Totally Tubular Pitcher Plant

Laura Carter brought me this bad boy. Wow!!!

Hard to Believe

I find it hard to believe that I actually have a place to call home. And that it is 20 acres. And that it is incredibly beautiful. And peaceful. And its own watershed. And in a safe and loving holler community.
I find it hard to believe that people will come out and shed their very own sweat and blood for the sake of me making my home in this place. Freely. And happily.

I had another work day yesterday, and it rocked the free world. We cut and stacked more 12 ft long hemlock logs for the future out building (and for clearing of the future garden). We also cleared some more trees from the house site and from the old logging road (which we holler residents like to hike) and stacked a shit ton more firewood. The day was hot. The sweat was flowing, as was the sweet tea. Participants were Leonard and Deanna, Laura and Eduard, JB, Rachel ("Girl in an Apron" minus the apron), Mom, Susie and Todd, and Mecho (who very quietly started dissembling the roof thingy that he and other studly neighborhood men built for me last year over the Airstream.) (The roof thingy will be moved, along with the Airstream, up to the land soon.)

Man, those friends sure can work. Eduard, the Belgium work horse, showed once again that he is a true hoss, as did Deanna, who is small but packs quite a punch! Leonard, the multi-talented electrician, got it going on with some good ole fashioned tree cutting down (well I guess all the men did). Laura, Rachel, Deanna and Mom hauled wood and brush up and down hills faster than I could figure out what was happening. JB did a bit of everything, true to form, and offered much good and amusing commentary. I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to keep up with the crews and answer questions and make quick decisions and such. So much happens so fast with a hard working team! Dad and Jenna made a surprise appearance on their way home from their 10 DAY ROAD TRIP TO NEW YORK!!! It was quite a day.

Marc Williams, botanist and friend, was scheduled to come lead a plant walk after the work day was over, but we had to reschedule due to a very sizable hail and electrical storm which descended upon the holler at about 4:30. Luckily we heard the rumbling in the distance in enough time to call him with a heads up and to finish up our projects and pack up. Too bad we couldn't sit around leisurely and drink beer and bourbon and fire up one of the brush piles as a bon fire, but that storm was vicious! The only thing I didn't have time for was planting the yellow and pink ladyslippers plants that my buddies J and G Shelton brought me from their place on Spillcorn. Check em out- I had never laid eyes upon a yellow one before. Ain't it purty? I find it hard to believe that someone has enough yellow ladyslippers to dig them up and share them with casual acquaintances.
I guess I'd better settle in and get used to being amazed by things that happen and people and this incredible place that I am getting to call mine for a while.
Thanks everyone who came Saturday for blowing my mind!

Mothers Day Spa Day

I decided on giving my mother and grandmother (Nauni) a nice home cooked brunch and some luxurious spa treatments (provided by me) for Mothers Day. I invited Sally for extra good times. We spent the afternoon last Sunday over here at the cottage by the creek, where I currently live in the family compound. We had a blast, and I think the ladies walked away at the end of the afternoon feeling sufficiently pampered and dolled up. Brunch was french toast with maple syrup and an apricot, date, rose water compote, sauteed aparagus with shitakes and garlic, bacon, mimosas (or moonshine and orange juice), and chocolate chocolate chip cookies with coconut and almonds. After brunch I gave haircuts, foot baths with rosewater, and then foot massages with rose oil. Mom got her hair hennaed. By then it was mid-afternoon and warm enough to go out onto the deck for facials- a clay mask with pearl powder (from China) and rosewater followed by a homemade witch hazel toner and collodial copper cream. To top the day off, Sally and Mom opted for pedicures. The day was gorgeous and it was delightful to spend lady time with Mom, Nauni and Sally. We listened to Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette and relaxed. The ladies decided it needed to become a Mothers Day tradition.

More...

...work with the help of two more awesome friend/helpers was done at my place on Saturday. I am really enjoying spending time with people up at my new place, and I look forward to the day that I have a house and an establishment that people can come visit. For now it's come if you want to either work, sit outside, or hike around (all of which are pretty fun for me these days.) The weather was perfect on Saturday, and I had friends "JB" (from Del Rio) and "JD" from Asheville come help me do some more clearing work. "JD" is a friend that I met at West Charlotte High School in Charlotte, and he happens to live in Asheville now with his girlfriend, which rocks. We don't see each other that often, but I always enjoy it when we do. He is kind and insightful and conscientious and also has a funny bone. Very good qualities. "JB" is a Hot Springs fixture- a carpenter, potter, wild food aficionado and computer non-liker, he shows up randomly and offers his time and assitance to other homesteader types around the area. The three of us worked at a leisurely pace and got some more hemlocks cut and stacked in 12 foot logs for a future log built tool shed that will have potential to double as a nativity scene in the winter (thanks to JD's brilliant vision). We also discovered a grapevine up on the hill of the house site that can be used as a rope swing, and we all did it one time. It was really fun. Other key players in the day were: a most beautiful and vibrantly marked lady box turtle who my friend Bud nursed back to health for the past year after an accident that caused some shell damage; I got to release her down in a wet part of the land, and lots and lots of sweet little purple flowers that I believe are fringed phacelia.



Check back soon for news from the 2010 Mothers Day Spa situation that occurred over here at the house yesterday!

Once upon a time there were two ladies named Donna and Heidi and they had a little business called the Dirty Hoe. Now this business seemed at first glance like an organic gardening and landscaping company that catered to detail-oriented Asheville clients. But if one were to scratch beneath the surface, that one would find the Dirty Hoe to be a whole entity of creativity, awesomeness and outside the boxness. An entity that not only pays a living wage, supports local businesses, fosters communication and healthy living and offers massage thereapy benefits to employees, but also makes long winding serpentine sculptures out of organic matter, encourages certain employees to go on last minute road trips to Texas (for the sake of living large) and wears sparkles on Fridays. The Dirty Hoe is not paying me to talk good about them on the internet. What they ARE paying for, though, is 2 crew members who came and worked for ME at my land yesterday. It was a regular work day, with ME being the client, but getting the service as a GIFT from my employers!
"Fabi" and PJ (aka Superhoe and Man Hoe) came out and did some work with me getting my land ready for this house building/ mountain home steading project that I am getting involved with. We did things such as weeding and mulching the pear root stock nursery, pruning the giant old pear tree to encourage new growth (which I plan to use later in the summer to graft on the root stock), weedeat, cut down hemlock trees, and de-limb and stack hemlock timbers (for a future tool shed). The day was warm and gorgeous. I set up a hospitality station of sweet tea and chocolate chip cookies, which we indulged in freely. Fabi brought the Dirty Hoe truck and tools and Bella, her sweet bear-looking dog who served as a sort of canine totem for the day (someday Hopey, who goes by Mildred now, will come out and my heart will soar).
Unfortunately PJ got lost and got real acquainted with the Chapel Hill/ Guntertown area for a lot of the morning, but he made it and rocked his chainsaw all afternoon. We got most of the right sized hemlocks down and cut to 12 ft logs. I "felled" my first tree, successfully. The photos do not capture the look of terror that was upon my face at the time.
At the end of the day, we parted ways, tired and sweaty and happy (at least I was) but not before Fabi and I (true to Dirty Hoe form) did a little fringe tree huffing. It was a great day. Thank D and H!

Mom's flowers...

...are lovely on a morning in May. One time I shared with my mom my fond memories of helping her in her garden when I was little. I even wrote a story about it, romanticizing the experience of helping mom in the green bean patch in our red clay garden beside the house in Charlotte. I remember the love of the practice and the hot summer dusks spent picking beans in the buggy humidity. When my mom read my memory story I had written for her she laughed and laughed. I was like "what the fart is so darn funny?' I was serious and sentimental with the story. She said, "Dana, you HATED helping me in the garden! I had to make you do it, but you did nothing but complain." That is pretty funny. I guess as a garden loving adult I changed history in my mind. But come to think of it, I was one of those kids that didn't like getting dirty.
All that aside, my mom is (and her dad was) a great gardener, and it really shows this time of year. She just loves her peonies, and I am rather proud of the yellow irises because Jenna and I snuck those from a house we rented years ago for our mom and they are gorgeous and abundant in her garden now.

Texas, real quick

Two weeks ago I went to Texas real quick. It was actually not my idea, but rather something conjured up by my co-worker Rachel (Girl in an Apron) who was thinking outside the box. I, myself, was not thinking outside the box, and it took her half the day to convince me that it was indeed possible for me to take a quick spontaneous road trip to Austin. I caught a ride with a most handsome mustached ornithologist, who was on his way to Arizona via Texas to do some serious birding and bird related studies. (Here is him acting like a bird watching geek. Notice the shorts hiked up and the casual hawaii shirt tucked in...)


The idea was that I could hang out with the ornithologist for a hefty chunk of time on the road and then hang out with my bff Meg and her family in Austin for a couple of days. I was at her youngest son's birth 4 years ago and shamefully had not seen him since.
The drive out was fun, once it finally started. (You see, it got off to a rather late start.) Steve (the ornithologist) and I took turns driving (well I think he drove a little more) and we did things such as talk, laugh, not talk, listen to rock music, listen to country music, listen to bird cds, stop and pick wild flowers, stop and look at birds, go to the Loretta Lynn Gift Shop, eat snacks and so forth. I didn't even fall asleep other than once the second day in Texas when Steve spotted his first scissor-tailed flycatcher. I woke up when he pulled off the interstate to get a close-up look at it, and boy am I glad I did. Those birds (there were 2 or 3 of them) were very cool. (Steve ended up seeing a shit ton of them on his birding adventures in eastern and southern Texas, but it is still a novelty for me.)

Along the way we picked a beautiful array of Texas wildflowers including: pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa), Indian paintbrush (Castilleja spp), Phacelia, Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis), and wild gaura.



Seeing Meg and her husband and kids was a quick blast. She is sooooooooo fun and great and I am eternally grateful to still have her as a bff. We have known each other since we were 6, and miraculously we can still really relate as adults. We talk all the time on the cellular and visit when we can. Being able to spend a quick moment in time with her in her home with her lovely and awesome family was priceless. I was so happy to hang out with her kids, and especially happy when the youngest, whose birth I witnessed, let me hold him and snuggle with him.



Meg and I talked serious and talked whacky jacky and laughed like happy little spastic piggies. She got all ready for me to come (on a short notice) and arranged some things to maximize our time. Hell, she even rented a Tupac documentary for my entertainment while I was there. (Too bad I fell asleep 5 minutes after it started. Actually, I think Steve was the only person who stayed awake for the whole thing, so ask him what really happened with Tupac and Biggy Smalls...) Also, Meg arranged me to meet with some of her closest friends in Austin, and I got to meet her good friend "K," who is my birth twin; not only do we share the same birthday on the same year, but we both have an affinity for blue roses. We got on wonderfully. She is a romance novel writer and a truly lovely lady.
Before I knew it, it was time to rush to the airport and fly home. I wanted to stay longer and visit with Meg and Steve more. I really didn't want to come home yet, but alas the ole J.O.B. was waiting for me, and so was my work on the land and such. I accidentally left my phone in Texas, but Meg mailed it back to me and I got it on my birthday.

I'm sure glad I have people in my life who can envision things for me such as road trips to Texas. Stuff like that. Thank goodness. Otherwise I would have stayed home.