Spent most of yesterday outdoors with Rima cutting down trees and brush and then cutting it all up into firewood and stacking the slash into a big pile.... boy was I sore. I did most of the initial cutting down of the trees and thinning out of the brush. The majority of it was out along the fence line I had started clearing several days ago. The idea was to go back in there and now cut out all the stuff that had been too big to cut out with a pair of loppers or a hand saw. It worked out for the most part the way I thought it would. Most of the trees came down pretty easily, dropping into the pasture pretty much where I wanted them to. They did however bring down an amazing amount of other vines and limbs and detritus along with them. Enough so that it soon became a real jungle just walking from one tree to the next. In the end it was a matter of escaping out into the pasture first and then working our way back in from that perimeter, cutting and clearing as we went.
    Rima did a lot of the clean up, hauling huge piles of limbs and vines and rose canes over to a pile we had started last spring.  It was soon well over the height of the two of us so it was a matter of throwing stuff up and on top of it. It seemed like nearly everything we cut had huge thorns on them that were just waiting to stab you in every place imaginable.
   I worked at bucking the trees we had down on the ground to start. First cutting off all of the smaller limbs and then cutting the rest into firewood sized lengths. There were several times though where I couldn't cut the limbs or trunks as they laid on the ground, so it was a matter of handing the chainsaw off to Rima and letting her cut them as I held them up for her.
   We didn't get everything we cut down cleaned up, or cut up, in the 4+ hours we were out there, but we managed to get a lot of it picked up before finally calling it quits. We were both pretty worn out by that time anyway and any further use of a chainsaw would of been dangerous in either of our hands.
   So we came in and had a good hot shower, hopefully washing any poison ivy sap or dust off along the way. Then we had some dinner and got dressed for the contra dance last night in Blacksburg. By this time my back and shoulders were feeling pretty sore, as in I'm barely able to walk, but we went anyway because the music was going to be good and maybe some dancing would loosen some of those muscles up.
    I ended up doing only 3 dances, but it really was enough to make the drive worthwhile. The only problem I was having was with partners who 'jump' or 'bounce' when they dance. In other words not real smooth dancers, but ones who kind of jerk as they swing or move. Other contra dancers will know exactly what I mean. But it was okay actually, I had a good time and I think it was okay for Rima although it is likely she would of stayed longer if I hadn't wanted to go. She seems to be a lot tougher than I am in some things.
   Today has been a day of relaxation. Both of us just hung out around the house this morning. I read the comics and Rima did some work. My back was much better today also. Certainly a combination of good drugs and a good nights sleep really helped. I still didn't want to a repeat of yesterday yet, but by tomorrow I should be just about right again.
    We took off for Floyd this afternoon. Rima sings in two choirs here and today was one of the performances they will host. A round of holiday music was just right for this cold and cloudy day. The singing was really quite good although it is hard for me when so much of traditional holiday music is sung in the original Latin.  I liked it all though, and it didn't last that long anyway.
   Afterwards we looked for a place to have some dinner, but several of our favorites were closed for the day. Rima suggested someplace new for me, the 'Pinewoods Tavern' on the east outskirts of the city. I had been by the place many times and Rima had said the food use to be pretty good there, but she hadn't been for many years because they have ceiling fans in the summer and she can't be in a room where they are turning. But being winter we decided to take a chance and lo, they didn't have them on. Instead they had a roaring fire at one end of the dining room and a nice, hot heater going at the other. Just right for dining.
    They serve many of their meals there family style, ie, the food comes out on serving platters and bowls that everyone serves from, instead of coming already placed on individual plates. They will actually serve it that way if you want, but we decided on the family style meal that came with two different meats, we picked fried chicken and pulled pork and a half dozen or so side dishes. So along with our main course we also got mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken and dumplings, broccoli casserole, coleslaw, homemade biscuits, green beans, pinto beans, and blackberry cobbler with ice cream for dessert. You of course also got a drink of your choice with it, I had ice tea of course, while Rima had hot. It was wonderful!!!! All of the food was very tasty, other than the pinto beans. For some reason they just tasted too bland to me. But everything else was great.... and you could have as much of it as you wanted. We didn't even make it through all of the initial offering tho, so we were pretty content. And the best part of it.... $14-$16 per person depending on how many different meats you choose. They also had ham and roast beef.
   So now we are back home and warm and full and happy. We are going to start peeling lemons here in a little bit in preparation for making another gallon of lemoncello. I hope it turns out as good as last years as we have just a little bit of that left to go.


brk*