ARE WE THERE YET!!!!!!

I know it's March and the weather for this month is usually totally unpredictable but this is getting really ridiculous.  Last night the temp dropped down to 22 and it didn't get out of the 20's all day.  Ground fog set in real early and started freezing on the trees.  This is the road, in front of our house, going up the mountain.

 

You can see the ice forming on the trees further up the mountain.  As the fog moves through everything, on the upper level of the mountain, gets a thicker coat of ice.

Even the spider webs were freezing.  I must say that it was kinda pretty looking across the wooded side of the mountain and seeing the evergreen trees with a layer of ice on them.  Then hundreds of clumps of spider webs, throughout the brush and smaller trees, frozen solid in their intricate patterns.

Somehow God's nature always has a way of bringing out the beauty even during times that try your patience.  If this is some kind of test of my patience, I ain't gonna get a very good grade. Heh heh heh!!!

"In the Doldrums"

A good nautical term for those southern latitudes where winds were slight or variable and "Ships of old" wallowed about without making headway, while the crew became listless and bored.  That pretty well describes today here in the mountains.  It's heavily overcast with drizzling rain and just cold enough to make it miserable outside.  Ah Well - ya gotta take the not so good with the good.  I forgot to post a picture that I happened to take yesterday morning while I was admiring the sunrise.

These two gobblers were strutting about and making quite a fuss trying to impress the girls, which you can't see.  There was about 6 or 8 hens just over the rise that were taking no interest in these braggarts.  I only wish I had had a longer range telephoto zoom that would have made the picture clearer.  With my old eyes, I have trouble getting a real clear focus so that when I enlarge the photo the picture is clear.  But you get the idea.  This hill in back of our house seems to be the gathering place for all kinds of critters - year round.  We almost always have morning and evening deer grazing and in the late spring, the hen turkeys begin their parade of young.  I've seen over 40 turkey parading about on this hill.  Too far to shoot but too close to sneak up on.  So I admire them from afar.  I'll get my lens one of these days.  Anyway - back to the doldrums.  Today is my "girlyman" day.  Cathy goes to town for her weekly shopping and while she's gone I spruce up the house.  I vacuum, mop and wax the floors for her cause she has trouble with her legs and back.  And I can do something useful for a change.  Actually it's a very small price to pay for all the super meals that Cathy has made. 

Spring is just around the corner

I love this time of year.  I really enjoy getting up early and watching the sunrise over the mountains here on the Tennessee Plateau.

I know - I know.  You're not supposed to take a picture directly into the sun but sometimes, if you're lucky, you can catch the shot just right where there's no reflection on the lens.  Sure - I should get the right filter, polarizing or something.  Seems like lately I've been posting lost of food articles and today is no different.  I just gotta tell ya about the meal Cathy orchestrated last night.  Firstly, ya have to understand that for the past 10 years or so, Cathy and I have set aside every Friday night just for us.  We call it our Friday Night Soiree.  So, every Friday we set up the coffee table in front of the couch and prepare for a leisurely evening meal.  Well, last night the love of my life truly out did herself.  This was absolutely the most outstanding meal I've had, - bar none.  Even Mom's home cooking can't compare.

Of course the diet went out the window - but it's only one meal out of how many every week.  She made Bay Scallop Gratins, with stuffed baked quahogs, shrimp cocktail and freezer Cole slaw and, of course, a good wine.

The gratins were from the Barefoot Contessa cook book.  All the other stuff we have had in the past.
Now - ya gotta understand, I'm not a real big fan of Ina Garten cause she's just a little too preppy for me but I have to hand it to her on this recipe.  However, I'll give all the credit to Cathy cause she did all the work, about 1 and a half hours.  The cole slaw recipe was given to Cathy by our neighbor, Jan Cook.  It's absolutely the best slaw I've ever had and probably the only one we'll have in the house from now on.  It doesn't have any mayonnaise in it and I hate mayonnaise.  After our leisurely meal, and feeling somewhat stuffed, we followed it up with an aperitif.  Now ain't that just a preppy word.  Cathy had Crème de Menthe over cracked ice and I had my old standby - a fresh cup of Joe (coffee).  Then we settled back and watched a recent release called "The Book Thief."  It's a real good movie about Jews during WWII.  All in all - a super evening...

Winter's last Hurray -- I hope

Seems like it was raining all night, a heavy rain too.  When I got up this morning it was overcast and  the temp was 58 degrees.  By 11AM the temp had dropped to 32 and the wind was gusting heavily.  It's supposed to get to 20 degrees tonight and start warming up again.  So - it was a good day to spend relaxing inside, reading, watching some tele and nodding off.  OH, I almost forgot.  Cathy thought it would be a good day for making cookies.   Uuuummmmmm!!!!

We made about six dozen Snickerdoodles and they're all mine.  Cathy won't eat them cause of her diet and I really have to hand it to her, she's sticking to it.  She usually doesn't eat cookies but I know it's still a temptation.  Not to worry, they won't be around long.  Since it's getting so cold outside, we let the cats in for the night.  It doesn't take long for them to make themselves at home.  I guess they have us trained about as good as people can be trained.  Oh well, tomorrow is another day...

Hum - Is it Spring yet!!??!!

Here we go again.  It's 73 degrees out today but tomorrow we're getting a cold front moving in and temps are gonna drop to 17 with a prediction of snow flurries.  I was gonna put my long johns away for the summer but think I'll wait just a little longer.  The usual flurry of warm weather critters has started but boy are they in for a surprise.  Saw some wasps and carpenter bees around the front porch this morning.  Although not necessarily a warm weather critter - I found this little guy hanging around my back porch

Not really sure but I think it's a Brown Bat.  They're about the size of a mouse and native to Tennessee.  Talked to my friend Ken, who's a caver (spelunker) and he says that Tennessee is experiencing a disease called "White Nose Syndrome" in our bats.  I think it's fatal and we're losing a lot of the bats to it.  It's not just in Tennessee but apparently all along the eastern seaboard.   It's a fungus that grows around the bat's nose when they hibernate.  Researchers haven't been able to find a way to control it except to have cave explorers sanitize their clothing and equipment after leaving the cave.  Cute little guy and it would be a shame to lose an entire population or species of bats because of this.  I wish them luck in finding a control. 

What's That - Spring ya say???

Wow - Got up this morning and what a beautiful sunrise over the mountains.  Still looked cold out so I braced myself and headed out to feed the furry critters (cats) on the back porch.  Surprise of surprises - it was almost 50 degrees out there.  Thought I was gonna have a heat stroke before I could get back in the house.  Heh Heh!!  Really feels good and now I am really looking forward to some green foliage, blue skies and lake time...  Cathy made another special meal today.  Seems every meal she makes lately is special, at least they are to me cause I never had them before and I really liked them.  Today she made Shrimp salad with cilantro dressing.  Never been a fan of cilantro but there was just ever so slight a hint of it in this.

As you can see Romaine lettuce, avocado, red bell pepper, and frozen corn and peas topped with the cilantro dressing and all of 305 calories.  Of course the wine is extra.  I'm sure it topped off the salad perfectly.  Don't know for sure as this was Cathy's plate.  I had tea.  Cathy has been trying to lose weight for awhile and I really believe she has hit on some winners.  She found them in the magazine "Taste of Home" and they appear to be working.  She's is losing weight.  I'm proud of her and I have always enjoyed her cooking.  I can only remember one meal that was a real looser and it was made with hamburger helper back when we were first married.  Since then it's been an adventure for my taste buds and appetite.  Saw the neighbor plowing and disking his garden today.  Hadn't seen Joe in a couple of weeks so took the 4 wheeler up the road for a visit.  He always plants two gardens and I mean gardens.  They each measure about 40' x 40' and are quite a bit of work.  I gave up on my garden cause it got to be a real pain trying to water it every other day.  Somehow, Joe's property stays wet, probably cause of all the underground springs that come off the top of the mountain.  Anyway, I usually help him plant and till his in exchange for some of his produce - beans, tomatoes, corn, onions, turnip and mustard greens, winter cabbage etc.  He really plants a bunch of stuff.  Cathy plans on canning again this summer so it will come in handy.  We also go up to Monticello, Kentucky and purchase produce in bulk from some of the truck farmers and it's a lot cheaper than buying vegetables in the stores like Walmart.   Anywho - guess I shouldn't get too excited cause Wednesday of next week the temp drops back to the low 40's for the daily high and mid 20's for the low.  They even predicted some snow flurries for Wednesday night.  But there's light at the end of the tunnel, I know summer is coming.  Hurrah!!!

Dieting ain't half bad

Wow - Fantastic!!!  Cathy's been dieting lately and losing weight I might add.  Usually dieting causes lots of frustration with minimal weight loss but this seems to be different.  We used to walk the logging roads about 3 times a week but since she's had her hip and knee replacement, we've had to curtail those.  So - she began to gain weight without exercise.  Anyway - she started making meals based on calories and I'm impressed.  I'm usually a meat and taters kind of guy but she's got me rethinking my own eating habits.  She made me this for supper last night.....

It's called Crispy Asian Chicken Salad.  It's about 300 calories without the dressing and is it ever good.  I don't usually put salad dressing on my salads anyway.  After I had a bite I had to get a pic for the blog.  Normally, about 45 minutes after a meal like this, I'm roaming the kitchen looking for something to munch on but not this time.  I'm really impressed - finally something that's good for you and tastes good to boot.  Not a bad combination.  Love ya babe...

Brrrrrrrrrr!!! Winter hangin' on

Got up this morning to single digit temp and ice a hanging on just about everything in sight.  I counted about 25 Robins in the front yard.  They were all puffed up and just sitting there.  If they were waiting on me to bring breakfast they were gonna have a long wait.

When we went to bed it was raining but cold.  The ground was too warm for the snow to build up, it just melted.  So - the predicted 2" snowfall never materialized but the freezing rain did.  We're lucky the power lines are still up. 

I saw ice cycles on the high line wires almost 4" long.  I imagine those areas to our west got it worse than we did.  Same thing happened last year - last minute throes of winter.  About 3 years ago, Cathy and I were boating on the lake in March.  We had jackets on but it was no where near as cold as it is now.

Beautiful to look at from a distance but, as they say up in New England, it's wicked cold.  I guess I shouldn't complain too much.  When we were stationed in Misawa, Japan (81-84) we had a record accumulation of 127"  (10' 6") of snow.  It started snowing in October and our last flurry was in May.  Our winds came in off the Russian Siberians and boy was it cold.  You really had to bundle up when you went outside.  Once the snow started falling most people gave up driving their personal vehicles and took the military bus.  The last thing to melt off was the roadway, which had 6-8" of packed snow/ice.  We got used to it tho.  The base was kinda isolated so we wound up spending lots of time sledding on the ski slopes and drinking hot chocolate at the ski lodge.  Good ole days!!?

Cabin Fever

Was really hoping that winter was going away but I guess not.  Been cooped up in the house off and on for the past 3 weeks due to inclement weather and we are starting to get cabin fever.  Did go to Cookeville last week so that alleviated some of that closed-in feeling.  We have had a running battle, since late fall, with these critters.

The swarmed into our side of the mountain and what a mess.  They seem to find their way into the house no matter what you do.  By swarm I mean millions and millions of em.  When I go out to the barn to do some wood work, it's like walking on a carpet of dead ladybugs.  They literally cover the floor.  We had the house sprayed inside, which helped some but they just keep coming back.  As it warms up they're supposed to swarm again but this time going away.  Don't really care where they go so long as they go.  But - apparently they'll be back.  Seems they mark their territory so they know where to come back to and boy did they mark this area.  This is another example of man messing with nature.  These critters were apparently brought in in massive numbers to control some other critter.  Only now there's nothing to control the controller.  Anytime we mess with "Mother Nature" we never get it right.  I thought we could get the outside of the house sprayed to get rid of them but - nope.  The spray tends to wash off during heavy rains and if it's sprayed on heavy enough to stay - you're breaking the law.  It's a no win situation.  Nothing like sitting down to enjoy a nice bowl of chilly on a winters day only to have a couple of ladybugs fall into the soup.  I've gotten to where I just scoop them out and continue as if nothing had happened.  Who ya gonna call!!!!
 
One good thing about being cooped up is I get to make quite a bit of headway on my family tree.  I'm not sure how many names I've gotten so far but it's over 900.  I found a couple of books on the Internet that had a lot of my family history going back to England.  Then all I had to do was confirm their information by searching online databases like census, birth, death, and marriage records  as well as passenger ship manifests.  Also have Cathy's mother's side going back to the 1500's.  It's really exciting to uncover some of the history and then sometimes its not so exciting.  I just found out that on my father's side, we had ancestors who were pioneers into Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama before they were states.  Unfortunately, in the late 1700 - early 1800 era, they used slaves on large land holdings or plantations.   Several of these pioneers were slave owners.  Nothing to be proud of but it's part of the history.  Also had another of my ancestors who was basically shanghaied at 14 years of age and was forced to be a cabin boy on a sailing ship that took to pirating off the coast of Africa in the south Atlantic and Indian ocean areas.  Luckily he and a couple other young sailors made a break for it when the ship pulled into the Bahamas.  The story actually comes from a deposition made on May 28, 1698 by John Elston to a court in New Jersey when he was 20 years old.  It was found during research of New Jersey Colonial Documents.  Interesting stuff and a good way to occupy oneself during self-imposed winter incarceration.  Til Next time  - ta ta