The Creation of Possum Manor

So many topics to cover….

Possum Manor West

Orbs

Smoky Mountains

Homer

Ann’s friend has moved into Possum Manor West. She comes complete with dog and cat. I have a picture of Usti ( Cherokee for small), but the kitty is still in hiding. All the dogs got a long until Brando the Moose decided to get food aggressive. Poor Usti, he had not realized he was living with the the canine version of Sybil. Cesar the dog whisperer guy says it should get better. We shall hope.

Usti is a Blue Heeler who broke his little leg in the growth bone while he was a little pup (He is not even a year old yet.). He runs and hops and runs on his little crooked leg. We like him a lot.

Look at Brando….he does not have the face or expression of a smart dog, does he?

These are two of the types of lily we have in the backyard. They really are beautiful, and I think those are two pretty good photographs if I do say so myself.

Ok, I have said I have seen things at the Possum Manor West house. I took this photograph outside at the end of a storm. These could be refection of rain drops, but why are there not more of them? They could be orbs. Who knows. I think it is something to think about.

Why do they call this area the Smoky Mountains? This is why.

Carrie says it is the forefathers smoking their pipes.

Today I went to visit Homer and Melisse. Melisse is a friend from work; Homer is her horse. He is huge; he is beautiful; he is friendly; he is loving. He has a buddy at the stable who gave me a kiss. I thought maybe he was trying to chew my cheek off, but Melisse explained I had just been honored with a kiss. How sweet.

The first time I saw one of those hoods on a horse I was horrified. I thought they were trying to blind the poor thing. I then learned that they keep the flies and gnats out of their eyes and ears. They don’t mind them at all.

Here at Possum Manor West there is virtually no internet access available except dial up.  There is satellite , but that is really, really expensive. The dial up is not as slow as dial up use to be, but it sure is not fast.  It is best very early in the morning…..which is now.

I am going to steal the dot idea from Robin; I cannot think in paragraphs this early in the morning.

• We are thinking about a security system for Possum Manor. Since we will be gone most weekends, our down the hill neighbors have been arrested for many things, I dread my kitchen being turned into a weekend meth lab or worse, and I just worry…a security system is the thing to do.  ADT is coming out Wednesday.
• There are spirits in this house. Xena sees them and Brando barks at them.
• Ann’s friend, Carrie, is moving in. It will be good to have someone here when we are not. We have had people park cars in the driveway, just to make it look as if someone was home. This will be a good thing, and it will help with expenses.
• I am having a bit of oral surgery on Tuesday.  Ugh.
• I am looking forward to visitors who are coming the 7th and then the 14th.
• Where does the time go?
• I am thinking of joining this blogging group, but they are doing a blog every day in July thingie and I do not think I would do it.
• I am a electronic gadget junkie

I woke today only to see Brando (who we now sometimes call Lennie, in reference to Of Mice and Men) guarding a dark object in the living room. It was a mole. UGH..and a dead mole no less. I guess the cats go out and hunt and he is the keeper of the carnage. Being the brave soul I am, I covered it with a paper towel, and later a small table, until Ann would get up and take care of it. Years back, when Maudie was a young cat, she single handedly (or is that pawedly) rid West Asheville of its mole population. She use to line them up on the porch, and I would pay the nine year old next door a dollar a body to rid the porch of all that mess. He made a fortune one summer. Anyway, I went upstairs only to find another dead mole. I covered that with paper towel and then watched as Brando picked up the dead thing and took it into another room. By now I am shrieking. I covered it again, placed a tool box on each side of the paper towel, careful not to smoosh the poor lifeless thing, and then I wake Ann, who gets up and removes the evidence that our cats are killers.

The cats really enjoy living in the mountains. Only Roxanne, who is old and lives in a bed on the corner of the table, has not learned how to come and go via the dog door. Even Maudie, who is as old as Roxanne (and the champion mole killer) goes in and out. I see them laying in the driveway or on the top of the car. When I go out in the morning they are usually asleep in chairs on the front porch. We had to buy washable covers for those chairs because they became so laden with cat hair that even we would not sit in them.

Roxanne moved with me from New Jersey, but she has become Ann’s cat. We most often eat in the living room (the whole downstairs is one big room, but we still label parts of it) (and wouldn’t you eat in the living room if you had a cat living in a bed on your table?), and Rox will sit on the chair behind Ann’s head. As Ann eats, she will move down to her shoulder and begin to tap Ann’s face. I have seen her reach for the fork. Ann shares with her every time.

Donna left on Monday, as she had to get back for an appointment. Brando and Jack went after each other, but I think most of it was show. Jack never did realize that he was about forty-five pounds lighter than the knucklehead Brando. He held his own.

He is a very loving dog, even though he has not got the pooping outside thing mastered.

When Donna and I get together we play cards, Hand and Foot to be exact. We play day and night. It is something we have been doing for a long time. I never beat her. I NEVER beat her. I held my own this visit, and at one point led her in games, but things did not end the way I wanted. We kept the score on the frig.

We always enjoy Donna’s visits. She is what we call “pajama company.” That means we are so relaxed when she visits, we can sit around in our pajamas and drink coffee.

We are heading to Possum Manor West this weekend. There are major changes to life out there, and I will blog that when we come back.

Oh, I have started my canning. I did a batch of lemon jelly, which is so tart that I am still puckered from tasting it three days ago. I had to reheat it and add pectin, because it did not set the first time. l was told lemon would set without pectin because it has so much in it naturally. It did not set. I think altitude is a problem. My oatmeal cookies fails too, and never has that happened. I did two batches of raspberry/blackberry jam, one regular and one no sugar freezer jam. When you think of it, you can buy jam in the store a whole lot cheaper than you can can it. I just hope mine is better.

It seems so long ago that we were on vacation. Oh how wonderful Ocracoke was. I could talk about it forever, but I will not.

Our friend Donna is here with her little Miniature Doberman, Jack. He is a cutie and holds his own with the big dogs. He likes to sit up high, as you can see in this photo.

Donna and I went raspberry picking at an organic farm, but they were not ready so we only got two cups. We went to the local farmers’ market instead. I am really looking forward to canning this summer. I feel so accomplished when I do it. I end up giving most of it away, but that is ok too. On the way back from picking those two cups of raspberries, we came upon the only kind of traffic jam you see in this area:

We had a visitor the other day. The dogs were going nuts barking, which is not an uncommon thing. Brando especially was barking frantically at the ground, and lo and behold, there was a good size turtle. Certainly it was big enough for any respectable 60 pound dog to be afraid of.

I carried out side the fence, under a plant, but it came right back to the dogs. Dumb turtle. Dumber dogs because they had no idea what to do with it. I did, however, and I took it to our neighbor’s pond. I expect to see it some day come right back into the yard.

Boogie likes Donna’s car.

Two of the other cats are getting along better. Either that or they were playing chicken to see who would fall the seven feet to the ground first.

I am enjoying my summer so far. I hope to read a lot too. I have just begun Isabel Allende’s, one of my favorite writers, latest book. Next I hope to read Germaine Greer’s new book, Shakespeare’s Wife, the fictionalized biography of Anne Hathaway. In July, the wonder Ron McLarty has a new book coming out. Memory of Running is certainly one of my favorites, so I look forward to this one!

We left our hotel with the great view a day early.  There is a fire in Eastern North Carolina, near the coast. The smoke is pushing bugs toward the Outer Banks and our hotel room became infested with gnats. I think they were fleas, but the hotel said they were gnats. Anyway, we decided to leave, go do our touristy things, and drive part way home before we got a hotel.  We did the first two things and then decided just to drive the rest of the way home.  The dogs were beside themselves with happiness when we pulled up. The cats would have nothing to do with us for many hours.   It was nice to wake up in our own house.

We were spoiled by Ocracoke.  We both loved seeing Nags Head and the rest of the Outer Banks, but is just t-shirt store after t-shirt store. The shock of the commercialization was even greater, I am sure, since we came from Ocracoke where there are many small shops and restaurants, but nothing from a chain.  The beach in Ocracoke is private compared to the Nags Head area with the planes flying the banners over the waves.  I am glad we saw it, but we do not need to see it again. We have already decided that we would go back to Ocracoke and Ocracoke only.  We would be happy to stay in the same little room we were in this time, too.

I did get a few really nice pictures while in Manteo, which is a quaint town on Roanoke Island. Andy Griffth lives there, but he did not invite us to visit.   That would be a nice place to stay, and I am sure expensive.

I had never seen a jelly fish before. I watched it swim in the shallow water for a long time. Amazing piece of nature.

We saw lots of crabs scurry across the sand while on the beach. I never could get a picture of those fast little buggers.  This one is taken through water, but at least I finally got a photo.

Manteo has a beautiful walkway along its shore. The top of this building is a light house light.

Our last three hours of driving were through a storm. This was the only rain we saw the whole week. At least I did not have to come home and water the yard!!

We got up for the sunrise and were not disappointed.  We have become morning people since Ann started working at the casino, so we were up with no problem. They are not in official order; I put the one I liked best first. I have only about fifty, but I will only put the two best up.

We are in Nags Head, NC….the Outer Banks. It is a bit of a change from Ocracoke, as it is so commercial. It is very pretty, and I am glad I am here, but it is very different. Reminds me of the Jersey Shore. This is the view from our hotel balcony. We are going to see if we cannot get up to see the sun rise tomorrow morning.

Lots of light houses….

Ann was attacked, or attacked, a yucca.

This looks like snow but is sand. I would imagine that they often have to come by and scrape the sand just like they would snow.

This is me reflected in the mirror. I was trying to get a good picture as we were going over a bridge.

Ann wanted to know if we were going to see each and every light house. I wanted to know why they were black and white and so inland.

This is a wonderful place. It so much reminds me of the beaches my family would go to when I was a kid. The beach here is beyond words. There were never more than a handful of people on this beach within a mile’s range. We got out there about ten in the morning and stayed until noon. Neither Ann nor I are beach sitters, so two hours was just enough . We walked the beach for shells, played in the water, and just sat and watched the waves. We decided we would come back again.

After we showered from the beach, we went to lunch. We went to the Jolly Roger, an outdoor place on the water. We each ordered a beer, but the waitress suggested we get the pitcher because it was the better deal. Hot sun, hunger, full pitcher of beer…. Those of you who really know Ann and I know how much we do NOT drink. If we have a beer once a month, it is a lot.

Before the food arrived we had consumed most of the pitcher. Ann said she could not feel her face, so I took a picture to prove she still had one!

It was a great lunch, and we ended with the idea we should come back to the room to rest until the alcohol level in our blood came down to legal levels. This is how Ann spent the next hour or so.

Here is a bit of Ocracoke:

The heat has followed us here! We are back at the room, just to cool off for a while before we head out again. Good time for a quick blog.

Later addition: We went out to the beach after a wonderful dinner, and we used the timer on the camera. It was windy, but we both like this photo.

We went to the beach this morning. I went into the water, and Ann got a few photos. We are going back tomorrow morning to play in the waves. We did not stay long because the dark clouds came in, and we were sure a storm was coming. It did not.

THIS PLACE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait until I take pictures of the beach today. I have never seen a more beautiful beach. A lot of this island reminds me of Glen Arbor and Leland, Michigan. Laid back resort area, cute houses, lots of people walking in the streets and almost getting hit.

We left Asheville about 4:30AM and were here by noon. We had reservations for the four o’clock ferry, but we made the one o’clock. By 3:30 we were on Ocracoke. We have a quaint room with a tiny screened porch.

The next one is Ann walking back to the car that is almost stuck in the sand.

Lastly, let me tell you that On Star Navigation is worthless!! It came free for two months with my car, The first time we used it we tested if it could find out house. We followed it until it said we were at our destination. We were in front of an old barn, ten miles past our house. This time we were on I40, which we had to stay on for over three hundred miles. All at once it said we had left our course . No we had not. Oh well, we had Mapquest printed out, and we made it in record time.