I'm still here boys and girls just been keeping busy I have been gardening, hiking and repairing things on the property. Life is good.  I will catch things up soon.

Well hi from paradise it has been a long time since I blogged.  This winter has been very mild here.  I say it is because I bought a wood splitter last year and was ready for winter.  The weather gurus will give you a more technical answer for the mild weather but I still think it is the wood splitter.

To me the mild winter has also lifted the spirits of the folks around me.  I live in a fairly depressed part of the state of Virginia that was hit pretty hard by the present recession.  A mild winter with a lower power bill has helped as had the return of some jobs.  A few factories and plants have opened back up in the area so people are starting to feel a little more optimistic.  The optimism is guarded but it is still there.   

I am feeling the effects of spring fever. I have project plans for the spring starting with a retaining wall in front of my deck.  I want to fill in the slope and terrace it.  That will allow me to walk on the area and get the mower around to the side of the house. It will also allow me to better entertain.  I won’t have to worry about people falling and rolling down the hill.  I’m only raising the area about 2 feet but it will give me about 10 to 12 feet of usable space in front of the deck.  This terrace will step down to another terrace that will hold my bench swing; it should turn out really nice.  It is a lot of work but I enjoy getting out there and working in the fresh air and open sky. 

The girl dog loves the snow

The weather folks told us there would be some flurries last night, the flurries started around 7pm by 8pm there had to be an inch of “flurries” on the ground and this morning there is around 3 inches on my deck.  Guess where the snow shovel is, not on the deck.  The dogs love the snow and I am enjoying my coffee just setting here looking at the winter beauty. I am lucky, I have my warm wood stove and my cozy cabin with big windows so I can enjoy that beauty in comfort.  Of course the dogs and I will have to walk down to the barn to get the shovel. 

When President Nixon signed into law the national 55 mph speed limit it was meant with a lot of resistance.The law was meant to help ease the fuel shortages that were happening in the 70's and decrease the incidence of highway accidents. I know I have a fondness for 60mph and I enjoy that 70mph out there on hwy 81 but for the past few weeks I have been experimenting with my personal gas consumption. This is the World Wide Web so I won’t go into detail with my driving habits but I compared my normal driving habits with driving the speed limit and not going over 55.  The results have not been phenomenal but there is an improvement in my gas mileage. I drive a Jeep wrangler and around here in the mountains I have been getting 17 to 18 mpg. Slowing down has increased that to 18.5 to 19 mpg. As I said not a phenomenal improvement but that is a 5% increase in fuel economy. It takes less than 5 minutes longer to get to work and at 55mph a Wrangler is not as noisy by a long shot as at 60-70mph (interstate 81) so I save a little gas and am more relaxed when I get to work.  Will I always go 55, probably not, sometimes I will have to use the interstate ;-) but I will slow down when I can that 1 extra mile a gallon saves me about $3.00 a tank and since I fill up on average every 5 days that about $220 a year.

It seems that every few weeks a fright train of weather breezes by leaving just enough mixed precipitation to cause trouble then it goes a way and things warm up again.  We had a wicked wind with a mix of rain & sleet last night and now as I write there is a light snow falling.  It will be an interesting drive to work. 

Today it is quite cold and windy.  Today is one of the first truly cold days of this winter season making it a good day to reflect on another year that has gone by. I sit here at my computer watching the sun light up the bark of bare trees and the chickadee’s scuttle about unaware of the lurking cat looking at them from the porch step.  It looks cold outside but it is beautiful and I am thankful to have this view.

This past year has been a busy one; trips to the beach, the mountains and to New Orleans highlighted this year.  There were also many short excursions to places near by but equally fun.  I am very fortunate to have good friends that don’t mind me tagging along on their adventures and who don’t mind tagging along on some of mine. I did not get much done on the homestead this year but there is always next year.

Next year being this year I think I will concentrate more on the home front.  I will stick closer to home.  I do want to take one trip to Florida to visit a dear friend for a few days and I do have to go to the beach at least 2 times this year but other than that I will keep my adventures very close to home. 

Happy New Year. 

There are 10 days left in this year.  In just a few days the “Silly Season” will be over and a new year will begin.  I am reminded of some words from a song by John Lennon “So this is Christmas and what have you done another year over and a new one just begun”.  My past year has been in a word good.  Not every thing I ever wanted in a year but my health held out, I lost a few pounds and made a few more friends.  I don’t mind getting up in the morning.  I have been luckier than a lot of others. I am thankful for this past year and look forward to the new one.

Thought of the day

“An American "tradition" is anything that happens to a baby boomer twice.” http://xkcd.com/

It has indeed been a long time since I last bloged.  I missed the whole month of November and here it is 1/3 through December wow!  Its not that I don’t have anything to say, my god I am Irish I can talk a persons ear off its just that I have been too busy playing and working to write in my virtual journal. Well not really too busy I guess the real word is too lazy.  I have been piddling around the house not really getting any thing done, piddling around the yard not getting anything done and meaning to work on the barn and clean out the shed and not getting it done.  It is like I have hit a lets get things done wall.  I have as of late been doing just enough to get by, no dishes in the sink, floor swept, trash out, laundry done; you know things you have to do if you don’t want to live in a trash heap.  What have I been doing other wise you ask? Reading.  I am trapped in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” books by G. R. R. Martin.  I am in book 3 of the 5 that are out now.  Book 3 has 1128 pages.  I am looking to this series as my “winter read” and I am enjoying it.

I have also discovered that NPR slows me down.  I have been listing to it “all the time” as of late. While it is very informative for some reason it seems to keep me from getting things done.  I turned on some good old fashion Rock the other day and got a lot done!! So for me at least no more NPR during the day, well I am going to limit it to early morning and late afternoon.  The rest of the day it will be Radio Paradise and other R&R stations.

Now not to lead folks on, I am an average reader I can read 50 pages or more an hour if am able to just sit and read BUT I did spend Halloween in New Orleans and Thanksgiving on the Outer Banks.  I have been working more and as always there is wood that has to be cut and friends that must be associated with and volunteer things that must be volunteered so while the barn still needs fixing, the shed still needs cleaning and a million other things do need to get done…… I guess the lesson here is stop doing fun things and get my work done!!!

Whelp I am off to get something done, I don’t know what yet but something.  Maybe I will bake Christmas cookies.

I woke up this morning to the first frost of the year.  Summer is gone and Fall is nearly half way over, heck the year is almost gone!!  For me the year so far has been a good one.  Mountain life suits me.  

This past month so far has been a busy one I went to the Outer Banks at the beginning of the month and it was a very nice visit.  My sister was at the beach so my moms “honey do” list was almost done when I got there, that allowed me to enjoy the family and do a little shopping; you know just relax.  For me mid September through October is a great time to visit the beach. Its not as crowed and defiantly not as hot as the summer is. When I first got there I was a little surprised at the traffic but then I was reminded that it was Columbus Day weekend.  I don’t have any kids in school and I work at a job that is not tied to a  8 hour, 5 day work week so all but the major holidays seem to have been dropped from my radar.  It was one of my better visits since I left the beach. I had a good time but it was nice to come home.

Knights in armor

fairies

 and friends

 Last weekend some friends and I went to the Renaissance Festival outside of Charlotte NC.  I had a good time.  We put renaissance looking things in our hair, a few of us dressed up and we all had a good time. I had my face painted and while it looked great red on a pale face at the renaissance fair did not go well in the long run.

This weekend I will be hanging at home.  I need to get some things done here.  If my garden is not wiped out from this frost I need to mulch it more and cover a few things with plastic. Between work and play I have let the garden go.  The weather has been so nice that I did not even think about frost.  Of course there is the never ending winter activity of splitting wood, stacking wood and bringing wood in the house. In between my little activities I will sit on the couch and read.  Sometimes a little alone time can be great!!!  

I'm gonna love this wood splitter,

I went from this....

to this in just a few hours...

I'm gonna love the wood splitter!!!!!!

Labor Day weekend here in SW Virginia consists of yard sales, yard sales and really big yard sales. I went to Galax through Hillsville Friday and the Labor Day Flea Market & Gun Show was going on. All along 221 there was yard sale after yard sale. This goes on all weekend, Friday to Monday. On my way to Floyd yesterday I had to be very careful of traffic on the road side. People had stopped all over the place to check out the sales and traffic was very slow. Kinda like it is on the Outer Banks in the summer; People going real slow because they don’t know when and where they are going to turn. The yard sales are a bit of a pain for me, I’m not a yard sale person but like the deer and raccoons they are apart of living here and I would not see them gone for anything.

I had plans for the next 4 days that have to be changed thanks to tropical storm Lee. For the past few days my brother down near the Big Easy has been getting some much needed rain and starting tonight and then over the next 3 days we will be getting some of that much needed rain. I had plans on putting a dent into my wood cutting duties. I have bought a new wood splitter and a gas powered chain saw and planed on spending at least 4 hours a day on cutting and splitting wood (I’m not going to kill my self working 8 hours a day with unfamiliar equipment!!). I’m going to go ahead and get started today but I know I wont come anywhere near finishing but we really need the rain and I’m sure I can find plenty of rainy day things to do.

My solution to the deer problem was to put a simple fence around the garden and then I will be putting an electric fence around that. It’s not the prettiest thing I have ever seen but I have seen worse and it is working for now.

It was a long day at work today. Any time there is an inspection it is a long day but I got off a few minutes early and was home in time to enjoy a nice dinner on the deck. Looking at my dinner of a fresh tomato and lettuce sandwich with peach slices it occurred to me that today is September 1^st and the fresh salty/sweet tomatoes will be gone soon as will most of the fresh veggies I have been enjoying these past few months. I only have a few tomatoes left and I will enjoy every last one but ohhhh how I look forward to next year and more fresh tomatoes.

Well it has been an eventful weekend here in paradise. At least 1 deer has discovered my garden and the girl dog Trip got skunked again. On the good side the deer did not get much, just the tops to the carrots and some beans I was letting go to “seed”. The area the deer got into was where I was going to put in some winter plants so I cleaned out that bed today and put in some cabbage. Of course I did cover the bed with wire fencing so hopefully that will detour Bambi. We shall see. Trip only got a “little” skunked, if there is such a thing. The way she was foaming at the mouth I would say she got it mainly around the muzzle. I did not feel or smell any on her shoulder which is where she usually gets it and today while she still has a scent of essence de la pew it is no where near as bad as it usually is. I had her foamed up with dawn dish soap less than 5 minutes from the “attack”. Damn dog.

I took a good portion of these tomatoes and made

these jars of goodness.

These were not quite ripe enough to use today

I spent much of today canning 8 quarts and 2 pints of tomatoes.

It was rewarding in that I grew, harvested and canned the tomatoes but the economy of this is subjective. I spent ½ to 1 hour harvesting the tomatoes, 2 hours cutting and pealing them, another ½ hour putting them through a hand cranked food mill and then hours of tending the pot as they cooked down into a thick-ish sauce. Add to that cleaning the jars and lids and then watching the pressure cooker cook, it turns out I spent all day putting up what on a bad day might have cost me $20 at the store. Now don’t get me wrong I’m glad I did it and this will save me on my food cost but preserving food is not as easy or as “cost” saving as the books make it out to be.

Oh and by the way…. I know that I can use a water bath to can the tomatoes but I have found that at my altitude it is quicker to use the pressure cooker.

It is already August, the days are getting shorter, the trees are starting to have a yellow tinge to them and the garden is just about shot but that’s OK I came to the mountains to experience the change of seasons and I have loved every minute of it. I still have a lot to do before winter; I have an old locus tree that needs to be cut down and split into fire wood. I want to get some fall & winter “crops” planted this week. There are still tomatoes to be caned, apples and pears to be preserved and the second crop of black berries will be happening soon. I said that after the very active July I had I was going to “take it easy” this month. Staying home and getting ready for winter that’s taking it easy in my book.

The last three weeks have been quite busy. A friend of mine’s daughter got married, Floyd Fest X happened and I spent a few days in Abingdon VA.

The wedding was beautiful, Floyd Fest was hot in more than one way and Abingdon was a nice mental and physical cool down.

I will post photos in the next day or so

Well we are half way through July and the government is as f-uped as ever and if there is not some kind of COMPROMISE the country is going to face Armageddon…… Well here in paradise the garden is looking really nice and if all goes well I will have plenty of green beans, tomatoes and butternut squash to hold me over till next spring. I will keep on working in my garden, trying to do the best for my plants and my food future while those idiots in Washington fight like children over who broke the toy, both refusing to admit that it was the fight over who could play with the toy that broke it and neither accepting that they will all have to pay to replace it. Man politics just makes me sooo pissed off!! Thank god for the garden!!!!

Sorry about the political crap but I needed to vent.....

Now for some better stuff,

GARDEN SHOTS!!!!!

I have not had a big bug problem until recently now I am fighting Japanese beetles and squash bugs. I have been controlling the Japanese beetles by picking them off. I found that if you water the plants first the beetles hold on tight to the leaves and are less likely to drop to the ground when you go after them. Once they drop to the ground they are really hard to find.

I tried real hard not to use any pesticides in the garden but the squash bugs got so bad that I used a little sevens dust on the pumpkins and butter nut squash. I tried very hard to avoid the flowers because sevens dust is very toxic to bees.

These are some moon "rise" photos I took last night.

It has been so hot and muggy up here these past few weeks; last night we had a change in the weather. It became much cooler and the air was clear. These moon photos do not do last night's sky justice but I am posting them anyway!!

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of 2011, it will be daylight for 14 hours 43 minute 53 seconds, which is 2 seconds longer than yesterday and 2 seconds longer than tomorrow. Just thought I would enlighten you.

The garden is looking good this year. Hope it stays that way!!

I harvested these greens, mustard and radish,

Did all this work

and got this. I will freeze these for later.

Things here in Floyd have been good. The weather is finally getting back to normal. Hopefully the 90’s are gone for a while. I have been keeping busy in the garden and trying to keep the grass under control while doing normal log cabin maintenance. I am finding out that log homes are defiantly not care free but then no home really is. The front of the cabin faces south so it has gotten beaten up by the sun and I have had to re-stain it. I’m not a fan of ladders but with the help of my friend Shirely I got the front done!! I still have 2 sides and the back to get done in the next little while but the hardest and most necessary sides are done.

I’m going to try and get to the Floyd Town Jubilee this Saturday that should be nice. Next month, July, just explodes with the Floyd Fandango , a friends daughters wedding and then Floydfest X. The summer is just flying!!!!

I enjoy reading but I sometimes feel that I limit myself to genres that I am comfortable with so from time to time I pick up a book at a discount store. I feel for a buck if I don’t like the book it’s no big loss and who knows I might like the author and have whole new series to read. That is how I discovered S. M. Sterling. Any way after reading and finally finishing “The Simarillion”, a book that I originally tried to read nearly 30 years ago but never finished, I needed a light read so off I went to the discount store where I picked “The Book of Unholy Mischief” by Elle Newmark. I would not say it’s a great book but I am enjoying it, it’s a combo book on cooking, history and religion. I am learning a little about Venice in the late 1400’s, at least I am hoping the author did some research and her descriptions are accurate, and it is an easy summer read. I would recommend it.