rural retreat, VA
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| Pat & John with Breeze and Gunner, their border collies by one of their wonderful gardens |
Got to John and Pat’s about 6 pm Tuesday evening. Pat had said we were going to eat out at a Mexican restaurant as we had all driven miles that day—they from Chautauqua, NY, where they’d been for Pat’s sister’s hip replacement surgery and Pat’s cancer check-up, and I from Jackson, TN—but when I got there, Pat was in the kitchen cooking stuffed peppers, scalloped potatoes, etc. We sat down to a great meal after feeding the horses and seeing John’s new woodturning shop on the end of his new three-car garage. In the new shop, John was showing me his two new pet flying squirrels, Nutkin and Squirrely, and all of his new wood-turned bowls and tools when I felt nauseous and light headed. It was too hot, and this was all too sudden. Pat saw me stagger outside the shop so came out and rescued me.
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| John's new three-car garage with his woodworking shop on the end |
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| Flying squirrels are soft and darling animals; John has built a large enclosure for Squirrely and Nutkin, who were orphaned when their tree blew down |
We sat around and had a few beers and then had dinner and did up the dishes before going to bed at 8:30 or 9.
On Wednesday morning early, Pat and I took a walk—maybe a mile or so in the sifting rain and then returned to the farmhouse for a hearty breakfast of sausage and eggs and sweet buns.
Then John and I rode the Ranger to the large pond. John fed the trout which roiled the water mightily and then John fished for a bit. Rusty, a 20-something, next-farm-over neighbor showed up, and the two talked “good old boy Virginian” for a bit. Rusty ties flies and John caught two catfish on Rusty’s wooly bugger. It had rained, so the pond was stirred up and muddy from the runoff. John said that he thought this was why the trout were not biting. We returned the cats to the pond, and then threw some corn in several places for the deer and pulled four turnips out of a deer garden John had planted near an apple tree. We saw a four-point buck along the drive, quite near one of John’s tree stands on the way up to another deer feeding area near another of John’s tree stands. John has a camera on this feeding area and he took the card out to see what activity there had been in the two weeks he and Pat had been in NY.
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| John and his Ranger |
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| John at his hillside tree stand |
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| Pat's new dog Nellie |
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| The ever alert Breeeze |
On the way back to the house we met Pat on Cloud. She is getting the horse conditioned for a long ride. At the house we looked at the camera card John had retrieved. Captured on camera was an 8-point and a 7-point buck as well as a 6– and two 4-pointers. There were also several “prongs,” and several does and fawns.
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| Pat riding Cloud |
I set up my computer and began working on the Payne County Audubon Society Annual Report, a task, as President, I have put off doing. It comes due every August.
That evening we had a sampling of beers and watched the birds and wildlife from the porch and then ate a great meal of venison, scalloped potatoes, garden veggies, and cuke salad. For dessert we had cheesecake with strawberry topping. The pounds are fast finding me.
John and Pat convinced me to stay over Thursday, so I called Florence to check with her and she said a Friday arrival was fine.
Thursday morning we had another hearty breakfast. Then while I completed the PCAS Annual Report on the computer, John mowed the lawns and Pat engaged her ferrier to re-shoe one of her horses. I walked down to the barn to see this operation just as the guy was putting on the left front and back shoes. He did not heat the horseshoes but pounded them into submission. Turned out that he had gone to horseshoe school in Oklahoma. Rusty and another neighbor came over and John stopped mowing and drove down to the barn in the Ranger with them. One of the guys wanted permission to erect a boundary fence and to have P & J share the cost.
John showed Rusty the deer pix. When Rusty left, we drove to Wytheville to get A Christmas Story, which I wanted them to see as they had never seen it, to get John’s new eyeglass frames, to get bird and deer food, to do a tad of grocery shopping, and go to the P.O.
Home from Wytheville, John and I picked up apples from the side yard tree and then took the Ranger to again throw corn and apples and to replace the camera card. Pat exercised her horse for a bit. Both went to the nearby farm and got the Next bikes that their neighbor was giving them. I looked over the bikes and gave them what advice I could. I would have junked them and bought new good ones. (They did and bought Treks.)
While Pat started putting together supper, John and I drove the Ranger to the big pond to fish for dinner. John caught two large trout. The bike neighbors, Lori and her new friend, Steve, came over to say hello. We ate trout, the turnips (mellowed with eggs), garden greens, remaining cuke salad, and a cranberry bread for dessert. Watched A Christmas Story, had coffee and cheesecake, and went to bed.
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| The view from the field near the upper wood |
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| The first of two nice trout that John caught |
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| John and I celebrating after feeding the deer and catching our soon to be trout dinner |
