Saying Goodbye To Big Sandy Mush

My time here in Big Sandy Mush is now limited - my belongings and maybe my body too will be in Hot Springs NC sometime this weekend. Everything is packed and ready to go on my next adventure in these mountains. I have loved Big Sandy every time I have lived here but Madison County has my heart and I am finally going 'home'.

I am going to attempt to ride my electric bike there almost the entire way to avoid having to ride in a car - finga's crossed ya'll, that this 3rd electric bike doesn't break like #1 and #2! Cause I have go way more then 5 miles... more like 5 miles x's 4 ---> that is unless I do the secret trespassing shortcut plan I have mapped out that I found on google. Sketchy, yes ... sneaky, yes... way shorter... oh my gawd, yes! I think like, maybe a church and someone's house is there in the middle, but I am not sure... my plan is to get to the middle and if another human catches me bike handed to act like I got lost from where I need to go so they will help guide me towards my house and not back to the HWY. ;)

Let me show you the secret shortcut on the map...

(it is the part private paved road at A and part graveled in road at B- which looks like a dark black line ---> going between point A and point B .... you can see if I don't go that way, I have to ride the blue line which goes around a whole mountain.)


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BTW... here below is a cell phone picCHa' my friend Mark took of my house, when he was part way finished putting in the locally milled and way cheap Hickory Floors I got. (There were no floors except plywood before that.) If you are local to Madison County, you can hire Mark to do cool stuff to your house too... he is all eco-fied.
And before I go, I wanna show ya'll a project I was working on a few weeks ago - but I think it came out like an inappropriate 4th grade "do not litter" style poster. I need help with slogans, reallllly bad - so leave some suggestions about what could be said that would get the point across, be mature, and can include censored naked ladies.
I heart this:::



And This too:::



AND I heart every single one of you!!!! Wish me luck...

Xoxoxoxoxoxoo

Pig's Dig!

Ya'll I never knew about the power of the pig until the last 2 weeks! The pig here used to be in his own pen, but the owners thought it would be good for him to free range before the winter. We set him free (yay) and he's been making friend's with dogs, eating tons of apples, and making himself a happy home in the orchard. All was cool for a few months until the apples ran out and the pig began doing what pig's apparently love to do... dig holes with their nose!
At first it seemed kind of minor, industrious and he was creating neat winding paths. Then it turned into a HUGE massive disaster area, each day he was making headway another couple feet - at a rate so fast one could easily see how the entire orchard would be turned to mud and be sliding down towards the houses if given about a month. This would be ecologically terrible too since all the wildflowers and native grubs were being killed - which makes it hard on all the other critters like bugs, birds, squirrels and rabbits.
I was told by a local guy that pigs were used by people historically to dig things, like potatoes and also to clear out a field... probably for plowing. They are dang good at it too!
But not Mr. Pig who lives here. We got some yucky food and apples, and herded him back to his pen - he went right into the gate for the food and it was shut. The earth might need a little time to heal from all that digging! Sorry pig!
XoXo

Farm Chores: Feeding the Pig and Chickens!

My super nice neighbors who live in a house on the same property as I do are moving out! Totally sad. But I inherited 10 chickens and one hell of a rooster, plus the job of feeding the HUGE pot belly pig who lives here. Since I have celiac sprue and can not touch or be around gluten grains, my part of the job is gathering other healthy foods for all the animals to eat- so everyday I take this huge black bucket up the hill into the apple orchard and start filling it up with small apples falling early from the trees. There is also a tomato garden up there that the deers come down and share, usually leaving half eaten tomatoes hanging on the vine - so I pick the funky ones off and bring those down in the bucket too! :)
The pig LOVES loves loves himself some apples! So I give him a big tray full of apples and a few tomatoes (plus my own food scraps). The nastier the food , more he loves it - and when I say nasty, I mean foul, gross, fermented, rotten, sick & even molded or seasoned with maggots. So I bring him rotten apples too. As sick as all that is, I eat myself a yummy apple too while watching. :)
See how excited he gets! A big smile of thanks everytime.
The chickens love the tomatoes most, and the apples not so much unless I cut each one open. A little whistle, and seeing me coming with the black bucket and they all haul ass the the edge of the fence in anticipation of the special treats!
In the words of Weird Al Yankovic "Just EAT IT!" I mean, it's all organic after all!
XoXo

Behold, the PIG!

By popular demand I took more pictures of the big hairy pig who eats my food scraps. I am told he loses his hair in the summer - going for the handsome bald look, his breed is pot belly (they don't stay small ya'll), he loves himself some rice and beans, he put his nose on an electric fence and is now scared to go out of his pen, and he is not for eating (vegans & vegetarians can breathe a sigh of relief!)He has a repulsive and adorable quality, and if you can adjust to the rotten poop smell and the snorting (the lightly repulsive) you'll fall in love with that smile (the cuteness)... it's kind of like acquiring a taste for cottage cheese or beer or whatever.
XOXO