The Scordatos Go to Asheville Part One: Biltmore

On the second weekend of May Andrew and I went down to Asheville North Carolina for a weekend trip. The drive down and the first day we were down there it was beautiful. I will have some highlights from where we stayed/ate/shopped in a later post but for this one I'll describe the main attraction. Biltmore...um mansion? I don't really know what they call it. To break up the text, I'm inserting pictures we were allowed to take on the architect's tour so when you look at the big picture of Biltmore, picture me and Andrew walking around parts of the roof. Descriptions are under each picture.

Taken from the top of the retaining wall.

This picture was taken from the roof. Andrew and I were standing on the top tier of the brickwork you see here when I snapped the first picture on this post. Biltmore is the largest private residence in the US. No one lives in it now, but one of the guides told me that the family has private homes on the 8,000 acre parcel. Built by George Vanderbilt in the late 1880s and early 1890s this is a true walk back in time to the gilded age. I've been telling people it was like touring a land version of the titanic. George Vanderbilt paid for over 160,000 acres of land in four counties to build a house over 80,000 square feet and he was the third son! His inheritance was 10 million dollars which in today's currency would be in the low billions.

This is one of maybe dozens of gargoyle sculptures on the roof. I was close enough to touch it. (not that I did touch it, well, maybe I could have but...) Gargoyles were thought to keep bad spirits away. It was also believed that evil spirits haunt corners of rooms, and two of the rooms in Biltmore are ovals, so there are no corners! One oval room was where Mrs. Vanderbilt delivered their only child, Corneilia. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it is truly jaw dropping. My favorite part was the indoor winter garden, a huge space covered by a glass solar. We paid the extra ten bucks on top of the regular tickets to go on the audio tour and that was really nice because each room on the map they gave us had one to three corresponding numbers that you typed in to hear the narrator. The narration was good and it was just enough information. We toured 42 rooms and that is just a drop in the bucket. Some highlights for me included walking by a door with the nameplate "Mrs. Edward Wharton." That's American novelist Edith Wharton, who was a good friend of Edith Vanderbilt. I really liked the crazy indoor swimming pool in the basement. First of all there was a row of these fantastically wood worked dressing rooms for women to change into their swimsuits. These dressing rooms were the size of small bedrooms and had their own sinks and furniture. The indoor pool was nothing like you would picture. The whole room was in white tile (tiled by the same guy who did the base of the statue of liberty and NYC Grand Central Station) and the ceiling curved in a big arch. Their were heavy duty ropes on one side that (get this) were for women to cling too as they bobbed in the water because their modest woolen swimsuits were so heavy, they couldn't be in the water more than a couple minutes before they would sink from the weight of the wet wool. The pool held 77,000 gallons of water (but it is dry now) and every two or three days the servants would drain the pool and scrub the tiles clean and then refill it because there was no chlorine back then.

This is the top of the giant "winter garden" Note yet another gargoyle in the lower left hand corner. All the "green stuff" is copper. Biltmore has 43 bathrooms (keep in mind this home was open to stay in, in late 1898 and had working modern plumbing. So you know, after a hard day of croquet and taking tea in the winter garden, Edith Wharton could turn on a hot bath in her giant clawfoot tub just like we do today. It became pretty obvious on the tour that if we were to travel back in time to be a guest of the Vanderbilts, it would not be a hardship for most of the modern conveniences of life. I also enjoyed the tour of the servants work area, they had a pastry, roasting and regular kitchen and each one included massive ceramic sinks with giant rose marble draining boards. And I loved the pantries. There were like 6 different pantries including a refrigerated pantry, one of the first specially adapted by Vanderbilt instead of using ice and sawdust. The canned pantry was also cool because it was filled with rows and rows of ball jars like the ones I collect for the herbal pantry.

We missed out on the landscape tour and took the architect's tour instead which was very interesting. We got to see a scale model of Vanderbilt that was made for Vanderbilt, it was like a huge doll house and we got to get an up close look at some of the features. Here is a smattering of facts that I remember. The copper features on the roof actually clean the slate shingles because when it rains, copper emits this toxin that runs down the shingles and cleans them. The woodwork (and boy there is a lot of it) came from timber pulled from 6 states. Ans as the tour guide said "except for the walnut, all the walnut is from France." All the walnut was shipped from France? Geez. The glass panes in the lead framed windows were hand blown and the chandelier (actually three giant chandeliers of the same style all fixed around the same pole) in the grand staircase weighed something crazy like 1,700 pounds (or was it tons?) Maybe I didn't pay as much attention as I thought. Of all the things I learned and saw at Biltmore, I think this will stick with me the most. When I looked out on the rolling smoky mountains from the second floor balcony, I assumed it was all naturally occurring. But we learned later in the day that when George Vanderbilt bought all this land, it was pretty much stripped bare from mining and logging. ALL the trees for as far as we could see had been planted over 100 years ago to replace what had been lost. There was soil brought in because of erosion problems, and water features were created. There was one man named Olmstead who oversaw all the landscape architecture and they even built their own nursery to supply the sheer number of trees. George Vanderbilt only live there for 19 years before dying young (well we would think it was young) at 51. He never got to see the view hundreds of people enjoy every day today.

There is a rumor that this stone carving face is modeled after George Vanderbilt. The stone carvers had to carve so fast, that they often used each other as models. One stone carving reflects that by showing a grinning face with just one tooth. These little stone carvings were everywhere.

We saw two barn swallow nests on the tour. All the stone ledges were right up their alley for the kind of mud nests that they make. This nest was the most photogenic

Below are some pictures from the extensive gardens. We didn't get to see all of it. There was a huge rose garden and plenty of lavender plants pruned up all fancy. And there was an amazing huge conservatory that had three wings behind the main building full of tropical plants in pots. Enjoy the photos and please consider following the blog. You'll get an email when I've posted something new...I think. These arbors led to the extensive gardens.

This Chinese Wisteria was huge.

Please enjoy the following series taken with my new macro lens

The Scordatos Go To Asheville Part Two: Out and About

Building mural in Weaverville Andrew and I stayed at the Dry Ridge Inn in Weaversville which is just a few miles north of Asheville. This B&B was super comfortable. We stayed on the third floor and even had a big closet off the shower that I could hang shirts up. The inn was built in the mid-late 1800s and the original owner, Mr. Brown was the Asheville buggie dealer and repairman and he often picked up the Vanderbilts from the train station and drove them to their home. Lots of great old wood floors. Breakfasts were good, and there was a guest refrigerator and plenty of soda and water for guests on the road. They also gave great restaurant reservations like the Glass Onion. A little Italian restaurant just a couple blocks walk from the inn, this was my favorite meal of our trip. There were also some nice art places in Weaversville like Magnum Pottery. and I made some nice antique finds at Shop Around the Corner like an old egg basket in good condition. Andrew and I also ate at the famous Tupelo Cafe We loved the Appalachian spring rolls here with pulled pork and man they were good. I also enjoyed Rosemary Peach Lemonade and am looking forward to trying to replicate it this summer. The other restaurant of note was the Corner Kitchen in Biltmore Village, this place had a long wait because it was Mother's Day but boy was it worth it. If you like local art, Asheville is a great place because it has a very strong and varied art community. We enjoyed this gallery Also, this was neat, they retrofitted the old Woolworth building and both floors were full of local art. Andrew and I picked up some pottery pieces. They even had a working soda fountain. I'll end this post with a few pictures from an overlook about an hour west of Asheville.

This last picture was actually taken on our walk from the parking lot to Biltmore, I couldn't resist the perspective.

I've got lots of wildlife updates and garden news coming up so keep your eyes peeled for updates or try becoming a blog follower.

Spring Adventure No. 1 Rural Society Spring Show (Make sure you scroll down to see the Peacock Fight)

On Friday, Andrew and I trucked (er-Corrolla-ed) up to Mt Vernon for the Rural Society show. I learned about these folks at the Country Living Fair last fall from a postcard at the Urban Farmhouse booth. Andrew and I went up last fall, but only caught the last half hour of the show, so I was eager to get the full experience this time around. The weather held (and boy was it humid) but the gardens were beautiful, and the booths wonderful. I also got the materials for the first garden project of the spring beyond building raised beds (Andrew has made a ton of them more on the raised beds later.) I found a lot of great items at good prices. Here are some pictures of the show.

Here are some shots of their chicken coop and surrounding garden.

Giant Hostas and Trellis Raised Bed

Some vendor displays.

This lovely cat, let everyone who passed by, pet her. What a little princess!

They even have a bread oven.

And, for the grand finale, the Peacock and Guinea Fowl fighting.

SO, looking at the picture above, you can see the gray guinea fowl on the bottom, he's much smaller than the peacock. Look to the left behind the peacock, you can see the female peacock and female guinea fowl lounging in the raised bed, paying no attention to the boys' antics.

Spring Garden Project No. 1

One of the things I was keen on finding at the Rural Society was some vintage galvanized metal wash tubs for a gardening project. Who did I find but Christy from the Green Owl in Urbana. believe me, it's not lost on me I had to drive to Mt. Vernon to find wash tubs from a gal in Urbana, but hey, now I got 'em for the project. Mint and Lemon Balm are too great herbs for teas and bath items. But, never, never, never, never E V E R um, actually plant them in the ground. Unless, you know, you want to be pulling it up for the rest of your life or until you move into a condo. I have put them in pots in the past, but have been rethinking the role of pots in my garden lately. But, I need them in greater quantities this year. A raised bed doesn't count, they can easily grow under the beams and take over the world, or, at an acre. So using a technique my Mom used on some of her big pots, and with the help of my friend R, who trucked out of the big city for company and light gardening I gave it a whirl.

I wanted to find a blue that would match out shutters. This color is still too bright but, it works. And here is one of the chickens inspecting our work.

After the tubs dried, we put them on the front porch and put empty plastic bottles in plastic garbage bags. This took up the space 2/3 to 1/2 from the bottom. this keeps us from wasting potting mix and also, keeps them from weighing like, 50 lbs.

Then add the potting mix, the mint and the lemon balm. Trust me, it will take no time for these suckers to spread over the entire surface of the tub. I'll have to mow the mint down regularly to make sure it doesn't go to seed...cause then it will be all over our yard. So here is the lemon balm.

But it's not all work when you come out and help with a gardening project. We also made a new foot scrub with green clay, demera sugar, sea salt, almond oil, and peppermint and eucalyptus oil.

Pictures from a Trip to the Zoo

Chickens on the Range

Once the Chicken tractor extension was built, I started letting the hens out in the evening. For some reason, being on the range has brought them around to me. After an hour of being out, they would come to me when I called them, and Friday night, one even let me pick her up. For some reason, instead of flinching away from me as they did in the pen, they now squat down when I approach and let me pet them. I've bought them some chicken treat and hope to start hand feeding them this week. They are laying three eggs almost daily now and they love strawberry tops. The pictures below are ones I took of them ranging around. They love rolling in the dirt around a particular tree in the orchard, and the one tree closest to where the chicken tractor is currently parked. They roll in the dirt and fluff their wings so the dust will clog parasites in their feathers and kill them.

The other night the hens wandered into the neighboring field where the llamas live and boy those llamas are really territorial. They started making that agitated whinny and chased the hens back into our yard.

I liked this picture. I was actually trying to clean out the dirty shaving of the coop when one of the hens decided to hop up in and through to the coop.

Chicken Tractor Awesomeness!!!

So last Sunday Dad and I spent most of the day building an extension to the chicken tractor. The following shots are what we got done that day. Dad had to finish it Monday and as you can see, there was still a lot to do.

And here it is. Note the tin roof, which includes a hook to hang a chained feeder on. I let the chickens out an hour before sunset or maybe two, to range while I am out and about. the rest of the time, they have a little bit more space without having to worry about foxes.