Micro Forest

While waiting for guests to arrive on Christmas Day, The Fuzz decided to have a stroll in the woods.

It was a nice day with beautiful weather.

Among the other woodsy wonders, he discovered this Micro Tree.

And not only 1 Micro Tree, but

A whole Micro Forest.

A forest within a forest.

Looks like this may be some kind of a fractal thing.

Merry Christmas

Winter Garden Greens

It's wintertime here in the Northern Hemisphere.  And that means not a lot of gardening for The Fuzz and His Sweetie.

But here is what is going on over at the Old Place.

In the foreground are a few leaks.

And then toward the back some turnips and mustard.

The turnips haven't done very well this year.

But the mustard is great.

The Fuzz's Sweetie likes turnips fine,

but is not overly fond of the mustard.

But that means

all the more for him!

So while over there the other night,

he put a bit of fat meat in the pot,

and cooked him up a nice little mess.

It was delicious.

A Street to Nowhere

The Fuzz and His Sweetie were off to another Big City.

It's getting hard to just stay out here in the woods these days.  With Holidays, and Family spread out, there's always something going on-

someplace else.

This Big City was the seat of one of the great Tobacco Empires.

Of course Tobacco ain't what it used to be.

So the city has had to diversify, and has done well, The Fuzz supposes.

But Our Fuzz does find himself drawn to the relics of the past,

some of the things left behind as progress...

progresses.

Like this street to nowhere.

How often do you find Cobblestones any more?

There was a time when even a street could be a work of art.

Oops...

It looks like this could give away the latest

Mystery Pix!

2nd December Mystery Pix

 Might as well give it another go!

1st December Mystery Pix

Here's an easy one.

Not Quite Blind

Some readers may remember how The Fuzz or His Sweetie will spend a night over at the Old Place from time to time to keep their sanity.  Well, this was The Fuzz's turn.

With the colder weather he had decided to not ride over on his bike.  The arrangement was for His Sweetie to drop him off, and then in the morning pick him up.  Then, they would go for a fine breakfast at a local cafe.

Since it was a sunny day, Our Fuzz was wearing his cool shades on the way over.

His Sweetie was on a tight schedule, so they hurriedly unloaded some firewood from the car trunk, and she headed out.  It was only then that The Unfortunate Fuzz realized he was still wearing his shades.

This was fine in the bright sunlight, but sucked in the dim light inside.  The Old Place always has been a bit dark on the inside.

When he was unable to flag her down, The Fuzz tried his cell phone.  But the thing wouldn't work.

After a bit of frustration, he took out the card, cleaned it and then reinserted it.  Now at last the thing worked.

He had hoped to catch His Sweetie while she was still in town and she could drop off his real glasses, which were still in the car.

But alas, it was not to be.

So Our Fuzz resigned himself to an evening without glasses.

This may not seem like much to those blessed with the proverbial 20/20, but for The Fuzz, it was a significant thing.

The first thing, was of course a fire in the heater.

No Problem.

It's not like he is plumb blind or anything.

With a good fire going it was time for some dinner.

The Fuzz went for some spaghetti.

Here's a look at how wood heat can double as a cookstove.

The dinner was good, and he was also able to find his mouth without his spectacles.

The Fuzz did make it through the night okay.

After all, he can see his dreams well enough without their assistance.

Rocks

Another project that's been in the works here in the woods, is a Water Garden- or something like that.

So far it hasn't gotten too far.

But sometimes these things take time.

The concept involves a small pool and a way to recirculate the water.

It should be pretty nice when finished.

Rocks were needed for this project, but rocks are one thing we don't have here in the woods.

So The Fuzz and His Sweetie decided to have some brought in.

The driveway in was a bit small for this big truck.

But they have ways to handle these things.

So off the truck...

And down into the yard!

Now it's up to The Fuzz to move them the rest of the way.

The New Twig Box

The Fuzz has not been very good at keeping up with things here in cyberspace.

Oh well.

One of the projects he has been up to has been a new "Twig Box".

Out here in the woods, the trailer is heated with a Wood Stove, as many followers of Kinda Fuzzy no doubt realize.

Well, when The Fuzz and His Sweetie are off on one of their frequent forays out into the wide world, the fire may burn out.

So it is necessary to keep a supply of kindling handy- and out of the weather!

Trying to start a fire with soggy twigs is a pain.

(you know where!)

They were keeping an old bucket of twigs in there near the heater.  But it didn't really hold much, and tended to be very messy.

The Fuzz's Sweetie wanted to start keeping the stuff out on the porch, which would be handy enough,

But-

also exposed to the weather.

So they came up with the idea of this

Twig Box!

There was an old chest of drawers that had been retired from bedroom duty.

So The Resourceful Fuzz disassembled the thing.

He then used the sides and drawer fronts to put this thing together.

The bottom is a piece of old fence wire, so any tiny bits and dirt can fall through.

An old piece of tin made a reasonably weathertight lid.

The interior was divided into 2 sections.  One for "small stuff" and the other for "Twigs".

Firewood Followup

The Fuzz took advantage of an offer from the #1 Son and Son-in-law to help with a bit of wood cutting.

And it was an excellent opportunity to try out his brand new chainsaw.

There were a couple of rather large trees at a neighbor's place that The Fuzz had been offered.

But they were a bit much for The Fuzz to handle on his own.

But with all this good help, things would be different.

The trees were dropped with no complications. 

(thankfully)

And the rest of the day was spent in cutting them up, and hauling the wood home.

Unfortunately the early darkness cut the job off before all was finished, and this sizable piece of the main trunk remained.

The Fuzz will take care of it later.

The pieces will be pretty big, but he should be able to roll them up the ramp into the trailer with out hurting himself.

In the mean time...

It was time to fire up the old log splitter.

The Fuzz will have to use the vertical configuration for these big guys.

That way he won't have to try and lift them.

But the woodpile is starting to look a bit better already.

Saw Situations

Well, the winter weather has seriously moved into the woods.

So that means a fire,

Which means.

Firewood.

The Fuzz was working on this the other day when his cheap chainsaw finally tanked on him.

This thing has been aggravating off and on over the years, but he had always managed to patch it together somehow.

The Fuzz suspected the carburetor this time.

But after he took it apart and cleaned it, there was no improvement.

At this point he suspected the fuel pick-up in the tank.  Perhaps it was clogged.

So he got a piece of wire and fished the thing out of the tank.

Something was missing here!

He managed to get the filter thing out finally.

But there seemed to be no problem, other than it had become detached.

So...

He put it all back together.

But the thing still refused to do more than spit a few times before it quit again.

A new spark plug didn't help either.

And so The Long Suffering Fuzz finally gave in.

It was time to "bite the bullet" as it were, and get a new chainsaw.

This time he decided to go for quality over economy, and went to the Local Stihl Dealer.

He did get to break it in on a couple of large trees over at a neighbor's place.

And it cut good!

Well, they say you get what you pay for.

Let's hope they're right in this case.

Power Tools

It is sort of a long term project, But The Fuzz is still working on getting his shop together.

One of the things on his wish list was a Drill Press.

Not having a lot of room in there, or a lot of money to spend, he had decided to go with a bench top model.

Having come onto a bit of cash, Our Fuzz decided now was as good of time as any.

So after checking around a bit on line, he headed over to the brand new Harbor Freight Store.

I guy could spend a lot of time in there, just looking and lusting after guy stuff.

Well, here's what he came home with.

Step 1 was to unpack it all.

Actually it was not all that difficult for The Experienced Fuzz to assemble this brand new piece of equipment.

There was a bit of a complication in mounting the thing.

Amazingly enough, in his whole collection of bits of everything, there were not any bolts suitable for mounting it to the small work bench.

But he was able to improvise something for the time being.

He will have to do this properly in the future.

But for now, here it is!

The Death House

Sounds pretty sinister.

At first glance it seems to be just another picturesque old country house that has seen better days.

So one day, whilst The Fuzz and His Sweetie were out walking, they decided to check it out.

That's when the creepiness factor kicked in.

As they got closer, the bad vibes intensified.

The destruction and debris spoke of foul deeds and a dark past...

Blackest murder !
Who knows what evil lies in the Hideous History here.

And so, we will slip silently by and leave these spirits buried in the past, hopefully, undisturbed.

Muddy Paw Prints

A bit of rain this morning here in the woods.

In case anyone wonders why The Fuzz's motorcycle is always so dirty-

The Fuzz does have a place to keep it out of the weather.

But these guys like to get out of the weather too.

Muddy cat paws!

Oh well.

Camping

Long time, no post!

Well, that's just the way it's been going lately.

But it's not like The Fuzz and His Sweetie have been sitting on their hands or something.

Any how...

The Fuzz and His Sweetie had walked down to a nearby creek to enjoy some Wine and Cheese together.

Whilst there, The Fuzz remarked that it made him want to go camping.  And She agreed.

It must be understood that there is a history here.

Many years ago, it was while living in the forest that The Fuzz and His Sweetie first met.

And they lived quite happily like that that for some time before returning to civilization...

and younguns, and jobs etc.

And so, the Woods have always held a special place for them.

So on the spur of the moment, they decided to head over to South Mountain State Park, which is only about 20 minutes away.

It was nice.

Very nice.

It was a chance to get in one last camp before the cold weather sets in.

Exhausted

Well the Old Fuzz has been down in his back again.  But he did manage to make it out for a camping trip.  Of course he let the other folks do most of the work!

But he hasn't been completely idle out here in the woods.

The old clothes dryer was getting pretty rough.  It had a tendency to catch the clothes in the edge of the tub as it turned. Even if they didn't get torn, they would still get a really nasty stain from all the rubbing.

So a replacement was ordered and delivered from the local Home Improvement Store.

They would have taken the old one away, but The Fuzz figured that the motor could come in handy for something else someday.  So he decided to keep it.

His Sweetie laid down the law on this.  I would NOT remain in the yard, no matter how well Our Resourceful Fuzz tried to hide it.

So with his back improving a bit, he decided it was time to strip the thing and take the rest to the Recycle Place.

When he finally got down to the motor, he found it was connected to this squirrel cage.

With just a bit more work, he now has this cool exhaust fan for the shop!

(when he gets around to installing it)

And tomorrow the carcass gets recycled.

Quilt

What The Fuzz's Sweetie has been up to.

Christmas?

Whilst The Fuzz was waiting for His Sweetie at the Coffee House the other night, he had a nice seat in the window.

This was what was going on out in front.

The City is getting ready for the Christmas Season!

Every year they light these lights all around the Court Square.

And every year they need extensive repairs.

Hard to believe it, but the Holidays are not far away.

But no need to panic...yet.

That can come later.

Big City Bike Fest 2

The Fuzz's Sweetie has her own interests, so they split up for a bit.

The Fuzz wandered around on his own and watched this crazy guy for a while.

The Fuzz doesn't plan on trying this at home.

Later he met up with His Sweetie for lunch.

The food was surprisingly good.

People and bikes were still arriving.

Check this out.

1 more pix.

It was time to go now.

But The Fuzz was glad to have stumbled into this.