Winter's Reality

Been snowing for the past couple of days. Hasn't been above freezing yet but the wind has laid a bit and it's not so cold. Roads are slick and it's hard to drive to the top of the mountain so we just stay at home til it starts to melt, probably tomorrow or thursday. Cathy has an appointment in Cookeville thursday PM so hopefully the roads will be in better shape. Mailman parked in our driveway this morning and walked up the road to deliver the mail. That's dedication for ya. Getting sick of all the inaugural crap on tv. Haven't seen any decent news for the past 3 days. Now that Obama has been sworn in and after DC has it's drunk'n party tonight - maybe things will get back to normal. When I was stationed in DC, our command provided personnel for security at the inaugural balls for Bush 41 and Reagan. What a zoo. Lots of celebrities, dancin', drinkin' and partyin'. When I was assigned to the DC municipal auditorium ball, I had to pull a partially nude woman off one of the tables where she was dancin' for everyones pleasure. Only one of many such incidents. As a sailor, i've witnessed some wild parties but never anything like these. But I guess that's what you get when you spend hundreds of millions for a party. Unfortunately a larger part of that funding comes from tax payer dollars!!! Oh well, it's only money. There's more where that came from. No sarcasm here, eh! Must be the weather. Hopefully 2009 will be better than 2008 and our economy will turn around again. There's just too many people out here in the hurts with no way out.

New Year

Well - it's a whole new year - 2009. Happy New year to ya'll. Hope this year is even better than last. Of course with the exalted Obama in office - what could possibly go wrong :] Our weather has really been wet for the past couple of weeks. Although we need the rain it sure does put a damper on activities. I've been trying to replace the steering gear on my 89 Bronco for about 2 weeks but the weather isn't cooperating. I did manage to get it started and with better weather will have it on the road soon. I took a couple of pictures off our back porch this am. The fog is soooo thick you can almost cut it with a knife. Sure can't see far on these mountain roads. Talked to a friend of mine, who is in Florida, and he says they're still in a drought. Have been for a couple of years. Its dry and humid as usual so I guess I shouldn't complain. We have work scheduled if the weather lets up. Ken has a job closing in a small barn we built and about 600' of fencing. That'll be good for about 2-3 days. Time drags by when you're cooped up with nothing to do. Reminds me of my submarine days when we were on our way home and had channel fever. There's nothing to do so you sleep a lot but you can only sleep so much then you really get bored. Fortunately it only lasted about a week or so. Gotta go to the big town (Jamestown) today to stock up on supplies.

Winter Time

We had our second snow of the winter, only about an inch or so but with the wind blowing so hard it almost started drifting. Even though it was well below freezing, I decided to take a hike around the mountain to look for arrow heads. Had to take a picture of the water falls below the house that had frozen over and our house, as you see it from the road above. Sure was a pretty morning but burrrr! Well Christmas is over and we're almost into another new year. 2008 went by so fast it seems like a blur. I guess the older we get the faster time seems to go by. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with 11 people staying in this little house. It was fun. Our daughter, Kristy, and her three kids, my two sisters, Diane and PJ from Illinois and Diane's son, Robert from Calif. Robert flew into Nashville and had a friend drive him up to our house to surprise his Mom for Thanksgiving. It was a great time and haven't had that much fun in a long time. Took Kristy and our two oldest grand daughters on a walk around the mountain. They seemed to really enjoy the walk, fresh air, and scenery. We climbed across the face of several cliffs which was exhilirating for this old man. We all had a good time. Cathy and I spent Christmas by ourselves, which we seem to be doing more and more of late. Guess we're just too far away from our kids who are all in Florida. Kristy didn't want to drive the 12 hours again with her three alone. I know it had to be tough for her to drive on Thanksgiving up here and back but we sure did enjoy having them. I told her not to bother bringing the baby (Lilly) any shoes because her feet would never touch the ground while she was here. Cathy insisted that I finally finish staining the old rocking chair before they got here so she could rock Lilly and put her to sleep. She had a grand time with her Grandma. Well, gotta grab some breakfast and do some puttering around.

Fall Continues

The colors continue to get better as the colder weather sets in. It's been down in the low 30's during the mornings lately. We gots lots of young calves running around, which is another fall indicator. They're big enough now to survive the winter, having survived the local bears and coyote packs. I was sitting in the field and these guys just couldn't control their curiosity and came within a few feet of me and the camera. I took the pic of our house from the same field on a hillside about an 1/8th of a mile away, cross country. It's about a 2 mile hike around the hills to get to that view.

COLD COLD COLD!

Well I think winter is almost here. It barely made it to 40 degrees today and the low tonight is to be 20 degrees. The leaves on the trees are still changing colors and some are already dropping leaves. The fall is not as pretty as it was last year and the changing colors is later this year. Chuck worked outdoors on Monday and said at one point it was spitting snow! I was in the house all day doing medical transcription and didn't notice if we got snow flurries or not. I only went out in 3 times, twice to feed the horse and once to check the mail. Decided it was nicer inside. Later in the week we are to get 68-70 degree highs daytime but still 30-40's at night. So its time to get out the winter clothing and jackets!

Fall Indicators

Besides the weather change, you can always tell when fall has arrived by the tobacco harvest in our area. The leaves turn a yellow color and begin to wilt. The farmers harvest the leaves and hang them out to dry, some on covered tobacco racks and others in tobacco barns. The fall colors haven't been all that great this year, partly due to the dry weather we've had over the past few months. The leaves are drying up and falling off before they change color so it isn't as pretty as we're used to seeing. Still, fall is definately here. Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner and Christmas isn't too far off either. Election Day is quickly closing on us and God only knows what's gonna happen with this election. We're both doing well and have faired another year inspite of the economic trouble. Hopefully next year will be better.

FALL IS IN THE AIR AGAIN

I haven't had much time to write lately and nothing to write about. I have been keeping busy with the medical transcription and will probably get even busy when my sister-in-law takes on another client. I am still enjoying the working at home and not having to spend money on gas. Chuck started back working last week on another barn and I think that they have one to do after that. I hope before the weather gets cold. So far its been beautiful and nice not to have any humidity. Its been in the high 70s daytime and 50's at night but it will be in the 40's at night later on this week. The high on Wednesday is only suppose to be 69 with a low of 49 at night. The leaves on the trees are starting to change a little bit. Its hard to believe that Oct starts next week. This year has gone very fast for me.

Son Stephen was planning a trip up from FL in Oct. now it may not be until Nov. I do hope he makes it. We plan to drive down to FL the day after Christmas and pick up Kristy and the girls and bring them back here for a visit until the kids have to return to school. I know if Kristy sees this area she may want to move to TN. One can always hope.

We are enjoying eating all the peaches we froze they are just as good as when we froze them. Next year we plan to have a much larger garden and freeze veggies for the winter. Our neighbor planted his winter crops of greens and maybe we will be lucky to get some of them. He has given us some excess stuff from his sisters garden she lives just down the road from here. I still have tomatoes, green peppers and eggplant in my garden. Froze a bunch of tomaotoes to use in soups, chilli and spagetti sauce for the winter.

Thanksgiving will soon be upon us. Both sister-in-laws will be coming for Thanksgiving and Diane's son Robert may fly in from CA. Diane finally got a larger car so it will be a much more comfortable drive for them to come here. It will be great to cook for more than two people to. I heard on the news that hams will be going up in price so I think I will get one ahead of time for New Years day.

Well thats it for now. Not a lot happening in the mountains of Tennessee.