danrouth

Local Collection

While on a local location scouting job, I dropped by neighbor Robbie Coble’s home in Grays Chapel, North Carolina. Robbie is an avid collector of old service station and store memorabilia, and has gone as far as building replicas of an old general store and a Texaco service station on his property. The store houses old fashioned merchandise, while he uses the station to display several vintage cars. A walk in Robbie’s backyard is like a walk in time.

Tiger Swallowtail in March

Butterfly

Things are happening a little early this year. A tiger swallowtail works the plum blossoms Friday in my yard in Grays Chapel, North Carolina.

Sawmill Portrait #2

Portraits, Sawmill

Charlie Latham at Gary Mac’s sawmill in Grays Chapel, North Carolina.

The Big Tree

Trees

On Sunday afternoon the family along with family friend Alan Pugh, went for a hike to the “big tree”. The tree is a huge loblolly pine purported to be the second largest in North Carolina, and is located in the woods behind Grays Chapel School in rural Randolph County. It has a special significance to me because my Dad, the former principal at the school used to take field trips with the kids and teachers down into the woods to see it, a source of great enjoyment for many children over the years. Estimated to be around 200 or so years old, the giant measures almost 4 feet in diameter at the base and is over 130 feet tall. It had been years since I had made the trek and the forest behind the school had been timbered. I found it difficult to find my way to the tree’s site and was afraid we would be unable to find it. After a long hike we almost gave up on the hunt. We luckily ran into some neighbors on horseback who steered us in the right direction. The tree is on land neighbor Floyd Moore has acquired and we found that Mr. Moore has created a buffer around the tree and is protecting it. Apparently he is very proud to have the tree along with a grove of younger offspring on his land and is taking very good care of them all. He kindly allowed us to access the behemoth. I was glad to see that it is still standing, still healthy and apparently safe for years to come. I know my Dad would be happy.

Below is Mr. Moore at his tree.

Japonica

Flowers

A japonica blooms in my backyard in Grays Chapel, North Carolina.

They’re Kidding Again

Animals, Goat

A stop by Goat Lady Dairy this afternoon for a kid check (I think they are up to 27 or so) produced these images of a newborn.

Goat Lady CSA

Agriculture, Farm, Garden

Goat Lady Dairy in Grays Chapel, North Carolina started a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) garden in 2010 and it was a great success. They are beginning to get ready for the 2011 season, but in the meantime Daniel Woodham (farm manager) has been harvesting winter carry over vegetables which the dairy sells at the local farmer’s market. He is assisted regularly by Chram Rode and his wife Broih Fnu, a Montagnard couple originally from Viet Nam who are training to help run the day to day gardening operations.

You’re Kidding

Animals, Farm, Goat

For my friends at Goat Lady Dairy here in Grays Chapel, North Carolina, March is a very busy month. The goat moms are starting to have their kids, and because they were all bred at about the same time, they are all delivering at about the same time. Lee Tate of Goat Lady handles most of the kidding supervision, so that means she is going to have to watch about 27 does deliver around 50 or more kids in the next month at any time day or night, and then take over the young goats’ feeding. Fortunately she does have some volunteer help such as Alice Jenkins, who was at the dairy today helping with the feeding chores.