8.27.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, and welcome to radioize Women's World. As a reminder,
RADIOI is a reading service intended for people who are
blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
read printed material. Today, I'm reading from Southern Living magazine
and it is dated August of twenty twenty five, so

(00:25):
it's the late summer edition. Your host today is Anne Glover.
Newspaper and magazine articles presented in Women's World are for
general information only. RADIOI does not endorse or recommend any
of the subjects mentioned. And we are reading an article

(00:50):
entitled Beautiful Spaces for a Better Life at Home, and
this particular story is labeled Cottage Charm. Reimagining Farmdale. In
an excerpt from his new book Home Again, designer James
Farmer once more transforms the Perry, Georgia house he's lived

(01:14):
in for ten years. I want to be home again
and feeling right. Carol King wrote and sang. My mother
listened to Carol King so much that her tunes are
not only the soundtrack to my childhood, but a one

(01:35):
way ticket to happy memories of home. A lot of
life happened in a decade for me. I lost my
grandmother and mother in the same year, right at the
outset of building Farmdale, My home became not just my house,
but a place my sisters could come home to bring

(01:57):
their families, celebrate holidays, and even have a wedding. I
donated a kidney to my sister Meredith, and three years
later she and Keaton were married in the garden. Sister
Maggie and her husband Zach, had two children and adopted
three more. Our family grew from the three siblings left

(02:21):
in the wake of our mother's death to a bustling
bunch of kinsman redeemers. My aunt and uncle, who also
live on our property, became our parents and grandparents to
the children, with my first cousins becoming more like siblings.
If I have learned one thing about life, it is

(02:43):
the current can shape you, but do not let it
drown you. So after a decade of living at Farmdale,
it was time for a change. The current was no
longer a riptide or rapids, but a steady stream of
nieces and nephews, lovely holidays, garden blossoms, pool parties and happiness,

(03:08):
and even meeting someone special myself. A full nest to
an empty nest, to just the two of us, steady
and good. The changes at hand were welcomed and exciting,
and of course, as with some of the best home projects,
started not with a plan, but with a leak. When

(03:31):
water started trickling down a wall, I used this as
an excuse to redo the wall paper. Where water had
been seeping through a wall and a door. It was
time for a new door, doors, and maybe a kitchen.
I did not set out to redo my kitchen, but
the timing presented itself, so I anchored my choice in

(03:55):
the classics, traditional and proven elements. The same but different
creamy linen, white cabinets replaced the open shelves, walnut, changed
out the pine countertops, and we created a bit more
room in the pantry for the odds and ends that
kitchens seemed to accrue. I believe kitchens should be pretty

(04:19):
but useful, not sterile laboratories as if. As with all
my projects, I use stone and wood for countertops, and
here my collection of creamwareterreens and soupierre is on display,
along with favorite cookbooks. Flanking the front window. A mossy

(04:42):
sage green gives the island some color and some character,
and I love how this color shifts with the seasons.
My warp triangle did not change per se, but I
is able to keep the footprint nearly the same, but

(05:03):
different in how we use the space. I serve off
the stove an island, and this flow works for us.
The island serves as our supper spot when it's the
only the two of us, but when the herd descends
upon Farmdale, I set up a long table in the carport.
My island is the buffet these days, and I need

(05:26):
a bit more room around the table. My dining room
became my living room and the living and the new
dining room is right off the kitchen, where I can
squeeze the family around the table with a high chair
or a booster seat or two. I found that some
of us linger around the table and some of us
roost in the living room. I love having the big

(05:49):
windows looking out to the front yard, and the living
room has become my morning room. It's cozy for two
or twelve, and the color scheme of green peach in
floral draperies reminds me of my mother's living room from
my childhood. In the midst the remodel of my kitchen,

(06:09):
my contractor called and said, you can go home again.
After some sanding and painting had kicked me out for
a few days, so I have gone home again. It's
the same place and filled with memories and set for
a new chapter with many seasons to come. And that's

(06:33):
the end of the story. Our next section is The
Grumpy Gardener by Steve Bender. Dear Grumpy, years ago, I
asked you about controlling armadillos in my Florida yard. Now
I'm up to hundred and three that have been trapped

(06:53):
and either killed or relocated. I average average, This is incredible,
twelve a year. I am dressing up as an armadillo
this Halloween and my husband is wearing and I'd rather
be shooting armadillo's T shirt. What do you think, Sharon?
I think you shouldn't give him any more reasons than

(07:15):
he already has. Just kidding, But what's the problem. Can't
deal with a few possums on the half shell laying
waste to your precious pegonias, impatience and lawn, so you
resort to violence, shame? You should rewild your yard instead,
like lots of those garden bloggers suggest, stop mowing and trimming.

(07:38):
Let whatever wants to grow do so. Soon you'll be
enjoying a miraculous, care free milage of prickly pear, honeysuckle,
poison ivy, popcorn tree, privet, bull thistle, rattlesnake weed, ragweed,
sand spur, and Bradford pear. This will result in a
more diversified wild line including squirrels, raccoons, yellowjackets, banana spiders, scorpions, mice,

(08:06):
skunk and burn mese pythons. It'll be heaven. That doesn't
sound like heaven to me. Rotten tomatoes is the next letter.
Help grumpy. I was so looking forward to juicy homegrown
tomatoes this year, but now they have black spots on

(08:28):
the ends. Where did I go wrong? Nancy? Don't beat
yourself up. That would disturb the children. What you see
is a common condition called blossom end rot. It occurs
when the roots don't channel enough calcium from the soil
to the warm cells. To correct this, sprickle sprinkle a

(08:50):
cup of lime around the base of each plant. Also
maintain evenly moist soil, not too wet or too to
help the roots keep the calcium moving. All right, Our
next one is swarming Surprise. I have a nearly finished

(09:12):
compost pile that I was going to move. When I
dug into it, I discovered lots and lots of termites
scurrying around. I've been told by some to get rid
of the pile as soon as possible, while others have
said not to worry about it. What's your vote? If
the composed pile is in question doesn't sit next to

(09:36):
your house, chill out. The termites are consuming cellulose in
wood that's present in the pile and actually speeding up
its decomposition. Millions of termites that you never see inhabit
the ground all around you. Unless wood from your house
is in contact with the soil and that soil hasn't

(09:57):
been baited or treated, there unlikely to do damage. Our
next one is leaping lizards. I live in Fort Lauderdale,
where invasive iguanas seem to equate plants to a salad
bar set out just for them. Can you recommend colorful

(10:18):
options for containers that these lizards can't consume? You could
eat these reptiles. I'd hear they taste like chicken. Plus
they're locally sourced and sustainable. Look for the Official Iguana
cookbook by Joe Maney and to find recipes not game

(10:39):
for that The following plants are said to be turnoffs
for these lizards. Oleander, croton, chineel plant, bird of Paradise,
Mexican petunia, purple heart, Exora cordellin, copper leaf, and society garlic.

(11:00):
Our next letter seeing red. My mom just got four
red hydranges. Are there any soil supplements she needs to
add to make sure they stay that shade? It's by Vicki.
The flower color of big leaf hydrangea, the kind that
your mother has, is largely determined by the soil's pH

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and the presence of aluminum in the soil. A soil
test will reveal this. If the pH is below seven
or acid and aluminum is available, the flowers turn blue.
If the pH is above seven alkalin and the illuminum
is not aluminium is not present, the blooms will turn

(11:45):
pink or red. An easy way to raise the pH
is to sprinkle a cup of lime around the base
of the plant. Each year aluminum is less available in
alkaline soil. The end of our letters to the Gardener,
although we do have one section that's Grumpy's Gripe of

(12:07):
the month. I hate to be the bearer of bad news,
but all those highway medians planted with wildflowers could be
unwitting death traps. It seems that the bees pollinating those
blooms aren't terribly traffic aware. Fortunately, I have an easy solution.
We just need to establish a national system of bee

(12:30):
smart schools that help teach these industrious insects how to
be aware of highway crossings and how to fly between
the vehicles, not straight into them. I expect there'll be
considerable buzz about this in Washington. Our next story is

(12:56):
Adventures in Travel and Culture from the South, Up, Up,
and Away Explore the Red River Gorge on a climbing
tour with Southeast Mountain Guides long weekend into the Red
Natural beauty is around every corner at this tucked away
treasure in eastern Kentucky. The article is by Tara Massile McCrae.

(13:27):
Turned a page here. My stomach started doing little flips
as we turned off State eleven and began our ascent
on a winding gravel road. Although the afternoon storm had
mostly passed, the emerging sun was almost entirely shielded by

(13:48):
a thick canopy of trees, and fat drops of rain
from the branches kept our windshield wipers working. My husband Matt,
and I had just navigated a part particularly precarious portion
of the road when I finally saw it, a wooden
sign reading Cliff Dweller suspended between two trees. I'd been

(14:12):
on Canopy Crew's website almost daily over the past week,
reading the description for our tree house so many times
I'd practically committed it to memory. Cliff Dweller is the
first cliff mountain rental in the Red River Gorge, with
one hundred and seventy seven steps to get to the kitchen,

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forty five steps to get to the bedroom, and eleven
steps to get to the roof deck. I'd stared at
the picture of the tiny wooden box supported by nothing
but a couple of steel beams and a few cables
drilled into the cliff face on countless occasions, but never

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fully appreciated what a feat of design, architecture, and engineering
it was. Until that moment. We threw our duffel bags
over our shoulders and excitedly began our journey into the
trees in search of our first adventure ancient beginnings. Its

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fitting that we started our weekend in the Red River
Gorge a federally Designated Geological Area in eastern Kentucky, about
an hour east of Lexington, with a climb. The region,
which is largely located inside National Daniel Boone National Forest,
has attracted rock climbers for decades. In the nineteen nineties

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and early two thousands, buzz for the area's towering sandstone
cliffs and mammoth boulders, which are perfect for pitching roots
and scrambling up, sparked pilgrimages by global athletes. Today, the
Red as its affectionally dubbed, is considered one of the
best climbing destinations in the country, if not the world.

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If you're eager to summit a slope, the family behind
Southeast Mountain Guides can get you strapped in for an
instructor lead climb or a via feratic horse using iron
rings and cables bolted to rocks around a horseshoe shaped
canyon with no experience necessary. Time seems more relative in

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a place like Red River Gorge. Public interest in the
Red's natural attractions, though garnered gradually, is barely a speck
on a timeline when compared to the millions of years
it took for the gorge to form wind and water
from the rushing Red River worked together to microscopically chip

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away at the shale and sandstone, creating the undulating topography
of steep cliffs, deep canyons, and narrow valleys you see today.
Locals are quick to comment on the development that's skyrocketed
in this area over the past decade, but driving through
the gorgeous rural communities of Campton, Rogers and Slade, what

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I noticed most were the open spaces, acres of farm land,
rolling hills, and stretches of dense forest. The tiny clusters
of roadside businesses selling barbecue, ice cream and handmade pottery
are few and far between, appearing just often enough to
remind visitors that they'll have somewhere to stop after a

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long day on the trail. If the limited cell service
and one lane two way roads are any indicators, this
is still the kind of place where you go to
get away spectacular scenery. Designate National Natural Landmark as well

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as a National Archaeological District, the Red offers the breath
taking features like story's high rock shelters, tumbling waterfalls, and
gravity defying arches that you'd expect from a national park,
but timed entries and amusement park length lines are out

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of the equation. From our first trip to the area,
Matt and I decided not to test the boundaries of
our limited climbing skills and instead laced up our hiking boots.
Daniel Boone National Forest contains more than six hundred miles
of trails, which means there were plenty of paths for

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us to choose from. Our main goal for one day
was seeing as many of the gorge's one hundred plus
natural arches, the highest concentration east of the Rocky Mountains.
Possible stands outs included the eighty foot long Grey's Arch,
tucked so deep in the forest that we almost missed

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it until we were standing right beneath it, Skyridge for
panoramic views and the opportunity to walk both under and
on top of the arch, and Rockbridge, with its one
point two five mile loop, including a pit stop at
Creation Falls. In one of the most magical moments of

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our weekend, we did a quick scramble to the top
of Rockbridge and were rewarded with the sight of a
young doe gingerly picking her way across a tranquil creek below.
Although all of these options require just a short hike
less than two miles each. You can admire a stunning

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arch with even less effort at Natural Bridge State Resort Park.
The area is named for the seventy eight foot long,
sixty five foot high Natural Bridge, which visitors can reach
either on foot or via the skylift. Stop into the
gift shop to buy tickets plus a slice of fresh

(20:16):
fudge or a bag of cinnamon sugar pecans, and then
sit back and enjoy the ride as you glide up
the mountain. Stick around for kayaking and fishing on Mill
Creek Lake, miniature golf, and an overnight stay at campsites,
in lodge rooms or in private cottages. Hankering for another

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bird's eye view, we started our second day by soaring
three hundred feet over the gorge with Red River Gorge
zip Lines. Their longest line runs nineteen hundred feet, providing
plenty of time to soak in the magnificent, magnificent sea
of green as we whizzed through the swaths of still

(21:02):
dissipating morning fog. For every high, there's a low, and
that's exactly where our next experience led us. Tucked behind
two small, two story log cabins, the entrance to the
gorge underground is easy to overlook until the seasonably cool

(21:23):
air unseasonably cool air that emanates from the cabin starts
stopping you in your tracks. Follow the breeze into a
century old limestone mine that stays a chilly fifty two
degrees year round. It flooded in nineteen eighty five and

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was left abandoned for thirty years before a local entrepreneur
ian teel invited the public in for tours. We hopped
into kayaks and paddled through the passageways and tunnels as
a guide relaid the cave's history. If you go, make
sure to look out for the giant rainbow trout that

(22:07):
call these clear, cool waters home. A growing legacy, somers
Enslade used to be a ghost town, says Dario Ventura,
who has lived in the tiny hamlet his whole life.
His Portugree Portuguese immigrant father, Miguel, moved to the gorge

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in nineteen eighty four, when tourism in the area was
practically unheard of. He spent five thousand dollars to buy
fifty acres of land alongside five friends, and ended up
opening one of the state's most legendary businesses. Dario, who
was born the same year his father took over a

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storefront that would eventually become Miguel's Pizza, charts the growth
of the Gorge's popularity alongside that of the restaurant. There
were the early days when their only visitors were rogue
climbers in search of anywhere to get food. At the time,
Miguel's was an ice cream shop. Next came the golden

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years of climbing, when the field behind the restaurant was
littered with tents of week end warriors who paid their
keep on a donation's only basis and requested piezzas topped
with leftovers from the previous night's camp fire supper to day.
The make up of the diners varias depending on the season.

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Families in the summer, climbers in the fall and spring,
but no one comes to the Red River Gorge without
making at least one trip to Miguel's. There is always
a line out the door and hundreds of folks seated
at a fleet of picnic tables surrounding the faded yellow building.

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Although the oven now holds seventy pizza instead of the
original three, Miguel's remains a family operation. Dario's mom and
brother work at the business. Miguel can still be found
bumbling around, according to Dario, and pies are still topped
with produce like squash, basil, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes picked

(24:21):
fresh from his parents' garden. A lot of why this
place is successful is that it has always felt like
a neutral zone, Dario says, I think that's why it
draws so many people. Different crowds of people. That same
come as you are attitude can be found at Dario's

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most recent venture, Red Point Barbecue, which sits perched atop
a hill on an old family farm. The restaurant's name
is a bit of a misnomer, considering that in addition
to smoked meat, diners can also order blackened catfish, Nashville
hot chicken, or a grilled portobello covered in herb sauce.

(25:09):
The food is simple, but indisputably delicious. Sides like home
grown grilled squash drizzled with balsamic and grits corn bread
slathered with butter are far from afterthoughts. Red Point is
one of the very few places in town with sit
down service and a strong drink program with bourbon being

(25:33):
the star. The BlackBerry bramble cocktail and an order of
peach cobbler are the perfect companions for a lovely summer
evening on their back patio. Later that night, as I
was once again summitting the impossibly long suspension staircase that
would reunite me with my cozy bed under the cliff,

(25:57):
I was filled with a familiar, bubbling anticipation. It was
the same wonder that inspired John o'kroner, who dreamed up
the very structure I was residing in to start his
treehouse business, Canopy Crew, in twenty thirteen. Treehouses and cliff
houses are really good at making people fall back to

(26:21):
their childish perspectives and view things from the imaginative eyes
of when they were younger, he said, and I believe him.
As I walked, twinkle lights softened the harshness of an inky,
blank night, making the forest feel whimsically alive. I rounded
the final curve of the spiral steps and came face

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to face with a looming mass of sandstone, the shadowy
cliff that at that very moment held my life in
its hands. For millions of years, people, plants, and animals
have come here, but the Rock remained and I trusted
it to do its job for at least another night.

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And that ends our Women's World reading for to day.
Your reader has been Anne Glover. If you have any questions,
comments or suggestions regarding the program, please call us in
our Lexington Studios eight five nine four two two sixty
three ninety. Thank you for joining us, and please stay

(27:31):
tuned to additional programming here on Radio I