Snow, Ice, and the Prisoner of Bobcat Ridge

It seemed like a pretty romantic notion...a little soft white stuff that made the environment look like a Christmas card.  True, there were a couple of problems...nobody to be romantic with, placement on a high ridge (increasing the chance of not so nice stuff), and Christmas.  So, on Friday morning the snow previously forcast began in earnest.  It started as ice...laying down a layer of slippery solid that has not yet melted.  So, yours truly is up here by herself.  The plan was for Mary (my sister) to come to the hills on Monday.  She was going to take care of the animals while we went to Austin for Christmas.  I have heard that if you want to make God laugh, just make some plans.  I can attest to the veracity of this statement.

It was, indeed,  pretty.  However, the prettiness has worn off.  The first couple of days were fine, but after that I entered a state that I can only compare to that of a hostage.  Fortunately, the phone, tv, electricity worked so I didn't have to "rough" it.  I do have alternative heat and cooking capabilities, so that was a plus...I think it was the only one.

One of the charming characteristics of this place is its location...high on a ridge with limited accessibility.  I am now reassessing the charm.  The ice and the elevation have conspired to keep me captive.  Although the temperature has risen, the damn ice is still on the trees.  I think it got up to 35 today.  There is a pretty solid sheet of ice under the snow (though it seems to have ameloriated somewhat), and I can't get down the mountain and nobody else can get up.

Which brings me to Christmas.  There will be no trip to Austin.  I have cried all day.  I hope JR can get up tomorrow, but if he can't then there is another storm coming on Thursday.  Mary is going to try to come, but there is the same issue with her.  Hopefully, I won't have to spend Christmas alone with the animals and their hair.  I'm pretty tired of them underfoot all the time.

However, I am well, have plenty to eat (though it really isn't what I like), am warm, have plenty of books and have been able to watch really interesting things on tv.  I hope to be able to get off this mountain tomorrow.  If not, I will be grateful for the gifts in my life and will consider that the alternatives could be worse.  Perhaps I could start a mini-monastery!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, hope your Hannukah was good.  Love to all.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Tommy (top) and Ben (a really cute kid) installing the cabinets in the kitchen and the mudroom.

The good news is...my kitchen cabinets are here and they are beautiful!  The are rustic hickory and really do add a dimension to the kitchen that I didn't expect.  Tommy and Ben installed them last week.  It took them 4 days to do so, but the effect is stunning...well, almost.  I'll get to that in a little bit.

The bad news is that I don't have any appliances, except the old refrigerator.  I have no stove, no sink (which means no water in the kitchen,) no oven, and no dishwasher.  Well, I didn't have a dishwasher before so that is no big deal.  It is rather difficult to cook without the necessary appliances.  I don't think they're going to come any time soon, either, because, as I write, we are two inches into a forcast 10 inches of snow.  Getting up this drive is sometimes difficult even under the best of conditions, and deep snow isn't one of those.  In addition, we have run into a glitch with the granite fabricator.  It does appear that it will be awhile before the countertops are on.

The ugly is that I've figured out how to make do.  I got the builder to get the plywood that we had used on the old cabinets and I put that on the cabinets.  I went to the shed, got an old Coleman camping stove that uses those little bottles of propane.  It has two burners and works great as a small stove.  I have a George Foreman thingy that will roast or grill, I have a tabletop microwave, and I put dirty dishes in a dishpan and cart them down to the doggy bath to wash them.  Then I dry them and cart them back upstairs!  Other than the inconvenience of running to the bathroom for water when needed in the kitchen, and of dragging dirty and clean dishes upstairs, it works pretty well.  I have waited so long for this beautiful house that I'm not going to let these little set backs upset me.  Now I'm off to play in the snow.  I think it's going to keep JR in Charlotte today, but maybe he will be able to come tomorrow.  Merry Christmas!!!  (Or if you'd rather that I be more PC)...Happy Holidays!!!

This is the makeshift kitchen...not bad, huh?

FINALLY...THE MOVE!!!

It seemed like it would never happen, but we have finally made it...the big move!  Most of our stuff is up in the mountains and we are here more or less full time.  The house has turned into a thing of beauty without the red paper on the floor, the dust cleaned off the windows (I hired that done.), our familiar furniture placed in the new spaces, and the arrival of our family for the Thanksgiving holidays.

It was everything I wanted it to be.  My cousin, Chuck, and his wife came from Texas; my mother from Greensboro; my sisters, Judy and Mary, and their families from Winston and Charlotte; my son, Jon, and his family,also from Charlotte.  We did miss Adam and his family who spent the holiday in their new home in Austin, TX; and my brother, Charlie and his family.  Charlie had knee replacement surgery on the Monday before so we forgave him for being unable to travel.  He had a rough couple of days, but he is doing much better now.

We had 13 people spending the night on Thanksgiving night.  It's nice to have enough room for most everybody!  The grandchildren decorated our new nine foot Christmas tree on Thanksgiving afternoon and a more beautiful tree I have not seen!

The children were so funny.  My nephews built this great big bonfire and the more they drank the bigger it got.  Most of us made our way to the fire at some point during the day, but the evening was the most fun!  There were a few snow flurries and it was almost magical to sit by the fire while snow drifted down around us.  Jon, Jr. asked me for a "fashyight" and the three of them entertained themselves by running around the rather large yard (to the dismay of their mother) shining it onto unfamiliar objects.  Patti was afraid that they would get hurt or lost, but they managed to keep themselves in one piece and had a great time doing it!

The house is beautiful and Jim and I are very happy here.  I'll put a few pics of some rooms up so you can see what they look like.  I'm not a very good photographer so this won't look like Southern Living.

If I get all the mailing addresses changed I will consider myself lucky!  We have not yet sold our Charlotte house, and will have to make some decisions about it after the first of the year.

Hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season.

The kitchen cabinets will be delivered on Thursday and the installer will be here on Monday.  The appliances will be here at the end of next week and then it will be about 2 weeks for the granite to get measured, cut and installed.  The house should then be perfect!  I'll send a picture as I am very proud of our choices for the kitchen.

I am going to change the name of the blog to "The Hillbilly Chronicles", but you will be able to acess it the same way as always:  thecontinuing press.blogspot.com   Love to all!

A Beautiful Sunrise

It's been raining for a few days here and it looks like tomorrow will bring more, but today the sunrise was beautiful.  The actual event was much more dramatic than it looks in this picture, but, believe me, it was a rare and awesome sight.

The Movie, The House, Tired Teeth, and Grandchildren

OK. I started this blog several weeks ago. Since then I haven't managed to get the energy to finish it. Not sure why. But I'm going to finish it tonight, October 8, 2009, though the post will show whatever the date was that I started it.

First of all, I'd like to say to my daughter-in-law, Shanna, how much I love her. I love her for her sensitivity, for her attention to the emotional goings on in her household, and for her warmth and compassion. I am also homesick for her and Adam, and the girls. But they will be here soon and we will be there at Christmas. Now, on to the things at hand in the lives of the senior Riggsbees.


A couple of weeks ago I took a movie of my new house which I intended to upload onto this blog. However, owing to my less than proficient skill at movie making, I decided that I would do another one. It wasn't any good either, so I shall have to do yet another. And, with all good intentions I took myself to the mountains for a week where I thought I would have plenty of time to accomplish this daunting task. Owing to the state of construction, things were such a mess that I finally decided that it would be better to put off this little job until things were a little more orderly. Not sure that is going to happen, but I promise to do a movie when you can tell what the house is like. I'm sure you're waiting with bated breath! The week, however was wonderful and I was reminded once again why I love that place. Mama came up for the weekend and pronounced it "beautiful".

And speaking of houses. I am constantly amazed with the feedback we get from people who look at our Charlotte house. It is an older house (45 years), has been well maintained, but needs some updating. Still it has some amenities that are not normal for our area...two-car garage, bonus room, ample storage (inside and out), decks and patios for outdoor living. I understand some of the feedback, like "My clients didn't like the kitchen", "The place is too chopped up." (that's what you get with an older house), "I don't want to do the amount of updating required.", etc. But some of this stuff is anmazing..."I don't like the outside storage buildings.", "I loved the house, but the two big dogs on each side turned me off." (Like I can help that), "The house is too big.", "The house is too little.", "I'd like to have two bedrooms down.", blady, blady, blady. OK. The house is what it is. You should know what to expect when you look at an older house. It ain't the newest transitional house. Give it up! This has been our home for 30 years (almost). We have laughed and cried there. We have reared two children there. We have welcomed friends and family there. I has been HOME. Now, I know that it's not home to you, but give me a break...DOGS NEXT DOOR???

I have tired teeth. I think it is a common thing among those of my generation who generally grew up without fluoridated water, without the benefits of modern dentistry, and with all those silver fillings! I can't count the number of crowns I have in my mouth, all of which have been the result of broken teeth and absent fillings. Also, I've had my share of root canals. In the last three weeks I've had a retreatment on a root canal and have had to have another crown. Hopefully, that's the last one. The endodontist is about my age and he has the same stuff. Maybe it's a generational thing. Well, at least I don't have to have dentures!

Is there anything else in my mouth that can go wrong? Yes, indeed...I already have the beginnings of what I think will eventually turn into another root canal. I hate this!

Now for the good news. The house is almost done and we will be moved by the end of the month. I'm up here alone for a couple of days (Jim is having issues with, what else, a root canal treatment that went wrong) and will be back early next week when I can actually take up that awful red paper off the floors, clean them, move some more furniture in and actually live here! It won't be too long before I can do a movie, though Shanna tells me that it takes hours and hours to upload it. Maybe you'll just get pics.

This week, two of my grandchildren have birthdays. Jonathan will be 5 on Sunday, October 11, and Katie will be 9 on Wednesday, October 14. How time flies. Katie was my first born grandchild. I, my mother, and Jim's mother, Lessie, spent nearly a whole day along with Patti's mother and sister, awaiting the birth of this child. She was finally delivered by Caesarean section long after we had given up the ghost. She is a beautiful, sweet child and I love her very much. I can't wait for her to get up to the mountains. Jonathan was born about 6 weeks prior to his due date, but still weighed 5 pounds. Maybe he wasn't that early. He is ALL boy. I had a wonderful experience with him a couple weekends ago. JR and I went to his soccer game and he wanted to come home with us. We took him with us and when it came time to go to Reni's game, he didn't want to go. So...MiMi stayed with him. He rarely has much to do with me since he seems to like the "guys" better, but I guess that since I was all that was there, I'd do. He crawled up in my lap, snuggled up, asked for the cat (whom we had to find) and spent about an hour just talking to me and rubbing the cat. It was a wonderful thing for a grandmother to experience. There are so few times with your grandchildren, so each must be savored and remembered as the special ocassions that they are. May I say to all of my grandchildren...I love you more than you can possibly know. I want for each of you to have wonderful lives, and I want to be part of them as often as I can.

I am struggling with this move a little bit, since it is the cessation of a life that I have lived in Charlotte for 36 years. I doesn't feel wrong, it just feels funny.

First Time in 18 Months!

For the first time in 18 months JR and I were able to spend the night in our mountain house. For those of you who are not really familiar with the saga of this experience, suffice it to say that rennovations are everything people say they are! Don't ever do one! We had to move out of our cabin about 18 months ago, because we could no longer live in the conditions that the rennovation required. We have spent the time staying with our long-suffering friends, Curtis and Chris Long (no pun intended) since then. They have been most gracious and we have been very grateful for their hospitality. And, although we have tried to be "paying" guests by bringing food and other supplies when we came, and tried not to stay more than one or two nights at a time, it is still hard to have guests in your house as often as we were there. We will forever be in their debt and celebrate their friendship. But this weekend...we stayed at our own place! It was kind of like being newlyweds and setting up housekeeping! In fact, we liked it so much that even though we had planned to come home on Sunday night, we didn't. We got up early and came this morning instead.

Chris and Curt Long, good friends, good neighbors.

So let me tell you about this place:

It is the most gentle of all places...where the sun comes up over the moutains looking like an orange billiard ball, setting fire to the landscape; or, as the Hawaiians euphemistically say, we have a "silver sunrise". That means it's foggy, sometimes to the point that one can barely see beyond her nose.

It is a place where the quiet is loud. I read a little poem in a book my mother gave me one time that described it perfectly..."You could hear an ant fart, it was that quiet." None of the sounds of the city, just the sounds of life at an easier pace.

It is a place where wildlife abounds right outside the door. If you sit still, you can see all manner of nature...birds, squirrels, groundhogs, bears (yes, bears), panthers (that, too), bobcats, turkey, grouse, predator/scavenger fowl like buzzard, hawk, and owl. Wild flowers are everywhere, and fill vases with a profusion of color that is unmatched anywhere.

It is a place where the August sun feels good on the skin; where the summer breeze is, incredibly, almost constant; where nights require the use of a sweater or jacket, and a fire is a nightly ritual.

It is a place where the sunshine filters through the foliage, leaving a speckled footprint as if it is reluctant to intrude on the stillness.

It is a place where the winds can be high, the temperatures low, the snow blows into drifts that can be higher than your boots, and where the coziness of a warm fire makes one feel safe and secure.

It is soon going to be HOME!!!

And Then They Were Gone

As long as they were in Chapel Hill it was pretty easy to just believe that they would always be there. But...they left and now they are gone to Texas. Adam and Shanna came to Cashiers to see the house that is not quite finished. It was somewhat slippery keeping up with Avie who is quick as greased lightening! See, we have no railings on the porches (which are 20 or so feet above the ground), and all of us had to keep our eyes peeled for a curious 14 month old! When we were all a bundle of nerves, we headed to town for dinner. Avie is an eating machine and Gracie allowed her daddy to bribe her before she decided to eat anything. I did notice (as I was sitting beside her) that most of her food found its way to the floor, but the Tootsie Rolls were carefully guarded, so when her food disappeared her daddy let her have them. I played along, just Gracie and me in a conspiracy! After all, what are MiMis for?

We went for ice cream after dinner and, boy, was that a hoot! It's a great little place where you blend your own flavor. I had peach and amaretto. Delicious! Avie got it, though, and dumped it on the ground. She managed to do the same with her mother's cone. All in all, it was not a very successful venture.

Adam put Avie down in the parking lot at the ice cream shop. I squatted down (yes, I can do that now) and she ran into my open arms. That's the first time she had ever done that. I nearly blubbered right then and there.

Adam left the next day, and Shanna left on this past Monday after spending a week with her family in Asheville. She and her mother and the girls arrived in Austin on Tuesday night. I spoke with them during the trip. They had had a long day, but were holding up. We were glad for their safe arrival.

I miss them already, but we'll see them in October and then JR and I will go to Austin at Christmas. Adam, bless his heart, reminded me that it wasn't like it was in 1800, when a thousand miles meant that you probably would never see your child again. And, he likewsie reminded me, he wasn't going off to war. I am counting my blessings, but I still wish they were here.