Life on Snow Hill

Today was the first day I’ve really had in a while to get things done around the house that I’ve been needing to do.  Our church has been in revival for the past 2 weeks, which has been great.  The Lord has been working in my heart, as well as many others in the church.  Things around the house, though, have suffered.  I’m fine with that, I’m just saying why things have piled up.

The task I focused on today, for as long as I could, was to work on getting some firewood cut up and split.  There was a log in my yard that had been cut down at the beginning of Winter sometime, but I had never done anything with it until today.

So I broke out the dull chainsaw and whittled away at the log with it.  I finally got it cut up into several pieces and went to work splitting it.  I probably worked for about 3 hours on the whole thing.  My body isn’t used to hard manual labor, so that’s about all I could handle for today.

Oh!  I can’t forget to add this.  Someone told me recently that I needed more pictures here on my blog (you know who you are).  So I thought I’d add a boring picture to represent my boring day.  What is stacked is what I worked on today. What you can see in the background is what I still need to do something with.  I’ll split what I can, but the huge knots in some of them are more than I usually feel like dealing with.

Becky and I took a trip to Gatlinburg over the last few days.  We have a sort of trial timeshare with Diamond Resorts, and we decided to take advantage of it for a few days.  We plan to go again in late January to finish out our trial.

We had a good time while we were there.  We got to relax some, and were able to do a few fun things, too.  Of course, anyone that has been in or around Gatlinburg knows that the scenic views in the area can be breathtaking.  This particular photo was taken at Newfound Gap in the Smokies.

While we were there, we spent about a day and a half in Dollywood.  I don’t know if they do this all year, but we found that if you go in after 3pm on one day, you can get in the next day for free.  So we took advantage of that.  We enjoyed a couple of bluegrass bands, saw the Kingdom Heirs (We found that their piano player, Andy Stringfield, lives about a 20 minute drive from where we live), got sick on a couple of roller-coasters and shopped around a bit.

After Dollywood, we spent some time in the Great Smoky Mountains.  We drove up to Clingman’s Dome, took the .5 mile hike up to the top and enjoyed the view.  Don’t let that .5 mile fool you though – it’s steep, and pretty challenging.  Neither Becky or I are in the best shape, but we’re not in terrible shape either.  We had to take a few breaks on the way to the top.  Once we got there, the view was awesome, but the wind was chilling.  We enjoyed the view for a while, took some photos and made our way back down.  We spoke to a Marine, a Vietnam Vet, who had some interesting stories to tell.  We enjoyed talking to him for a little while, then had to move on.  On the way back down towards Gatlinburg, we stopped at Newfound Gap.  We took a few more photos, and learned a few things about the area that I’m sure most of you already know about.  There is a monument there where President FDR dedicated it and the National Park.  The Tennessee/North Carolina state line also runs right through the area where that monument was built.

That evening, we went to the Dixie Stampede.  This makes about the 3rd time we’ve gone, I believe.  It is expensive, but it’s always a fun show to watch, and the food is always very, very good.  I finally saw a mess-up for the first time in the show.  The girl that rides standing up on two horses fell off when she was trying to get them to bow at the end of her act.  She wasn’t hurt at all – she just had to jump off before she completely lost her balance.  Again, though, the show was a lot of fun as always.

We packed up and headed home Wednesday morning.  We had a lot of fun, but it’s always good to get back home.

If you’d like to see, here are a few more photos from the trip.

I went outside this morning to do a couple of things and I noticed these clouds in the sky (click on the image for a bigger photo).

Did you ever play that game as a kid where you tried to find shapes in the clouds?  You could find dolphins, rabbits, and even houses if you used your imagination.

These clouds just look wicked though.  I don’t know what it is about them, but if you look closely you can see different fiery creatures in them.  Maybe my mind was just bent that way at that moment for some reason.  Now those images will always be found in this photo.

Over the past several weeks, my dad has gotten into honeybees. He’s bought a few books, built a few hives and learned as much as he can about them. They’re actually very amazing creatures! From how they pick a queen and take care of her, to how they do a dance to show the worker bees where the flowers are, and how far away they are, they’re truly something.

Dad found a swarm in a tree where they’ve been making honey. He cut the tree above where most of their comb is, and put a hive on top of that. He also bought another hive with a swarm already in it.

I’ve tasted some of the honey myself, and it is really sweet and tasty. I know, honey is honey. But this was as fresh as it comes.

I spent a few minutes yesterday taking some pictures of the hive, and Dad started playing with the bees while I was down there, so you’ll see a picture with one of them getting honey off his finger. Enjoy!

Becky and I spent some time last night helping our pastor with his garden. Some deer had gotten into it, and some of it needed to be replanted. So we loaded up the tiller and headed that way.

The first thing we noticed were the trees that had been blown over from the storm the night before.  First of all, there was a branch that broke off one tree right next to their house, but didn’t hit the house.  In the other end of the yard, there were two trees that had been blown over into the woods.  It wasn’t until later that we saw several other trees in the woods that had been blown over.  These didn’t break…no…they were uprooted.  There was a line of trees – it’s almost as if a miniature tornado swept through there.

Anyway, we started working in the garden and as I was running the tiller through it, I noticed how rich the dirt was.  I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been jealous of somebody else’s dirt.  The dirt where I have my garden is rich, but this was much richer.

We only got enough dirt worked up to plant 3 rows of corn, and I worked up a little patch of dirt in the yard at the edge of the garden for their 8 tomato plants.  At that point it was too dark to do any more, but we were pleased with what we were able to accomplish.

As most of you know by now, I’ve been really excited about the arrival of Spring.  This week in particular has been really warm, with highs in the mid-70′s most of the time, and lows only as low as the 50′s.  I was even able to ride the motorcycle all week long to save a ton on gas.

Becky and I have been watching the tulips grow in our front yard.  We bought some bulbs last fall and planted them, not expecting any blooms for the first year.  But we noticed one red tulip getting ready to open up.  We were both surprised, and decided that would probably be the only one.  But after a couple of days, we noticed most of the others doing the same.  Needless to say, this area of our front yard is now a bright red and yellow reaffirmation that Spring is here to stay.

This weekend we’re coming into the ‘Dogwood Winter’.  It’s one of two cold snaps we get here in East Tennessee after Spring has arrived.  There will be another one in a week or two that we like to call ‘Blackberry Winter’.

For those of you not from the Tennessee area, I can hear you asking, “Why is it all about Dogwoods and Blackberries?”  You see, Dogwood Winter is right about the time Dogwood trees bloom, and the same goes for Blackberries.  So while things will get cool again a couple more times, Becky and I have been enjoying ourselves in this warm weather and getting lots of work done outside.  I love Spring.

Dad got his tractor out last Thursday evening and ran the bush hog through all the local gardens – his own, mine, Granny’s, Fred’s, and Jeff’s.  Then he plowed mine up.  The tractor struggled a bit, but we’ve since concluded that it is because there wasn’t enough fluid added to the tires to put that extra weight on the back on the tractor for extra traction.  I wish it hadn’t rained the next day, or we would have been able to run the tiller through it as well so that it would be ready for planting.  I’m probably jumping the gun a little bit – with my luck, it will freeze again before Spring/Summer is here to stay.  That’s what happened last year, and I had to replant just about everything in the garden.

Becky and I have done yard work over the past couple of weekends.  Mowing the yard, cleaning out flower beds and all that fun Spring stuff.  It’s been hard work, and I’ve found that I’m not used to it in the least.  But it is still satisfying.

I spent the weekend mowing my own yard and the church yard. I helped Becky clean up some of the flower beds around the house. All in all it was a beautiful Spring weekend. We also had a beautiful, but a bit cooler, Easter Sunday yesterday.

And then I woke up to this:

It’s 29 degrees as I type this at 8:17am on March 24. Come back, Spring!

I’ve posted a couple of blog entries about how much I’m ready for Spring.  Now that it’s only days away (This Thursday to be exact), signs of its arrival are beginning to appear.

There is so much I want to do once warm weather is here to stay.  I’m really looking forward to mowing the yard for the first time.  That will actually probably happen tomorrow evening as there are several grassy areas in the yard that are pretty high already.  Becky and I are going to spend some time cleaning up around the yard this evening so that I’m not throwing wood chips & bark, and other miscellaneous items all over the yard with the mower.

I’m also really looking forward to getting a garden put out again this year.  I didn’t realize how much it actually helped us out to grow our own vegetables through the summer until we started buying them again this winter.  Not to mention, working the garden will actually get me out of the house again rather than me sitting around not doing much of anything productive.  I’ve done a few things around the inside of the house this winter, but I’d much rather be outside.  As long as it’s warm, that is.

Probably the biggest thing I’m looking forward to, though, is all of the birds singing when I wake up each morning.  And how the days last so much longer.  I can’t wait for the warm evenings when Becky and I can sit out on the deck and watch the sun go down, or go fishing until it gets dark.

I also can’t wait for the days that I am able to get outside and work on getting the deck finished, along with the front porch.  That is, as long as we are financially able.  I’ve blogged about this before as well, but I’m hoping to be able to start on a barn fairly soon – within the next couple of years anyway.  That way we’ll have a place to store lots of stuff that is taking up room inside the house.  We’ll be able to have the mower, our garden/outdoor tools and the motorcycle under a roof.  We’ll have a dry place to keep firewood stacked.  Wow..that will be so nice.

This winter has been fairly mild for the most part.  I’ve even been able to ride the motorcycle to work for a lot of the winter.  I’m able to ride pretty much any time it is dry and above freezing.  I can handle rain, but not a really cold rain.  It has to be at least in the 70′s for me to tolerate rain.

Anyway, I’m already digressing from the point of this post.  You may be asking yourself, what is that picture??  If you remember, I posted a similar photo a little while back of some seeds sprouting.  Here are a few more sprouting.  There are actually a lot more than that now, but this is the most recent photo I have with me at the moment.

Although the winter has been mild, I’m ready for warm weather.  I’m ready to work outside in a garden.  I’m ready to mow the yard. (It actually needs it already in parts of it!)  I’m ready to get out in the hot sun and start cutting firewood for next winter.  Yes, I am that ready.  I’m even ready for those annoying stinging flying bugs.  If only it will mean warm weather is here.

There are a few signs that it is getting close, however.  We have some daffodils and tulips that are growing.  A lot of the daffodils will actually bloom just any time.  Also, there are some bradford pear trees near the office building where I work.  Those all have tons if tiny little buds on them.  Spring is close!