Time for a little fun in the creek

It's been HOT here.....in the 90's and we are not used to these temperatures here in the mountains. We usually get a few days of 90's in August, and almost NEVER have any humidity, but we've had both for the past couple of weeks.......it SUCKS!!!!

We decided to go down to the creek and cool off for a while........one thing about Mountain streams....they are COLD, regardless of the air temperature!!

The Harvest Begins

Mom and the girls were out in full force this past week picking the first crop of green beans.  We will plant another crop of beans after these are done and are going to trellis them to try to save some wear and tear on the back!!
 

                                                                                 

Now that the garden has started producing, the kitchen will be a busy place for the rest of the summer, but think about the smell those beans on the stove this winter, mixed with the smell of the wood burning in the fireplace.....YUM...!! 

One of the challenges of living a rural life

Ahhhh.....the challenges of living in the country (and it's GREAT).  We have satellite Internet and with it comes some challenges, like being limited to the amount of bandwidth that you can use during a given time.

Oh well, now that the kids are out of school, and we have a typical 13 year old daughter that loves to use the Internet, we blew by our bandwidth allotment and were shut down by our provider.

Too bad....but we are now back on line with a $20 per month upgrade (yeah, you can magically buy more, right)....so we can begin posting again.

Frustrating, but still doesn't make living a suburban lifestyle worth it, so we will just have to learn to manage our bandwidth better!! 

It's Been A Busy Week..!!

WOW....it's been a busy week.... the kids are out of school now......how that changes your schedule!!

Chris started canning this week by making and 28 pints of grape jelly.  In another few weeks, the wild blackberries we have will begin ripening and she's going to make some blackberry jam.  Hopefully, we'll beat the bears to them this year.  Last year, they got to them the day before we went to pick them so we are going to pick them just a bit early and let them ripen the last few days in the shop.  We'll see how that strategy works out! 

Lauren officially kicked off her summer vacation by catching (or attempting to catch) fireflies.  Her first night was successful and she caught five (not bad since it's still a bit early), but last night, she was skunked by the fireflies but managed to catch a fairly large toad......a far cry from a firefly, but it kept her entertained.  She turned it loose unharmed and the only damage was to the jar that I don't think we'll be using in the kitchen anymore, if you know what I mean.

I wanted to try something different in the garden this year by building a trellis for the cucumbers to grow up on and keep them off the ground as well as make them easier to pick.  We've always planted our cukes in mounds and let them sprawl on the ground, but I read about trellising them on another blog and thought I'd give it a try.  That article showed the use of twine for them to vine up on, but I would think this would cause sagging due to the weight of the cukes, so we used some bamboo stakes that we already had for the uprights and then used green sassafras (flexible enough to weave through supports) to build the vining grid.  We'll let you know how this works out.

          

The potato patch just keeps growing and growing......I hope theree are as many "taters" under the dirt as there is vegatation on top!!!!  We've hilled them as much as we can so they are on thier own now.  Another week or so and we will be picking our first green beans, so we will know how they're doing when we dig for some new taters to go with them.   

                                   

Peace 

Hidden Treasures on the Mountain

It's been a REALLY wet weekend.....we had 6 inches in 2 hours on Friday night.  No major damage to the garden since we had already staked up the Tomatos and Potatos.  Some of our bush beans took a real beating, but they are starting to stand back up today, so all in all, not bad.

Today, I (Dave), went "mountain walking" with a good friend and nieghbor.  Leroy is 73 years old and has lived on the mountain here his entire life.  I really enjoy the time that we spend together as I always learn something new about the area and life the way it REALLY was here 60 and 70 years ago. 

Since our property borders the Smokey Mountain National Park, there is an abundance of unknown secrets to be discovered here.  Leroy knows them all since he grew up here and and has been taking me to old homesteads where stone chimneys still stand, spring houses are still existing, some log cabins that are still intact, etc.  The below picture is of the old Baxter cabin, build in 1877.  The park service still maintains this cabin, so it stays in pretty good shape. 

Today, we hiked up to a part of the mountain where the "butchers" came in over 100 years ago and clear cut the land, but somehow, they managed to miss a few of the old growth pine and poplar.  I've included some pictures here and managed to get a picture of Leroy next to one to put it in perspective as to just how BIG these old growth tress are. 

Lydia plays music at Jr. High graduation

Lydia (seated on left) was asked to play her flute for the Jr. High graduation at her school. She has been playing for 2 years and is really doing well with it. This is the second time this year that she's performed at a school function, in addition to playing at the fall, Christmas and Spring concerts. She has also attended 2 band clinics and one band competition where she earned a first place medal.

Her younger sister Lauren doesn't seem to have the same interest in playing an instrument, but maybe that will change. If not, that's o.k. too.......we encourage our kids to be thier own individual and not do something just because it's what someone else does.

The garden has gone crazy the last few days......we've had showers each day and the potatos and tomatoes have responded with 2-3" of growth each day.

Gonna have to stake up the potatos as they are starting to to fall over during heavier rains.

Hard to beat good ol rain for a fast growing garden!!