w o r d s

FOR SALE: SECLUDED COUNTRY HOME WITH BIKETRAIL

Two-bedroom secluded brick ranch with biketrail/walking path and large basement in Bahama (20 minutes North of Duke Campus). The single-track trail is a .33 mile figure eight on the 2.5 acres wooded lot. The trail runs through the forest, crosses the creek and climbs a nice hill.  The path lets you fully enjoy the beautiful wildlife and plants occupying the wide variety of habitats on your land. You can hit the trail in the morning for 30 Minutes and still make it to class/work at 9:00 AM on campus (or anywhere in Durham).

More details: The house was built by a contractor for himself and has a lot of cool extras like a wood furnace that is hooked into the duct system and a whole house fan that keeps the place wonderfully cool during much of the year. The house has a terrific kitchen with a huge pantry and large counters with lots of workspace. We just put on a brand new roof and gutters. There is a full basement that is half finished (separate entrance and driveway) and half unfinished workspace (no moldy crawlspace - lots of room for your stuff). The bedrooms (2) are large and full of tree-filtered light. We loved the place and hope you will take a look.
Very reasonably priced at $198.000

Please call our agent (see below) if you’d like to see the house:

Charles Woody (919) 620-0959 or Cell (919) 724-5100
e-mail: cwoodyhomes [at] verizon [dot] net
MLS# 942743

Here are some more pictures from our weekend at the beach January 14/15! Sunday morning was gloriously warm and sunny; in the afternoon clouds rolled in, which made the light for our trip to Cape Lookout quite interesting. (more…)

No -this is not Southern Florida or South Africa - this is Atlantic Beach, NC in January! Looking at the weather report for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, our friend Susan decided to head out to her beach house for the weekend. When she asked if we wanted to come along … well, we had to carefully consider our plans for the weekend … for 2 seconds.

We drove out to Atlantic Beach on Saturday evening after Laura got off work. Sunday morning was great - it was sunny and warm (mid-70s F. /low 20s C), the kids were playing in the surf (!) and Dolphins were cruising up and down the beach (LOTS of dolphins). The water was freaking cold - 55F/12C - but the kids did not care! I did - I tried it and it was freezing!! I wanted to see if I could get close to one of those dolphins … duh! I spent about 5 Minutes in the water and Laura says I was purple when I came out.

In the afternoon, we took a boat (see right) to the Cape Lookout lighthouse and went for a walk along the beach. It was gorgeous - a gentle breeze was blowing in from the ocean and there were hardly any people around. But lots of Dolphins were hunting right off the beach. Once in a while they’d get a baitball going and the water would start boiling, and the pelicans would start dive-bombing, while the dolphins were feeding on the fish.

On the way back, the skipper picked up a family on Shackleford Banks, where they had been hanging out with the wild mustangs there. Sometime in the spring we should go there camping over night. That would be a great adventure and it’d be so cool to watch the mustangs.

Today, we hung out in the morning, and cleaned the house. Then we went to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium (free admission today!). We spent a couple of hours looking at the “fishies,” petted the horseshoe crabs, and gawked at the sharks in the big tank. Around 3 PM we headed back home. What a great weekend!

Piedmont Biofuels in Moncure, North Carolina, has openings for interns next year (see flyer). If I were 20, I’d jump on this one myself! This is a great opportunity for a “total immersion” experience in the biofuels-powered, sustainability-focused lifestyle on a small biodiesel refinery/produce farm in rural North Carolina. Contact Matt if you’re interested (see the flyer for his email address).

Piedmont Biofuels is a cooperative run agriculture operation with strong interest in sustainable practices and renewable energy. Our farm consists of a small acreage market garden and oilseed crop research.

A main portion of our operation is a biodiesel research production facility. We currently produce biodiesel for our farm’s diesel tractor from waste vegetable oil. Piedmont Biofuels is also researching bioregionally sound oil producing crops for on-farm energy production. We also dedicate our building practices to recycling and utilizing varied green building like cob, earth plaster, and Hebel block. Other farm projects include a solar thermal heated production facility, a PV (photovoltaic) powered Biodiesel fueling station, glycerin refining and composting.

Piedmont Biofuels website, Nov. 2006

To be clear: this is only for enthusiasts - this is not a cushy internship, nor a hippie vacation. This is hard work, from chopping firewood to hauling waste veggie - they will work you to the bone. But you get to work with some real trail blazers in biofuels production, and you will come out of this internship with valuable experience from the cutting edge of sustainable lifestyles.

Many years ago, I spent several intense, fun summers in Morocco. Besides biking through the Atlas and hanging out at various beaches, I spent weeks roaming the Médina of Fès with my Fassi friends Mammoun and Mohammed.

Samir at A View from Fès posted some great accounts - and wonderful pictures by Suzanna Clarke - about the ongoing Festival of Sacred Music in Fès. Boy - I wish I could be there! The Sufi Nights sounds amazing! Maybe next year …
photo copyright Suzanna Clarke 2006

Pretty spring day today - so we decided to head out to Little River park instead of doing chores. First Laura got to run on the trails for an hour, while I helped Jacob practice riding his “thunderbike.” I also showed Julia a safe, easy part of the bike trail she could practice on. When Laura got back, it was my turn to hit the bike trails. This was my first time riding the entire Little River bike trail and I was really surprised just how much fun this trail is. It starts out pretty easy, and you can just do the quick, easy 1-mile or 2-mile loops, which are pretty good for beginners. The back trail, or upper trail, is NOT for beginners, however. The trail has some steep bowls and a bunch of logrolls - nothing outrageous, but certainly a bit challenging and a lot of fun. It’s also a pretty ride, as you climb up this little knoll above Little River, through nice, pristine forest. It’s very quiet, and even on such a nice Sunday afternoon it was not crowded at all. (So probably I should keep it to myself and not even write about it. But if the three people who read this start going there, too … oh well :))

I have to get on that trail more often … next time I’ll take a camera and take some pictures.

This morning I went right back to Tsali to ride another trail. Over night the clouds had disappeared and just a low morning fog hovered in the valleys. The sky was clear, the air was crisp and chilly, just slightly above freezing. Last night, the higher peaks in the distance had received their first dusting of snow of the season (see pictures below).

I picked the Right Loop of the Tsali Trail, because it winds along the eastern side of the knoll that juts out into Fontana Lake. So when the sun peeked over the mountains around 7:45 I was on the sunny side of the trail. As I wound my way out to Windy Point, I had a great view of the lake and I watched how the sun slowly burned of the morning fog that hung over the water. It was very quiet, just a few birds were chirping in the chilly morning air and occasionally a squirrel ran up a tree, chattering anxiously. I met no other bikes but a couple of times shots in the distance broke the peace. It was so quiet that the noises from my bike’s gears seemed loud and obnoxious. I had an awesome time - this is a gorgeous trail! When I returned to the parking lot at around 9:30, there was just one other car - a guy with a bow and arrow who was heading out into the woods for some hunting.

More pictures below the fold …
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A little on-the-road blogging from the mountains. I am in western NC for a couple of days, to install some new equipment at our lab in Sylva. When I come up here I always bring my bike along. This afternoon, after I finally got it all working, I strapped the bike to the car and headed over to Tsali Recreation Area to hit the trails.

It was 42 deg F, with a light drizzle, and a gusty breeze blowing across the mountains - what can I say - a perfect evening for a little ride through the woods. There were three other guys out there, a Welsh guy who lives in the area, a guy from Asheville and a guy from Berlin. I had a little trouble with the bike, and had to turn around after a few hundred meters.

When I finally hit the trail for real, I had an hour of - uh - “daylight” left. The Welsh guy had recommended the Thompson Loop Trail, so I rode seven miles along Fontana Lake and back across some the hills. Fantastic ride! I got back after 50 Minutes, and 15Minutes later it got dark, and I was on my way back to the hotel. I think I’ll go back tomorrow morning for another round, before I head back to Durham.