"A Poet of the People"

Last weekend my other half and I went to the Carl Sandburg Home in Flat Rock, NC. I had seen the sign for the home on the side of the highway countless times but had my friend not said we should really go, I'm not sure I would have. And I'm glad we did because we had a blast!

The Carl Sandburg Home is a National Historic Site run by the National Park Service. It costs $5 per person to tour the house, but the grounds, trails, and barn are free.

For those of you who are like me and have no clue who this gentleman was, let me educate for a brief moment. Carl Sandburg was a famous (it surprised me how famous!) writer, folk singer, activist, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and biographer (two for his poetry, one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln). He died June 22, 1967 and his wife sold the property with its contents and cultural resources donated to the National Park Service in 1968. One of the stipulations was that the calendar in the house remain open to June 1967. I wish I had taken a picture of it to show you!

Lake on the way up to the house and goat barn

View of the house from the trail

Trail leading up to the house. When we were heading back to our car a lady yells to us, "Is this hike worth it?!" We said, "Oh, definitely." And then Chris and I both look at each other and say, "Hike??" It was .25 mile and 100 foot elevation gain. Funny.

Lilian Sandburg's (wife) passion was goats and one of the main reasons they moved to North Carolina. All of the goats on the property are descendants of her original goats. Or so they say.

I used to want goats. And then I read parts of the keeping backyard goats book they had in their giftshop.

Chicken butts

Of course I had to take a picture of the piano

Every room was full of books; apparently the collection contains 12,000 volumes. This is actually the dining room. They weren't big tv watchers but every year Zenith would send them the latest television set they had made.

I fell in love with this kitchen and now I'm thinking my dream home will be in the mid-century modern style. ;)

Love it.

Love old appliances. Honestly, I don't even know what this is. Stove/oven?

I know what these are!

This guy's GOATee (haha - get it?) is AWESOME

The goat barn. It was a beautiful day to visit the Carl Sandburg Home.

And I will leave you with a fun little video of Carl Sandburg on What's My Line?.

Chicken Run!

Remember that movie??  Well I do...like it was yesterday.  Except it was last Sunday.  And amazingly enough, I have video of it.  Well, of the escape...I was not about to let my husband videotape me chasing a chicken through the woods for an hour.

In watching the video back I learned two lessons:
1.  Only herd the chickens to the backyard when all four are together.
2.  Only herd the chickens to the backyard when the gate is already open.

Here's what happened.  I thought it'd be neat to have a video of me moving the chickens to the backyard for you guys to see.  If we're in town, I always move them to the backyard on Saturdays and Sundays so they can roam around.  I still haven't figured it out but somehow the brown chicken ended up closed up in the coop with the other three chickens outside of the coop (but still in the run) the night before.  That's why initially you only see three chickens and hear me ask, 'What'd you do with the other chicken?!' and the Hubs go, 'I didn't do anything with the chicken!'  Isn't it funny how I automatically blame him?  Anyway, the rest of the video speaks for itself. 

What we didn't record was the HOUR we spent tromping through the briars, vines, and poison ivy back and forth in the 'woods/brush' around the back of the fence.  And finally, the only thing that worked was moving the three chickens from the backyard back to the chicken run so the 'lost' chicken could see/hear them and move towards the coop.  It was ridiculous.  And about 45 minutes into it I got the feeling she had no intention of reuniting with her sisters and just wanted to mess with us.

I couldn't figure out how to edit out the lame parts of this video so here it is in all its glory.

    

Then he's a bank robbah!

This is so funny I couldn't pass up sharing it with my readers:

http://www.wimp.com/movieswritten/

I love my little town.

I said to my husband this morning, "It's days like yesterday that I really love where we live."  He agreed.

Yesterday was the 15th annual Greening Up the Mountains festival.  From downtownsylva.org: "This annual spring festival, named for the way the “spring green” creeps up the mountainsides, began as a celebration of Earth Day and has now evolved into a celebration of our local economy, sustainability, and traditional heritage crafts."

Sadly, in my 6 years here, this was my first year partaking in the celebration.   We started with the Greening Up the Mountains 5k where we got these awesome shirts:

We then headed over to the festival where we entered a raffle to win a 55 gallon rain barrel...and WON!  I'm so excited.  The trash can rain barrel we made just didn't hack it.  In fact, last weekend it busted up the side so we were in dire need of a new one.  I'll post pictures later when we have it set up.  In the meantime, here are some other pictures from the GUtM festival:

I wasn't quite sure what to think of this rack(?).  And they had several.  I giggled a little bit.

 Lunch was YUMMY!  Indian fry bread topped with lots of yummy stuff.

Doing my part to save the planet.  Are you doing yours?

We couldn't leave without getting some kettle corn.  :)

This used to be the county courthouse until a new building was built several years ago.  They recently did a major renovation and now it's the public library.  It's amazing in there.  Especially compared to where the library used to be housed.

I had to get a picture of this beast.  His name is Jake.  His brother Elwood was at home.  He's the biggest pitbull I've ever seen.  

That night we went out to Soul Infusion aka "The Tea House", hung out with friends, ate good food, listened to some jam bands, and sampled some great brews out of Tuckaseegee Brewing Co-op's kayakerator.



Here's to good times and great friends.

A Christmas Story

Many many years ago in a land far far away (aka ~25 years ago and when I lived in Florida) I asked Santa for the Barbie & The Rockers Hot Rockin' Stage after I saw this commercial:



Did you see those moves?!  Oh the colors!  Oh the fun!  My life would never be the same!  I couldn't live and my barbies certainly would be crushed if I didn't get that toy from Santa!!

Funny.  My little 4 or 5 year old brain didn't hear that very important phrase at the end...'Dolls each sold separately.'  And this is what I received:
 

Which, I mean, ooooooookay, not bad...that's a bunch of stuff in a box.  But I was expecting a PARTY IN A BOX!  Does that look like a party?  Not to me!  Where were all the barbies?  Where was the dancing??  Where was the music???  Where was the fun????  Oh, I'm supposed to supply that?  Well phooey. 

That said, I would give my right arm something important to be able to pull that out of a box right now, slip some barbie legs into those pink leg holders and then, with the slight movement of a nob, make those barbies turn first to the right and then to the left.  And then to the right again and then to the left.

P.S. In doing research for this post I also found video of another very influential barbie I had.  *Sigh* I so miss my friends.

To Brighten Your Week

Please enjoy this video of my dog snoring.  :)

I had to watch this twice.

Funny!

This video is hilarious...if Mike Rowe did this nowadays he'd be off the air in a heartbeat!  But if he did this nowadays, maybe I'd watch QVC.

A Dream Come True

This 3D camera mapping stuff is insane.  It would be my dream come true to be able to feel like I'm standing next to my great-grandfather on his farm.


ARCHIVE PHOTO INSERTS FROM MOTALKO from Miklós Falvay on Vimeo.

The Tuck

We live 1 row of houses up from The Tuck.

Blast from the Past

The other commercial I'd really like to see again is Play-doh's Flower Making Basket. Oddly enough, I can't find it on youtube.

Only in a perfect world...

Check out this Mario Kart video (best one I've seen yet) & then check out the making of below that.

World's First Stuntman

Darn you gravity!

Princess Bride Lego-Style

I came across this last night while messing around on youtube.

The animals save the planet

I love these!

Another favorite Christmas video

This is pretty popular so chances are you've seen it. But for those of you who might not have, here it is:

In the spirit of the holidays

Here is my absolute favorite Christmas song.  My boyfriend and I sing this year round!

Neat wedding video idea

I saw this video on Polka Dot Bride and thought it was worth posting for my readers. I think it's a great idea!