Keeping Warm:

When we lived in the  Rockies at 9,800' elevation we were so remote that I had plenty of time to study the birds and animals. This is a hairy woodpecker that hung around our cabin for many years. When it would get really cold he would cling to the side of a tree in the front of the house and puff up his feathers. He was well fed so he had enough energy to stay warm and he would stay on the side of the tree until the sun came out to warm him up. Perhaps this is where we got  the idea of layering clothes to stay warm in the winter.

Memories Of Bozley:

 

  

It was on this day 6 years ago that Bozley suddenly went over that rainbow bridge. I woke up that morning much like every morning with Bozley's nose about one inch from my nose with his happy face. About 3 hours later Carol saw him with his head down and his ears back. Then his legs suddenly went out from under him and he went to the ground. We knew he was in serious trouble. We were able to get him to the Jeep by carrying him on a blanket and I let the vet know we  were coming and when we got him there he was barely hanging on. 

The vet thought he had a major stroke and it best to end his suffering. We were with him until the end. He had several good years with us and his unfavorable past life was a distant memory.  Like our other dogs he will always hold a special place in our hearts. 

How a morning started out so normal and then took such a sudden turn is an example of how life can change in the blink of an eye. Nothing can prepare us for such a sudden occurrence like that.  

Shortbread:

 

My first experience with short bread was when I was 12/13 years old. I had a paper route and one of my customers was from Sweden and around Christmas one year she gave me a plate of her shortbread. The first time I ate a piece of her shortbread I was hooked. She told me that the recipe came with her from Sweden and she would not reveal it and when she died she would take it with her. I would never taste anything like that again and I have tried dozens of shortbreads - but none like the shortbread  she gave me. 

Oh, what I would give to have that family recipe.. That shortbread recipe would be worth its weight in gold. That recipe would be a career maker. 

Getting Mail:

 

Our mail is delivered to the entrance of our community so we go down in our golf cart to retrieve it. This is Butter, a sweet little dog that most folks ignore. He gravitates to us and we give him as much attention as we can. Most dogs do gravitate to us and have for most of my life. When I was young and had a paper route they did the same. I guess they sense that I love dogs and would not hurt them. 

Butter belongs to Claud who lives on the corner adjacent to the mail boxes and when we go down to get our mail Butter runs over to greet us. Claud also has goats that he keeps in a pen by the road and sometimes we have a conversation with them. He also has chickens and ducks on occasion. It all adds flavor to our trip to get the mail. 

There is no doubt in my mind that dogs instinctively know who they can trust and who they can't. The deer, mountain lions and bear and the many small creatures all had the same instinct when we lived remotely in the mountains. I don't know how it works for them but they did not display any fear when we were in close proximity.  I never felt any fear around them either. Not once!

New Gym Equals Pain:

When we lived in the mountains of Colorado  I got plenty of exercise Cutting, splitting and working with fire wood. Not so much here so I started working out on a home gym. All I have to say is the pain associated with a work out on the gym is considerable. I may have to adjust my routine.

Senior Fitness:

 

For most of my life I have received my exercise from lifting weights and running. Several years ago Carol requested that I no longer lift weights as I was older and was injuring myself doing so. I also did not have a spotter to assist if I got in trouble. I hated to give it up but I realized she was right. Living as remote as we did there was no one to work out with and act as spotters for each other. 

One day at the gym a guy came over and invited me to lift actual weights as the equipment like this (photo above) didn't give my muscles that good of a workout. I joined 5 other guys that were serious weight lifters.  One was a local business owner, another was a minister, another was a retired NFL down lineman who played for the Dallas Cowboys, and the other was a farrier who shoed horses. All very fit and strong and it was an honor to be invited to join them. 

Now that I am in my 80's I still need to get exercise so I went back to this type of machine as weight lifting would still be prone to potentially injure me. So this is more suited to my age and will allow me to tone muscles and gain strength. My legs don't allow me to run any longer and if you see me running check behind me because someone or something is chasing me. 

Thanksgiving In The USA:

 Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving and a reminder that today is the last chance to set your scales back 10 pounds..

Great Discovery:

At our cabin in the Sangre de Cristo's of Colorado I used to cook on a wood stove that was in our picnic area outside. I discovered that I could make home fries with a spice that was delicious and with a little  kick to it. It all had to do with just the right amount of pepper and a spice we got from Dinosaur Bar B Que in Syracuse, NY. The spice is called Cajun  Foreplay and those we had over for cowboy breakfast  all raved about it and the unique taste.  Carol just made it the other day and it tasted good even when cooked indoors. 

 

a mystery!

I don’t know what kind of bush or plant this is. The flowers come out in the fall and all start out as white! I love it!

40 Feet From The Goodyear Blimp:

When on television they show the Goodyear blimp circle stadiums I recall one time I had a very close up view of the blimp. So close in fact that I could see the people in the blimp and the look on their faces. 

It brings back the memory of when I had waded out into a small lake in Deltona Fla.  I had discovered this small lake in the back of the community that held some very large black bass. I would catch and release the bass and the smallest one I caught was over 5 pounds. 

To look at the small lake no one would imagine it held fish but I had found the exact lure that the bass wanted and it could only be properly fished if I stood in the middle of the lake with the water up to my shoulders. It was an excellent lure to consistently catch bass and it was so much fun. There was a hazard however and that was rattlesnakes sometimes around the lake. I would carry a stick to flip them out of the way when I encountered one on the path to the lake. 

I was up to my neck in the middle of the lake one day when the Daytona 500 was going on and I heard this hum and it kept getting closer and closer. Suddenly the Goodyear blimp came directly over me with the ropes dragging along the surface of the lake. The bottom of the blimp was brushing the tops of the pine trees. It was so close that the crew came over to the windows and were smiling down at me and waving. I waved back and it was a very special moment.  It was one of those unexpected moments that will last in my memory forever. 

Canine Health Issues:

 I wrote an article for Mother Earth News and it is worth repeating here. 

"We live in the mountains with our four German shepherd dogs. Our nearest veterinarian is approximately 45 miles one way and so we often treat our furry family members with homeopathic remedies. These have worked for us in the past, and although I am unable to say that the natural remedies always work, these are worth giving a try.

We feed our guys quality food and they don’t get table scraps or treats that are not good for them. There are numerous articles available that describe human foods that could cause harm to your pets, so this blog will not detail on them.

Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome

One home remedy I can attest to as working is bilberry capsules. Our senior girl, Sarah, suddenly and without warning went blind. One minute she was fine and the next she was totally blind. We took her instantly to our veterinarian who diagnosed SARDS (Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome), which affects only a minute amount of canines and has no cure, nor do they know much about it.

A specialist was consulted and said the damage was permanent and non-reversible. It is believed to be caused by high blood pressure, but even that is uncertain. I wrote a blog about it and a reader wrote that her dog had the same diagnosis and it was suggested she use bilberry capsules as they restored her dogs sight.

Hot Spots

One of our four has suffered with hot spots each summer even though we have cool temperatures at 9,800-foot elevation. We have had him allergy tested, mite tested, and tested extensively and still in the summer he has hot spots. He is not alone, because other dogs I am aware of have the same problem in the summer.

There are several possible causes but the most common is bacteria. Recently a rescue friend told me about something that worked for her dogs who had hot spots: She gave the dogs a pinch of oregano on their food once a day. Most of the time a steroid and antibiotic is prescribed and steroids have a host of side effects that many vets don’t always have to deal with — not the least of which is repeated potty breaks and some lethargia.

Thanks to a TV commercial about using oregano in chickens as opposed to antibiotics, she wondered if it would work on the causes of hot spots as an antibacterial. She said she tried it and noticed immediate results.

I went to the spice cabinet and started our boy on it and also noted he stopped licking and scratching within a couple days. So far, we have not noted any side effects and he has enjoyed some relief from his annual summer hot spots."

Canine Pannus

Two of our four have pannus, which is found in middle-aged German Shepherds but also can occur in other breeds. It is a progressive disease where blood vessels and scar tissue invade the cornea and can, if left untreated, cause ultimate blindness.

Our vet advised us that living at high altitude can be a contributing factor due to the intensity of ultraviolet rays’ impact on the eyes. In the winter when we have snow, the sun and snow glare combined can be harmful to the eyes. We have drops that we use as prescribed by the vet, but the most effective remedy seems to be having them wear dog sunglasses in intense sunlight.

We have seen that by using the sunglasses, the disease does not seem to progress and we don’t have to use eye drops as often. (See photo above.)

Jobs Well Done:

There are always chores to be done and getting them done as you get older takes longer and is harder. Yesterday we finished up getting our firewood cut to length, split, stacked and covered against the rain. We still have the leaves to deal with but that is clearly not like the work we would have had in Colorado as they are dealing with 4-5' of snow. Most trees are bare now and that is good news. Time to kick back and do something fun.  

Birthdays:

We celebrated Carol's birthday by going to play putt putt golf with our daughter and  son in law. Have not played putt putt in many years. Sasha made Carol a cake from scratch for the first time ever. It was moist and delicious.  We are so proud of her for  trying something new and it turning out well. I don't think I have played putt putt golf since my boys were little ones and it sure was humbling. 

Leaves:

 We finally were able to burn this pile of leaves and another of equal size. Fewer leaves are falling so maybe we are past the leaf's crisis..

Election Is Over:

 President Donald Trump has been announced to be the winner of the election and it appears the Republicans  have a majority in the senate and and possibly the house. Hopefully our country will be greater in the future. Hopefully we now have leadership that seeks peace and will restore world respect. 

Leaves, Leaves and More Leaves:

We burned leave today and we still have more to burn (burn barrel to the left in photo). The photo shows what is left and we have one more pile about this size as this was from the driveway. The other pile is from the back yard. As I look at the trees I see much more that has not fallen yet. Our community in Forbes Park is getting hammered already with snow and this is much better to deal with than cold wet snow. So I am not complaining as I have experienced much worse.  Have my burn permit from the forest service....

Vote:

 There are only two days left to vote so if you have not already voted, please do so. I am so glad that it is about finally over and we can move on. Robo calls, mail box full of voting material, TV ads, rally's and  signs all over the place. I hope that after tomorrow we can read, listen, and see things other than voting and election. It is important for our country as we have two paths to vote for and only one will win. .I hope that our  voting system has been fixed and that voting integrity has returned and we can all feel good about the process. 

Daylight Savings Time:

 An old Indian chief said of daylight savings time: “Only the white man’s government would be so stupid as to cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it onto the bottom, and think they have a longer blanket.”

Never Ending:

 

And the leaves don't stop and what we did yesterday needs to be done again today. All we hear from 8:00 to sun down is leaf blowers going. A burn permit is required for N. Carolina and can be obtained on line. It takes me about two minutes to fill one out. We burn the leaves in a metal barrel and don't fill it up so embers don't fly around. 

Leaves:

A new learning experience in dealing n leaves. In Colorado it was snow and here it is leaves. We have been raking and blowing leaves for two days and we are no further ahead than when we started. At least leaves are not cold and wet. We are told accumulated leaves tend to harbor snakes and bugs. At least when they all fall off the trees they will be done for another year but in the meantime it is a new learning experience. 

Veteran Appreciation Day:

We went to the veteran appreciation day today and I saw veterans from as far back as the Korean war. A few from the US Air Force.- my branch where I served 8 years. This area is big for honoring its veterans.  

Carol and me standing in front of a C-47...

Klaus

Klaus is almost 10 years old and we took him in yesterday for teeth cleaning. He has been sleeping since we brought him home around 4:30 P.M. but he is still pretty foggy, He is starting to come out of it and is more responsive. Fortunately they did not have to pull any teeth. 

Kindling splitter:

 We had a very cool morning so I took our kindling /log splitter out with a hand maul and dug through our wood pile for some logs the right length. I failed to find enough so Carol cut 3 long down to the proper length and we turned them into kindling pieces about the thickness of a finger. This little gadget made in Australia and designed in New Zealand had all the  fire starter pieces we will need for quite a while in an hour. 

What we do for our best friends!

Lucy has "issues" that make it so that she cannot eat any dog food with meat in it...no beef, chicken, turkey, pork. We noticed that even the little dog treats we give the dogs has "meat" in them in one form or another. We give the Lucy and April their pills on those mini Club Crackers with peanut butter. Of course Klaus always gets one too! We have started giving Lucy another one of those crackers when we give the other two their treat. So we made some dog treats this afternoon and hope they love them!

Cold:

 

It suddenly turned cold (30 degrees) and I wonder about those who watched their homes float away are doing. I know other North Carolinians are still there for the victims of Helene but this cold weather is unusual this time of year. Cool yes but freezing not so usual. There have been blanket and coat drives locally but they are still searching for live and dead people. 

Taylor:

 

This is Taylor who died 3 years ago today at the age of 11 y/o. We only had Taylor for 6 weeks and it was the best 6 weeks of his entire life. Taylors life was spent as an outdoor dog and he lived in a hole he dug in a fenced in back yard.  The story we got was that a woman had seen him living in his hole and rescued him, taking him to a local rescue. 

At the rescue because he was so old he was kept in a 8' X 10' closet with one window along with file cabinets and  items stored. Taylor was at least out of the elements and got some relief from his arthritis plus medical care, regular food and water. He was let out a couple times a day to go to the bathroom and get some fresh air and a little exercise. We had to make significant changes to our home so he could live with the family comfortably. As soon as those structural changes were made we drove to the rescue and adopted him that very day. 

As can be seen in the photo he settled right in and had it not been for a serious health issue he would have been with us much longer. One day he refused water and food and gave up on life. We taken him to our vet the day before as  he was not  acting just right and the vet ran tests and Xray's and told us to take him home and provide hospice care. 

We were grateful that he had 6 weeks of a family that loved and pampered him. He was a real sweetheart. I miss him and feel cheated that he was only with us for 6 weeks.. We had a lot more pampering and love to give him but he just wore out too soon. Lucy was his best friend and was devastated when he passed on. 

Rest in peace old buddy is I hope the last 6 weeks of your life made up for some of the hardships you endured along the way.

Sorgum Southern Style:

We went to a sorghum festival with our daughter and son in law. today. One of the really neat things about living in a small town is the fun things where people get together. Especially in the fall when the temperatures are cool and the sky blue. One difference I have noted  is when the nights get cool it is cold. In Colorado when it would get down to 20 degrees it was flannel shirt and vest time. That was because the humidity was always low but here it is cold at 41 degrees because of the higher humidity. 

It is hard to choose between all the fun festivals and get togethers. We did buy a bottle of sorghum and I'm looking forward to some fresh warm biscuits and sorghum on them. I just love living in the south and didn't realize how much I missed it. The day was complete with funnel cake and kettle corn.

Helene:

 It is truly heart warming to see the volunteers step up to help the victims of Helene in our state.  Local businesses are contributing as are the citizens. The stories are starting to surface of the heart break and heart warming stories and heroism that occurred..  

We were in a disaster when we lived in Colorado and we saw the generous nature of so many people. It was the third largest wildfire in Colorado history and we were evacuated for 15 days. The news covered it for a couple weeks and then moved on to other stories. It took many months/years to recover from the fire and those helping were no longer there. Same with this destruction, it will take a long time to recover and these people will need help and prayers for a long time. The immediate flood of help will leave and they will be left with  a lot to do. Keep that in mind as time goes on. 

Destruction From Hurricane:

Some cities and towns have been totally washed away. Over 160 deaths reported so far and others are still missing and some are still trying to get to towns and remote areas. 

Hurricane Helene:

 

We live on the western end of N.C. just 2 miles from Georgia and 10 miles from Tennessee. Photos are  just now starting to come in of all the destruction. Some towns and roads were wiped out and the death toll is 52 currently. Communications and travel are seriously disrupted

We watched the hurricane as it approached and it split in two parts - one going to the east of us and one to the west. Our county was spared compared to those east and west of us. No doubt there is flooding in our area but we are staying off the roads so we don't know about that. I have seen photos of houses where only the roof is above water. We got 13.5 inches of rain here and that is a huge amount for the mountains.

I have been through 8 hurricanes in my life and one wild fire. I have not seen any with this level of destruction. Please PRAY for the victims of this horrible disaster. I can tell you that when we went through the wildfire the Red Cross was a tremendous help. If you are inclined to help the Red Cross is a good place to go.

Getting Along:

Our country is deeply divided in many areas. I notice it on the social media platforms during the political times and I find it most alarming. I have had friends  unfriend me because of posts from conservative or left left leaning posts. They see one or the other posts and don't see the other. I like to make informed decisions and to do that you need to evaluate both sides. Sometimes reviewing both sides I see some truth that benefits everyone.  

I have a lot of friends on social media that come from childhood, military, my years of writing blogs for Mother Earth News, and people I have worked with or have met along the way of living. Each is special to me. From all persuasions, different positions and unique and special. I would not even consider unfriending any of them for their opinion but if I find any of their posts that show up on my timeline offense I just delete that from my timeline. 

I consider their friendship more valuable than an opinion. It would be a terrible world if we all had to agree with each other. We do need to get along and that includes differences of opinion. We need to be careful to not let others divide us as friendships need to have a priority that is higher than politics. 

Rain and More Rain:

Initially we were told to expect 8-10" of rain and the tropical depression has not even reached us yet. Hurricane Helene is still out in the Gulf and will work its way this way so this is ahead of the real bad weather. Our  rain gauge only measures up to 7" of rain and we are right at 7" now. The radar shows some real heavy rain coming later today. 

This area has not experienced this heavy rain in a long time. This is going to be a real bummer of a storm. 

Picnic

There is a nice park just 14 minutes drive from us and it is federal and well maintained.  It is on a nice lake and there is a fishing dock that you can fish from. I'm sure we will go back again as it was very quiet and peaceful. When Carol went grocery shopping this morning she picked up a Subway sandwich and this was the perfect spot to eat it. 

Our neighborhood

 When we moved from Colorado to NC, we knew we were going to a really neat neighborhood. When driving up the hill to enter the community there was a very tall and dead tree in the middle of the road. It was taken down a couple of months ago but the stump was left. Some very imaginative neighbors created a gnome home. We think it is awesome! What say you?

Caterpillar

 

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This is an interesting caterpillar - yellow and it has spikes which tells me that it is nothing to touch without getting stung. With all the insects we have here I need to keep reminding myself to be careful where I put my hand down. 

Spiders:

 We have these spiders who have a body about the size of a penny. We have several and they do not seem aggressive or mean. They build this intricate web and if we tear it down they just build it back again. I don't know what  type they are but as long as they catch mosquitoes I let them be. One builds its web on our golf cart and goes for a nice ride each day to get the mail. I think we may be developing a relationship with it. 

Flying Squirrel:

Was going to clean out the bird box and  saw this little face looking back at me. I thought it was a mouse but when I started to open the front it jumped out and flew to a tree. It was a flying squirrel and if you enlarge the photo you will see just how cute it is.  There is another one in the box so I quickly closed it up and left them be. 

Peach Pits:

 

I have just spent the last hour trying to get the seeds out of peach pits. Neither pliers, hammer nor anything else could crack them open. Whoever messaged me to just buy a tree from a nursery certainly is much smarter than I am.  THANK YOU!

Fruit Trees:

When we bought this property we discovered that it has both a cherry tree and apple tree. The cherry tree is flourishing but the apple tree needs work. I have been studying on Google how to care for these trees. It looks like it may take years to get them to produce but it has to start somewhere and there is no time like the present. 

I also want to start a peach tree from seed but that may also take some time and effort. Since I am in my 80's I may not benefit from a good harvest but someone after me may. I  also have blue berry bushes that need serious attention. They do produce well but could do better if properly maintained. 

Since I no longer have to shovel snow like I did in Colorado I should have the time to do right by these trees and bushes.