Camping Revisited.

After all the excitement of the Film Festival, The Fuzz thought it might be nice to take the bike up to the mountains for a few hours.  But more rain put a damper on that.  So instead, in the desperate search for blog material,  he would revisit the recent Camping Trip.

And since Kinda Fuzzy is supposed to be about the "little things of daily life," we'll look at something little.

In this case, moss!

Whilst Our Fuzz was up at Set Rock Creek, he noticed this bit of moss growing in it's own Natural Planter.  Not being one to miss a pix*, he got a couple to share.

It was just one of those little things that are so cool when you stumble upon them.

The Fuzz is improving slowly since his trip down the stairs.  For a while he kept making "bad moves" and re-injuring the arm and shoulder.  It is still rather sore at times, but he is starting to be able to raise it over his head now.  This is good since there are a few projects waiting for him.  But it looks like he'll still have to take it a bit easy for a few more days.

But we stay busy.  It kinda makes one wonder what one did before retirement.

*Aren't digital cameras great?  Back in the days, The Fuzz could never afford the film to take all these pix!

14th Annual

Yes, it was once again time for that famous-

Yes,

The 14th Annual Real to Reel International Film Festival!

This is an annual event for The Fuzz and His Sweetie.  Where else can those of us that live out here in the woods have such a great opportunity to see all these great flicks?

This is put on every year by the local Arts Council.

You can see the line up here.

And here's only a few of the celebrities in attendance.

Don't forget about the exciting drawing for  fabulous Door Prizes

Like this nifty "back pack" won by Our Fuzz himself!

His Sweetie also won big time, scoring a cool teeshirt!

The Fuzz, His Sweetie, and the Not So Young Daughter & Friend didn't miss a night of this exciting event.

In truth, it was a good one this year.

The Dangers of Fire

Only having brought a limited supply of firewood on the trailer, the campers were on the lookout for anything suitable to augment their supply, especially with the wet weather.  Under these conditions it's best to keep the fire going it possible.

The Fuzz's Sweetie had found this nice chunk of wood nearby and brought it back with her.  Being too long for the fire ring, and not feeling like sawing though the thing, she decided to let the fire itself do the job.

Just before The Fuzz hit the sack, he was able to break it in half.  Then He planned to take the hot water and clean up the supper dishes.  The pot was now sitting over the place where the log had burned in two.  But when The Fuzz lifted the pot...

With the weight of the large pot of water gone, both ends of the log fell to the ground propelling  the burning ends into arcs of flame in the gathering darkness.  And one of those arcs, landed squarely on Our Poor Fuzz's foot.  Nature boy that he is, he was only wearing sandals at the time.  A few bad words were said at this point.

We are happy to report that some fancy footwork, and a step into a conveniently close by creek minimized the trauma.

After washing up, The Fuzz laid the pieces next to each other over the coals in the hope that they might be able to protect the fire though the rainy night.  And it did rain.  But they all stayed quite comfy in the big ass tent.

In the morning, The Fuzz got up to assess the situation and if possible, make a pot of coffee.  When he looked under the pieces of log, there actually was a dry area and a few (very few) coals!

He found a bunch of dry hemlock twigs, and managed to breath some life into them.

And so there was morning coffee.

Morning Shot

Looking out over the meadow in the morning mist at Black Mt. Campground.

Set Rock Creek

While camping at Black Mt. camp, The Fuzz took a easy walk up to the falls on Set Rock Creek.

It's not like Niagara or anything, but kinda pretty.
Since he had the place to himself, he hung out for a while by the pool at the bottom.  It's not really deep enough for a dip, so The Fuzz had to forgo that pleasure.

But he did notice this little cleft beneath the rocks.

He thought it deserved a closer look.  

Stones

And moss

And water drops

The kind of place

Where time

Just stops

It's nice to take the time to enjoy the little things. 

Mountain Camping

With all this nice (if wet) summer weather, and no school, The Fuzz and His Sweetie decided to take advantage of the situation and head off for a short camping trip in the mountains.  So they took that Not So Young Daughter and friend and loaded up the trailer, and headed up the winding road to the Black Mt. Campground.  This is a really nice place located on the Toe River at the foot of Mt. Mitchell.  Since they have retired, these trips are no longer limited to weekends, when the campgrounds tend to be a bit more crowded.
Of course, there was a good chance of rain (a definite trend these days) but it usually rains in the mountains anyway.  And, The Fuzz has this nice big new tent!  So let it rain!

Camp at Black Mt.

Here's a look at the campsite...

View from Camp

And surrounding area.

View from Camp

One of the Happy Campers is bringing in a few sticks of wood for the fire.

The South Toe RIver

The Fuzz took this shot of the river while he was out for a morning walk.
Surprisingly, there were not many other campers around.
Yeah, it did rain, hard.  But not all the time.  And when it did, they were able to get under the tarp- or into their Portable Mansion.

The Morning After the Rain

The First One

Here's a look at that tomato The Fuzz had his eye on.

It turned out pretty good.

The beans are doing okay now as well.  The Fuzz picked a big bowl of them.

His Sweetie has already froze a   bunch.

We found this volunteer squash in there with the green beans.  

We'll have to wait a bit yet to see what kind it is.

Actually it turned out to be the first two tomatoes!

And so concluders, The Fuzz's Gardening Report for today.

Plans Gone Amiss

You may remember that The Fuzz is the happy owner of a small kayak.  This is not one of those big seagoing things.  It's better suited for a river.  And since the river is much closer to our Home in the Woods, that is very convenient.
Of course as with anything of that nature, it must be stored when not floating around.  The Fuzz had seen where that Ingenious Son had arranged a way to hang one of these little vessels from the ceiling of his garage.  Well, The Fuzz does not have a garage, but he does have a fine new work shed out there.  He had been having troubles with squirrels storing their winter stash in his kayak.  So he decided to try this himself.
He had a plan.

Unfortunately, it was not a good plan.
According to the plan, lines would be run down from  2 pulleys (A) mounted on the rafters out in the open area.  The ends would be clipped to straps (B) already mounted on the kayak.  The 2 lines would be joined at point C, as they exit the pulleys and pass over the wall.  This way, one would in theory, have to gain access to the shed to lower the kayak, thus discouraging theft.  Once inside, the now single line would run though one more pulley (D) and be anchored to the wall in a manner yet to be determined.
It seemed simple, but...

1) The line chosen was some leftover skinny clothesline, too difficult to grip.
2)  The pulleys were just too small.
3)  The line would bind on first, a rafter, and then the top of the wall.
4)  The kayak is a bit heavier than The Fuzz realized.
The cumulative result of these factors, made it impossible for The Frustrated Fuzz to raise the thing into position.

It was obvious that some modifications were needed.

The pulleys were replaced with larger ones, and rearranged to give a 2:1 mechanical advantage.

Now a single line is tied off at A, then run though pulley B to pulley C, and then up to D.  You will note that larger lines are also used affording improved grip.

Lines were rerouted up the rafters to eliminate binding, though one more pulley...

and finally tied off at a cleat.

Here's a look at the remains of the failed system.

We are happy to report that this new improved kayak storage facility is now 100% functional.

Phonia And the Cure

"Phonia" That's what The Fuzz has had to deal with these last few days.  "Phonia" is when you have issues with your (in this case) Land Line.

There have been some difficulties with this lately, mostly static, or occasionally it would just quit.  In the past these were seemingly resolved by use of a hair dryer, and screwing around with the wires in the "Box".

Here in the Woods, where we can't get a signal for our cell, the land line is by Cable,  We won't mention the Mega Corporation.  Mostly it works fine, if a bit strange at times.  But for some reason, which The Fuzz doesn't understand, The wires run from the modem (near phone #1) to a box over 30ft away, mounted near the electrical stuff.  Then 30ft back along the same cable, to phone #1.  From this box there is a relatively short line to phone #2 in another room.

A few days ago, actually the same day as The Fuzz had his misfortune on the stairs, this arrangement quit again.  It was just one of those days.  With painful difficulty, he tried the previous fixes, but to no avail.  In fact there was a new symptom.  No matter how much he screwed with the wires, he got the signal of a phone off the hook.  This was just not true.

But this was a new clue.  The wheels began to turn, click, click, click, in his head.  Could this mean there was a short somewhere?  By testing a number of combinations, he concluded that the wires running back from that troublesome box to phone #1 were the culprits.  But by then it was dark, he was too busted up to fool with it.  He did figure out that by disconnecting the bad wires, he could get one phone to work, thus satisfying the Young Daughter and her boyfriend.  This was all fine and well, but the problem remained.

After a few days of this, The Fuzz was finally up to the challenge and headed into town once more to that Home Improvement Store.  There he purchased some phone wire to replace the bad one.

Here you can see where the line comes from the modem and gets sent to the "Box" outside, and also where it is supposed to return to phone #1.  Note the flaky wires leading out to the "box".  It was the wires from the "box" to phone #1 giving the trouble.  But of course they all ran together.

The Fuzz had toyed with the idea of just running another line beside this one.  It would have been the easy way.  But it wouldn't have been the Cowboy Way!

So he pulled out the old stuff and replaced it with this brand new telephone wire.

Here's a look at these pretty new wires outside in that "Box".

And a look at the pitiful old stuff beside the new.

Happily everything is back to working fine now.
As for The Fuzz himself, he is on the mend and even managed to get the yard cut yesterday.

Day 9

Well here it is, Day 9 of this Juice Fast.  The Fuzz reports that he is feeling surprisingly well.  He is not actually hungry in the usual sense.  It seems that the nutrients in the juice keep the old body from thinking it's starving.  That said, he does want something to eat.  Going to the grocery store for veggies makes him want chips, cheese, beer- all kinds of things.  But he can hold out.  After all there is only one day left.

He is doing better after his misfortune on the stairs.  He even cut the yard today as can be seen in this pix looking toward the garden.  With all this fasting and all, he's really got his eye on that tomato.  (It's there, look close.)

About "The Downs"

And now we will explain a bit about "The Downs" referred to in the last post.

Perhaps an illustration Will help.

Here we see a rather poor illustration of Our Fuzz.  And he is down.  In fact he just came down those stairs in a rather unpleasant manner.  

It was Tuesday, Day 2 of the Juice Fast.  The Fuzz and His Sweetie were over at the Old Place taking care of a few chores after the Beach Trip.

The Fuzz had just finished cutting the grass and was on his way out to the garden to pull some delicious beets for the Juice Fast.  It was raining (which seems to be a trend these days) and the steps were, of course wet.

When he reached point A, his feet shot out from under him sending his butt to point B.  Naturally, he tried to break his fall.  But when his hand hit the stairs, the impact wrenched his shoulder, causing it to collapse under his weight.  This in turn rolled him to the side, bashing his thick skull against the cement block wall at C.  Somewhat stunned, The Poor Fuzz continued down the stairs grating his knee across the cement (D) at the bottom.

The good news is that he is starting to regain some use of his arm.  The knee is still pretty rough with a large scab that makes it a bit painful to bend it.  But, because of his thick skull, the head injury was insignificant.

Just one of those little "Downs" of everyday life.

Juiced Up- Day 7

Well here it is Day 7 of The Fuzz's Juice Fast.
There have been some ups and downs. (more about the "downs" later)  But all in all, it is working out pretty well.  Day 2 got a bit rough on the Old Fuzz.  There was a noticeable lack of energy, and an unpleasant headache.  But he and His Sweetie made it over to the Old Place to do a bit of gardening and cut the grass.

Things got a bit better from there.  By Days 5&6 they were feeling surprisingly good.  With plenty of top grade juice, there was actually little hunger as such.  But there was a strong craving for FOOD.
Some of their "meals" have had a bit of banana or avocado added to the juice with the blender.  It does make the stuff a bit thicker and extra yummy.
This morning, Day 7, there was a bit of ache in the joints, probably another level of Detox going on.  But there is still plenty of energy... and still a desire for a toasted cheese sandwich.

Juiced Up

While at the beach,The Fuzz and His Sweetie received a gift of this Wonderful, Brand New Juicer Machine.

With some of the family starting to get into this Juicing thing, and having tasted the product, both The Fuzz and His Sweetie had become interested.  And of course it's HEALTY!  No doubt the flick, "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" had a bit of influence as well.
Well, even The Fuzz decided to bite the bullet as it were, and so Our Fuzz, His Sweetie, and even the Not So Young Anymore Daughter have embarked on this 10 Day Juice Fast.  So no food, beer or wine for 10 days.
Today is already Day 3, and The Fuzz is still living.  Day 2 was a bit rough for him with a headache and stuff like that.  But today is much better.  And besides, it's 30% over!
But he'll still have a little wait for that burger.

Back Home Again

Wow! it's been a long time here.  And yes, The Fuzz has been really slack.
Well, we did make it home to the woods after a relaxing week at the beach.
The Fuzz is fond of his sunrise walks along the seashore.

He wasn't expecting to find any mushrooms out there, but check it out.

The Fuzz insists that this was exactly as he found it.  He had to get the pix quick before the next wave rearranged things.  But here it is.

One of the nice things about this year's Beach Trip was this wonderful little boat brought by the Dangerous Daughter and her Friend, who built it!

Here's a look at this little traditional Wooden Boat from the top.  The Fuzz loves these things and this was a special treat to see how well it sailed.