The Slow Lane

Earlier this week, we counted and named 13 species of birds we saw that day. This rose breasted grossbeak is a species we have rarely seen, perhaps one other time in the past 5 years. This one was eating at our feeder yesterday afternoon. We hope he will come back often.

The humming birds have been around a lot this week. One morning I was standing outside near the feeder (I could have touched the feeder without fully extending my arm) when a male humming bird came and hovered between me and the feeder long enough for me to get a really good look. Then he proceeded to drink from the feeder trying out each of the three “flowers”.

Earlier we experienced Spring in Raleigh watching trees leaf out, flowers bloom, pine pollen and oak blossoms fall, etc. This week we watched Spring repeat many of the same processes in the mountains.  We have enjoyed all the shades of green and early varieties of wild flowers.  Here is a picture from our deck.

Driveway

The sun has done a good job of melting a lot of the snow on the sunny side of the hills and houses. The shady spots have maintained a lot of the snow that began falling the week before Christmas with more coming before the previous snow melted. Places like our driveway entrance, just in front of our house, and even the front half of our roof still have snow, in some cases 7 inches or so. Four wheel drive got us through the driveway entrance and under the carport. The last 3 days have warmed up into the 50′s and even 60′s yesterday, so snow melt activity has speeded up.

I’ve seen deer eating rhododendron leaves and a ruffled grouse walk across the yard and fly off.

Snow was predicted to begin after midnight. By 7:00 AM snow was covering the deck. We had watched it fall for an hour or so. The coffee was especially good.

We had close to 2 inches by the time it stopped snowing about 2:30. It was fun to watch it fall and to see the trees covered and snow on the distant hills. We hope to see more snow this winter when we are here.

At our mountain house, there was no convenient place to turn around in our driveway and visitors had to back uphill to the top of the driveway before they could turn around.  Also, it has been awkward with my trailer to turn it around and get it to a parking place out of the way.

So, we decided to cut the three trees shown in the foreground in this picture.  We hired a Service to cut the trees and grind the stumps.  Once the trees were laying in the driveway, I cut them into firewood lengths, split the wood, and stacked it between nearby trees.  My neighbor helped by cutting up one of the trees for me.

I like watching other people work.  This man used the tree/pole climber spikes and ropes to position himself up in the trees and cut them off making sure they fell away from the house. 

At first, I wondered why they didn’t use a truck with a bucket to get into position and make the cuts instead of using spikes.  Then I figured out:  In the mountains it would be difficult to find a level place or even room to use a bucket truck.  I keep learning the subtle differences between doing things in the flatlands of Eastern NC and doing them in the mountains.

My neighbor also helped me watch the stump grinder at work.

Finally, after about two and a half days of work, I like the looks of all that firewood cut, split, and stacked.  I have other dry wood to burn this winter, so this will be used next year or possibly later this winter.  It will dry pretty fast in these stacks.  Green wood does burn, but it doesn’t burn as well as when it is dry.

This wood split easily.  One hard swing of the splitting axe uses less energy and works much better than several less agressive swings.  It also helps when you need a second or third swing of the axe to be able to hit the wood again in the same place you hit it the first time.  I got some better at this by the time I was finishing up.

Another thing of interest was finding a nest of carpenter ants in the center of the tree trunk just above ground level.

I better understand why there are time gaps between blog postings. When you don’t get around to posting for a while, it seems harder to pick back up.

However, I did promise to upload some Fall color pictures from our October 25th outing to look for colors. The first one is from the Blue Ridge Parkway at Doughton Park. This was the best view of scenic color we saw that day.

The second is the view from our deck. There is still color, but some trees have lost about all their leaves.

The third is a view of the New River from Cox road.

As you can see from these pictures, the first of October brings a tinge of color to the leaves on Secluded Lane. Peak color is expected to occur about the middle of October.

We went with our neighbors to a fund-raiser fish fry in Clifton on Friday night. We’ve enjoyed several of these “every other Friday” fish fries that support the Ashe Outreach Ministries. They serve plates with 2 nice fish filets, french fries, slaw, hushpuppies, drink and desert for $8. We sat at an outside table under a canopy, listening to local musicians, and visiting with others doing likewise. The man next to me said, “I’m eating the same thing you are.” I said, “Yes, it’s the best thing on the menu.”

Coming back through West Jefferson, we stopped at the Ashe Arts Center for the “Back Street” concert which moved inside because of the rain. The music was provided by The Crooked Road Ramblers, including 2 female musicians on banjo and bass and 3 male musicians playing a fiddle and two guitars. Good music in a nice setting.

Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer’s Market in West Jefferson and bought tomatoes, squash, egg plant, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers. There was a steady drizzle in the morning and by afternoon there was a steady rain. An afternoon nap was almost inevitable.