Tree stumps

Wow, I've been lazy about updating the blog lately!!!

We have lots of tree stumps that need to be eliminated....so we rented a stump grinder for the day.  Neat piece of machinery! 

We also cut down a few of the smaller trees while we had the equipment to dispatch the stumps.

Stump before:

No stump after! 

Campfire

Sometimes, I do things that are not well thought out....for instance, lighting a campfire when it's 90 degrees out.  In my defense, I wanted to roast hot dogs.   The hot dogs were great.  We did Not sit around the campfire!

Driveway improvement

Our driveway at Oriental is just a bit too narrow - the dump trucks have had difficulty making the sharp turn. 

So we decided we should add an extra 4' piece of concrete pipe to make the driveway just a bit wider.  

We hauled the pipe all the way from Fuquay-Varina!  I had called all around in the New Bern area.  Strange, but it was really hard to find the small concrete pipe we needed.


Duane dug out the area needed for the pipe installation.  Keep in mind that ditches down here are a bit different from ditches in the mountains.  Ditches really don't have any "flow" - there is not "downhill".  Basically, it's all level and the water just ponds up in the ditch and eventually it just seeps away thru the ground.

We pulled the 400 lb pipe off the back of the pickup using chains.

Pipe mated up with the existing concrete pipe.   We used a come-along (attached to the pickup's bumper)  to pull it slowly into place.  Then we shoveled very fine ground stone around it to lock it in place.

Then much stone was shoveled in place to finish it up.

And  now the turn into the drive way is not so sharp!

Asheboro Airport Fly-in

Saturday was the annual Fly-in at the Asheboro Airport.

The local Civil Air Patrol cadets presented the colors - beautiful day!

Lots of planes, lots of folks wandering looking at the planes.

The museum feeds all the pilots a hot-dog lunch....I obviously couldn't eat the hot dog, but they made me a "slaw dog" instead.  And those baked beans were really good - so sweet they tasted like candy!  (and they had no meat added!)

Our flight instructors took turns providing "introductory flights" to those brave souls.

 These folks were first time flyers.

Look at the face on the little boy - he was super excited!!  He got to fly the plane and he was happy!

And this man (in the safari hat) wanted his 84 year old friend to go with him, but the friend just didn't feel like it.  So, he asked this nice lady that just happened to be sitting in the terminal building if she'd like to go for the flight with him - a total stranger!  She jumped at the chance!  The flight instructor (Taylor - with the "I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning" tee shirt on) says they had a great time too!

More Oriental fun

We are hit-and-miss on cycling this week.  Even though the rest of the state has had fairly nice weather, the coast has been a bit rainy.

But we did another long bike ride- this time we decided to turn off on every little side road and explore!  Unfortunately, my Garmin fitness tracker ran out of battery before we completed the loop.....Duane's tracker says the total mileage was 20....an fun ride!  Again, we did a bit of stopping and wandering around docks so the time is not "all riding".  I just thought the pattern of all our sideroads was cool.

Here's one of the docks we stopped at -  it's right across Brown Creek from our dock!

The view across the "creek" to our dock....they call them creeks down here....in the mountains, this would definitely be a river!

And almost home, one of our neighbors chickens apparently "flew the coup"!

Oriental

We did a long bike ride today -  19 miles - from our lot all the way to Oriental and return.  The map from my Garmin watch looks like it's just a single path, but it's actually a double line since we re-traced our path to return.  Note the 1373 calories!   (the time is not accurate since we stopped several times for brief visits)

One of the stops was a rest break over near  The Bean (coffee shop).  Got me a large coffee and enjoyed it just relaxing near the Oriental Harbor Marina. 

And another stop was at Piggly Wiggly on the way back out of town - we were running low on chocolate at the camper......I chose a nice deli container of chocolate covered peanuts.  I tied the bag to my handlebars - and proceeded to bike for about 7 miles.  In the sun.  It was 86 degrees.  Probably not a good idea.

Here's what chocolate covered peanuts look like after being in the sun for 45 minutes.  I do testify that it is possible to cut a chunk off.   And it tastes just terrific!

A little fun in Oriental

Just some random stuff at Oriental.

The mimosa tree right at our dock -

Love those delicate flowers!

I was laying on the hammock and I heard a little "rustling" underneath me....it was our friendly turtle making a bee-line (at a pretty good pace!) towards the water.

I've been fishing a good bit - but not catching anything!  Oh well.  The water is really warm - making a good environment for these jellyfish.

Mesmerizing to watch them slowly pulse along.

Went for a long bike ride - here we're at Point Marina - looking across brown creek at our dock!  Funny to see it from a different perspective.

And last - I can't remember if I posted a picture with the awning installed.   Here we are, snug as a bug!