Like Antique-ing?

I love browsing for antiques and

Biltmore Village is the place to go for that and more. They have it decorated for Christmas so it looks like an old English Village. It was the craftsman's village for living while working on the Biltmore Estate in the 1890s. The best place to eat is The Corner Kitchen because they have local foods cooked in such gourmet ways. I recommend the breakfast “Boston Way Bagel and Lox” for lunch the “Biltmore Village Reuben House cooked Corned beef on griddle toasted Rye with melted Swiss and our own yummy Sauerkraut” and for supper, “Black Pepper Molasses Pork Chop with Gingered Sweet Potatoes and Fried Green Tomatoes”
Antique hunting in those barns where they have consignment antiques in little room-like settings is where I found my cute little horsey toy decoration on the fireplace, as well as wooden filing cabinets that I had made into bedside tables in Heavenly Hideaway. I found the greatest cast iron heart pan there for $25 that I have in the Hideaway. Hearts are my theme there!

Anne Tansy of Twig work made this beautiful table that sits inside the living room at Heavenly Hideaway Cabin. I like to purchase local art because the western North Carolina Mountains draw a magnitude of talented arts so why go else where. In fact there are craft tours you can take to see the artists in their own studios sponsored by Hand Made in America. Come to Cloud 9 and see all the other regional artwork I have collected.

Pepper, the cow, has a calf

I rarely get to see my own cows having their calf because usually it occurs so early in the morning or night. But Pepper, my favorite cow, because she is such a good mother to her calves and has plenty of milk, gave me the first oppotunity at 4 in the after noon. These pics were taken with a zoom so they are a little fuzzy but I didn't want to disturb this private moment. Look for the white valentine on its little black head. All the other cows came curiously over to investigate. I usually name a calf for whatever renter is staying at Cloud 9 Relaxation Home, but this was too obvious...Valentine is his name.

Fungi Hunting is Fun

It's mid October and there are still bursts of interesting and beautiful fungi growing out of oak tree roots. Here's a beautiful pinkish orange. It grows bigger by the day! The closest Ican come to identifying it in my Mushrooms of North America book is Polyporus Sulphureus but they say it should be sulphur-yellow. "Growing on a wide variety of hardwoods commonly in late summer and fall, widely distributed." Edible, but I think I'll pass and just admire it. Lots to do on Cloud 9 Farm. Come and hunt fungi on my 200 acres.

Baby Chicks

There's always something to do with chickens here on Cloud 9 Farm. I keep a flock of about 30 with a rooster, (presently "Goldie") which gives me enough farm fresh, large, brown eggs to share with renters, to sell locally and to make quiches, custards and cakes anytime I want. Here's the latest hatch...sort of sad, though. I have 5 mother hens that have given me hope that they are good mothers, but only 3 were serious. The two others abandoned ship and left me with 14 getting-cool eggs. When I realized they weren't coming back to set, I whisked them in an incubator and now have 14 baby chicks to raise. Here's a vacationeer's child having a little fun with the chicks. Soooo cute!

Looking Glass Falls - a short drive!

Here's renter, Alex, at Looking Glass Falls who sent me this picture. You take a 45 minute delightful tour south on the Blue Ridge Parkway (entrance just 8 miles from Cloud 9 through the Pisgah National Forest to this exit to U.S. 276 near Brevard.

Looking Glass Falls is one of the most popular falls in Western North Carolina. The name "Looking Glass" comes from Looking Glass Rock, where water freezes on its sides in the winter and then glistens in the sunlight like a mirror or looking glass. It's right off the road. Take a picnic.

Still in Bloom -the Precious Lady's Slippers

Walk the mountain trails on Cloud 9 properties and hunt for the rare Lady's Slippers. This is my favorite time of year to find these gems in the shaded woods!

Bluerry Patch-Ready for Inspection

Dear Dad,
I haven't seen you in a while so I thought I'd take a photo of how great the blueberry patch looks...all weeded, newly mulched plants in their prime loaded with green berries this May, newly planted 2 year old plants on the upper rows, everything mowed...just the way you'd like it. I love working outside just as you did for something to do in retirement. I will admit it is a little more work than I anticipated but rewarding. It sure gives you a lot of time to think when you're out there with nature and the few cars that pass by on this country road. I hope to restore the patch to its glory days of the mid 1970s when you and Mom were known by everyone around as the place to pick blueberries.
Thinking of you,
Janet
NOTE: Dad died in 2001 at the age of 93. He didn't turn it over to my care until he was 88 and the thorns and trees that had grown up in the patch have taken me 12 years to tame. I think I've finally done it and wanted to tell him as the blueberry patch was and is a favorite place on the farm.

Festival of Flowers-Save the Date '09

Plan ahead and save these dates for next year;
April 4–May 17, 2009

Biltmore's gardens, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, are alive with color as spring arrives. Enjoy special events and the beauty of tulips, azaleas, and countless other flowers during Festival of Flowers. Every vacation renter that stayed at Cloud 9 and Heavenly Hideaway Cabin spent the day at the Biltmore Estate to see the gardens in '08 and were so glad they did.

The Motorcycles are Here!

An internet group of well-behaved Maximum Suzuki motorcyclers meet here every year. The outside workshop, known as the garage, becomes a smorgasboard of colorful helmets, gear and motorcycles in all colors. This year they gifted a waterproof map of their favorite trails which include the Deal’s Gap Tail of the Dragon (318 turns in 11 miles of scenic and twisty US 129 over the mountains of Tennessee into North Carolina which makes for a 300 mile day ) and over Hickory Nut Gap to Lake Lure for a before breakfast breather. Then they talk motorcycles into the night around the campfire pit here at Cloud 9.

Yay! The Tulip Poplar Blooms

It’s pretty exciting to be a bee keeper in WNC this time of year. The beautiful yellow, orange and green bloom of the tulip (yellow) poplar tree drips with nectar (don’t park your car under one in May) and is the major nectar source for honey here along with the locust (tree not cicada insects) and the blackberry blooms. The honey bees zoom industriously back and forth out of their hive to every bloom in a 2 mile radius doing the waggle dance inside the hive to tell the others exactly where the best nectar is. Last year, the freeze devastated the blooms and the year before a terrific wind storm knocked them off in their prime so for now, bee keepers like me say…Yay! The tulip poplar blooms!

PS The beehives are a little over a half mile away from Cloud 9 and Heavenly Hideaway cabin so have no fear if you don’t like honey bees. They are not aggressive unless you’re a bear. Upon renter request, I’ll take you in the hives, with full protective gear, of course.

Come Kick a Rock

Dirt roads, almost as rare as hen's teeth in Fairview, NC as developers demand ameneties for prospective buyers. My favorite winding backroad to town got paved a few years ago. Sure, less dust and easier on the car but it was the road I always took out-of-town guests on the way back from the airport. "We live way back in the hills," I would boast as they gripped the dashboard around the hairpin turns. The next day, they would find out we are really just 4/10 mile from the paved road that leads to town just 15 minutes away. Tee-hee!

But Cloud 9 properties stretch on both sides of this country road. Cows on one side, pasture and woods on the other and follow the gravel drive to the top of the hill where you have the view (and no dust).

Come, kick a rock, take a walk, stop and see images in the clouds, watch the cows grazing, go back in time to simpler ways ...all here.

Giant Black Widow

Asheville has lots of fun places to explore. One of them is the Arboretum off the Blue Ridge Parkway. This traveling exhibit is called Dr. Entomo's Palace of Exotic Wonders and since I had never seen a real live glow-in-the-dark scorpion or been in an artrium filled with hatching monarchs, I went. Here I am almost being eaten by the giant pvc pipe, paper mache black widow!

Caffeine

For those of you that are addicted, let me introduce you to Drinking Beans Coffee Shop otherwise known as Drinkin' Beans or DN BZ as the closest place to get snap-you-awake java. My former 4th grade student, Zach, (pictured here) created this space a year ago. I'm so proud of him. It's a relaxing place, half way to Asheville, full of great artwork and newspapers to read with outside seating, too, looking at the mountains. For the coffee connoisseur, Zach has freshly roasted coffee from the main coffee growing regions just an 7 minute drive away. You might not get the hug I got from him, but DN BZ will welcome you!

That Darned Old Tree

All fall and winter I curse that crab apple tree in the pasture. It's prickly limbs that fall off or have to be trimmed give injuries even to my gloved hands everytime. But now...in the spring...full glorious blossoms (double blossoms this year to make up for the freeze of '07) in pinkish white that make the valley come alive with happy honeybees and happy cows that like the shade and use those prickly low hanging branches to scratch that itch! I sing praises now to that "darned old tree."

In Love with Self

Enjoying his reflection in the sliding glass window on the deck, this robin red breast hops back and forth on the deck for long blocks of time. And it doesn't seem to matter if people are here! At first I marveled at nature's ways but now, after cleaning up the deck for the umpteenth time, I enlisted the help of a sympathetic renter to erect chicken wire deterrents. It worked! Except now he's found the brass kick plates on the front door!

Upon reading up on robins, it's actually territory that he's defending from those invasive, ever-present, mean reflections. I'll be glad when mating season is over.

Blueberries are in Bloom

We can let our breath out now that the danger of frost hurting the delicate, pink and white blueberry blooms is over. Last year in April '07 the 4 day freeze wiped out 98% of the crop so this year's double bloom brings new hope for a bumper crop of those sweet tasting, grape-size delights of blue heaven. If you book Cloud 9 or Heavenly Hideaway cabin in July you'll get to pick your breakfast every morning in my 2 acre field of blueberries on my U-Pick farm. The blueberries are ripe from the last week of June through the end of July. Yummm! right now it's my favorite place to be weeding because the blueberry perfume wafts through the air calling in the pollinators including my honeybee girls from their hive in the next pasture.

It's a Dogwood Time of Year

Remember this time of year, mid April to mid May if you'd like to take a vacation and see the glorious wild dogwood bloom. The white blossoms spread out like sheets through a wood's view amongst the new green leaves coming out of their buds in many shades of green. I've never seen a honeybee on dogwood blossom so they don't have much nectar. Botany fact: the white petals are really a variation of the leaves whereas the yellow centers are individual flowers.

Free Ranging Chickens

When the danger of the (Cooper and Red tailed) hawk's regular feeding time is over (mid day) the "girls" (and 3 boys) are let loose the last couple hours of the day to free range. Here is the beautiful Golden Comet rooster, "Goldy," staying out of the way of the alpha rooster, "Ooleroo" by hiding behind the daffodils.

The Head Fell Off

On the 2oo acres of Cloud 9 Rentals, there are many places of interest, tiki heads to mask tree stumps and stone works all from the property. One that you see in the valley is the Phoenix, sitting on the edge of the woods. You have to look closely to see the rock legs and the graduated in size, flat rocks showing feathers of the body. (The large top "wing" rock is the expensive bought one to complete the scupture's magnificance). I noticed something different about it the other day when driving by...it's head was missing. The head...the many days of searching all the "bone piles" at rock places to find this 'specially shaped rock with a nature-formed beak in profile. How could I not notice it? What makes a 100 pound rock (I'm guessing) fall off? Oh, I forgot to tell you, it is precariously balanced and wedged with smaller shims of rocks so a wind could have done it. so it took two people to right the head and we'll see how long it lasts.

...the phoenix rises from the ashes into new life as this farm is reborn with new vision to share with you...

Happy Spring from Cloud 9 and Heavenly Hideaway!

This is an exciting time of year at Cloud 9 and Heavenly Hideaway when the valley fields turn from brownish to bright green and the cows (herd of 11) start to ignore the last of the hay bales and turn to munching on the succulent new growth. The daffodils, forsythia and lady's slippers are at their peak making for yellow and pink on green my favorite colors.

It is also time for the farmer (me, but sounds like a reason for a ‘work party’ of friends) to impregnate oak logs with shitake spores for growth for the next 2 to 5 years. I take 4 foot culls of forester-prescribed 6 inch oak tree thinnings, drill holes 6 inches apart, insert the shitake spores (mmm, yum, Italian marinated whole shitakes on the spit, what’a meal), and seal them with beeswax.

When you come to the farm, you’ll get a tour OR if you’re like the Good Family and the Signorino Family you can learn the skill yourself and have a photos to take home to prove it! Thanks for pitching in, you willing renters! It was fun for all! Come again next year for the harvest!


Janet