Blog

 When we built our log home, the walk-in front has a full width covered porch 8 feet deep with a view I have often used on my blog at various seasons.  This porch is north facing and has two ceiling fans for those very few days when it is both hot and still.  Our home sits in a hollow on the flank of a mountain that soars another 2000+ feet to the north of us and a gap to the south that is probably 1000 feet lower than us.  This makes for a delightful climate that has a breeze to a strong wind nearly every day.  Last fall after the house was restained and passed the final certificate of occupancy, we had a temporary one for several years, we landscaped the front and east sides of the house, including a deep set back where the utility room joins the garage.

This porch has often been used to sit with morning coffee, to take a sheltered break from yard work or to just sit and read.  The view from this porch includes our old barn and the flank of Salt Pond Mountain, atop which sits Mountain Lake Hotel, the site of the film “Dirty Dancing.”

Also as the house shell was being turned over to us for our son, his partner, and who ever else he could recruit to finish the inside, he also tackled a south facing deck.  Our dining room on the back side of the house opened out above a walkout basement and boy was that a big first step.  We either had to have steps or a deck.  He designed and built an awesome retaining wall from the field stone on the property and build a deck with an 8 X 12′ walk the french doors open onto, leading to a 16 X 12′ foot deck with steps leading down onto the lawn.  This deck was furnished only with a standing swing bench and a huge treated lumber picnic table and was grossly under used.

This deck because of it’s exposure has not held stain very well and is too hot to enjoy in the evenings until the sun is low over the west hillside.  It became our spring project, now that the basement project is over, and with the help of a neighbor, it was powerwashed to strip it of the old peeling stain, new ballusters installed, and the whole thing restained with a penetrating oil stain.  As the spring warmed, I planted the planters with red gerber daisies and lantana to attract the hummingbirds and they were placed on the newly finished deck with the herb pots and two large rosemary bushes in pots.

Today, we decided to complete its look and make it more user friendly, moving a glass topped outdoor dining table back there to replace the warped peeling picnic table, restained the porch swing and replaced it on the deck, and purchased 4 outdoor dining chairs with cushions and a matching umbrella.  The deck looks so inviting, that we dined outdoors enjoying the gorgeous eve and the delightful breeze.

 Thankful for the completed deck maintenance, new ballusters, fresh stain, and a neighbor we like who wanted the work to do it.

The beautiful spring flowers, planted and wild.

A healthy pup, who handled his neutering early this week and was “graduated” from puppy high school this weekend 😉

Continued beautiful weather, inspite of one day of torrential rain and wind.

Puppy neutered today, resting with Dad while I spin and show off the 268 yards I have plied so far.

I am most thankful that our son and daughter-in-law were not seriously injured Friday night when they wrecked a motorcycle.

My first yarn from the wheel, 268 yards.

Thankful that 32 years ago today, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, who has grown into a handsome, intelligent adult, a wonderful father to our eldest grandson.

Garden thrives,
lawn mowed, it was very tall from all the rain,
daily walks with the dog of a mile or so plus a strenuous hour on the treadmill.
Hay is almost ready to mow and bale (not our job),
the junk is now removed from the property.
Spring is good, life is good.

First fireflies of the year and butterflies abound;

New to me spinning wheel, this beauty is more than 45 years old and spins like a dream, what a lovely craft;

First Mountain Laurel for the season, saw one very early Rhododendron but couldn’t get to it to photograph, and the Flame Azaleas are stunning this year;

Junk finally cleared out of the sinkhole after 7 1/2 years fretting about it;

The health to walk an hour a day on the treadmill, getting back in shape; plus our daily walks with the pup on the local trails, and there are many to explore.

Retirement is grand, my hubby is awesome, my kids and grands are the best, I’m lovin’ life.

       When we bought our farmland 7 1/2 years ago, one of the advertised features was a “waterfall.”  Let me clarify that we have a creek that runs down the northeast side of the farm, stronger at some times of the year than others, but it has never fully gone dry.  Feeding into it at the bottom is a runoff creek that only flows when the ground is wet and we have had a fair amount of rain.  The permanent creek tumbled down a rocky gully create by its flow over the past thousands of years, not truly a waterfall.  This county is noted for its caves, some large enough to explore, some underground creating a nightmare for well drillling and these underground caves sometimes collapse, creating sink holes.  The two creeks terminate in one of these sink holes, some 25 feet down below the surrounding land.  One face of it is a cliff where the water disappears underground except in very unusual conditions.  Twice since we bought this land, we have seen the creek run hard enough to create a pond and overflow down the old creekbed.

     The only dismaying feature of our farm was that this sinkhole had been used probably for several generations as a place to dump trash, not just bottles and cans, but 2 stoves, a wringer washing machine, tractor or truck parts, a water heater, and many hundreds of pounds of old fencing wire, along with the bottles and cans.  In addition, there were a couple hundred old tires, some in the sink hole, most in the edge of the woods.

     Before we began to build, we drove across the state about once a month to obtain permits, get perk tests done, hire a well driller, deal with the power company, etc., and on each of these trips we spent one day hauling the several hundred tires and hundreds of bags of bottles and cans to the dump, having to pay a couple of dollars each to dispose of the tires.  The big stuff we couldn’t handle, much less move it up the 25 foot cliff to dispose of it.  We have been bothered by this for 7 1/2 years as we don’t know if the disappearing water bleeds into our drinking water table or not.

     Today with the help of our neighbor and his son, a 130 foot cable with hooks on both ends, a tow strap with hooks on both ends, our 28 hp tractor,  lots of climbing up and down the slope and cliff face, we hauled it all to the top, awaiting a local fellow who will come pick it up, haul it away to the scrap yard for the bit of money he will get selling it.

     There are still many bags of bottles and cans to pick up, but now we can do it without trying to avoid the piles of fencing and the large chunks of metal.  The sink hole looks cleaner already.  We are exhausted in a good sort of way, I’m sure our neighbor is totally done in as he was the major hill climber and guider of the junk up the slope while I drove the tractor that hauled it to the top.