Month: November 2009

Today we mostly stayed in. Ghis got the leaf blower going and we cleaned up millions (it seemed like) of leaves. Turns out it’s not the first clean up this season – they have to do it all the time! Nevertheless, they were happy to have help.

Also Ghis performed a miracle by repairing the remote control for the fan in the back porch. The fan had been on for 7 months as there wasn’t another way to turn it off. Bravo, Ghis!

Morgane spent the morning with the two little dogs on a pouffy chair watching her favourite TV shows. Tomorrow we’ll probably go to a museum in Raleigh or Durham.

A cute ‘Ghis-ism:’ We were raking leaves and he was looking for the wheelbarrow – the cart with wheels. He said, “Where is the cartwheel?”

Still haven’t seen the lake or gone in the hot tub. Got to fix that soon.

We spent time today in the garden at Blue Heron Farm. Murray, a resident and ex-Canadian, showed us his amazing haybale house. He used local materials to build it and it has a lot of special touches, but a nice, clean simplicity, too.

Murray also took me through the garden and taught me about cover crops that help bring nutrients back into the soil. Then I asked what these things hanging on the fence were and he opened them up and showed me that they were loofahs.

I dug up some sweet potatoes with Tony which was fun. And Kate got a new puppy, 8 weeks old, and he is so cute! Eleven-month old Cedar liked him, too.

On the way back home, we stopped at a restaurant called Chili’s. The portions were HUGE and we felt very stuffed after eating ribs and mini-burgers and a huge plate of tortilla chips.

This morning, we explored Chapel Hill. There’s a great street of shops right by the University of North Carolina.

Then we stopped at a mall so Ghis could go to the Apple store, but they weren’t really any help. Morgane and I went to a cool lego store where she was able to fill up a small bucket with her own picks.

Then Ghis noticed that Santa was at the mall and there was no line-up, so Morgane saw him. He asked her if she wanted her two front teeth for Christmas.

Then we drove into Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. It’s not that big a place, just a few high rises. We saw a sculpture of a giant acorn in a park. There seem to be some nice museums, but they were all closed (Mondays…).

After our driving tour, we headed out to Falls Lake because we’ve been invited to stay at Eliza, Jim and Tom’s house. They have even come up with a few tasks we can do! The first one Ghis is taking care of is fixing the remote for a fan that is otherwise impossible to shut off.

It’s beautiful, quiet, and well-forested here. The lake is close by and hopefully we’ll go see it soon. We are also going to help Tom to begin learning French because if he wants to take it at school, he has to to into a more advanced class. The beginner class is only offered for Spanish.

Right now Morgane is sitting on her bed reading a pile of Curious George books. Eliza and Tom left out the most wonderful books and things for her.

Today we are headed back to Blue Heron Farm for a garden work party. Morgane loves it here, but she also loves the farm.

Yesterday we decided to leave the farm and continue on our trip. We will go back on Tuesday for a gardening work party. We are also hoping Ray will fire up his outdoor brick pizza oven!

Before we left, Ray gave Morgane a driving lesson on the golf cart! I think she was impressed.

We also visited the farm animals including the three little pigs. They were very noisy and excited to see us. They thought we might be bringing food. When they understood that we weren’t, they finally started rooting around in their forest enclosure, pushing aside dirt and branches as they went.

Poor Carmanah had us worried. Her face suddenly swelled up to at least twice its normal size. Luckily, Perrin – a vet – lives on the farm. He gave her some benadryn and by this morning she seemed better.

She is sometimes still having trouble getting up though, so we are watching her closely hoping that this will pass. She still seems full of spunk and it’s clear she would like to be chasing squirrels if her body would cooperate.

We hung out in Chapel Hill this morning. It’s very nice around the university. Now we are at a mall near Raleigh where Ghis has an appointment at the apple store. Then we are going to see our friends at their home later this afternoon. Hopefully we’ll see downtown Raleigh soon.

Yesterday was warm and we worked in the garden. Morgane played with Jasper all day. She had a bad moment when she got bitten by fire ants while playing in the sandpile, but she is okay now.

Geckoes were suntanning on the wall of the house.

In the evening we met up with Eliza and Tom at Tom’s Tae-Kwon-Do demonstration. It was quite the show! Lots of board-breaking and leaps and kicks.

Eliza and Tom brought Morgane a little dog (like their dog, Duke) and a BIG teddy bear with a fleece jacket. Eliza also brought us Blondies (a Southern brownie) and tortilla soup (which we haven’t tasted yet).

Today we went to town in the morning and shopped some of the second hand stores including an amazing vintage shop. Morgane commented that people used to have more beautiful things than they have today.

We ate lunch at a ice cream parlour / diner renovated to look like it did in the 40s.

When we got back, Morgane played with Jasper on the tire swing outside. Then they had a toilet paper party. They unrolled three rolls of paper and threw it about.

Ghis made some amazing peanut cauliflower soup that made the house smell good.

Tomorrow we are going to start working in the garden. We might meet more folks here as it will be the weekend.

Yesterday we drove into town to do our shopping, partly at the marketplace which sells good, organic food and partly at the Piggly Wiggly which sells cheaper food. The town has a lot of interesting shops and we want to attend a local group dinner, too, so we’ll go back when we have more time.

Last night I didn’t sleep well because my arm was aching! Yesterday we grouted the mosaic and for three hours last night, I helped polish by taking a wet sponge and wiping the excess grout away. It’s rewarding, but hard work.

Today Morgane and I have been studying the birds at the bird feeder. She looks them up in the book to identify them.

We’ve heard about all kinds of bugs that live here in the summer, so we are kind of glad it’s almost winter.

I also learned that a hat can be called a toboggan or a sock hat, but not a tuque.

We arrived yesterday afternoon at Blue Heron Farm, our next woofing (wwoof.org) destination. The farm consists of a number of households who share a common vision. This vision includes a desire to live sustainably.

Morgane and Jasper, the resident five year old, started playing and didn’t stop. With duct tape and cardboard boxes, they built forts. This morning, they continued, making the cat her own fort.

It’s been raining heavily since we arrived, really heavily. Good thing for our rubber boots.

I think we’re going to learn lots while we’re here. Today we helped make a giant mosaic covering the floor of a small room. Ghis and I put the grout in the cracks and tonight I helped polish for a few hours. I have always wanted to do mosaics, so now I’m learning how. Lost of sweat, for starters!

Tomorrow we’ll see what other tasks we can do. We are also planning to attend community dinners and maybe tour some other farms. There are some people who live nearby in a teepee and there is a farm that is growing rice.

So much to see, so little time.

Our host, Tony, has sweet potatoes grown right here and this morning I tasted some sauteed greens that were very tasty. Also discovered that apples are getting more expensive – it’s too warm here to grow the kinds that store well. We may also learn to make milk into Kafir which is like yogurt, but drinkable.

We spent a little time exploring “old” New Bern. We found out that it is a lot nicer than “new” New Bern. Bern means bear and there are many painted bears around downtown. There are also churches with loud bells that ring more often than every hour.

Morgane and I met two nice ladies whose job it was to paint the fire hydrant. They were painting it to look like a woman. We watched as they asked someone to sketch in the eyes for them.

People were very friendly as they seem to be everywhere in the south. Ghis finally got our phones working so if you want our phone numbers, you’ll have to write us.

We briefly visited the closest town and it seems there is a lot of interesting stuff to see. There is a biodiesel plant near here and a lot of things related to the sustainable movement.

A few last pictures from the beach…