Good Morning Sunshine

This morning, as I began my walk to the garden, just as I left the cabin ramp and headed up the hill, I saw this...

...glorious!


There is little that needs to be said.  I love life here.  More words aren't necessary. 

Thank you for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Tiny Trumpets & Tiny Dancers

We discovered a mushroom delicacy in our yard today, next to the 'driveway' (using that term loosely, as it is a smoothed out designated place to park the car and ATV).  Trumpet mushrooms...a scrumptious delight!  They are very small, difficult to see as they blend with the ground, but a tasty treat if you come across them!

This is what they amount to in a bowl...we made an omelet with them, and let me tell you, when I put them in the pan to saute with some butter, there was an immediate delicious rich mushroom scent that wafted from the pan.  I added the eggs (fresh mountain range free chicken eggs), and the result was a savory dinner omelet!  Love breakfast for dinner...!

When it comes to tiny dancers, I came across this beautiful caterpillar twice today...on my way to the garden and then on my way to the mailbox.  I came upon this tiny creature and it looked like it was dancing in mid air.  Then I saw the silk thread.  I was charmed by the graceful movement it made while climbing the thread, twirling and spinning in it's own ballet.  Though I have tried, I can not find what this particular caterpillar is or will turn into.

The photo background is black because it was early morning, so I used my flash.  Interestingly, it did not capture the trees in the background.  I like the effect, but I didn't do it on purpose...as I snapped away, this tiny dancer kept pirouetting, climbing the thread up into the trees...

I really like this picture because of the reflection of rain drops on the leaves in the background, again, not a purposeful photographic strategy, but a lovely effect that I am proud of:)

I did not use flash in this one...the result is a less focused image, but I find this a very pleasing image nonetheless. 

This was a little later in the day, on the way to the mailbox...these tiny dancers are apparently all around.  I did use flash, but because it was mid afternoon, the trees are now captured in an abstract way...and if you follow the line of the hairs, you can see the dance happening...

This is no flash, and you can see the body and head very clearly, but now no thread...light has an interesting effect on things!

...anyone know what this tiny dancer is?  Or better yet, what butterfly or moth it will turn into?

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

A Bald Faced Hornet & Decking Supply Delivery

Once again, a fascinating creature has captured my attention.  I found this bald faced hornet (actually in the yellow jacket family, not a true wasp) on our porch railing... 

...I watched her (I know she is a female as they do all the work except to lay eggs...hmph, could try to say something funny here, but I think I will let each of you make your own sarcastic remarks to yourself so I don't get myself into any trouble) as she scraped a small strip of wood and made a ball just behind her mouth.  You can see the line of scraping and the ball if you look closely...

 ...this is another view and closeup of the ball, though it's a little blurry...

I later learned that the chewed wood will be mixed with her saliva to then expand the nest, which is paper like, shaped like a football and usually hangs in a tree.  She didn't seem to mind me watching her, though when I got too close with the lens she did fly away a couple times.  I am glad for that as I also learned they are extremely aggressive when protecting their hive, and will sting repeatedly when threatened.  I'm glad she was tolerant of my curiosity and there was no nest involved!

I don't know why I find all these stinging insects so marvelous...maybe because they are actually quite beautiful in an insecty sort of way...maybe because I've never seen so many different species before...maybe because I have a tiny bit of daredevil in me...but I sure do enjoy learning about all these creatures and watching them at work...absolutely captivating!

Deck update...we had our supplies delivered today.  Do you know that when they bring the truck, the bed actually tips like a dump truck, and they literally dump the materials on the ground?  More like supply dump than delivery if you ask me...

 

 

I was mortified as I watched this taking place!  When the first bound section of wood slipped off and thudded to the ground with a few cracks and groans, I though to myself, "this can't be right!".

I nonchalantly when over to Mountain Man & Charlie (you know Charlie came down when he heard the truck), and quietly asked "is this the way they always unload a truck?" to which the response was, "oh yes, otherwise it would take forever to unload!"  Hmph, thought I, and had to ask, "this doesn't break the wood?", and the response was "nah".  Hmmmmmm...I thought, really? Perhaps building supply delivery people ought to consider hiring worker hornets, as they would be female, and would likely have an efficient and effective way to deliver supplies that would not include dumping...

So, look at Mountain Man looking at the pile, makes me wonder what he was thinking, LOL!  Did I mention that the delivery guy said to Johny, "oh, I didn't think the top would slide off like that"...???  Hmph, a heartfelt hmph!

We ended up moving the wood that was tumbled about, which made me glad because the dis-order was bugging me.  In the end, nice little piles, concrete mix covered, and I was a happy girl:)  But seriously, supply dumping?

Well, regardless, the supplies are here.  Let the building begin!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

It's All About Making Things...From Zucchini Bread Rolls to Concrete Footers

We have zucchini.  And zucchini.  And more zucchini.  I'm not complaining mind you, but it becomes a little challenging to figure out how to be creative with it so we don't get tired of it.

A couple days ago I made a zucchini au gratin.  It was scrumptious! Last night, I made a beer batter and we fried up zucchini slices.  They were delicious!  I made a simple horseradish dipping sauce (sour cream, mayo, horseradish, lemon juice, salt pepper) and we stood outside eating them as they came out of the fry daddy (yes, of course, we let them cool a little, but we wanted them crispy and hot).  We don't eat much fried food, but boy is this a good way to eat zucchini!

Today...Zucchini Bread Rolls
The roll on the left is without the glaze; the roll on the right, with glaze.

 Ingredients:
1 tsp flour
2 tsp honey
1/2 cup warm water
1 pkg yeast
1 cup warm milk
2 tbsp oil
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup zucchini, grated, squeezed, tightly packed

For the glaze if desired:
a little warm water
twice as much honey as water

Stir together the first 4 ingredients.  Combine the yeast, milk, oil, bread flour, salt and zucchini, then push to the sides of the bowl to leave a well in the middle.  Now combine the yeast mixture to the warm water and stir.

Once combined, pour it into the dry ingredients and knead about 10 minutes to make a soft, firm dough.  This is what it looks like when you begin the kneading (I kneaded it right in the bowl) ...

 ...and after 10 minutes...

Grease the surface of the dough and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead lightly.  Shape it into balls, by gathering a portion of the dough using the tips of your fingers and thumb on one hand, then with the other hand use the space between your forefinger and thumb and pinch it off the dough.  This helps make the size of the balls consistent. Let the rolls rise again for 30 minutes.

If you want to glaze the rolls, which will add a little touch of sweetness and a bit of a crustier roll, mix the warm water with the honey and then brush over the rolls just before baking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place the pan of rolls on the middle rack and immediately lower the heat to 375.  Bake 15 - 20 minutes.  

Beautiful, light zucchini rolls!  If you do choose to glaze, it will caramelize the bottom of the rolls a bit, but it gives a nice sweet crunch to them. 

While I was baking...

...Mountain Man was mixing concrete to fill the holes we dug to create the concrete footings for our the deck posts...

...then shoveling into the holes (he put rocks in the bottom of the holes to create extra support)...

 ...then leveling, the footer must be flat all the way around...

 ...and voila, 6 concrete footers!  The one to the right is at the front of the cabin and on a bit of a hill, the very last one to the left of the photo is barely seen, but it is there, and about a foot from where the drop off is to the creek.

Besides setting footers, he finalized our supply order which will be delivered no later than Thursday this week! Woo hoo, we are on our way to having a deck:)

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Our First Fire of the Season & Busy Honey Bees

We woke to a nice chill in the air (53 degrees, not too bad, but all the windows were open so it was cold inside) and decided it was time for our first fire of the season (in our wood burning stove).  We've considered it before, but were waiting until we could really enjoy the contrast of the warmth inside and the chill outside.  It was lovely...

 ...Mountain Man and I with cups of steaming coffee, gazing as the flames danced before us.  Pogo and Fluffy enjoyed the warmth too, each stretched out near the stove.  A perfect way to begin the day!

But then it was time to get busy.  Johny finalized the deck plans in order to get the supplies.  I cleaned and went to pay a long overdue visit to Bertie, my friend up the mountain (it was a nice visit and she showed me her most recent acquisition of exquisite costume jewelry...there might be a gem or two hidden in there too).  The day progressed busily as always.

Speaking of busy, I was fascinated by the honey bees working busily on our Rose of Sharon bush.  I now KNOW the meaning of the term 'busy bee'. 

This is a honey bee,doing her daily work.  Notice the pollen all over the flower.

She is a worker bee, and sucks the nectar through her tube like tongue, then stores the nectar in her honey belly (a separate stomach from her food stomach, though she can access it when really hungry).  You can see her tongue in this photo.  Pollinating is really a secondary job, though, as you can see, they are quite effective, considering how much they collect on their bodies as they go along sucking nectar!

Look at her!  Full of pollen!

I found this bee on our porch banister, trying to clean itself.  It is covered in pollen!

Fascinating creatures.  And harmless as long as you don't distress them; they are not aggressive and prefer sucking nectar and pollinating things than stinging humans:)

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

A Thistle & A Bat House

There is no relationship between a thistle and a bat house.  But pictures of thistles are prettier than bat houses, so I thought I'd start with pretty and close with night flying insect eaters:)

Thistles are just beginning to bloom now; I came across my first full bloom this morning.  The blooms are beautiful and provide a delightful contrast to the thorny leaves and stalks.  You can actually eat the peeled stalks, but we have not tried them yet.

  This is the early flower bud, (notice the web around it, I found that fascinating!)...

...blooming further, (this is another bud, also with a spider web, even more fascinating, some spider must love thistles!)...

...the bloom from the side, note the prickly leaves...

...a close up...

Love thistles!  Pretty pink and prickly!

So what about a bat house?  Well, Mountain Man built one and we hung it out today.  I would love to show you the process, but he built it while I was away, so what you get to see is the end result.  You can find the plan for the house we build by clicking this link to This Old House.  Here is our bat house in it's new home, nestled on some maple trees.

This is a little closer, the gap is where the bats live.

This is a closer look at the living quarters, and the garden netting they use to climb in and hold on to.

 This is Mountain Man completing the attachment process.  The opening has to be 10 - 12 feet above the ground, and it needs to be straight both horizontally and vertically.  It also needs to be stable, meaning no swinging.  It seems simple enough to do, but care must be used when perched on a ladder! (I won't go into the entire story, but my Dad fell from a ladder when doing yard work, and seriously hurt his back, resulting in surgery, recovery time, etc.  He is very lucky he didn't land on the garden clippers he had in his pocket! As the Berentsain Bear Papa would say, "let this be a lesson to you!")

This is the bat house as we see it from our porch.  We selected this sight because it is far enough into the woods that we won't disturb the bats, but close enough that we will see them.  We usually see bats coming out of the woods from the right side of our cabin (to the right of this photo) and then they fly in front of the porch to these woods in the photo.  We are hopeful we have selected the perfect spot.   

We don't know much about the specific bats we have here (yet), but we are hoping to see much more of them soon!  This is a great site for more information if you are interested, click on this link to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences if you like.

I am sure you are asking, WHY do we want a bat house?  Because bats are good, they eat night flying insects, they live where there is good air quality, and they are pollinators and seed spreaders.  Because we enjoy nature.  Because I am intrigued by vampire folklore and love the idea of having a bat house; I'm not silly enough to think I'll get a visit from Dracula, but it's a fun fantasy to play around with!  An OH, because Transylvania County, NC isn't far from here!  And now you know:)

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Fall is in the Air & Deck Groundbreaking

The early mornings are cool and the maple trees are beginning to turn!  I am pleasantly surprised that this is taking place in mid August, and being that I love cooler weather, this gets me excited about experiencing everything that Fall and Winter bring here in the mountains.

I am also excited that we have broken ground for our deck!  We are just in the beginning stages, and this will be a long project, because we will be doing a lot of the work ourselves.

As you may recall, we had to remove a huge stump and grade the area (you can click on the link to read more about that), which we completed in early July.  But it took us some time to find a skilled person to help us with the framing of the deck; we now have Ronnie, a neighbor a couple miles down the road working with us...he has helped many folks around here with all kinds of building (and other) projects.

This is the side of the house where the deck is going, it will be 42 x 16, running the entire east side of the cabin (I know, it sounds huge, but it really won't feel that way once we put everything out there that we want).  Mountain Man is taking a look behind the wood planks to look at the truss to be sure there is sufficient room to attach the ledger (the part that attaches the deck frame to the cabin).  I sound like I know what I am talking about, this is all a 'learning as I go' situation, but I am enjoying learning how this all works!

This is Mountain Man & Ronnie discussing some details and getting ready to measure.

Another neighbor, Ron, has shown up to lend a hand.  They are measuring the right angle from the cabin out to where the first 6x6 support post that will hold up the frame will go.  There will be 11 of these all together.

Ronnie & Johny (Mountain Man) are marking the center of the spots where the concrete pilings will be (eventually attaching the 6x6 posts to).  Each spot will have a 15x15x18 inch hole that concrete will be poured into.

Over time, Robert (he helped remove the stump and grade), Charlie (he helped with the final grading), Ron, Ronnie & Johny were all standing around.  In the mountains, everyone knows what everyone is doing.  Now and then, a group gathers to shoot the breeze, including talking about what the current project is...I told them it was like a barn raising and they better be careful or everyone would end up working!

So Mountain Man & I are on hole digging detail.  This requires using a pick, a rock crusher, shovels, a wheel barrow and ultimately string.  We started by measuring the 15x15 space around the center marking stick, and began to dig.  We realized it would be easier to stay within the measured area if we strung a line along the sides as a guide (measuring the 15"). We had to dig 18 inches deep, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it is when you are the one digging in a 15x15 hole!  This depth was important, because it is 6 inches below the freeze line, and you don't want your concrete to crack in a deep freeze!

So this is the first hole we dug!  It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be; we alternated pick axing, using the rock crusher (this is a 16 lb. long stick with a point and a flat side, one of my favorite new tools because is really helps dig a hole), shoveling and moving the wheel barrow.  We didn't come across as many rocks as we thought we would, and those that we did were small enough to remove with our hands.  We dumped the dirt from the holes to the edge of the large open space to level the ground there a bit more.

And these are the 3 we completed today.  One more needs to be added to the far end, and two more at the front of the picture, one of which is on a slope, which we will finish tomorrow. This is the first row 8' from the wall, there will be a second row another 8 feet from those.  But this will not happen until the beginning of the frame is completed, to be sure everything is square.

Tomorrow, we finish digging the holes, and then filling with the concrete...stay tuned!

It is really exciting to have this project finally under way, and I can't wait until it is done.  The best part is, we are building this thing ourselves (for the most part). Something I have never done before!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise