cramped especially on a rainy day but Jean Gray my cat has a comfortable perch near the window. Jean very seldom stays inside but today she is enjoying a long nap. Me…. I guess I will just sit here and study. I am taking an EMT course and while I have been a nurse for quite awhile there are differences in what an EMT can do and what a nurse can do. I have learned that I need to get away from “how it’s done” and back to “how it is suppose to be done”. The class is turning into a good refresher course.

Its seams OPEC is not happy with the fall in oil prices and are going to pull back on oil production. I say good for the US. By cutting back on production and keeping oil prices up it gives the US entrepreneurs a financial incentive to go ahead with alternative energy and other energy innovations. In the 70’s when oil prices went up conservation and innovation became a big deal but as time went on and the 80’s gave the American public a false sense of energy security we put the worry about the cost of energy on the back burner and forgot about it. Well that pot is burning and we need to do something about it. Now we Americans have a short attention span and if oil prices go down too much we will add a little water to the pot, put the pot back on the back burner and forget about it again. We need to try to think in the long term and do what is good for now and the future.

The cost of energy affects me just like it does everyone else; I drive a Jeep wrangler and live 4 miles from the nearest convenience store, 15 miles from the nearest town and almost 30 miles from the nearest Wal-mart. To save money on gas I kept my sons Sentra that was wrecked back in May (her tail looks bad but she gets better than 30mpg) and I drive it when the weather is fair. I feel safer on these mountain roads at night and in bad weather in my Jeep. I keep a list of what I need and plan my road trips accordingly. I have planned the placement of my home to take advantage of solar energy and while I can’t afford to put solar panels on it now the placement of windows will help heat the house using passive solar techniques. I hope that the US government will support the advancement of alternative energy. I hope some day to be able to afford to put solar panels on my house and be able to buy an alternative energy vehicle that would meet my needs. As long as the American people are adversely affected by the cost of energy I believe that energy innovation will be supported by the people and therefore by the government so good for OPEC, they are doing more to promote energy innovation in this country than any of us tree huggers ever could.