New Weather Station at the Siler City Airport

We've been waiting a long time for the Siler City Airport to get a certified weather station.....it's finally happening!  With the aid of the NCDOT and the FAA, construction started last week.

The weather station has a 10 meter tower with lots of gizmos to interpret the weather conditions instantaneously and transmit them over a specific frequency (125.775mhz if you're wondering!!) to all the pilots in the area.

A large footing had to be dug in the extremely hard dirt for the tower base.

Here's the tower components before assembly.

The tower being assembled! I would not like to be up there!!

One week later - all done and operational!!!



Drum roll please!!!  Turn your speaker on!  Here's what a pilot will hear in the air - very critical info when the weather is bad.

Starting to think about the sunny Caribbean!

Our trip to St. Martin with Sharon and Buddy is coming up soon....so I thought I had better start thinking about packing. Fun to get the summer clothes back out. Amazing how colorful I'm gonna be!!

Cleaning up a bit at the airport

There was a decrepit mobile home that was set up behind the terminal building at the airport. It was originally put there 20 years ago for a mechanic that was living at the airport....but lately it had started to really show it's age. No one had lived in it for 8 or 9 years.  The Airport Authority requested that it be removed....

So, out it goes!!

By next spring, the area will be nicely mowed grass, I hope!!

Compliment to Richard

Richard worked for me at the airport for a day last week...here he is with a little puppy he and Miranda are "fostering". Anyone want a pretty little yellow lab puppy??

This couple flew in from Florida while Richard was there in this little experimental "Long-Ez" to visit their daughter who is a freshman at Duke. Richard handled the rental car and such for them.

When they came a few days later to leave, they raved about the "nice young man" who helped them....I, of course, took all the credit for raising the nice young man!!!

What is that noise?

I kept hearing a "roaring noise".....then I realized it must be a hot air balloon!

Yeah, look hard over the rooftop....

Neighbor Dick was out having a late evening joy-ride!

NC State Jazz Concert

Miranda and I went to see the NC State Jazz concert last night...nicely done, as usual!

The obligatory "mom" photo after the concert...eating pizza on Hillsborough St. at 11pm because nothing else was open in the sleepy town of Raleigh!!

Here's a little sample (Robert's middle of the back row in case you don't see him):

Shorts

I saw this on Facebook - and I had to put it where my sis the knitter would see it!! Hilarious!!! (I have NO idea who that is!!!)

Happy November

Sorry for all the food stuff lately.....just nothing much going on!

This is very cool!




How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

End of summer veggies

Gotta love neighbors who bring bags of peppers!  Lindy harvested all their peppers today because it is going to freeze tonight.  Lucky me!!  Most chopped and ready for the freezer....a few saved to be used in the chile for lunch today!!

Apple Jelly

While we were in Oriental over the weekend, we strolled through the very small farmer's market there.

I picked up a bag of "mountain" apples for a donation to a charity. Duane was standing behind me already seeing that the apples were not very good....but, what the heck, seemed like a nice charity.

I picked some McIntosh, some Romes and the "last Arkansas Black" according to the nice lady. I took a bite out of one as we were walking away....yuck! Not crisp at all.

Anyhoooo, I did take the bag home and decided to make some jelly - hadn't done that in a few years, actually.

Turns out, they were from Tennessee....maybe that was what was wrong (our NC roots showing thru!!)

Chopped 'em up....boiled them down to a thick sauce.  I left the peeling on to try to get some nice color for the jelly.

Squeezed the sauce thru my food mill to separate out the peeling.

At this point, I usually put the sauce in cheesecloth and let it sit for hours to drain out all the juice....but I didn't have any.  I did, however, have some fairly fine netting.  So, I doubled it and left the sauce sitting.

Isn't that pretty, fresh apple juice.  A little less than clear, but I kindof like my jelly more like "jam" anyway!

After the juice was mostly drained, there is just a small ball of "pulp" left.

Boiled the juice down a bit and added tons of sugar until it "sheeted" off the spoon. Into sterile jars....now I need to bake me some sourdough bread and I'll be in heaven!!!

Fun at Oriental

I'm going to post this over at Glory Days too.....

We've had a nice long weekend in Oriental....Friday night the Oriental Old Theater showed the movie "Psycho" - 5 bucks got you into the movie and all the popcorn you cared to eat! What a deal....plus there was some local entertainment and "introduction" to the movie....many wore shower caps....

There was even a shower cap "hawker"....we just relaxed and watched the festivities. Good fun and the theater was packed! I didn't know there were that many people in Oriental!!

Remember, our foresail was destroyed in Hurricane Irene.....we finally received the replacement.

Here is the barren bow of the boat....

The sail laid out ready to be hoisted...

Easy, peasy!  All set for sailing again! 

So, we had to take her out an make sure all is well.  Wonderful fall sailing with fairly warm temps and 20 knot breezes.

We sailed for a few hours - approaching Oriental we sailed through a race course.....pretty little spinnaker...

Fun, fun!!

Oriental

Beautiful morning at the marina, cup of coffee in hand with Coffeemate's new Peppermint Mocha flavor!

Sunday Dinner in Hendersonville!

We had missed visiting with Granny and Cordy when we were home for my high school reunion....Granny invited us up for lunch on Sunday. And it was a beautiful day for it!

Leaving the house - all is still pretty much green down our way.

I know, the photos never do the pretty leaves justice....here we are approaching Asheville.  It really was pretty - the leaves started changing to pretty yellows and reds as we passed Rutherfordton and the foothills. 

Landed at the smaller Hendersonville airport - Cordy arrived a few minutes later to pick us up.

The Hendersonville airport is a bit small compared to most of the airports we fly into. Duane, of course, always does a nice job no matter what kind of airport. (I usually choose calm days, good visibility and long runways for my flights!!)

Here is a photo of an airplane landing over the pretty trees....I think they need a good trim, myself!

After a very yummy lunch and a little harvesting from their huge garden, it was time to head back home for some Sunday chores....Granny and Cordy seeing us off....

Oh, and here's my "loot" from the trip!

Pickled Okra!

Lindy's garden is still producing copious amounts of okra....thanks very much!

For today's batch, I decided to do a little "pickle" operation....yummy, they will be!

Packed tight in clean jars....

Crushed up some of the dried hot peppers from last year....

Spices on top - dill, garlic, mustard seeds, salt, black pepper.....

Poured boiling hot vinegar/water to cover the okra....sealed up bright green now.....

This photo is this morning - they are "curing" - we can eat 'em in a week or so!

Motorcycle!

I searched my photos, and can't find a single photo of my "previous life" that shows my "motorcycle days"....but, honestly, I really did ride a Honda 175 street bike between 1978 and 1982. Duane had a Kawasaki 185 about the same time-frame. We had them at NC State because freshmen couldn't have cars on campus - Mom trailered them to the "big city" of Raleigh for us in the fall of 1980. Good times - grocery shopping with a milk crate strapped to the luggage rack....then we sold them - purchased a pristine 1978 Suzuki 550 when we were newlyweds (1982).

Kids and life got in the way - a few rides in the ensuing years.....

Amazing that you never forget how - same gear pattern - no help necessary - had a nice cruise around the neighborhood on Richard's bike (he borrowed the pickup and left this in driveway!!)

Just a quick update on the fall gardening....my newly tilled and planted garden has a little surprise for me - a leftover cucumber has "volunteered" it's seeds! I'm suspecting the frost will get them soon though.

The only thing popping up so far is a row of radishes.  I see little sprouts of lettuce and collards.  I buried the onion sets deep so they might survive the winter - so they're not peeking up yet!

Otherwise around the house we've still got some color -

And one remaining pepper plant on the deck in a pot.  I'm saving these until closer to frost.

And of course, some mums.  The buds on these mums were completely nibbled off by the deer about a month ago.  I thought for sure that I would have no blooms.....

Mums must be different than other flowers because they grew new buds - and they're just beautiful and autumn-y!!