Woke up to the sound of light rain on the roof and only a little wind blowing by. I think all of the walnuts, hickory nuts and acorns must of been blown off the trees last night as there wasn't even the sound of them falling on the roof anymore. Cold this morning, only 36 degrees when I got up, but no snow on the ground thankfully.

   The power came on last night at 4:32 a.m. in the morning. I know this because I forgot the radio was one when it went off yesterday evening. The heater was back on though, so that was a nice feature.

   Spent most of the morning here at the trailer staying warm and dry. Needed to go into town though and get a new trailer spare tire put on the old rim if I wanted to leave tomorrow like I intended. Found and had a new tire put on, but kept the old one to return to the tire store once I get to a state that has a Discount Tire store in it.

   It was snowing pretty good on the trip back up and over the Blue Ridge Mountains. The temp is now sitting at 41 degrees, but it isn't raining at the moment so maybe this system has finally started to clear out. Will be up and on my way early in the morning if the weather is even half ways decent. Will be heading towards Chattanooga via Knoxville, but plan to take at least two days to get there. Probably won't be there for very long before heading on to Atlanta for a week or so down there. Really only need to be in Chattanooga long enough to get my hair cut and go to an RV store that is there.

   In the mean time; here are a few pictures from the afternoon spent over at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.

A front view of the home Thomas Jefferson designed. Built to look like there is only one story above ground, there are actually three in spots. The design shows a lot of Greek influence including the  columns and the dome on the back. There is a weather vane on top of the porch roof that has a rod and pointer than comes through the porch ceiling and shows the wind direction on a compass rose there. Jefferson could then look out a window and see which way the wind was blowing. Handy for the twice a day weather reports he logged for more than 42 years.

From the southwest you can see the back of the house and the first known dome ever put onto a personnel residence in the United States. On this end was the family dining area as well as a really cute little tea room. Under the columns and dome is the main parlor.

From the south east you can see Jefferson's personal library at the far right and his bedroom on the left.

Such a large household would take a lot of food to feed the lot. The main house kitchen was on the lower level away from the main house where the heat of cooking would not effect the inside temperatures in the summer. Nor would a fire burn the whole house down if the kitchen caught fire.

This is 'stew stove' and is that era's answer to being able to have adjustable burners on a stove. Instead of trying to add or take away fuel to adjust the heat, they had multiple burners that they would stoke with different amounts of charcoal fuel. Jefferson evidently fell in love with the 'French' method of cooking while he was our 'ambassador' over there. A lot of what he liked was cooked in saute pans over varying heat so this method helped cook the eggs and sauces he loved.

Love this simple kitchen prep table that was designed by Jefferson and built by one of the slaves on the plantation.

In front of the fire is an automatic rotisserie that was run by the mechanism hanging on the wall. Working on weights similar to a grandfather clock it was wound up and would turn the spit until the weights had unwound. In front of the spit is a reflector roasting oven that also had a turning spit.

Near to the kitchen was another room dedicated to salting and smoking meats. Different cuts of meat, usually pork, was covered in salt and placed in the wooden trough and barrels shown. After between 10 months and 2 years, it was removed from the salt and hung up and cold smoked with hickory smoke for another 6 months to 4 years. This room, along with many other store rooms and  buildings, had it's own lock and key to help prevent theft.

Jefferson was very interested in gardens and the vegetables and fruits that he could grow on his land. With more than 200 free men and slaves on his plantation at any one time, it was important to have large gardens and crops to feed everyone. Even though it is late October there were still many edible veggies still growing.

Egg Plant.

These plants are artichokes. Jefferson tried over 6,000 different fruits and veggies over the years and kept very precise records on what was planted and how well it grew.

Runner beans on a trellis.

One of several orchards on the 5,000 acres Jefferson owned.

Jefferson tried to grow wine and table grapes for many years on his plantation. He never found a good grape to grow for wine and his table grapes were only so-so.

I've seen this plant, and flower before, but can't remember what it is. They were planted in the vegetable garden, but I'm not sure if it is a veggie or not.

Nasturtiums... both pretty and edible.

He also like flowers and had many different gardens around the house including one that had this, one of my favorites, the blue morning glory.

Another nice flower... just not sure what it is.

Looking east over the garden and into the forest beyond. This was the afternoon before Hurricane Sandy came ashore. Three days later I would imagine that most of these leaves are now gone.

Jefferson also designed a few pieces of simple furniture and then had a some of his slaves build them for sale.

Another slightly different kitchen table made out of simple boards attached with hand wrought nails. This room was used as the house laundry with two large copper kettles on either side of the fireplace.

Along one of the terraces that extend out from the main house was several stalls for horses and carriages used by the members of the household as well as guests. I was just enamored by the layout and the look of the stalls.

Looking down the center aisle between two sets of stalls.

Just down the hill and to the south of the main house is the family cemeterey, at least the one for those that happen to be white anyway. I think the gate and fence surrounding the plot was beautiful

Another view of the family cemetery, it is still being used by the family to this day. Jefferson is buried under that big phallic looking monument in the upper left hand corner of this photo. His slaves had their own burial plot. It is down the hill about 1/4 mile in what is now a parking lot. It was many years before it was even discovered as there were no permanant markers such as these on any of the graves.