Hiking

Our family is really enjoying hiking this fall.  We went to a part of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania one beautiful day.  The trail was a bit rocky in parts.

This song is from a post on YF from 9/08/2015
Be Happy
http://youngfoundations.org/articles/8182015_BeHappy

Summer has Sailed & Fall has Fallen!

Summer has flown by and before we know it winter will be here!

                                         

Benjamin helping wash the van.

 Harvest time

Benjamin adores his little sister.

Joshua bought three ducks.

 Grandpa also turned 74 this month. Uncle Steve and Aunt Jennifer had a surprise birthday party in the back church parking lot Sunday night.

 The theme was "donut" and everyone had to write on a donut a little note to Grandpa. 

Unfortunately, our Sargent unexpectedly died. 
He was such a good dog, and all of us miss him!

Hiking in the Smoky Mountains

On Tuesday we hiked the Laurel Falls Trail.

The falls are 80 feet high!

There are 800 miles of trail in the national park.

Next stop was Clingman's Dome which is a mountain that is 6,643 feet high!

The mountain view was so amazing!

A tiny bug, called the balsam wooly adelgid , is attacking the Fraser fir trees on the Great Smoky Mountain. It kills the tree by injecting the tree with toxins, which blocks the path of nutrients through the tree.  The trees literally starve to death.

Mountain Ash Berry

Next stop Newfound with an elevation of 5,046 feet.  Newfound Gap is the lowest drivable pass through the Great Smoky Mountains. 

 While sight seeing we decided to stop at this creek.

Everyone had fun trying to get across by rocks,

And by this fallen tree.....

 We also stopped at the Mingus Mill, but sadly it was closed. 
We still had fun looking in the window.

The Mingus Mill is powered by a turbine instead of a water wheel. The water pressure turns the turbine which is connected with gears and shafts to the millstones that grind what ever grain you needed ground.

~Posted by Hope