Boxes, boxes, and More Boxes

I grabbed my cell phone and snapped these two photos, just to show that yes, we did work like dogs today....so if you click to see the full size image, they are a bit blurry (cheap cell phone camera). By the end of the day, more than 90% of Mom and Dad's house was loaded. The 26' moving truck was full, the back of Dad's pick up was full, and the trailer behind the truck was full. In addition, we moved their freezer (with the hundreds of pounds of last year's butterbeans, squash, and other such heavy items) and a chair over to my brother's house....and I brought home a mattress and springs, and a couch. I got the bed inside, but will have to wait on help tomorrow on the couch (possibly made of lead). Of course, I got in a huge storm with rain and hail on the way home. The stuff in the back of my pickup was wrapped in tarps, but still got a bit wet.

Moving Day

Well, my parent's have finally did it. They have sold their house near Atlanta and are moving up to their mountain property near the Georgia/North Carolina state line. You may have seen a post several weeks ago, when a previous buyer backed out on them.

And as a part of sending them off to retirement, I am heading up there this weekend to help them load up their stuff onto the rented moving truck. I did take some photos of the property, but can't put my hands on them at the moment. Here is one that I found that shows their barn and valley land (future homesite).

You can see the property though from a vacation home that is for rent up the hillside. Go to this link and scroll down to the 2nd & 3rd from last photo (the one labeled Mystic Ridge) and you will see a small barn down in the valley. That is my parent's place. They will be building a house down there over the next several months and living in their fifth wheel camper in the meantime. My mom likes to joke that they are about to become homeless...but only for a few months. And no...their new house will not be as fancy as the one in the link above.

Mountain Laurel is Blooming!

I went on a short hike on the Hitchiti Trail this morning with my friend Bonnie. Along with us were 10 students and parents from the Matt Arthur Elementary School's Ecology Club. The kids dodged the poison oak, squealed at the sight of a spider, collected some snail shells, and learned some things about loblolly pines and hardwood bottoms as we hiked along Falling Creek and had lunch at the Ocmulgee River.

Along the way, we passed several large clusters of mountain laurel blooming profusely. It was at the peak of flower power!

After our snack lunch, we watched some fly fisherman catch a nice shoal bass out of the Ocmulgee, then returned up the trail as the rain began to fall. Although we were a little damp, we still had a fun day in the woods and by the river.

Thanks go out to Bonnie for snapping the pics of the kids! I forgot to bring my camera!

JCCFS pics set to music

Here are a few photos from my trip last week to JCCFS. Some are the same as those below, plus a few more of my woodturning classmates. I hope you like the video slideshow. Also, thanks to a new friend that I met at the folkschool, Ole Gade from Appalachian State University, I now have a photo of myself trying to cut a bowl on the lathe, and another with me in the background trying to look like I know what I am doing...that is Tom in the front with a bowl that exploded. Thanks Ole!

A couple more John C Campbell Folkshool Pics

Here are some of the bowls that I finished at the Folkschool this past week. You can click on them to
open up a larger photo...then click on the BACK button on your browser to return here.

After a bit of practice, it was getting a bit easier; but I really would need to buy a lathe if I wanted to continue with this hobby, as that it does take lots of practice. The lathes and tools are out of my reach right now, so maybe in a few years.

Our woodturning class at the Folkschool took a fieldtrip on Wednesday to a nearby woodturning legend....the very interesting Øland Studios , where we met with Lissi Øland. She came to the Folkschool after immigrating to America from Denmark in the early 60's. Although she was trained as a linguist and dentist, she picked up the turning bug from some classes that she took at the Folkschool, and from her husband Knud.

As you can see, Lissi is known for her large turnings. She is standing by a massive one that is still sitting on the lathe in her studio.



Back at the folkschool, I spotted this large clay pot sitting in the edge of the briars and kind of liked the contrast of the smooth clay to the thorny brambles.