Almost a Mountain Mama

Sorry for no posts for over a week. We have spent eight of the last eleven days in the mountains, working on our little cabin and enjoying the warming weather of spring. Even though we have been working hard, it is always inspiring to be in the mountains. We sleep in a camper at the edge of our property, which is above a trout stream, an old dam with a spillover, and adjacent to farmland. In the morning we wake to the sounds of a pileated woodpecker, a kingfisher, calves moaning, frogs, you name it! In fact, one morning Charlie said it was like sleeping with the "Farmer See-and-Say" toy that our boys played with as toddlers, where you pull the string and hear animal sounds. I will miss the sounds of nature when we move indoors, but will probably sleep better! Saturday night Tropical Storm Barrie brought some much-needed relief from the drought our whole region has been experiencing. It started raining overnight and continued throughout Sunday. In fact, as we arrived back home in Wake Forest the skies darkened and a severe thunderstorm unloaded buckets of rain right over our neighborhood.

Anyway, our house did not pass inspection yet. Some of the changes must be made by our builder, and several were electrical in nature. We worked on some of the problems this weekend, but we need our posse of volunteer carpenter relatives to do things like add vents for the exhaust fans. Charlie and I are not too eager to cut holes in the side of the log cabin by ourselves! So, we took a Gator ride over the Christmas tree farms on the top, drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway which is just a few miles away, and even threw some tubes in the COLD creek for a little refreshing float.

One of my projects was to hack out a stairway to the bench Charlie placed for me in a fern bank above the creek. That is my morning perch where I drink my coffee and watch the beavers, hummingbirds, and other wildlife. A photo from my bench is posted below. I was afraid I was going to bust my tail walking up there in the morning dew. I am very proud of the fact that I built a stairway all by myself, using leftover pieces of logs from the cabin that I buried into the ground using a mattock and shovel. I even used a level, and drove around in the Gator picking up large flat rocks. Even after it rained hard Saturday night, my nice stair path was tight with no logs rolling around uncooperatively. I have been taking a sketch book and some watercolor pencils in an attempt to improve my drawing skills and record some of my views.

On Saturday of this week, we are heading in the opposite direction to go to the beach for a week of rest and relaxation. It could not come at a better time! No painting, sanding, shopping at the home improvement warehouse, or any other manual exertion except carrying our chairs to the beach and lifting cold drinks to our mouths. I can't wait!