Time barrels through our lives like a freight train with no brakes.
We found a house about 25 minutes from where I work. Not a bad commute. We just spent the last 6 years though in remote areas. A quiet street in Asheville, a hayfield in Waynesville, and the middle of nowhere in Wisdom. So imagine our surprise upon moving into a neighborhood that is alive with people. People working on their yards, walking across the street and talking to neighbors, dozens of kids running around all the time. I like it. The people are friendly, Nova has already made a best friend, and downtown is within walking distance. We have literally walked to the store a few times when we’ve only needed a couple of things. We’ve walked down to Dunkin’ to go get breakfast a couple of times.
Our house, is a sweet little thing; it’s 100 years old and well loved. There are a lot of updates that it needs (as many 100 year old homes go) and a lot that we need to do to make it ours. But summer hit and it’s hard to get around to doing things. That’s okay, we’ll get there. One little step at a time.
I’m well into a routine at work. I haven’t quite gotten a solid routine down at home though. I think there are too many projects that need to be tackled. It stresses me out. A lot got done today though so that was nice.
I came home to find that Murphy cut the bushes out of the front of the house. He also busted out the steamer and started peeling off the horrible wall paper from the walls. He got all the camping stuff put away as well and vacuumed. I got home and made us some dinner and cleaned the kitchen as well as we can. I say as well as we can because we currently have no hot water. Our water heater is broken and we won’t be able to get a new one till later this week. So I boiled some water and did it the old fashioned way. After that I took Ash for a walk then gave him a bath and combed the cat. I iced a few cupcakes with Nova and now we’re finally sitting down to relax.
We took a camping trip over my weekend. Rented a canoe and paddled out to a waterside campground. It was a beautiful night and a really nice break in what has been rainy/dreary weather. I’ll take the rainy weather though because that means the upcoming 4th of July won’t be so dangerous all around us.
So things are moving. Gears constantly turning. And each day ticks by to a new year. We just circled the sun one more year… I didn’t realize as you got older that you felt it, but this year I feel it. Between the move, the new job, taking care of the house, getting sick, and everything else….. I feel it. I wish I didn’t. I guess everyone feels that way though.
All of my changes seem to be massive. Go big or go home right? Nothing can be easy.
It was the end of January, at the tail end of the Quadrantids meteor shower. I missed all of them, January was very cold and I just haven’t been a fan this winter. I got up to get ready for work, and when I open the door to let Ash outside, I notice the stars are the brightest I’ve seen them all winter. So I step outside and have a look. It’s absolutely amazing. Our skies are so clear that the Milky Way is brilliant to the naked eye.
While I’m standing there with Ash, there goes one of the shooting stars. You make a wish on shooting stars, you don’t really have a choice, right? So I did. “A place for us, a place that’s ours.”
Not an hour goes by when I get a phone call. It’s one of the supervisors from Allegheny National Forest offering me a job. After talking it over with Murphy, we decide to accept. Back across the country, only this time we actually have a moving incentive – so there’s that.
So I started digging in and looking for a place, not only for us a live, but to buy. I mean, the universe kind of spoke to me, right? This is my chance. After a couple of adjustments to our budget, we find a really great little place. We put an offer complete with what’s called an escalation clause. But that clause only works up to the dollar amount worked into it, and someone offered the seller substantially more. So of course – we didn’t get the house.
Now we’re down a month and counting and there’s nothing new in the area that’s gone up for sale. We’ve exhausted the available houses too and none of them will work. So now we’re scrambling to try and find a place to rent. We’ll have to renew our search once we get out there.
I so desperately didn’t want to rent. I wanted to have that chapter of my life behind me for good, at last. We don’t seem to have a choice though. So it’s kind of sapped the excitement out of the move, and now it’s just kind of mechanical. Put items into box, put box on truck – get across the country. Work. Work, work, work, work, even though it provides you absolutely nothing to show for it. Nothing but putting someone else’s roof over our heads yet again.
I guess we’ll see what happens. We’re going to keep looking. It’s not like we’re giving up, I just got the wind knocked out of me. The right thing will pop up – won’t it? Now the trick is managing to beat other people’s offers with the little bit that we’re able to work with. I feel like it will be easier to do these transactions in person though. I hope so.
I feel like this is the most productive I’ve been in, yikes – it feels like months. Physically productive I should amend. I’ve done creative stuff, but today Nova and I tackled a whole lot. We got up and made a breakfast of some banana and flax pancakes. A cup of raspberry tea for Nova and some coffee for myself.
I had fed and prepped my sourdough the night before and we dove right into making some bread. We got a large sourdough loaf going and then a batch of sourdough naan bread going. I also had some phyllo dough to use before it dries out, so I tried a little blueberry pasty recipe. It turned out alright and was super easy. The instructions on the recipe page were lacking however so I kind of had to improvise. Had I known this, I would have done them a little differently. But I might try again.
Then Nova decided she needed some Jell-O, so we mixed up a batch of blue Jell-O for desert after dinner. She asked me for it ALL afternoon. I had to keep her distracted.
We did 2 loads of laundry. I took Nova and Ash outside to play in the snow for a while. As they did that, I finally got around to cleaning out some of the old boxes and trash from the garage and got it prepped for garbage day. I also FINALLY trimmed off the dead “greenery” from my overwintering mums to discover that they are ACTUALLY surviving. I have them in a pot in the garage. So I gave them a little water and moved them to the back of the garage where it’s a little warmer. I took Ash for a little bit longer of a walk when Nova wanted to come in.
I printed out a few recipes to put in my family recipe book. We replaced our printer the other day and it’s working nicely. And one of the things I’ve been doing is writing out all of our favorite recipes. Some I’ve snagged from the internet, but most are either family recipes passed down or things that we’ve created ourselves and really enjoyed. I want to be able to give this little recipe book to Nova one day when she moves out, so she’ll always have her favorite things.
Then, I saw what was supposed to be this neat trick with the instant pot. You can cook beans without having to soak them overnight. I was kind of psyched by this, so we tried it. I found a recipe and got a pot of pinto beans cooking. Followed all of the directions and let it go. I got the pork chops prepped and broccoli only to discover that the bean trick was a bust. And no, you cannot cook dried beans in the instant pot without soaking them. It’s a lie, don’t believe the recipes. They’re dumb. Not only did it not work, but it made a god awful mess in the kitchen when I did the quick release. Bean juice EVERYWHERE!
So I poured the still crunchy beans out into a regular stock pot and stuck them on the stove to boil. After 30 more minutes, they were NEARLY edible. But we ate dinner anyway. The beans are still simmering on the stove. Still not done. It’s been 3 hours.
Got Nova a bath, 2 loads of dishes done, along with setting Rosie the vacuum up in the kitchen and dining room to clean for us.
Cleaned out the litter box (all the way, replaced all the litter), cleaned the cat dishes and got her all set up. Then we did a little nose work training with Ash. We’re teaching him to sniff out morel mushrooms for the spring. He’s doing pretty well in theory. We’ll see how he does in practice. That’s been where he kind of slips up. He’s a sweet dog. Smart, but also an idiot. I’m sure you know the type.
And now I’m sitting here, writing an entry for the first time in…. I don’t know – forever? Needless to say I’m tired tonight. Nova’s still raring to go. “Mom, let’s do this. Watch me, I’m riding my scooter. I want to play with Ash. Let’s go through pictures. I’m doing back flips on the bed!”
Oh to be a toddler again. I wish I remember more of my toddler days. I have a few memories from around 4 or so, then of course they’re pretty solid after that. Mainly, I remember getting in my mom’s gray barrel chairs and spinning until I was so dizzy I couldn’t even climb out of it. Or sitting in my kiddie pool and the big Sheepdog (Baby) jumping in with me. I hope Nova remembers more. I hope we’ve given her things worth remembering I guess.
But for now, I’m going to finish getting us ready for bed. It’s only 8:16 here, but I could crash without a second thought. Back to work tomorrow (this is my “Sunday” evening). I should be able to finish putting the flooring down in the unit I’m renovating. It feels good to see it all come together. I got the hot water heater successfully installed and working, new lights and fixtures. Once the floors are in, I can clean and put the baseboards back in. Pull in the new fridge and furniture and reinstall the toilet. We should be good. A week? Depends on what a pain the baseboards are. They looked kind of rough. I might have to sand them all down and re-stain them, but we’ll see.
I think I hibernate through the winter. Unintentionally of course. Though it seems like I’ve spent this entire last year in something of a daze. I haven’t…. shared a lot. I think I’ve just been internalizing everything. Not out of depression, or secrecy, or anything like that. Just…
It’s not even that I haven’t had plenty of time. Well – mostly. I spent as much time as I could with Murphy, Nova and Ash (considering we’re all each other has out here). But there were moments I could have sat down and accomplished more creative things. Instead I opted to decompress in front of the television.
But I need to do a brain dump. I need a reset. I need to get functioning again. So please excuse this post. It is going to be long, and probably not all that interesting. But I’m hopeful that if I pour everything out here that I might be able to shake the etch-a-sketch enough to get creative again.
So I’ll start with last summer. We were exhausted after reaching Montana. Every weekend was spent unpacking, organizing, and just generally settling in. I was able to go visit Nikki a couple of times, that sort of thing. By the time we built up a little energy to try and go exploring or adventuring around our new home – we were blocked by a fire. The National Forest behind us caught ablaze and grew quickly. Everything was closed (WE were closed) and too smoky to try and go out. We were pretty much homebound for quite some time. We all started going stir crazy, but Murphy most of all.
In that time, we got a puppy. I’d forgotten what a handful puppies were, but all in all – Asher was a good boy. Nova was dubious at first. She LOVES dogs… but now this one was around ALL the time. Up in her business, up in her toys, he wanted to play – like a puppy. Once we got some boundaries set though, she fell in love. Whenever she gets irritated with him, she’ll yell out “AAAaaaaashhh!!!” in the most annoyed voice you can imagine coming from a 2 year old. She also has no problems being one of the alphas and will firmly try to put him in his place. He has grown into a very polite, well behaved pup.
At work, the Visitor Center closed due to the fire. Over the summer, we had a youth group (YCC) working with us. There were 3 local kids that helped us do whatever we needed from grounds care, to cleaning, to moving furniture and staining the wood siding and stuff. Great kids. They were with us from June till August. Of course many of the supplies we needed for projects didn’t arrive until AFTER they left in August. So it was just Nate and I to put up the snow guards on the houses and VC.
We had daily briefings (sometimes 2) about the fire. Personnel from other parks joined us as READs (Resource Advisors) to help translate all of the lingo. There was a target snowfall date of like October 12 which they believed would end the fire. They spouted out this date sometime in July or August and we kind of chuckled. And wouldn’t you freaking know that we had a snow event on October 11th! It was enough to coat the ground… and enough for the Incident Command group to deem the fire event over.
Then it was time to make damage assessments and repair plans (because the fire did cross into our park boundaries). We have retaining walls on a trail to rebuild, tread to fix, trail boundaries to rebuild along with trail markers. We had to do some quick fence repairs because cows kept getting into the encampment site. That wouldn’t have been such a horrible thing – but cows are so damaging on their surroundings. They knocked over tipis, crapped EVERYWHERE, wallowed and made huge ruts that were visible from the VC. But we herded them off site and got the fence fixed.
Nikki came out and visited with us for a long weekend between the fire ending and the snow coming in before she moved back to Florida. That was really fun. We got to visit an old ghost town, a historical mining town and played some games and talked.
I got a sewing machine and played around with that. I made a Halloween vest for Nova, seat cushions for the dining room and a cute little apron for Nova for the holidays (because she LOVES helping me cook). I also made a winter vest for her with some red corduroy fabric a co-worker gave me and some fake lambs wool. I completely winged the design and it turned out really nice. I discovered though I don’t give myself enough extra room when I’m not following a pattern. So instead of making it large enough for a few years, she could only wear it last year (MAYYYYBE this coming winter, we’ll see).
Trick or Treating over Halloween was fun. They have a big parade in town where all the kids walk through to show off their costumes. The businesses and people all come out and give the kids candy and then there’s a big pot luck dinner. After the dinner, the kids can go around and actually trick or treat door to door. Nova had a blast.
Murphy snared a job at the ski lodge up the road from us as a snowboard instructor. We spent 3 weekends hunting down snowboard gear for him and managed to come up with a nice ensemble of black red and white. He loves his board and getting out of the house for 2 days a week helped heal some of the damage from the summer stuck in doors.
We had a small Thanksgiving and for the first time ever, got to go out and find our own Christmas tree in the woods. We trekked around and found a nice one, cut her down and brought her home. Nova had fun helping me decorate.
I painted Nova a little picture of a deer looking at the sky to hang in her room. I have another one that I started of a family of 3 unicorns at a waterfall that is not done yet. It’s sketched out and a base layer of watercolors is down. It’s going to be mixed media, so I think acrylics will be next, then with some silver foil or something.
Ethan was going to come up for Christmas. I had the tickets purchased an everything. But his fear of flying got the best of him and he backed out. So we were short one for Christmas, but we made the best of it. Nova got a tricycle and some things for her baby doll. Her reaction was priceless when she came out into the living room. She noticed the eaten cookies first, and then turned to the tree and yelled “A BIKE!!”
We had a bunch of snow, but near as much as expected. It was a very warm and mild winter here. But I loved it. I spent the days at work renovating the park housing unit next door to us so it would be ready for new residents. I cleaned and organized the maintenance office and garage. And I plowed. A lot. Most days.
We discovered the Jackson Hot springs and went up there once every couple of weeks or so for something to do. Nova LOVED “swimming in the pool” and would ask to do so quite often. Sometimes we’d eat there, usually we’d just get a drink or so.
I took Nova out to Dallas and then I flew out to visit Ethan for his birthday in February. It was so nice to see him again. He’s getting SO big. It’s mind boggling. He’s taller than me already – I think as tall as Murphy or Terry and he hasn’t even hit his final growth spurt. His feet have outgrown just about anyone. We hung out, saw a movie, had party time, went shopping and just spent time together. I miss him. He’s bright and creative and kind… I hope the world doesn’t beat him down any more than it already has.
When Nova and I came back, Murphy’s brother Addison came along and spent a few days with us. We all went up to the ski lodge and had some fun. Hit the hot spring and such. Then a couple of weeks later, another of Murphy’s brothers, Payton, came out. He and Murphy went snowboarding at a couple of different locations and stuff.
March was a blur. We were prepping for my upcoming furlough – which is pretty much a forced, unpaid vacation for 2 weeks in this instance. Instead of sitting around the house, we decided to start exploring.
Our first stop was Seattle. Murphy’s mom flew in to pick up Nova and take her back to Dallas for a bit. We stayed in Seattle for another couple of nights exploring the city. It was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Asheville, and kind of made me homesick. But we got to go up the space needle, go to a cultural festival, catch a really great concert, eat at some interesting places, ride around the town on an ebike. It was great.
From there, we went up and around the Olympic Peninsula and we fell in love. We could see the mountains from our hotel room in Seattle across the sound, but driving along them was great. We were GOING to try camping at the furthest West point of the continental US. But a big storm had just blown through and the area was closed off. So instead we stayed at Port Angeles before continuing on down Hwy 101. The pacific came into view and we had to climb down to the beach for some pictures. We then stayed at Long Beach, Washington at the sweetest little hotel.
Our trip ALMOST ended the next day. As we continued down the road, it started to rain and hail. Small hail, not even the size of pea in most cases, but enough to build up on the roads. Well we have good tires, and spent the winter traversing slick roads – so we knew how to handle ourselves… An oncoming truck however did not. He comes up over the hill, hits a patch of hail and skids out of control, the bed of the truck coming straight for the drivers side of our car. My inner rally car driver kicked in and I veered out of the way, yanked the wheel back before we could hit the ditch, kept control and leveled us out and continued going. I had to pull over for a minute after that.
When we stopped that night, we discovered that the evasive maneuvers earlier must have wedged a piece of gravel up into our tire and it was losing air. We got the tire fixed the next morning and pushed on through to Redwoods National Park.
We camped for 4 nights and hiked through the largest trees I’d ever seen. It was like being in another world. I get why Lucas used that location to represent Endor, though even the movies never capture the magnitude of those trees.
We were going to camp one more night, but the weather was forecast said a storm would be rolling in. We didn’t want to pack up camp in the wind and rain, so we packed up a day early. We hit the beach so that Murphy could swim in the Pacific. He did this for all of 30 seconds because it was FREAKING cold, but he enjoyed himself regardless. We stayed the night in Crescent City and left in the morning, staying one step ahead of the storm the whole way. It almost caught up to us in Oregon. We had to drive through a dust storm as the headwinds of the storm came through. But in the end, we pulled in at home…. and thirty minutes later it started dumping snow on us.
I had a couple of days off still and spent the time doing some thorough spring cleaning. I dusted, vacuumed, pulled furniture out and cleaned behind it. Reorganized and just generally did everything that I was too tired to mess with over the winter. Then went to work and finished doing the same there.
Nova is still in Dallas with Murphy’s family. He had to have surgery and we knew she’d be a handful during his recovery. Except – all of the flight prices have jumped. So we’re going to have to wait until July to go get her when the prices drop a little bit.
In the meantime though, Murphy got a job at the park with me. He starts on Sunday and we’ve been working on getting everything ready for that. We did some shopping yesterday and I got the stuff to make us frozen breakfast burritos and little egg cups filled with veggies and stuff. I’ll also be making a bunch of personal pizzas that we can customize and freeze for easy cooking.
I’m looking forward to trying to forage in the woods this summer, and fishing, and hunting and stuff. With the prices of groceries, anything we can manage will be helpful. We picked up the supplies to put together a backyard garden again. In the end we’ll probably move a bunch of stuff into the garage in the fall and turn the garage into a grow room. We have the lights, we can use some styrofoam to insulate the garage door and stuff. Just stretch out our growing season a bit.
What I’m sure you noticed that I didn’t talk about – was writing. Which admittedly I did at some point. When was that… December? January? I sat down and finally knocked out the last couple of chapters of the final draft. Murphy agreed to do a readthrough for me to let me know if it flows well and makes sense. I sent out 3 emails today to artists looking for quotes for cover art. Then I just have to get a real editor to do some proofreading. And then…. then I can get her published with no delays. I don’t have to wait for funding or anything. I already have some saved up just for that purpose.
What I want to do… is work on book 2. But my brain has been distracted by listening to the Wheel of Time series on audiofile all winter. I can’t switch gears long enough to get into writing mode. But I’m almost done with the last book, and then I can sit down and work on mine before Nova comes home in July. If I can knock out a first draft and let it sit for a couple of months, then it will be a good start to have book 2 ready shortly after 1 comes out.
So… I guess I didn’t hibernate. Between the insanity of 2020, Covid, losing dad, moving, the fire and everything else – I think I was suffering from a little bit of trauma. But life is kind of returning to normal. I’m starting to feel alive again.
Oh yeah – and I forgot to mention. My birth family has been found. A lady from ancestry.com reached out to me in March, her name is Stacy. This was my birthmother’s (Leeann) first cousin. She knew a lot about Leeann, had even lived with her for a short while. Leeann passed away in 2010 leaving behind a total of 11 children (including myself and one other that had been put up for adoption). I’ve spoken to a couple of my siblings. It’s really strange trying to sort through those feelings and questions and relationships. We grew up in the same town, but to completely different outcomes. More of that will eventually unfold. And I’ll get into more depth later. But for now…. brain dump is over. It’s already 3PM and I don’t know how that happened.
There are a few pictures below. The gallery widget kind of cropped them funny, so to see the whole thing you have to click on it. Happy Adventures everyone.
AshGetting the treeGonna ski?First carouselNova and AshNova’s paintingNova helped me decorateAll of us at a corn mazeHalloweenOur front door treeNova’s vestPlaying in the snowHe’s 16“swimming in the pool”Nova likes to paint
Truck acquired. Load of junk already taken to the dump and now we’re ready to start loading. We technically live in a 2 bedroom house, but since we’re leaving most of the furniture, there was no point in getting a larger truck. So 16 foot it is. Boxes and a bit of furniture. I guess we’ll see.
We sold the Vibe. She is a good car, and will work out nicely to the gent that bought her. He just needs a little runaround car that he’s not worried about his dogs getting it dirty. Well that’s what she’s great for.
Started the loading process aaandd….. my knee started aching.
I overdid it on our last hike and my lcl has been inflamed since. Well it had stopped hurting, but just five minutes of carrying stuff down the steps and up the ramp and it started talking back again. So I pulled on one of the knee braces and continued on.
BUT!
The tan brace wasn’t rigid enough. So after an hour or so, I had to take a short break. I down a big cup of Gatorade and I pull on the heavy duty brace. Alright, back to loading.
I was able to get all the boxes and containers loaded. It took me another couple of hours to do all that. I wound down and got a shower. Then I put together a bunch of boxes and packed up all of the food containers and pots and pans, spices and teas.
Now I’m out of boxes. But this is what got done.
A solid 4 feet of of loaded truck. Now it’s time to throw in some of the shelves and stuff and finish packing all the food and daily dishes. I should be able to get it all done today. As long as I start out being gentle on the knee.
So I’m going to finish my coffee, get dressed and get moving.
My morning coffee is my time to think. Maybe that’s how everyone is. This morning it seems extra yummy. Not because it’s sweet or anything. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve just used half and half instead of some flavored creamer. That was how mom always had her coffee. Nice big spoonfull of sugar and half and half to make it nice and creamy. After saying goodbye at Mount Pisgah yesterday, it’s almost like she came to say it back.
Mom never like flavored things in her coffee. She didn’t like flavored coffees, even when they were all the rage. Her coffee was simple Maxwell House. SOMETIMES brewed with a little cinnamon on top, but often not. Sometimes she’d throw in a splash of vanilla extract, but often not. I grew up loving that coffee. It’s definitely made me LESS of a connoisseur. I don’t like the dark, burnt (rich I guess) coffees. I like the smooth, medium blends that warm you up, and wake you up.
Getting good coffee on the road is tricky. At least for someone who doesn’t drink a ton of Starbucks. Yeah, sure Starbucks is good and all, but that crap is way too expensive. So gas station/truck stop coffee it is. Sometimes you can find the good stuff. Sometimes, you wish you hadn’t tried.
So wish me luck, because we embark on this crazy journey this week. And I need some good coffee.
It’s interesting working for the park. It doesn’t matter what job you have, ever member of the public sees you as a ‘park ranger’. I could literally be hauling a bag of garbage over my shoulder, and can be approached – “Ms. Ranger, could you help us?”
But who can blame people. To find out how the park is run and what everyone’s positions are, a person would have to physically go onto the NPS website and look it up. No, it’s not difficult. But why would they? Unless they were trying to pursue a job in the Park Service.
Most of the people you’re going to encounter… are actually volunteers. They spend their summer months working in the gift shops and visitor centers. Hanging around trail heads, even driving around offering assistance to motorists. That’s not to say we’re outnumbered by them, but they’re meant to be the most visible.
The next visible, are often going to be people in my field – Maintenance. We’re there early to get the place clean. We can be found performing grounds maintenance, placing us directly in the path of visitors. Which means we’re often some of the first people that visitors come to for assistance.
There are actually 2 different types of “rangers” in the parks. There is your general L.E. (law enforcement). They are cops. They’ve gone through an academy, they could be your every day police officer, only they work for the Park Service.
The next, are some of my favorite. They are Interpretive Rangers. THESE are the people that will know just about anything everything about the park your visiting. They have history majors and science majors. They are – well they’re geeks. They’re wonderful, brilliant people that want to share everything they know with everyone they meet. They perform guided tours and hold seminars. You’ll find them around the visitor centers or hanging around the historical buildings.
Beyond that there are visitor use assistants, road crew, trail technicians, archeologists, botanists, biologists, and forestry techs. There are so many positions in the park, that it’s mind boggling. It’s loaded, living breathing organization that needs it’s own administration and hr department, along with their own librarians and even paramedics.
Getting something seasonal, isn’t as tough as it is daunting. But getting something permanent, that’s cut-throat. I’ve known people to pass up perm jobs just because they don’t want to lose friends over it.
On a personal note, I made quite a bit of progress today. I’ve gotten most of the boxes moved into one room so they’re consolidated. I was able to pack up a bunch of clothes and clear out some more shelves. I’m out of boxes though, I’ll have to go hustle up some more from Wal-Mart. But that will be a job for next week. We’re leaving tomorrow to go back to Johnson City for my father’s memorial. It will be nice to see some family members that I haven’t seen for a while. There are a few still missing, but circumstances can’t always be helped.
My home is in chaos at the moment… and it has nothing to do with Nova for a change. I’m cleaning, purging and organizing while I’m packing… because hey, why not? It’s less of a mess to have to deal with once we get moved. I have a couple piles of garbage to take up to the dump though. Along with a small box of craft stuff that I would LIKE to sell… but I may just donate. That’s pretty much my motto for everything.
I’d like to sell it…. but if it doesn’t sell, I just want to get rid of it.
Tomorrow I think I’ll finish packing most of Nova’s toys. Oh – don’t feel bad for her. She hardly EVER actually plays with them. She runs into the bedroom, throws everything around and then comes back out, leaving it in shambles. I’ll leave her a couple of her stuffed animals and her teetee (which is her tablet that she watches youtube kids on). Beyond that – we play through the day, so she gets plenty of interaction.
Once her room is packed up, then I’ll start staging things in there. Is the box sealed and ready to go – put it on the pile!!
I’m starting to get really apprehensive. I STILL haven’t received my official package. But I’ve already verified with the supervisor. We’re just waiting on someone in an office to auto generate my information and email it out to me. Sounds easy, right? We just got past the bulk of seasonal hiring time, so maybe I’ll actually get something soon.
We’ll be going back up to Johnson City this weekend. I really wish Ethan could join us, but he has a doctor’s appointment and there’s not a flight that works around the schedule at all. We’re having a small memorial at the JC Moose lodge for dad. That’s fine though. When we get his ashes back, I’ll find a way to get Ethan up here to help scatter them. We’ve already decided that we want to scatter them at the Beauty Spot, Curtis Creek, and then some time in the future we want to take a trip up to Rangeley, Maine. THAT’S the one Ethan really wants to be a part of. That might be a year or so in the future though. I guess we’ll see.
I’m sitting here drinking a glass of my wineberry mead. I wasn’t overly impressed with the flavor of my dry one. It was very one dimensional and tasted rather weak. But it’s been about 20 minutes and let me tell you, I can DEFINITELY feel it. My lips are a touch numb. My first couple of batches were by far the best. The ones since then have been missing something. I’m holding out hope for the few that I have aging long term. I started a pumpkin mead on Halloween that I don’t plan to open until THIS Halloween. Same with a cranberry mead for Yule. I have a few others that we can crack open at any time.
Speaking of cranberry though… I need to make my hot, cranberry jam before we go. I have frozen some of our super hot peppers from last season and I just haven’t had a chance to make my jelly with them. I decided of just having a pepper jelly, I’d make a cranberry pepper jelly. I don’t know if I can get that done this week. Maybe next.
And that’s what’s going on at the moment. Just packing, and taking each day as it comes. I suppose that’s life in general though. You can’t do much about things out of your control. Just take each day as it comes. Try to make a few plans for the future, but you can’t get bent out of shape if they don’t come to pass.
Alright, I’m just rambling now. It’s bed time. Good night all.
We’re still in the Great Smoky Mountains. And the other day we went for a hike. After one whirlwind of a winter season… this was one of the first in a VERY long time. So we decided to take it easy and do something short. As you drive North on 441, there is a little pull off that always has cars parked. A small bridge takes you across the Oconaluftee River and you begin the Kephart Prong Trail.
In total, it is a 4 mile out and back. That means 2 miles from the road, up to the Kephart Shelter, then 2 back. The trail takes you away from the main river and follow the Kephart Prong (a branch feeder to the Luftee) all the way to the shelter. The Kephart shelter itself is a very nicely maintained shelter which is about 3.6 miles from the Appalachian Trail. There are 2 park maintained bear hangs with 4 lines on each, an established fire ring and nearby water source. (No wonder the parking area is always loaded). Once you’re at the shelter, there’s a whole loop you can hike if you’re really up to it, but our goal was the shelter.
The trail itself from the parking lot is very straightforward. It supposedly only has around an 833 foot elevation gain, but I will say if you are out of shape, it feels like a lot more. It’s a steady climb the whole way up. You’ll notice as you go, that the trail is VERY wide, and that’s because it used to be a road. In fact, there used to be a whole established CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp built off of this road. There’s abandoned foundations, an old monument sign, left over pipe and even railroad ties.
There were once over 200 members housed in this camp. These members built the water systems, roads and many of the trails and bridges that are still in use to this day. Many of the corps members were people that objected to WWII which was taking place at this time, but were still expected to help in their communities.
Moving on, the first bridge you come to was recently rebuilt by the Oconaluftee Trail Crew in 2018. It is one of the sturdiest foot logs you’ll come across in the park, and should remain that way for decades to come. This is really the only creek crossing that you HAVE to take the bridge for. Each of the others going forward you can choose to either walk through the water, or across the original foot logs installed by the CCC. Almost like a, choose your own difficulty setting.
This time of year (end of April), everything is just starting to turn green. There were tons of flowers in bloom and bird songs coming from all directions. You leave the sound of the road after a while and as the trail takes you up the hill, it becomes rocky. Be careful as you traverse the rocks because many are loose and possible ankle busters.
You’ll find the name Kephart throughout the park. This branch and trail was named after Horace Kephart. Born in Iowa, he was a Smokies transplant and proponent of the creation of the park. He was featured in the Ken Burns documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”. He was an avid camper, and supporter of keeping as much of America wild as possible.
Your thoroughbred camper likes not the attentions of a landlord, nor will he suffer himself to be rooted to the soil by cares of ownership or lease. It is not possession of the land, but of the landscape, that enjoys; and as for that, all the wild parts of the earth are his, by a title that carries with it no obligation but that he shall not desecrate nor lay them waste. Houses, to such a one, in summer are little better than cages; fences and walls are his abomination; plowed fields are only so many patches of torn and tormented earth. The sleek comeliness of pasture it too prim and artificial, domestic cattle have a meek and ignoble bearing, fields of grain are monotonous to his eyes, which turn for relief to abandoned old-field, overgrown with thicket, that still harbors some the shy children of the wild. It is not the clearing but the unfenced wilderness that is the camper’s real home. He is brother to that good old friend of mine who in gentle satire of our formal gardens and close- cropped lawns, was wont to say, ‘I love the unimproved works of God.’
Horace Kephart in Camping and Woodcraft: A Handbook for Vacation Campers and for Travelers in the Wilderness.
We stopped in a little clearing just below the shelter to have a snack and to let Nova run around. She was quite happy to be free of the carrier and wanted to explore. I was fine to let her explore because in that 833 feet of elevation gain, we rose above the poison ivy level.
She wandered up to the shelter and poked around. She wanted to play jump rope off of the bear hangs. I wanted to get a picture of her and Murphy, but she decided she didn’t want to cooperate.
After a fresh diaper, I collected her back into the carrier and we made our way down. The way back down of course was a lot easier than the way up (not that up is difficult on this trail). But after our winter hibernation, we were both feeling the exercise.
While I have a lot to do in the coming weeks… I think getting some more hiking in should be a big one. That way I’m not starting a new job on stiff joints. I hope you enjoyed our little excursion as much as we did, and as always – Happy Adventures.
So much has happened. I need to make a list. I’m not quite ready to dive into a deep post about losing my dad. I’ll get there… But for now I’ve set up a little static page where people can come and leave us stories about him. I will – of course – have to moderate it… because it was my father. And well… he got into some shenanigans. So I can only IMAGINE some of the stories that might come through.
His obituary will hit both the Bradenton Herald and the Johnson City Press on Sunday – so we might actually see a little activity. Though… considering my father’s age and the age of many of the people he knew…. maybe not.
That’s all I’ve got on Tommy right now.
What I will dive into is something that I just glossed over in my last post.
I have accepted a job to a permanent employee with the National Park Service. My duty station will be Big Hole National Battlefield in Wisdom, Montana.
I am super excited about this, though I haven’t really been able to celebrate much with everything else going on. I had initially wanted to start a little YouTube channel cataloguing getting the house packed up and the move and things like that…. But I have a house to pack up and plans to make and get moved and things like that!
So I’ll stick with my happy little blog and Instagram as we go. If you DON’T already follow my IG, feel free to go check it out. I try to pair it with my posts and keep it adventure, nature, and learning based… but it’s also my personal feed – so there’s family stuff there too.
Just like this blog….
So a little about the Park Service to start. I found this awesome little infographic online. I did not make it – I don’t know who did so I can’t give credit (maybe Conrad Wirth on the picture? Maybe not). But it’s not mine.
NPS is different than NFS. The National Park Service acts as stewards for America’s natural wonders. The National Forest Service… well is pretty much the group that handles the resources available for sale or lease (timber, grazing lands, areas to frack, recreation). They are two WILDLY different entities. And I am proud to work for the park service. That’s not to say I haven’t applied for hundreds of forest service jobs right along side of them… but I’m definitely partial to our parks.
As for Big Hole, it is a small park devoted to historical preservation. I will go into deeper details once I get out there and kind of get acclimated. It’s part of the Nez Perce National Forest, one of many in a collection of 38 battlefield sites which span throughout Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
So I did have a collection of boxes and started packing already. I ended up using them to pack up my dad’s house though. I will be getting more boxes tomorrow and will continue. I’ve got a decent stack started though. We were going back and forth about leaving almost EVERYTHING behind and just using a little tow behind trailer… But considering how remote Wisdom is, we decided to bring a few more things with us because it would be too difficult to buy things and get them home.
But I AM still going through a major culling of household items. I have a few bags of clothes that I’m selling. A bin of things to donate. I have toys to sell and junk to haul up to the dump… And all of that is just the prep work for figuring out what we’re actually bringing.
But I think that’s all for today. We went for a hike earlier and I’m beat. I did get some good pictures that I already posted on IG. I’ll try writing up a little blurb about it in a couple of days or so. For now though – Happy Adventures
Mountain Dreaming 
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