CATCHING UP

CASCADE FALLS

Since returning from my 8-day Kentucky trip I have been catching up on a few chores that I have
been putting off. First off a few days before I left for Kentucky one of the local cats decided to challenge a skunk in my drive way. 

I was sitting at home cool evening with the windows open, when about 10:30 p.m. I heard a commotion in my driveway that was followed almost immediately but the strong odor of a skunk.  I slammed the window shut and looked out and saw a cat and skunk in a turf battle right at my front door.

Well then next morning I stepped out side and the odor was unbearable both for me and my neighbors. My front door and my garage door had a large stain and the skunk has soaked both along with my sidewalk, driveway and bushes.

I made a quick trip to the store and picked up a couple of gallons of bleach and apple cider vinegar. According to a few post on YouTube spraying my doors with bleach will reduce the stain and then spraying the area with apple cider vinegar will help with getting ride of the odor.

I sprayed the doors with the bleach followed by a scrubbing it with soap and water and then sprayed it with beach again.  I then hosed down the entire area and and sprayed the doors, driveway and bushes with the vinegar.

I let everything dry and gave it another dose of both bleach and vinegar in the afternoon.  The odor was still pretty strong but the stains on the door were about gone.  Before dark I gave everything another heavy dose of bleach and vinegar.

When I got up the next morning the stains were almost all gone but the odor was still pretty strong.  I went back to the store and got more vinegar and sprayed everything again after scrubbing the driveway with hot soapy water.

After after three days of spraying and scrubbing the odor was pretty much gone by the time that I left for Kentucky. Or so I thought.

After being gone for 8-days when I pulled back into my driveway I could still smell the skunk odor. So I sprayed everything again with vinegar. Finally I got in touch with the HOA Maintenance Supervisor and they came by and cut my bushes way back and hauled off the debris.  This seem to pretty much eliminate the odor.

While I was in Kentucky I got an E-Mail from DMV telling me that it was time to renew my drivers license.  I would rather do just about anything than go to DMV. The DMV Office in Roanoke it absolutely horrible, anything under 2-hours there is considered quick. 

The Office here in Christiansburg isn't much better. So on a whim I decided to drive 30-minutes to the smaller DMV Office In Pulaski and take a chance on them not being so busy.  My trip paid off, I guess. It was a 30-minute drive up, and it took about 30-minutes to complete the process of renewing my license. Then it was a 30-minute drive back.

Total time for this little DMV Excursion was an hour and a half. Probably about the same amount of time it would have took me if I had just gone to Christiansburg.  But the bottom line is I am renewed and good until 2026. 

Since returning from Kentucky, Most of Virginia has been locked into a rainy pattern.  These storms that pop up in the afternoon and evening are common during the summer. What is not common is that when they pop up they aren't moving. They just sit and dump several inched of rain over the same area. 

Seems every evening Lynchburg and localities east of Roanoke along with a few places over around Bluefield have been hit with 3-4 inches of rain several days in a row. This has resulted in localized flooding. 

But the weather system that was causing all these issues finally move on and Saturday and Sunday have been just beautiful days.

Cascade Falls

Today was just too pretty to sit inside, so I drove over to Pembroke and hiked up to the Cascade Falls.  There is a $3.00 to park in the parking area, I began my hike up to the falls.

There are two different trail leading to the falls but due to all of the recent rain the Lower Trail was washed out and closed, forcing everyone to take the more difficult upper trail.

From the parking area, it is about 2.5-miles to the falls. The upper trail is more difficult because it is all up hill going to the falls.  The 2.5 mile hike takes me about 50-minutes, but I must say it was totally worth it. The falls are beautiful and there was a number of people swimming in the cool water in the pond immediately below the falls.

After taking a rest and spending about 30-minute in the cool area surrounding of the the falls it was time to head back. I must say the trip back was a lot easier as it was all DOWN Hill. The same 2.5-mile trip back took me only about 35 minutes.

So that was my week, I have really nothing planned for the upcoming week, but I am sure that will change. I'll just have to wait and see what lays ahead.