Summer at Park's Peak: Fun Despite RAIN and MUDSLIDES!!

Park's Peak became "Camp Park's Peak" in June and July as Abbie and Ella visited several times times during their summer vacation.  

While Mom and Gammy went to France, Granddaddy brought the girls to PP IN THE RAIN!  While Emily and I were enjoying the French sunshine, I got a text from Dave entitled, "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille", and a picture of the radar!!  But Dave is resourceful, he found plenty of things for the girls to do including making TWO strawberry cakes!!

Painting Abbie's birthday rock
Granddad helped Greg while Mom and Gammy
played in France!

Dave sent us this picture in France entitled
I figured out how to get them to drink milk!
Put it in a wine glass!

He had the girls make and paint bird houses

hanging the birdhouses in PP
We have lots of creatures at PP... so 
just in case we have birds IN the house....

TWO strawberry cakes were made...
one in Charlotte and another at PP!!

Helping Granddaddy  with sawdust

Curling up with a good book is ALWAYS part of visiting PP

The rain caused a HUGE mudslide on Hiway 9 between us and Bat Cave.  It would affect our travel for the rest of the summer, adding 45 minutes to our travel to Bat Cave, Chimney Rock and Lake Lure.  We discovered that coming to PP via 321 and I-40 was just a few minutes longer.  And it "forced/encouraged" us to explore the area between us and Black Mountain and Asheville more.

Note how the road just "dies" into the slide.
Opening a section of road came fairly quickly, but stabilizing the mountain has proved a harder task! 

Across the valley a double slide could be seen.  But it disappeared over about a month.  The power of kudzu!!

Over July 4, we hosted Mollie and Emily's friend Colleen.  Mollie helped me arrange some newly acquired art on the mantle.  We discovered we needed lights on it and David was "johnnie-on-the-spot" getting some on his next Home Depot Run.  Colleen arrived as Mollie was leaving and she joined us for the fireworks in Lake Lure for the 4th and for much fun (and wine) in the hot tub!

Mollie helped me arrange the bird and trees and Dave provided the lighting.

Playing bridge with Mollie and Emily

Colleen joined us and we went to Lake Lure for the fireworks

Much fun was had in the hot tub!

What's the 4th of July without watermelon?!

Emily and Colleen threw a string across part of the "valley" ..

...a suspended a pine cone bird feeder!

Abbie worked on a science kit... making compost

We looked EVERYWHERE for earthworms!!

Mr. Slithers paid us a visit.
Ella very calmly said, "Uh, Granddaddy, there's a snake over there!"

Gammy found a GREAT read aloud:
Word of Mouse by James Patterson

For my birthday, we had a family weekend at PP.  Emily and the girls, and Clay and Tracy all came!  Emily and I had a fun "girls' shopping trip to Black Mountain where I bought a new mirror for our bedroom.  It is a little too contemporary for Dave, he wants local, mountain art.  I got it locally and I think it is folk art vs. contemporary.  You decide!!  Clay and Tracy hiked while Emily and I shopped, and David measured with Ella.  She was so proud, she had brought her own measuring tape, so that she could "help" Granddaddy!!

"Come on Granddaddy!  Let's go measure!"

go 

Tracy and Clay relax after a hike

Everyone in a picture - even Julio

Mirror for bedroom

Hammocks are the most fun!

Ella was glad Julio came too!

While Emily and I were shopping in Black Mountain, we noticed that a favorite book store there was having Harry Potter's Birthday on July 31.  Emily and the girls came back up and we had a grand time at "charm's class" and getting sorted into  Hogwart's houses.  Abbie is Griffindor, Ella is Slytherine, and I am Hufflepuff.

Abbie and her new friend Sofia
They have been exchanging letters

Charms class

Ella belongs to Slitherine

Abbie was Gryffindore

Gammy was Hufflepuff

Ella worked really hard on a story with a beginning, middle and end in her best handwriting and earned a trip to the "stuffie" store... after considering everything in the toy store, this was her choice!!

She considered EVERYTHING...

... and decided on this!

Abbie and Ella also came up in August to visit Biltmore after Abbie read a junior novel set there.  See that adventure at 
www.debsartadventures.blogspot.com

And finally....
                   ..a foretaste of the feast to come!

A few red leaves among the green!

Daughters, Granddaughters, Horses, and Carpentry, OH MY

MOTHERS' DAY ON PARK'S PEAK

Mothers' Day weekend brought my daughter and granddaughters to Park's Peak.  We had a grand time!

The first thing we noticed was it had FINALLY leafed up on top of the Peak.  Everything was GREEN!  At 3500 feet we are nearly a month behind Charlotte.

Two of David's apple trees and the fig tree had failed to make it through the last freeze so we had to replace them.  We also bought a 2nd cherry tree.

David had put in the posts and needed some carpentry "help" from the girls to make their "tree-less tree house" on the rock at Abbie's "Nature Valley".  It is just a few yards down the mountain,but with the leaves on the trees, the girls will have their own private viewing platform, or as Ella calls it:  THE STAGE!  When they come back after Memorial Day and the end of school, Dave will help them finish the decking.  Carting wood and tools up and down the mountain requires lots of YOUNG legs!

Ella got to hammer!

Abbie helped drill in the floor joist brackets!

...and hammer!

I think Abbie is just a little excited!

Saturday night we went to "Saturday Night Lights" at the Tryon Equestrian Center.  It was VERY kid friendly and free except for the ice cream, beer, and tips to the face painters and buskers!  Thanks Sean and Laurie for telling us about this.  The girls had a grand time and watched the horses between rolling down the fake grass hill!

Finally, while the girls were getting carpentry lessons from their granddad, I was doing my latest "crafty" thing.  I made a bathmat out of wine corks to go with the mirror I put in the upstairs bath!  Thank goodness my sister drinks a lot of wine and saves her corks!  The hard part was figuring out how to cut the corks in half so that I would have more surface to glue.  A 1/16th inch thin hack saw worked after Dave drilled me a "jig" in a piece of 2 x 4.  I used over 200 corks!!  So when you come to Park's Peak, you are stepping on some good times had by my sister and Dave and me!!!

I ran out of glue and had to finish it back in Charlotte