Heaven, No Almost About It

Saturday, Fuzzy and I got up early and packed the cooler, radio, little camp stove, and Zeke and headed back out to Arden. Words don't really do the place justice, so here are a few pictures:

The Road to Arden. Also, Very Long, Slightly Scary One-Lane Bridge to Arden.

Morning at Arden.

Crawdad! This guy was actually trying to get away from a little water snake that was coming after it. The snake went to hide under a log when I came up with the camera.


This little guy didn't hide from the camera, though! When I was growing up in North Carolina, we used to catch little green snakes all them time. This is the first one I've seen in West Virginia and it made me irrationally happy.

Fuzzy and I sprawled on the rocks, listening to the Coal Bowl (WVU v. Marshall, Go Mountaineers!), reading novels (Edward Abbey for him, Denise Giardina for me), and eating junk food. I fished with a new lure, catching a wee little rock bass. The Kingfishers did much better. We talked about bringing our hypothetical children out to the rocks, wading with them and getting them tiny polarized glasses so they can see the fish beneath the water.

And for those few hours, it was exactly the West Virginia I dreamt of two years ago in my moldering Louisiana apartment.

Hork

Oh man, I just cooked some pasta for Fuzzy and I, and in amongst the steaming penne were little, creamy white larvae. I don't consider myself squeamish. Hell, when I was a teenager, I skinned and defleshed a red fox my neighbor had shot because I wanted the skeleton (of course I wore rubber gloves). Growing up in North Carolina, I remember the cereal regularly being buggy, and I'll eat food that's been dropped pretty much anywhere except directly in the litterbox. But the sight of those juicy little critters was just the push I needed to start making my own pasta.

Just be glad my camera wasn't handy.

Blissfully Laborless Day

Pants rolled up as far as they'll go, I wade into the Tygart Valley River, watching bass dart under blackrock ledges and early brown sycamore leaves light on the surface. I want so badly to swim. The river is wide here, between Hell's Gate and Devil's Den, and the hills rear up sharp. I want to live here. Not in a cabin on the bank. Here. On this slick rock with the water rolling over my pale feet.

We're going back to Arden next weekend, only this time, I'm taking my bathing suit and the camera!

Suckage and a Meme

So, we've already been over how much I suck, right? I haven't posted in over a month. To ease myself back into this whole "baring my soul under the cold, cold light of the internet" thing, I'll start with a meme. The 4 Random Things Meme.

4 Jobs I've Had
-Dairy Maid. In high school, I worked for several months milking two very sweet Jerseys. The dairy also had water buffalo, but thankfully I only ever had to feed them.
-Pet Store Clerk. Cool job, shitty boss.
-Archaeological Fieldworker. Traveling, living in hotels, drinking too much. Would have been awesome if I had been single and a few years younger.
-After School Director. Just ended this job recently. I miss the kids.

4 Places I've Lived
-Lanikai, Hawaii. Only for the first year or so of my life.
-Moyock, North Carolina. About as cosmopolitan as it sounds.
-Leesburg, Virginia. Actually a small town no one has heard of outside of Leesburg. Pretty country.
-Natchitoches, Louisisana. Home of the Steel Magnolias and all that that implies.

4 Places I've Vacationed
-Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Fucking awesome.
-Southeast Alaska. Some part of me will always want to pick up and move to Alaska.
-London, England. It's so great to travel to a new place when you have familiar friends waiting there for you. Thanks, Fiona!
-Hallein, Austria. Technically, I was working on an archaeological project, but the beer and chocolate said vacation.

4 Favorite Foods
-Spoonbread. My mom always used the recipe out of Cross Creek Cookery, and now so do I.
-Fried Chicken. I just can't help myself. I usually only have it on my birthday and I think that just makes me love it more.
-Peaches. A fresh, ripe peach is just about the perfect food to me.
-Beans and Rice. This is the ultimate comfort food to me. Wow, I didn't realize my tastes were quite so Southern.

I'll leave y'all (that's the fried chicken talking) with this picture from yesterday's trip to Valley Falls State Park.

Posthenge

So all the posts are set snug and (hopefully) square. Getting those 16 ft. ridge posts up was a real bitch, but we've really gotten into our groove as far as working together.



Saturday, after setting the posts, Fuzzy and I went to a party at a nearby farm. It was fabulous, from the setting to the food to the Jim Beam. I remember lying on the ground if front of the bonfire, listening to our friends being crazy and hilarious, looking up at the stars and bright embers floating across my field of vision. I don't know if it was the liquor or the beer or the smell of raked hay, but I was intensely, chest-achingly happy.
I'm a lucky girl.

Breaking Ground

On Saturday, Fuzzy and I (again, mostly Fuzzy) broke ground on the pavilion/cabin! The plan is to construct the pavilion with 6x6's, then enclose it after our big August party. Fuzzy used the most-fabulous power auger to dig the holes. I feel butch just typing that.

We set the corner posts, bitching at each other the entire time about keeping things square and level. I wish I could be more laid back about the whole thing, but come on! This is our future house! So yeah, I was kind of a bitch and Fuzzy was kind of a dick, but we're over it and can now see the footprint of our future house! Where we are going to live! Yay!

So here's the east-side posts, where eventually the bathroom and bedroom will go, and in the nearer future, where a few of our drunken friends will probably pass out.


Also, there was much cuteness this weekend. PineTop appears to be plagued with baby animals, specifically little spotty fawns and hoards of turkey babies. I think Fuzzy wanted to punch me after the third time I squealed "Ohmygod, tinybabyturkies!"

Last Weekend

Yep, I'm posting about last weekend on Friday. We've already covered how much I suck, right?

So last weekend was awesome. I spent Saturday painting the outhouse while Fuzzy cut brush. I rather like the color scheme we came up with. Initially, I wanted to paint the whole thing barn red, but Fuzzy thought dark green would blend in a little better. I usually don't give a damn about blending in, but I suppose a marginally legal shithole should perhaps be a little camouflaged. The red trim was my way of saying "But I don't have to like it!"

I think it turned out for the best, though:


That night, after the painting and the cutting, Fuzzy and I went to an honest-to-god drive-in theater. There were kids playing in the field chasing lightening bugs and people grilling next to their trucks; it was like a big casual party. We even saw some friends from town. I heart you, Grafton Drive-In.



And how fucking awesome is it that there is a Mail Pouch barn across from the drive-in? I swear to god, sometimes living in West Virginia is like going back in time. Ok, I'm off to PineTop, more updates on Sunday when we get back!