The last week or so has been relatively quiet, not too much going on. Jay is back on furlough and he’s heading to Georgia this evening to hunt for a week or so. Jay’s parent’s were in town last week so we got to spend a few days with them.
Mt LeConte with a light dusting of snow
Halloween came and went, and we had no trick-or-treaters! We didn’t expect to get any, but that was a little disappointing.
Our pumpkins
Jay and I went to buy more firewood not long ago, and I was surprised by how much we went through!
The first truck load
All stacked on the porch
I thought that much wood would last us a month or so, but we’ve already gone halfway through it!
And, this is how we found Raine the other evening…
She "stuffed" herself into the cat bed!
We have this little bed for the cat, and apparently Raine decided to take it over! It was pretty humorous to find her like that! So we brought her bed down from upstairs so she could share space with Smokie.
Everyone happy in their own beds!
Yesterday, Jay and I went on a hike in the park. He forgot to get a trail camera that had been put out to observe pig activity. The camera wasn’t put on a trail, we had to hike “off trail” to get to it, and it was close to a waterfall. This was a no-name waterfall on the Mannis branch of the Little River.
The first stage in retrieving this camera was to cross the Little River. Easier said than done!
The Little River
The base of the waterfall
The river is really cold this time of year, so we wore our duck hunting chest waders to get across. The waders kept us dry and warm, but that was about it. Because they are so insulated to stay warm, they are incredibly heavy, especially the boots. And when we bought them, they didn’t make waders for women. Naturally, mine are too big and very bulky, making it harder to move in them. And, to top it all off, the boot bottoms are cleat-like, and the river bottom is all cobble, stone and rock. That makes a great equation for slick footing!
After several scares of nearly falling in (the river was moving fast), and Jay discovering his waders had a leak, we made it to the other side and slowly moved to the waterfall.
The waterfall
Me in front of the waterfall
Then we hiked to the top of the waterfall for more pictures…
The top of the waterfall
Looking down from the top of the waterfall
Side view
We hiked to an open spot in the woods where the trail camera was set, but there were no pictures of pigs. Just one of a coyote.
An old chimney
We hiked up farther along the Mannis branch above the waterfall and ran into some of the fisheries employees of the park. They were doing brook trout research.
Other than that, not much is going on!
