The Mound

Well, I said on my first post that I would give you a picture of the mound that Thompson's built when they moved the old driveway and here it is.

As you can see, it looks like its 500 ft high from down below, but probably only between 150 to 200 ft high. But the bottom is very close to the driveway. In the bottom left hand corner is the ditch probably two to three ft deep filled with the runoff from the other day. You can also see where they dug the ditch out and piled it up on each side where the slide occurred. I think they think that is going to stop it again. Ha! Ha!. But on the bright side, look how green everything is. This is the most rain we've had in months, everything was turning brown. It's really pretty, this green stuff.

Little Visitors

Beth came over tonight to walk, so the girls stayed out here at the house with me and Poppy and their Daddy. Annabelle and I went down to Ambre's house for a little while to visit the boy's. We ordered pizza in and while Beth went home to get a bath, the girls stayed here and ate pizza with us. Afterwards, they both fell asleep on my bed.

If you look real close you can see Annabelle's kool-aid lip. Anyway, school started here last Monday. I can't believe the things that the schools do here. Parents are already stressed out with buying clothes and school supplies and two days into school, they send home packets for purchasing class rings ( $50 deposit required ). You think they'd at least wait a couple of weeks.

The one Chris wants costs $600.00. Oh my Lord! I don't know if I will survive high school again. Pray for me! I'm already stressing. But on a another note: I want to say how proud I am of Ambre. She has been working hard to get all of her pre-requisites done, so she can join the nursing program in January. She crossed another hurtle today when she passed her written exam and skills exam to update her nurses aide certification. She takes the PSB test on Wednesday then has the interview. If she does well on these she will be in the program. Please keep her in your prayers.

First Blog

I started this blog to keep friends and family posted on the happenings around the hill. And hill it is. We live in the foothills of NC near a gravel pit. Danny's family has lived in this area for over a hundred years but about 1965-66, the Thompson Brothers bought the land near the corner of Miller Rd and Maple Creek Rd and started blasting away to get to the mountain of gravel underneath. At that time, Pawpaw, Danny's Dad owned some land that was behind the area on the back side of the hill. The original driveway crossed the top of the hill behind the office and equipment yards that Thompson had set up. The property belonged at one time to an old black man and his family that sold the land to Danny's Dad around 1953. Pawpaw ran cows on the property which also connected to two other pieces of property he owned nearby. We moved back up to NC in 1983 from Florida and soon moved out here onto the hill. And we've been here since then. A number of years ago, Thompson had some test drilling done in our driveway ( which actually came over their land ) and found a huge supply of stone. They wanted this stone so asked us if they could build us another driveway, so they could get to the stone. We said yes but they had to make sure it was stable and they had to keep it maintained ( that's a law anyway ). The first try was a dismal failure. It was too steep in one area and the dam they build almost washed away the first really good rain we had. Anyway, nearly a year later they finally got it pretty right and we started using the new driveway. It's rained a few times and they have had to repair it several times but it's mostly been good. Anyway last winter they started to move the dirt from the old driveway and shift it over. In the picture you will see below, you can see the top of the mound they made in the photo. It runs almost the length of our new driveway. At one point, it is extremely close to our driveway. I asked them not to dump anymore dirt in that area but they kept at it. Well, we had two full days of rain this week and guess what. MUDSLIDE!!!! Yep, on the left hand side of the picture the mud is about three feet deep. But they came right out and cleaned it up and needless to say it will probably happen again.

Well, I thought you could see the top of the hill they built in one of these pictures but it must be on my phone. I'll try to take another pic tomorrow and show you the work they've done to try and clear this little mishap up. I just can't wait to see the next rain. Anyway, bye for now.