Come On Up To The House

*Charlotte is typing this one with input from Karol, enjoy!*

Day 28 (Tuesday, September 27^th)

Our first morning on the mountain was lovely.  I did some yoga and we had fresh eggs from the chickens that Marcia and Richard have here.  Fresh eggs are incredible, and it's really cool going out to the coup to pick some up yourself.  I started reading The Artist's Way until Marcia came up and told us about some weeding we could do.

Not a bad view, 4000 ft elevation

One of the terraces we weeded

Our supervisor, Deke

After weeding, we went to check out their party bus.  They bought it last year and went to Florida for the winter.  They received the new toilet they were going to install since the one inside was broken (along with many other issues they've had to take care of since the purchase), but the new one came more broken.

Side view of the party bus! 

We loaded up the toilet that had to be returned eventually, and went to The Upper Inn in Durbin for dinner.  We had some pretty good burgers and sidewinder fries.  Karol thought the lady said it was a combination of curly and SNAKE fries and was really excited to try them (cause what the hell are snake fries? Chopped up and deep fried snake? Snake skin? Potatoes wrapped in snake skin? Some other combination thereof? Either way, I definitely wanted to find out what the fuck curly snake fries were. -karol).  He was slightly disappointed when it was actually a combination curly and STEAK fry.

Silly sign in the men's bathroom.

Right across from The Upper Inn is the train station, home of the Durbin Rocket.

I am Charlotte, hear me roar.

Gorgeous shot of the train and station.

  

We went back to the retreat, bellies and bladders full.  We hung out on the balcony for a little, where they have Christmas lights strung year round.  It's a beautiful place to sit even after dark.  We had to grab something from the car and as we were heading back inside we looked up and saw how incredibly clear the stars were (I even went back to the car to get out my glasses cause why am i gonna deny myself good experiences - then there were three times as many stars and I was really happy -k).  We stood entranced for like five minutes and then went inside to sit around a little before going to bed.

Day 29 (Wednesday, September 28^th)

Karol decided to keep only a mustache (it looks like a glued on mustache, how weird -k)

Just kidding he shaved it all (I couldn't help but put these ridiculous pictures up, I'm laughing right now)

We tidied up a little bit because someone was coming to talk to the Laskas regarding their many many acres of land (they are exploring options for passing the land on to people who will take good care of it).  When we heard about this guy coming, we were surprised that we immediately got protective of them and the land.  This place is stunningly beautiful and we hope it stays well maintained and cared for.  They brought up lunch (one of the items being bear-b-que, yes, bear meat!) and we all sat and chit-chatted while enjoying the spread.  After lunch Karol and I went to finish up weeding and put down straw as weed control for the winter (I'm so fucking allergic to straw, which I totally forgot. I was in allergy hell for a while even after Richard suggested I wear a face mask (it was too late for that to help) and then in the evening it got so bad that I felt like I had the flu. Holy shit, allergies are worse than depression. I started taking freeze dried stinging nettle in pill form semi-regularly (when I remember, between meals) and that maybe helps but that night I also just took Allegra-D and within two hours I was almost back to normal -k).

One shot of the finished product, upper terrace.

Second shot, lower terrace.

We had Olive Garden leftovers from when we visited Jason, which was excellent because we were exhausted.  We threw them in the microwave and watched Rich and Morty and then Gangster Squad (I really like this movie, I had seen it before and wanted Karol to see - he liked it hooray).  

Day 30 (Thursday, September 29^th)

We made some bread dough to have on hand and then Karol threw together some meatballs for lunch since we had taken out ground beef and needed to use it.  We were going to town with Marcia later and were going to bring home some Venezuelan food so we weren't going to be making dinner.

Said scrumptious meatballs.

I put on The Mars Volta while we cooked and it was pretty wonderful.  Hadn't listened to them in a long time.  We picked some fresh sage for the pasta and it was freakin' delicious.  We hung out a little until Marcia came to pick us up.  Her house is down below is a little bit, not too far.  Sometimes we will walk down there if we are going for a drive with them, other times they swing up here.  First we had to drop off the broken toilet to get sent back.  Next was Walmart, the best option for groceries in the city of Elkins (the biggest city nearby), and lastly was El Gran Sabor, the Venezuelan restaurant.

This is the exact parrot I had as a kid! It said some shit when you pressed a button. -k

We sat and had chicken quesadillas as an appetizer because the waitress/hostess couldn't process the fact that we wanted food to go.  She was pretty bad.  It seemed as though she had anxiety, and her way of dealing with the anxiety was being kind of rude - it was an awkward experience but luckily we were able to laugh about it.  The quesadillas were really good at least.  We took the rest of the food back to the mountain.  I had an arepa and an empanada with rice and beans on the side and Karol had blackened tilapia tacos with sides rice and yucca (this was a little undercooked and not well prepared-k).  It was overall very good, and to make it even better it started thunderstorming.  I love thunderstorms and it's an even more beautiful experience at this elevation.  We unwound and enjoyed the rain before going to bed.

Day 31 (Friday, September 30^th)

It was still raining when we woke up.  It would be pouring and then slow to a drizzle and pour again and then stop altogether.  It was pretty crazy.  Karol went to shadow the handyman that works here regularly and toured the areas where there was plumbing and electrical wiring.  Most of his time was spent hanging in the part of the workshop where all of the batteries are where the wiring comes in from the two wind turbines and from the solar arrays (two pole arrays and two rows of roof mounted panels).

So many batteries (or as Elon Musk would say, batt'ries)

I was reading about Physics and some of my novel and e-mailed my awesome sister who I miss like crazy.  When Karol was done we made cookies and a loaf of bread.

Karol made the peanut butter cookies on the left, I did chocolate chip on the right

FRESH BREAD SO GOOD

We just ate the bread for dinner with olive oil, mozzarella, and tomatoes.  It was simple and delicious.

Karol had some wine in this cup HE MADE that he gave to the Laskas when he WWOOFed here- it's fucking beautiful

I don't know what else we did until bed time.  


  

Day 32 (Saturday, October 1^st)

We slept a little later than usual and had some eggs and toast for breakfast.  The trunk of our car somehow got wet during the storm and Karol was really mad about it and threw something (cause our emergency car bag was soaked! That shit is all important, the air compressor got wet and I worried that stuff was ruined in there which would be terrible if/when we really needed it -k) and then I yelled and things got awkward for a little but we got over it - it's just funny now hahahahaha.  We hung out until around 3 when we started making dinner.  We were making homemade chips (with coconut oil this time, unlike the lard and grapeseed oil in Maine) and burgers with caramelized onions. I started the onions and chips while Karol put together his delicious patties.  I threw together a honey mustard (I guess I really like honey mustard) and then we enjoyed our feast.

Potatoes soaking.

Onions caramelizing.

Chips and sticks.

FEAST

Charlotte talks to chickens.

During the day we had to periodically walk around and make sure hawks didn't come by to steal a chicken.  They lost one before to a hawk.  We had to make sure the chickens were back in at night (there is a makeshift gate in the fencing that we had to close up).

Day 33 (Sunday, October 2^nd)

We woke up late again (it's Sunday yo -k) and watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower while Karol tried to install The Witcher 3 on his laptop.  Another movie I've seen before that Karol had not.  I love this movie, and Karol enjoyed it too.  We were going to dinner at a neighbor's hunting cabin so we made a loaf of bread to take with.

Look at this gorgeous loaf!

It was a lot of fun there and the bread was a hit.  They made applewood-smoked chicken and pork over an open fire and holy shit it was yummy.  These 5 guys were retired government employees (we can't say any more or we'd have to kill you) and we heard some great stories about hilarious practical jokes they played.


Before we left I took my evening picture (I have been taking a daily photo in the evening, and Karol has been taking them in the morning).  We are planning on making moving GIFs of the daily photos we took.

Yeah.