So busy.... and so very tired tonight. There is actually a reason, or rather several reasons, why there have been no posting for a while. I've been too busy during the day, and way too tired every night. I am still at Rima's place near the town of Floyd Virginia, and have been doing a bunch of odd job kind of things around the place while she has been busy working. Right now there are 3 major endeavors  that I work at when I get the chance, and several others that I try to do when there are a few extra minutes between major jobs.
   Number 1 remains working at creating a new shop area for me to work in and store my tools. The area I picked is a small room at one edge of the barn complex, that had been stuffed with old materials from several different groups of people. It took me several days just to clean that stuff out before I could even start rebuilding it. The whole barn complex is a mish-mash of different rooms, each with it's own unique type of wall, roof and ceiling, and every one of them finished in some manner that utilized found materials. So none of it is structurally sound, it is all infested with vermin of all kinds, and most of it is on the verge of falling down.
   So I started tearing down what stood in for walls in the shop area, which was really only 1x wooden boards nailed onto a couple 2x purlins and then covered in various forms of batt or rigid insulation. What a pain in the butt it was to pull all of that stuff off.. In fact it was nailed on with so many nails in some cases that I had to go buy a new 3 foot long wrecking bar just to get some of it to come free. Once off though I could start reframing some real walls again with real 2"x4"s and everything.
   Of course nothing is level or square in the whole place so it has been pretty interesting getting it all put back together. As of tonight I have nearly all of the 3 exterior walls reframed with only a couple more studs needed to finish up one door opening. But I ran out of 2"x4"s so it will have to wait until I get into town again and pick some more up. In the meantime I can finish up attaching some more hurricane ties to the upper end of the roof joists and even start putting some of the sheathing on the exterior walls.
    Number two on the list of things to do is to clear out more of the fence right of way out by the entrance road. I got a lot of that done last week when I piled up all of the slash we had down on the ground from the trees we cut in January. I also cut up all of the trees we had down and got most of them piled up and ready for transport down to the wood shed. There are still a ton of trees to cut down however and tons of brush to still cut out and remove. I'm shooting for clearing another 200-300 feet of fence line before the trees and poison ivy leaf out, as well as putting at least another dozen trees on the ground for fire wood next winter.
   And the third thing on the list is getting the rest of the horse barn mucked out. It isn't really so much that the barn really needs it, as it isn't that deep or even smelly, but I really need the material I'm removing in order to build up and level an area outside of the barn where I want to put in a 4'x12' raised planting bed for a little bit of a garden.
   So those three main jobs are keeping me busy while there are still minor things that need to be done around the place as well. I did get another peach tree planted the other day so now we have two new ones and they look like they are doing okay so far. I also transplanted two cherry trees that Rima had started from seeds several years ago. They went out along the driveway into the house and should look nice along with the apricot tree that is already out there.
   I also spent some time over the last couple of days pruning that tree up pretty drastically. I had lightly pruned it a couple of years ago, but that just invigorated it to grow even more branches back until it was so entwined that there was no light or air getting into the center of the tree. So even though there were thousands of blossoms last year, not a single fruit made it through the season. In fact most of the branches were developing a fungus on them which I hope my pruning this year will help control.
   I must also start looking at getting the mowers in shape as the lawns are going to be needing some mowing here in a week or two. There is also more tree trimming and pruning around the house to do as well as lots of fencing to redo. It seems pretty overwhelming at times, but the reality is that I don't have to do any of it if I don't want to. I just prefer doing something that keeps me active and stimulates my mind once in a while. On the other hand; I keep wondering why I'm not in Hawaii with Rima right now contra dancing to the tunes of the Great Bear Trio and swimming in the ocean all day long.
   A few last thoughts before I close; I did my taxes finally today. It only takes me about 2 hours to do them as they are pretty easy to figure out. I don't own anything anymore so there are no deductions to take, I donate money every year to a couple pet causes, but that is never enough to make any difference. So I do a short form and take a standard deduction and end up paying about as much as someone in my income bracket can pay..... and I really don't mind it all that much. I like having highways that work and National and State Parks to visit, and I like having fireman and policeman around as well as a good national defense. I don't even mind if a few bucks go to feed hungry people or those who are less fortunate. I always like to remind myself that most of us are only one bad car accident away from having to live under a bridge somewhere, and it's nice to know someone might care somewhere.
    That being said, I'm still getting a few bucks back this year so there might even be enough to splurge a little bit when I go to Europe next month with Rima. Not enough to go crazy unfortunately, but maybe I can come back with  a couple of new shot glasses from somewhere new.




































brk*

   It has been a terrifically busy past couple of days here at Rima's place, just outside of Floyd Virginia. The first part of the week started off nice, and I spent a couple of days cleaning up the last bunch of trash in one of the rooms in her barn that I want to refinish and turn into a shop. After getting most of the junk packed up and deposited in huge trash bags I could get down to the serious business of tearing walls down in anticipation of rebuilding them in such a manner that I wouldn't be in constant fear of them falling down on me in the future. Along the way I ran into town a couple of times for building materials and a few new tools, including a much bigger wrecking bar to make it easier to take down some of the wooden boards that had been used as siding.
   About the time I got to a point where I could start to rebuild it clouded up and started to rain again. Normally this would be okay as that project is inside out of the rain so the wetness wouldn't be a problem. But the grey cloud cover also made it to dark to work inside as there is very little natural light coming in and there is no electricity out there at the moment for me to rig lights to see by.
   But that was no matter as there is always something else to take care of around the place. I spent a couple of hours planting a new peach tree in what we hope will become the orchard area. The planting and pruning didn't take much time, but putting together a wire cage 6 feet tall and about 4 feet in diameter, and then staking it in with 3 old fence posts did take some.
    Since the rain was light a lot of the time it also gave me a chance to start mucking out the horse barn. It looks like it might of been more than a year since the last time, and it is pretty deep inside there. I have maybe a fourth or fifth of it done so far and it is getting deeper the farther inside I'm going. Unfortunately it all has to be done the old fashioned way by shovel and wheel barrel. But it does give you plenty of time to think while you are working, and it isn't like it has to be done at any set time. Right now I'm hauling all that nice decomposing horse poop, with all the hay and straw mixed in, outside to an area that I would like to level up a little bit. The plan is to knock together at least one 4'x12' raised bed garden box and set it up where the level area is.  The box will be at least two feet deep, and while there will be some good, "old" horse manure used in the box it will be placed down low where it can mellow quite a bit before any plant roots will hit it.
    There have been a few other minor chores that have happened including getting a hair cut the other day, it actually looks pretty good, as well as doing some grocery shopping. Tool wise; in addition to the 24" long crow bar I have also gotten a new 8 gal. air compressor to run my nail guns with, as well as a little palm nailer that I have found to work well for nailing up between joists and for putting nails into hurricane ties and joist hangers. Both of which I will be doing a lot of.
   There is still a lot of brush to clear and trees to cut down out along the west fence line of the place, and that all needs to be done before the trees and bushes, especially the poison ivy, comes out again. There are plenty of other trees that need to be cut and trimmed up also, so it isn't like there isn't anything to do around the place.
   That is why today was a day to relax with Rima. She took me down to Roanoke for a concert by their Symphony Orchestra. A special Holocaust concert featuring numbers written by, performed by or listened to by people who had been interred in one or another of the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. Quite sad at times to think of all who died, but also uplifting to know that even in the face of such adversity people could hold on to some of the values that were important to them.
   Afterwards we went for a short walk along a lake and then off to find food, finally settling on Korean food at the Wonju Café for dinner. I opted for a meal of Pork Bulgogi, very tasty.... and hot, while Rima had Galbi Dolsot Bibimbap. ( She ordered it just because the name sounded so fun and she wanted to be able to say she had eaten some of it). Essentially a bunch of veggies and the meat off of some short ribs all cooked together and served in a scorching hot stone pot. It was all terrific, even though my tongue is still on fire.
    There are still plenty of other things to do that are coming up in a few weeks or months. We have signed up for several contra dance weekends during the next few months including ones in New York state, Virginia, Kentucky and.... ? I can't remember. We also need to finalize plans for our trip to England next month, for a week of dancing there in Ely. Mainly we have to figure out what else we are going to do afterwards. Right now we know we want to go to Norway, but that is about as far as it has gotten so far.
    There will actually be a few pictures along the way at sometime, but mostly I just come in after being out all afternoon and want to collapse, so it may take a while to get anything downloaded and ready to go. In the meantime I will continue to post when I can, but it most likely won't be on a daily basis... not that it was everyday anyway.


brk*

   Have been in Virginia for 4 days now, and so far I am still unfrozen and am actually enjoying the weather for the most part. Even though it is raining today and may curtail any activities outside for me. Right now I'm just finishing up my usual routine of checking email, looking at facebook, reading the comics, and getting something to eat for breakfast/lunch.
   I spent some time yesterday putting together a couple loaves of sourdough bread. I got the starter a couple of months ago when I visited my sister and her husband at their place out in Morton Washington. Martin had created the starter himself and was good enough to give me enough to get me started, and I have managed to keep it alive since then. It makes really wonderful sourdough pancakes just as it is, but it has been difficult to work up a good bread recipe so far. The hard part is that almost all recipes for sourdough bread include adding in more yeast, rather than letting the natural yeast in the starter do all of the work of making the dough rise. What I didn't understand until yesterday is that it can take from 5-12 hours if you rely just on the natural yeast in the starter. Of course it would be easier if I just used extra yeast also, but it turns out that Rima is somewhat allergic to that, which is why she doesn't eat much regular bread.... or drink beer or wine either. Thankfully she can still drink regular alcohol though.
    So the end result is that it was after midnight last night before the bread actually came out of the oven. Even then it still isn't quite what I'm looking for. The taste was fine, but there is still a question of how much additional liquid needs to be added while mixing. This last batch was really sticky during its second rise. So there is some additional work to be done before it works the way it is suppose to.
   In the meantime there have been other things happening since I got here. I got here late Saturday afternoon after two days of driving up from Florida. Sunday was spent sleeping and catching up with Rima. We had a very nice lunch out at our favorite restaurant in Floyd, Micky G's, and we also ran a couple of errands and did a little grocery shopping.
    Monday came in sunny and almost warm. Rima had to work at home all day so I spent the afternoon outside cutting down trees and then carrying them back up the hill when they fell down the hill instead of up. I got most of one tree up off the worst part of the hill, but it meant cutting it up where it lay and moving one 25-30 lb piece at a time across the fall of the hill while worrying about either falling down the hill or breaking a leg sliding off one of the moss covered rocks. I have to admit that after nearly 6 months of not doing any logging stuff like that my back and legs were pretty sore that night and most of yesterday.
   I took a day off from most labor yesterday. One, because I was still sore, but also because it was grey and raining outside. So I drove into the big city yesterday afternoon and did some additional grocery shopping and then stopped into Home Depot to pick up some 2x4's, screws and a new air compressor. Most of the wood will be used to rebuild some walls out in the barn so I can outfit a small shop to hold some tools and do some work out of the weather. The air compressor will help run some of my nail guns as well as keep the truck tires inflated where they are suppose to be. Of course all of that stuff still needs to be unloaded from the truck since it was near dark last night when I finally made it back here.
   It was raining pretty steady all morning here, but has nearly stopped at this point. So this afternoon will be the time to get everything unloaded and get busy tearing off old sheathing and preparing to start rebuilding. I'm looking forward to it.


brk*

   Two long days of driving have taken me out of the middle of Florida and dropped me down in mid Virginia near the town of Floyd. Along the way I exchanged sunny, 80 degree weather, thou it was cloudy and cooler on the day I left, for 45-50 degrees and snow on the ground.
   Yesterday when I left it was cloudy with rain all day long while I drove north through Georgia and S. Carolina. That was okay though because it meant not having to turn the air conditioner on like I had been doing in the Gainsville area. It was rather chilly last night though while I was parked in the rest area just south of Charlottesville. I ended up throwing an extra sleeping bag on the bed as well as putting socks and a t-shirt on. Even then it was a little bit cold, especially this morning when I woke up and had to scrape ice off of the windshield before getting back on the road.
    It was a pleasant enough day today. Only around 45-50 for most of it, but the sun was shining and as long as the wind wasn't blowing too hard it was comfortable enough being out in it.
    I pulled into Rima's place around 5:00 and got the trailer parked and unhooked from the truck. Emptied the fridge and freezer out and grabbed a basket full of clothes before the sun went down. I've been hanging out and waiting for Rima to get here since then. She's on a bus somewhere between Christiansburg and D.C. right now, as she had taken a trip up to NYC this last week to see one of her ex-brother-in-laws give a piano performance at the Lincoln Center, and then get married to his partner the next day. Her original ETA was suppose to be around 3:30 a.m., but the Mega-Bus had some mechanical problems so now it is any bodies guess as to when she will arrive. I wish I could stay up until she made it home but I'm tired so it's time to go take a real shower and then get some sleep.


brk*

  One final full day here in the middle of Florida. Will be packing up the trailer this evening and tomorrow morning and be on the road north before noon.... if it all goes well anyway.
   I finished up going through the last of my magazines and now have them all ready to be given away, or what remains of them, thrown out. That should save me a good 10+ pounds in the trailer. Not an unsubstantial amount if you have to tow it for 600-700 miles. Also got the truck positioned and ready to hook up in the morning as well as put the towing mirrors back on. Tomorrow I'll finish draining the tanks and hook everything up and then try to back the whole thing out of here without falling into the canal that is on either side.
   Took one last run into the town of Gainsville to pick up a few last minute things and fill the trucks gas tank up. I also stopped in one last time at El Tienda for a late lunch. Today I made do with a scallop burrito. It is so-o-o good, but surprisingly not my favorite. For that it is still a toss up between pulled goat and/or beef cheek. But then everything I have ever eaten there has been pretty darn good.
   One really neat thing today is that I sync'd up my new phone with my GPS system, (Emma), in the truck. Hadn't really thought to try it while I had a separate Bluetooth ear bud, but once that one went swimming, along with my old phone, it was time to find a new one just in case I need it while on the road. It turns out that the GPS one works wonderfully and even sounds better than the old one did to anyone I am talking too. The only thing too still check out is if it will answer the phone okay and whether or not I have to keep the volume on high all of the time. Guess I'll find out most of that in the next couple of days.
    Here are a few more photos from my trip over to Wakulla Springs last month. Right now though I need to finish this up and then go and do some more packing.

Wakulla Spring State Park boat ride with Rima

February 2015 - Part II

I love all of these trees with the Spanish moss on them.

A nice little White Ibis hunting for lunch.

One of many wild alligators there along the spring run.

Right behind Rima is where all the water comes out of the ground. As a Class A spring this one spews forth a minimum of 10 million gallons of water a day. This one actually flows even more than that most of the time. But it is hard to believe that a whole river of water can come out of one hole in the ground.

Here you can get an idea of how much water is flowing out of the ground. This whole river, which is maybe 4'-6' deep on average at this point, is located just a couple hundred yards down from where it comes out of the ground.

A Little Blue Heron.

An adult White Ibis and what I think are juvenile ones.

Several hundred Black Vultures call the park home during the winter.

A nice little water turtle.

Rima and I also took a short walk out through the forest after the boat ride. Here we are standing on a bridge over another much smaller spring run.

More Cypress Knees.

brk*

   It has been really nice down here in Florida the last couple of days. So nice in fact that it was hard to hang around inside and do all those regular things I do... like updating my blog on a regular basis. Oops! Sorry, but those of you who have been following this for awhile know that if it is a choice between writing this and being outside or doing something else that is fun.... well, the fun wins out every time.
    So with that being said; most of my time has been taken up doing stuff around this area including a trip to a nearby State Park that I didn't even know existed until a couple weeks ago. Mill Hopper State Park is located at the north edge of Gainsville city limits. But it is a nice small bit of wild right next to the city. The main feature of the park is basically a 120 foot deep sink hole. You can walk down a 'WHOLE' lot of stairs to the bottom of the hole, passing some nice little micro climate areas along the way. These run the gamete from basic Florida scrub land to a near rain forest area at the bottom of the hole. Of course walking down all those stairs also means walking back up every single one of them. It's a bit of a pain but I'm glad I did it... probably don't want to do it again though.
    Also took a couple short hikes over at Payne's Prairie  these past few days. Not much new there other than seeing a few deer and a couple bunches of turkeys. But still fun.
   Today I went and took in a movie. A typical 'Boys Night Out' type,' The Seventh Son' was entertaining enough, but like most of those types of films, it had few socially redeeming values and really.... didn't have much of a plot either.
   In the end I think I have gotten a lot more enjoyment out of watching DVD's of old TV reruns of the Andy Griffith show. I have made it through the original 1st and 3rd seasons and am working on the 6th. I would of liked to have watched all the years in order, but it has been hard to find many of them without going on line and ordering them. No matter though, each episode pretty much stands on it's own and brings a bit of old fashion common sense and morality to everyday life. A couple things I have observed though, other than Andy and Helen, most of the other characters are kind of dumb. Of course I know it was all played for laughs, but Don Knotts as Barney Fife sometimes makes me just want to punch him.
   One other interesting thing I noticed last night.... So this all takes place in Mayberry North Carolina sometime in the early 60's, ( remember.... this is the south), so up until last night there hasn't been a single black person in any of the shows. Last night I finally saw one couple in the background and that's it. Hard to believe our country was so segregated even then.
   Only two more days to go before I pull out of here. I am hoping for some decent weather on my run up to Virginia, but it sounds like it might be in for some more snow tonight. It may mean pulling off along the way and waiting an extra day or two, but I'll play that by ear. Tomorrow I'll start packing stuff away and getting ready to go. I'm getting anxious to be out on the road again.
    Here are some pictures I took nearly a month ago when Rima first got into town. It was a nice day to go over to Wakulla Springs and take a river boat ride.

Wakulla Springs State Park boat ride with Rima.

February 2015

You can take a nice hour to hour and a half boat ride there at the springs for $8.00. Maybe one of the all time great deals still left. For that you get a ranger along who will help spot and identify all kinds of birds, plants and so forth along the way. Going at this time of year, and during the middle of the week, you are likely to have a nearly empty boat. I think there might of been 8 of us on this trip.

These are 'Cypress Knees' growing along the shore line. Most scientists think that they not only help anchor the tree, since it often grows right in the water, but that it helps supply oxygen to the roots when the tree is flooded. I just think they look neat.

It was rather chilly the day we were there even though the sun was out and shining. Good thing I always have a coat or two in the truck.

The trees with all the Spanish moss on them are bald cypress. They actually have needles like an evergreen tree during the summer instead of regular leaves like a deciduous tree, but they shed their needles every fall just like oaks and maples do.

A couple of turtles, or 'Cooters', as they call them down here.

I love how the moss blows with the wind and how it gleams when the sun hits it just right.

More cypress knees, but this time with an 'Anhinga' bird sunning itself.

A closer view of an Anhinga, this one being a female. Unlike most bird species, the female of this one has the beautiful plumage. I love how the feathers fit together just so.

Rima is enjoying the ride.

We actually came across a few manatee still in the upper reaches of the spring. Normally as soon as it warms up they go back down into the main part of the river, or even back too the ocean to resume feeding. But it must of still been cool enough for this cow and her calf, as well as a couple others, to still be hanging around. 

 

 

More pictures next time.

brk*