Last Day

Yes, it is the last day of 2010.
But life goes on. And in our case, that means we need Firewood. One of the neighbors had asked The Fuzz if he wanted to cut up some trees he had down due to some previous windy conditions. The Fuzz knew we could use the wood so he took him up on the offer. But before going over there, it seemed like a good idea to touch up his chain. He had invested in this cool little gadget to convert that always useful "Dremel Tool" into a Chainsaw Sharpening Device. Here is a closeup look at this amazing device!
And now, Here is one of The Fuzz's exciting Techno-Tips! Note, at the arrow, how that ingenious fellow has applied a small amount of Nail Polish to a particular link of this deadly Saw Chain. Those familiar with these dangerous pieces of equipment, will realize that the chain is a continuous loop. The Fuzz has developed this technique, to prevent him from spending the entire day sharpening, and resharpening the cutting chain of this confusing machine.We are pleased to report, that he was successful in this endeavor, and here is a look at some of the results.

Glacier Again

This keeps amazing The Old Fuzz.
Shortly after we moved out here in the woods, we got together a Roofing Party.
The Fuzz is partial to tin roofs for a number of reasons that we won't get into at this time. But, one feature of this tin roof is our own, "Personal Mini Glacier".
Note, in this first pix, how the snow and ice buildup has slowly made its way out, and over the edge of the roof. In this next pix, you can see, at the arrow, a strange little icicle, sticking out at an odd angle. This little fellow was at one time hanging down like any other respectable icicle. But as the Mini Glacier slowly move on, said icicle, found itself a bit disoriented, as can be seen.
And in this last shot, you will notice*, at the arrow, The exposed roof, that has been deprived of its icy coating.
Well, the main roads are pretty much clear now. There has been a bit of wind though, and drifting snow, which is unusual for this area. But, the sun is out, and it is expected to reach the high of 33°. But then back to 17° tonight.


*As always, you can Click on the Pix for a closer look!

I'm dreaming of a white Boxing Day.

We went off to visit family in that City, The Home of a Famous University, for Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve there. We were running just a bit late and barely had time for a quick bowl of soup before heading off to a Christmas Eve Mass at a Huge Local Church.
Then, it was back to the apartment for wine, snacks and finally, Eggnog and Cookies.
It seems that The Fuzz and His Sweetie had forgotten to bring the Lebkuchen. This was realized upon our arrival. However, since a return for these tasty treats would have involved a drive of many hours, it was decided that we would somehow manage without. After all, the friend soon to arrive was also bringing cookies! But it was discovered that he, also, had had this particular form of memory loss. However, We are happy to report, that at that critical time, there were plenty of those delicious treats, to compliment the eggnog.
Somehow, in the course of the evening, the contents of a bottle of Southern Comfort and some Bourbon seemed to have disappeared.

Christmas day, we were joined by more family to open Christmas Presents and enjoy a delicious Ravioli Dinner. This was followed by the traditional game of Pictionary, in which the Girls slaughtered the Boys. (It was those cursed "All Plays" that did them in!)

Finally, it was time to leave, and we packed up the motor vehicles for the return trip. The weather forecast was not encouraging, calling for a bit of snow.
All you Yankees have to realize, that this is North Carolina. We like snow. To look at, or make Snow Cream with. But driving is not so high on our "Want to Do" List. Suffice it to say, that The Fuzz and His, made it home just in time.
Here's a look out of the kitchen window, this morning!

Merry Christmas

A Sumo Christmas

Not Yet

Still workin' it out

38 Years

38 Years TogetherAnd sill in love.

Exciting New Battery

Well, the weather hasn't been real pleasant lately. But today promises to be a bit of an improvement.

With the Academical Son home for the holidays, it was time to attempt the resurrection of a certain motor vehicle. After such a period of inactivity, the battery seemed to lack that certain "spark". The Fuzz's Sweetie and said Son were able to fire things up by the use of common jumper cables. Unfortunately, their success was short lived. This brought The Fuzz, himself, into the picture.
In an attempt to avoid the expense of a pricey new battery, it seemed reasonable to give this one one last chance. And so it spent the night in this intimate relationship with The Fuzz's Diehard Battery Charger. Alas, this did not produce the desired result.
But after a trip to the local Auto Parts Place, this motor vehicle is now fully functional.
There remain a few complications, involving a Tag. Big Brother insists that there must be an inspection first. This will have to wait until Monday at least.Still no tag, but at least it made it out here to the woods.

Sam

Dog Days

Not your usual "Dog Days"

Not those summer ones at least.
These are those Winter Dog Days.
This is where they like to hang out these days.
Actually, this is where we all like to hang out thee days.
We're moving swiftly into the Christmas season here.
We have a Christmas Tree,
But it is still waiting for it's brief moment of glory.
It will come soon enough.

12/7/41

We don't want to forget.

And there are still enemies.

Cookies & Movies

With the Holidays approaching, it is time for...Cookies!

Here we have The Fuzz's Sweetie adding that decorative touch to this batch of Liebkuken.
With the Young Daughter off for an overnight visit, The Fuzz and His Sweetie were left to fend for themselves. They were hoping for a Netflix movie, but that didn't seem to work out.
But there were still COOKIES!
This is a "Before" pix. But I'm afraid the cool little design is a bit harder to see after the baking.
With Netflix not coming though for us, The Fuzz and His Sweetie were forced to fall back on their extensive video library for Lawrence of Arabia. And of course, we can't forget about those yummy COOKIES!

Hint

What's to come.

Weekend Stuff

It's been a quiet weekend around here.
Unless you count the sound of The Fuzz's little chainsaw.
With the weather turning colder these days, it was time to work up a bit of firewood.
He had already scouted out a few dead trees back before the leaves fell, and had marked them with a nice bright X. Now it was time to bring out that little green chainsaw. First he filled it with gas and oil. Then it was time to begin the "Pull-on". Surprisingly, things went well and he soon had several dead trees on the ground. Finally, it was time for a break by the fire and a cold Blue Ribbon.
After that, The Fuzz and His Sweetie planted some Prickly Pears out by the road, then stacked some of the wood.
For some reason, The Fuzz had gotten an urge to watch Brazil again.
So we put it on our Netflix que. It is a bit strange.

Soaking It Up

Here they are.

Soaking it up.
There's something about this kind of weather that makes the pooches appreciate that little wood heater.
Did you miss that little bitch, up under there?

Thanksgiving Morning

And just a wee bit damp.

Danger!

Danger!
Check it it out for your own safety.

"An estimated 2,000 fires occur each on Thanksgiving in the United States, resulting in an average of five deaths, 25 injuries and $21 million in property loss each year, said the agency, an entity of the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency."

And...

"...Keep an all-purpose fire extinguisher nearby..."

Hanging In There

The Last One

Well, maybe not the absolutely last one,
But it's getting close.
Hard to believe Thanksgiving is almost here.
I wonder how long 'till snow.

An Autumn Day

We went over to that Mechanically Minded Daughter's place to watch her mechaniking again. Whilst we were there, The Fuzz's Sweetie decided to get a few of the leaves up. It was a good day for it, weather wise.
It turned out that due to an apparent unavailability of parts, this mechaniking ended up involving a bit of "Rigging". It is hoped that this is only a temporary situation.
After the work, we all slipped inside for a flick, that perennial favorite, "Sense and Sensibility".

Renaissance Festival 2010.4

And who could pass on a chance to see that Master of Mayhem, Gypsy Geoff.
He was going to great lengths to stay warm in the cold.

He even got out of this mess!
That Gypsy Geoff is a slick one.

We did wimp out and leave a little early. After we got though the nasty traffic, we took the back roads home, stopping along the way for a bite of super.

And so ended our annual Renaissance Festival trip.

Renaissance Festival 2010.3

Here's more pix from our trip to the Renaissance Festival.
These are the Infamous Hey Nunnie Nunnie Ladies. The Fuzz's Sweetie and that (inappropriately attired) Young Daughter, really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, The Fuzz, himself is somewhat hard of hearing, and missed a lot of it. But he said he'd take their word for it, and he did get the pix.
Here's a look at Sarah Marie Mullen playing on her harp with freezing finger tips. We had just purchased some Very Expensive Toffee when we heard her, and stayed to listen for a bit. When we liked what we heard, she stopped a bit to warm her frozen fingers and tell us about her music. We're suckers for this sort of thing and took home a CD.

Renaissance Festival 2010.2

During our excursion to the Renaissance Festival 2010, we stopped in at the Rock Place to ad mire the rocks. They have fossils and a bunch of other cool stuff.This looks a lot like some kind of weird surrealistic landscape. But it was just one of the cool rocks there. The Fuzz couldn't afford to by it (nothing there is cheap!) but, he did manage o get a couple pix for you.And we'll have even more exciting pix soon. If we can get that Fuzz off his lazy butt.

Renaissance Festival 2010.1

We went over to the Renaissance Festival over the weekend. To the right is the Bell Guy of Cast In Bronze fame. He can get a bit dramatic at times.
We try to get over there once each year for fun and just to hang out with "normal" people.
It was a bit on the cool side, shoot, it was downright COLD.
Things started a bit slow, but they did pick up after a while.
It looked like some of the clothing vendors were wearing half their inventory, just to stay warm.
This Umbrella Lady was pretty wrapped up herself.
The Fuzz and His Sweetie always dress appropriately for this event. But this Year that Young Daughter decided 21st century garb was more her style. Too bad for her.
By lunch time there were plenty of people there.
This was when we slipped off into the woods for our little picnic.
Well, that's all for now. Keep watching for more exciting pix from Renaissance Festival 2010!

Kovering the Kitties

When we were trying to move out here, the county man told The Fuzz he would have to provide 2 points of "egress" before he (county guy) would sign off on things. So The Fuzz threw together this little porch.
That was OK at the time. But we needed a little covering over it now that the Kitties were living out there.
We still had a bit of salvaged tin left over from a similar project on the other "point of egress". So The Fuzz went to work on a plan.
He was going for a sort of minimalist approach this time, with no fancy carpentry involved.
He decided that it would be easier to build this thing on the ground (actually the floor of the future shed) and then, lift it into position. But there were a variety of complications of course. Due to the unavailability of the planned materials, he was forced to redesign. This necessitated a bit more "joinery" as can be seen here.
Finally, the thing was assembled. Now it was time for the, hopefully, simple installation. Here's a look at the plan. The ladder would be used to slide the roof up to the top of the porch (A) where it would swing down into position and be securely attached to the trailer (B). Then, the outer edge would be secured to the vertical supports, already there.
Unfortunately, this was one of those situations where things are not so simple as one might hope. The ladder shifted, the roof was too heavy and it hung up at the top. It took The Fuzz, His Sweetie and Young Daughter at least an hour to wrestle that thing into position. But in the end, I am happy to report, that they did finally get that thing up there.And here's a night pix. I just like these things.

Sucked In

The Fuzz had plans for an exciting post of something or other. But he got sucked into watching The Yellow Submarine instead.It's hard to believe he could have sunk to this level.
He realizes there's no substitute for a good post, but for now, we'll just have to settle for this.

Coffee Night

Here's a pix of Coffee Night out here in the woods.

Sometimes we go into town, but we often just stay home and make our own.