Nicholson Hollow

We went to Shenandoah National Park yesterday and hiked down Nicholson Hollow to Corbin Cabin. It was a fine day for a hike: cool, clear and sunny. The last time we hiked here was in 1996, according to our hiking guide (and I do remember that very warm winter day long ago). Anyway, we enjoyed it very much, the views through the bare trees were beautiful.

This must be original cabin, which has rotted out from the bottom up.


It was quite comfy in the sun, perfect for hanging out and enjoying a snack before the hike back up the hollow.

From here we drove to Wes & Sally's house outside of Elkton and had a fun evening with them and Roy & Yoli who drove up from Delaware.

Laser Wood Turning

One night C.A. came over to Frank's shop to give us a demo on how to hollow out wood with the assistance of a laser light. It was impressive.


Somehow that little red light is supposed to let you know how close you are to breaking through the wood. Like I said, it was impressive!

Let there be a light!

We drove home from Canaan on Saturday, and spent most of Sunday installing a new ceiling light and wall switch in the living room. We've been wanting to do this project for a few years, so it was good to get it done! It involved lots of crawling around in awkward spaces in the attic to drill a hole in the ceiling for the new light. Bob also had to drill a hole in the just right place to feed a wire into the wall for the new switch. And then of course wiring it all.

Here's the hole...
And the place where the switch was installed, with the wiring ready for action...


And when we were done cleaning up after ourselves...


We had a new light! We also moved the thermostat while we were at it, so we placed a strategic picture (the small one) over the hole until we get around to repairing the drywall, painting and re-faux painting...

Canaan Valley

We drove up to Canaan to ski on Friday. The drive up there is always pretty, but this time we were treated with a brief show from four bald eagles flying just overhead (pretty close actually) sort of fighting with each other, talons ready. It was way too cool!

It was snowing the last 10 miles or so of the drive, with the wind creating brief bouts of whiteout conditions. The skiing on Friday was typical Canaan: snow, wind, sun, clouds and cold. The rain from last week created an impermeable layer of ice, under a few inches of freshies. There were no crowds, and we had a great ski day.


On Saturday we went cross-country skiing at the State Park. We bushwhacked up a hill, thinking we were all alone, when about 50 yards away a whole crew skied by. After they went by (without seeing us) we skied up to the trail they were on. We then bushwhacked some more, up an even steeper hill where we definitely all alone. It was gorgeous.