Thanks Juliet!

Wow Carol! I didn't realize you were at such a high elevation! Is the whole region high and you are on a mountainside even higher than surrounding communities? No one lives at such high elevations here in Alaska. Summer would be pretty cold and short! My husband lived at 2,300 ft at that was high by Alaska standards. I lived at 1,500 ft and that even had a mountain feel. We were in a huge valley with peaks all around. Our mountain was 7,600 ft and we looked up at it. Just across the border in Canada was Mt. St. Elias at 18,000 ft and Mt Logan at 19,500 ft. We could not see those from home buy you could see them from an airplane. All the mountains and glaciers just stack up higher and higher. The other direction were the Wrangell Mountains going up to 16,000+ ft. We drove and flew by those all the time.

Anyway, I would love to hear more about your surroundings! I lived in the valley of a huge river and from our cabin you could look miles away up the river at the Mile High Cliffs. The cliffs are literally a mile tall! It is in the middle of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. I miss it!!!

I am glad you don't drive down the mountain when the weather is bad!

The Smokies are the oldest mountain chain in the world. They aren't very high because they have been eroded so much. I think the highest peak in NC is about 6800 feet or so. I live about 15 miles from Smoky Mountain National Park. I'll have to check into the elevation of Maggie Valley and the surrounding area. I think it might be around 2500, but not sure. I have a cascading spring branch rushing down the mountain right outside my kitchen door. I can't tell when it's raining outside because the creek makes so much noise. Sounds like it's always raining. I love it! My house is in the woods, and you can't see it from the road when there are leaves on the trees.

That sounds lovely Carol! I miss having running water around. We were not that close but fairly close to a little stream. It was my job to go down and turn the solar panels that powered our water pump in the summer. So, every few hours I had an excuse to walk to the creek.

I didn't know the Smokies were that tall!

What did you do for power to the pump in the winter?

Good question. In winter we still had to haul it by buckets! We stopped living there in the winter long ago though. We were there still in the summer until I was in my 20's and my parents were still there after I was no longer able to go back. It has been over 20 years since we spent a winter there.

Not surprised. If you have an alternative. A lot of the people who live near me go to FL or SC for the winter. We call them snowbirds because they fly away to warmer weather.

We have lots of snowbirds here including my in-laws!

We left because of my Dad's health and my Mom needing to work to have health insurance for him.

Hope WA goes great for you and you'll get to go "home" to the country soon.

Thank you Carol. I just completed my second post on my new website! I am so excited about it!! It is my longest yet at over 1,800 words!

That's fabulous! Congrats. Your hard work is paying off.

Thank you too!

Thanks Jessica,

Jessica

Thank you!

No problem!

Thank you Kim!