All posts by warren

Do you know what I lichen the moss?

November 22, 2012NatureNaturewarren

Do you get that title or is it too obscure? Do you know what I like most? I like being outside. Well, I like my family and bacon the very most but after those things, I like anything outdoors.

Please click on these pics to enlarge…I think the detail is so cool!

We were up at my parents’ house the other weekend and I was struck but how many awesome mossy or lichen bearing trees they had. I have always been fascinated by lichen. I remember a great pair of oak trees behind the house that were covered in lichen. Those trees are gone, but the lichen spread!

And moss! Holy cow! If you look around, it’s not hard to find all sorts of moss variants. Some look like little ferns and others look like extraterrestrial herpes (just speculating on appearance) or something. Did you know that moss holds a tremendous amount of water and often times, that water is safe to drink?

As I understand it, moss has an iodine-esque substance in it that makes it somewhat antibiotic. I have drunk moss water many times and haven’t died though don’t trust me…I can barely run a hammer.

Anyhow, I love to look at these oft-overlooked flora and hope you’ll enjoy the pics too!

Large cluster of Chanterelles

November 21, 2012NatureNaturewarren

We were driving up the dirt road to the cabin the other day and I spied, with my magic mushroom eye (my eye is magic, not the mushrooms) a beautiful cluster of chanterelle mushrooms. I know you may be asking yourself how mushrooms can be beautiful, but in addition to a great taste, these mushrooms have an excellent yellow color and they just look so soft and cuddly. Well, I guess you wouldn’t want to cuddle mushrooms, but to me, they just begged to be touched.

Do you ever find yourself looking at something and you just have to touch it? I do it all of the time and I just had to touch these mushrooms as well.

I didn’t pick any because they were a little past prime and they were not on my property. I know some folks don’t mind picking stuff they find along the road but I sort of feel funny about it. I’d be mad if I had a great crop growing, just waiting for it to be perfect only to find it picked by someone else. Anyhow, I made note of where they were and will ask whoever owns the land next year in proper mushroom hunting season.

EDIT: Upon further investigation, it turns out that this may be a jack-o’-lantern mushroom which is mildly poisonous. When they are back in season, I will investigate further!

I tend to dislike autumn only because it precedes winter (which I absolutely despise). The beautiful mushrooms and a dead hornets’ nest do help to make me see autumn in a little more favorable light. Maybe I just need to look around a little harder…

Angle grinder + finger = bad

November 16, 2012Adventure, Cabin, ThoughtsAdventure, Cabin, Thoughtswarren

Emily and I finished up digging the footer a while back so that left the best part…mixing concrete! We mixed and poured 184 bags of concrete into the footer ditch. Just to save you the math, 184 bags of concrete is a metric crap-ton! When you pour concrete for just about any purpose, you need to add steel rebar which gives the concrete something to which to bind. You can buy nice pre-cut pieces or you can buy large pieces for about a quarter the price and cut it yourself.

The perfect tool to cut rebar is an angle grinder. I happen to have an angle grinder with a metal cutting blade on it. Running an angle grinder is a bit of an adventure! The same blade that cuts steel with ease and throws sparks like a 4th of July show, spins mere inches from the user’s fingers. Mostly, when the user is not exhausted, it is a simple task to keep separation between fingers and blade. A few weeks ago, I was in a fatigued state and co-mingled my left index finger with a spinning blade. I am incredibly lucky to still have my finger and am even luckier to have only cut a nice gouge in my fingernail.

angle grinder finger cut — This is several weeks healed but you can see the potential…

11_16_2012 064 — On the next to last bag of concrete for the footer, I dropped the bag and my finger got between the bag and the blade in the mixer…it was an 80 lb bag and yes, it hurts even 2 weeks later

I both cussed and bled, for roughly the same amount of time, before I surveyed the area for a first aid kit. We are usually pretty conscientious about keeping first aid supplies on hand, but in our fatigued state, we left home without one. I have always been one to improvise and really, my solution is not terribly new, but I am still proud of my first aid solution…duct tape!

11_16_2012 047 — Almost done laying the block!

I was able to continue on with work for the day but I was much slower and continued to mumble bad things off and on through the day. It was not a lot of fun though and I still have a nice bit of concrete filler in the gouge where my fingernail should be. Friends, I have to tell you, if you feel an urge to trim your fingernails on the work site, DO NOT use an angle grinder. Stick to a metal file or cross-cut pliers or even tin-snips…but not an angle grinder!

Way past yellow

November 13, 2012Food, GardenFood, Gardenwarren

We planted a garden at our property this year (we used to garden at Emily’s grandparents’ place) and it was a terrible failure…mostly. The only semi-success was a patch of sunflowers we planted. I really love sunflowers (and really, pretty much all yellow flowers) so I was delighted that if only one thing could succeed, it was the sunflowers.

Sunflowers are absolutely beautiful when in their prime, but I don’t know if you ever noticed just how cool they are when they are done flowering and ready to harvest. I love looking at patterns that sort of draw your attention and refuse to let you look away…know what I mean? Ripe sunflower seeds create just such a pattern.

I don’t know if they are like snowflakes, but if you look at several sunflower heads, each is a little different. A month or more ago, my Dad and I harvested the seeds. It was sort of sad to mess up the patterns but I really love to eat sunflower seeds too! Although the sunflowers are way past yellow, they are still about the best flowers I know. I mean seriously…flowers you can eat?! Awesome!

Human backhoes

November 12, 2012CabinCabinwarren

Did you ever have a project that seems like it would never end? It seems like we have been working on our faux-foundation for a hundred years and only now is the end somewhat in sight. We were able to dig a portion of the foundation with an excavator but half of the dig could only be done by hand. The best part of course, is that the front half of the house was only 2-3 feet off of the ground…it makes for lots of head bumps and crouched-over digging…and poor Emily, she is old!

WV in Fall — The view while we were working

Some people assume that I do all of the heavy work while Emily sits by and buffs her nails and stuff. Nope…not my girl! Emily has muled (yup, that’s my verb) 80 pound bags of concrete and 45 concrete blocks every bit as much as I did. She dug a large part of the footer which is the only reason we got it done. Yes, that’s right, we got it dug!

I don’t like digging or working with concrete. It is absolutely miserable work and I am absolutely thrilled that we were only temporarily employed as human backhoes!

Mountain Stage

November 7, 2012Adventurewarren

West Virginia is a unique place. Lots of folks across the country forget that West Virginia was separated from Virginia in 1863 and that we are, in fact, a separate state. I like to call my state West-by-God-Virginia and the other place either “East Virginia” or “the other Virginia”. I guess folks in every state say that their people are the nicest or the most down-to-Earth of any state. I’d say WV fits that bill too and who am I to say any different. People are good here. I love it here and I see so many of the best things in WV. Like every state though, there is good and bad and folks outside of WV seem only to know about the bad stuff that happens here…we do suffer from some of the worst health issues, we have educational problems and our lots of folks see the world in such a different way than the rest of the country, and not always in a good way. In spite of the problems of WV, there are several shining examples of what is great about WV.

Waiting in line — One dork with her eyes closed

We got the opportunity to visit a live recording of Mountain Stage, a popular and well-known broadcast on public radio. Our capitol complex (yes Charleston is the capitol of WV, an independent state!) is pretty amazing. Mountain Stage is recorded in the Capitol theater in the WV Culture Center. Since 1983, Mountain Stage has brought all sorts of music to the people of WV and Sunday night a few weeks ago, the four of us got to be a part of that experience. Our show will be broadcast in December so listen for our applause if you get a chance. We clapped vigorously.

There are all sorts of musical styles at Mountain Stage and some/many seem to have absolutely nothing to do with WV or the mountains but each is unique and a real treat to hear live in a great venue. I don’t always agree with everything that happens in our state and there are bad things for which we are noted, but Mountain Stage is one of those things that is a unique and wonderfully WV thing!

Dark times

October 31, 2012Thoughts, WVThoughts, WVwarren

Friends, these are dark times. No really…it is still dark at my house. No power for 5-7 days or so is what I heard somewhere. It is really strange as usually we can see lights somewhere around us since we live on top of a hill. This time, there are no lights anywhere. Everyone is without power.

In the summer, that isn’t too big a deal. It’s hot but the generator will run a few fans and lights so we are fine. In the winter, however, the cold gets to be a pretty big drag. Remember a few weeks ago I got a kerosene heater at the junk sale? Well I am pleased to report that it works great! Our house was still 57 degrees last night but that’s warmer than it was when we started! We had ventilation and 2 carbon monoxide detectors so we were being safe. All of our appliances are electric so it was an all around uncomfortable evening. Luckily, since we had snow, we took everything from the ice box and put it out in the snow banks.

It was weird to look out of the area where there are normally hundreds of lights. Last night, there were only a few that coincided with the roar of the generators stationed nearby. Even with those running, it was so much more quiet than normal. Kind of weird.

I guess the other weird thing is that Emily and I decided to replace one shower head last night in the dark…I guess we finally had nothing else to do but a little light house work. Our house was so odd to listen to without the normal buzz of electrical things as well. I could hear the kids talking and the cats walking across the floors. I heard a few creaks and groans too…she was cold too I suppose.

I guess that, even as much as some aspects of this outtage suck, there are some neat things that happen around home that I normally wouldn’t take the time to notice. Maybe dark times are good every now and then…

Edit: Power came back on around 9pm Wednesday!

Snowpocalypse!

October 30, 2012WVWVwarren

Hurricane Sandy brought snow to our neck of the woods. Sometime over night it started snowing and really blowing and this morning, there was a bunch of that white garbage on the ground and hanging in the trees, many of which still had leaves. Add wet, heavy snow to trees with leaves and you have a winter power-outtage mess!

I shoveled the driveway this morning. We have a bad driveway. Of course, in WV, most driveways are bad. Anyhow, ours is on a hill and has a slight curve at the bottom. It connects to a single lane road with an 8 or so foot drop to the houses below us. So, I slid down the driveway in spite of its being shoveled and onto the single lane road. As I tried to navigate to the main road, I slid sideways across said road and had my tires at the edge of the drop-off. Ugh. I shoveled a bunch of the road and was able to slide sideways (no exaggeration) down onto the main road. So my driveway is a hill and my access to the main road is a hill. I nearly bit it on both roads…

Since I couldn’t get back home, I decided to go on to the office…which had no power. Ugh. It’s still snowing and blowing and we still have no power at the house. Obviously the power came back at the office (where this website resides on a server in my office) so I guess it could be worse…except my poor family is stranded at home without power. Poor them.

Well, it sort of sucks here but everyone is ok and we are nowhere near as bad off as many other folks so I count my blessings. Stay ~~thirsty~~ safe my friends…

We just aren’t dog people

October 29, 2012Uncategorizedwarren

A couple of years ago I got a wild hair…I am a sucker and looked at the local pet shelter’s web site and felt like I needed to get a dog. I had a dog as a kid and it seemed easy to have a dog. Fast forward a few years…I am not a dog person…neither is anyone else in my house. As a parent, not a kid, I see that it isn’t easy to have a dog. Ginny is a really great dog, as dogs go. We just don’t care all that much for dogs.

Dogs aren’t easy, I have learned. I didn’t want to have an outside-only dog so it is a constant battle letting her out, cleaning her muddy feet, keeping her from enjoying the delicacies in the cats’ litter box, etc.

I can’t just turn her loose or let her go to someone who would be cruel to her, so friends, is there any one of you who would like a really great dog? She’s house trained and a really friendly dog who loves cats and kids. Please help me find a family for Ginny that will really enjoy her company and give her the attention she needs. I’ll set you up with everything you need!

I’m a lumberjack and I’m ok (though just barely)

October 26, 2012House, NatureHouse, Naturewarren

We had that massive mess-making derecho storm around June. We were out of town for all of the fun but had to drive through the heart of the storm which was terrifying. We had a good weekend away and all that, but when we came home, we found that a number of trees had not fared well. We cleaned up the immediate messes but the remaining parts of one tree that still hung over our house bothered me.

A few weekends ago, my folks were down for a visit. We are always good for a project while they are here as my Dad is good at helping me think through things. He also gets a good laugh when I press onward and do something stupid in spite of our planning. Anyhow, we decided to cut the one tree that hangs over my dining room, power lines, AC, dog house, chain link and vinyl fences as well as Isaac’s bedroom and my patio with glass table and a nice picket fence. Sounds like fun, eh?

A few years ago I bought an electric chainsaw for trimming tree limbs. Cutting this tree down is like trimming, right? Who cares? I used it to cut a lot of this tree down and only got the saw stuck in the tree one time where it was above my head such that I couldn’t reach it to get it down. That part…not fun.

We used some ropes, a ladder, my electric saw, and some foul language to bring down this ugly stupid house-hating tree…mostly anyhow. I have one more section to cut but I just need to wait for a really windy day…or not. I’ll wait for a day when Emily and the kids are away so I can sing that last limb a nice lullaby…a profanity-laced, meet-your-final-demise-stinking-tree lullaby.

I came away (so far) mostly intact so I consider myself a near-professional tree trimmer now! So where are my flip-flops again? I have another branch to cut!

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!