A Weekend in the Mountains - Part 2

If you haven't read the first part of this, you might want to start here.

There isn't a lot open in small towns on Sunday, so Sunday morning we drove up to Grandfather Mountain.  Growing up in North Carolina, I had been there several times, but not in years, and Rob had never been. 

He actually smiled for this one!

They have several types of wild animals who for various reasons can no longer live in the wild.  We timed our visit right because we were able to see "enrichment" activities for several of the animals and that means they came up close where you could really see them.

Bald eagles

Male bear

Female bear

Female cougar

Male cougar

We drove on up to the top of the mountain to the swinging bridge.  The bridge is not nearly the frightening thing that it was when I was a kid.  It seems to me that it's been stabilized a great deal since then, but maybe it's just my imagination.  It was extremely windy on top of the mountain.  I mean push you around the parking lot, hang on to the rails so you don't get blown off, windy, so we decided not to cross the bridge.  We were worried less about the bridge than we were about the open rocks on the other side where there's nothing to hold on to.  So we were cautious adults.  Hey, we live in NC, it's not like we can't ever go back!

Yeah some people were crazy enough to hang out on top of that big rock in the wind, but not me!

After a stop for lunch, we drove out to Penland to check out the school.  Classes had just ended last week, so we just drove around and checked things out.  The school has a little different focus than the John C. Campbell Folk School, which we've been to a couple of times, but it seems like a nice place.

We stopped at Barking Spider Pottery near the school and bought a new piece for our ledge.  I didn't think to take a picture of it before I put it up on the ledge, so sorry for the crappy picture. 

It's the one on the right.

We drove in to Burnsville for an early dinner at a restaurant we like there, which doesn't seem to have a website, but it's called In the Garden. Then we made our way back to the Inn for the night.

Monday morning we got up and headed home.  All in all it was a nice weekend away and I look forward to going back to the area again and hopefully someday calling it home.

A Weekend in the Mountains - Part 1

Rob and I headed to the mountains this weekend.  We've spent the past couple of years checking out small mountain towns, looking for the area we'd like to purchase some property for weekends and eventually live there when we retire.  We really like the Burnsville area, so this weekend we headed to nearby Spruce Pine, just one county over to check out that area as well.

We left Friday morning and took our time driving up.  We went a little out of our way to stop in Black Mountain for lunch and a little wandering around.

I spotted some of Sue Dial's gorgeous buttons in the yarn shop there.

I was very tempted to purchase 4 of these for the members of the Sock Monkey Sisterhood, but I resisted.

We got to Spruce Pine in the afternoon and checked in to the lovely Richmond Inn.  We've discovered that we prefer staying in a Bed and Breakfast when we're spending a weekend away.  It's enjoyable to meet other travelers over breakfast and have a nice place to hang out when we're not out & about.

The Penland School of Crafts is not far from Spruce Pine, so art there is a lot of art and artists.  The Inn's neighbor is apparently somewhat of an artist as well.

We had dinner Friday evening at a great restaurant called The Tropical Grill.  Fabulous food and very friendly people.  Then we wandered around downtown for a while, and saw some more art, that was a little more practical this time. 

Saturday morning we headed back to historic downtown Spruce Pine for a while to investigate the shops that had been closed the night before.  The Toe River Arts Council was having an event with several artists selling their art, and I might have purchased a few things.

After that, we drove out towards Bakersville.  We went by a piece of property that was for sale, that looked somewhat promising online for a very good price, but after looking at it, decided it wasn't really what we were looking for.  We went into Bakersville, which is tiny, but it had a couple of art galleries where we browsed for a bit. 

In Bakersville we saw a sign for a wolf sanctuary.  If you know Rob, you know he has a fascination with wolves, so we started following the signs.  We had great timing because they are only open for tours on Saturdays certain parts of the year and this Saturday was the first time this year they'd been open.  We saw some gorgeous wolves, and even got to pet one of them.

After the wolves we drove around a bit and drove over to Little Switzerland just to see it.  We went back to the Inn to relax a bit before dinner, then had another wonderful dinner, this time at Knife & Fork.  They have some very unique items on their menu.  Rob had braised rabbit, which was very good.  I opted for a more traditional steak and potatoes, but the blueberry tart with lemon curd that I had for dessert was different and delicious.

Back at the Inn, one of the resident animals took a liking to Rob's lap.  Actually, she wasn't really particular about whose lap she was in, but I was knitting, so I guess she found his more relaxing at the time.

*In the interest of not going on too long, I'm going to chop this up in to two posts, so more tomorrow.

What I've Been Up To

This is my new buddy Diesel.  He's an English Mastiff.  He belongs to the friends we  spent the day with yesterday and he's gigantic, and he's the sweetest, drooling, 170 pound teddy bear, and I love him. They also have another dog, Sasha.

But Diesel....

I love dogs, but I don't really want one right now.   We've had a couple over the years, and I miss having a dog when I'm at home.  What I don't miss is having to make arrangements to have them taken care of if we want to go out of town for a weekend, or even if we just want to do something after work without going home first.

Cats are much easier in that respect.  Just leave some food and water and they're good for a weekend.  If we're gone longer the neighbor comes in every couple of days to clean the litter box and make sure they haven't eaten all the food.  We'll probably have another dog someday though.

On a separate train of thought....I got a lot the the Christmas decorating done today.

The wreath is on the front deck, and the lights are up.  It's the first time I've put them up since we had the deck rebuilt a couple of years ago, so Rob had to go around and put in screws for me to use to hang them, but we got it all done.

I love the way it looks lit up, even if it does sort of make the house look like Saturn.  The tree is in the house and in the stand.  So far the kitten doesn't seem interested in anything other than the water in the stand, we'll see what happens when there are lights and ornaments all over it.

Tomorrow is college football with my family....Go Heels!...so that will take up most of the day. I hope to at least get the lights on the tree tomorrow night so I can put on ornaments Sunday and then the decorating will mostly be done.  Next weekend it will be time to tackle the Christmas cards.

The Dog Rescuer

I admit it, I'm a sucker for dogs, especially big dogs. Which is why I spent most of my morning with this guy. (sorry, pic is at the bottom, I forgot the Blogger app puts them all down there.)

I had to swing by the Sheriff's office this morning to pick up the paperwork to renew my concealed carry permit, so I headed out of town a different way that took me up a rural road. As I passed the brick plant, I saw him sitting beside the road, with his head on his paws and his rear sticking out in the road.

I don't normally stop for EVERY dog I see sitting by the side of the road, but the way his rear was out in the road made me think he might have been hit by a car and unable to get completely to the side. As soon as I slowed, his head popped up and watched my car as I turned around and drove back past him to pull into the gravel area on the side of the road.

I got out of the car and he hopped up and came loping over to me, slobber already flying from his mouth. It was obvious at this point he hadn't been hit, but he was so friendly I had to love on him a bit.

I couldn't leave it at that though. He had a chain around his neck, but he was a little thin for a mastiff and he had a spot on one of his rear legs that looked pretty raw. And so the fun part began.

I checked with the office of the brick plant to see if they knew who he belonged to, but no luck. I noticed a house just down the intersecting road that had a dog in the yard, so I drove over there to ask if they knew anything about him. My new buddy followed my car as I drove, and when we got there the dog in yard was jumping all over him wanting to play, but he just stood there and looked at him.

The woman at the house didn't know him, but told me there were several houses down the road that had dogs. She gave me a couple of dog treats for him, and I managed to get him in my car. The front seat of a Mustang was not made for the likes of this dog. He eventually got mostly settled with his rear in the seat and his front paws in the floorboard, and off we went.

I spent the next hour or so stopping at houses up and down the road trying to find an owner, but with no luck. By this time, the passenger side of my car and the gear shifter were covered in drool. I finally decided his best bet was to take him to the animal shelter, where hopefully someone would look for him. My plan also was to start calling vets to let them know he was there, and to locate a mastiff rescue group that would come get him if his owner couldn't be found. He was too sweet to let him be put down, but I had nowhere to put him at home. Even as thin as he was, he still weighed at least 140.

Fortunately, that turned out to be the best decision. They scanned him at the shelter and he had a microchip, so they took my info anyway, but said they would call the owners. I called back late this afternoon and they said the owners were coming to get hi. Yeah! He didn't appear to be abused, so I can only hope that his thinness is due to having been lost for a while. The shelter can't tell me who the owners are, so I can only hope for the best.

I finally made it to work after lunch. After all that, I had to go home and change into clothes that hadn't been slobbered all over, and my car really needs a bath!

Back again

We lost Sable last month.  She decided to dart out the door one night and by the time we found her a couple of days later, she had run into things bigger and badder than she could handle.  She was a weird cat, but a lover in her own way, and I still find myself looking for her and expecting her to show up at various times.  On the other hand, our other indoor cat, Gicho, doesn't seem to be upset at all to be the only indoor cat now. 

Lots of little things going on since my last post, but nothing earth shattering.  My mental attitude about work is better.  Primarily because I just decided to let things go, but there have also been a few minor changes that have helped somewhat.

We're off to the John C. Campbell Folk School next week and I can't wait.  I'll be learning to tat lace and Rob will be learning blacksmithing.  I hope to do a couple of posts with some pics while we're gone if I can get a data signal on my phone to upload things. 

The week after that I'm going to the Writers' Police Academy which should be a lot of fun.  Hopefully it will provide me some inspiration to do some more writing.  I've been doing some snippets here and there, but haven't been able to really get into a story lately.

So two whole weeks away from work.  I don't know if I'll be able to come back after that!

 

Channeling Alfred Hitchcock

The past couple of days have felt like I was trapped in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds.  No less than 4 birds have scared the shit out of me by appearing to be determined to commit suicide on the windshield of my car, only to change their minds at the last minute. 

I was only mildly concerned about the songbirds who were feeling depressed this week, but two of these incidents involved rather large birds that I believe were hawks.  No, I'm not sure they were hawks, at the time I was too busy numbly watching their decent towards my windshield, and trying to figure out which way I would need to steer to lessen the impact if they didn't veer away in time, to worry about specifically identifying the species.

I can only hope that over the weekend the birds in the area resolve their issues and stick to the upper levels of the horizon in the future.

I'm Not Overly Squeamish, But.....

This is NOT what you want to find your cats playing with in your bedroom floor when their incessant meowing wakes you up at 3 o'clock in the morning!

We think they carried it upstairs, so I guess I should be thankful that it was on the floor and not on our bed. *shiver* Needless to say, getting back to sleep took a little while as my imagination ran wild with all the horrid scenarios involving multiple snakes in our bedroom, and in our bed, ran through my head.

Do you think he's learned his lesson?

This is how my morning started...

Which ultimately lead to this.....

You may remember Neko from this post. Neko is still a sweet and loving cat, but he is now an outside cat.  Neko decided earlier this year that he no longer liked litter boxes and that he was required to mark his territory by spraying on the furniture.  After several fruitless attempts to "cure" this problem, including a vet visit to rule out medical issues, Neko became an outside cat.  Now the world is his litter box and he can spray the bushes and the deck to his heart's content.

He makes a good outside cat.  We were worried at first that he would run off, but he pretty much stays around the house and comes to get his loving whenever we're outside.  He says goodbye every morning when we leave and greets us each evening when we return.  Which is why we were a little concerned last night when he didn't greet either of us when we got home, and by this morning still had not eaten any of his food from yesterday.

When I found him this morning, he wouldn't come to me, but he didn't run when I approached...until I tried to put a damp cloth on his eye to clean it up.  I decided a trip to the vet was in order and went inside to get the cat carrier.

Neko is not a fan of the cat carrier, but he can usually be cajoled into it without too much trouble.  He was having none of it this morning.  After desperately trying to get him in and hang onto him as he twisted and clawed, I finally decided that it was more important to get him to the vet than for him to ride in the carrier to get there.  So I put both the cat and the carrier in the car.  You see the results above.  He may look like he's having fun, but he's yowling at the top of his lungs.

The vet's verdict....a corneal puncture which lead to part of his iris prolapsing through the tear.  Yes, it looked much worse once he finally opened his eye.  Fortunately, the fixing of that is not nearly as expensive as it sounds.  Neko will be coming home tonight, where he will get to spend a few days in the basement bathroom until we can get him healed up.

Let's hope when he gets back outside, he's learned his lesson about fighting with the neighbor's cat.

Crazy Cat people

Rob says when you have more cats than people in the house, you're crazy cat people. With 3 cats, and only 2 humans now that the kids have left home, I guess we qualify. Truth is, we'd have more cats if Rob would let me bring home more. We've tried to be dog people too, and we actually both really like dogs, we just don't want the extra effort required to take care of them. With a cat you can leave it food, water & a clean litter box and take off for a weekend. A dog either has to go with you or be kenneled.

Each of our cats has their own personality, and as I looked around the living room today while all three of them snoozed the afternoon away, I imagined what they would have to say about themselves, each other, and us…..

I wish the mama person would sit still. She keeps shifting on the couch, and every time she does, she moves her feet, which I'm sleeping on. She is kind enough to stop her reading and pet me occasionally, but never for long enough, she just won't leave her hand there so I can lick it. I like to lick. The daddy person's head is fun to lick whenever he'll let me, but he doesn't seem to like it much, I wonder why? At least that nasty male orange cat isn't trying to get in my space. Neko, what kind of name is that?, and he thinks he's such a badass since he still has his front claws. Hah! I'm the queen of this castle buster, and don't you forget it. Good, the mama person has stopped moving again, I can go back to sleep.

Aaaahhh, this is a nice comfy pillow. The people were so nice to leave it laying flat on the couch for me, especially since the daddy person has that ugly silver thing in his lap where I'M supposed to be. I can see that big old fat Gicho over there next to the mama person. Suck up. She thinks she's the cat's meow, but she's not all that, laying around on the floor all the time with her belly up and her legs spread. It's not too bad here. I've only been here about 10 months, but the people here have taken care of me since my last person had to go away, and they appreciate my purring, as long as I keep my claws out of the furniture. Even if that scaredy cat Sable won't let me in the closet where the litter boxes are, I don't care, the people gave me my own litter box and it even cleans itself! *yawn* I can barely keep my eyes open.

This is the kind of day I like. The people are here, so I can get some attention when I want it. I really like to follow the mama person into that room with the big white bowl full of water. If I bat at her enough while she's sitting on it, she'll usually pet me. And when she's done I like to watch the water swirl and swirl around. Sometimes I like to play in it too, but I don't always want to get my paws wet. I'm glad the people didn't invite any other people to our house today. Other people scare me, and I have to go hide in my people's bedroom until they leave. I can see Gicho and that cocky Neko over there on the couch near the mama person, but I like to keep my distance unless I'm in the mood for petting. So tired…..