He's Back

The little feller didn't stay gone long. He seems to be bonded to people, and didn't care for a kitty foster mom. This seems a bit strange, but I guess we'll have to live with it for now. There's still not much to him. The only way the neighbors could make him happy was to carry him around in a pocket. I don't guess it took a large pocket.
There is a certain amount of irony here. His momma is the Wild One, Angora, (The Wild One, December 03, 2006, Label-Cats), the cat that hates and fears people. Puddin' thinks he is a people.

More from the Top

Even though I couldn't get to the Tippy-Top, there was still a bit of a view. Kinda trippy how as the mountains fade into the distance, they just seem to blend into the sky. I like the mountains. But the trees are dying. They say it is acid rain. The little sign up there claims the rain is as stout as vinegar up there. I like vinegar on my collards, but it seems the trees don't. and there are dead trees all over up there, as can be seem.

I of course rode up on the Parkway. You have to ride the Parkway to get to Mt. Mitchell.
The Parkway is a pleasant ride. You see a lot of Bikes there when the weather is good, shoot, even when the weather is not so good. I've been caught in the rain up there many a time. I used to visit Boone NC from time to time and usually got rained on at least once. But no rain on this trip. One thing about the Parkway though, the speed limit is only 45. So if you want an exciting ride, flirting with death, you'll have to go some where else. There are other places.
This is one of the tunnels. I tried to take a picture riding though, but with the poor light, shaky camera, and me trying not to get hurt, it didn't come out too good.

Oh, and, Puddin' had to come back home.

In the Woods

Since the young'uns were in school, My Sweetie and I decided to take advantage of the situation and have a little picnic. This is along the trail to our little hideaway up in the country. I had to slip past a fallen tree on the way in, but the little truck did just fine. This place is not really in the wilderness or anything, but is surprisingly secluded. I guess it is all the trees and stuff. There are a couple small creeks to cross, so you have to walk in. That also helps keep it private. Here, the trail crosses this little trickle on an old salvaged bridge timber. We opened some wine, did a bit of sketching, and just enjoyed the peace and quiet.


A puddin' update. We seem to have made a swap here. Some neighbors have a momma cat that is crazy about nursing kittens, any kittens. And so.....The Puddin' Cat has gone for a visit. But we didn't get off too easy here, these other two were left in his place. I'm not sure if he'll be back in a few weeks or not, but for now, we got two for one.

Up to Mt. Michell

It had been a while, so Saturday I got the Cycle out and took a ride up to the mountains. The weather was pretty good and I wasn't the only one with this idea. I rode up to Mt. Mitchell. As you can see there were plenty of other Bikes up there. There were even more at the restaurant, but I didn't stop there. If you look closely, you can see a dude on a bicycle there in back. There were a lot of them out as well. There seems to be some kind of challenge to riding up to the highest point east of the Rockies for some folks. I appreciate the motor at times like that.
When we were at Grandfather Mt. they made the claim that it was the "Highest Mt. in the Blue Ridge". This confused me a bit. I wasn't sure who's propaganda to believe. Now I realize that Mitchell is actually in the Black Mts, which are a sort of branch off of the Blue Ridge. Mt. Mitchell- 6,684 feet, Grandfather Mt.- a mere 5,964 ft. Any way, after I got there, I went to find the short trail to the top, but all I found was this sign. It seems there are big things afoot on the mountaintop. There was even an artist's rendition of the new Observation Tower. Life's like that sometimes.
Fortunately, the restrooms were open.

Stopping to Smell the Roses

Years ago, as I walked along the edge of a wood near here, I came upon this wonderful plant. Well, not exactly this one, yet certainly it's ancestor. It looked like a rose out here in the wild. Now I'm not a rose fanatic, or anything like that, but this one intrigued me, so I dug it up, and took it home. Well, from that one tiny rose grew many more. In fact they grew so thick that we were forced at one point, to thin them.

It has this beautiful, simple blossom, and blooms and blooms and blooms. But besides all that, it has the sweetest fragrance of any rose I've seen (or smelled).
I'm often disappointed when I "Stop to Smell the Roses", and there is nothing to smell. But these do not disappoint, and they line our much traveled path to our great enjoyment.

Puddin' Stuff

Just a quick update on this Puddin'. Seems to be growing, good appetite, and is still orange. His eyes are open. Just tonight he was set by this tiny bowl of his Special Milk Stuff, stuck his head in, and actually drank some. I think his foster mamma would like to see him weaned, but we still have a ways to go with that.

The Poetry Corner

My Fairy

I have a fairy by my side
Which says I must not sleep,
When once in pain I loudly cried
It said "You must not weep."

If full of mirth, I smile and grin,
It says "You must not laugh;"
When once I wished to drink some gin
It said "You must not quaff."

When once a meal I wished to taste
It said "You must not bite;"
When to the wars I went in haste
It said "You must not fight".

"What may I do?" at length I cried,
Tired of the painful task.
The fairy quietly replied,
And said "You must not ask."


Lewis Carroll -
(From Useful and Instructive Poetry, 1845)

Weekend Fun

It was the Oil Change weekend, and way overdue. I'm bad for putting these things off. I'm bad for putting them off too long. So Rather than being racked by guilt for another week, it was off to the Auto Parts Place. Not only for Truck Oil, but Motor cycle Oil as well. First I took care of the Bike. That wasn't bad, although I did make a mess. After that it was time to move on to the Truck.
Normally, this would simply be a matter of removing the drainplug, (over an appropriate container of course) and changing the easily reached filter. But I had always wanted a 4X4, and this is it. You might notice those steel plates laying there under all the tools. Those are there to protect the oilpan and stuff like that in the unlikely event that this truck gets slammed onto a big rock. They also protect the oil drainplug from being removed. So it was back to the house for more tools. As things progressed, I also discovered that the filter that had been given to me was actually for someone else's truck. So it was back to the Auto Parts Place again.
But now everything is back together and Truck and Motorcycle both have brand new, clean oil.

The Apple Post

Well It seems we can post pictures again, I'm not real sure, since we can't preview them. I suppose if it posts, we can see them then. So here are those tiny little apples I was mentioning the other day. We have two trees, but all I can find are these few, on this one branch, of this one tree. Of the two trees, this one is a sort of wild one, or at least, the least tasty. The other is a Winesap type, which makes yummy pies. But alas, that one seems to have no survivors. These apples are also on a branch that is hanging low across a path which gets constant use due to our particular facilities here. So really, I don't think we can count on much here.
For the curious, I am still employed. The morning after my Exciting Episode, some unfortunate flipped this Transfer Truck right up the street from the garage. This kept the Street Dpt. busy and diverted most of the attention from my own fiasco. All that came of it was a "Be Careful" meeting.
Puddin' is doing fine.

Technical Difficulties

Ah, yes. I wanted to tell you about the few little apples that had survived the terrible freeze, and I even had pictures to prove it. It was to be an "Apple Post". But it seems that Blogger has issues with apples, specifically, Macintosh Apples. I didn't expect Blogger to be prejudiced against minorities, but now I see how it is. At first I thought, perhaps, I had personally done something to offend them. But after some investigation, it seems that the Mac Minority is suffering discrimination in these posting issues. Maybe soon, they will be stricken by conscience, and let us once more, post our humble pictures into Cyberspace.

Bad Day at the Office

Bad day at the office. Here is the office. See The Fuzz in the office. This is not his usual office. This is known as a "Leafer". A leafer is a big vacuum cleaner on wheels. The Fuzz is a Garbageman. But today he is a Leaferman. Leafers suck. They suck up leaves and grass and even small animals if they are too slow. The Fuzz once sucked up a cement block. Fortunately it didn't make it into the impeller, but it was hard to get out of the sucking up hose. Today did not go well. The Fuzz was called on the radio and told there was a problem. It seems the Dumper Door was partially unlatched. This means that as fast as he sucked up stuff it was blowing out of the back of the truck. Bummer. The Fuzz backtracked and sucked up all the leaves off the street.
But that was not the Bad Day at the Office.
When the Fuzz went to dump the leaves out of the leafer, the dumper would not go back down. Fuzz tried many things. It was quitting time, but the leafer did not want to quit. Finally the fuzz was enlightened to this particular machine's idiosyncrasies, and the dumper came down.
But that was not the Bad Day at the Office.
As the now hurrying Fuzz drove though the gate, the sucking hose caught the gate itself and destroyed it.
Tomarrow, the Fuzz will go to work and see if he still has a job. Perhaps they will give him a drug test. This would be no problem, as long as he drinks a lot of water. The Fuzz is very sad about this. It was not a good day.

Puddin'

Here's our little friend. Still won't open his eyes. I guess he don't want to look at us. He did start to purr, supposedly, they do this at around 6 days. He's also starting to take more of an interest in his grub. This is a blend of Milk, Egg Yoke, and Corn Syrup.
After a good meal, he enjoys a little grooming. He will probably be spoiled directly. He may as well enjoy it while he can. His name is now Puddin'.

Don't really know if he has any surviving siblings. If so mamma moved them. She's still around though. He'll have to get tough. Every night one of the neighbors comes and beats up his uncle.

Kittens

Regular Readers, (I think there's a couple of you) may remember The Wild One, Angora. [ The Wild One, December 03, 2006 ] Well she is all grown up now, but as wild as ever. It also seems that she has the loose morals of most of her sister felines, with the typical result. She also has shown poor judgment in her choice of a home, namely under the eaves of the west wing, also know as "The Condition". (This is another story) These two unfortunates, fell out and were rescued. She seemed to make no effort to do this herself, which throws some question on the quality of her maternal instinct.
They are quite young, eyes are still shut. Unfortunately the grey one didn't make it, but the orange one is still going strong.

The Poetry Corner

To a Rose.

Don't forget to brush your teeth,
Before you go to bed,
Or all your teeth will rot,
And you won't have one in your head.

Roofin' III

As we left these Remarkable Roofers the last time, they were headed from the rain to the house. Here, a delicious snack of Chips and Cheese Dip was prepared. It may be noticed that this was fortified with the necessary hot stuff. On the left is some wimpy stuff, the Tabasco is in the middle, and one the right, you may recognize "Da Bomb". [ See- It's Da' Bomb, Thursday, April 26, 2007. ] I think maybe there were some skeptics about Da Bomb, but they too, became believers. The next morning, after some coffee and a breakfast that couldn't be beat, it was time to once again, take up the task at hand. Here are some of our crew hard at work. And the work was progressing so well, some of the neighbors tried to hire us to do their roof. By now the rain was gone, the sun was out, and conditions were excellent. By mid afternoon, it was all finished except for the cleanup. So after a cold one, it was time to go home.
Here is the new roof.

Roofin' Again

My Sweetie sometimes participates in a "Weekend Drawing Event". This past week we participated in a "Weekend Shingle Event". Son's roof was pretty rough, so the family gathered for some Home Improvements. First, of course, the old stuff has to come off. That is a lot of work. Here you can see the old shingles coming off. You can't see the moss growing on them, so you'll just have to take my word for that.

After all the nails and crap are gone, it's time for the tar paper. This was important since the rain was getting ready to pounce on this poor naked roof. That would not have been good for all the valuable possessions inside this place. But with many workers, the tar paper was being applied even as the stripping progressed.
Naturally all that heavy stuff had to be somehow gotten up there where it could be utilized. We were fortunate to have the services of this heathy looking fellow. See how easy he makes it look. He was also the brains of the operation, so many thanks, you know who you are.

As the rain began, the ladies decided it was time to retire to the house and do what ever the ladies do. Before I get in trouble here, let me point out that the ladies had already nailed down a good number of shingles before this happened.
Here you can see Younger Son making critical measurements in the rain.
The macho guys stayed on the job and finished the tar paper and a few courses of shingles as the sun slipped below the horizon. It couldn't actually be seen slipping away in the rain, but I believe it did, since it was getting dark at this point.
And so this is how it stood at the end of the first day. We all went into the house to dry off and eat burgers, tater salad, and lots of other good stuff.

Roofing

Just came home from a family roofing event. I am also a little bit tired and sore. So.... I'll go into more detail on this next time. But as can be seen, this was a necessary job. When things like this come up, it's good to get all the help one can get, so our son set up a Shingle Shindig, complete with food and beer. Maybe it's not good to drink beer on a roof, but no one fell off, so maybe it's OK after all. We all worked hard, except the dog, and there's another job well done.

At the Court Square

Every town needs a Court Square, this is ours. They just celebrated 100 years with this courthouse. But it's not really the courthouse any more. They built a new one. The new one has a sheriff's office, jail and everything right there in one building. It's very convenient if you get arrested. This is the old one. They made a museum out of it which was probably a good idea, but they had to close it. Someone embezzled a bunch of the money. But it still looks cool. But what really makes this Court Square great is the Confederate Soldier. Check it out. Isn't this great ? I bet every town wishes it had one of these. Well, maybe not yankee towns. They'd have to get something else.



Here is a closer look at this Noble Warrior. I suppose, there are some who would take offense at this, but why ? These guys were just trying to defend their homes and all. And really, they did a pretty good job. Just

not good enough.




Well, I just wanted to show y'all this. That is pretty much in the past now, but it would be wrong to forget.

Frozen

Again I refer to a previous post, Home At Last, April 22. This is not a pictorial memory of last autumn, but in fact, April, 2007. Only a few weeks ago, these were tender young leaves welcoming Springtime to our land. But despite this "Global Warming", a mini ice-age brought destruction. When we returned from the Tropical Paradise, the first thing we had to do was light a fire in the heater.
I have never seen it like this before. Sure, we have late frosts that kill the plums or peaches, but this was on a whole new scale. Entire trees were frostbit. There were dead, brown leaves on the ground. I was beginning to wonder what would happen with all this new growth wiped out. But there is yet hope. This is a tiny bud, on the Fig bush. All is not lost after all. The trees are beginning to recover too. Perhaps Summer may come after all.