New Roof

About a month ago we had a new roof installed.
We knew when we bought the house that the roof was
due to be replaced. We also wanted five different skylights added
as part of our upcoming kitchen remodel project.
It made sense to have the professionals install the
skylights as part of the roof job. I still need to build
the shafts through the attic but
the outside work is done.

Witt in Japan

As many of you know I went to Japan last summer for a month-long class on intercultural communication. There was some filming going on during the trip and Wittenberg finally released the finished film. It is only about 4 minutes long and features ME! I had no idea that my interview (out of about 7 other participants who were interviewed) would be so heavily featured. Needless to say I was tickled pink when I saw it.

Tokyo Field Study from Wittenberg University on Vimeo.

That being said this video is also bittersweet for me personally with the disaster going on in Japan right now. I am always afraid of seeing someone I know on the news, I can only half-watch it most days. Read the headlines to get the latest info and then click away. If you want news on the nuclear crisis without the media sensationalizing everything, try this forum. Good cut and dry information without attention-grabbing tactics. It's updated frequently too with a real-time translator of Japanese news. Western nations are "breaking stories" that are hours old.

ALSO If you want to help donate, I recommend the Red Cross. They don't do a big overhead fee like some other orgs.

Hiking to Abram's Falls

About a month ago we took advantage of being
in east Tennessee and took a hike in the Smoky's.
Our destination was Abram's Falls, about 2.5
miles off the Cades' Cove loop road. The day
was unseasonably warm and pleasant. Starting
out nice and flat the trail began climbing over a
hill. By the time we got to the falls we had climbed 3 good hills. The falls were nice and we had an excellent workout. A wonderful day it was.

Meet the Neighbors

We have some interesting neighbors. Don't know their names
but we see 'em around all the time. There is a family of
red shouldered hawks living nearby. Our property seems
to be in their territory. Now they're easy to spot since we still don't
have leaves on the trees yet, and they often "scree, scree..."
as they fly overhead. We had to look 'em up
in a bird book to figure out what kind of neighbors we had.

The New Cabinet

After we moved we decided our old electronics cabinet
just didn't fit our new space. It had been built tall and narrow
to fit the space next to the fireplace in our old house.
On a wide flat wall it just didn't look right.
This is the cabinet I built for the new house.
It's made with poplar we harvested from our former back yard.
It fits nicely in our new home.

Riding the Virginia Creeper

Third time's a charm, right? After two other attempts we finally
remembered our camera when we rode the Virginia Creeper Trail last November.
Above is a typical glimpse of the trail.

The trail winds up a ravine, crossing the same creek again and again.
In thirty two miles there are maybe thirty five bridges.

This was the first time we rode up from the bottom.
Most folks take a shuttle to the top for a leisurely ride downhill.
Starting in Damascus, VA however we rode the 17 miles uphill to White Top Mountain.
Including stops we were four hours going up.
We covered the same distance riding back down in just over an hour.
Above is Green Cove, a former train station near the top.

At the end of a terrific day we were treated to a terrific moonrise
over Damascus, a great way to end to the day.