Cabin Trip May 2018

Blue Ridge red salamander

I did not post an update about the life-sized doll last Sunday because we were on the road again.  Between the physical therapy for my shoulder and traveling, I have had very little time to work on the project.  However, some progress has been made and I will be blogging about it again next week.  Today I wanted to share some of the photos from my trip.

We left on a day with sunny weather.  It was a nice change.  It seem like for the last year we have been starting out with it raining for almost every trip.  However, the nice weather did not last.  We planned to be up there for a week.  Every day the weather forecast went something like this:  showers in the morning, showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon, showers and thunderstorms till midnight, thunderstorms after midnight, rain and showers in the early morning.  The forecast was like that for the entire time we were up there.  Flash flood warnings were up each day and grew more numerous as the time week went on. It did not rain continuously, there were breaks in the rain, but when it rained it poured down ferociously.

Fortunately, the rain did not start until the evening we arrived.  We were able to unload and mow the grass.  Otherwise the grass might be well above knee height by the next trip up.  There were not many branches down in the yard, but there was one fairly large piece of a rotted branch that had fallen.  When my husband went to move it before mowing, he found a small red salamander.  We had seen salamanders in the yard previously, but we have not seen them often.

Woodson's Mill

The salamander is a sub-species called the Blue Ridge red salamander.  They are generally between 2.5 to 2.7 inches (55 -63 mm.)  Smaller salamanders tend to eat insect larva and worms.  Larger specimens may eat small invertebrates such as snails or even small amphibians.  In the winter, these salamanders live in springs or streams.  In spring they may live in burrows near the stream or under rocks or fallen trees.  Although the salamanders are red, which many times in nature means that it is poisonous, these creatures are not poisonous, but it may be an indicator that they are unpalatable.

Water at the bottom of the mountain

This trip up, our goal was to complete laying the new flooring in the attic.  The flooring has to be cut to fit.  The saw was set up on the front porch during the times that my husband worked on the floor.  If it was raining badly, or overnight, we had to move the saw into the house.  The flooring is complete upstairs.  We took a couple of pictures before we moved all the things that are stored up there back up there.  It is a relief not to have all those boxes stuffed into corners downstairs anymore.  However, now that everything is back in the attic, it no longer looks quite so spacious.

Where the paved road ends.

The weather held long enough for us to visit with friends one evening, but other than that it was a lot of sitting on the porch. Once in a while we were able to see the sun.  Since everything was dripping wet, when the sun did come out it made everything seem to glow.  The light was dazzling.

Since it has been a very rainy spring, the plants have taken off and everything is growing at full capacity.  The air was heavy with the scent of honeysuckle, wild rose, and rhododendron.   Between the nearly overwhelming floral fragrance and the rushing stream, the affect was enough that it made me very drowsy.  It was difficult to make myself leave the porch. 

Behind the cabin.

I think the rainy weather has made it a bit difficult to harvest the hay.  While we were driving up there I noticed that all the hay is still in the fields and has not been cut.  I guess they need several days of good weather before they start trying to cut down the fields.  I don't know how long the hay has to stay on the ground before it can be rolled into those large rolls.

Needless to say, all the rain has swollen the streams all around.  There was not a lot of snow this year, and the streams were not as large as normal after snow runoff.  The area has more than made up for it with all this rain.  The news has reported that this was the rainiest May that has been recorded since they started keeping records in 1800.   I think that even the normally placid stream that runs behind the house was running fast enough that it could knock you down. 

Dripping water caused everything to glow.

We actually returned home a day earlier than we had planned.  Flash floods warnings became more numerous and the radio news was starting to give reports of roads washing out and even people being washed away.  We decided that it was probably time to go.  Even if the roads held up, saturated soil can cause trees to topple.  We have to drive through a forest to get down the mountain.  There have been times when we have had to cut a tree that has fallen on the road to get up to the cabin or back down.  You don't want to be stuck up there if dozens of trees are down on the road.

I have also included a couple of photos that I snapped along the way.  Because of how the mill sits relative to the road, it is hard to get a good picture of it.  I snapped this one on the way up.  The pavement sign has a double meaning for me.  There is an illustrated book of poems called "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silversteen.  This sign always reminds me of that book.  The other meaning is that this is the point where we seem to jump off into the wild.  The road goes from pavement to gravel and becomes progressively rougher as we drive up the mountain.  Things are different out in the wild.

Field of hay.

Next Sunday I will be writing about the doll again.  I expect to have much of the filling placed on the armature by then.  Check back on next Sunday afternoon for the latest update.