The Mothman needs a bath

We passed through Point Pleasant, WV on our way to our Christmas vacation last week and, in the quest for a restroom/gas station outhouse/nice tree, we happened upon the Mothman statue in the middle of town.

The Mothman lives! The Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, WV!

Legend of the Mothman

Legend of the Mothman

The Mothman is a fantastic bit of WV lore and is celebrated by a large festival and many paranormal activities each year.    As soon as I spotted the statue, I knew what had to be done.  Well, after that, I knew we had to come back and see the Mothman statue a little closer.  Remember, pit stops come before the Mothman, every time!  That is a rule of the road, my friends and is non-negotiable, even in the presence of the Mothman.

Licking the Mothman!

I licked the Mothman!

So, anyone who has been reading of our adventures knows that when we find a big metal object, maybe like a bell, we have a tradition…of licking said object.  Although the Mothman is a near religious icon in WV, we decided to press on with our tradition and give the Mothman a good old lick.  Yeah, he needs a bath.

So friends, if you ever pass through Point Pleasant looking for a rest facility, there isn’t one.  But if you can possibly make it, stop by and give my old pal the Mothman a good lick.  He’s had a bath…you’re welcome!

6 Comments

warren, January 6th 2012 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Awesome, Fun, WV

Country Neighbors

I grew up in the country and it was just a natural thing then I guess.  People always waved to each other and talked as you passed and left extra zucchini on your porch and helped out when you needed it.  It’s been 20+ years since I lived in the country though and my city life has sort of become ingrained.  We moved to Nashville and it was a huge culture shock to me…from a town of 600 or so people to a town of a million and a half.  I remember as we drove in to Nashville on one of our first visits, there was a guy in a car ramming another guy in a car going full speed down the interstate among how-ever-many lanes of traffic there were then.  It wasn’t a wreck…yet.  They were road-raging and ramming each other.  I knew this wasn’t quite like where I grew up.

Ridge board to support rafters Ridge board to support rafters

The ridge board that supports the rafters at the top end

So, I became a city boy and all that friendly stuff had to be put on the back burner.  It’s not that people in a city aren’t friendly once you get to know them… it’s just that you have to find a way to get to know them first and sometimes even neighbors aren’t interested in getting to know one another.

Getting ready to raise rafters on our small cabin

So, fast forward a bit.  The folks from whom we bought the property still live on the land they retained the next hillside over.  Larry, Granny Sue’s husband, delivered some scaffolding he had over at his place a few weeks back.  He showed us how to set it up and use it and has let us keep it up there as long as we need it.  And then last weekend as we were working on setting up our rafters.  One of the boys (they are grown men but we call the brothers that live near us, “the boys” and I think they would be ok with that) came by on his 4-wheeler to ask if he could hunt on our property.  I told him that any of the boys and their family could hunt but I didn’t want anyone else who didn’t live up there hunting.  I would have never known whether they hunted or not during the week but I am really glad he asked.

A bunch of rafters in place on our small cabin Securing the rafters in place for our small cabin

Anyhow, we agreed that he could hunt so I figured he would go on to do other things with his day.  Instead, to our surprise, he asked if we needed help.  I was thrilled because Emily and I were trying to maneuver 16 foot long 2×8 boards around by ourselves on the second story of the deluxe shed.  It was going to end up with a bout of intense negotiation.  So, our friend climbed up and we started to work.  We worked an hour or so before we had to head home.

Half of the rafters done in our small cabin

That’s about half of the rafters done!

Now that’s one thing, helping a guy for an hour, but the next day we got up there and my friend came over and brought his brother with him!  We worked together all day long and got half of the faters in place and secured!  They were a huge help and I was delighted to get to know them a little better.  We had met on other occasions, but we hadn’t really talked or goofed around before.  Aside from their tremendous help, I absolutely loved the sense of community and belonging that we have felt up on the ridge.   The neighbors across the way (she’s a sister to the brothers) came to visit the first day we showed up.  Our kids have played with their kids every time we are up there.  They invited us to a potluck dinner one night where we talked about all sorts of things and may have solved the world’s problems.  The brothers who helped with the rafters along with Larry and Granny Sue have been so kind and helpful as we work on the new place.  With the utmost respect I say that I am so glad to have country neighbors!

 

See all of the progress on the cabin

 

3 Comments

warren, November 23rd 2011 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Awesome, Cabin, Family, Land, Thoughts, WV

Healthy Coke

So when I am feeling all romantic and stuff, I take Emily to the Club to eat…Sam’s Club that is.  You see, I can buy 2 gigantic slices of pizza and two gallons of drink for something like $2.79.  We usually take an after dinner stroll around the…rice and beans aisle and just generally check things out.  Some stuff we just pick up regardless of whether we need it.  Stuff like brown sugar, canned peaches and tube socks.  Can you ever have too many tube socks?  No, I think not.  I just love the smell of brown sugar too.  If they made brown sugar cologne, I would wear it and I don’t do cologne.

Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke

Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke

Anyhow, I have a few vices, mostly centering around sugar and sweet stuff.  I like pop and sugary candy in a bad way.  I guess I only drink 1 pop per day but I would live on it if I thought I could.  Corn syrup sucks, I know.  It’s in everything though.  Heck, it’s even in new car tires.  So, when we wander around in the Club, sometimes we ponder life and the future and stuff and I lament the tragedy that is corn syrup and how it is shortening my life.  As we toured around one time, we noticed bottles of Coke…glass bottles.  It caught my attention because I fondly remember walking after school to my Mom’s office in the court house in my hometown.

Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke

They had an ancient pop machine on the first floor that sold $.25 pop in returnable bottles and I loved drinking straight from the bottle.  So, I checked out the Cokes in the Club…and then I saw the price…24 bottles for $19!  Back in the courthouse, I could get those same bottles, already refrigerated for $6!   Emily was quick to remind me that my pop machine memory was from 30 years ago.  I guess inflation happens.  Still, it seemed silly until I considered the price I pay for corn-syrup filled pops at the gas station in the morning.  The bottles of Coke at the Club are the famous Mexican Cokes made with pure sugar – healthy Cokes, right?

Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke

Mexican Coke - aka Healthy Coke

We scooped up a case of the Healthy Cokes  and Isaac and I have been having one a day for…well, the last 11 days.  Yes, dear friends, there are only 2 left.  It looks like it’s about time to take my lady back on another date to the Club.  Only the finest for my woman!

 

By the way, sorry about all of the pictures…I was feeling so healthy that I just got a little carried away with the camera apps on my phone…

5 Comments

warren, November 15th 2011 | Tags: ,
Posted in Awesome, Fun

Good clamps are hard to find

We’ve been busy.  My company is getting ready to move so I have been pretty involved in that process.  Hopefully that will be done at the end of this week, though it ain’t over ’til it’s over.  Both kids also have strep throat so that’s been fun too.  I am at home with Abigail today, in fact.  She still has a fever and looks pitiful.  Anyhow, I didn’t get a chance to show our progress on the cabin from two weekends ago so I will post about that today.  Hopefully I can post pics from this weekend’s progress later this week.

We had great help…both Emily’s grandfather and her uncle came by to help on Saturday.  My brother tells a funny story about working on stuff with our Dad when we were kids.  He claims my Dad said, “I don’t know if you’ll ever amount to anything son, but at least you will make a good clamp.”  Both of my helpers were much better than clamps though that is all they would likely claim to have performed as during our work.

 

We fixed up some mistakes we made the previous week when we were framing the walls on the platform.  Once those were fixed, we got more walls set up and we installed some of the OSB on the walls.  Without our helpers, Emily and I could never have lifted and held the OSB on the high points of the “deluxe shed”.  The ladder was steep and the clay was slippery so someone had to hold the ladder while I screwed the sheets to the framing.

Lunch!

 

Uncle B. claimed that he was not handy but he seemed to be pretty good at hitting a nail and reading a tape measure.  I think he is holding out on Aunt P.  So, working all together, we made great progress.

Emily and I returned Sunday to see how far we could get.  Actually, we built a few more walls and were able to set them up ourselves.

 

Emily makes a great mule.  I think she has a similar term for me…

We got quite a bit done and we didn’t even brawl too much!  Like so many things, now that we are so far along, we are finally getting the hang of this whole thing.  Emily was a little hard on some of the tools though.  I am not exactly sure how I feel about the look on her face with the skeletons of my former glorious tools.

Anyhow, we went back out again last weekend so stay tuned for more pics of the progress we made.

See all of the progress on the cabin

5 Comments

warren, November 1st 2011 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Awesome, Cabin, Family, Land

Our car…the worm edition

So a few days ago, I told you all about the fun we had with crows on our honeymoon.  You may recall that my brother and a friend had put a bunch of birdseed into our suitcases as well as in the car.  By “in the car” I mean inside the car…literally.  There was birdseed in the dashboard, in the heater vents, down in the seats, floorboards, and even more in the dashboard.  Well, you get the point.  Anytime we drove around and hit a bump, even months later, birdseed would fall through the dash and onto the floor.

The start of the birdseed saga!

Jump ahead to our move to Kentucky for graduate school.  We were in marital bliss.  I suppose we didn’t see the world around us very clearly as we missed some obvious things…you’ll see in a second.  So, we were poor and all that but it was cool being married.  Emily seems to remember a rough few years as she attempted to train and civilize me.  Once she gave up, things got much better.  Anyhow, part-way through school, we moved to an apartment above a funeral home (more on that in another post!).

We noticed some wormy things in the backseat one day while unpacking groceries or something at the funeral home.  I didn’t think much of it.  I squished them and went on with my business.  Days later, we noticed them again…and again and again.  It started to get serious pretty quickly.

The car...already doomed!

I got a wild hair and decided to remove the back set of the car to see what was going on.  Why oh why didn’t I just remain ignorant?!  The entire back seat was infested with meal worms!  I don’t just mean there were a few crawling around.  Oh no, the foam in the seat was full.  The carpet in the floor was infested.  It was a regular larval zoo in our car!

I often deal with things like that with extreme overkill.  We had a Chevy Celebrity which, incidentally, was the best car ever made!  I loved that car!  Emily and I sanded the thing down in the weeks before our wedding so we could get it painted.  We wanted to make a flashy exit from the wedding ceremony.  Anyhow, back to overkill.  A Chevy Celebrity has maybe 30 sq ft of cabin space.  An insect bomb for a 2000 sq ft house seemed about right.  Makes sense, right?  If some is good, more is better!

On two separate occasions, I set off house-sized insect bombs in our little car.  The worms remained.  It’s a wonder we remained!  I am certain that a concentration of insecticide like that was not all that good for us.  After losing on the second bomb, I just re-installed the back seat and we looked no more.

How did we finally deal with the issue, you may ask?  Well, we traded that car in for a Chevy Prizm, the second best car ever made!  It was new and worm-free!  I blame those worms on the birdseed.  I have no doubt that the seed had meal worms in it.  They lived a good life for a couple of years on all of the birdseed in the car.  That wedding birdseed was the gift that kept on giving!

7 Comments

warren, July 21st 2011 | Tags: ,
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Family, Fun, Nature

Coopers Rock

A few weekends ago, we went on a little getaway vacation to Coopers Rock State Park in Bruceton Mills, WV.  I was mainly excited for the cabin in which we were staying and the hot tub it advertised on the back deck.  Never did I imagine how cool the park would be.  More about that later.

So, we got to the cabin after navigating the Grand Canyon road back to the place.  The cabin itself was nice and did in fact have a hot tub.  The kids jumped right in as Emily and I unpacked and prepared for supper.  I am not sure why, but the power went out and we were without water or AC.  When you are not prepared, both are pretty important.  Anyhow, several hours later, it came back on and all was well…even the well.  We could shower and do dishes, etc.

On Saturday morning, we gorged on cheap powdered sugar donuts and Doritos then headed to Coopers Rock (it seems like there should be an apostrophe in there but there isn’t).  Little did we know, but there was a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the park.  The place was teeming with things to do as all sorts of groups offered nature talks, projects,  and hikes.

The kids built cool birdhouses and painted rocks.  We played on the play ground (where I tried my best to dislocate my shoulder).  We saw rescued birds of prey from the West Virginia Raptor Rescue Center and even got to touch a red tailed hawk who was very friendly.  It turns out, she was essentially raised in captivity so was not bothered by people.  The other rescued hawk and owl were not so friendly.  Still, they were awesome!

I think the best part of the park though, was walking the trails under the rocks.  We explored some and saw great rock formations.  The kids and I walked into a cave/tunnel and went all “Dora the Explorer”.  Abigail fell in the dirt and got muddy.  It was perfect and cool and a great time to be together as a family.

If you ever pass through the northern part of WV, stop in at Coopers Rock.  Its views are breathtaking and there is all sorts of fun to be had there.  It turns out that the hot tub was very popular, but it paled in comparison (for me at least) to the beauty of our state, just as it is!

7 Comments

warren, June 22nd 2011 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Family, Fun, Nature, WV

Milkshake mania!

My company recently bought a restaurant in South Charleston, WV which will soon be converted into office space.  As a part of the process, all of the restaurant equipment has to be sold so remodeling can begin.  This was a fairly large, well known, established restaurant so there is a ton of stuff in the building.  Lots of restaurant folks have been through the place buying things they need but I was very fortunate to be among the first round of people to get a shot at a few things.  Let me introduce to you my new best friend…

That’s right…in my kitchen, as we speak, I have an industrial strength, commercial grade milkshake making beast!  This, my friends, is the Hamilton Beach 94900 which is capable of bringing frozen goodness and delight to men, women and children alike!  The price was right and karma was with us so we scored a gem!

But before you get too jealous, let me take you back to its beginnings.  Mainly, it was gross.  The sanitary status of the machine was questionable.  In fact, there was still a chocolate chip and gooey icecream on the impeller when I received “the Beast”.  After much Mean Green and elbow grease, the milkshake machine was made whole again.

So, we have made several milkshakes with this thing and it is so much nicer to use than a blender.  It’s  faster to set up, faster to clean, faster to produce a milkshake and it makes smoother milkshakes hands down.  I love the new milkshake machine and I think it is a hit with the family too!

7 Comments

warren, May 18th 2011 | Tags: ,
Posted in Awesome, Fun

Santana

I was in Las Vegas all week last week for a conference related to work.  It’s funny – I work in technology and the conference was related to technology.  The only thing was, there was no technology available at the conference so I was stuck with email and internet via phone.  So, anyhow, I am back and am somewhat comforted by the sweet hum of my computers.

I won’t bore you folks with conference details.  Instead I will share my favorite part of the conference…Carlos Santana was in concert at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.  We got to see him opening night which was pretty cool.  Even cooler was the fact that we were something like 15 rows back and at center stage.  We could actually see the band and stuff.

I like Santana’s music and I especially like some of his most recent stuff.  Of course, he has been releasing great music for 40 years and it’s hard to say anything bad about most of his music.  We got to enjoy a tour through his years as a performer and it was a blast.

(click the image above for a video.  If that link doesn’t work on your machine, try the one here)

He’s a free spirit and kind of fun to listen to when he talks.  I can’t really explain it but he feels very “spiritual” in his own way.  He also has marijuana leaves as one of his backgrounds on stage.  Surprisingly, I didn’t smell a single bit of smoke.

for B.H.

 

The view from my room

So, I am glad to be back from Las Vegas and if you ever get a chance, definitely go and see Santana in concert!

4 Comments

warren, April 26th 2011 | Tags: ,
Posted in Audio, Awesome, Fun

We got the cable

When I was growing up, our town didn’t have cable as an option…it just hadn’t come yet. We survived (somehow) on only three channels that came in during the winter when the leaves were down. Sometime in high school (maybe 10th grade?) the cable finally made it to my town and we got it at our house. I was able to watch tv for those 2 years until college. During college I don’t think we had cable in our rooms. If we did, it was pitiful and we never watched it.

Re-runs...we gotta get the cable

Emily and I got married right out of college and headed to graduate school. We were beyond broke for the first 5 years we were married so we couldn’t afford to have cable (except for that one year we lived in a funeral home…but that’s another story). Once we got out of all of our schooling, we just didn’t bother to get cable. We were able to get the major broadcast stations on rabbit ears both in TN and here in WV.

Fast forward to a year or so ago…without cable we tend to read a lot. We read the Sookie Stackhouse novels (upon recommendation of Lacy) and really enjoyed them. A co-worker mentioned that there was an HBO series called TrueBlood which was loosely based on the novels and he had a copy of the first season.

My inspiration for the cable!

TrueBlood is very loosely based on the books but good in its own right. Make no mistake though, this is an HBO production so it is definitely not for the faint of heart…there is all sorts of NC-17 stuff in it (which is totally unlike the books…they are “clean”). Anyhow, it took a year for season 2 to be released on DVD and I was having no part of waiting another year to see what happened this season so I ordered “the cable” and it was installed this weekend. We call it “the cable” because the kids were asked a year or two ago what they wanted for Christmas…they replied, “the cable” like their aunt and uncle have.

Now honestly, the only reason we got cable was so we could watch TrueBlood. It premiered last night so I know we were cutting it close having it installed on Saturday. The cable guy was right on time and did a great job re-wiring the house. Apparently the previous time cable was installed in the house, the wiring rules were different…but whatever. So he gets everything hooked up and turns on the digital box which holds my beloved HBO…and it started rebooting over and over. I asked him to go get another one and he said he didn’t have a spare…but he could have one for us on Monday.

A little dark maybe?

Remember I mentioned I only got cable so I could watch the TrueBlood premier? Yeah, I was not exactly happy…we hauled butt down to the Cable store (they have on in our mall) to get a new box. Huh…Saturday…yeah, no one there at 5:06 pm. I was about to call the cable guy to come get all of his evil cable out of my house (see, I knew we were right all those years) when I decided to try the cable box one more time. For some reason, it worked fine after I re-connected it. It might have overheated or had a loose connection where it was previously installed. I don’t know…but I was able to watch TrueBlood so crisis was averted!

In side news, we also cancelled our (allegedly) 3 mb dsl service (which never clocked higher than 600kb) to get 10 mb service which actually tests at 10+ mb! And it keeps getting better! We also have our phone through the cable so we have caller id and all that stuff as well as unlimited long distance! Oh, I think I love the cable after all…

9 Comments

warren, June 14th 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Awesome

The first swarm of bees in 2010

There are all sorts of jobs related to keeping bees.  I need to check for a robust queen, I need to check to make sure they have enough open comb, I need to treat them for mites and the honey flow needs managed.  Some of these jobs are pretty fun but many of them are extremely hot and tiring…and sticky.

Every spring, though, I seem to get a chance to do my absolute favorite beekeeping job of all…I get to catch swarms of bees.  Most years I do splits and other manipulations so my bees don’t swarm.  Usually the 911 center calls me to report a swarm of bees in someone’s tree or by their house.  I love going to get swarms of bees, especially when the swarm is from someone else’s hive.

Swarming, you see, is the bees’ way of growing.  When a colony gets too packed into its existing digs, it forces another queen to be created and, when the new queen is nearly ready, the old queen and half (or so) of the overcrowded bees head for the hills…or the nearest tree branch.  Once they make it to the branch, the queen hides in the middle of the swarm and scout bees go out looking for a new place to live.  Back before the days of varroa mites, these bees usually ended up in a tree out in the woods.  That still happens today, but they don’t live for more than a year or two.  So, back to why I like to catch other people’s swarms – when the bees came from my hives, I end up with two half-strength colonies instead of one really strong one.  In one way, it is cool because I get two hives that will grow into good colonies and may make some honey this year.  The bad thing is, if I had one strong colony, it would make honey this year.  Oh well, it can’t be helped!

Anyhow, when the bees are in waiting for scouts to find a new home, they are pretty vulnerable.  Each bee filled up on honey before it left, but that’s all the food they have to go on until they get to a new location.  They are completely exposed to animals and humans and weather and cold.  Being in a swarm is a dangerous proposition for a bee.

So, next door to one of the locations where I keep bees, the homeowners saw the swarm take off out of the hive and end up in one of their trees.  They knew it was mine so they called and I rushed to see if I could catch them.  There is no real trick to catching a swarm of bees (but please don’t try unless you know what you are doing).  All one has to do is get the swarm into a container along with the queen.  If the queen makes it into the container, the swarm will stay and claim the new location as their home.

Click for video

(try this link if the one above doesn’t work on your computer)

So, I got to the swarm location and saw the largest swarm I had ever caught hanging about shoulder-high in a tree…in the middle of a bunch of poison ivy…which I now have on my leg.  I carried my empty hive box to the location and cut the branch with the bees.  I shook them into the box…mostly.  A bunch of bees (since it was such a huge group) fell onto the ground in front of the colony.  Typically the bees will “sense” that a good hive is near and they will march into it.  I have no idea whether the queen walked in herself or if I got her into the box on the initial shake.  Either way, she ended up in the colony and all of the remaining bees followed her inside!

Click for video

(try this link if the one above doesn’t work on your computer)

Bees in a swarm are pretty docile (but don’t mess with them unless you know what you are doing…they still have stingers) and fun to be around.  It’s like pure energy…it’s just amazing to me.  The buzz that they  generate is incredible and it’s just a sight to behold.  I cannot begin to really explain how cool and exciting it is to see and catch a swarm of bees.  It is my absolute favorite part of beekeeping though!  I love this time of year!

More swarms…

11 Comments

warren, April 22nd 2010 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Adventure, Awesome, Bees, Fun, Nature
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