Baby it's cold outside

In my lifetime it seams like about the only kind of heat I haven't lived with is a fireplace as the sole source of heat.  Besides the usual sorces like natural gas, propane, oil, coal and saw dust generated forced air and electric there was the house with a coal burning kitchen stove with a coal pot belly in the living room and hot water.  In collage most of the campus was heated with steam heated radiators.  The steam tunnels ran under the sidewalks and kept them clear of ice and snow in the winter.

Edited to add,  I forgot the wood burning stove we originally had here.  We replaced it with a propane stove with a fan.  We supplement it with electric space heaters in two room the heat dosen't reach.

It rained here most of the night and most of the day. they are calling for only 20% chance of rain tomorrow.

Ok Meece, here is a brief description of the inn. The inn reminds me of the house in 'Bridges of Madison County' with the tongue and groove pine boards on the walls and the large windows with the wide window and door casings. There are 50-52 rooms in the inn's 3 stories from single king bed/two double bed as the basic room, and rooms that are small suites. I have been in three different rooms on the first floor, each room has it's own unique character. they are painted different colors and the color matches the bedspread and curtains. There are large hooks on each side of the window to hook the curtains back and let the sun in. over each door into the hall is a transom window that they will open to help the air flow through the rooms. I have been in rooms with king size beds in them the headboards are made out of different natural wood limbs, the one I am in this week has a larger white birch frame on the outside and smaller pieces nailed together in the middle in a geometric pattern. Other rooms have had the white birch frame with woven designs in the middle made out of saplings. Some of the rooms have two double beds in it and the one I looked at with the double beds, their bed frames were antique metal frame beds. There is no AC but just open the window and you will get a nice cool breeze blowing in. In the winter it is heated by radiator heat. The floors are wide pine board floors that were refinished in the 1990's when the Inn was restored to it's beauty. The private bathrooms were added during the restoration, they are small but adequate, some of the larger rooms have larger bathrooms and the clawfoot bathtubs in them. They provide a bar of glycerin soap that is wonderful for washing your face. I am getting so spoiled staying here but this is my last week here.

No it isn't my vacation place although I feel like I have been on a vacation. I was hired by a company that oversees the payments to medical providers for mental, physical disabilities as well as substance abuse to help with the help desk calls for their new system. They cover 16 counties in NC and the administrative office is in Sylva about 2 hours from my house. I will be working starting next week at the office in Lenoir but I have been in training here at Sylva for the past 3 weeks and they have put me up at this wonderful 100 year old inn. The website for this inn is www.balsammountaininn.net and you can see some of the pictures of the inn from it's early days and now.  

I was getting a little bit homesick, I stayed at the Inn for 3 weeks total but I was able to come home on Friday night and return on Sunday night though, but living out of a suitcase isn't much fun. My weekends were busy trying to get my and my husband's laundry done before either one of us had to go back out on the road. But I did enjoy the slow pace at the Inn. If I had stayed at a traditional hotel, I would have spent my evenings sitting in my room watching TV but at the Inn I would sit in the lobby every night with my quilting or crocheting and talk to the other guests who would have their books or playing checkers, dominos, scrabble. The owner saw me crocheting my snowflake Christmas ornaments last week and asked if I sold them and how much they were, I gave her a price and she put in an order for 2 dozen assorted snowflakes without glitter and one of the desk clerks also wanted 2 dozen snowflakes as well as 6 angels. I actually made money at the Inn.

Sheila 

WNY is supposed to get 2-4 inches where I live east of buffalo, starting tonight and continuing tomorrow.  We had summer for 2 weeks in March, then spring for a couple weeks, now back to winter I guess, I hope it is winter's last hurrah!!

I just saw the weather for the Sylva area and today they are calling for snow showers! Here it is 43 this morning and only getting to 60 today. We are experiencing March weather in April!

Sheila