Dawn419 & doc's LSTA: Confounded Computer!!!

[Dawn419]

Hey snapshot! Good to hear from you!

I've been reading your journal and need to make a reply to it, and I will in a few days!

Busy day here later...it's almost time for our over-night vacay to Little Rock/Hot Springs so I'll be packing for that plus packing up blackberry plants to get mailed to a few members.

Got the camera battery charging so I hope to take tons of pix! There's chances of rain during this little trip but it won't dampen our spirtis any!

I'll check back in later today, need to get my butt in bed!

 

[dragonlaurel]

I'm looking forward to seeing ya.

 

[Dawn419]

Can't wait to see you, too!

 

[Dawn419]

Back home from our short vacation!

I had full intentions of working outside today but it's too windy to drag out the plastic and work on the cold frames and too wet to work in the garlic bed!

The trip into Little Rock went okay but traffic was horrendous once we got into it proper!

Doc took his test and passed!

We thought about checking out the Nina/Pinta Replicas but we decided to just tuck our tails, get the heck outta Dodge and head down to Hot Springs.

It was a beautiful ride, once we got away from LR, and the trees were gorgeous!!!

Before we checked in at the cabin, we did a bit of driving around Hot Springs as I needed to drop the blackberry plant packages off at the Post Office (we left home before ours was opened).

We were so busy ooohing and aaahing at all the cool buildings (cool shops, Bathhouse Row and beautiful architechture) that we totally missed the PO and ended up at a package store. Bought a bottle of Kracken Rum and Doc asked the owners for directions. One of them was headed back into town and offered to take us directly to the PO parking lot. It was awful sweet of him to do so and everyone we met in town was just as nice! Hadn't been in the area for an hour and we were already in with it!

After we dropped off the packages, we went to the Visitor's Center for maps/brochures and then hit the grocery store and got supper fixins and headed to the cabin.

Got to the campground around 3 p.m. and Hu was just finishing cleaning up the cabin and site for our stay. We fell in love with the place instantly and felt totally at home!

Hu is an absolute sweetheart and hung around for a bit and gave us his advice on the best places for us to check out after he found out we were rockhounds. He even made sure we had some firewood. That totally messed me up as I'm so used to gathering my own!

Hu left and we got the car unpacked and got ourselves settled in. We had the campground to ourselves so we decided to do some exploring around the grounds.

The campground is small: 3 RV sites and 1 tent site plus the cabin we stayed in.

There's a neat story to the cabin but I'll tell it in the next post, when I add pix...they're on Doc's laptop which went to work with him.

We had a nice, relaxing Monday night and had planned to get up early Tuesday and hit the ground running but slept in, instead.

On Tuesday, we packed, cleaned the cabin up and called dragonlaurel and made plans to meet. Then doc and I went back into town (campground is about 6 miles outside of HS) and headed out to Wright's Rock Shop. Did lots and lots of but didn't buy anything.

Left there and went back into town and walked Historic Downtown on Central Ave. Our favorite shop was Crystal Springs Gallery. Did a lot more and I bought a bag of Columbian Crystals. After that, we called dragonlaurel and fluid druid and went to pick them up for lunch at Picante's. Not sure just how long we hung out there but the food and service was good!

We took dl/fd back to their place and visited a bit more before heading home. We'd have visited longer but doc had to be up early for work today.

We cheated on our trip home and took 440 around Little Rock! That was a good move!

Never had a problem, weather-wise, until we got to Velvet Ridge and we hit a monsoon. We made it home by 8:30 p.m. and it was still raining (with some thunder/lightning) so we only unpacked a few necessaties, ate our Subway sammiches and were in bed by 11 p.m..

Well, I'm gonna end this and will get pix done later tonight!

 

[Dawn419]

Wish I'd taken more pix going from home to Little Rock but wasn't thinking and the few times I tried a pic there was usually traffic in the way.

Anywho, this is Hot Springs Mountain Tower. We didn't get to visit it this trip but hope to do so on one of our future visits.

The cabin we stayed in:

It wasn't fancy but we were totally at home here. Inside was a queen bed and a set of bunk beds and a picnic table. It had electric heat and an ac unit. There was a kitchen sink out on the porch (cold water only).

The bath house:

A cool foot bridge over the little creek:

Some crystals that we found lying around on the ground at the cabin site. Doc found the tiniest one first and I just kept finding the larger ones after that!

You can see all the pix I took here, in this album.


Oh, almost forgot the cool cabin story!

They'd had a family with 3 kids, that lived in the campground for awhile, living in a pop-up camper. The family would take walks back to the cabin and finally asked Hu about it.

At one time, they had a caretaker living in it but it had run down after he left. So the family said, "You should fix it up and let us live in it.". So he did and they lived there until finally moving on.

We've got our fingers crossed to make another trip and stay here in earlu Spring, before it gets too ramped up for the tourist season!

 

[Dawn419]

Despite it being windy again today, I got out the plastic that mom and dad gave us and got the new coldframe set up in one of the raised beds.

I had to retire our experimental pvc hoop frame as it's falling apart and I want to re-work it anyways.

So, I took the 2, four-shelf mini-greenhouses that we got at the Dollar Store years ago and decided to use them as my frame.

I laid the shelves on top of the framework to support the plastic during any snow or ice.

I used Duck Tape to hold ( ) the plastic in place on the west and east ends of the frame. The tops of these ends can be let down for ventilation.

I think it turned out pretty well and will start sowing my seeds tomorrow. Plan on doing several types of lettuce and meslun mixes, collards, kale, mustard, spinach, swiss chard and radishes.

My strawberries are under the row cover, in front of the coldframe. Still need to get some straw to get them covered for winter.

 

[Marianne]

Sigh...a view....

 

[Dawn419]

I'm glad to report that the newest cold frame held up to wind gusts of 30+ mph!

Still need to get the seeds sown in it but it has just been way too windy! So, I've been a good girl today and finished turning the garlic bed, got my rows all marked out and have started sowing my seeds cloves!

I was able to get the Georgian Fire and Purple Glazer planted together in one row and one row of California Late White is in the ground. Taking a break to give my back a rest and needed to cut up some garlic for my Fire Cider tonic. After setting some cloves back to make a few quarts of the fct, looks like I may get 4 rows or possibly 5 out of the CLW garlic!

Well, gonna continue being good and get back outside and try to finish up the garlic.

I've gotten 4 months of pix off of Doc's puter and will get back here later and continue posting about our journey from May 2010!

Edited to add: fct link and:

Got 2 more rows of CLW seed cloves planted before having to quit for the day!!!

 

[dragonlaurel]

"needed to cut up some garlic for my fire cider tonic." ?????

What's this? Sounds interesting.

 

[Dawn419]

Hey dl!

Just added the link to the above post...meant to add it earlier but got in a hurry since we had clouds moving in and it was gonna get darker sooner than I was ready for. :/