Nothing in the past or future ever will feel like today

**Hi guys, it's Charlotte.  Song lyric brought to you by Bright Eyes - Another Travelin' Song from the album I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.  Listening to this album a lot lately.  I listened to it for the first time back in high school and I think I fall in love with it more every time I hear it.  I'm writing from a coffee shop in Nashville, Tennesee at the moment, enjoy <3**

Day 83 (Monday, November 21^st)

We helped Rollie, cut (with our new chainsaw skills) and lug some tree branches in the morning. There was a big patch of land full of branches and by the end we had it pretty much clear.  At around noon Virginia came by to say we could all come for lunch since her daughter had leftover chicken enchiladas which were freaking amazing.

I'm supervising

Now I'm cutting some trees with my sweet chainsaw skills

Filled up the trunk

One of our branch piles

Area cleared, time for lunch

We then went down to the garden after eating and finished putting in the rest of the shed posts and adding concrete so they could set overnight.

  

Posts set - nice picture, Karol

When work was done we got ready to go meet Henry, from chicken killing, for dinner. He had told us about a good seafood place nearby, but we weren't in the mood so he was luckily fine with going to a brewery. We should have listened to him. First we went back to Wild Wolf, where we had gone Saturday with Valerie and Tyler.  Karol and Henry had some pretty terrible drinks to start off, which was followed by a mediocre pretzel appetizer and when Henry's second drink was also really bad, we decided to try another place. We drove the short distance to Devil's Backbone, and got a table. Henry wanted a steak, which wasn't on the menu (no steak?! that's some crazy talk). But all the food was at least very good, as were the drinks. The only bad thing was our caramel vanilla pudding for dessert. It was truly awful. But our super nice waitress at least didn't charge us. Anyway, Henry is awesome and we laughed basically the whole evening. We're excited to have made a friend in Virginia. We came back to la casa and I think I tried reading but was too tired while Karol worked a little on the blog.

   

Looks like caramel and vanilla deliciousness, right? So wrong

Bathroom photo

Day 84 (Tuesday, November 22^nd)

It was really cold in the morning so we helped VA with some cleaning up (washing some holiday dishes that were tucked away) and polishing silver for when we have Thanksgiving with the community.

The freshly polished silverware 

Dobby drawing up at the community center

When it warmed up (barely) we went down to the garden to start putting up boards to hang tools in the shed. We had lunch and then went and did a few more prep things at the community center before returning to the shed and adding more boards . It's looking pretty snazzy. She showed us how to plant garlic so we could finish putting it all in the following day.

   

Our handiwork

A lovely plant VA has in la casa

Karol and I went to the coffee shop, Trager Bros, after we were finished working. I read while Karol did more blog stuff. Virginia made a delicious smoked turkey for dinner with stuffing and cranberry sauce and we hung out the rest of the night.

Latte & Hot Chocolate yumminess

A huge spider Karol killed

Day 85 (Wednesday, November 23^rd)

In the morning we made some deviled eggs, a tradition of Virginia's late mother. They turned out very well and after that we worked on trying to see if this three burner propane stove worked so we could use it for Stone Soup. We had to go to the hardware store twice for parts, only to find out it didn't work anyway. Luckily someone found something else to use. We also planted some garlic and covered it with hay for the winter.

  

Deviled eggies

The propane stove we couldn't get working

A nice shot down by the garden of smoke from thousands of acres of forest fire in and near Nelson county

Planting garlic

Virginia gave us the afternoon off since Karol had to finish his forge and we wanted to start packing and doing laundry and all that fun stuff.   

The plaster, sand, perlite, and water mixed and ready to pour

Done, and fuck it, Karol says

Me wrestling with Wally

I think these are Karol's finished knives! (Gave the top one to Virginia as a gift =k) 

Molly boo boo

Day 86 (Thursday, November 24^th)

Karol's forge with part of the center taken out

I had a rough time today.  I really hate holidays since my grandma died and I struggled to keep it together.  I cried a few times but eventually sucked it up and got on as best as I could with the day.  We did some cleaning and made challah dough in the morning before we went to Stone Soup.  This is a tradition at Shannon Farm where everyone brings veggies to throw into a community soup pot. They meet up on a hill that has a great view, where we joined hands and said what we were thankful for before enjoying the soup.

We stopped to pick ferns before Stone Soup to put with flower arrangements later at dinner

View from Thanksgiving Hill

Soup cookin'

The gathering

We helped set up a little more at the community center and went home to finish the challah and pack up the car a little bit since we were leaving in the morning.

Our dinner table

Chall-e-lu-jah

One benefit of a community Thanksgiving is THE RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF FOOD.  Holy shit there were so many yummy dishes.  We had some wine and ate a lot and then brought stuff back to the house.  On Monday, Henry said if we had time on Thanksgiving we could come hang out.  Since it was only 7:30 when we got back to the house after dinner, we drove over and hung out until pretty late, I think like 1 or 1:30.  Just like at dinner Monday, I think we laughed the entire time.  He was super sweet and sharpened Karol's knife and cleaned and bandaged Karol's finger really well.  It was really nice end to Thanksgiving, especially considering how terrible I felt in the morning.  So if you're reading, thanks Henry.

I meant to take a picture of this but forgot, luckily Karol thought it was picture worthy also

Paging Dr. Henry please help

Day 87 (Friday, November 25^th)

We had some packing up of the car to finish and I helped Virginia clean up at the community center while Karol put the last of our stuff in the boat. 

The finished forge! (Except I have to cut a hole out of the bottom cause there's no plaster there =k)

Molly hopped in the car....not gonna lie, thought about just letting her stay 

Off we go

We stopped at King's for some more popcorn for the road, and then went to Shenandoah to camp for a night.  We got a back country permit and got our packs ready to hike.  We took the Frazier trail that connected to the Appalachian Trail and then we took it north until we hit a stream.

Shenandoah National Park

Where we parked our car before hiking, Loft Mountain Wayside

Snacking before our trek

A nice view on the trail (I peed off this rock, it was glorious =k)

We filtered some water from the stream

Karol's spidey senses found this great spot, far enough off the trail but not too far as to potentially get lost

Day 88 (Saturday, November 26^th)

It was really cold when we were packing up camp so we hurried and hiked back to the Wayside where we parked.  We were low on water so I started cooking some soup for breakfast (we have a lot of soup to eat) while Karol went back to a spring that wasn't far back to fill our water bottles.  We ate and got far enough out of the park for cell service so we could decide what our plan was.  We decided to go to a Walmart in Lexington, Kentucky to sleep, and then the next day we'd be closer to Mammoth National Park where we'd spend the day.  

On the drive to Kentucky

We stopped at a rest stop for dinner and to clean up a little

Pasta for dinner

Another Walmart parking lot

Day 89 (Sunday, November 27^th)

I was an idiot and didn't use my sleeping bag and was really cold all night -  here are some faces

Mammoth Cave National Park entrance

I'm Stryder

We cooked (and burned thanks to me =k) some oatmeal for breakfast when we arrived in the picnic area.  We also hiked some short trails around the visitor center since we had time to kill before our cave tour at 2pm.

Hungry before our tour so this is us POWERING UP

Waiting for the bus to take us to the cave entrance

That door is the entrance

The cave was really cool, and the ranger turned off the lights to show just how pitch black and silent it was.  Here are some pictures!

This is some problematic algae that grows on part of the ceiling in the cave

After the tour we cooked steaks (thanks Virginia!) and yams (thanks Henry!) in the picnic area at Mammoth Cave.  It was dark by the time we finished up.

Steak and yam dinner

Nice fire shot

We found a free campsite with good reviews on the site we've been using about 40 minutes away so we went there.  It was a little creepy getting there at night, but there was nobody there and it was a really nice set up.  I actually slept really really well.  

Our sleep spot for the night  

It feels good to be on the road for a little before our next WWOOF spot in Georgia. I love camping and driving and hiking and seeing new places.  I am back in my element, feeling free again. I am learning a lot from WWOOFing, but nothing beats the open road.