Tim Built A Work Bench

Tim was very productive and built a work bench for the shed.  The best thing is it did not cost us anything because he used the leftover wood we had from when we were working on the Crafty Cottage.  It turned out really good and is similar to the one I have in the Crafty Cottage except his is a little wider than mine and mine cost more.  With Tim building the work bench out of leftover wood he saved about $80.   So now Tim has his own work space which is good since we will be starting the deck soon.  We are still leaving April 6 th for our journey to California and Hawaii so he will just do some basic things for the deck then when we return home in June he will continue where he left off.  Great job on the work bench Tim.  Hmmm, what else can I have him build for me?
It was a yucky day yesterday.  It rained most of the day and it was extremely windy and cold.  So we decided it would be a good day to binge watch HGTV.  We like the show Beachfront Bargin and they ran all afternoon.  Did we feel guilty?  Not at all!  Just about 6:00 pm the power goes out.  The good thing is dinner was just finishing cooking so we could still eat. After dinner, not knowing how long the power would be off, Tim went and put our generator on.  Guess what happened?  That's right, the power came back on.  We were happy because we had rented a movie on Dish.  We watched "St Vincent" and it was really a good movie.  Bill Murray was great!  If you have not seen it yet you should.  It was a good movie with a message.
Today Lisa and I are going to the movies by ourselves.  Tim and George are staying at the farm.  We are going to see the movie "McFarland USA".  I am looking forward to seeing it especially since I use to run Cross Country.  Check back tomorrow for my review on the movie!

Driving Around The Farm

So, now that the golf cart is running we are now able to drive around the farm.  I was down in the Crafty Cottage when Tim came by with the golf cart.  It was running the other day but was a little sluggish going up hills. Around the farm hills are everywhere so being sluggish was not going to work.  He worked on the golf cart some more and was able to get it going a lot better.  He came by the cottage to put the golf cart to the ultimate hill test; climbing the hills with both of us in the cart and I am happy to report that it did really well!  So after the tests he dropped me back off at the Crafty Cottage and did a little more tweaking.  About an hour later he dropped off the cart so I could drive back up to the RV for lunch.  Now not having a bathroom in the cottage is no longer an issue because if I end up all of a sudden having to go I can drive up the hill; quick and easy! 
I did have one issue yesterday with the golf cart and it was from George accusing me of going too fast in the 3.4 mph speed limit he set in front of his house.  I better watch out the next time I drive past his house because the next thing I know he will have a radar gun out clocking my speed.  I wonder if I can set a speed limit in front of the Crafty Cottage for his Gator?  Hmmm, see what you have started George?  Thanks Tim for working so hard on getting the golf cart running. We can now ride in style around the farm.

Knoxville In The Rain

Tim, Lisa and I went to Knoxville yesterday because Tim had his annual check up with his new cardiologist.  Five years ago Tim had a heart attack and has been going for annual and semi annual check ups since.  Well, it was that time of year and since we no longer live in Florida he found a new cardiologist in Knoxville.  All is good but because this is a new cardiologist Tim will be doing some tests over the next couple of weeks. This will be a test for our new health insurance to see what we will be paying now and what will be covered by insurance.  Keep your fingers crossed!
The drive to Knoxville was wet but Tim didn't mind because he wanted to get the car rinsed, no sense in having it washed since it was raining, so that some of the salt from the roads would get washed off.  I-40 through Knoxville has flashing signs cautioning drivers to watch for pot holes.  Since I have not been in snow for quite a while I had forgotten what winter weather does to the roadways.  Potholes were popping up or should I say digging down on several roads in Knoxville.  I-40 was developing quite a few.  It rained the entire time we were in Knoxville and did not quit until we got to Parrottsville.  By the late afternoon the sun was out.
While Tim was at the Dr Lisa and I did a little shopping.  Lisa wanted to go to Petco to get a few things for her cat, Angel and her new Grand dog Nyx.  Her son just adopted a new puppy.  After that we decided to go to AC Moore mostly because it was the closet craft store to where we were.  We barely had started shopping  when Tim called.  So we did a quick shop and then headed back to pick up Tim.  He was done a lot quicker that any of us thought he would be.  Yesterday I said we were going to have lunch while in Knoxville and we were not going to eat any restaurant that we had in Newport.  Since the area we were at for Tim's Dr appointment had nothing around there to eat we headed home and decided to eat on the way.  We had lunch at Perkins and it was good.  Lisa and I could not decide on a couple of different sandwiches so instead I ordered one of the sandwiches and she ordered the other and then split the sandwiches in half so we each had both sandwiches.  Good idea Lisa!  We got back to Parrottsville early afternoon and just spent the rest of the day being lazy.

New Toys

After 5 months of not having a laptop, mine broke and I was using Tim's, I received my new laptop that I ordered last week.  It is a Toshiba and has all the bells and whistles.  So, I am writing this blog on my new laptop.  I have to say that it is nice to have a full size keyboard but I am very thankful that during this period I 1) had my iPad and 2) had Tim's laptop to use.  My new laptop  does have windows 8  so I am learning how to operate it. It will take me a couple of days to get use to everything but that is okay because I do have the time.  Before the laptop came I did finish making all of my Easter cards but I can't show you them because some of you will be receiving one.
More good news, after 6 months, only one month that the golf cart was really worked on, Tim has gotten the golf cart going.  He has worked so hard to make the golf cart nice again and working.  After getting all the body work completed and the cart cleaned up and painted, fixing the wiring, brakes, etc.  Buying all the batteries and getting the motor repaired he got it running yesterday!  Way to go Tim! I posted a video of it on Facebook and will try to post on here but the video is not as easy to post as pictures are.
Today we are going into Knoxville for Tim's Doctor appointment.  While Tim is at the doctor Lisa and I will be doing a little shopping and then picking up Tim and having lunch.  Knoxville has so many restaurants to choose from that I know we will not be eating at Ruby Tuesday, Wendy's, McDonalds or any other fast food restaurant we have in Newport.  Check back tomorrow and see all that we did in Knoxville and even some pictures too!

Max Patch

Max Patch is a bald mountain on the North Carolina-Tennessee border in Madison County, NC and Cocke County, TN. It is a major landmark along the TN/NC section of the Appalachian Trail. Max Patch is known for its 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains. From the summit you can see the Bald Mountains in the vincinity, the Unakas to the North, The Great Smokies to the south and the Great Balsams and Black Mountains to the southeast. The parking lot at Max Patch is very small which is why we could not stop and hike the trail to the top. We will return to Max Patch in the next couple of weeks to hike the trail but it will be on a week day. The trail is about a 1.4 mile hike to the top which is 4629 ft in elevation. It has been called the "crown jewel" of th Appalachian trail. I think Max Patch will be a regular hike for us especially when the seasons change. Spring and Summer will be great but I am looking forward to the fall. Since the road to Max Patch is a little tricky I think we will skip winter if it snows. Max Patch did suffer some damage in 2012 when someone in atvs broke through the wire gate and drove all over the bald mountain creating deep ruts that today are still recovering. Keep coming back and see how our hike went. I do want to take this opportunity to wish my brother Craig a very Happy Birthday!

A Little Drive

It was a beautiful sunny day here at the farm and so we decided to take a short afternoon drive.  We began our journey and we were headed to Meadow Creek Tower, an old fire tower used by the U.S. Forestry service built in 1926, but found out the trail to it was too long for us to reach and get back before dark so we decided to take a little drive around the area instead.  For Tim and I we were in unfamiliar territory but since George was driving we had no worries.  We started towards Del Rio, TN when just outside the town we took a mountain road just to explore.  It started out as a paved two lane highway, turned into a paved road that eventually went to gravel mix to gravel to dirt.  Since we had begun to climb the mountain and the views were great we just continued to drive.  The higher we went the narrower the road got until we were eventually on an old loggers road turned into a way, the hard way, to get to the top of the mountain.  We were on Round Mountain that borders Tennessee and North Carolina.  At times the road was a little tough but George and Lisa's Honda CRV was doing great.  We were not sure where we were going to end up but we didn't care because we were all enjoying the ride.  Okay George was driving so maybe he wasn't as relaxed as were we.  The road we were on was narrow and had lots of curves but the views were spectacular.  We climbed to 3100 ft to reach Round Mountain campground in the Cherokee National Forest then continued to climb up to Max Patch, a bald mountain that borders the North Carolina-Tennessee border at 4600 ft.  Check back tomorrow for more about Max Patch. We then started to head down the mountain to Hot Springs, NC.  

So the drive we took essentially started in Tennessee but we ended up in North Carolina and took the LONG way to do it.  Did we mind?  Not a bit, we did something different locally, we were with good company, Tim, George, Lisa and I and we ended up on an unexpected adventure that also gave us more places to visit and retreat to during the hot summer days.  Out next exploring day is already in the planning stage. Check back tomorrow for more of our adventure.

Kingsman - The Secret Service

We had our third Date In A Box date.  March's date was dinner and a movie so we drove to a Morristown and saw The Kingsman.  It was a good movie. It was full of action and had some humor too.  I would highly recommend this movie especially if you like James Bond movies, etc.  After the movie we first went to the Ruby Tuesday in Morristown but it was packed so we headed for Newport and ate at Ruby Tuesday there; Lisa and I had coupons.  It was a nice afternoon and evening.  Good movie, good food and good friends make for a nice day. Hope you all sprung ahead last night and turned your clocks ahead one hour.  Happy Sunday!