And the Winner is.........

Bright and early this morning before she left for school, I had Sabrina draw a name out of just over 100+ and the winner is......

Charlene Conn!

Woo hoo!

Congratulations Charlene. Blaise is taking your package to this post office this afternoon so look for it in 2-3 days.

A Taste of Carolina Contest! Something Different -- for a Change...

Hi Y'all. Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of summer.

Summer is officially over for the Recca family because Sabrina went back to school today.

In honor of the end of "our" summer -- we've decided that instead of sending out our usual weekly newsletter, we'd do something fun instead.

If you're reading this, it's because you read our newsletters, visit our Carolina Pines Realty website and/or visit our blog -- which tells us YOU are curious about North Carolina, or even thinking about the possibility of making a move to beautiful North Carolina and are curious about the area and the "Carolina" lifestyle.

Accordingly, we have decided that instead of giving you facts and information about North Carolina which we typically do in our internet communications -- this week, we'd share with you some of our favorite goodies and put together a little basket and give you a....

TASTE of North Carolina

Here's What's in the Basket......

A Carolina Panther's Hat; House-Autry Mills Old Fashioned Cornmeal (from Four Oaks, NC); Callahan's Original Calabash Hushpuppy Mix - Sabrina's favorite!(from Wilmington, NC) (click here if you want to know what "Calabash style" is) ; Carolina Treet original Cooking Barbecue Sauce (also from Wilmington, NC); Scott's Barbecue Sauce (from Goldsboro, NC) and two homemade potholders straight from Cathie's quilting studio here in Raleigh, NC.

All the items in this basket were MADE in North Carolina and are considered Carolina Kitchen Staples and we wanted to share them with YOU.

Here's what you have to do to enter your name into the contest:

1. Send an e-mail to: cpines@nc.rr.com with the following information in the subject line:

"Enter me in the contest"

and let us know in your e-mail who you are, where you're from (city and state), and if there's anything that you would like to know about North Carolina.

2. If you leave a comment to this post (by clicking on the comment link below), we will enter your name twice - so you will have "double" the chance of winning.

And if you live in North Carolina, we want you to enter too! This contest is open to all our blog and website visitors.

So there you have it! That's all you have to do. Now the contest will only be open for 30 days -- so hurry and get your name into the drawing.

On Monday September 15th, we will put all names received into a drawing and choose a winner which will be posted here, on our blog. The winner will also be notified by e-mail in order that they can provide us with their mailing address.

Have a great week and Good Luck!

Did You Know....

That the Appalachian National Scenic Trail is a public footpath that follows more than 2,100 miles of Appalachian Mountain ridgelines between Maine and Georgia; and, it ONLY takes 5,000,000 adult footsteps to hike the entire trail??? 5,000,000 footsteps - No problem -- right?

Our family definitely lies victim to the lure of the Appalachians. Every chance we get we head over to Western Carolina to the Blue Ridge a/k/a the Chrystalline Appalachians. Only 3 1/2 hours away from Raleigh, the heart of the Blue Ridge helps us to escape the summer heat in no time. In fact, we're heading over there again this weekend to check out some property areas we may be interested in. We're thinking of expanding Carolina Pines across the state and just may have some news about a western office opening up over there within the next year. More on that later.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you an article recently appearing in our local newspaper The News & Observer, about the progress of the Mountain-to-Sea-Trail (click here to read the entire story.) In case you haven't heard of it -- The Mountain-to-Sea-Trail is a 900 mile trail leading from the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, and ending up at the Outer Banks. How Cool is that! The article references the trail as 900 miles of roller coaster (ups and downs) through the mountains, the triad and the coastline. All the best scenery North Carolina has to offer with some pretty "off the beaten path" exposures.

While there is no "ETA" right now on the completion date of the Trail, there is work being done on it almost every weekend -- with trees being marked, roots being pulled, water being diverted and research being done to assure no rare or sensitive plants or animals are disturbed. It's a very ambitious undertaking (to say the least) - a one of a kind project and I believe --unique to Carolina.

Here is a brief timeline, outlining the progress:

TRAIL IS 30 YEARS IN THE MAKING

1977: Mountains-to-Sea Trail is proposed by Howard Lee, then secretary of the state Department of Natural Resources and Community Development, to showcase the state's beauty.
1982: First segment of trail is dedicated -- 75.8 miles along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

1997: Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is formed by Allen de Hart.

2000: State legislature designates Mountains-to-Sea Trail as a state park and authorizes state Division of Parks and Recreation to acquire and manage the land.

2001-04: Route planning from Wake to Carteret counties gets under way.

2005-07: Routes are mapped in the Piedmont.

2006: Western Piedmont sections are planned.

2007: 485 miles of trail are completed.

2008: State commits $8.5 million to acquire four tracts.

The Mountain to Sea Trail is steadily forging it's way toward the North Carolina Coastline and is currently being enjoyed by hikers, campers and nature buffs. This is just another reason North Carolina is home to so many outdoor enthusiasts and adventurers and will continue to grow in popularity as time goes by. Don't forget to click on the link above to read the entire article and find out where you can go to experience sections of the Trail. It makes for a great adventure -- whether your an avid hiker or trailblazer, or you just want to take the family out for some "back woods" fun.

Also, please visit our Carolina Pines Realty Website where you can find all kinds of information on vacation adventures in and around the Raleigh area, as well as relocation information. And be sure to click on the "Property Search" button. Just one click allows you to check out our local residential listings through the Multiple Listing Service -- without a password.

Have a great week -- and maybe we'll see YOU on the Trail!

North Carolina -- a Wonderful Place to Live, Work AND Play.

Fresh Out of the Garden - Grilled Summer Vegetables

Our garden crop is plentiful this year. We've had a nice bit of rain and wow what a difference a little rain makes!!!

As you can see by the picture on the right -- it seems that we need to harvest almost every other day. Our primary crop this year consists of two types of eggplant, tomatoes, squash, cucumber, peppers, beets, artichoke (yep that's right I've got artichoke growing in my garden this year!!) and herbs. But it is it doesn't matter what your crop is -- vegetables cooked on the grill or under the broiler taste soooooo good.

Here's an easy way to prepare a "grilled" salad made from your own abundance:

Roasted Summer Vegetable Salad

1 -3 ears of yellow corn, or even better yellow and white corn- grilled, shucked, and cut off the cob

1 red pepper -- roasted, peeled, and cut into thin strips

1 tomato -- grilled, peeled, seeded, and cut into a 1/2-inch dice

2 zucchini, yellow or other summer squash -- cut into 1/2-inch slices, grilled, and cut into 1/2-inch dice.

1 tablespoon each of lime juice and lemon juice

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients. Marinate for 30 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste. If you have it, I like to throw in some fresh parsley and/or fresh cilantro into this. Cilantro makes everything taste fresh and delicious!

Sometimes in lieu of making a salad we just throw the grilled vegetables (eggplant, peppers, onions, squash, mushrooms) on a platter and serve them just as they are. In that case we typically slice all the vegetables, spray them lightly with Olive oil, sprinkle paprika, garlic, salt and pepper over them and just grill or broil.

Staging Your Home for a Quicker Sale....

Staging a house for sale means going beyond just making it look tidy. Typical buyers make up their minds about your home 10 seconds after they step through your front door. Just as stagehands set the stage for a production, you can do the same for your home. It can be made to look cozy, colorful and inviting to make it stand out from the rest of the other houses on the market using things such as accessories, colorful chintz fabric on the tables, fresh bouquet of flowers in a vase, scented candles on the fireplace mantel, and the way that the furniture is set around an area rug. Potential buyers want instant coziness and comfort in the home they'll choose.

Here are some tips from professional home stagers (that you may find useful):

Pack away most of your family photos. Buyers need to imagine their possessions in the home.

Pack up the bulk of large, personal collections, so that buyers don't get so interested in looking at them that they forget to look at the house.

Remove excess furniture to make rooms more spacious. Clean and organize the closets. Store boxes in an out of the way location or rent a temporary storage unit so you can de-clutter every part of the house.

Remove area rugs if they expose nice hardwood floors.

Buy or borrow living houseplants. They look better than artificial ones.
Create a mood. Bake bread or cookies during showings, or place a fresh loaf of bread and/or fresh colorful fruit in a basket on the counter.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Remember -- LESS IS BETTER.

We're Home and Getting Back To Work....

after a great vacation out West. What was planned as a Colorado High Country camping adventure -- turned into a Harley Davidson road trip through Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota (Black Hills & Sturgis!) and Wyoming -- all because of MUD. It's a long story -- but we learned on this trip that while things don't always go as we have planned, (even after months of planning and mapping) being flexible and having the right attitude sure can carry you a long way and we had an amazing journey.

We started in Grand Mesa, Colorado -- at about 11,000 elevation, we drove in an out of snow and mud, through the Aspen trees until finally coming upon a beautiful mountain clearing with a small lake (and lots of trout!). We camped there for our first night. Never, have I ever seen so many stars and galaxies.

The first state we hit after leaving Colorado was Nebraska -- where we were greeted by a giant dust storm with winds approx 80-90 mph. We saw it coming across the prairie and at first glance thought it was dust being kicked up by plowing -- but quickly realized that the dust cloud was far to huge to be plowing kick up. We stopped in the middle of the road and jumped off the bike to avoid being blown over. The duration of the blast -- about 1 minute.

We loved driving through Nebraska. Did you know that is where much of Dances with Wolves was filmed -- along with South Dakota? Blaise has been through Nebraska, but this was my first time. Nebraska truly is the Heartland of America -- and the kind and helpful people we met and chatted with at a local diner just reinforced that notion.

We shot up through Nebraska into South Dakota -- which was my favorite stop on our trip. All motorcycle enthusiasts are familiar with the "Black Hills" of South Dakota and Sturgis (Sturgis is home to the motorcycle rally every year.) Click on the Sturgis link above to check it out -- you won't believe it. As we are always in search of peace and serenity when we head out west, it is needless to say we didn't go to Sturgis DURING the rally!

We of course drove by Mount Rushmore, which in and of itself was quite impressive. However, we really couldn't wait to see Crazy Horse the great Sioux Warrior. I myself am very interested in Native American history and have read both Larry McMurtry's Crazy Horse and Lakota Woman an autobiography by Mary Crow Dog -- both of which provide great insight into this rich and fascinating culture. The Lakota/Sioux are a gentle and proud people and make it quite clear that the Black Hills are both a monument to their heritage and sacred to their hearts. The beauty and sense of spirit there is indescribable.

This first picture is of the model created by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski for the mountain carving. Ziolkowski and Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Lakota Tribe began a foundation to honor Native heritage in 1948. (Click on Ziolkowski's link above to read about this monument and to read about Ziolkowski himself which is also a wonderful story.) The monument itself is far from complete but you can see by the model below just how munificent a representation of the Great Warrior it's going to be.

There was much to do in South Dakota and it was breathtakingly beautiful. On the way back from the Black Hills we stopped in Deadwood, stayed in a nice Hotel/Casino -- played some blackjack and slot machines. We didn't lose any money, and I actually won $35 on a penny slot machine -- too bad it wasn't a $1 machine! We're not big gamblers, but Deadwood was an interesting little town aside from the casinos and is steeped in history.

Unfortunately, I thought we were going to be traveling by Jeep so I brought my 35mm camera which is rather cumbersome. Since we ended up on a motorcycle, it was a bit hard to take pictures with a big camera and I didn't take as many as I would have liked, but still got some great shots here and there.

On the way back through Colorado, we stopped to watch two fly fishermen. These two guys were also watching their "masters" fish.

We had a fantastic break from work and day to day responsibilities -- and made some wonderful memories along the way. Alas, it's time to get back to work.

As far as our unexpected change in vacation plans go -- sometimes things don't work out as planned, and sometimes it's that deviation makes it all the better!!

What's Driving the Trend in Raleigh?

"Raleigh is increasing in popularity in the United States. We are being noticed by other parts of the country and are growing in size." (Brooke Fortson, marketing director at The Glenwood Agency.) That seems to be the common notion in these parts lately. While other parts in the country are cooling down -- Raleigh is HOT and getting HOTTER by the minute.

What is driving this trend in the Raleigh area? Well, if you've been reading the newsletters we've been sending, Raleigh keeps making everyone's "A-list" and such accolades may partially explain the continued growth in Raleigh's urban housing market.

Here's what various publications are saying:

- Forbes Magazine named Raleigh as on of the TEN BEST CITIES FOR JOBS.

- The International Downtown Association recently selected Raleigh as its DOWNTOWN OF THE MONTH.

-Raleigh was named THE BEST AMERICAN CITY FOR SINGLES by Rachael Ray, popular cooking star on Food Network.

- Men's Magazine ranked Raleigh 5th on its BEST PLACE TO FIND A MATE list.
(Realtor Review Vol2 No.5 2008)

So, if you're looking for a job, a cool place to hang out, a place to find a mate -- sure sounds like Raleigh is the place for you!!! And remember, this is just a sampling of the "best" lists that Raleigh has been named on.

Simply put -- Raleigh is a wonderful place to raise a family, find a job and spend your leisure time.

Drop us an e-mail if you want to know more. Oh and be sure to visit our website at Carolina Pines Realty , where you can really do some exploring and get a good feeling as to what Triangle Life is all about!