Preparing for Winter Fires in the Fire Place

We headed over to the ridge on Friday afternoon for another weekend on Mount Harrison at The Ridge.  We did not have any encounters this weekend with bears, but Cookie did find us a young raccoon in the tree just off the deck.  JoLynn awoke to the alarm raised by Cookie and spotted the young "bandit" around 2:00 am.

We had a good visit with the Martins on Saturday night.  They were our neighbors and Sunday School class mates from Cypress, Texas.  They had been in Gatlinburg all week, so we grilled some chicken and played a board games.  The girls came over from UT on Saturday afternoon to visit with the Martins and spend the night.  They stayed up late watching movies and baking and decorating "pumpkin cupcakes".  They used a new cupcake pan that we purchased in Evansville, IN last week.

During the weekend, we did cut up three (3) trees for firewood.  The logs have been stacked but Brent will need to split them later, but the hard part of getting them to The Ridge is complete.  We will be able to have numerous winter fires in the fire place this upcoming winter.  As expected, the leaf peakers did create traffic jams all weekend.  The color was great and we now look forward to the upcoming winter.  Driving over Newfound Gap on Friday, we did see some snow in the grass on the side of the roads.  Looking out the family room window from The Ridge on Friday, the top of Mt. LeConte was covered in snow.

We continue our quest to find a "Maw Maw Conley" quality coconut cake.  We stopped at a local barbecue joint in North Georgia which had a very promising looking entry.  Don't judge a cake by its frosting.  One bite in and the rating was a 5.5 out of 10.  Please understand that the cake was good, but the bar set by Maw Maw Conley may not ever be reached.  We also tired their butter pecan cake which was excellent.

An example of the "pumpkin cupcakes".  They were good.