Paddling Yonah Lake

Taylor and I went paddling this morning on Yonah Lake, an impoundment of the Tugaloo River, which forms part of the Georgia-South Carolina border, just downstream of Lake Tugalo. (The river name ends with 2 o's; all other names (lake, park, village, etc.) end with one 'o'.)

Taylor paddles south from Tugalo Park boat launch at head of Yonah Lake

No picture of it, but as we paddled south, we came upon a massive bald eagle in a lakeside tree on the South Carolina shore, startled it, and watched as it circled around us, no more than 100' away. Very, very impressive!

Tugalo Dam, at the head of Yonah Lake.

View of Tugalo Lake, from the road to Yonah Lake. Tugalo Park is a Georgia Power
campground and boat launch, located at the foot of Tugalo Dam,
and at the head of Yonah Lake.

From the road to Yonah Lake, you can see what is probably the biggest house in Rabun County, overlooking Lake Tugalo.

Near top-center is an enormous house on a hilltop overlooking Lake Tugalo.
Photo below shows a Google Earth detail of that house.

The shadows reveal the Disneyland-like towers of this house.

Yonah Lake is the most-downstream of Georgia Power's lakes on the Tallulah watershed. From the top, they are Burton, Seed, Rabun, Tallulah Falls, Tugalo and Yonah. Burton's lake level is 1866' above sea level; Yonah's is 744', and below its dam, 670'; a total drop of 1196', most of it harnessed by hydropower turbines. Yonah has some houses around its shore, but relatively few compared to Burton. Most of the houses on the Georgia side have road access; most of the South Carolina houses are boat-access only.

Taylor's wind sock

Looking for a better mounting, but here it is!

Kitchen improvements

Two things:

1. We've built a new cabinet into the largely-unused space over the refrigerator. This will be useful for storing large, not-often used things like canning equipment, crock-pot, etc. We used tongue-and-groove boards, glued together into panels, for the cabinet side and doors.

New cabinet over refrigerator

2. We've modified the base cabinets to the left and right of the sink cabinet, so that now each contains two full-width, full-depth drawers (about 24" x 24"), mounted on full-extension drawer slides. Huge improvement, compared to getting down on hands and knees to find stuff in the back of the old cabinets! We built the drawer fronts of knotty-pine, lightly-stained and varnished.

New drawers make these cabinets more usable

To get to the back, lower section of this cabinet, before drawers,
you had to get down on the floor and do the gator crawl. Much easier now!

Bony fish

Now hanging from the Blue Fish sign, in front

Thanks, Ruthlyn!

AC and company

Johnny, Lynn, Ann Cox, Jake, Daniel and Laura

Moon set, Labor Day weekend

Moon set, pre-dawn, over Timpson Cove

Detail: waning gibbous, 96% illuminated

All quiet on the western front

How bout them dawgs!

Propaganda starts early for Charlie

Charlie and Gran

Charlie and Gail

Darnell Falls

Darnell Falls

More below the break (click on 'read more').

Classic barn

Of course it's red. It's a barn!

On Wolffork Road, west of Rabun Gap.

Lyrical street names

Probably not named by a real estate developer!

On Persimmon Creek Road, about a mile after it forks off Persimmon Road.

Nice weekend

Would have been a perfect weekend with the trifecta of our kids, had Laura been able to make it with her boys, Jake and Charlie. But two out of three isn't bad, either: Andrew with Hillary, and Taylor, too.

Rub-a-dub-dub, three folks in a tub! Andrew, Hillary and George.

Supper on the deck. Taylor, Andrew, Robert and Hillary, behind.
Check out those ka-bobs! Chef is proud.

George, Hillary and Andrew relax after dinner. Check out those boots.

Say cheese! Hillary and Andrew.

Friends and neighbors

Hannah, Bill and George

Clouds between the storms

Looking west over Timpson Cove, late afternoon

Crepe myrtle blooming

From the boathouse bridge, above the Spa Garden

Log slice table

We're working on making a table-top out of a log slice taken from a large pine, about six to eight inches thick. It was cut where the tree had limbs radiating out in all directions, at the same elevation, so there are about a dozen knots showing, all around the outer edge.

Representative radial knot, fine-sanded and lightly rubbed with tung oil.

The log slice is about 4 feet in diameter, and 6 to 8 inches thick. Heavy!
Back of the pickup makes a decent work table for this project.

Counting tree rings, it looks like the tree was about 60 years old, when felled. Pines grow fast!

So far, I've done rough-sanding on the top, with 40-grit belts. Been through 15 of them so far, but I think the rough part is mostly done. It won't be totally flat, but it should be smooth, anyway. It was cut with a chain saw, working from one side, and then the other, so there were some cut lines that had to get extra work. There's lots of resin, too, especially around the knots, so the sanding belts get pretty gummed-up. The bark is starting to fall off, so I expect the edge of the table to be bare wood, all around.

I haven't completely decided about legs. I'm thinking that I'll use some small pine-log sections, from a tree which fell next to our house. We'll probably make it a low game-table, with legs about a foot long, and have low stools to sit on. As heavy as it is, I'm reluctant to have it full height. Not sure yet how the legs will be attached; maybe mortise and tenon joints, or perhaps with anchor bolts on the leg tops, screwed into threaded inserts set in the underside of the table.

New sun deck

Our sun deck, with a western exposure, suffered from 16 years of intense sun, heavy rains and heat, and needed new decking. This week, we got it!

Decking will be stained in near future

New doors, too. No more squeaky hinges!

Blue Fish says 'Welcome'

How to find stuff in the kitchen

Here is a pictorial guide to the kitchen: where the stuff is hidden, all secrets revealed! These pictures were taken before we installed drawers in place of the door cabinets, but the arrangement of contents is pretty much the same.

Click on read more, below . . .

Dining at the Lake Rabun Hotel and the Blue Fish Lodge

George, Bill and Shirley, at the Lake Rabun Hotel.
We had to share our little nook with 'Daydreamer,'
a brown bear available (still) for a cool $3200.

This was our second dinner at the Lake Rabun Hotel. It's very nice. Every Thursday, they put on a Featured Farm menu, with food from one of the local farms. A couple of weeks ago, we ate with Ann from a menu using Mill Gap Farm in Tiger; next week, they'll be featuring our community garden on their Thursday menu.

George, Bill and Shirley, plating up at the
Blue Fish Lodge's boathouse dining room.

Art Over Burton

We joined John and Jan for a round of Moscow Mules, then went to the Art Over Burton auction event, to benefit the Hambidge Center in Dillard. It was held at the Lake Burton Club's Lodge, which has a spectacular view over the lake, and the surrounding mountains. 

Marlene from the Burton Gallery put a number of works up for auction, as did the Hambidge Center itself. We brought home Georgia's Christmas present for 2012 (surprise, surprise!), and one of Jan's works, as well.

Moscow Mules, anyone? John, George and Jan.

Tallulah River and Tate City

Taylor and I took a ride up the Tallulah River Road (FS-70), past Tate City and into North Carolina, to a Nantahala Wilderness Area trailhead. We were looking for Flat Branch Falls, along the Tallulah, but had no luck finding the trail. Still, we enjoyed a nice Saturday drive.

Budding rhododendrons

Shopping opportunities at the Tate City Mall

Detail from photo above: TATE CITY MALL. Apparently, they sell
cast iron frying pans, horseshoes, shovels and farm implements.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Two hundred thirty-six years ago today:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Andrew, Hillary, Ann & Beau'gard (sitting), Susan, George, Robert,
exercising their unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Andrew, Hillary and the Stars and Stripes

Early harvest at the Old School Garden patch

Starting to harvest some vegies from our garden patch at the Old School Garden in Clayton.

Cucumber, zuchinni, yellow squash and basil

Made me think of this dialog from one of my favorite movies, Animal House:

[Otter and Mrs. Wormer are in the supermarket vegetable section] 
Eric 'Otter' Stratton: Mine's bigger. 
[Marion looks questioningly at him] 
Eric 'Otter' Stratton: My cucumber. It's bigger. I think vegetables can be very sensuous, don't you? 
Marion Wormer: No, vegetables are sensual. People are sensuous. 
Eric 'Otter' Stratton: Right. Sensual. That's what I meant. My name's Eric Stratton. People call me Otter. 
Marion Wormer: My name's Marion. People call me Mrs. Wormer. 
Eric 'Otter' Stratton: Oh, we have a Dean Wormer at Faber.
Marion Wormer: How interesting. I have a husband named Dean Wormer at Faber. Still want to show me your cucumber? 

Well, yes. Yes we do.

New garden bed

This new bed is west of our first garden bed and the old maple stump (from the tree blown down by the tornado). It started out as a pile of dirt excavated from the dry-well hole we dug in the side yard. Then, we built a stone wall around it, and added a truckload of top-soil and mixed that in. After planting it, we mulched it with shredded cypress mulch.

Kilby Mill Creek Falls

This waterfall on Kilby Mill Creek is a short drive from the Blue Fish Lodge.

Late-season white rhododendron.

To get there, go west on US 76 to Persimmon Road. Go north on Persimmon for about 7 miles; it becomes Patterson Gap Road, and passes (on the left) Camp Darom (lake, climbing walls, camp buildings, pool, basketball courts, etc.). After passing the camp, you'll come to a one-lane bridge. Stop on the right before the bridge, and follow the trail upstream, to the falls. You will cross the first creek, hopping from stone to stone, then go a short way before you get to Kilby Mill Creek, and then the falls. The trail is steep, between the lower and upper falls, but worth it. Caution: lots of poison ivy! Wear long pants.

Getting in and out of the kayaks

Once you're all the way down into a kayak, your center of gravity (meaning, your butt) should be low enough to make the kayak stable. The trick is, getting there!

We use the steps next to the hot tub, for launching kayaks. Put the kayak in the water, front pointing away from the shore, parallel to the front edge of the steps, and floating in the water (not ON a step). Make sure the paddle is within your reach. Carefully put one foot into the kayak, and lower yourself onto the seat, while holding on to the step for stability. Then put your other leg in the kayak, grab the paddle, and paddle away.

If you swamp (and you won't be the first to do so), use the steps to turn the kayak upside down, to get most of the water out. Then pull it back onto the deck, and use the plug at the stern of the boat to drain the remaining water out.

Father's Day weekend

Cap'n Robert, Angie, Michael, George . . . cruising

Camouflage rabbit

Angie and Michael

Peach-blueberry crisp

Bear on a motorcycle

I never text while driving, and I don't take pictures from behind the wheel, either. Except when circumstances require it. And I think this meets that test.

Driving through Tallulah Falls, on the way to the lake.

Note the passenger bear, too, on the luggage rack.