Fall Begins

Fall color along Little Cacapon Mountain Road

Acorns I found along the nature trail

Fall color and fog seen from the deck early in the morning

Seeds on a dogwood tree

Late Summer Wildflowers

Ant Invasion

Around this time of the year, every year, the ants take over. These are Allegheny Mound Ants. Near the road, they build three-foot high mounds. In the woods, they find rotting wood and set-up shop. By the zillions. If you disturb their nest, they come out to defend it in a frenzy. They’ll crawl up your legs and start biting. (Check-out the video below!)

This is all very fascinating--until they find their way inside the cabin. By the zillions. Last weekend, they crawled all over the house and found little cracks to invade OUR nest. We vacuumed several times a day, sucking up hundreds of dead ants at a time. Help! How can we stop the ant invasion?

Early Summer Wildflowers and Berries

Mushrooms Along the Nature Trail

Weekend with Curt, Jim, Kenny, Mike, and Will

Mother's Day

Last weekend, my mother and I headed out to the woods to enjoy a quiet weekend at the cabin. We enjoyed the cool spring weather, and the wildflowers and dogwoods were in full bloom.

I cooked some tasty food during our stay. My mom especially liked my Greek salad, so I’ll share my recipe for you here. The recipe serves six, so cut the ingredients if you have a smaller group.

Greek Salad

Serves 6

Salad:

1 package baby greens

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, sliced in half

1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

1 avocado, sliced

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and sliced

1/2 pound firm tofu, drained and crumbled

2 tomatoes, halved and sliced

12 stuffed grape leaves

6 pepperoncini peppers (from jar)

Dressing:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 lemon, juiced

Sprinkle of dried oregano

Kosher salt

Fresh pepper

Serving:

On large serving platter, start with base of greens. Then, layer vegetables on top, 

finishing with pepperoncini peppers on top and grape leaves around the edges. Add dressing and serve.

Building a Walkway

When I bought the cabin, the walk from the car to the front door followed a dirt path up the hill. Conceptually, this idea fit the surrounding natural environment of the woods, but the path tuned into a muddy mess when it rained. I tired of vacuuming the dirt which was continually tracked into the cabin. So, I decided to create a walkway using stones I collected from the creek on the property. 

To construct the walkway, I dug out the dirt about six inches deep, then added crushed stone to use as a base for the larger stepping stones. Each stone had to be pieced together like a puzzle and set level. This was a tedious process, but it was a kind of meditative activity that cleared my head. 

Strange things