Old Man Winter - Again

Well, Just when you thought it was safe - Here comes the snow again. Ah - but its pretty up here. We only got a little over 3 inches but some places got as much as 8. Guess we be lucky Huh? But its really cold out there. When I got up it was 24 degrees now, at 2PM it's 28. Gotta stay covered up cause that wind really drives the temp down. It must be about 20 out there with the wind blowing like it is. Jim's partially covered with snow and doesn't seem to mind. He comes and goes as he pleases. We were gonna head down the mountain to Jamestown but changed out minds when we saw the roads still covered with snow and ice. Will tackle that errand on another day.

Poor old Horse

The man that owns the pasture next to us had 2 horses. Sometimes they come around to the field adjoining ours. The one old horse was a work horse and just looked so skinney. He and the other horse are out in the weather and as far as we know they never feed them anything but hay (and only in winter). Chuck looked out this morning and saw the brown horse laying down and trying to get up. We left at 9:30 to go to the dentist. When we got back at 12:30 he was still laying in the field so I told Chuck to go down and check on him. Turns out he was dead. So Chuck drove up to our neighbor to tell him and I guess he called his nephew to come over. They drug him away with a tractor and said that they were going to bury him. I felt so bad for the old guy. he probably had no back teeth to chew (like our Jim) and couldn't eat the hay so he basically starved to death. They have no cover in the winter either. Our horse gets 3 scoops of Sr feed mixed with warm water twice a day and two buckets of hay cubes soaked twice a day. So he keeps his weight on pretty good. He also has a stall to go in. They just don't treat their animals the same here as we do. i know one day we will have to put him to sleep or we may find him laying out in the field to. But at least we know we took good care of him in his last days. We figure our horse is close to 35 now.

We missed the nasty sleet that the other part of TN got. I'm glad as we didn't want to drive the roads when they are slippery. The country roads don't have guard rails and its a long way down! Ha! Its been cold but its going to warm up later on this week. Spring will be here soon and it will be our first spring here. Hope its as pretty as fall is.

High Winds

The past two days we have had very high winds up here on top of the mountain. We lost electricity about 8:30 am. They worked on it and got it on but we only had power for 20 minutes before it went off again. We found out that 2 tree's were down on electric poles and snapped them both in two. The power finally came back on at 9:30pm last night. We had decided to go to town for batteries and butane for the barbacue grill so we could at least cook (we have an electric stove) something for dinner. Luckily I had made chicken burgers the other night and had two left. And I had buns in the freezer. We had two battery operated laterns and candles. We didn't think that the power would be back on till today. Luckily, our water is city water (not a well with a pump) and the water heater is gas so we had hot water to shower. Almost like camping! Ha! Guess I will dig out my butane camping stove and coffee pot so Chuck could have his coffee anyway. We at least had cereal to eat for breakfast before the milk went sour. Next time we will be more prepared like we were in FL for the hurricanes. I don't think that the power goes off very often here.

Today driving into town for lab tests it was spitting snow. It was only in the low 30's but once it warmed up it stopped. I hope it snows again before Spring arrives but by the looks of the weather next week, it will be to warm.

February Flurry

Woke up this morning to a bit of that white stuff on the ground. Just a bit of a flurry overnight but pretty none the less. It's about 23 degrees and probably will warm up to about 40 something by noon. Pretty chilly day but have seen colder. Had to get out and take some pics of the trees on the mountain. The distant trees are covered with a light snow - must have been protected from direct wind because most of the other trees have the snow blown off them. Gotta go out and get some plumbing supplies as the kitchen faucet sprung a leak and have to replace the seals. Easy job but the treck down and up the mountain may prove to be an experience. Oh, Well! If'n we gonna live here gotta be like everybody else. It's just another day.

Happy Valentines Day!

I haven't been writing on the blog much lately. Lazy I guess. It won't be long and spring will be here. It will be nice to see the green leaves on tree's again. It hasn't been a bad winter not the cold we had last year.

Got some bad news this weekend. Lisa called and said that the cancer has spread to the bowel. She had been trying to get some medical assistance so she could start treatment. No luck. She finally got a job at one of the hotels in the Disney complex but her medical insurance doesn't kick in until April 1st. I guess she was having some problems last week and went back to see the Dr. she origianlly saw. He told her if she could bring $500 for the tests and then pay something monthly he would start treatment. Then when her insurance kicks in he would treat her as a new patient so the existing condition problem won't be a problem with the insurance company. He was really upset with her not getting treatment sooner because now it looks like the cancer is more aggressive. Lisa is really scared he is talking about surgery and chemo. She called and asked Chuck about chemo. I don't think that she understood from day one that cancer isn't something to fool around with. We all have been pushing her to get treatment. I am really worried that she has waited too long and surgery and treatment won't help her. She is waiting for the other tests to come back to see what happens next. She is going to need a lot of prayers.

Chuck just came in from outside and said that there is a skunk in the back yard. Ugh! I think he has been hanging around because we have smelled him while we have been in the hot tub. I would rather have the racoon hanging around rather than the skunk! To windy out tonight so won't get in the hot tub. Its about 35 degree's now.

Its been cold and windy the last couple of days and was below 19 degree's the other night. When we got up in the morning it was 19 so figured it did get much colder. I guess no snow for this winter!

I got these books from the bookclub called Sharing Memories A keepsake journal for Grandmother and Grandchild. I am filling out one for each of the grandaughters. I know that they have them for mother to children and father to children but I haven't been able to find them yet. These that I got were a bargain at $5.20 each. I sent one to a friend for her 60th birthday she has a 2 year old grandaughter. Unfortuantely, she has cancer and I thought that this would be something to leave for her grandaughter. She lived in my neighborhood and we were good friends for a long time. When I went back home to visit a few years ago I got in touch with her and we have been staying in touch ever since. Hopefully she will be able to make a visit here very soon.

I will be starting work at home soon. Chucks sister has her own business (medical transcription) and is going to expand her business and wants me to work part-time at home to start. She lives in IL and everthing will be done over the internet. I will have to purchase a foot pedal and won't have to purchase any software. Diane has her son in CA working for her too and said he was making about $1600 or more a month. He may not be able to do as much now that he got a job at the university as a professor. I think he has a Masters in Music. Its amazing what can be done on the internet. I will do the work and send it to her via the internet. At first she will have to check and see if everything is being done right then she sends it on its way. I guess she bills once a month and I will get paid monthly not sure though. Hope it works out. It would be nice to have a little extra money.

Catchin' Up

Whew! The Holidays are over and are we ever glad. Our's was kind of a drag without the kids and grand kids, but we survived. We celebrated the New Year at home by ourselves with a bottle of good wine and some movies. We're finding out that we're not the late nighters we used to be nor are we early risers either. Chuck's just finishing up a small construction job in Spruce Creek and probably won't work again until sometime in March when the weather warms up. Right now it's not all that cold but it sure is wet and muddy which makes a worksite dangerous, especially when using heavy equipment. Chuck went hunting for arrowheads today and found some off the beaten path. The first pic below is the point before he took it out of the ground. You never know if it's a rock or an artifact until you pick it up. He's found some interesting stuff lately but hasn't been able to classify it to a time period yet. Most of these finds will date from 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.