The past three days have had evenings in the single digits. As a result, the North Fork looks a little different. My brother in law, Gerald, took these pictures.
The water looks “shiny” in the picture below. That’s not shine! That’s ice!
She’s got freckles in this one!
This is right in front of Adventure Mendota! Woo hoo! Float the Fork in 2015. (Disclaimer..when it’s a little warmer!)
Up in front of Jewell’s house. Jewell is gone to Glory but her place will always be know as “Jewell’s house.” Anywhere the river curves, the ice starts to back up.
Now, all we need is a little snow to fall. Don’t you agree?
I’ve been blogging for a little under three years. I started out working on projects around the house. I moved away from that and started driving around taking pictures and talking about those honey bees. I had a thought one time that I’d write what everyone liked and try to monetize my blog. Then…I realized I loved blogging in the same manner as speaking with a trusted friend and accepting money would mean I’d have to write about things that were relevant to sponsors. I’d have to check closer for typos. I couldn’t say things like “titches wit” or “kiss my trass” or “what a thitty day.” Oh what’da ya mean, Eva, all the days are good! There are no thitty days.
I am going to start working around the house again and blogging about projects but it will be in the fall of 2015. You should see my list. Mike says he wants me to wait until he dies to get started. Can you believe the lack of enthusiasm? This summer, I am going to drive everyone crazy talking about Adventure Mendota. I might take you along to some of my secret life…like showing you how I get Botox…the befores and after. I might take you to my work life and, when I finally go into a coal mine–something that I’ll get to do in the next six months–maybe you can come along. I’ll have to ask! Truly, you are some of my best friends.
Here’s some posts from when I was channeling my high school Home Economics teachers. Martha Stewart was just a wannabe in that day. Yes, I took Home Ec. I’m that old!!
Best post on creating something with almost no budget. I redid my laundry room with very little money. I wanted baskets on top of the cabinets but ended up spray painting Sam’s Club Little Debbie boxes. Ribbons that were already here at the house, canning lids for ID tags…it was very rewarding thinking outside of the box while spray painting the box!! Necessity is the mother of invention. This sweet little room has been Pinned over 300 times on Pinterest, viewed over 18,000 times on Hometalk and peeked at about 1800 times on this blog. That was one busy day for me because if you look outside, you’ll see rockers on my front sidewalk. That means that I was also scrubbing the porch that day. I must have been drinking too much Pal’s tea. Whew!
Best Christmas-related post. I preserved boxwoods for the Christmas holiday in 2013. I’ve gotten so many emails on this post…most trying to find the Absorbit Dye. It was a challenge for me, too. I actually bought it for someone and mailed it to them and they paid me back. It’s that hard to find, and I pretty much turned green from that stuff. Still, I’ll be doing more boxwod preservation. Here’s a picture of one of the boxwood wreaths and a link to that post. Simple elegance. So what if it had dropped a few leaves on the floor?
Most useful organization post for me personally began with organizing my garage. I dreaded this job, but I got out of the car one day and could not take it. I sorted, painted, cleaned and labeled. I added a bulletin board trimmed with yardsticks. Hometalk saw the post where I (actually Mike under my very astute direction) made the chalkboard for our garage trimmed out in yardsticks amd asked me to curate a post on using yardsticks. I had to ask them what “curate” meant; they never asked me back. My garage does not look as neat today but the organization has held up well. I’ll tweak it this summer (between those kayak runs). Right now, that board today says Cracker, my white Prius, needs a major tuneup at 25,000; this was an old picture.
The other most useful project also involved chalkpaint spray. I redid my pantry and decided to make a spice drawer. I’d been pricing one and wanting it, but never got around to making the purchase. Too many twitty days. Finally, I went this route (below) and thought I was a genius until I Googled and found this was a common household organization thing. Can’t I be first at anything? I am going to redo my pantry again, but this spice drawer will stay exactly as it is.
2013 was an amazing year for me. 2014 was just so blah. 2015 is started out to be another amazing year. Life is good here at RiverCliff Cottage.
Thank you for reading. It’s Friday night. Are many of you like me and clean the house on Friday night just so you’ll have the weekend free? I’ll be exhausted but happy at 11 pm tonight.
Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage.
Today on NPR, I learned that the phrase “polar vortex” was not a cool word. Apparently, we misused it all last winter. So, how do I give a dramatic explanation of how cold it is…how about “it is as cold as a titches wit!” Forgive me, memories of my mother and her wicked personality seem to pop up more regularly as I get older.
I’ve been sitting working at my desk today fretting about my bees. I had meant to go out at lunch and buy duct tape so that I could wrap them tonight. Instead, I slugged through payroll and ate at my desk. So….at about 4:30 pm today, I stuck my head in my bosses’ office — his name is Ken — and asked “do you mind if I leave 10 or 15 minutes early, I need to work with my bees.” He looked at me like I was crazy…who works with bees when it’s freezing out outside? I’m sure he thought I said “do you mind if I leave 10 or 15 minutes early, I need to learn my ABC’s” or something. At any rate, he turned me loose.
I got home just in time to start working with the bees before it got dark, but a miracle occurred and Mike had already done it. Obviously, he found the duct tape that we lost. And look…he wrapped my beehives. Mike must want something, because he is not a beekeeper or bee lover. He reminds me of a word that NPR says word people want returned to our English dialect…he’s a rapscallion.
I inspected his work. I checked to make sure he left an air hole at the top…it’s important to maintain ventillation. Check! A+! If air gets trapped in the hive with no exit point, condensation can occur which turns into icey drips on the bees.
And they must have a small opening to do their housekeeping duties..like remove waste, dead bees, etc. A+ again!
Compared to my set up last year…this looks quite neat!! I’ll go out tomorrow and make sure that plastic has not slid down. Here’s last year’s set up. Shanty town — but remember, it was -8 degrees and my bees lived.
This plastic bubblewrap should really help. I have not always lived in this pretty yellow house on the hill. I’ve lived in mobile homes at different times in my life, and I remember the difference in the inside after I put plastic on the windows. It was pretty dramatic. I’m hoping this extra bit of insulation during the nights when we’re in the single digits with windchills that are even colder will help the bee team inside keep their queen comfortable at about 90 degrees. They cluster around her to keep her warm.
Likewise, Mike knows how much I value living in a warm house. The Central Boiler woodboiler heats both our house and the guest house. He keeps it at about 180 degrees at all times. This queen–that would be me–likes a toasty 70-71 degrees, and I have no guilt washing with hot water. It also is so much quieter than the heat pump which truly sounds like a train.
Are you staying warm during this Polar Vortex cold spot?
When I think of 2014, I think “what the heck happaned?” I feel like a loser except in weight loss!! I didn’t do the things that I wanted to do, and my blogging wasn’t really very good. However, 35,912 times many of you took a peek at what was going on at RiverCliff Cottage, and each month, the number edges up–in spite of my lack of attention. Thank you!!
Here’s January 2014! The North Fork was faareezin, and I could not stop talking about it and taking pictures. I’d slap a picture up on the blog and the views came in pretty quickly. You were like me…wanting to look at our river. It was cold as a titches wit.
I didn’t do anything crafty in January outside of making a diaper cake. Here she is:
And February, which is really my least favorite month of the year, I opted not to blog. I posted three times and one was to tell everyone I was on a Bloggy Vacation. What was really happening was that I wasn’t doing anything except spending time with my Gracie. So here comes March…and I was glad that I’d spent all those days and evenings near my girl. She left me on March 10. She was almost 15.
I threw myself into being busy. I made another diaper cake.
Worked on the Dale Jett & Hello Stranger concert which was held in April and that brings us around to April.
I get lots of questions and messages about my bees, and in April, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief that they were doing well. And then…you were with Gerald and me when we caught the swarm. We climbed a steep bank like two billy goats and caught the bees. It was exciting!
I started feeling pretty good by the end of April. Spring!!
So May rolls around, and I took you with me to Mt. Vernon UMC for a birthday party and we ran into the BBC filming a documentary which will be a part of the first episode of the American Roots Music series on PBS. I think that show is in May 2015–watch for it!! Except that they all wore black and we all wore denim, and they talked weirdly different than us, they were definitely kin. Here’s Dale Jett and one of the directors.
I planted my garden. It breathed life into me.
May was really about the outside for me. I planted flowers everywhere, and of course, I honored Mike’s most important flower…the television satellite dish. Ugh.
I took pictures of this spot all summer…in a short while it looked like this. Mike could not have been more proud of his Dish flower.
June rolled around, and I made some wonderful strawberry lavender jam and strawberry rhubarb jam. I’m going to make 150 of these next year. I’m serious. If you’re on my Christmas list for 2015, you’ll get one.
and there was a wedding…
Helene’s daughter got married. It was lovely.
I also painted our master bedroom. I will be working further in this room after Luckie is no longer with us. I’m back to where I was in February….holding off on doing things while I say goodbye.
I enjoy the “restful retreat” feeling.
Oh my gosh…July is here!! July was a blur for me as I made countless trips to the garden to remove Japanese beetles. My neighbors were not touched, but I was covered up with beetles. I hated them but refused to spray. I dreamed about them, and it’s the first creature that I actually enjoyed killing. “Struggling for breath in soapy water Mr. Beetle? Tell someone who cares.” I learned that they are very sexual and had orgies on my Mountaineer Half Runner Green Beans.
I made the easiest wreath one could imagine. I recycled the wedding wreath I’d made.
The JSB Class of 1974. This was an important reunion because we realized it didn’t matter who was fatter, who was grayer, balder, thinner, richer, etc. We were just happy to be there. God bless the JSB Class of 1974. We’ve lost so many.
August was beautiful. My cottage garden which is primarily perennials was looking very sunny.
Lots of my favorite flower…and the beautiful mountain in the background. Sumthin’ special!!
Those flower seeds had blossomed into beautiful flowers. Another seed was being planted. Mike and I looked out on the muddy river and saw this…
“We sure see a lot of kayakers on the river.”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” was a question asked later that weekend. Floating the Fork was the title of that post and it is our “go to” phrase when we talk about Adventure Mendota.
September’s here, and I reworked the wreath a third time.
For crying out loud, can somone take all of these darn diapers away from here? Here’s ANOTHER diaper cake.
It was defnitely fall because I drug out the chalkboard spray and redid the window.
More things were going on behind the blog. Mike and I were talking about money. If we did the Adventure Mendota thing, it would not take a lot of money, but we would have to buy kayaks, buy liability insurance, buy something to transport people, a trailer to haul the kayaks, plus numerous other expenses, etc. With any business there is risk–what if it failed–and we knew the money would come from our savings. Mike was retired, and I worked about 10 hours per week. I was totally uncomfortable with more money going out, so I told Mike “I’m going back to work full time, and I’m going to work for quite a while–maybe five years or so.”
October, November and December came. We were busy working on things behind the scenes. There was a lot to do. We bought a used MEOC van from Terri and Brock and Clinch River Adventures.
I learned to kayak.
The bees were “put to bed” for the winter. Lord, please keep my bees alive.
I knew I was going to work soon, so I worked nonstop on things for Adventure Mendota.
Mike went before the Washington County Planning Commission and then before the Washington County Board of Supervisors. Adventure Mendota was approved unaminously.
And on November 24th, I returned to work at my new job, and I continued to work on the social media for About Face.
We really scaled down our activities which weren’t really that high energy to start with!! We’ve stayed very close to home with Luckie. She’s the last of three dogs that captured our hearts. She’s been a true friend for 15 years, and I want to be with her during these last days. Luckie was left by the road when she was about 6 months old. She’s been with us since that time and brought so much joy to our lives. She’s had a large tumor removed when she was 3, her left ACL replaced when she was 7 and her right ACL replaced when she was 9. We can fight what we can fight, but her hips and legs are extremely arthritic and she’s stumbling more often. Her time is now measured in weeks.
I’m thankful that we can spend this quality time with her, but I’m also recalling a time that Mike and I used to enjoy traveling. We’ve got lots of plans for long weekends here and there in the spring and fall surrounding Adventure Mendota. We’re planning on some upgrades to the house…and there will be other dogs who need us. We’re planning for the next season in our lives. The one that will begin sometime in 2015.
And, of course, we’re going to Float the Fork in 2015.
Yesterday I went to the Mendota Branch Library and picked up a few books. Reading at night vs. messing around on the ipad at night is more relaxing. I have trouble falling asleep, and too much time staring at the little bright computer pad messes with my brain’s ability to sleep. Besides, in the past two weeks, I realized I’ve Googled and Pinned enough for about 12 months. Give it a rest, Eva!
So I got several books from the library and then, instead of coming home and doing the many things that needed to be done, I started reading.
The first book I read as soon as I got home from the library was “The Clinchfield No. 1 Tennessee’s Legendary Steam Engine.” It is an easy read. It is by Mark A. Stevens and A. J. “Alf” Peoples. Do you like trains? Do you feel trains have personality? I do! This little engine was the first on the scene after the Johnstown flood disaster in the late 1800’s. She was so brave. She was rusting and rotting in Erwin, Tennessee when Clinchfield Railroad’s new General Manager, T. D. Moore, Jr., found her (bought her back from the Town of Erwin for $1) and had her engine restored and put to use for train excursions in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
There is romance in this little book! She was certainly female with a nickname among those closest to her of “Rosebud.”
In addition to the book, I found a great You Tube video on the Clinchfield No. 1. It reminded me of a friend in Hiltons who recalls her mother yelling “get the clothes off the line…the train’s coming.” When you see all of the black smoke from the coal-fired engine, that statement makes perfect sense. Watch it at least long enough to see the black smoke pouring from her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiRiydhoWLQ
Because I lived in Northern Virginia and New Jersey (hard to believe) I’ve ridden passenger trains lots of times, but they’ve all been operated by Amtrack and are more like riding a plane or a bus. I definitely want to go on an excursion train ride after reading this. I’m just sorry it won’t be with Rosebud; she is now retired and relaxing in a museum in Baltimore.
Next, since I read until 2 am and this morning I then read until we left for church, on the way to church, on the way home from church and then read after we got home from church, I finished a second book. I was reading this:
“The Mountaintop School for Dogs And Other Second Chances,” by Ellen Cooney — it’s based on the healing that occurs for both humans and dogs in an old ski lodge called The Sanctuary. I was a little reluctant to read this because any story of animal abuse bothers me, but this story was centered less on what happened to the animals and more about their healing. Dogs are saved and they, in turn, save humans. I highly recommend this book. The main character in the book is “Evie.” Maybe that’s also why I liked it.
Finally, don’t get Joan Rivers’ book. I’m not a prude, but it’s not even funny. It’s trashy and mean. She can’t defend herself because she’s dead, but I opened it…read the first and last chapters…and I tossed it aside. Back to the library for Joan.
Hi! Did you have a great Christmas? Mine was quiet, but it was exactly as we thought so I wasn’t disappointed. We stayed at home with our Luckie dog as she continues to wind down 15+ years. And, after 30 years, Mike is learning that Christmas is a great time to buy your wife something she would not buy herself. He went to Shoozie’s and got me a very nice gift.
Shoozie’s is a locally-owned store in Bristol and Kingsport. When you walk through the door, you receive that wonderful leather smell that only a small shoe store can deliver. They have purses, wallets, jewelry and shoes.
And…a funny thing happened last night. We made our weekly trip to Chili’s and following that, I ran into Walmart. It’s the first time I’ve been in Walmart in several months, and it was still crowded with after Christmas returns and Friday night shopping. I went to the self check-out counter, and when I attempted to start my transaction, it spit out $14.16 at me! Was I ever tempted to grab the money and run! I’ve always wondered if ATM or self check-outs ever had these types of gliches. The check-out person said he’d never seen anything quite like this. He said he’d seen excess $1 bills come out but never such a specific amount.
Last night, I dreamed about going to the library, so I went this morning! It’s Food for Fines month, and I had fines on both mine and Mike’s library cards. Earlier in the week, I’d bought a bunch of canned stuff. It went with me this morning in exchange for a clean slate. I went from being a library felon to a good patron. I had two bags (in the far right in the picture below) full of food. I love the Mendota Library. I used to work there eons ago. I spent more paying everyone’s library book and video fines than I made.
Don’t you think you can tell something about a person by the books that they read? Ok….I like pop culture and dogs according to these selections.
I’m a sucker for anything with a train so The Clinchfield No. 1 came home with me. Debbie Macomber writes the Blossom Street series which I like. The other book is on quilts (like I’m going to make one any time soon).
This is a special piece of art for anyone who attended Hamilton.
Hope your weekend is going well. Thank you for going to the library with me!!
This post is about two things. One is the new addition to our family. His name is SPOT. And it’s not a dog. Here’s SPOT!
Hello SPOT–actually there’s a couple of SPOTS that have arrived. SPOT is a water-proof device that will attach to a number of Adventure Mendota’s kayaks. (Here’s the website for Adventure Mendota. It’s coming along nicely.) SPOT uses a satellite that will message us on where our “asset” is. While we’re currently working with the settings, SPOT should tell us where a kayak is so we’ll know when to go pick it up! As the kayak approaches the Mendota Bridge, it’ll be time for the Fork Taxi to make a run down the road. We’ll rock down the road in our MEOC (Mountain Empire Older Citizens) bus. I cannot wait to drive this!! It’s a little plain in the picture below. It’ll be outfitted with new decals. I wanted to spray paint peace symbols and flowers on it, but Mike is just too conservative. It’ll say stuff like “Float the Fork,” our website address and phone number. Boring. Don’t you think I ought to get at least one panel for pursuing my artistic abilities? “Flower Power!”
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There’s more that has been going on. I went back to full-time employment. I was concerned with how fast we were pulling money from our savings. Mike is more easy about those things,but I wasn’t comfortable with it, and concurrent with that–we knew Adventure Mendota would have start-up expenses. My original thought was to pursue going back in the spring, but things worked out a bit faster. Tomorrow is my 5th week at working full time again. I feel so fortunate to have found a good job with really, really nice people in Bristol. God is good.
I’m also still working a bit with About Face. I enjoy the social media work and as long as Sue needs me, I’ll do it. I’m also working closely with Mike preparing for Adventure Mendota. Whew! This, combined with the loss of my camera, has been the reason that I’ve not blogged as often as in the past. It has been busy! Thankfully, I now have a new camera, but I’m still going to blog only on Sunday and Wednesday evenings for the next six or eight weeks. I’m learning better time management.
So.. I’m back working, and I’m being very careful with my earnings. I want to save money as well as conserve money. Mike and I have divided up the way we’re paying for the small amount of assets we’re purchasing for Adventure Mendota. The kayaks have been ordered, and I’m responsible for them. He actually will pay for them, but my responsibility is to replace the money, so I will “pay back” every two weeks enough money to purchase one Old Town Twister kayak, one set of paddles and one lifejacket. It works!
Patsy Carrier, one of my lifelong friends, said once “I didn’t realize how thrifty you are, Eva”. I wasn’t always, but I have been for the past few years. It’s rewarding.
So here is one way I save money. I seldom dry clean a sweater. I use Dryel. Mike’s son, Aaron, has always been careful with his money, and he is the one who taught me about Dryel. (He’s probably still holding one of our checks where we paid him for mowing the grass when he was 14. ) Have you ever used Dryel? Most of my sweaters aren’t really dirty…they are more furry or just need freshening. Sam shares in some of this responsibility. He’s lying here thinking of what fun it is to shed. He’s not a grumpy cat; he’s a mean cat. He will hiss at me if I move him around on the bed.
Here’s what the Dryel looks like.
It’s easy and so much more convenient than going to the cleaners every week. Just spray the areas that might need extra attention. Like the underarms or neck areas.
I do this with up to four items. From there, I take one of the “wet” packets that are included. Here’s what they look like below:
I put that little wet cloth and up to four items in the bag that’s provided and let it dry on “Normal” for 30 minutes.
Afterwards, I usually hang whatever is in the bag up for about 30 minutes to continue airing out. Later, the items are folded and put away. Since it costs about $5 to dryclean a sweater, I am way ahead. I cleaned eight today. The Dryel was about $10, so I saved about $30.
$30! That’s a paddle!!
Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday. We are having a quiet Christmas this year due primarily to Luckie’s worsening condition, but today in church I heard something that resonated with me. Christmas is not my birthday party. It’s Jesus’ birthday party….so while Christmas will be quiet, we are still going to celebrate. Hope you do, too!
This weekend Mendota had a wreath making event at the Holbrook Farm. Helene Holbrook hosted about 15-20 neighbors for a cookie exchange, wreath making, stories, and music…just your typical Mendota get together. Lots of food…naturally! Helene always has chips and salsa. Why is it good at her house and just so/so at my house?
There was greenery for natural wreaths, but the demonstration focused on the mesh wreaths. I’ve tried this before and made a mess, so I was interested in watching Mary McCroskey do it. I know she’s made several. In Mendota, we say “she’s a Millard…they can do anything with their hands.” It is true.
Mary bunched the mesh and tied each bunch with plastic ties. I’d tried this using pipe cleaners and while they blended with the mesh nicely, they weren’t very tight and it affected the fullness of my wreath. It would have been a great Pinterest flop. Have you ever seen Pinterest flops?? Here they are. Hilarious.
Here’s the right way…back and forth. She’ll cut those ties off when she’s through.
Here’s how it looks on the reverse side.
Mrs. Taylor peeking through her red wreath. It looks a little crooked here, but when she hangs it up and pulls on it, it will be “right as rain.” Where did that expression come from??
Helene purchased this mesh at Sam’s Club for $5 per roll which makes one wreath. Check this one out–it’s so hard to have the right wreath for January–it’s not Christmas but it’s sure not spring either. This wreath is perfect. I want it.
And we had storytime. Don, who is many, many months older than me is someone I honor due to his advanced age and good taste in the selection of his wife, read a Christmas story. Here’s Don. How come he is so much older than me?
His daughter, Lizzie, who is 23 but cherishes her childhood in Mendota asked him to read this book, because it reminds her of Christmas in Mendota. We sat in Helene’s warm, sunny living room and listened to Don’s voice. Don is an ordained minister, and he understands how to speak to his audience. He read sincerely and effectively. I shut my eyes…and I saw the story unfold.
My mother read to her children every day. We all knew how to read before we attended school. We learned from following her finger with our eyes as she read the words. Apparently, the love of being read to has stayed with me, because I thoroughly enjoyed this time.
Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage and following along in my rural life. Leave all that shopping in the ‘burbs behind and come to the country!
First, it was this awesome fence. Mike admired it when we drove by. “That is one nice fence.” Like everyone else, we wondered “what’s next?
And then we learned….
So it was great fun to go down today and meet David and Annette, owners of the Crooked River Farm. With about a mile of riverfront property near the Scott County line…just down from Mendota…a few miles above the Carter Family Fold, they are working on Annette’s dream. It’s about preserving the natural beauty of our valley and sharing it with others.
Here’s where it starts…
This barn began its life in Ohio…it was a mill! It was disassembled and moved to Waco, Texas, where it was almost sold twice. Something happened with each sale. This barn was meant to come here. It’s found its forever home in Poor Valley.
In the picture below….I believe Annette said that this is the area where there will be an indoor/outdoor fireplace. Can you see the glimmer of the North Fork? Every direction is a view of Clinch Mountain or the North Fork of the Holston River.
Inside the barn, there will be a mezzanine, restrooms, a warming kitchen and the gathering/seating area for receptions, meetings, etc. Right now, however, it’s blue sky, wood and a bit of steel to ensure support.
I love these pictures of the framing and rafters looking up into the sky. Here’s another one.
As you look outside the rear of the barn, there’s a winding road that leads to a second barn and curves around to the river. Also, the area in the left of the picture below will be a truffle grove (or will be in about five years).
Here’s the second barn (below). I like the angle of this picture as it shows how tall the barn is. I took this picture from the winding road pictured above. This old tobacco barn is being “skinned” with hemlock which is a rot-resistant wood. I use hemlock in my raised beds for the same reason.
This barn will have two bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen/living area. If there is a wedding, this is where the bride will get ready…or maybe where the honeymoon couple spends their first night. They will love the views. Or maybe they will be too busy to notice!
Here’s Annette and David. I liked them immediately…they are not afraid to dream.
Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage and going with me to the Crooked River Farm. We’ll go back!! Please follow Annette and David on their journey–like them on their Facebook page and let your friends know about the Crooked River Farm!
The other most useful project also involved chalkpaint spray. I 
Washington County rocks! Tonight the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Adventure Mendota!