Until Mike retired, he was gone all week just about every week. Gradually, I became a night person and it remains so. I’m a bat or isn’t it more popular to be a vampire? So as it gets dark, I get energetic. Add a little anger to that, and I am a Cleaning Machine.

If you look at my house, you’ll know I don’t get mad that often. However, something totally chapped me tonight. Armed with a toilet brush, I cleaned commodes. Two to be precise. There were paw prints all over them. Sam the Cat leaves his mark.

Then…I started in on our kitchen drawers…might as well take pictures of them.   I knew I’d have a night like this at some point so I prepared…I bought the little red inserts at TJ Maxx just for this evening…I didn’t know the exact date, but I knew it would arrive.    It’s like a bottle of wine that you might set aside for that special evening…well…I didn’t buy wine…I bought organization stuff.

I’m feeling better. I did another drawer…more little red things to play around with. This one has a lemon juicer thing plus several flat things that are 4 inches wide. I just stacked them as best I could. See the cute little silver thing in the front that looks like an acorn? I use that when I make Russian Tea. I put cloves inside and drop it into the tea…if I leave it in a long time, the tea makes my tongue almost numb. I talk like dis when dat happens! Oh…I wiped out the entire drawer and everything as I did this. Sparkling. Smells like bleach.

I don’t know why I’m keeping these things pictured below. They are probes or something that go to the microwave or the oven–probably the OLD one that we removed when we changed to stainless steel. These are the kind of things you don’t want to throw away but know you’ll never use.

Feeling better already. Going to clean the mirrors. At least I won’t be frowning. I can’t. Sue put some Botox in my frownies.

October’s over. Done! Finished. In my rearview mirror–I used to say that about wanting to leave Mendota…when I was very young and very STUPID, I told my friends…”I can’t wait until Mendota is in my rear view mirror.” When I turned 35, I began pleading to come back here.   Gasp…I actually ached to return here.   It’s a mountain thing….a Poor Valley thing…hard to articulate but easy to feel.   At any rate, my dream came true. I live where I love and love where I live.

Here’s my favorite blog picture from the month of October.    Mr. Burley, we still miss you.

My favorite quote during the month of October came from my sister, Pat.  She posted a picture of  a barn–she’s like me…barn crazy– with this quote.   I don’t know whether she dreamed it up or read it but here it is:

“I’m not Southern.  I’m Appalachian.”

Finally, because I don’t have anything else to put in this spot, here is a picture of me that Mike took this morning.  He’s not much of a picture taker, so there are not that many pictures of me.   I’m completely askew!!

I hope we all have a great November!

Not a week goes by that I don’t wish we could go on a vacation.  I’d never want to leave the mountains in terms of where I live, but I also enjoy getting away.  It’s been a while!!   I wanna go!    However,  this will wait until the Dear Girls are gone….they are too feeble, too spoiled…too precious to entrust to anyone overnight.  Margie, a close friend and fellow animal lover, will pet sit and give us a break when we need to leave for more than a few hours, but that’s it.

So, when you’re stuck at home…just go home.  That’s what I did yesterday when I started walking around our property taking pictures.   A beautiful tree…but it just gets better.

Mike joined me and on the GOLF CART of all things, we headed up the ridge. This old road…really a path…normally only has animal traffic…horses, deer, and I’m sure a few coyotes among many other smaller animals.

Limestone formation…looking very untouched. I think it looks like a dog or a bear.

What do you think this one looks like? A whale’s mouth?

At this point, we’ve left our property and we’re on our neighbor’s land. He has a system of gates so that we can come and go but keep his livestock safe. In the drought a few years ago, it worked well, as his cows grazed on our side. I so enjoyed having cows even though I had to make sure their water tank stayed full.

The ground is flat up here on top. Have you read about the “Grassy Balds” of the Smokies? I wonder if they are like this…meadows on top of a ridge.

Isn’t this beautiful, and I discovered my phone works up here because it’s so high. I can come up here alone and if I get chased around by a bear, I’ll be able to call!

Yep…there’s part of “the knob” of Clinch Mountain.  I belong to this mountain.

Just a few months ago, I was able to get a way for a “spec” of time and visited a congested large city. A deer tried to cross the four lane, and everyone just kept flying by. It stumbled and fell. Everyone kept driving. No one could stop because everyone was going so fast.    It haunted me for the remainder of the visit.

Here on top of the ridge where I took this picture, I can look down into a “bowl”.  It’s hard to tell from this picture but that is what it looks like when you’re here.

My home is back behind and over that ridge that is shown in this picture below. It feels so peaceful here.

Discoveries…I’d never seen a hedge apple. I’ve heard of them, and I guess they are in lots of places here in Mendota based on my Facebook post asking what it was. They were on the trees up here. Do they really keep spiders away?

Looks like green brains to me.

We started winding around going down hill and through a maze of gates…and ran into this girl. Moo!

Sometimes I just need an attitude adjustment. Got it!!