Blueberry Picking

Blueberry season means berry picking time and there is no better place to go than Old Orchard Creek Farms out in Lansing.  The directions seemed simple enough.  Just drive through town and keep on going until you're in another world of falling down farm buildings, old cars and distant banjo music.

The farm has been in business for 100 years.  Besides blueberry bushes, they have apple trees and bee hives.  You can buy the berries already picked, or you can grab a red bucket and do-it-yourself.  I was afraid I would spend the morning hunched over looking for berries and was pleasantly surprised that the trees are tall and in neat rows.

  

I walked up and down a couple of rows and picked the darkest berries I could find. The going was slow and the temperature was high.

After an hour my bucket was only half full, but I was completely done-in.  I moseyed over to the open-air barn and cashed out.  My haul was a whopping $4.00 and I was happy.  After buying a giant home-made muffin, blueberry of course, and sitting in the rocker for a spell, I headed home.

New River Tubing

Oh no, more company!  For entertainment, I decided a float down the river was in order.  Hubby could not find our large sturdy rafts, or our stash of water shoes.  He did come up with two inner tubes and borrowed two more from a friend.

Our son drove us to the end of Cox Road and let us out.  He was to pick us up at the dock in the neighborhood in an hour and a half.  We stumbled down a steep embankment to the river.  Dick scratched his arm on some briars but was only bleeding a little.  It has been a very long time since I've sat inside an inner tube.  After getting nice and snug I heard a little hissing sound.  My tube had a small hole.  Oh-oh.  And there went my son driving off.  Okay, I'll just keep my finger over it and hope for the best.

The New River is the oldest river in North America and one of the few that flow north.  It isn't very deep and the water is crystal clear.  We have floated down it many times without incident.  It was one of the hottest days of the season, 95 degrees, and there hadn't been any rain for a while.  We had waited until after 4 PM to head out.

That day the river was quite shallow and we kept getting stuck on logs and rocks.  My little butt hit countless rocks and sand mounds.  My tube held up, but hubby managed to get a hole in his and had to stop several times to blow it up again.  It took us two hours to get two miles down the river and we had another two to go.  I decided to stop at Zaloo's, a kayak and tube outfitters shop, and beg for a telephone.  Although they were closed, it was almost 7:00, one of the fellows let me use his cell phone. I couldn't get hold of our ride, he was still sitting at the rendezvous spot, but managed to call a friend who drove down to let him know where we were.

Finally, at 7:15 the ride from hell was over!  We woke up the next morning with sore necks from holding our heads up while squished in the tube and sore backs and butts from getting beat up  by the rocks.  I am on my way to the hardware store to see if I can replace the borrowed tube.

Our tubes before

 And after

 An easy to spot rock

Watauga Lake, Tennessee

Company is coming!  What are we going to do while they are here?  Hubby noticed an ad for boat rentals on Watauga Lake, located in Tennessee, an hour and 30 minutes away.

Watauga Lake is a man-made lake and is used as a reservoir.  Sixteen miles long and 265 feet deep in areas, it is the third cleanest lake in the country.  I was excited to see this wonder.  It was a perfect day, temps in the 70's and blue skies.  We packed a lunch and donned our swim suits.  The ride was long and windy with lots of scenery and little civilization.

Once there, it only took a few minutes to get our safety instructions for our pontoon boat: life jackets are under the seat and if you go further than 6 miles, you will lose radio contact.  Okay. The boat was easy to handle and fit all 7 of us comfortably.  I had planned two hours for our trip, but we ended up staying for four.  The lake was a greenish blue color and crystal clear, with no fishy smell to it.  It was surrounded by mountains and green trees.  There were very few homes to be seen.

On the way back home hubby said, "Maybe we should buy a boat".  No, I don't think so.  But I will be going back to Wautauga Lake again as we had the most relaxing time floating along and admiring the mountains.

Old Salem Trip

The quilt guild was planning a trip to Old Salem, located in Winston-Salem to visit MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) and tour the town.  A bus was hired and there was to be a quilt turning.  I thought, what the heck, maybe I will learn something new about quilting and I don't have to drive.

We met bright and early and rode the hour and a half to Old Salem.  Our first stop was the museum and we were hustled into a large room with several table pushed together covered with quilts.  We each donned a pair of white gloves.  The museum curator proceeded to talk about each quilt.  They were all hand made and dated from the early 1700's to late 1800's.  Since they were made with store bought fabric and still in good shape, it was determined that they came from wealthy households and were used  for wall hangings or decorations.  Here is a sample of what we saw:

The middle of this one is done in honeycombs, all pieced by hand!

Look at the applique

My favorite.  Done in jewel colored velvets.

After is was over, I thought to myself, when are they going to show us the quilt turning?  And I realized we had already seen it.  After each quilt was displayed, it was folded and put away and the next one was underneath.  Hence, quilt turning.  Duh.

We took a tour of the museum and saw lots of old furniture, pictures, samplers, and quilts.  We wandered over to Mayberry's Restaurant where we waited in line for 20 minutes to order a sandwich, and then waited some more for it to be made.  Downstairs was Winkler's Bakery, established in 1807.  I purchased a sugar cake and Moravian sugar cookies, and a recipe booklet so I can make them at home.

The Moravian Church was open for tours and we wandered around admiring the wooden floors and pews, the stained glass windows.

The town of Old Salem is a living history town that recreates life during 1766 to 1840.  Folks dress in period clothes, stores sell historical replicas of objects used by the Moravians who settled there in 1766. The buildings have been restored and the sidewalks are made of bricks.

What a fun day we had.  

Flower Pounding

If you need to work off some frustration, and create a project at the same time, flower pounding is for you. At the Quilt Guild program  last month one of the rangers from New River State Park came to demonstrate how easy flower pounding is.  He handed out the equipment: board, hammer, fabric and wax paper.  We got to choose our greenery from a large pile of ferns, leaves and wild flowers.

The process is simple: a layer of wax paper, your greenery, topped by a piece of white or muslim fabric.  Take the hammer and pound away.  If you lay the fabric on top, you can see the greenery come through.

  

When you are done, you have the perfect outline of your greenery.  Although you couldn't use the fabric in a washable product, they make gorgeous wall hangings.  For washable products, use iron-on transfer paper that will transfer the fabric onto paper that you will then iron onto your new fabric.  Or you can use fabric printing sheets.  Then you have a project that will last a lifetime.

  

Wild Flowers

The wild flowers this year are just gorgeous.  I don't know if it is from the early spring we had, but the blooms are everywhere.  If you see someone on the side of the road with a scissor and bucket, just keep going, as I can't seem to help myself.  Only kidding, I only cut flowers on the back roads where no one can see me.  My basement storage area is already filled with drying blooms.These photos were all taken on the main road between Jefferson and West Jefferson.

Flea Market Season

Every spring flea markets are as abundant as, well, fleas.  You can find them at churches, front yards, places of business and organizations.  But, they are not all equal.

My first one of the season was the ARTifacts yard sale held by the Ashe County Arts Council. They have a sneak preview for $3.00 on the night before the non-paying public show up Saturday morning.  What is nice about this event is the variety of items available.  This year there was a table loaded with hummel figurines selling for $30.00 each, furniture, croquet set, linens, paintings, home crafted items and books.  I went home with a bag of fabric, a metal tray and knitting needles.

The next weekend I visited the Shriners, the Chevy dealership and two church rummage sales.

It took me a while to find the Shriners building.  The road sign was facing the other direction and I sailed right by it.  If I had known better, I would have kept going.  Once I turned around and saw the sign I drove up to the back of their warehouse and ventured inside.  This was one sorry collection of items, from the dirty dog leash to the rows of old clothes. I scurried out of their empty handed.

Next stop was our church flea market.  The tables were loaded with goodies.  I know the ladies had been working for weeks gathering, pricing and grouping items.  There were Christmas, household, books, fabric, linens, furniture, small appliances, wall hangings, hundreds of patterns and things I never could figure out what they were.

On Saturday I was in charge of the Rada cutlery items that we offer at all of our church events.  I only sold two items, but by Saturday afternoon most of the tables were pretty empty.

Early Saturday morning I stopped at the Chevy dealership.  It looked like folks from the community had set up their own areas to sell their wares.  There were some sad looking items, from old flip-flops to light fixtures and piles of old clothes.  I did go home with a small red pepper seedling that still needs to be planted.  One thing that set this rummage sale apart was the hotdog vendor.  There is nothing like a hot dog at 8 AM.

The Methodist Church in West Jefferson had a preview night also.  The front room held items for a silent auction and what a delightful selection they had.  Here is a sample:

Their tables were overflowing with items from furniture, books, clothes, and it looked like someone had cleared out their crafts rooms as there were piles of ribbons, fabrics and half-finished projects.  I went home with an armful of fabric for $3.00 and brownies from the bake sale.

What a fun couple of weeks I had!  Each sale was different, the people were friendly, and the next great find was right around the corner.  I am itching for next year.