View from the Mountain

A fall of introspection

We have a home about a mile from this small church in western Carteret County.

When I drive by this church I am always reminded of the two small churches that were in our community of Tay Creek, north of Fredericton, New Brunswick in Canada.

Church was a big part of our farm community.

We were far enough north that most of what was done in the community had to be done by members of the community.

The idea that you picked up the phone and got someone from town over twenty miles away to fix something was almost laughable.

It was self selecting community. If you were not rather independent, you just did not live there.  With weather that had temperatures which could approach one hundred degrees in the summer and got below minus forty Fahrenheit in the winter, it was not a place for those who needed the comfort of being in a city or an air conditioned apartment.

The people of Tay Creek lived close to the land, many had gardens and the families of some had been there since the community was settled just before 1900.  All would have put their lives on the line for their community.

One of the interesting things that happened in Tay Creek was that when someone died, the men of the community got together to dig the grave.

People do not just die in good weather.  I can remember us having to burn tires in a grave to thaw the walls enough for us to even them up.

When you went to church for a funeral, you brought a pair of overalls and a shovel.  After the service was over, we buried the person while the women waited in the trucks and cars.

The church in the picture at the first of the blog is also not far from Camp Lejeune.  Today we are hearing the thump, thump of mortars.

If you live down here, you know that live mortar practice often means that some unit from Lejeune is preparing to ship out, likely to Iraq.

Also by living here, we know how young these soldiers are.

It seems like we are sending them to fight what can only be called a war for which no one seems to want to take responsibility. 

These wonderful, dedicated, partriotic soldiers live far from the Washington beltway.  Someone just makes a call and off they go to the other side of the world to fight for something that cannot quite be defined to anyone's satisfaction.

It is certainly not the way things should work.  It is too easy to send someone off to war when you cannot see them or know them. Someone important should be there shaking their hands as they climb on the airplanes.

When you take the time to dig someone's grave and bury them, you feel something of a connection to them even if you only had a passing acquaintance with  them.

Maybe we should send members of Congress out to dig a few graves or to watch a little waterboarding.  I seriously doubt we would have troops still in Iraq very much longer.

Our brave, young soldiers are too precious to be sent off to war by a government that thinks torture is debatable.

As much as I would just like to lose myself in a new technology project or going fishing once the weather clears up, I cannot.  The thump, thump of the mortars will not stop.

That time of year for apple cider and hard candy

We have probably lived in the Roanoke Valley too long.

You can easily predict what we will do by the weather and the leaves.

If you get some fall colors on the trees, we will likely end up at Jamison's Orchard & Produce.

I went with only a couple of things on my mind, some good apple cider and a few crisp apples.

When we walked into their store, the candy making smelled so good that I had to bring home a bag of their hard candy.

I have not enjoyed one of the apples yet, but I know it will be a good evening snack. 

The cider is delicious even if it is imported from Pennsylvania.  I can remember when Jamison's Orchard made their own cider but that dates me a little.

And the hard candy, well that is hard to keep sampling.

Remembering the cider bring back lots of memories of enjoying fall hikes along the ridges behind the Jamison's Orchard.

The valley is changing, and there are more homes on the ridges than I ever dreamed that I would see.

One of those Saturday afternoons

Sometimes I think my days are colored by the scenery that I see.

Yesterday, a Saturday, I had hoped for brilliant blue skies so I could catch some of the beauty of the late fall colors.

It never happened which I think did not help my mood.  Having come back from the warmth of the Carolina coast, I also had trouble getting warm.

Part of it was neglecting to turn up the heat when I got out of bed.  It didn't occur to me that it needed doing until I was already cold and discovered the thermostats were still on 65 degrees which is what we leave them on when we travel.

On the coast our home has a heat pump which for best efficiency we just set at 68 degrees and leave it.  If we want it warmer, we turn on the ventless gas fireplace.  It was only this past Wednesday morning when we turned the heat on at the coast.

We had a frosty morning at the coast when the temperature got into the mid-thirties and the wind stopped.

The frost did not quite make it to the house, and the tomato plants which are at the back of the house near the water were spared.  That was a good thing since I have picked nearly sixty tomatoes in the last week or so.

The frost on the Centipede grass means we are done mowing for the year even though temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-seventies next week.  In Roanoke our Bluegrass yard seems to be thriving in the increased moisture and cooler temperatures.

Friday afternoon we drove from Roanoke to Cornelius, NC.  As we passed over the top of Fancy Gap Mountain, the temperature was 41 degrees at about 3:00 pm.  When we got to Cornelius eighty five miles south and a couple of thousand feet lower, the temperature was 61 degrees.

Cornelius is so dry that all outside watering has been banned.  My daughter is pretty unhappy about that since she misses her fall pansies.

The trip to Cornelius and back added another six hours of driving to the six hours from the coast that got us home around 11 pm on Thursday night.

With the temperature changes and all the driving, I decided I needed to relax and have some mindless activity.

What better way to accomplish that than watch Saturday afternoon college football?  That was especially the case since Glenda had taken off to the Stocked Market with one of our neighbors.

First I caught the NC State-UNC battle which is of interest since I was born in North Carolina where you generally have to declare your team allegiance at birth.  Somehow I have managed to get myself into the position of rooting for NC State in football and Carolina in basketball.

Which team draws your support in a given game is always a challenge unless you are a died in the wool sports fan.

I have some teams that I like and sometimes players which sway my decisions.  I pulled for Duke in basketball when JJ Reddick was there since he went to Cave Spring High School which is where all our kids graduated.

Generally I pull against all Florida teams on the theory that it is likely they have already won enough games, and it is time for some other team to win.

Usually in the Va. Tech-Virginia games I pull for Va. Tech except I pulled for UVa when the Barber twins were there since I watched them play football at Cave Spring.

Yesterday, I went into the Va. Tech-Florida State game not really having a favorite, but eventually I got to feeling sorry for Frank Beamer not having beaten the Seminoles so I was pulling for Tech when they got behind in the third quarter.

Since Frank Beamer is from Hillsville which is close to Mount Airy where I grew up, I felt some sort of connection.

It was nice to see the Va. Tech team rally and win a really big game.  After the Va. Tech game, I had hoped to the see the BC-Maryland game.

Somehow the ABC executives decided our area did not need to see that game.  I had expected that to be a tough game for BC since Maryland can be sporadically good at football.

Still the big game for the ACC could end up being a rematch of Va. Tech and BC.  I'll be pulling for Va. Tech in the Miami and UVa games and for BC in the Clemson game.

Football is one of those interesting games which provides great background noise.  As we enjoyed pizza with some neighbors last night, football was on the television.  It provides just enough interest to keep things exciting if it is a good match.

I am happy to report that the one football match-up that I really care about is going to be a good one this year.  As one site put it, The Game is on Deck.

The game to me is Harvard, my alma mater, which is 6-0 in Ivy League play facing Yale which is also 6-0 in the league.

This is only the third time this has happened.  One of those three times was when I was a freshman in college in 1967.  Harvard actually won that game which had a score of 29-29.  I wrote about that in a post I did on the Blacksburg web villages site recently.

Unfortunately I cannot be in Boston next weekend, but I will be there in spirit even if I am watching some other game.

Well the Roanoke Times Sunday edition just arrived a couple of hours late.  Now I can read for a while instead of writing.

The community dinner

There is something special about sitting down to dinner with the people from your community.

If I had to give a name to the interaction that takes places at one of these events, I would have to call the Durgin-Park effect.

Durgin-Park is an old restaurant in the Market district of Boston which as the advertising says "was established before you were born."

It is famous for big hunks of prime rib still on the bone, somewhat saucy waitresses, and the long dining house style tables with red checked table clothes which can put you across the table from anyone.

Most of us would stay in a rut unless something pulled us out of it occasionally.  Making a new human contact is something that reminds us that we are part of human family that transcends our own families.

A community or church dinner is one of those things that will keep you human.  You learn what is going on outside your family and even meet new and interesting people.

The picture in the post comes from the Swansboro, NC Pig Cook off and Crafts' Fair which was held this past Friday and Saturday.

Saturday afternoon we stopped by to enjoy a six dollar dinner of more eastern style barbecue than you can eat.  In the eastern part of the North Carolina, the community meals generally focus on barbecue, fish, and oysters.

As is often the case, we met some new folks and then got a visit by some friends that we had recently made.  Another year, and we will be old timers.

After lots of talk, we walked around and enjoyed the local crafts.

Today we had a lunch after the service in our Cape Carteret Presbyterian Church.  It was a great time to meet some new people.

We have enjoyed some great Wednesday night meals at our Roanoke church home, Covenant Presbyterian.

It seems many of the community meals in western NC and Virginia focus on chicken.  One of my favorites is Fire Station Chicken.  The chicken has to be appropriately charred to be tasty.

Besides providing some very good food, these community and church meals bring us together so that we can realize how much common ground that we still have.  We need more of that.  Talking to each other will bring us together and offers more hope of solving problems than a bunch of politicians.

It is hard enough for families to get together these days, so an opportunity to sit down with your community is very rare.  In many cases it is nearly impossible for communities to sit down at a few tables and look each other in the eye.  Luckily people work hard at figuring out how to it.  I think it is a part of our instincts.  The need to be together in a group is a powerful force.

Yet that being together is exactly what we need. I have learned that the Internet and Email can have a very dehumanizing effect on people.

The more people get hooked on electronic communication, the bigger chance we have of forgetting how to treat real people.

People say and do things in emails and instant messages that they wouldn't do in person. 

I have seen people who are addicted to their Blackberries and cell phones completely lose their humanity and forget how to treat people as people.

I still believe in personal contact with other humans as a key to your sanity.

It that is old school then count me as old school.  Certainly my old school attitude is helping me be successful in real estate.

I hope I remain hooked on humans.  I can still remember when we lived on the farm in Tay Creek, New Brunswick.  One of the highlights of the summer was the community getting together to eat.

The next time you have a chance to go to a community or church meal, take advantage of it.  You will find something special there besides the food.

Summer slipping away

We walked the beaches of Emerald Isle on November 1.

The temperature actually reached 80 degrees sometime during the day.

It was very nice walking along the beach.  The breakers were really impressive.

There was very little wind in advance of Hurricane Noel.  However, the waves were very impressive. I have never seen that many surfers on the beach at one time.

I noticed that Kevin Myatt of the Roanoke Times posted a blog entry, "Hurricane Noel will help it get colder here."

I don't think it is just Roanoke that is going to get colder.

Today when I went over to the beach, the winds were very strong from the north.  Since we have east-west beaches, the wind was blowing the water off shore   We certainly aren't going to hit 80 degrees for the next few days.

Also the water temperature is down to 69 degree Fahrenheit.  The good news is that is still much warmer than Canadian water.

I heard of winds hitting 47 mph in Harker's Island.  There is some localized flooding along the Neuse River.

The Weatherground has this to say about the Noel related weather.

Sound side flooding along the southern Pamlico Sound will be most significant across eastern Carteret County where water levels of 4 to 6 feet above normal are possible. Flooding is expected alongBack Creek... Adams Creek and South River. Portions of Highway 12 near Cedar Island will likely become flooded and may become impassable on Friday.

Breakers of 10 to 12 feet are forecast in the surf along the
Outer Banks from Cape Hatteras north Friday through Saturday
morningThe rough surf and strong onshore flow will produce
moderate beach erosion and ocean over wash around high tide. High tide Friday will occur around 2 am and 230 PM with the best chance for over wash occurring during the higher Friday afternoon high tide.

That kind of weather is one reason, I am happy to be in western Carteret County. The area from Ocracoke north on the map always has challenges during these storms. We are just a little less exposed on the Southern Outer Banks. 

View Larger Map

I'll try to post some more beach photos later this evening.

Update- This morning in the Cape Carteret area, the winds have died down some and are expected to calm down by afternoon. We are headed to almost seventy degrees today.  The forecast has us dropping into the low forties for the first time this fall.

Here are the Emerald Isle surfing pictures that I took on Thursday afternoon when it was eighty degrees on the beach.