News Bits

Well hello there! Remember me? Are you ready for my yearly post? Don't get too excited, now. Let's not all cheer and shout at once. That would be me. All. By. Myself. Since I'm the only one who reads this, I can say and do what I want, right? Right!

OK, here goes. The fire pit from the last post was done by someone that didn't know what they were doing. So, it crumbled and the stones were rocky (haha. see what I did there?) and unstable for walking on. So we had to have it ripped out and redone. Big expense, but we love it. It's really done properly now, and it's very nice! We also had a wood shed built so that our firewood will stay dry and we can keep plenty of firewood on hand. Fires at the cabin are so much fun. We love toasting marshmallows and making smores. Yummy.

The stars at the cabin are magnificent. There is very little light pollution, so we can see the Milky Way and billions of stars. Last October there was a meteor shower (forget which one) and we laid on the deck on a blow-up mattress and watched it. I'll never forget it as long as I live. So stunningly beautiful.

Here is the Milky Way over the mountains from our deck:

 You can see the Big Dipper in this shot:

We also had the heating and air replaced. The old one was undersized after adding the new master bedroom, so the new one is so much more efficient. Big improvement!

In the last year, we really haven't done much as far as building things. It's mostly been buying this and that to make things more cabin-like. We bought a log bed, and spruced things up a bit. Our next project will be furnishing the basement den, but we are really in no rush to do it.

In other news--we have a new grandson. Well, he's kinda new. His first birthday will be August 20th, and his name is William. He is such a fun and exciting addition to our family!

Today is the anniversary of my hubby starting a new job. It's been one year! This job requires lots of travel, so we have become good friends with Southwest Airlines, and Dallas and St Louis now feel like home. I think in the last year, we have been to those two cities combined at least 25 times. It's been fun, but exhausting at the same time.

Here are two of my latest pics of the cabin. The front porch all dressed for the Fourth...

And here is the latest from the front of the cabin with a view of the new fire pit and wood shed. Also dressed up for the Fourth!

OK, folks. See you next year. :)

A Lot Can Happen In A Year!

It's been more than a year since I've posted anything on this blog. Wow. MORE. THAN. A. YEAR. A lot has happened, and we have done several things to the cabin in that time. Also had a lot of family trauma over the last year, too. Anyhoo, here I am!

For one thing, my brother in law passed away unexpectedly in February, and my mother in law passed away from cancer about a month later. As a result, we had my hubby's two brothers move in with us for a while (one of whom is disabled). They stayed for a little over 5 months. The bright spot in our year was the birth of our little granddaughter! She has been wonderful, and we sure are enjoying her.

As far as work on the cabin goes, because of all the family trauma, we didn't go up for about 6 months. So in that time, obviously, nothing at all was done. Now that we are able to go up and enjoy it, we have been!!! One recent project was getting a fire pit built. This October will be filled with s'mores and crackling fires! We can't wait to have our first one!

Here it is in all it's glory!

Worker working on the fire pit! :)

All finished, and ready for our first fire!

Another angle with the view!

Field of Sunflowers that we pass on the way to the cabin. Just so gorgeous!

A little closer zoom of the sunflowers.

Sunset on Lake Blue Ridge

One evening, we decided to head out to the lake (about 20 minutes away) and take a picnic with us. We were treated to this magnificent sunset as a result! Well worth the effort to pack everything and go to the lake, right? I think so! :)

We Built A Wall

Bazinga!

Shout out to the Big Bang Theory fans! :) Love their theme song, so I stole a line.

To be honest, we didn't build the wall ourselves. We hired it out, as we know nothing at all about wall building. In fact, I learned a lot about walls during this process.

When I was in Middle School (back in the dark ages) we had an English teacher that required us to learn poetry. As in memorize it. And it had to be recited out loud in front of the class! I hated the very idea of reciting before the class, so she allowed me to recite privately to her. She was so kindhearted.  I memorized Robert Frost's "Mending Wall." "Something there is that doesn't love a wall..." I suppose walls have lots going against them. Water, gravity, and according to Robert Frost, Elves! But I do love my wall. It is well built and we expect it to last our lifetime. Here's hoping anyway.

When we bought the cabin, we loved it because it's perched on the mountainside overlooking another mountain.

This is a view from the road above the cabin. It appears to be hanging on for dear life to the mountainside!

That poses a problem with erosion, since the driveway and site for the house was carved, quite literally, out of the mountain. It's not attractive, either.

Here is the hillside next to the driveway.

And another view, to show how tall the cliff is. Look how it towers above the car! It was quite the eyesore, to say the least.

Knowing nothing about building walls, we knew we had to hire it out. The builder that we hired to complete the cabin had built the neighbor's retention wall, and so we knew he would do a beautiful job. It was his last job for us, and he did it so fast that we didn't even have time to snap a few "during" photos!

I learned a few things about wall building that was really interesting. In a nerdy sort of way. First, you have to lay out the line for where the wall will go. Then dig out the foundation (at least 1/10th the height of the wall), and line with gravel, then the first row of timbers. Then you have to stake them into the ground with rebar. And as you build up, there has to be some stabilizing timbers that go into the dirt to hold the wall in place. They are called, "dead men." Fascinating! It's also important to have weep holes for the water to come through so that the force of the water does not push out the wall over time. It's actually pretty complicated. So best left to the experts!

Here it is in all it's glory! Our builder said he felt like he had built the Ark. This thing is huge!

You can see the weep holes here, and also the 'dead men.'

So much better, don't you think? We did add some gravel to the driveway and it finished it off nicely. Maybe someday we will have the whole thing paved. But not anytime soon!

Here is the side of the yard, showing how he stair-stepped the wall to match the slope of the land.

Couldn't resist a pic of a lovely sunrise! This is from the deck on the back of the cabin.

Look what's blooming all over North Georgia! Thistles are so pretty, but viciously prickly. But I do love them anyway, being of Scottish heritage! Thistles are the national flower of Scotland after all.

So how do you like our wall? Doesn't it look better than the big, huge, monstrous, clay cliff that we had to look at every. single. day? I have to admit that I love it. :)

The End of Summer

Summer here in the mountains is quickly saying good bye! The temps are cooling, the days are getting shorter, and the lush green of summertime is now taking on a golden hue. I'm so excited about the change in seasons! Although I love each season, autumn in the mountains is a glorious thing to behold. It's like living in a rainbow.

Early morning rain just after a summer sunrise.

Watercolor sky

Field of fall wildflowers

The hummers will soon be migrating to warmer climates for the winter. I'll miss their antics around the flowers and feeder!

Unusual cloud formation over the mountain.

Orange zinnia I planted from seed this spring. I have enjoyed them so, and plan on collecting some of the seeds to plant next spring.

Here is a current pic of our cabin. It looks so different than the pic in the header. There is new life, and color, and so much joy in the last year!

Good bye, Summer. See you next year!

Green

There has been an unusual amount of rain this year. Like way, way more than usual. We have been in a drought situation here for several years, and we are definitely no longer in a drought! That means green. Lots and lots of green. It's quite beautiful and fresh looking. This is the road to our cabin with all the lovely shades of the color of summertime. It reminds me of all I have heard of Ireland with the 40 shades of green. Yes, it's on my bucket list to go there. :)

Doublehead Gap Road

All this green reminds me of the symbolism of water in the Bible. Jesus is called the Living Water, and the Bible is often referred to as water. After a long drought, it sure brings home the symbolism. Without water, everything dries up and eventually dies! With water, there is growth, newness, freshness, vibrancy, and eventually fruit of all that growth.

Another view along the same road

The deer are all getting fat from all the lush greenery they are eating! Everything is thriving.

 This was taken one morning just after the sun came up and it had been raining all night. One benefit of all that rain is seeing rainbows!

Rainbow over our cabin. My sister says we should call the cabin "Noah's Ark!"

We have probably seen more rainbows in the last year than in all our lives before put together.  Another connection with the Bible and water is God's promise to Noah.

One last pic for you of all the ferns in the valley...we live on the windward side of the mountain, so we have ferns aplenty!

Have a good weekend.

Rolling Out the Welcome Mat

After about a year and a half of nearly non-stop work on the cabin, we are finally ready to have some company. Other than family! We have furnished all the bedrooms, and have the yard looking decently cleaned up. That's a whole other post. The yard is really a challenge, especially since we are on the side of a mountain, and there is little that can be done to make it look nice. We are going for the natural, we- live-in-the-mountains-look. And hopefully not too much upkeep. No hedge trimming, etc. We did plant some roses, but the deer ate them, so it's just as well. The tomatoes we planted are doing nicely, though, and maybe the deer will leave those for us. They are welcome to the roses.

Cute little spotted fawn!

Anyway, back to the company. I have been a part of a Bible Study for about 10 years with some very lovely ladies. They are coming up for a few days next week, and we are going to eat out, hike up to the waterfalls, and just generally enjoy. Sunday and Monday nights are the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, so I am praying that there will be clear skies. Last year, it was spectacular. You could actually see the tails the meteors left all across the sky! We can't see that much here in suburbia. Too many lights.

Several years ago, I went to a family reunion for my McCay side of the family. My great-grandfather ran an old country store until he passed away in 1956, and it is sitting abandoned on the property that he and his second wife owned.  My cousin took me to see the old store, and we went inside and looked around. It's rather small, but had some interesting things inside.

My Great-Grandfather's Store in the 1950s. You can see his name on the sign.
Robertstown, Georgia

The store as it stands today. The weeds have all grown up around it, but it is still plumb and square!

After Grandpa's death, it was used as storage. There was an old iron bed leaning up against the wall. There were several boxes of old pickle jars. There were wooden shelves with boxes of junk, and even some family papers. We found my Grandpa's original marriage certificate to his second wife in them. We also found some pieces of chain that were hand forged, and looked very old. Long story short, I came home with the bed, and some jars, and the pieces of chain. The bed is now in the cabin, all cleaned up and looking good. We had the chains appraised, and they were from a US Civil War soldier's horse. They must have belonged to Edward McCay, my 2X great-grandfather, and father of the man who owned the store. 

Edward McCay with son John A. McCay and wife Polly.

Edward was also owner of the bed (the appraisal said it was from 1881, which was the very year he was married). Edward was the only one of my people who fought for the US (on my Dad's side), and he was in the cavalry, so it had to be his chain. We are so excited to have this small piece of history! 

Close-up of the "US" emblem

Trace chain, used by in 2X Great Grandfather in the Civil War

With Edward's bed all done up, it looks like a real bedroom now instead of a storage room. The bed was in rough shape, and one of the metal pieces had popped off. So I dragged it down to the welder and he did a spot weld for me. Then I cleaned it up and painted it a nice, oil rubbed bronze. It was actually very close to the original color.

The bed in original condition.

Original color

After the repair and paint, all I needed was a mattress and some pillows. The fabric is from the little fabric shop where I buy everything. Fabric World. You rock.

The bed, all ready for company!

You can see the oil rubbed bronze color in this shot. Very close to the original color.

The little welcome pillow is made from a 50 cent remnant. Gotta love the price, right? And the welcome monogram was done as a gift from my daughter in law's mama. She's a sweetie.

So officially the welcome mat is out!

Or maybe I should say the welcome pillow is out.

Here is a view of the other side of the room. The little dresser is a flea market find. The rocking chair belonged to my other 2X Great-grandfather. It is from 1906, and needs a little repair. Working on that one for later.

Other side of the room

 The pillow in the rocker says, "My family tree is full of nuts." Truer than you know.

Privacy Please!

Even though the Master Bedroom and Bathroom are officially finished (at least as far as the construction goes!) there is still some fine tuning to be done. Remember those UGLY windows?

The UGLY window

The plastic, textured ones that blocked the view but didn't pass code? We had them replaced with clear glass that was tempered and double paned. Much nicer looking, I must say. But there was a privacy issue. This ain't no peep show, people. You could actually SEE inside the bathroom from the front of the cabin. Yikes. We can't have that, now can we? No indeedy. The first (and temporary) solution was to hang some panels that I bought at a discount outlet.

The temporary, dark, cheap, window panels

They were 50 cents each, and I bought 6 for each window. At 3 windows, that's 18 panels for only 9 smackers. The problem was that 3 were needed for each side of the window, creating space between the panels that you had to arrange carefully every time you closed them to avoid being able to see in. It was annoying. It was also dark. We spent lots of cash to change those textured windows to upgraded clear, double paned, up-to-code ones, and I didn't want to hide them. So, I went to my favorite little fabric shop and found tons of fabric that would be just perfect for only a dollar a yard! I bought 20 yards, which was enough for all the windows and also a matching shower curtain. Score.

New curtains closed

New curtains open!

After sewing the window panels, I hung them on rods and rings. Its so easy now to open and close them, and no worries about anyone seeing in. I haven't made the shower curtain yet, but that will be my next sewing project.

My next project (other than sewing a shower curtain) is to paint a large mirror to hang above the master bathroom vanity. We currently have one up just so that the bathroom is functional, but it's not nearly large enough for two sinks. More on that later!

Gotta go and celebrate my hubby's birthday. It's officially on Monday, but we are celebrating this weekend with our sons and daughters in law. Fun times!