Went into town on Tuesday to relax and take in a movie. It was a good day to just goof off since it rained like crazy in the afternoon and there wouldn't have been any chance to work outside for most of the afternoon and evening anyway. The movie I saw was the latest offering in the X-Men series. Over all it was a pretty good 'Guy's Night Out' type of show, lot's of action, lot's of special effects, but this one even had a half ways decent plot to it, even if it was in a Sci-Fi sort of way.
   Also did some grocery shopping and even had a quite meal out at the local Mick D's where I read two magazines, Popular Science and Mother Earth News from cover to cover while drinking way to much un-sweet ice tea.
    Yesterday was a little more productive, even though I ran into town one more time. This time though it was to meet up with Rima for some lunch out on the town. We tried a new place to us both in Blacksburg, 622 North, a little bistro type place that does salads and sandwiches for lunch. We both had pretty good meals and then some top notch dessert. Lemon cake for Rima and raspberry cheese cake for me. It was very yummy!
    Had to run a couple of short errands on the way back to the farm but eventually made it back just in time to take a nice afternoon nap. Lazy, warm days with a light breeze and bird calls and insect noises are just made for napping. Mine didn't last too long though, I was soon up and outside again. The itinerary for me then was to get the gate we picked up a couple days ago mounted and operating. Actually managed to  get it installed and working in a few short hours. No small feat since it's a 12' long iron bar gate. But the hinges went in fine and I actually got the pins set the right distance apart and at the right height for what I wanted. Unfortunately the driveway slopes pretty good right there at the gate location, so it is going to take some regarding of some of the gravel in that area before it actually works the way I want it to. It'll get done though.
    So that is what is on my plate to do this afternoon. It has been a pleasant morning of relaxation, or just goofing off, if you will. I need to still do some breakfast dishes and get a start on dinner for this evening, but that shouldn't take to much time to accomplish. Looks like it may rain again later on. Hope it holds off for a least a couple of hours yet.


*

   Ended up staying here in Floyd over the Memorial Day weekend. Our original plan had been to travel over to Jonesbourough, TN for a weekend of hot and sweaty contra dancing there in town and out at Serenity Hill on David Wiley's place. But alas; Rima woke up on Saturday morning having spent a lot of the previous night sick and throwing up. I knew it had to be pretty serious as I have never known her to sleep in past 8:00 a.m..... ever! That, along with the fact that she wasn't hungry, and that she didn't feel well enough to get up and drive 6 hours to a contra dance, told me that it was all very real. So she stayed in bed all day and then all through the night again, with me supplying liquids and food that she didn't eat or drink, and lucky for me, she was up and feeling better by Sunday.
    For me Saturday just meant another day of hanging out around the place. I went out and whacked a couple of acres of weeds and mowed a few others. There was also a few other small chores done around the house, but mostly I just stayed handy in case Rima needed something.
    Sunday was better, in that she was at least up and around, but really she still wasn't feeling all that well. We did a lot of hanging out with me working outside and her dealing with stuff inside. I whacked more weeds and then started picking up the last of the old shingles that had come off of the wood shed. We had picked up some heavy duty trash bags a couple of days before, so there was something to finally put them all in. Got nearly all of it cleaned up with 5 full bags of shingles and old wooden pieces. It took both of us to load and unload them all when we finally took them off to the trash bins.
    Yesterday was still even better as Rima came back nearly to her normal self. It was too bad that we had to miss the weekend contra dance, but there really wasn't any way it would of been any fun. Between Rima being sick and me still dealing with the residual effects of my fall two weeks ago, we were both pretty pathetic.  We did have a little bit of fun though. I finished cleaning up around the shed so it now looks pretty good it just needs a load of cut up firewood to make it complete.  Later in the day we drove on down to a local farm equipment place and picked up a new 12' wide gate for the front driveway. I'll be trying to get that all hooked up and going sometime this week, but first I'll have to find something to drill the 3/4" diameter holes 7" through the gate post so that I can hang the gate hinge pins on it.
    Finally; took it easy last night and went out for a nice dinner at Micky G's down in town. As nearly the only place in town that was open, it was doing a real good business with people who were tired of bar-b-cuing. I had a real nice steak and Rima went with the pork chop that was on special. Both meals were just what we needed. Add in copious amounts of cold ice tea and it was a nice way to end the weekend. Once back at the place though, we still had enough time to take a short walk out on the road and watch the sun set across the green hills and fields. We then came back and sat outside for about 40 minutes and watched the fire flies come out and do thier summers eve dance. Pretty darn magical.


*

   It has been a busy couple of days since I last wrote.... it's a bit embarrassing in one way. On the other hand it has been a productive couple of days, as well as pretty fun in some instances. Wednesday was another beautiful, sunny spring day. Spent most of the day working on the fence along the front entry driveway. Got the last gate posts set and all the braces installed before the end of the day.
    I met Rima in town that evening so that we could then go on together and have some dinner before going on into Blacksburg for a special contra dance that was going to be happening. George Marshall, one of my all time favorite callers, was in town with one of the bands he is often associated with, 'Swallowtail'. We had a quick, but pleasant dinner in Riner at the buffalo café place there in town. Wonderful food as usual, and they always manage to get it out to you in a reasonable time at a reasonable price. I highly recommend them as a place to have a meal.
    We got to the dance just as the first contra was starting up and watched while we paid and got ready to dance. The music was terrific like always and the dancing was high energy if not at the highest caliber. Lots of new dancers that night, so it was kind of hard to get up and down the line unscathed. Still fun, but by the end of the first half I was pretty much worn out by all the 'bouncy' new, for the most part, young, dancers. I also found that my back and waist still haven't fully recovered from the tumble I took a few days ago. In fact there is still a huge bruise around my waist, it looks really cool, that is a wonderful blue, green, black color. I'm hoping it will start to dissipate at some point in the near future.
    Thursday was a day off from work for me. I drove into Roanoke with Rima for the day, as she had a couple of meetings to go to that afternoon. So she worked while I just hung out and read magazines and took naps. We had some really good Indian food for lunch at a local restaurant we know of. They do a lunch buffet that has a good selection of traditional dishes and every one of them is really yummy.
    We ran some errands during the afternoon going first over to a local Camping World store in order to pick up a new extension mirror for the one on the truck that was broken while we were in West Virginia. We managed to find just what was needed, as well as a few other things that were maybe not so needed, but nice to have anyway, such as a dashboard fan that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket.
   From there it was on to Tractor Supply for a couple wire tighteners I needed, and then onto Wally World to buy one of those plastic turtle sand boxes for little kids.
    Finally, for that evening we went and had a light dinner at a Lebanese restaurant in downtown Roanoke and then walked over to the local theatre for a very fun concert put on by the Roanoke Symphony. Featuring just 6 members of the full orchestra, it was a program of chamber music that was fun and unusual. Lasting only an hour it was over way to soon and left me really appreciating how good some musicians are. I really loved the sound of the bassoon and oboe on several of the selections, but all 6 members were very professional.
    Back to building fence again yesterday, but first it was off to lunch with Rima out at, of all places, a local hardware store that she had never been to. They were having a Memorial Weekend sale and were supplying a free bar-b-que lunch for any one stopping by. We had one of their sandwiches there, toured the whole store, and Rima bought a few small things that she needed.
   I went on after dropping her off back at work and picked up another load of 10 5"-6" wooden posts at another hardware store I like buying my posts from. It was then back to the farm to unload and start digging holes again. Did manage to get some mowing done and some limbs and brush cleared before starting to dig again but then managed to get one more post installed before it was time to quit for the day.
    Rima and I headed into Floyd later in the evening and stopped in at Odd Fellows for dinner and drinks. I had a pretty good prime rib sandwich and a beer while Rima went with the pork loin special and ice tea. Both tasted pretty good and it was fun to sit and talk with one of Rima's friends, Sally.
    Afterwards we took an hour or so to wander around town and enjoy all the music that was being played in every little nook and corner by locals who come into town on Fridays to jamb with each other. A very pleasant evening all in all.
    We were suppose to be on our way to Jonesbourough Tennessee this morning for another weekend contra dance, but Rima woke up sick this morning, so we are taking it easy for the time being. I know she must be feeling pretty poorly as she didn't even get up early to find something to eat. For right now though I'm just going to hang out and see what I can do, if anything, to make her feel better.


*

    Kinda tired this morning, which I guess isn't all that surprising considering I put in a few hours of work yesterday afternoon. Finished cleaning out the wood shed, except for two full sheets of OSB, which were just to heavy to cart up the hill to the barn by hand. But the shed is now ready to be stocked with new fire wood for next winter. Just need to find some time to start cutting it all up and stacking it in.
   Also spent several hours continuing work on the new fence along the entrance road. Have been working on the section that actually crosses the driveway and yesterday I got one of the gate posts set. It took about an hour longer to dig the hole for the post just because there was nearly a foot of mixed gravel and dirt to get through before I could get down into just plain dirt. Ended up having to take it out by hand, one scoop at a time. Finally got the post in though and it is now braced and ready to have some fencing hung on it. Hope to get that done later on today.
    Also trimmed up a couple more trees around the house here. Really needed to wait until the leaves came out so I could see how high up the limbs needed to be lopped off. It's starting to look pretty nice looking out over the forest now. Right now the orange colored 'Flaming Azaleas' are blooming just down the hill with the white Dogwoods along side. It looks like the Rhododendrons will start blooming any time soon, but so far nothing is happening with them.
   Hope to get a couple more fence posts put in today, but need to go out and spot spray a couple more acres of weeds while the wind isn't blowing first. It appears that the stuff actually works so it's time to go get some more of it done.
   Right now though it's time for a few more photo's from our trip a couple of weeks ago. This is from our side trip to see the grist mill at Babcock State Park in West Virginia while we were over there for the 'White Water Whirl' contra dance.

The Grist Mill at Babcock State Park, W. Virginia 

May 3, 2014

On the inside of the mill you see the working part of the operation. On the right side, inside the round apparatus is the set of grinding stones used for grinding the coarser corn meal and flour. The corn kernels, after being removed from the cob, are dropped into the square hopper on top and are fed down into the center of of the two stones. The bottom stone is stationary where as the top one is turned by a system of gears and belts that are powered by the water wheel outside. The corn is pressed between the stones and the resulting meal filters down the grooves in the stones until they reach the outside edge where they are collected in the surrounding wooden structure and then on to either a storage bin or right into a bag to be sold. On the left side are the two stones used to grind the harder wheat into flour. The top stone is hooked up to a wooden crane that is used to remove the stones in order to flatten and re-groove them.

As the stones were turning there was a little wooden 'tickler' positioned under the hopper where it would shake the hopper enough to keep the grain flowing without having to be tended to by the miller.

This set of wooden gears powered a vacuum system that in the past would of sucked the ground meal up a chute and then into a series of bins that would sort it according to the size of the grind. They don't actually use that system any more as they really don't grind all that much corn. But the gears still turn, and that's kind of neat to watch.

Looking out a side door at the top of the water wheel and the control gate on the flume.

Found a new location from which to take pictures from this time, so most of the rest of these are just various photo's from that area.

 

 

 

 

 

One last photo of the mill.

And one last photo of Rima.

*

    A pretty decent day outside yesterday. A little bit on the cool side early on, but I was still out there in shorts, even if I did have a sweat shirt on over them. But it did finely get warm enough later in the afternoon that I could actually change to a regular shirt. I spent a lot of the day spraying weeds in the pastures. They had really started to take over the place and were already too high to use a spreader type disperser. So I walked up and down the hills for many, many hours spot spraying where ever needed. I sure do hope it works as I don't want to have to do it all again. Found out that poison ivy has become rampant in several areas of the place. Am really hoping this stuff works on it because that stuff is just plain nasty.
   Hope to get everything picked up around the wood shed this afternoon and get it ready to be stocked with wood. Once done there it will be time to go did a few more post holes out along the driveway. Still need to get that section of fence done before I take off on the road again.
    In the meantime though; I got a few photo's done yesterday and will get the rest of them done this morning. For right now though, here are a few from a trip to Babcock State Park in W. Virginia a couple of weeks ago. We were over there for a weekend contra dance and took a short day trip to a couple places around the area. Today's pictures are all about the grist mill there at the park.

The Grist Mill at Babcock State Park, W. Virginia 

May 3, 2014

One of the falls on the creek that flows by the grist mill.

A view of the grist mill from across the stream. The mill is actually a compilation of 3 different mills, none of which were on this site. The National Park Service evidently got a hold of the mills and moved them to this site where they joined them all together into one working mill.

Most of these are just more shots of the mill from different vantage points. I just liked the look of the mill.

 

 

A closer view of the actual wheel. This one is an overshot type of waterwheel, meaning that the water flows into the wheel buckets from the top of the wheel and then through the pressure of the water as well as the weight of the water, it turns the wheel. This is actually one of the most efficient designs for a working water wheel.

Rima enjoying the sun while watching the water wheel going round and around.

 

 

A view of the wooden flume that brings the water to the top of the water wheel.

A close up view of the wooden water flume. It appears that it was originally built using mortise and tenons to join all the parts together and then they came back and strengthened it with the use of steel rods.

One of the old mill stones. The grooves are cut so that grain that is dropped into the center hole of the stone will be ground into various grits as it works its way to the outside edge of the stone.

Another overall view of the mill.

A nice view of the front of the mill.

Another front view.

More photo's tomorrow...... probably!


*

   Another couple of days here in Virginia. Thursday was a good time to just recuperate from my labors during earlier days as it pretty much rained all day that day. I had managed to get about 2/3rd's of the roof on the wood shed shingled the day before, and I was exhausted. But the rain pretty much kept me indoors and not doing much in the way of labor, so it was a really nice day to just hang out and read and putz around the house.
    One thing I did do on Thursday is cook up a couple of loaves of cinnamon pear bread from a new recipe I had found on fb. It turned out pretty good, though the pears were maybe a little to bland by themselves. I think a cup of rhubarb or maybe some strawberries would of upped the flavor quotation.
   Yesterday was pretty clear, although a bit on the cool side. It did dry out the rest of the shed roof for me to at least finish it up. A couple more hours of pounding nails and cutting off the end shingle pieces was all it took. I think it turned out okay, and am hoping it will last at least another 20 years before needing to be fixed again. Of course there are always the side walls to it that I didn't touched this time around. They may need  a little rehabbing in a couple of years also.
   In the mean time I have found that 8 of the 17 asparagus plants I put in this spring have now come through the dirt. It is likely that a few more of them will come up at some point soon.... the ones the gophers haven't eaten anyway. Unfortunately, none of the grapes I planted have come out again after they froze back a couple of weeks ago. I'll be leaving them in for at least a couple more weeks just to make sure, but it isn't looking great right now.
    Went into town last night with Rima for drinks and munchies at Odd Fellows. Good beer and conversation with a bunch of her friends. Afterwards we went on down to the town of Riner for dinner at the buffalo place. Buffalo quesadilla's were on the menu for both of us, as well as copious amounts of unsweetened ice tea. Yum!
   Still on the cool side outdoors today. Made a quick run into the grocery store in Floyd this morning to pick up some zucchini and flour. Rima is having several of her female friends over this evening for a clothing exchange and I told her I would make her a cake for the party. Actually making two of them right now with the hope that there might actually be some of it left for me later on.
    I'm actually getting kicked out of the house for the evening, but I already have plans for that. First will be dinner over in Blacksburg, maybe Chinese food, and then a night at the movies watching one of the 'Boys Night Out' type movies that have come out in the last couple of months. Perhaps 'Captain America' or the new 'Spider Man'. But first.... let there be cake!


*

    Sorry that it has been a few days... I think there was something in my last post about me having a fall and injuring my back. Turns out that it was a bit more serious than I first thought. By Saturday night I could barely turn, and Sunday morning had me popping aspirin and trying not to move. Still not much that could be done about it, other than relax and take it easy, and by Sunday evening it was even starting to feel more normal, I could at least move my hand up to my shoulder without too much pain. By Monday morning, and a couple of nights of sleep, it was even better. Still painful, and very swollen I'm told, but my arm could now extend above my head and walking was hardly painful at all. Time to get back to work I guess.
    Started back in on the wood shed rebuild around noon and had 90% of the roof sheathed with new OSB by the end of the day. With Rima's help we also got all of the new siding nailed on and the new facia boards in place. It is actually starting to look pretty good, and except for some pain while twisting, the old back worked pretty good too.
    Yesterday was a day off from physical labor. Not because of increased pain from the day before, but because there was other stuff to get done. On top of the list was running into Christensburg and having the Ford dealer there install a new driver side mirror on the truck. Not quite $300 and nearly 3 hours of  waiting, but at least now I can see where I have been while driving. Just need to find an extension replacement mirror now so I can see backwards while the trailer is in tow behind me.
    Got back to the farm in time to pick up Rima and head for Floyd. We wanted to try a new place in town for dinner last night. The 'Artist Place', or some such name, is located in the same place where Natasha's use to be. We were very skeptical that any place could approach it's level of food perfection, but the new Chef did a good job of impressing us both. I had roast chicken breast with a medley of spring veggies and mashed potatoes and gravy, while Rima had a pork chop over cannelloni beans and other veggies. It was all really yummy and way too much food to even think of dessert at that time.
    We then spent an hour or so running out to pick up a vehicle of hers and then came back home and took a nice evening walk. While she watered some plants I went ahead and whipped up a little dessert that I had been wanting to try. It was poached pears in their own caramel sauce all made up in one 12" cast iron skillet on top of the stove. They didn't turn out perfect, but for a fist time try they did turn out good enough. Will certainly be trying to do this recipe once again.
   Off to try and finish off the shed this afternoon. The weather report is for rain starting up sometime tomorrow and it would be nice if there were actual shingles on the roof by then.


*

   A very busy couple of days lately with lots of fun, some accomplishments, one injury and some quiet down time because of the rain.
   Going back to last Friday; headed out to the big city on that day in order to pick up another, hopefully the last, load of wood for rebuilding the shed. Bought a bunch of OSB, Oriented Strand Board, sheets for the roof sheathing, some pressure treated 1"x6" fence pickets for siding, a roll of felt paper, nails and misc. tools and other items. Managed to get it all bought and loaded before the rain started to come down like gang busters. I sat in the parking lot for about 30 minutes while it just poured down rain. Really kind of neat.
    Picked up Rima later on in the afternoon and went and had beer during happy hour at Odd Fellows in Floyd. We sat and talked with a couple of her friends and then went on over to Micky G's for some dinner. I finally ordered a pizza there, one of the things I've been meaning to do, and it was worth it. Good stuff that night, and even better cold on Saturday morning.
   We were hoping to work on the shed on Saturday, but it was really too wet to do any work on it that morning. We got all the stuff unloaded though and then did a few small jobs around the place. One thing we needed to do was move the horses to the upper pasture where the grass is much better. As part of that I had to move a string line, actually rope line, that I had been using to line up fence posts with  so the horses wouldn't trip over it in their hurry to reach better grass. It was while I was restringing that line that the accident happened. I use a couple of loops in the line in order to gain some mechanical advantage while tightening it up and I was really torqueing on it when it decided to break. Didn't know I had that much strength in me. The end result though was that I went flying backwards in a heap and landed on the ground right on top of the one rock in the area.  Hard!
    Lucky for me, my well padded butt hit first and then the very bottom edge of my shoulder bone, scapula, came down on the top of that very solid and pointy rock. Boy did that hurt. Did manage to pick myself up, and luckily there was no blood, but I knew it was going to be pretty bad once it had time to stiffen up. And it did, finally growing a knot on my back the size of half a football and turning all kinds of different colors. Within an hour or two, my right arm and shoulder were pretty useless and doing anything, even just sitting still, was pretty painful. That being said, there was really nothing else to do about it. There was no puncture wound to get sewn up, and no broken bones to be set. None that could be set anyway, there may actually be a bit of a dent in the scapula, but there isn't anything that can be done for that other than a sling. So I started taking aspirin and other OTC drugs right away and I have managed to be up and about for the rest of yesterday and most of today already.
    Last night was a little difficult because we had plans to go to the theatre in Roanoke. We went ahead and had lunch and dinner out yesterday afternoon and evening and then went on to see the play 'Swing' at the Mill Mountain Theatre. Actually managed to survive the evening and even enjoyed the whole thing. The play was more just a song and dance venue showcasing some of the older swing/blues/do-wop songs from the 20's through the 50's than it was a play. But really good music and lots of fun dancing to watch and enjoy. It seemed like it was over way to soon for me.
   I slept pretty well considering I would wake up pretty much any time I moved. So, I guess, I just stopped moving after a while. Did sleep in a bit later this morning, but my back is feeling much better. Still sore and very stiff, but the bump on my back feels like it has shrunk some since last night. Still having some trouble raising my arm over my shoulder, but it will get better as the day goes on and I think it will all be just a memory in another day or two.
    In the mean time I am just going to take it easy and go drink some ice tea on the back deck and just enjoy the day.

   Worked some more on the wood shed for Rima yesterday afternoon. It was 6 hours of digging and wrestling with 2"x6"s that didn't want to go where they should. But in the end, with the help of a 8 pound sledge, it all got put together the way it should. Now it's time to strip the old shingles off the roof and put some new sheathing and shingles back on it. Once that is all done we can concentrate on cutting up some of the huge pile of timber we have stacked up, and then storing it away for use next winter. With any luck we should have a full woodshed, about 6 full cords, cut and stacked by the time I leave a month from now.
    So that is the plan for this afternoon, and it is looking like it will be a nice day to work on it all. Sunny and warm with maybe just a touch too much humidity in the air. It's certainly not like being in Colorado where the humidity is often so low that you don't actually sweat. But at least here you have those big pools of under arm sweat to remind you that it's time to drink more water.
   Not much else going on at the moment. Still waiting for the FORD dealer to call me back and tell me that my new truck mirror has arrived and that I need to make an appointment to get it installed. I'm hoping it will still be sometime this week yet. Will also need to take off for town and pick up more construction supplies for the shed and some more fence work, but probably won't get around to that until tomorrow. For now though, here are a few photo's from our trip to W. Virginia last weekend. These are from the town of Thurmond, a near ghost town situated along the New River just upstream from Fayetteville. It use to be a railroad hub during the heydays of coal and steam, Now it's just a sleepy reminder of what once was.

Thurmond W. Virginia along the New River - April 3, 2014

The only real way into the town, other than rail, is to drive down a narrow canyon road on the south side of the river and cross over it on this single lane bridge. The railroad spur use to go to some coal mines on the south side of the river, but from the rust on the top of the rails it looks like it has been a while since any train has gone up them.

Another view showing how narrow the auto and railroad bridges are. You can see that spring has finally arrived.

The old station at Thurmond is one of the few original buildings to survive and was restored a few years back. You can actually still catch an Am Track train at the station twice a day. Once east bound in the morning and then again west bound late at night.

Looking west, or down river, towards what remains of the town. During it's heyday this town had more than 80,000 passengers passing through it each year. More than 20, mostly coal, trains ran through, and the town had all the social amenities associated with towns that were much larger including; hotels, banks, butchers, jewelry stores, post office, restaurants etc. It was also a major steam engine repair site with full engine facilities located to the left of where the remaining tracks are today. Now a days there are only a few buildings left standing including the triple track coaling station you see in the background.

Still lots of coal train traffic along this line. I was surprised that one of them didn't roll by as we wandered the town, but there was one waiting on the siding just around the far corner.

There are three brick buildings still standing in what would of been the main area of the old town. Most of the rest of them either burned down or were torn down for some reason or another. This is just a narrow alley way between two of them. The other two were built even closer together.

Most of the concrete coaling tower still remains. You can tell this was a major stop from the fact that they built this one out of concrete instead of wood. It also had the ability to service 3 tracks at once, with coal chutes for two tracks on this side and chutes for one track on the other side. The opening in the middle was for another set of rails where trains with full coal cars would pull through to dump their loads into an underground pit. From there a conveyor system would lift the coal to the top of the tower where it could then be loaded by gravity into the locomotive tenders of other trains.

You can see the chute openings a little better on this view. The two lower openings would of been used to fill tenders parked on the rails closest to the coaling tower, while the upper set of chutes would of been long enough to reach over the first set of tracks to load tenders on the second set of tracks. It must of been a very bustling place at one time.

A view of the remaining brick buildings. The one on the left was one of the banks in Thurmond and the other two were retail stores. Just to the left of the bank would of been the biggest and best hotel in town. With running water and lights in every room it also had a grand ballroom where dances were held as well as one of the best restaurants in the area. It burned down in either the 50's or 60's.

A picture of Rima near an old stone wall. She sure makes my coat look better than it usually does.

One last picture looking down the line.

*

   It was a beautiful day here in Virginia yesterday. If anything it has now gone from late winter right into summer, missing most of spring it seems. I spent the afternoon working on repairs to the shed that Rima uses to stow her firewood in. Most of the back wall to it, as well as the roof, had rotted out and it wasn't going to be long before the whole thing collapsed in on itself. So I tore off the back wall and braced up the roof as best I could until I could frame up a new wall and stand it up in place. It took some time to put it all together and then get it knocked into place and secured. All the while rotted wood, dust and spider webs were falling all around.
   I had gone out and picked up a load of lumber on Monday, so there was enough framing lumber to do the wall as well as brace up some parts of the side walls.  Also managed to tie the existing roof joists in to the new framing and got them all secured. Today will mean more work on the side walls, digging out and installing new bracing along them as well as tearing off the existing shingles on the roof so I can better assess it's condition. One nice thing about the whole project is that I have gotten to use my new battery operated framing nailer, it works great, as well as my nearly new 12" miter saw. Those two tools really saved me a lot of time and effort yesterday. What was even better was that even Rima seems to like nailing things together with the nail gun.
   Going to go ahead and see about down loading some pictures from this past weekend now. So maybe there will be a new photo or two to look at in a day or two.


*

    Got back from a contra dance weekend in Fayetteville WV yesterday afternoon. It was a wonderful 3 days and nights of hot, sweaty dancing with friends from all over the east coast and mid west states. We left last Friday morning and stopped first in Riner to have lunch with a friend of Rima's who is from Russia and is a performer in several symphonies here in the U.S. We had a great meal at the 'Buffalo Store and Cafe' where I had my favorite Buffalo Brisket Quesadilla. Yum!
   It only takes a couple of hours to drive over to Fayetteville so we were checking into our hotel by 4:00 p.m. We settled in and then headed out for some dinner. We ended up in a little Cajun restaurant in downtown Fayetteville and had a really nice dinner there. A real surprise in that we didn't expect it to be as good as it was, but I had a traditional Muffeletta sandwich, while Rima dined on one of their fish specials.
   After dinner we headed out to the county park just outside of town where the dance is held. That night we danced for a bit more than 3 hours to the tunes of the 'Contrarians' with calling by Gaye and Shawn. Lot's of fun dancing and great dance partners. It was a lot of fun to see and dance with friends I haven't seen for some time. Contra dancing is wonderful in that you can meet, and see, friends from all over the place and it's like they live right next door.
   Even with all the dancing we didn't sleep in very late on Saturday. Instead we were up, and after some breakfast, on the road to do some exploring. We were going to go over to Babcock State Park again, the scene of what turned out to be our first date, but first though we took a side trip down to the old railroad town of Thurmond along the New River. Essentially a ghost town these days, but once during the heyday's of steam engines, that town had as many as 80,000 passengers passing through it each day. Now there is just the old station, where you can still catch an Am track train everyday, and a couple old brick buildings. A neat old place to wander around in and feel the ghosts from days past. There will be photo's coming in a day or two.
   Once done there we went on to the State Park where the primary draw is the Grist Mill located there on Stoney Creek. It was a beautiful day for a change, most times I have been there it has been cloudy or rainy and cold. Weather like that does have the good point of keeping most people at home or inside so it is easier to get shots of the old mill without people in orange t-shirts standing around. They had the mill running while we were there, so it was even neater to see all the parts moving and making noise and dust. Again, there will be pictures coming in a day or two including at least one from a new vantage point which I think will be one of the best I've taken.
    From there it was back to town for some lunch because we were both starving. We went back to 'Pies and Pint's', a local pizza hangout, because, again, it was the first place we ever shared a meal together. We shared a wonderful pizza together  and sat and talked for quite some time.
   From lunch we went on out to the dance where Rima spent  a little more than an hour dancing some of the afternoon session while I put the seat back in the truck and took a much needed nap. We ended up back at the Cajun restaurant for dinner on Saturday night, but this time we went with a couple of friends of ours. They all had various entrees that all looked really good while I settled for a Cajun burger that was probably one of the best ones I've ever had. Add in some sweet potato fries and nearly endless glasses of ice tea and it was just a delightful experience.
   The only downside to the whole evening there was that when we came out after dinner someone had knocked off my driver side mirror on the truck. Some of it was found under the truck, but most was still hanging from it's electrical wiring. Enough anyway that I could duct tape the main part of the mirror back on and it looks like it will work for at least a couple of days. Until I can get it replaced anyway.   
   One can't dwell on such things though, so we headed back to the dance for the evening session and had another 3-4 hours of fun dancing to the 'Mean Lids'. Lot's and lot's of fun. We had a full three lines of dancers and it was fun all the way to midnight.
   Another early morning because the last session of dancing was starting at 11:00. We nearly made it there for the first dance, but not quite. We both danced all of the dances in the first hour and a half and then took a short break. By the 2nd session I was starting to slow down a bit and actually sat out a couple of the dances. It was still fun to watch all the other dancers and listen to the music. We did manage to do the last dance of the day and then did the two final waltz's together.  All in all it was a very nice weekend of dancing. As we had already packed up the truck earlier we just took off for home after that.
    A couple of hours of driving brought us back to the house were we promptly both took a nap. Just a short amount of time to take a short walk before dark later on and then took it easy for the rest of the evening.
    It was looking like rain earlier this morning with even some thunder in the distance, so I was holding tight to see how it was going turn out. But now the sun is shining and I am going to head out for Christiansburg to do some grocery shopping and then pick up some framing lumber for the rebuilding of the wood shed. But first there will be lunch with Rima at a new café there that she wants to eat at. So for now... I'm off.


*

    On the road later this morning. Headed out to a weekend dance in Fayetteville, WV. that starts later this evening. This year at White Water Whirl we have the music of the Mean Lids and the Contrarians along with the calling of Gaye and Shaun. Should be a great time and I'm looking forward to being all hot and sweaty again now that spring has finally arrived. Need to go load the truck though and check the oil and stuff. Will try to write more on Monday.