View from the Mountain

Storms of life

My mother used to tell me that you have to be tough to get old.  She was definitely tough, and she did get old.   She was the head cook in her family before she was even able to lift the big cast iron pan of biscuits into the oven.  Her family home burned down when she was a teenager.  She faced many more challenges in her life, but she never let them slow her down.

I learned two very simple things from her.  The first life lesson was that hard work is not a burden but a gift.  That we are able to work hard and enjoy it is a blessing that only lasts during part of our life.  As my mother got into her nineties there were many things she could not do.  I remember her remarking often that she would much rather be working very hard than sitting around watching someone else work.

The second thing my mother taught me is that you cannot live in the past.  Your life is in the future.  While you have to be mindful of the past, you cannot let it bind your future.  Mother rarely looked back.  She knew she made mistakes, but she also knew that letting the past weigh you down was a sure recipe for failure.

In the last twelve months many of us have faced both challenges in our lives and our environment.  We live in a world which is much more complex than it was when my mother grew up. Still she lived through the Great Depression so she knew the value of steady work and the challenge of getting a job during tough times.

My mother also lived through some real storms.  One of my earliest memories is riding in the car with mother as we followed an evacuation order from the Outer Banks.  I still remember seeing water half way up the wheels of her old 1952 Ford, but I wasn't afraid because I knew my mother would keep me safe.

When mother was over seventy she flew to our farm in New Brunswick, Canada one December to watch over our children while my wife had our third baby. 

That turned out to be an amazing time to be in New Brunswick. In an area famous for blizzards, we had one that people still remember.  However, the blizzard wasn't the only challenge.  The temperature was dropping to levels that were very dangerous.  Every day the low temperature for the previous day became the high temperature for the next day.

When the temperature reached minus forty, our youngest daughter decided to be born.  We made it the hospital, and I left my truck running while our daughter was delivered.  As soon as she was born, and I knew everything was okay.  I headed back to the farm which was twenty miles north.  I barely made it home in our big four wheel drive truck.  The next day they had to send out the snow blowers from the airport to clear a section of road about a mile from us. It had snow drifts over twenty feet high.

I'll always remember dinner that night after our daughter was born.  When I walked into the house, mother was calmly cooking fried chicken like she had so many times during her life.  There were blankets hanging in the windows, and our children were fine.

In the last twelve months we survived six weeks without any rain, Hurricane Irene, a brush with a tornado, and recently a wild line of thunderstorms that killed three people.  On top of that a derecho delivered winds that took the power out at our home in Roanoke, Virginia.  The power there has finally come on after being out for three days.  Amazingly our power on the coast was only out for three hours with Hurricane Irene.

The weather has added its own brand of challenges to a world struggling to recover from the wars which were paid for by credit cards and a political system that appears to be owned by those who already have title to almost everything.

Mother just took all that happened in her amazing life in stride and kept working and doing what she could to help those around her. It is a good recipe for life in good and tough times.

She set a great example. In my own way, I will follow her footsteps.  She wasn't perfect, and neither am I, but with all that we have survived, I have got to hope better times are around the corner. 

While I am waiting for those good times, I will try to leave things just a little better than I found them.

 

 

 

White Lady Peaches, a special summertime treat

I will confess to being a food person.  I love to find great food, and I enjoy eating it.  Whether it is a fantastic piece of salmon or some great home grown tomatoes, I think eating quality food is not only a treat but good for you.

When I tasted this White Lady peach from Jamison's Orchard in Roanoke, Virginia, I knew that I would have to write about it so that it could join the collection of great food that I have talked about in my blog posts.  A peach as good as the White  Lady deserves to be memorialized.

I know that I have never tasted a peach like the White Lady.  The first bite made me think that it had been infused with sugar.  I wasn't surprised when I went back the next day, and all the White Ladies were gone.  I consoled myself by going home and grilling a few lesser peaches.

Most people understand that the closer you get to the farm, usually the better your food is.  We lived on a farm in Canada for sixteen years in the seventies and early eighties.  I raised purebred Angus cattle, milked a Guernsey cow, and collected eggs from our hardy band of chickens who ate snow in the winter instead of drinking water.  We also had a huge garden which produced wonderful English peas, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, squash, corn, tomatoes, zucchini, and more potates than we could ever eat. My wife made homemade bread, yogurt, and even churned butter.

I was also raised in the Piedmont of North Carolina where gardens, fresh foods, and canning are a tradition.  With that kind of background, I like to think I have a head start on most people when it comes to finding great fresh foods.

We also are fortunate to be near Jamison's Produce and Orchards when we are in the Virginia mountains overlooking Roanoke and close by Winberry's Farm when we are staying on the North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks near the beaches of Emerald Isle.  Both are excellent sources of wonderful locally grown produce.

Our fresh produce season on the coast starts usually in the middle of April with the first ripe strawberries.  The real excitement for me comes with the first homegrown tomato of the season which is usually around the first of June.  When we have a dry fall, our tomatoes can last well into December.  I have picked them as late as December 19.

Between the middle of April and the middle of December, we enjoy wonderful local produce and some fantastic locally caught fish and shrimp from places like Clyde Phillip's Seafood between the bridges in Swansboro.

Each area has specialities. The cabbage, squash, peaches, and apples seem to do particularly well in the hills and mountains around Roanoke.  Tomatoes, blueberries, cantaloupes, watermelons, and sweet potatoes are specialities along the coast.  A Bogue Sound watermelon is a true special summer treat.  If the moisture is there corn seems to do well in both areas.

After the watermelons come in, we know the coastal produce season is starting to wind down.  By late August, much of our produce at the coast comes from the north.  During August we can stay local by heading to Roanoke, where we often get to re-visit what we have enjoyed on the coast during July.  Corn and tomatoes really hit their stride in the mountains during early August.

Last year, we had an unusual fall, and there was a time when pumpkins and watermelons were at the produce stand together during early October. 

In September and early October, we get a special treat along the coast, Epsicopalian lobsters.  Two of the area churches have lobsterfests which we always try to attend.

By late October, we see the last of the local produce, huge bags of sweet potatoes that have been cured and are ready to winter in our garage.

Then it isn't long to the Thanksgiving feast, and not long after that I am planting tomato seeds for next year's crop.

Never take life or civilization for granted

I know what it is like to live on the edge of civilization far from most of your family. 

Our farm in central New Brunswick was remote enough that we didn't bother with fences in the back of the property.  There was nowhere for the cattle to go. 

You know that you are back in the boonies when 200 head of cattle don't need to be completely fenced. Calling on family to help is a little hard if they are 23 hours away by car.

Today we live on the eastern edge of the North Carolina.  Before settling down, we looked farther to the east, but we chose not to live on Ocracoke Island or the extreme eastern part of Carteret County which is often called "Down East."  Part of the reason we picked our spot on the Southern Outer Banks was the availability of services and the chance to be close to people.

Where we live near Cape Carteret overlooking the White Oak River, it takes us just seven or eight minutes to get to the closest of four grocery stores that are within ten minutes or so from our home. The same circle of ten minutes will get us to a number of hardware stores including a Lowe's Home Improvement Center.  Walmart, Sears, Belks, Best Buy, and Bed, Bath and Beyond are on the edge of Morehead City about twenty minutes from our home.  SAMS Club, Target, and Barnes & Noble are thirty minutes away in Jacksonville. Our hospital is twenty five minutes away, a little closer to the center of Morehead City.

Our current home is far different than the spot we lived in the wilderness in the seventies and eighties. Everything there that you didn't grow or make yourself required at least a half hour drive.

Our home today is a comfortable spot with all the things you need for a civilized life. The feeling of civilization here is welcome though very different than it was in our home of the past twenty years on a mountain looking down on Roanoke, Va.

Subdivision living whether in Roanoke or Cape Cartert is very different than when you are out on your own in the boonies.  There you learn to do almost everything but there are few neighbors close by.  Even if you could get a plumber on the phone out in the boonies, they likely would be reluctant to drive 40 minutes into the wilderness if they have plenty of business in town. Here in Cape Carteret, our plumber lives a few houses up our street.

Living on the edge of wilderness is a different way of living.  While you become very independent, you also end up being closer to your neighbors because neighbors helping neighbors is often the only way that anything gets done.  Most subdivisions don't have that same degree of closeness unless real tragedy strikes.

If people in a subdivision lose their power, they light some candles and hunker down to wait for the utility company to get the power fixed. Usually the power comes back on in a matter of hours, and sometimes people don't even know if they neighbors have lost power. When the power goes out far from the reach of town, people check on each other.

Our first experience living almost off the grid was on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.  One September in 1974, we had a heavy early snow storm.  It took out the power for a week in our tiny settlement of Saint Croix Cove.  The road to the small town of Bridgetown was closed with huge snowdrifts.  There was no such thing as city water, every home had their own well with a pump. There were under a dozen houses stretched out over a mile. One neighbor figured out how to run our shallow well pumps with his chain saw.  There was never a question of whether or not he would help others, that was his first thought.  We survived that week with his chainsaw pumped water and by cooking in our fireplace.

Having learned appreciation of wilderness long ago, we chose a rural but well within the grid spot, Cape Carteret, for our semi-retirement. We wanted easy access to services had become part of our lives while living near Roanoke.  Being near several restaurants wasn't important in our younger years, but now we like to enjoy the option of an meal cooked by someone else. This area near Emerald Isle was also an area where we thought people might enjoy visiting with us.  That has proved to be the case.

Still we are not in place without risk. Even in our cozy spot with south facing beaches, we could have a bad hurricane, but so far we have only watched them swing by us and head for the Northern Outer Banks or even Nova Scotia. 

Still when I stand on the westernmost edge of the Point on Emerald Isle where the picture at the top of the post was taken, I am mindful that the web of life that supports us all is easily disrupted or even ended. As I look out in the Atlantic Ocean from the Point, I know that I am standing on a beach that isn't on most maps and could be gone after the next Nor'easter. Still you don't have to be standing on movable sand in the Altantic to be at risk.

On April 8, 2011, two tornadoes touched down in Pulaski, Virginia. By all accounts these are the first two tornadoes in the town's recorded history.  Approximately 400 homes were damaged or destroyed according to the Roanoke Times. According to a report from a friend, one tornado came across the mountains before touching down in downtown Pulaski and then crossed Interstate 81 and damaged a local service station.  On Saturday, April 9, Pulaski enforced a curfew and thousands are still without power.  Our friend living there tells me that the number of trees destroyed is hard to comprehend.

Weather like life is something that we cannot predict.  This past winter with its snow on the coast is further proof of that.

This winter turned out to be the coldest one in 100 years here on the Crystal Coast.  We were not alone in the deep freezer. People in the Northeast are just starting to thaw out. The first week of April there was snow in the mountains around cities in southern California. On the morning of April 9, 2011, it snowed in Arizona.

There really isn't much in this world that is very predictable except that there is a good chance tomorrow will come with its own set of challenges.

That is, tomorrow will come if we are lucky. By the time you past the milestone of sixty years, you have seen a number of friends pass away.  Many have left unexpectedly, and some have gone without giving us time to say a proper good-bye.

A few years ago the first college classmate that I knew well died.  It was a shock to me even though we hadn't talked for over thirty years.  Somehow I always expected that we might have one more conversation.  We both led very busy lives so it never happened.  There was no fault on either side, but it did convince me  to complete every circle that I can while I am lucky enough to still be here on earth. If I can make the time for a beach walk, surely I can search out a few old friends.

Not long ago, a childhood friend of my son was killed in a tragic car accident. She was a well-loved teacher just in her thirties and had two young children.  It was only this last Christmas that we had reconnected with her family and sent them a scanned copy of a wonderful letter our son's friend wrote to our family when we moved from Canada.  She was probably seven years old at the time. I am sorry we never got to talk to her again.

While it is easier than ever to touch people using technology, I know that a Facebook conversation is not as satisfying as getting in  a car and visiting or hearing the person's voice on a phone.  Recently we visited my wife's aunt who turned 82.  We made a special trip to be with her on her birthday.  I am glad we made the time. We will always have that memory and those of regular phone calls that my wife makes to her aunt.

Most of us are very fortunate in having a lot of people touch our lives. The challenge we face in modern life is making sure that the touch which might have meant so much to us doesn't go unreturned while we still have a chance.

We have just had two sets of Canadian friends visit with us in the last three months.  One set we hadn't seen in 22 years, and the other we last saw 25 years ago.  Our lives are much richer for those visits. The memories that we made long ago now have been refreshed or enhanced, and a few new ones have been added.

I am glad we managed to get together while we all were still watching the sun come up each morning.

 

 

 

 

How did we get here from there?

It was in fall of 1981 when we had our cattle dispersal sale.  Technology in those days did not go much beyond electronic calculators.  At least in Canada where we lived at the time, most computers were limited to large businesses and government.

As I think back to that time, the most advanced electronic device we had in our home was a Panasonic VCR.  I had gotten it one winter when bad weather had kept us inside more than even our Canadian souls could take.  We had to drive twenty miles to rent a move.

Cell phones were not on any horizon of mine.  We were happy to have a private telephone line.  When we moved to the farm in the fall of 1974, we had to fight to get something other than a party line.

Television was not very much a part of our life.  We only had two channels. Most of our news came from the radio which we often had tuned to the Canadian Broadcasting Company or CBC as we called it.

The Daily Gleaner which was the daily paper out of Fredericton, New Brunswick came in the mail so we did not see it until the day after it was published.

We did read a lot of magazines and books.  We even subscribed to a number of them including Newsweek, Time, and MacLean's the Canadian news magazine.

In August of 1982, I brought home an Apple II+ computer with an Epson MX-80 printer, AppleWriter II, and DBMaster database software. That fall, a year after we sold all our cattle, I went to work selling microcomputers for a small office in Fredericton.

While at the time, the speed of change seemed amazing, it is nothing to what it is today.  Perhaps a good measure of home much things have changed is the Apple catalogue from my first days of selling computers.

It was still on the shelf two years after initial publication. In fact it took Apple almost four years to get from the Apple II+ to the next major advancement, the Apple IIe.  The Apple IIe had upper and lower characters and could display 80 columns of text on the screen without a third party card.

Today I read an article about Google's new web-based market for Android devices.  I went to the webpage, saw the Realtor.com Android app and had it wirelessly installed on my phone from my computer.

The wide scale technology infrastructure that had to put in place for that to happen is almost mind boggling.

This evening I read about the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News and Observer each laying off twenty employees. Newspapers, except some of the national ones and a few very small local ones are dying.

Apple probably stopped printing brochures and sales literature shortly after 2000.  I worked for Apple for almost twenty years, and when we did shows after 2000 we had to create our own literature.  As far as the company was considered the web had replaced expensive print advertising.  The truth was probably that the brochures could not be updated as fast as the technology we sold was changing.

Today not only do we have computers in the home, we have them in our pockets much of the time.  We communicate with others more through computers than we do through even the telephone which many young people regard as an antique.

In 1982 when I started working in our computer sales office, we had a secretary who took written messages for us on little pink slips.  We picked them up when we came back in the office.  Then came voicemail and eventually remote voicemail.  About a year ago, our real estate office stopped using voicemail since clients prefer to contact agents on their cell phones rather than wait for a return phone call.

Sometime in the mid-eighties I remember lugging an original Macintosh computer into my hotel room so I could get email which was not very fancy in those days.  It was, however, my most reliable connection with my employer, Apple.

Now I get up in the morning, glance at my email to see if anything interesting has shown up in my in basket, and browse the web while having my morning coffee. I hit a website that tells me the weather in a number of places that I have lived. I might look at the NY Times and a few other papers to see if there are articles that interest me. It I see a good one, I might Tweet it to the 150 people who follow me at @ocracokewaves.  If I have time, I might glance at Facebook to see if any of my 132 friends have done anything interesting.

My morning walk to get the tiny newspaper that still remains a part of our life might result in a great photograph of a heron or pelican.  When I get back inside I will share it with some people through one of my online albums.

This afternoon I went on a hike around the marsh in our subdivision here on the Crystal Coast.  I took my phone with me.  While I haven't moved the track which the phone recorded over to Google maps, it is not very dissimilar to this recent hike.

It is pretty amazing to think while my phone was tracking me, I could also check my email if I wanted while on my walk.  I could use the camera on my phone to take a picture or video and with a few clicks I could post it where others could see it.  All this could be done while standing on the edge of the marsh.

Tonight I am sitting at a computer in my office, writing an article which will be posted on the web in a few minutes.  Likely someone from another part of the world will read it before I wake up tomorrow morning.

Computers were pretty amazing by themselves, but we have gone way beyond computers.  I wonder what we will see in the next ten or twenty years.  Actually I should probably be worrying about the changes we will see in 2012.

It is hard to believe that I still remember my mother telling me about her family getting their first Model T and how dangerous her dad was driving it.  I guess he never got used to the difference between a horse that would walk down a road and a car that needed steering to keep it from running into a ditch.

Today if a young person runs into a ditch, they might have been "texting" or talking on a cellphone instead of checking out the neighbor's crops.

What a ride this world of technology has been.

 

There is no way to escape winter

It is that time of year.  It does not matter whether you are hiding on the coast of North Carolina like we are, or whether you are waiting for the next round of snow to find the Roanoke Valley.  Winter is here.

We can only hope that it will not be as bad as last year when it seemed that I would never stop shoveling snow on our mountan overlooking downtown Roanoke.  I know Roanoke has already seen a dusting of snow.

Here on the coast we barely escaped the same fate last weekend.  After a week when the last day of November saw a high temperature of 76F, our temperature followed a steady decline from the December 1 high of 68F.

On Saturday December 4, our afternoon high was 43F.  By the time we were taking some clients out to dinner that evening, the temperature had slipped to 34F and almost everywhere north and west of us was seeing snow.

Friends in Pulaski, Va. told us that they got four inches snow on Saturday. At least that was the best that they could measure with the high winds blowing things around.

The second week of December was a week of upside down weather, we ended up having one day where the high temperature of 35F matched our normal low temperature.  I felt like that we had been given an icing penalty for all the nice fall weather that we have enjoyed.

We had ice on the water for a long enough period, that there were some problems with fish being stunned by the cold water. The open water that we saw later in the week was a good sign for our fish.

Yesterday afternoon I contemplated using our skiff as an icebreaker. With the boat being on a lift, it does not take a lot of effort to be out on the water.  However, when I got home yesterday afternoon, I found that the water in our normally full channel was down to a marginal level.  I decided to pass and wait for high tide today, but we have awakened to a cold rain so I doubt that I will be out on the water today.

Fortunately our temperatures did not drop below freezing last night so I believe that all the area waters are now ice free.  I guess that is just in time for the next freeze.  While they have told us to expect temperatures perhaps reaching the sixties tomorrow, it appears that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we will be back to seeing high temperatures which look suspiciously like our normal December low temperatures of 35F. 

On Tuesday, one forecast has our area just barely making it to 32F.  We have been living on the coast for five winters, and I can never remember a day when we did not make it above freezing.

As for Roanoke, the area has my sympathy.  The same forecast is calling for a chance of snow on Sunday and Monday with the high temperature for Monday and Tuesday being 27F.  The low temperatures are going to be around 13F which is bone chilling for Southwest Virginia.  That will especially be the case when you add in winds of over 20 miles per hour.

At least there is no huge snow storm on the horizon like there was in Roanoke last December.  I would imagine Roanoke residents won't mind the cold if they can avoid a couple of feet of snow.

It is winter, and whether you are living in Roanoke or along North Carolina's coast, it is all better than living in Buffalo or in Canada.

At least one of our pansies is standing tall against this cold weather.  If we can make it to January, the warming Carolina sun will perk up the others.