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*