Nearly every morning and in this order I get up, walk to the living room open the door so the dogs can get out, turn on the computer, get coffee started, get the dog food ready, go and relieve myself (I know TMI) feed the dogs, get a cup of coffee and sit at the computer to check out the weather, e-mail, and NEWS. I am not happy when this routine is interrupted especially when I have to work. 10 minutes with a nice hot cup of coffee and my equivalent to the news paper just makes my morning. Well today at 0610 that’s 6:10 in the am Trip the girl dog came into the house foaming at the mouth and with an odor that brought tears to my eyes. That damn dog got into another skunk; the second one this year. To make things worse I had to be at work for a mandatory class at 8:00 am and it takes an hour to get where the class was being held!!!!! Well I got the Dawn soap and the vinegar, threw Trip in the shower gave her a quick bath and rinse, I did not have the 10 minutes to wait with the Dawn on but since the skunk spray was still wet I figured something was better than nothing. Trip got out of the shower and on to the porch and I hopped in took a quick shower and off to class I went. Class was canceled because of a computer glitch but not before my coworkers got a scent of my new perfume. It seems there was just a hint of essence de la skunk on me. With the cost of gas I went ahead and got my errands done while I was out. I stopped at three places, the first place I stopped I heard a man say to a woman, “Do you smell that I think it is something electrical” her reply “NO that is SKUNK!”

I have spent all afternoon cleaning house and dog and I can still smell that skunk…… Damn that dog!!!!

Trip smells spring


just a taste of Willis spring color


on one of the trials near Blowing Rock NC

the valley before brunch

the valley after Brunch

It’s been a busy few weeks for me. I have been getting things ready for spring planting and trying to catch up on some outside repairs of course I have been working in between storms. It seems that every day I am off it is either raining or I have to “do something” away from home.

Last Friday a friend and I went to Blowing Rock NC for the weekend and there was a tornado that set down about 40 miles from my house, that was a blessing but I was told that the wind and rain at my place was torrential. This week end the same storm system that started in Oklahoma has brought an unbelievable amt of rain to us in south western Virginia. The fields down from my cabin have a stream running down one side of them. That stream became a river today. I had never seen it do that before. That land is pasture land and hay field in a flood plain and today I could see why it will most likely not be used for anything else.

The daffodils are hidden under the snow to the left of the photo.

It’s been quite a week here. Monday it snowed then it rained then it just plane got cold and today they call for high winds. Hummm….. I have finished my book and magazines, I have baked bread and I have cleaned house. It was warmer here the beginning of March than it is now!!! I had all my seeds out and was planning on where to plant them and now I have been reminded that winter is not over yet. I want to plant things and I need to cut the grass but it is winter again!!!! Agggggg I have spring fever sooooo bad!!!!!!

I did get to see a sun set last night, it wasn’t as pretty as the sun sets at the beach but I do miss seeing the sun rise and sun set so while it was not perfect it was very nice.

Winter is back if only for today. I almost put the snow shovel away and I thought seriously about taking off the snow tires but I was reminded that it can snow in April here. Today I am reminded that it’s not summer yet.

a touch of spring

Spring shed cleaning

It has been a very nice March. The weather has made me think that that ground hog from Pennsylvania knew what he was talking about. Of course it is still March and the old saying in like a lamb out like a lion came from somewhere.

So far this month I have been spending a lot of time out of doors. I have been working on getting rid of a bunch of black berry bushes. Now that may seem like the wrong thing to do but there are so many bushes that I can’t pick the berries and they are spreading out even more. Cows kept them back in the day but since I don’t want cows on my property it has become my job. Hummmm goats are sounding better and better….. Any way the object this year is get as much done with the least amount of money. I want to use up some of the “good stuff” I have saved over the 2 years I have been here. As can be seen by the cleaning the shed photo I’ve collected a lot of junk. In the barn there is a lot of scrap wood and stuff that needs to be used or gotten rid of. I found enough log siding to repair a good deal of the front of the barn. From the road the barn is going to look like a big log cabin!! I have been putting in two more raised beds for gardening. I will put in two a year until I get the garden to where I want it. When the garden is on a steep slope putting in raised beds is a lot of work. I have to take the fill in by wheel barrow and bucket and it takes a lot of fill. One of the raised beds this year is 8x8, I had to go up 28 inches on the down hill slope to get it level. Now just think I have to fill in half of that space, that’s a lot of fill.

Now back to the March weather, things have cooled down. We have been getting day time highs in the upper 50’s, 60’s and a day or 2 in the 70’s and night time temps well above freezing, now we are having a reality check and we are back to normal which means OK day time temps but cold nights. Last night was cold so I decided to light the wood stove for the first time in 2 weeks. I put in the kindling, lit it and sat back to watch the fire take. After less than a minute out of the wood stove popped a bird…. that stopped that fire right quick!!!! Today I have to take my chimney down and make sure there is no nest in it. Cheese and Crackers more work!!!

Is it the end of times or is it that with nearly 7 billion souls on earth, the internet and 24 hour news things that have been happening since the beginning of time are making a bigger impact on us humans who have moved to the shore, built nuclear power plants and could not imagine living with out our modern devices?

The world has been in flux since it was formed and will continue to change and remold it self long after we humans are gone. That truth does not take away the pain and suffering the victims of natural and man made disasters experience but if we are lucky we will learn from these events and devise new ways to live with nature accepting that nature does not care that we are here. It is up to us humans to bend to nature and work with nature not against it; nature will not bow to us, nature is queen.

I told myself I was going to do better blogging but then I got lazy. Sigh………..

Things with me have been good and like always busy. I have been dividing my time between the loft, which is looking good!, the outside, the weather has been AWESOME !!!!! and of course making the donuts, I have to have a job so I can pay to live in paradise.

I am dreading go to work today because I know its going to be busy, people if you are sick don’t wait till you get real sick to see a doctor and try to see your doctor before you go to the ED. I don't want to go to work to day its looking like it is going to be nice and I would much rather be outside preparing for spring which is in just 16 more days from now!!!! Of course living in the mountains means warmer days but the nights will still be too cold for planting but that just makes me want it more.

Well more later, gota go make the donuts!!!

I think the cat is looking forward to the spring. She is getting some tree climbing in

For a cat she's not bad

I have to say that after the cold winter we have had waking up to temps in the 30’s felt almost balmy. I had to think about starting a fire this morning I finally did but that was only after looking at the power bill and thinking “I can get it lower than that”. I did start one last night when I got home from work but I did not get up during the night and put any wood on the fire, my stove is small so it only holds a fire about 6-8 hours so usually one time during the night I put another log on the fire but last night was busy at work and I got off late and I was dead tired when I went to bed, so this morning around 4 o’clock I said frack it I’m going back to sleep.

I am getting the loft done. I have the hip walls framed in and will put the wainscoting up next week. It’s going to look nice up there. It will be a comfortable place for company and a nice place for me to work on sewing and such. I think one of the best things I did when building the cabin was put in the spiral stair. I was going to use a ladder but the spiral stair does not use much room and is so much easier to go up and down, especially when you are in your 50’s, than a ladder would have been. Plus it just looks nice. At the pace I am going I still have a month or so of work to do n the loft but the important thing is its is getting done and I’m doing a good job!!

I still have projects to get done in the house, I want to build a pantry I still have trim that needs to get up, the list is never ending but that is part of the fun of having a new home and county living.

Maybe that ground hog was right, maybe spring will be here early. I’m starting to see a little red in the tips of the trees.

Well I survived the storm. Compared to last year this years storms, TO DATE, are not much. If things pan out the way the weather folks say I'm going to have to get off my fat butt and do some out door work. The temps look like there going to be normal which for around here means temps in the 40's during the day.

I have been getting the loft work done, slowly but surely, I'll pick up some wood this week to frame up the hip walls. I'm going to use wanes coating so that will make the wall surface easier, at least that is the plan. I am full of plans.

Welp the snow has started. Lets see if we get 1 or 6 inches of the white stuff!!!

I am spending my day enjoying the sun and warm temperatures, getting laundry and other small chores done. In between folding loads of cloths I have been reading an apocalyptic tale by S.M Stirling and it got me thinking, I know there will be a change in the weather tomorrow; there is the possibly of “substantial” snow. Because I can look things up on the internet and I have the radio I know that things are going to be less pleasant tomorrow and I can prepare. There was a time when your only clues of the weather to come came from local clues, the clouds on the horizon, the feel and smell of the air but now we count on NOAA and the Weather Channel. After living on the beach for nearly 30 years I do have some sense of when the weather will change but the smell and feel of the air is different in the mountains. It seems the fronts are harder to see and feel. The weather is less predictable. At the beach I knew the winter would be wet and windy, summer hot and dry and spring and fall a blur on the calendar. I haven’t learned the seasons here yet. This winter is so different from last and last was so different from my first winter here. I am looking forward to the spring. The past two springs have been consistently wonderful.

Well gotta get a move on. I have to stock up for the snow, I need milk and ice cream!

I’m sitting here in front of the computer in shorts, a tank top and flip flops. It is 75 degrees in the cabin down from the 79 it was in the “heat” of the day. That is what passive solar can do. While I spent the day reading a book with my legs basking in the sun shining through the windows I had a false sense of temperature. When I took the dogs for a walk I found out that it really was cold out side and the wind made it feel even colder.

There is nothing “special” about my cabin it just has good insulation and big south facing windows but that is enough to keep the cabin warm during the day. Even if the wood stove is off or kept very low (like today) on a sunny day the heat pump does not come on at all.

Another ½ month has gone by and I have not done anything I “wanted” to do. I still have the last half of January to finish the loft that was my finish in January list topper. I AM going to start it TODAY and there is not a lot to do, just a little sanding, painting, put up trim and a kick wall with wanes coating and then putting down the flooring. Humm maybe I will put this on the top of my February list right next to get the garden beds in order.

Oh man. It is the middle of January all ready. This winter has been a little different from last year, the Farmer’s Almanac said it would be colder and dryer (at least that is how I read it) ; it feels like it has been colder to me and we sure have not had as much snow. The “timing” of the weather has also changed. Last year it seemed any weather we had came on the weekends, this year it’s been mid week. Last year I hardly had to drive in the mess and this year uggggggg, it seems like every damn shift I have worked the weather has been bad. At least when I am at home my cabin is cozy and warm and my view is beautiful.

This weekend promises to be a good one; we are going to get a bit of a winter thaw this Martin Luther King holiday. The warm temps and sunshine will give me a chance to tromp around the property and dream about the spring planting and summer gardens that will come from them. I know this warm weather is going to be short lived, the cold winter is not even a month long yet, but it will be a nice break and I am going to enjoy it.

I lift my coffee mug to you, stay warm and enjoy the weekend

Happy New Year

It is hard to believe that it is January 2011. It is said that as we grow older time seems to go by quicker and for me it is sure speeding by. I woke up this morning thinking that in 4 ½ months I can start planting my garden and then my mind went to the John Lennon song that says “And so it is Christmas and what have you done? Another year over and a new one’s just begun” or something like that. 2010 was a good year for me, not great but not bad. I can’t say that I accomplished a lot but the important things got done. I have a few personal New Years resolutions that I am going to try and accomplish this year (for real THIS time). My only real hope for this New Year is that my family and friends have a year filled with a lot of good times and that the bad times, because there are always bad times, aren’t too bad.

2011 is already starting off on a relatively good foot, its 6 am and 46 degrees. It’s going to rain but heck its still warmer than its been in a long time.

Playing in the snow

The Wright Memorial in KDH

I got home around 6:30pm tonight from spending Christmas with my boys on the Outer Banks. It was great to spend time with the family but boy was I glad to make it home tonight. I left the beach around 9:30 am and what is normally a 7 hour drive took 9. The Outer Banks got about 4 inches of snow on Sunday and the Norfolk area got a lot more than that. When I got home I had to contend with the 4-6 inches here in Floyd. The snowy mountain roads are not fun after dark. Any way I am home I will miss the family but I’m HOME!!!

What about the 911 responders!!!!

GOP vote to help them. Give them the Christmas present that will help lives!!!!

Pass the 9/11 responders bill!!!!!

9/11 responders bill defeated by Senate GOP filibuster - CNN

December 16, 2010 - Mike Huckabee - The Daily Show With Jon Stewart - Full Episode Video | Comedy Central

This winter I have discovered the wonder of the soup/stew. I have been making chicken soup, venison stew and chili this fall and I find these meals very satisfying. Last night it was in the low teens, that’s cold even for me, and I stayed warm with a big bowl of three been chili and a nice wood fire.

The farmer’s almanac said that this year would be dryer but colder than last year. I’m beginning to believe that may be true. Its 10 am and according to my out door thermometer its 18 degrees out side. I can see snow flurries and there is a little more than a dusting of snow but nothing like last year. Heck even the cat and dogs want to stay in I put every one out and they were back in in no time. The sun is trying to come out but the wind is picking up so it’s going to be a hunker down stay in day.

If the Farmers almanac is correct and the cold trend continues maybe I will get all the indoor projects in need to finish done this winter so that come spring the inside of the house will be finished. I also need to get rid of stuff again; the cabin is starting to get cluttered. I down sized and I want to stay that way.

I went to an interesting meeting on Saturday in reference to cohousing. It is a really neat concept, houses are grouped close together on a piece of land. In the case of the “development” I was checking out has about 38 acres located 1 mile from down town Floyd VA. The members of the cohousing organization each will own 1/30^th of the property, there will be a common building with a kitchen and great room and possibly a laundry room. These are to promote group activities and hopefully encourage people to interact. There will be guest rooms in the common building so that the houses in the community can be smaller. One would not need to build a guest room into a house. Any way it is a lot like a condominium community but smaller and built with community interaction in mind. I’m not sure it will be for me. Housing like this tends to be expensive and even though the folks who are organizing this thing want it to “affordable” what is affordable for one may not be affordable for another. I am also very much in love with my cabin and while I would love to be closer to Floyd I’m not sure I would want to give up what I have.

The cohousing group here in Floyd VA calls the community Jubilee, they do have a LLC called Floyd Cohousing but they do not have a website yet. When they get one I will post it.

This is a site that gives some information on cohousing, Cohousing Communities Directory

Its snowing!!!!!

I went out this morning and got a snow shovel..... we will see if I need it. Welp back to the cookie making.