I owe Harvard $485

That is what is on my credit report. It says I am delinquent to Harvard for $485! I have never gone to Harvard, though if they will give me a degree for that amount of money, I will pay it. Other wise, they had better take it off my credit report. I tried to call today, but it is a holiday, so I will call tomorrow. I did visit Harvard years ago, and I did see “Nightmare Before Christmas” while there, but I don’t think it cost $485.

We cleaned today for my brother and sister-in-law’s visit. I threw away a cat bed that no cat had touched for years…if ever. Of course the minute I put it in the garbage pile…..

Too bad…it is going to the dump tomorrow anyway. We do not have garbage pick up…we take it.

Our dryer was having problems, and Carrie had one she was not using. So, we moved it in, and offered our old one on Free Cycle. (The timer was broken, but it worked.) Before the guy came to get it, I had to take an appliance on the porch picture!

The porch looks good now.

The leaves are nearly gone. I will start checking the trees for buds in February.

I got out of the shower this morning to find Brando laying in the bed, on my pillows. I covered him, and he stayed there over an hour.

I took this little video last weekend at Possum Manor West. I enjoy those chickens so much, and they are very little work. Feed, water and clean pen. That is it!

Since last weekend Stella has caught two moles!  She brings them in alive, thankfully, and Carrie takes them down the road and releases them.  Stella has been digging tunnels in the yard for weeks now, and she finally got successful, and she is only five months old.

The view off the deck has certainly changed in the last forty-eight hours. Most of the leaves are gone, and I can see the lights of the houses down the side of the hill.

I blew the leaves off the deck yesterday afternoon, but look at it now!

I put up a thistle feeder that is two mesh bags. The birds have not found it yet. They will.

The leaves are on their way out, but they are still beautiful.

Pippin looks great in the fall too.

We live part way up a mountain and do not have many neighbors, but the few we have are wonderful. I am not counting the lady who throws her empty Mountain Dew cans in her yard or her father who visits the rest of us with a pearl handled revolver because we are “…on my property.” Seems his family owned most of the mountain a very long time ago and in his old age his mind goes back there. There is so much to learn from people, and I am sucking in all this new knowledge. Our newest neighbors are positive thinking go getters. They moved in last spring and got us moving on the road. They were a great addition. My neighbors up the mountain built their round house themselves. They lived in a tiny cabin, which I would have killed for as a playhouse when I was a kid, until they finished this wonderful two story round house with plants on the roof. They have a sweet daughter, a huge mushy dog, bees, and chickens. She has a blog, from which I have learned much. The latest thing I have stolen from her blog is the idea of making my own soap. I probably will not do this until after the holidays, but I am going to do it. It is just interesting, we three houses are all very different, but we blend very nicely. At least I think so.

I already make my own laundry soap and earth friendly dryer sheets. I was a vegetarian for five years, but gained too much weight eating the wrong things. Now I will eat free range, kissed when killed, chicken or turkey. (NOT our chickens. They will never be eaten, except mistakenly by Brando the Terrible.)

This was taken in the house we were renting while we built this one. We did not let the cats out, because we were in West Asheville, and there was just too much traffic. Pippin loves hair, and would often camp out on our heads.

The floor in the family room at Possum Manor West is linoleum squares. I think it is about forty years old, but is in fantastic condition. The center of the room has this sun design, and all the animals are pulled to it. Someone is always laying on it. There is one in the kitchen too. We like it, but have never curled up on it.

I even have Carrie taking pictures now. I swear it is addictive. We get a lot of morning fog, especially in the fall. I am told the old saying is, “One snow storm for each morning of fog in the fall.”  Get our the shovels, because there has been a lot of it.  I think this is a great photo.

When Carrie moved to Possum Manor West, she transplanted her garden. Honestly, everything thrived.  We dug up the sweet potatoes this weekend.  They aren’t beautiful, but I bet they will be good. We have to wait a week to eat them, something about the starch changing to sugar.  The dogs had been digging them up for a while. We figured it was time.

Stella is working out in hopes of being in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Problem is, she keeps falling off the beam. She gets right back up though.

My favorite chicken (it was chickens, but one just disappeared) is my Silkie, Meryl. She is funny to watch, and though she is the smallest, she is the mightiest. She gets in there and fights for her piece of apple or tomato. Meryl will not be a great egg layer, maybe three a week, but she is still my favorite.She attached herself to the two small Barr Rocks when her sister just up and disappeared, but not she is pretty much just with everyone. Because she is so fluffy, she is always a mess.

She waddles like a duck when she runs, especially when she runs past the cat, who spends a lot of his time just laying around among them.

This next picture is one in the chicken yard. This platform was part of a fenced in dog run Ann’s dad had made for RD. It was too heavy to lift, and we figured we would eventually get it out of there. Now we think it should stay, as it serves many purposes. They love to eat on it, and we throw part of their feed on it. They get under it in the afternoon when it is hot, even though they could go back into the hen house. The cat lays on it and watches them each day too. So it will stay. Notice the chicken wire above their heads? That is so the hawks cannot swoop down and get them.

I am finding this day to be very stressful. So stressful in fact, that I had to go find something to make me laugh. I did. Remember my story about a can of paint falling out of my car in an unnamed parking lot? I went back to the scene of the crime and took a couple of photos. I guess eventually, in maybe ten or twenty years, it will all go away. I took these two with my phone, and I am surprised at the good quality.

I know, I should be ashamed.

One of my passions is feeding the birds, especially in the winter. I found a new feeder that resembles, in some ways, our house. The yellows are still so beautiful. I hope the leaves stay until next week when my brother and sister-in-law visit. I am soooo excited for their visit.

We had our little propane stove installed today. Living in the woods we really need a secondary source of heat. However, it is about 60 degrees outside right now; please someone call Ann and tell her to shut it off!!! LOl we are going to have to turn on the air conditioner to sleep tonight.

Last night Brando let out this “Yelp” in the middle of the night and levitated from the bed to the floor where he stood crying.  I called him back onto the bed, and he laid down next to me trembling.  What the heck did that dog dream?

He is having a bit of a problem at Possum Manor West because the new girl on the block does not take his crap. Carrie’s other dog Usti will not take a treat or eat in Brando’s presence, knowing what a beast Brando can be around food. Outside Usti and Brando play and play and play. Stella Blue is another story. She is not going to miss a treat, and Brando is not going to get in her way. The odd thing is, he just lets her eat without a problem.  He even lets her join him on the favorite chair.  He really doesn’t know if he likes it or not.

We don’t think they are related, but they certainly resemble each other.  We found Brando across the street, and Stella was in Bryson City, so who knows.

Stella Blue is a girlie girl.  Look at those eyes.

Usti is an intellect, and he reads the Doggie Herald each day.

Brando just cannot be bothered sometimes.

I love fall. I love how it is so cold at night, but warms up in the afternoon. This weekend was just that way. Logs on in the fireplace in the morning to get the chill out, and shorts in the afternoon. I took lots of chicken photos, and I will post them this week, but today is just about a beautiful fall. This is one of the views of Fontana Lake. It is controlled by the TVA, and the dam controls the water level. It is always down in the winter, as you can see. There was a boat out, however. Possum Manor West over looks the lake, but this is taken at a special overlook about mile from the house. It was just beautiful.

But the overlook was infested with those awful beetles that pretend to be lady bugs. They were dive bombing me, getting in my hair, and clinging to my clothing. They move into the house at this time of the year by the hundreds.

Back home at Possum Manor the colors were as bright as I have ever seen them. It is all about yellow this year. This was taken from the very side of the back deck….the deck that holds the broken hot tub….grrrrr. it is supposed to be fixed on Tuesday.

This one was taken on the back deck. The yellows are amazing!!! The leaves are getting thinner, and if you really look, you can see the mountain line in the background.

This also is from the back deck. Amazing…..