Spring has Sprung

I haven't posted in awhile been busy with company March and April. In March or son visited from Fl. We hadn't seen him since we moved from FL in Jan. 2007. He is pretty busy managing a busy Hooters in Port Richey, FL but had 2 weeks of vacation to use or lose so visited us for a week. He flew into Nashville, Tn on March 31st. We had to travel 2 hours to pick him up. Stephen liked where we lived here in the mountains, but wouldn't want to live here himself, to remote. He did say it would make an excellent vacation home. He did get some rest while here and we all went out to dinner on my birthday to my favorite place, Red Lobster! The visit ended to quickly. He said that he would be back again and bring his finacee next time.

Chucks 2 sisters from IL were here for Easter. They arrived on Thurs nite and left to go home on the 13th. Diane of course had to work while here she brought her lap top and her fax machine with her. I managed to get my work done as well. She has her own business and if she doesn't work, she don't get paid! Thats her only source of income. Diane's son was visiting from CA he was buying a car in the St. Louis, MO area and came along with them. We had a big dinner on Easter Sunday and not alot of leftovers either. We all do like to eat.

The weather here has been rainy on and off we did have one sunny rainless day while they were all here. Its still kinda cool and the heat still comes on at night. Its cool so far today and probably more of the same tomorrow then it warms up into the low 70's. Its been so rainy we haven't had a chance to put in our garden yet. Got a few plants already. I will have my herb garden as well. We plan to plant potatoes, onions, cabbage, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, okra, egg plant, lettece and beets. A little of every thing. Alot of people around here do gardens and they also put up stuff in the freezer or canning.

Well its time to make that trip to town. Diane gave us a lap top computer so I need to take it in and see why it won't power up.

Spring Time

Well now! Spring appears to have sprung here on the mountain. Weather is warmer but ya never really know for sure. Just two days ago we had ice on everything above ground. Some of the trees were down on the road and we had to cut our way down off the mountain to get to Jamestown. Spring also revives Cathy's Honey Do list. I finally finished her back splash for the kitchen. We used a beadboard panel and moldings and glued them to the wall. Lots of cutting around switch plates and the window but its done. Joe came down and gave me an arrowhead he'd found in his garden plot. He recently plowed a plot for himself and also plowed a 15' x 50' plot in my back yard for Cathy's garden. Anyway- he invited me to search his garden for arrowheads. I spent about 2 hours scouring his plot but didn't find much. After I had been searching for a bit, Joe drove down and handed me a baggie full of arrowheads he'd had in the basement for awhile. He wanted to get rid of them and figured I'd want them. He figured right. I try hard to classify these things but man there's just soooooo many different styles and types that it's really difficult. When I first started I thought that I'd be dealing with mostly Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky types. But the early indians did a lot of traveling and swapping so it's not really unusual to find arrowheads from Maine or Illinois and maybe even Texas. It's an extremely interesting hobby that provides you with an education in Archaic and Paleo history.

'nother winter day

Well - got up this AM to another inch and a half of snow on the ground. Ain't too cold tho only about 32 out. Saw about 5 or 6 deer browsing in the pasture the other day but by the time I got my camera they were skeddadling across the fence and into the woods. The neighbor and I have seen this group traveling around the mountain in recent weeks. Joe was telling me about an Elk that he saw along the road further down the mountain about 2 weeks ago. Didn't know what it was at first so he slowed down and stopped to watch it. The Elk didn't seem to mind the audience either. When Joe looked back there were other cars parked behind him watching also. This is the first sighting of an Elk in this part of the country that I Know of. We also have a big gaggle of turkeys that range over this part of the mountain. The last count I had was about 40-45 of them when they went trooping along my back fence line. Most were Young'ns with older hens leading and trailing the pack. Interesting stuff that I get to see off my back porch. Think maybe I should be hibernating in this weather but got work to do. Finished putting up rain gutter to keep Jim's stall from flooding and finally found a saw mill that had saw dust to sell. Baldwin's over south of Jamestown had a little accumulated that they sold me. With the economic low we're having, requests for lumber are well below last year. Ah - But not to fear - Obama's gonna fix everything with our tax dollars. Just keep paying IRS because if'n ya don't, ya just might wind up as an appointee on Obama's cabinet - Heh! Heh! Heh!

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.