Gesundheit Day 3 - Clowning Around & Goodbyes

Sunday dawned bright & clear. A gorgeous day. Good for pictures.
But first, after breakfast, we sprinted for the costume closet in the workshop.

See us leisurely sprinting?
(and look at that light!)

photo by Anne

photo by Soozi

Some came with preliminary accessories.


Raiding the costume closet is buckets of fun, 'cause the goofier, the better.

photo by Anne


photo by ?

These are our hosts:


And the whole bunch:

photo by Elise

They (not me - I'd never do anything like that!) even tried to turn the dog into a clown,
with less than satisfying results.

photo by Anne

After our clown session, a group went off to hike up the mountain.
I didn't go because my leg still hurt.
*sniffle, whine*
I want sympathy.

But they found this cool-as-all treehouse:

photo by Anne

Back at the ranch, Elise (Mrs. Adams) came across a mouse in the library
(told you the mice enjoyed the library)
that had eaten some rat poison. She and Miera tried to nurse it back to health,
but, rat poison being what it is, that night he went to the big cheese in the sky.





This picture is now Elisa's profile picture on Facebook. Heh.

I also let their 4-year old daughter paint my fingernails. Cosmo quality, wouldn't you say?


But, as with most good things, they must end sooner or later, and ours ended sooner.
From left to right:
Wildman
Caleb (volunteer)
Elisa (Wildman's wife)
Miera (volunteer)
Anya (sp? - volunteer)
Wonderful people all. We will miss them.


And doncha know? Only a couple hours down the road, we needed some MEAT!
So we stopped & tore through some burgers like rabid hyenas. Oh my, they tasted good.
Burp . . .

Now, I will leave you with some of the scenery we were forced to gaze at during the weekend.
The sacrifices we make.




















The creek, before & after the rain:


And finally, from the trip home. You gotta love the Appalachians!

photo by Soozi








So, it's like, over a week later, and the color on my leg is finally fading.
Although now, every once in awhile, it feels like bugs are crawling on the spot that hit.
Ewwww.

Gesundheit Day 2 - A Lotta Work & A Little Play

It rained a lot throughout the night, and was still drizzling on Saturday morning,
so outdoor chores were set aside in favor of indoor chores.

Wildman had 2 big jobs for us to work on.
Keep in mind that the Adams Family hadn't been here long. There was a lot to do.

1 - Clean the library - take all the books down, dust them, and paint the walls.

2 - Work in the greenhouse.

He didn't really explain what the greenhouse entailed, or maybe I just didn't hear it,
so I had visions of happy little plants and digging in some dirt.
Kind of like being outside, right?
My hand goes up for the greenhouse, as I hate dusting.
He said that only 3 of us would fit out there (???), so I and my 2 accomplices ventured out back.

Here's the greenhouse from the outside, on the back of the farmhouse:

photo by Anne

We hadn't really taken a good look at it the day before, during our tour.
Looks so innocent, right?

Oh nooooooo!

Now, here's the deal. And here's what I didn't know when visions of those happy little plants were circling around my woefully misinformed brain. The last land manager kind of let things go, so the greenhouse, which by nature should contain green growing things, was used as a chicken coop for several years. There was nothing green in there. And the only thing growing was our apprehension, along with a possible plethora of bird flu viruses.

This is our introduction to the room of doom:


Oh, the humanity!

The WHOLE place was covered in chicken droppings, cobwebs, dead bugs, and all manner of nastiness that was kicking up some foul (fowl!) dust as we started on the work. We thought of inhaling all that dust and contracting deadly diseases which would leave our loved ones to plan our funerals in a few weeks, so the first thing we did was ask for masks.

Have you ever worn a mask for hours? It starts to stink. You can't breathe.
But, given the choice of stinky mask or pestilence, we chose the stink.

There was a pile of dirt, waist high (I kid you not), on one side of the room.

photo by Soozi

I swear to you, we found a scapula in there.
We brought it home.

The boss wanted me to take a sniff, and since I want to keep my job, I just had to, ya know?

photo by Ann

At least the pile is gone now.


While they working on the pile at the bottom, I was at the top half, clearing chicken droppings, cobwebs, dead bugs, and other nastiness that was covering absolutely everything.

It was falling on my head. AARRGGHH!

Then, we had to shovel out the top half-foot or so of dirt that was in the raised bed, as it was nothing but chicken sh*t.

Holy cow!

But, oh gee, look at the time. It was 11:00, and since I was signed up for lunch duty, I had to leave them. Shucks.
*saunters off to the kitchen grinning & whistling*

And yes, I cleaned up first. Geez. (I heard you Mom)

But what of our compadres in the library? It looked like this when we got there:




This is what it looked like when they got done with it:


Hoohoohooheeheehee. Just kidding.
This is what it looked like when they stopped for lunch.
But really, they did exactly what Wildman asked them to.
Some of the books had been used by the mice in not very nice ways,
and all the books had to come down in order to clean them & paint, which they started after lunch.

They found a snake skin. In the library.


But truthfully, we didn't have time to finish either job.
That's okay. Wildman assured us that he hadn't expected us to,
but we made a f'ntastic start, better than he expected,
(he is truly the nicest man)
and the next group of volunteers (coming in a week) would continue.

Although we learned later that one of the people that was already there finished the painting after we left.
That means he also had to put all the books back?
We're sorry Caleb.

Plus, we had that good, satisfied feeling of hard work. That's what we were here for, after all.

After lunch, we went back to our chores for awhile, then the powers-that-be decided it was time for a break.
We hiked around the lake & up to the waterfalls. Oh my!
Those pictures in my next post. Heh.

Oh, and as I was getting down off my perch in the greenhouse,
my foot slipped on the mucky bottom step and I slammed the bottom of my shin on the edge of the next step.
By evening, it was bright red & swollen.
A few days later, the color had spread down each side of my foot and across the top.
As I type this (a week later), it still has a rainbow hue.
Why did the discoloration spread to places that weren't touched?
They'll probably have to amputate soon.

After dinner, it was time for more fun & games,
although the first thing we did wasn't so much fun as it was inspiring.
Wildman showed us another video of Patch's trip to Kabul during the war.
Here is an excerpt:



It was a very powerful film.

Afterwards, time for balloon animals.
Seriously, everyone needs times to just clown around (pun intended) and act like a big kid.
We made all kinds of things out of balloons - flowers, dogs, bees, hats, octopusseses, palm trees with bananas (Wildman made that one).
And yes, he knows bananas don't grow on palm trees, but his monkey had to have something to eat.

photo by Anne


photo by Soozi


photo by Soozi


photo by Soozi


photo by Soozi

Really, being at Gesundheit is an excellent way to get in touch with your inner goof.


photo by Anne

Next - our last morning & all the scenery.