So.... several more days have now passed without a post.... life is good, so I'm not too sorry that I have been out and about instead of inside writing. But I'll do my best to catch up a little bit today.


   Going back to last Thursday; it was cold and windy all day as I recall so I was inside for most of that day just trying to stay warm. It was late in the afternoon when I ventured out and into
Floyd to meet up with Rima. We went and had this wonderful dinner at a local place there called Micky G's. What appears to be a simple pizza and pasta restaurant, and they do make very good pizza and pasta, is actually a really fine little Italian restaurant. We both ended up ordering one of the specials of the night, I had the grilled tuna steak over a bed of angel hair pasta with a garlic, olive oil and caper sauce, 'YUM', and Rima had a grilled steak with fresh veggies. Now I realize that none of that sounds very Italian, but everything was fresh, and all of it was similar to meals I had the last time I was in Italy.


    Of course, that was only the start of the evening. From there it was on to the 'Jackson Center for the Arts' in the town of Floyd, for an evening of classical music featuring the Talich Quartet from Czechoslovakia.  Playing a program that featured pieces from Czech composers, they did the 'Quartet in E-flat Major, Op.51 by Anton Dvorak as their first piece. Rima and I were sitting in the front row right in front of the stage, so that put us both about 8 feet from the performers, what a nice way to watch music being made.


    They played two other selections, one from Leos Janacek and one from Bedrich Smertana, both of which were terrific. Included with the program was a little reception after the performance where they had munchies and drinks and you could talk to the performers if you wanted. Rima and I, but mostly Rima, charmed the Viola player and talked to him about the tour and how the 6 hour time difference was hard on them all. It was great fun and when we walked out doors we discovered that it had started snowing.


    It must of snowed most of the night, though there was only an inch or two on the ground when we woke up. It was enough to keep all the kids and others out of work and off the roads for the day. Cold outside of course, but also quite pretty in its own way. We stayed in for most of the day with Rima working from home and me doing what I do best... goofing off. She did need to go into the office at one point though, so we piled into the car and drove on in.


   From there we headed on to Roanoke because she had gotten a couple tickets to a concert there for the evening. First we had a really good meal at a little Mexican restaurant right near downtown. I had a superb meal of carnitas and Rima had something neither one of us could pronounce. Both meals were very tasty and filling and we went on to the concert happy. That nights selection was the world renowned banjo god, Bela Fleck. Along with him that night was Abigail Williams his wife, (?) who also plays a mean banjo. In all I think there were at least 7 different banjos on stage that night, and everyone of them got a good work out. Another wonderful, and different, night of music. So you can begin to see why it has been hard for me to find time to write.


    It was a nice easy morning on Saturday. We hung out a little while and then headed into town for a special program out at the Jackson Center again. This time it was a program put on by the local historical society on soapstone in the Floyd area. A nice slide show on local quarries in the area and how these deposits have been in use for thousands of years. First by indigenous local people and then by settlers as they came into the area. The speaker even showed some of the buildings, fireplaces and headstones that have been made out of the material over the years, including two, two story buildings in downtown Floyd that are built out of sawed bricks of the stone. After listening to the presentation we both realized we were really hungry, You must all think we do nothing but eat, but we do, so we headed for the town of Rinear since I had a craving for a buffalo brisket quesadilla at the buffalo store there. Home grown buffalo brisket with grilled onions and mushrooms, a bit of salsa, a little sour cream, and bottles of homemade BBQ sauce. Also very yummy! Coming back to 'the farm', we pretty much just hung out for the rest of the day.
    Sunday started out as a pretty slow and easy morning until Rima called me from outside. She was out with the horses, she has two, and wanted to know if I could come out and help her as she had to call the Vet because one was laying down and appeared to be sick. Bolivar was up and walking around by the time the Vet arrived, but you could see he wasn't feeling too well. Once the Vet showed up she listened to his heart and gut, looked him over, and determined that he probably had a case of 'worms'. She came prepared though, so while I held on to his and Fuzzy's head, she went ahead and dosed them both with what is apparently a really foul tasting medication that she injects in the side of their mouths with this big old plastic syringe. It appeared to work though, as they both seemed to be feeling much better by late that afternoon.
     For the two of us we headed out for a hike over at the Cascade Falls west of Blacksburg. A very nice 4 mile round trip walk along Stone Creek to a beautiful 55' high waterfall. The creek reminded me a lot of creeks in Colorado that I have spent many days fishing in with my  Dad and other family members. As beautiful as the pools were though, I didn't see a single fish the whole time, even little bitty ones. Not sure what that is all about, as it should of had hundreds, if not thousands, of fish in it.
   Coming back we stopped and had a meal at a little Greek/Mediterranean restaurant in Blacksburg. I had a Gyros sandwich, which was very tasty, and Rima had  some pork bits with pita bread and Greek sauce, also very good.
   As I said, both horses seemed to be feeling better when we got back that afternoon. Then, as there was an hour or so of daylight left.... thank you Daylight Savings Time, I went out and started pruning up the other apple tree Rima has that  has been growing wild. I got a good start on it before it got to dark to see anymore.  That night we actually broke out a jigsaw puzzle to put together. It was one that Rima and I had gotten at the Salvador Dali Museum when she was down in Florida with me. We had each purchased a puzzle with one of his paintings on it and we did a whole 500 piece puzzle that night, and I have to say that it was a challenge because half the piece shapes looked like they might have been designed by some 'warped' painters mind. But it was a lot of fun anyway.
     Monday finally dawned half ways decent weather wise. I made a trip into town that afternoon on a mission to pick up wooden fence posts for some fence repair work I planned on doing. It must be spring as I couldn't find much of anything in Home Depot, Lowes or Tractor Supply, as far as actual posts. So that was a total bust even though I did manage to get some much needed grocery shopping done. Not all was lost however as I did manage to find a whole stash of wooden fence posts at a little hardware store just outside of Floyd. I picked up a load of 10 8-footers and stuck them in the back of the truck until I could get them back to the farm and get them unloaded. Once done there I also managed to get the rest of the apple tree pruned up, and while it looks like a crazy man went at it with a hedge clipper, I think it will be much better off this year, and certainly by next year. Who knows, it may even have real apples on it at some point.
    Yesterday was an even nicer day outside. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit frustrating for me. I started out getting ready to go dig post holes. Gathering up tools, finding  the post hole digger, the first thing I did was throw one of the posts over the fence next to where it was going to be set. I then watched as it rolled down the hill for what seemed like a mile, probably only 500 feet or so. But it did mean trudging down the hill and carrying it back up again. There was also the lack of 'juice' in my cordless drill and no extra wire or tighteners. In the end I managed to get two posts set, another hole nearly dug and a spreader put in. It was not a great day for work, but in the end it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either. But it was fine when Rima came home before dark and gave me an excuse to quit a little early. We headed inside and cooked up some Chicken Fricassee over rice with some pan seared potatoes, all eaten outside on the deck overlooking the river. We even had enough light left when we finished that we actually went out and did a short walk up the road and back.
   So that brings us up to the current day which has turned off grey and rainy again. Tomorrow is suppose to bring on some more snow so I'm heading out to do some more shopping this afternoon.  So off to the big city.