These are Carrie’s photos, taken at Possum Manor West. They have snakes. Ick. I guess we have snakes too, but I have only seen that baby black snake that was in my living room. Wait until you see these! Ann says it is good to have black snakes because they keep away the poisonous ones. I say no snake can be a good snake.
This was in the utility room off the carport.
Look at the size of that bugger!
This one was on the front porch,
This is Carrie’s cat, Nooska, who is a fearless snake hunter. You can see the snake under the chair,
These snakes ate the baby chicks. They cannot eat the grown chickens, but they made a meal out of the babies.
I have no idea what kind of flower this is, but is sure is unique!
Just sunflowers you say? Well that fence at the bottom of the picture is three foot high chicken wire. They are HUGE!!!!
Now the next two photos are blurry, but I want to put them up anyway. Does anyone know what kind of a butterfly this is? The first is the underneath, the second is the top.
Anyone know?
I drove to see Carrie at Possum Manor West today. The weather called for rain most of the day, but I challenged the prediction and rode the whole way with the top down. While I was there it thundered, lightening, and poured rain.
I took this at the overlook on the way home.
On the way home I decided to treat myself to an ice cream corn, so I pulled off into Bryson City. Little did I know that there was a Tommy the Train festival going on. Geesh. What a mad house. I did get my ice cream cone, butter pecan and mint chocolate chip. Mighty good.
I came home and look what I found:
My first tomato!!!! Keep watching for growth photos. Following by it being eaten!!
I go back to school two weeks from yesterday. It is still July….so depressing.
I watched an episode of “Mystery Diagnosis” this morning, and this afternoon I am sure I have symptoms of three very odd and weird diseases. I am not going to watch again.
I bought two baskets of peaches yesterday, so I could can today.
I only got one basket done, nine quarts of peaches for the middle of winter.
I think I will freeze the second basket. It still means peeling and cutting them, but it needs to be done. No wonder my back aches this afternoon.
This is what the chickens do to a half of cantaloupe.
They eat it down to the rind.
I made a lot of biscotti and mandlebrot (another form of hard cookie). Sal is coming next week, and he likes them a lot. Ann and I like them too, and I hope there will be some left for Sal. lol
I need a nap. Those symptoms of mysterious illnesses can be tiring.
We did the trolley tour, Mike, Brooke and I. Mike is my nephew, Brooke is his wife and as far as I am concerned my niece. Loved having them. It was soooo damn hot. The bank said 94, but I think it was wrong. We had a great time though.
This is Brooke and Mike standing in one of the fire places at the Grove Part Inn. Aren’t they cute?
This is them outside with Asheville in the background. Did I mention it was hot?
Inside the trolley
How dare they put my likeness on the side of a building….humphhhhh!!!
Whenever we drive by this gas station, Ann says, “This is where the prostitutes hang out.” I have yet to see one, but I keep looking.
Asheville High School, not the one I teach at, but it is actually listed on the National Historic Registry.
The gravestone of William Sydney Porter aka O’Henry. There is always change on the tombstone, symbolic of the first line in “Gift of the Magi.” “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies.”
I have company, but they are still asleep, so I thought I would get in a short blog. My nephew, Michael, flew in on Wednesday afternoon. It is such a good experience to spend time with him as an adult. He is thirty now, and honestly I just cannot believe it. He is a teacher in the Denver area, and it has been so great just sitting and talking with him. He is a really great guy, and I love his views….probably because they are so much like mine!! We have done a lot of running around, having good meals, and sitting on the deck just talking. Each night we sit on the deck until late, drink a beer or two, and talk. The one problem with the structure of Possum Manor, which is only an issue a few times a year, is that everything is open. The only interior doors in the whole place are the two bathrooms and the guestroom. So when Ann goes to bed early, as she has to get up at the butt crack of dawn, we really have to be quiet. Evenings have been nice, so being outside has not been an issue, and I have loved the time.
Brooke, Mike’s wife, flew in last night, so we all got to sit and talk. They got back here long after dark, and Ann was sleeping, so Brooke will get the house tour this morning. I have collected enough of my chickens’ eggs to make breakfast too.
What I had not noticed, as I have rarely been on the back deck after dark this year because it has been so dang hot even at night, is that I had not experienced the night sounds of Possum Manor.
There is nothing to see, as it was dark, but turn up your sound.
What you just heard are the Possum Manor Tree Frogs, and they have been booked into Las Vegas next spring.
I was finally able to get the photos off an old lap top which had tried to quit working. I found the first pictures of Brando, and this one is the night we got him home. We, mostly Ann, bathed him in the kitchen sink. He was soooo cute. He had those thinking eyes even then. He had a complete ear.
- Why is it that whenever I carry a twelve pack of toilet paper from the car to the house the plastic breaks and the toilet paper rolls around the yard and under the porch?
- Why is it that whenever I am somewhere where there are a lot of people and I smell someone with really bad body odor, I am afraid it might be me?
- Why is it I only remember that my cell phone needs charging when my head is on the pillow?
Side note. I was having worry about those wasp larva coming to life. I took a broom and knocked the nest into the yard. Then I worried they would come to life and kill the cats. So, I got it into a garbage bag I was taking to the transfer station. Then I worried they would come to life while I drove to the transfer station, get out of the bag and sting me to death. So, I put the top down and drove with garbage bags in my front seat. I tossed them out and got the hell out of there before they came to and wanted to come home.
No sign of them yet.
First, you have to hear about today. it was one of the hottest days of the summer, and our power went out for about three hours. I heard, “Boom!” and the lights went out. I did not care about the lights necessarily, as it was a bright day. But, the air conditioning went out, and I thought I would melt. I had had the oven on earlier, and I had heated up the kitchen nicely. It went off about 11:30 AM and came back around 3PM. Phew!
I made biscotti this morning. I believe the translation of biscotti from Italian is twice baked, which is what you do. You make it into log and bake.
After they cool a bit, you cut them into slices (on the diagonal). You then put them back in the oven and bake, and then turn them and bake more. They are really wonderful. I made gingerbread biscotti only because I had the ingredients for it. I am planning on making almond and chocolate chip tomorrow, after I go to the store. Oh, those are two different recipes not almond chocolate chip. lol
Now for the show……My favorite chicken, Little Bean, is the star.
This morning I cleaned out the chicken coop. If you could have heard them, you would have thought I was killing them all. They carry on so when I am in there with NO food. I have learned not to spend the time putting the clean straw in all neat and even. They put it exactly where they want it, so I just let them do it. This is the way I left the house for them.
I do the same with the coop. I put the straw in, and they decorate. I will get pictures tomorrow to show what they do with it.
I canned two jars of pickled beets. ( Why do they call it canned when it is really jarred?) No need to do more, as I am the only one who will eat them. They are really pretty.
I asked Brando Von Gogh how is ear was healing. He responded, “Give me a cookie and no one gets hurt.”
This is what one of the wasps nests looked like, after the tenants were evicted. I am guessing the the white are eggs. Maybe not.
Our poor, old Maudie is spending her summer sleeping on the front porch. She comes in when she wants, but usually it is only to eat and drink. Sometimes I do not know if she even knows where she is. It is sad. She is seventeen now, and our vet said only one in sixty cats lives to be that old. In her day, she was a great huntress. She, all by herself, reduced the population of moles in North Carolina.
Actually, they were driven up the mountain in a Prius. The hens are having a bit of a crisis, but by tomorrow they will have forgotten the chicks were even here. I will clean the coop out, put in new straw, and all will be grand.
I took a few videos this morning, in preparation for the chicks’ departure. I apologize for the choppiness of the film, especially at the beginning.
This morning I got up and made stuffed crescent rolls, some filled with semi-sweet chocolate, some with raspberry jam. They were pretty darn good. Then I made a second batch of dog biscuits. I am trying to get ahead in the biscuit department, so now we should quite a few weeks’ worth.
Our Black Eyed Susan bush has finally bloomed. I honestly did not know we had them.
Dianna’s D is finally finished. I might get it in the mail this next week. I have strawberry syrup to get mailed too.
