tubing the laurel creek

Last weekend we tubed the Laurel Creek with Jess and Eric. It was tons of fun. The water was a perfect temperature and there were enough rapids to keep us entertained and to waterlog the old camera we brought along.   :-)  The water was lower than the weekend we came up with the idea, but it was still a lot of fun. We didn't make it all the way to the French Broad River because the sun was disappearing, but we probably made it three-fourths of the way and then walked the rest the way out to the car. All in all, a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Three Year Anniversary

We went camping last weekend to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. We had beautiful weather and a beautiful camping spot.  We went on some lovely walks to a couple of waterfalls.





Madera, of course, had a lot of fun swimming around!

catching up...

We are being overrun with veggies from our garden...we love it! We can't miss a day of going out to the garden and picking the new stuff otherwise we end up with enormous zuchinis and yellow squash. Which are not as tasty. Mat's been busy chopping them up and putting them in our freezer. I've cut down our basil bushes and made up 4 batches of pesto to freeze and I still have basil leaves left to either dry or make more pesto!  We have started making lots of salsa with our tomatoes and our banana peppers.  We are also dehydrating our tomatoes and then we are going to freeze them.  We are stoked that the manure investment seems to be paying off in our garden this year...oh yeah, and the rain definitely helps!

At the end of June, we went to Roan Mountain to check out the flame azalea and rhododendron blooms.  We were a little late.  But we had a great time watching the sun set and eating cheese and crackers!

We did see a bunch of beautiful and rare gray's lilies.

A couple of days later at work, I found out that if we'd only gone into the actual state park we would have seen a ton or the rhododendron and flame azaleas blooming!  A visitor was telling me how on Friday (we went on Saturday) they'd gone to Roan Mountain and it was so beautiful and they showed me some pictures otherwise I wouldn't have believed them.  And then they told me that it was up the road from where we went...we never even thought of going there.  We like our jaunt up on the Tennessee/NC border!  Next time, we'll have to do both!

Last weekend, we went biking down the Laurel Creek trail and enjoyed swimming in the Laurel River and jumping off rocks!  We chose a nice spot to have lunch where there were some waterfalls and cascades and we could basically sit right on a rock in the river.  It was sweet!  When we finished up lunch we saw a family of four tubing through the rapids above us and we actually thought the cascades/waterfall that we were at were pretty big, so we waved to the family and the dad checked it out and picked a route and he floated on down it and then the mom floated and she only lost her hat, and then the boy went.  He looked about 10 years old!  The little girl didn't go instead she through sticks for Maddy to get!  When the dad offered us his tube, we couldn't say no.  So we both got to float the rapid section...it was awesome.  So now, we are hoping next weekend will be HOT and we are gonna tube the whole length.  Yippee!  We are searching for tubes with handles...

Roan Mountain Trip

So, we decided a little more than a week ago, that we should go check out the rhododendron blooming at Roan Mountain. It was the weekend of the rhododendron festival, so we thought they probably were blooming like we have seen in the past and are so beautiful.

Not the best way to spend the 4th of July...

On Thursday we were planning to go either backpacking with some friends, canoe down a river, or to go mountain biking on both Friday and Saturday and then check out our co-worker's band play at the Barnardsville community celebration. That sounds like a good time, right?

Somehow, between Thursday and Friday morning we decided that maybe we should just quick fix the leak on our back porch, which we knew required taking the old shingles off and putting on a new roof.

Good times, eh?  How do you like the 1x4's underneath the roof?

By the time we finished pulling off all of the shingles and getting all the nails out, it was time to call it a day.  We had Mat's family over to grill out to help reduce the amount of zuchini and yellow squash that we've picked from our garden.

Definitely one of the highlights of the weekend!

The next day we were at it bright and early...but not too early, since we do have neighbors.  We started at 8 a.m. and by mid-afternoon when our neighbor Brian & Kim called, we were only too grateful that they came over and brought us fruit bars and cold drinks!  They supplied us with a much needed break and entertainment.  AND then Brian stayed and helped with the roofing project!  We owe them big time!  Especially since his wife went into labor Sunday morning.  Mat's dad came over too and really helped us out.  (All on the 4th of July).   Aren't you glad that you don't live near us?

About 7:30 p.m. we were finished and we were able to make it out to Barnardsville to hear our co-worker's band play at their 4th of July celebration and then watch the fireworks.   Which were actually pretty amazing!

I don't think I would recommend to anyone getting into a roofing project on a holiday weekend.  It wasn't really the most festive way to spend the weekend!  But it is done now and we don't have to worry about that project any longer.  Phew.