Picture perfect fall days

The last bits of fall color on this wonderful weekend in Sewanee.   

The weather on Sunday and Monday this second week of Nov. were nearly 10º higher than predicted.  This sunny facing bluff hit 67.5º today while stations in the towns of Sewanee and Monteagle struggled to get to 60º today.   Something about the late afternoon and evening thermals of this southwest facing exposure give this location warm fall and winter evenings compared to the town.  As I write this, it's 56º at 6:50 pm here at Sky Castle while Sewanee is reporting 49º in town.  The air is completely still, hard to believe a wind advisory is in effect for tomorrow and sub freezing temperatures for the next 2 nights.  Hopefully, the cold snap will arrest these lady bugs swarms we've been having.

Friday night was the awesome A. Shankar Indian music concert, and Sat., a great party here at Sky Castle with lots of musicians.   I think, out of 18 people at the party, all but 2 or 3 were musicians.   Great time, great music, and nice turnout.  We partied from sunset to late.  Should have taken some photos but didn't think of it.

Here are some of today... been really enjoying my evening tea by the fire on the porch.

Tea time - 4:00 pm

So, that's what it was!

In the Smokies at high elevation, two birds buzzed the tree tops at high speed creating a sonic blast.  I'd never heard anything like it.  Thought that it might have been a falcon or something.   I had no idea what I had witnessed, but now I know.... it was the dive of the Nighthawk.

Listen at the 18 sec mark of this video.  It was actually pretty frightening.  Privileged to have seen and heard it.  Twice.

Firewood ... the final solution

Yes, I built a 16' x 6' woodshed ... by myself.   8' tall.   No easy task, working with 16' lumber and 4'x 8' sheets of plywood... with no one to hold the other end.  It took me about 16 hrs to build and paint it.

Then... I finally did it.  Bought a splitter.  A Husky consumer model, 22-ton.   Wanted an Ariens with a Honda engine, but this was $400 cheaper and I bought an extended 4 year warranty that even covers normal wear.   How much can I use this a year?  Kind of felt silly about buying it but... it will save time and save my hands with the manual splitting I've been doing.   I decided not to build my screen house so I justified the cost that way.   Aside from the USA-made Briggs & Stratton engine (know for their mediocrity), it is a simple and heavily built solid steel machine.   It weighs 534 lbs, but it's fairly well balanced, not too much of a struggle to move.   I hope I don't roll it off the bluff by mistake.  It cut even the knurliest hardwood with ease.  It makes a nice compliment to my Stihl chainsaw.  

I got a helluva workout.  Especially my glutes, core and back.  As hard as any resistance work I've done.   Lifting 80lbs logs onto the trailer, rolling even heavier ones uphill and through the woods.   Although the wood was long dead, half of it was stringy and wet.  Good that it will be at the bottom of the pile.  With the splitter, I can produce a face cord of split firewood from a felled log in less than a half day.

Since I abandoned the screen house project, I upgraded my porch fireplace with the nice Preway I had intended for the screen house.  Tried it out last night.  Awesome.  It's going to make sitting outside, even in winter, nice.  Still want to add some heat shielding for the floor and deck rails, but it's great.

OK... project finished, now back to playing guitar and training on the track.

Morning...

Oct. 20.  Morning low of 36º.

No, not getting tired of the view...

Fontana Lake, NC, Oct. '13

It could not have been better. The weather was perfect. 5 days in the Great Smoky Mountains with temperatures in the 70ºs everyday, no rain.   The boat ran great.

The Government shutdown made the park extremely quiet, but all seemed normal here at Fontana Lake, NC. You'd never know there was a park shutdown. No rangers, but Fontana visitors center was open, a few campers arriving by kayak in the park.  However, only saw one hiker in 5 days and 35+ miles of hiking...  a girl through-hiker on the AT, coincidentally, a recent college grad from Sewanee.  We hiked with her to Shuckstack tower.

The big hike was Monday, the 16 mile hike to High Rocks with a 3500" climb.  We started a bit late and walked the last hour in the dark, but we were prepared.  The summit view was great.   The old ranger cabin at the summit was severely deteriorated, the roof had fallen in.

The Friday hike up the Lost Cove trail out of Eagle creek to Shuckstack tower was spectacular.  The weather was clear and it made for some really good photos.

Overall, we saw 5 bear... all in trees and coming down fast to flee from us.

Check out the photos...

Woodfire culture... that time of year again

With temperatures dipping into the 40ºs on the bluff again tonight, fires took the chill off... both on the porch and in the bedroom.   Feels good.   Been eyeing some log splitters... no, I better not.   I think I'll build a mondo sized wood shed in my woods, rent a splitter, and produce a years worth of firewood in a day.   I have 3 large standing dead trees on my property.

I love the culture of wood.

Firey Gizzard hike

Not the longest but the most rugged and tiring hike in the south Cumberland:  the Firey Gizzard gorge hike to Raven Point.  Just 10 miles, but a lot of up and down, difficult footing with boulder crossings.

It was as beautiful as I had remembered it, the lush forest primeval with ferns and giant hemlocks. We did this hike on Monday, so Roya and I had Raven Point to ourselves.

project: porch awning - updated ... again

A new porch awning on the Sky Castle porch made from recycled metal roofing.   Added a futon with an all weather cover and a steel fireplace/grill.

The fall sunsets will be spectacular from here.  Oh, the view!  



UPDATE:  I stained the beams and added a sunshade.  Now it's a 'sleeping porch'.
(see below)

Second Update:  I added a large field stone under the fireplace, a full width color matching shade, a table/wood bin, and a 90º elbow on the stove to divert smoke away and keep water out.  I slept out here twice this weekend.

Livin' in the trees

On my sacred tree... Tibetan prayer flags and friendly plants.  
My deck in Sewanee over looking the quiet wilderness of Champion and Lost Coves.
Gorgeous weather... dry and cool nights, warm but not hot days.

Riding, racing, loving nature

After my morning race in Chattanooga, I took an awesome ride at Jackson Point.

This is a point on the Cumberland Plateau that has been cleared for development unfortunately, but like Myers Point, has not sold.  In one week they are selling 230 acres of this spectacular land in an absolute auction.

At the end of the point, there is pinnacle where there is a 360º view with Sweeton Cove on one side, I24 and the TN River on the other side.  From there,  I watched the sunset.

The new road down to Sweeton Cove is amazing, it drops 800' down into the beautiful Sweeton Cove community.   What a ride.  It an off road cyclists dream... lots of flower lined trails through the woods, all fairly close to my house.

And I get to come back to an even better view... without the distant noise of the highway.

Return to the stage

Nice to be back on stage. The audience was very appreciative. I played Bach, a Handel Suite, lute music, Brazilian and Spanish.   For a kick I ended with Hudson's 'Delta' and Jerry Reed's 'Jerry's Breakdown'.    Standing O ... and I then played Lauro's 'El Maribino' for an encore.     It went pretty well and the Traphagen spruce guitar was loud, clear and colorful.

 Apprehensive about the trigger thumb release surgery on Tues, but it's supposed to be routine. Looking forward to playing more concerts soon.

Concert, Sept. 5, Cookeville, TN

William Yelverton in Concert 
- September 5th, 7pm 
 - Peachtree Learning Center 
- 420 N. Walnut St., Cookeville, TN 38501 

This is my first concert in a while and my first on a spruce guitar in over 22 years. I'm now playing a spruce Dake Traphagen, and I think it sounds beautiful, clear, and colorful.

I'll be playing some new repertoire: Bach, Handel Suite, D. Reis, Tarrega, and a Jerry Reed piece.

Lately, have been thinking about what athletic training has taught me about music... and vice-versa.

I have a sore thumb which I'm having minor surgery on 5 days after the concert, hopefully that will be a permanent fix to the trigger thumb problem.

Plants are huge again

The plants get a drink in the recently hot weather.   

This winter, my sunroom is going to be a jungle.  Some of these guys weigh 150+ lbs.   Hope for a late frost.

The ole boat...

Still runs great!  Haven't had the boat out for a while but it ran great last week.

Fontana in October, here we come...

My rock

Owning a piece of the bluff, this rock, this house... a sanctuary, an observatory of nature and sky... it's idyllic.

The weather station has been down a bit, but now the weather cam has been relocated and everything seems to be working fine.   I have new web hosting for SewaneeWeather.com, so hopefully, it'll be up for a long time.  Long live the Sky Castle weather station.

Yesterday, we hiked down into the gorge.... to the waterfalls.   First time this summer.   Always challenging.  I'll never go down there in that jungle without my GPS.   No trails, very wild and challenging.  Due to the tree canopy and 'disappearing creeks'... it would be easy to get lost down there, as I found out last October.  

Roya took this photo of me at the base of my bluff.  A beautiful rock it is.

My lowland forest flowers

It seems there are more flowers this time of year in my lowland forest here in Murfreesboro.

My chair in my woods ...

Timelapse video of storm, pics

Video - Afternoon storm and sunset.
Captured by the Sky Castle Weather Station Webcam: Champion Cove, Sewanee, TN



Lightning illuminates fog over Lost Cove...

Sunset, after the storm...

Back on the mountain...

And the views keep coming.   What a spectacular morning!

Last magnolia blossoms of summer

Those that visit my homes have been greeted with the scent of magnolia blossoms for the past 2+ months.   I love the smell of these.  Better than honeysuckle and gardenia.

As the dog days of summer approach, these are getting harder to find, so these magnolia blossoms may be some of the last.

The seasons are flying by.  So is life.

To everything ... turn, turn, turn.  There is a season... turn, turn, turn.

July 7 evening

Just another day...