VA Trip Pt One: Mendota

A couple weeks back, Park asked if we'd like to join him and Katie on a quick trip to Kingsport to stay with his mom and help out on a hawk counting project as well as go hiking at The Great Channels.  The channels have been on my list since this past spring and I jumped at the chance.  

We decided to combine the Wed-Thur events with Matt's Friday off and make it a longer trip.  Park and Katie had to head back Thursday night but his mom was game for us to stay another night to make meeting up with Matt easier.  He drove the 5 hours up to join us after work and got in around 11.  We left his car there the next morning and took the van on the second leg of the trip, staying 2 nights at Beartree Campground outside Damascus.

It was sunny and gorgeous, cloudy and cold, rainy and hailed a while, back around to sunny but not warm, foggy, damp, dry and everything in between.  Temps ranged from around 80 to a low of 38.  

The kids and I headed out Tuesday to meet up that evening and arrived on time, Park was a couple hours late.  So I got to do my least favorite thing-meet a new person and impose on them straight away.  Luckily, she's used to it as Park drags home strays and sometimes just sends total strangers along assuring them she'll love the company.  We introduced her to AirBnB before we left out Sunday.  She might as well get some income from the traffic!  

Wednesday morning we headed to Mendota fire tower and hiked the short but steeeeep trail to the top and ran into a group of men ranging in age from around 40 to 75 or so, all looking through binoculars and yelling bird types and numbers to one another to write down.  They told us how to tell what the bird is from the silhouette and that turkey vultures are black against the sky.  There were about 95% broadwing hawks coming through, but as we arrived a peregrine falcon passed through, then an osprey, so that was cool!

I had imagined hoards of birds, like the way they come in at the refuge.  But it was mostly 1 to 7 hawks at a time and they flew by at a distance.  A group is called a kettle, but they don't fly together on purpose, just happened to catch the same pocket of air, much like people catching the same elevator.  They had counted over 4000 in the previous 2 weeks.

  

Wednesday night, we had a bonfire and camped out by the creek.  It was Reedy Creek, which was nice as that's the creek at Disney World and the station there is Reedy Creek Radio.  Chan and I have been having Disney withdrawals,

Thursday morning, we woke up and loaded up for our hike to The Channels.

One L Lama, he's a priest, Two L llama, he's a beast.

Katy set up a tour of the alpaca farm over in Hampton Cove (there were 8 llamas as well) for Thursday.

There were around 100 alpacas, which was quite the sight to see.  I was amazed at how different all their faces looked, though I still don't think I would be able to keep up with 100 different names.

We walked around looking at them a while, then went into the yard area near her house and she showed the clipping process for shearing one.  All of  the animals are fiber animals and she uses the hair to make yarn and other items.  She teaches fiber classes and sells a small variety of items in her gift shop.  All I could think was how much never ending work it must be to care for that many 6 foot tall creatures-never mind the whole shearing, spinning, dyeing, weaving, teaching, selling aspect.  The kids set out their feed buckets before we left and we got to see them all close up again.

Wednesday night, the neighbors decided (after nearly 2 solid weeks of no rain) to burn down a few outbuildings and piles of trash.  They set 3 HUGE fires and then appear to have gone off for dinner or something, leaving a single kid in charge. Glad there is a paved road between us.

Speaking of neighbors, there is a family in Judy's house now.  Not sure if they are renting or bought it, we get told nothing.  They do scream at one another out in the yard, smoke non-stop, have several dogs (and no fence), like to spin out and make the gravel fly and go back and forth past our house instead of using their end of the road.  Also, they have company around the clock when they are home and 2 a.m. is just as good a time to scream in the yard and drive by really fast as any other time of day.  So, yay for neighbors.

Murphy Jones is healing up.  The theory is that he will eventually get some hair and we will know what he looks like.  Right now, he looks like a 20 pound scabby dust mop.  I can not believe people can neglect a dog to the point that he's an open sore from ears to toes.  He had over 100 ticks on his tiny body.  :(  

On to the farm:

After the tour, nearly everyone headed to Katy's to hang out.  I sent Jake and Chan home with  her and Ben and I, Kurt and Emma and Melanie and her Ben all loaded up to head out for an overnight backpacking trip.

Morning!

LOOK  It's NEARLY the same shade as the house.  Took me 2 years and there's still that purple stripe.
Also, be sad because those are our water shoes in the background and it's been so long since we were at the creek that vines have grown through them!

and the regular old white.  This vine seems resistant to any invasion of color, I can get blushes in ALL the other flowers.  This one-just that pale pink in the ribs, not even all the way through, though at least it's in a constant pattern.

I eat these like candy, I bet I have had 150 little tomatoes in the past 3 months.

My new "chocolate" hair.  I wiped out the summer-induced red and blonde and Jake induced grey in one 45 minute swoop.  I pointed out to Jake that I had no grey before I had him.  Hence, he started it.  He pointed out I was only 20, barely a year older than he is now, and THAT was why I had no grey before he was born.  I about panicked, I swear, having a baby that young!  I still think puberty should be something that happens closer to 30.

I got distracted by MATT (I am all about pointing fingers today) and left it in too long.  It's practically black, hence the hat until it fades a bit into something that doesn't look like a baby doll's wig.
I very nearly went blonde, but that requires a lot of maintaining and I have eyebrows and stuff, not to mention 3 children with very dark hair.  Maybe one day I will do it.

The coveted deep purple with hot pink ribs.

Love this white with the purple star. Morning glories are SO freaking pretty, I don't know why they get treated as weeds!  And that's IT, they don't rebloom the next day, you get a single show and on to a totally new bloom.

I so love this dog.  

About...4 years ago, I got, um...lost in our woods.  There was at least a foot of snow on the ground and I was TOTALLY screwed up on direction-no sun, it was getting dark.  Kuma realized I was an idiot at some point because he started running ahead to break the snow and pack it down, then would come back and press the backs of my legs or else press my side like below and I would hang on to his scruff. He got me home in nearly a straight line, I thought Matt was going to strangle me, he was so worried.  But Kuma never left me unless it was to make the walking easier and ever since, even in the driveway, he stays very near and guides me around if he thinks I am in the slightest danger.  Since I hurt my foot, he's been practically carrying me, I could not even hobble to the van and back unless he was 'helping'.
I know he's a sheep dog and I am basically a sheep with thumbs to him, but I still like feeling protected and safe.  If I could clone any animal in the world, it would be Kuma McCoy.

Muta, Kat, Kuma, Jessie and Nia.  Cleo and Wonder are in the mimosa bushes.
 The whole gang was present for my inaugural walk!

Picked up 2 of these adorable solar lanterns for $5! Love those end of summer sales on outdoor goodies you don't REALLY need.  They shine in various colors via a TEENY led bulb, so illumination is not really the key point to having them-watching the colors morph is.  I was a little bummed about that, I wanted them to make enough light to get in the front door without the porch light attracting all those bugs!

Summer Day 32: Not a zoo!

Yesterday we went to Huntsville to run some errands and ended up going to see a movie!  Well, 2 movies since Chan does not like monster movies she and I went to see Epic, which is really good!  The boys went to see After Earth, which was apparently MUCH cooler because they did not shut up about it the rest of the afternoon.  Our movie had Leafmen. 

We walked a whole entire mile on the greenway before giving up and running for the van because of thunder, then lightning and then some rain.  I ended up walking on the treadmill to finish my 3 miles for the day, it seems like it take twice as long that way.  I am still10 pounds over where I wanted to be by my birthday, so I am trucking it in hopes that I can whittle that down to 6-7, I still have over a week!  Just going in the right direction will help my aging ego.  :D

On the greenway

It had a very pretty little rock-bottom creek flowing along beside...

I talked the guys into redoing a photo booth strip for me.  I have had the one on the left hanging over my desk for 17 years.  :)

Today we went to Amanda's to see the new baby goats, they were SO cute.
It poured most of the way there, it has been raining off and on for days, so of course the mushroom crop was popping up all over, I took these on the 100 foot walk to the goat shed.

 Sweet little blue-eyed baby goats!!

This is the only goat who's name I actually know, it's Red Molly!
Though I would have called her Butter Pecan.
Look at those baby goat lashes.

This is BBQ, the Sleeve Eater

Yes, I did smooch on this goat, they smelled like hay and sunshine, I could have sniffed at them a while longer...

I have no idea what she named this one, but I am calling her Adorbs.

 The only thing cuter than the goats is the baby, Bird, who is growing SO fast!  Today he was all about making big surprised eyes and climbing up in his chair and making his legs poke straight out.  With his 6 teeth, he is cuter than a bunny.  The girls were cute, too.  2 sweet 4 year olds having a tea party is one of the best things to see in life.  :)

This was in my van, eep.
It's a chickenlet!

We ended up leaving early, Ben was not feeling well.  He said a couple of strange things today on the way down, strange enough that I pulled over and bought a thermometer to make sure he did not have a fever.  This was BEFORE he said he felt bad, or I would have just headed back home.  I don't mind older kids hanging out if one of them is puny-just keep your germs to yourself.  But Amanda has 2 under 5 and sweet Inde was there, too! 

After we had been there a couple hours, he went and laid down while the other boys went swimming-that was the second indicator that he was super puny.  He's still not running a fever, but he's pale and his eyes look exhausted.  He's in bed now, I am hoping a good solid night of sleep will have him all sorted.  He seems to only be wiped out and he has a single runny nostril.  :(

I picked up my Frontier order while I was there, I ordered Numi Garden Sampler tea-it is surprisingly good, I am drinking tomato mint now and Matt has beet cabbage in his mug.  It's meant to be a snack replacer and is good for hiking and camping as a warming beverage with some heft to it.  Like cocoa but lighter plus loads of vitamins and antioxidants.  I also picked up some Stash chocolate hazelnut tea and that is really good.  Stephanie sent a big baggie of Stevia with pomegranate and passion fruit flavors.  I LOVE the Stevia with vanilla, so I am hoping this will be just as yummy!

I am bummed we did not get to hang out longer, we had all juggled schedules until today was agreed on and Katy's mom even took off work to hang out with us.  Waa.  They are probably jet skiing right now or something.  hahaha