Chicks Rock

Tom noticed the other day that Katie wasn’t responding well to sound in her left ear. We’ve been trying to tell the difference between her having hearing loss or being stubborn. I called her school today and they are going to test her hearing. How cool is that? The nurse said she should be able to get her tested today but by tomorrow definitely. She has had her hearing tested a couple of times and shes never had a problem, but it may be a recent issue, if it is an issue at all. While she does have some of the risk factors, the biggest one, frequent ear infections, she’s never had.

Or, it just could be the recently developed skill of selective hearing. At any rate, wish her luck.

Tom had his first day back at work last night.  He came in and immediately fell asleep.  He felt like it went rather well and did not seem like he had been away so long.  Just so you know, most of the work up here is seasonal, shops just shut down for months at a time.   Ironically, when the locals need it the most.

There is definitely a rhythm to living here.  While it can be rather slow (read 12 inches of snow) during the winter months, the spring and summer are complete madness.   Where I work, we’ll serve as many people for breakfast as we end up serving all day during winter.

Due to Christmas and snow, Katie has been out of school for a while, she was back this week and low and behold, she’s got a cold.  Even her bus driver is out sick and according to the driver, of the 6 or so kids on her bus, about half are out sick.   I guess that is what happens when you have a bunch of snotty kids stuck in a room with recirculating air.    Speaking of the devil, I just got a lap full of Katie.

It is so foggy outside I can’t see to the fence.  It has been rainy and foggy when it hasn’t been snowing.  If anyone sees that yellow orb in the sky, send it my way, I’d like to remember what it looks like.   The good news is, it has been relatively warm and I was able to open all the windows and let some fresh air in. YAY! Also found the gasket so our steam vac is working. Double YAY!

I’ll be accepting reservations for visitors.  Just let me know when you want to come, I’ll have the bread baking and the blankets turned down.  Fair warning, new chicks start arriving the first of April.

Well, we had a pretty good snow on Friday.  Got stuck in traffic going down the mountain to retrieve my family.  I’m so glad I have four wheel drive.  Ice formed on everything and now that it is melting, we can’t go outside without getting pelted by icicles falling out of the trees.  It seriously looks like there is a giant icemaker above our house that is just dumping ice cubes everywhere.   You can hear it falling in the woods and see exactly how avalanches start.

There is a thin layer of ice on top of about 8 inches of snow, break it off and it is soft, fluffy snow underneath.  Katie is mad she can’t make snow angels, but she has been doing her best to play with as many icicles as possible.

I have to say, it is much, much different than Tampa.

So for a week, my little angel informed me she was going to make it snow. Sure enough, the forecast called for snow. Saturday was to be the day. I was at work early and kept looking outside, waiting for snow. All I could think about was how much Katie would love it if it snowed and how much I hoped she was at home playing in it. Not one flake fell all day for me. I got off work and sadly worked my way up the mountain. Plenty of wet, no frozen. That is, until I took the last turn before our house, then everything was white. For about 100 yards around our house, everything was white. We had a couple inches that stayed around for a few days. Katie loved it, although it turned out, she spiked a fever and could only go outside for a few minutes at a time, she did of course, have her bowls of snow.

I watched an episode of Baking with Julia and saw a lady make the most scrumptious sticky buns made with brioche. Her dough made me yearn for the recipe. Watching her working the dough and seeing it take shape and be formed positively made me ache. I’ve got to track down that recipe! Brioche dough is such velvety, rich, luscious dough.

The weather here has been as low as 11 degrees, yeah folks, that is Fahrenheit. Our thin Florida blood is frozen. I can’t believe it hasn’t snowed more than once, we have had so much rain it is insane. Rumor has it, this is going to be a doozy of a winter. Record colds. Just like the LAST time I lived in Georgia. Do you realize that when I was 16 and moved to Dalton to live with my father, was the coldest winter they have had on record, EVER, to this day?

I’m cursed.

Oh, sorry for the 6 month delay in posting. Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.

I have seen the weirdest creatures since spring decided to get sprung. Oh, by the way, we have a new addition to the family. Tom found a box turtle that now has a very nice home. She doesn’t have a name yet, but she looks to be pretty old. Her shell around the edges is pretty beat up, but otherwise, she is a pleasure. Katie likes watching TV with her.

Anyway, on to the mutants. I’m digging out a small pond for the turtle and I find this thumb size freaky peach colored thing. It looked almost like a sand flea. It has pincers, and the body curved around. Unfortunately, It was damaged in the digging. After some googling, evidently it is a pupae of a beetle. A darned big one from the looks of it.

Today, Fathers Day, we had a picnic at the community park. The park has a playground and a great little stream as well as some rockin’ rocks for climbing. Tom was panning for gold while Katie was freezing her butt off but refusing to get out of the water. She likes wood. She likes throwing wood and watching it float downstream. She also likes throwing rocks. We actually went to 3 different waterfalls today. She is a natural climbing around the rocks. She does not like sitting in the waterfall itself though. The fact that it is about 65 degrees and the water is around 50 degrees might have a bit to do with it.

Sorry, freaks of nature. At the Rabun Branch waterfall, I look down in the water and it looks like there is a big flower bud in the water. I grab a stick and the bud swims away! I keep looking and see what has to be a 4-5 inch tadpole. I swear, it had to be almost as big as my hand. I told Tom, he didn’t believe it was that big, then he came over to see it. His words? “Holy Shit!” We couldn’t catch one as I was unprepared. Next time? I’m bringing my water shoes, some nets and my bait bucket baby!

In the little creek that runs along our property line, I saw a nice fat crawdaddy. He hid in the much before I could gather my sanity.

Evidently, I need a camera mounted to my head at all times. We saw zero wildlife for months, and now, every day it seems I see something else/new/huge/freakish.

No snakes yet. No bears yet. No coyotes yet. Excuse me while I feverishly knock on wood.