meet Pappy

Gypsy Moon P Moon Fire "Pappy" DOB Aug '07 . Actually, he's our oldest buck now. His pedigree is here: SonnyAcreFarm

Cahoot and MilkDud standing in a corner checking out Pappy. Cahoot will be our biggest buck, then MilkDud, then Pappy. Our two wethers, Cubby and Sundance are very petite.

Pappy checking them out.

His sire is Rosasharn UP Papillon*S and we ate lunch at Pappy's BBQ so we decided to nickname him - Pappy. We didn't want to call him MoonFire.

For the transfer, we met Kori Conner of SonnyFarmAcre in Old Fort, NC. We traded Deets for Pappy; new bloodlines for each of us.

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Our Pearl Guinea's hanging out on the split-rail fence, very cold today, a breezy 21 degree's.

dogs and the sunroom

Blissi Girl.
See the light green texture on the recliner? I think it's pretty.


Brawny Boy


Blissi chewing on a bone from Santa Claus.


Brawn and Bliss, they are Irish Terriers. We'll get some paneling up in the sunroom/doghouse one day.

Now I've got some bookcases in the sunroom, still organizing. That's 16yr old Henry, a Humane Society Special, on his dog bed.

On Christmas Eve we picked up these pair of recliners for $60 off of Craiglist. In the first photo, I was pointing out the fabric on 'em. Haven't decided yet on the flooring, gets dirty and wet often with three dogs constantly in and out of the doggie door, I almost like the idea of leaving it bare.

I want to get herbs, and seedlings going in front of those windows.

Mike also has`a mini-frig in his "hangout" room. A wall-propane heater keeps the room warm.

This is what it looks like in Boone, with much damage, lots of households still without electricity, we're fortunate we were only out for several hours. We live more on the western side of the county and didn't get hit as hard as Boone and some other areas.

Our local radio stations are finally back on the air, were off the air for over 24 hours.

Looking out of a sunroom window seeing guinea's in the tall pines,

and through the window, our Guinea Fowl Lane.

Christmas Day Ice

A week after over a foot and a half of snow fell in the High Country, around a half inch of ice has caused thousands of power outages in the area.

Over 30 percent of households are without power. At the outages' peak, around 35,000 were in the dark.

Crews from Blue Ridge Electric and even other energy co-ops have been called to the High Country to try and restore power, but it could be tomorrow before power is restored to all customers.

We have electricity now but was out this morning.
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Yesterday we got the fallen barn awning torn apart and burnt some of it.

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Photo's from Christmas Eve at the inlaws (don't know why the photo's are scattered around from each side).

Mike's mother and three sisters
Mary, Sandy, Sherry & Tina

Sleigh Cluck and Video

Sleigh Cluck (click on sleigh cluck)
The Chickens are out for a little winter ride in the snow and carol clucking! (And in their Dickens-like outfits no less -- you know what that makes them, don't you? Dickens Chickens!)

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I didn't write this about Christmas Cookies but it's certainly my way of thinking.

Christmas Cookie Rules...

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.
2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.
3. If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calories free, (rule #1) yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.
4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.
5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.
6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have three and green ones have five - one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!
7. Cookies eaten while watching "It's a Wonderful Life" have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.
8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage.
9. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. We all know how calories like to CLING!
10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes don't have calories.

Eton FR500 Radio

I bought this radio today from Radio Shack. Thank goodness we didn't lose electricity this weekend after the large snowfall but many households did. I don't want to be without; receiving the local AM radio station. The forecast for Christmas Eve is ice.

When you are off the grid, you need a device that can fill multiple needs. The American Red Cross FR500 functions as an AM, FM, and shortwave radio with NOAA weatherband. It also has a flashlight, an emergency beacon, and an emergency siren. Plus, you can use it to charge your cell phone. Can be powered with the hand crank, or solely by the sun—solar panels make this a very “green” device. Battery power and AC power are also options.

AM (520-1700 KHz), FM (88-108 MHz), Shortwave (6000-12100 KHz)
NOAA weather – all 7 channels plus Alert
Siren and Flashlight
Can be powered from four different sources:
From the built-in rechargeable Ni-MH battery that takes charge from the dynamo crank and from an AC adapter (not included)
From 3 AA batteries (not included)
From the AC adapter alone (not included)
From solar power
Analog frequency dial with digital display
Built-in cell phone charger
Digital clock function

snow pics and video

Here in the Northwestern North Carolina Appalachians, we got hit with a large snowball.


Brawn and Bliss


Brawn

The Wheaton Marans had to move to the barn.

old barn roof, please hold

snow on the way

http://www.booneweather.com/Forecast/Boone
Double-digit snowfall is what we're looking at for Friday to early Saturday. And that's just Event One--we have four distinct snow events possible between now and Christmas Day. It now appears that this low will track in a classic Gulf Low to Nor'easter pattern giving us a "Good Ole Fashioned Snow" beginning Friday morning and lasting into Saturday. Snow totals of 10"-20" will be common across the region by Saturday afternoon. Even colder air will arrive Sunday with a northwest flow snow shower episode Saturday night into Sunday. Another disturbance in the cold northwest flow will arrive Monday (another round of snow showers). Event Number Four will arrive Christmas Eve Day.

this is a darling Clydesdale video