Exploring the Area off Platinum Road

 August 18, 2013

 Coming down from the Watson Cemetery we found a turtle!  He was spotted in a clearing in front of one of the neighboring homesites.  Kind of an unexpected yard ornament for a mountain cabin, don'tcha think?

Pretty waterfall.  Wouldn't this look nice alongside 

our timber frame barn.

Lichen and mushrooms create an interesting design on this tree.

Making the hike up Platinum Road back to the cabin.  Whew.  This continuous grade is a lot harder to hike than it looks!

Trouble at the Forks

A few years back while we were building the cabin, we complained to the contractor about evidence that some of his workers were smoking in the cabin.  One of the workers was apparently chastised, and the next time we were up at the cabin we found this book was left for us with an interesting apology note.   Turns out the author of this book was an uncle of the worker.   It provides some interesting history of the area and background on the Hooper-Watson feud of Jackson County.   

Meanwhile, fast-forward and you have us exploring other parts of "our" mountain, most notably an old cemetery that is found if you turn left at the Shady Grove sign off Platinum Road.  It suddenly dawned on me one day that this cemetery name could be related to the Watsons in the book....and voila.  They are mentioned and these are the descendants, either he was the little boy survivor or he is the son of that young boy.... will have to check the book again for the details.  I can barely keep up with the facts and dates of our own family tree so it's even more difficult to manage someone else's....

Somebody had the thought to "repair" the sign....

Overgrown vegetation includes some lilies.

This headstone appears to be handmade.

Don't know much about headstone manufacturing, but this headstone

seems to have been replaced in "modern times" or sometime after 1902....

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So many questions come to mind:  who are the current relations?...When was the cemetery last cared for?  Are there any caretakers?  Research to be continued......

August Weekend in the Mountains

August 17 and 18, 2013

Saturday morning we took a drive to Asheville with the ultimate goal of visiting Chimney Rock.  This time we took the scenic (read slow) route from Tuckasegee through Brevard.  A quick stop for lunch is where we discovered possibly the world's nicest Ingles (Route 64 maybe?) en route to Hendersonville.  We were coming through Hendersonville's downtown when Chandler spotted the sign for Mast General Store so we decided to make a stop and poke around.

 

 Here we are in downtown Hendersonville: Chandler, Kat, Papa and Mama Bear.

 The downtown is very pedestrian friendly, colorful with lots of potted flowers, and helpful bears.

Maple Creemees! Just like Burlington!

We drove to Chimney Rock but the weather turned cloudy and misty so decided to forgo that tourist stop and head straight to Asheville for dinner.

Asheville is very dog friendly so Mochi was able to accompany us.  We sat outside and had burgers.  Mochi silently and carefully kept her eyes on the pigeons who were in turn carefully eyeing the breadcrumbs.

Scenic Drive from Highlands on Route 64

Bridal Veil Falls "reopened" after a major rock fall several years ago closed the under-the-falls drive through.  This is the only waterfall in North Carolina that a vehicle can drive under.  Originally Route 64 followed the road under the falls but was later rerouted so the main route passed in front of the fall.  The falls are from a tributary of the Cullasaja River.

A look at the raging Cullasaja River alongside the highway (Route 64) from Highlands.

 

 Hello Mochi!

Surveying the Soggy Property

Here's Mochi exploring the water sources.

 A close up of the water coming out of the spring up the hill.  This is near the "platform" area where the moonshine was made.

 The water followed its own route behind the timberframe.

Tony digging out the muck to help it along.

 Ever careful of the poison ivy lurking in the brush...

The moonshine hideout... remnants of the still.  Some of the barrel bands are looped on the log. 

A petite waterfall.

Another view of the pond at the bottom of the hill.

Rainy Season in the Mountains

 With all the rain we've had in the past month there's been plenty of water in our storage tank.  The spring is overflowing and we have a waterfall  behind the barn. 

The water was running out of the ground.  This is in front of the timberframe.

Here's the pond that we tried to carve out and landscape many years ago.  It's full and so overgrown.  Maybe one day we'll dig out the pond and landscape the surroundings.