Home Care In Climax, NC

NC Lumber & Supply was first born by a space problem: Hordes of East Coast Lumber Co.’s unwanted wood kept piling up, taking up more and more of the warehouse floor.

“We were storing quite a bit of it,” said Rob Moore, co-owner of NC Lumber & Supply.

Co-owners Moore and Carter Derrick were then (and continue to be) sales representatives for East Coast Lumber Co., a wholesale wood manufacturing facility in Climax, North Carolina.

East Coast Lumber processes logs and prepares them to be sold directly to big-box home improvement stores. The process inevitably leaves behind “factory seconds,” which is wood with flaws or gnarls that aren’t ripe for clean-cut construction materials desired by large retailers.

Before, the company would resell the unwanted collections or let them pile up in the warehouse. In April 2016, Derrick and Moore launched a spin-off company, NC Lumber & Supply, with a warehouse off Old Dairy Road in Wilmington.

NC Lumber sells specialty pieces made from factory seconds and uses the East Coast mill to process the wood into new products, including tongue and groove, shiplap siding and flooring, Moore said.

“We just saw an opportunity where we thought we could pair customers with a cheap-value product that we had,” Moore added. “It allowed us to get rid of some of our byproduct that we were producing in-house.”

Today, the company has 11 warehouses across the Southeast and has plans to open up a couple more by the end of the year. Each warehouse is staffed by lumber industry veterans who help customers navigate their specific needs.

Though there are a handful of businesses that also work within the secondary wood market, there aren’t many in the region, and most tend to market themselves as “salvage” operations, Moore said.

“We specialize in real wood siding, paneling and flooring,” he said. “There’s not a lot of people doing that.”

They also offer higher grades of wood of various species.

NC Lumber offers customers an affordable but still quality product. The majority of its customers are DIYers, with many returning small-scale or specialized contractors and house flippers frequenting the warehouse.

The success of NC Lumber has benefitted both organizations, the owners said, giving East Coast Lumber a steady revenue stream.

Compared to working with large retailers while selling East Coast Lumber’s products, Derrick said it’s been gratifying to experience the personal touch of interacting directly with customers through NC Lumber.

“The most rewarding thing about this for me was dealing with the customers,” Derrick said. “We were sitting on our other business dealing over the telephone and not being able to see the end product. In this venture, we talk to the customers, properly educate them on products,” and customers share photos of remodels and furniture crafted with their repurposed wood, he said.

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The house was finished in October, so they planned to move in before the holidays. A dispute with neighbors and some unusual circumstances delayed the move.

CLIMAX, N.C. — Jim and Tammy Sardi had been thinking about moving for quite a while. The house they had lived in for almost two decades was too big and they wanted to downsize.

“We just wanted something smaller and single level,” Jim Sardi said.

The old house in Climax sits on a portion of about 48 acres the family has owned for years. Jim and Tammy love the area and figured they would just build a home on some of the lands. Most of the land is just woods and trees.

“We just decided to clear a small section just a bit down from our old house,” Sardi said.

The Sardi’s sold the old house and quickly made plans to build a smaller home. The plan was to move into the new home last November. The construction was only expected to take about six months since most of the house was being built in a factory.

The couple reached out to Duke Energy about running power to the lot back in April but agreed to use a generator for the build and have a line connected closer to the move-in date.

Sardi called Duke Energy in October to get a power line run to his home. The area is rural, but Sardi wasn’t led to believe it would be that complicated of a process.

They (Duke Energy) said okay we just need to get easements for overhead power lines approved by (one of your) neighbors,” Sardi said.

The power lines would run above the property and connect to Sardi’s home. There are only a couple of poles in the area, so options were limited. Sardi had reached out to his neighbors about the easements and the new construction.

One of the neighbors was his brother, while another was the family, to which he sold his old house. Sardi said he never heard back from any of the three neighbors, but all reached back out to Duke and denied access to the easements.

“I was shocked and unsure what to do,” Sardi said.

The house was completed by now but without the easements, Duke Energy could not run power to the home. The family had been renting a place after selling the old house and now had to extend their stay.

“It was costing us a lot of money,” Sardi said. “The ripple impact of not being able to move into the house is horrendous.”

The Sardi’s continued working with Duke Energy and the neighbors to devise a solution. It appeared the case may end up in court if something couldn’t be worked out.

By now, the calendar had turned from 2021 to 2022 and there was still no power to the home. The neighbors denied every request Duke made to use the easements to run the power lines.

On January 5th, the Sardi’s sent an email to our Call for Action Team at News 2 hoping we could help. Our team investigated the issue and spoke with the couple about it.

“We didn’t know what to do, we needed help,” Sardi said.

Our team contacted Duke Energy to better understand what was going on. We also got NCDOT about the issue. A spokesperson with NCDOT put us in contact with a regional supervisor who told us the lines could be run along the maintenance right of way they have access to.

“From the general statute we have the authority to grant (Duke Energy) approval to be inside of a maintenance right of way,” Bobby Norris from NCDOT said.

We then contacted a representative with Duke Energy and had someone from NCDOT also contact the power company. A couple of weeks later Duke Power sent a formal request to access the maintenance right of way and NCDOT granted an encroachment use.

“This is an important issue News 2 had been able to bring forward by helping us contact NCDOT and Duke Energy on our behalf,” Sardi said.

Duke Energy sent us several emails prior to and after the agreement was reached and the lines could be installed. Part of the delay involved the threat of litigation from the neighbors along with some perceived threats toward Duke workers.

An email sent by a Duke Spokesperson reads:

Duke Energy is committed to keeping customers informed about issues that could affect them. This situation is a dispute between property owners in which Duke Energy found itself in the middle and has been working to resolve with all parties. It is not a service issue or something that customers would commonly encounter.

Our service installation was delayed as the result of the property dispute, including a threat made to Duke Energy by one of the property owners. While we did receive one approved by the NCDOT to commence work, this remained a dynamic situation, and because of that, we had to first ensure that it was safe and practical for our Duke Energy crews to complete the project.

Duke Energy takes its obligation to provide reliable, safe energy to our customers very seriously. In this case, we worked closely to resolve the matter with all parties to resolve the matter in the safest, most efficient way possible.

The Sardi’s have been able to move into the house and are finally able to put this stressful situation behind them.

Beeson Farms in Climax, NC, claimed the top honor of the 2022 Southeastern Hay Contest with an alfalfa hay that broke the contest’s quality scale.

Contest hay entry samples are measured using the relative forage quality, or RFQ, scale, which typically tops out at 300, said Lisa Baxter, 2022 contest manager and University of Georgia Extension forage specialist, during opening ceremonies for the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, Ga., Oct. 19, where contest results and awards were presented.

For the win, Beeson Farm’s alfalfa broke the scale with a RFQ score of 359, she said. Josh Beeson accepted the award on behalf of the farm.

This year was no easy season to produce a lot of high-quality hay in parts of the Southeast, but the contest results show it was possible. The word gets used often, but the 2022 forage growing season for much of the Southeast was ‘unprecedented,’ Baxter said. With record fertilizer and diesel prices, forage farmers had to weigh each decision on its potential economic return, she said.

Many farmers faced drought and flooding or flooding and drought, “neither conducive for a successful hay harvest. High rainfall made insect control a challenge, especially for timing applications for the bermudagrass stem maggot and fall armyworms,” she said.

Hay market reports show a downward trend in available hay for purchase and implications will be felt this fall and winter as livestock producers make tough choices about supplementation strategies. Hay testing will be more important than ever, she said.

This is the 18^th year of the hay contest, which began as and remains a regional educational program to spotlight the importance of hay testing and feed management based on quantifiable, nutrition values for hay.

This year, 371 samples were entered into the contest from nine southeastern states. Baxter manages the hay contest with Marcelo Wallau, University of Florida Extension forage specialist, and Leanne Dillard, Alabama Extension forage specialist. Uttam Saha, with the University of Georgia Feed and Environmental Water Lab, tests each sample. The program, Baxter said, is a partnership between industry, farmers and Extension from Georgia, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

Producers can enter the SEHC in seven categories:

The samples are ranked based on RFQ and the top three entries in each category received a cash prize. As overall winner, Beeson Farms received a choice of the use of a new Massey Ferguson DM Series disc mower or RK Series rotary rake for the 2023 hay season plus $2,000.

The RFQ score measures different forages relative to their overall nutritive value, or their total digestible nutrients, and predicted dry matter intake. Developed by the University of Florida and the University of Wisconsin, it is a means to compare forages, especially Southern forages. RFQ can help hay producers categorize and price hay lots based on the relative quality. Livestock producers can use the value to balance supplemental diet based on the quality of the hay.

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Welcome to Febpril, that time of year when the calendar says winter — but the air outside says "Head to the beach!"

How warm will it get? The southern Cape Fear region can expect a sea breeze, a condition usually experienced in the heat of summer.

It's been more than 90 years since a late-winter heat wave baked the region with readings in the mid-80s. If you have a living memory of a February day as warm as Thursday should be, you also have memories of Amelia Earhart flying into Fayetteville,

A combination of conditions will collide over the Carolinas this week, driving unprecedented warmth into the Cape Fear region and likely shattering the all-time February heat record for Fayetteville on Thursday.

In addition, stout southwest winds will aggravate an early-season fire hazard in rural areas, and send pollen counts soaring across the Carolinas.

Here's the setup

The southeast ridge, a high-pressure dome responsible for our mild winter (aside from when it went on vacation around Christmas) is expected to expand northward this week. It should fend off a cold front to our north, though Fayetteville will see clouds Monday afternoon. Highs across the region will flirt with 70, a good 10-12 degrees above normal for this time of year.

"Normal" flies out the wind on Tuesday as the cold front retreats and the Cape Fear region finds itself stuck between two systems. The result is warming temperatures fed by breezy westerly winds. Depending on how low the dew points get, these conditions could create a burning risk as highs climb into the upper 70s. Overnight lows should stay in the low 50s.

Things get downright warm on Wednesday as the southern ridge builds up the East Coast. Southern breezes will draw air up from the Caribbean and widespread 80-plus highs are likely. Lows may not drop below 60 -- in other words, the lows will be warmer than the usual highs for late February.

Conditions reach a climactic climax on Thursday. Building on warm air already in place, and southwestern gusts up to 30 mph, Fayetteville should climb above 85 degrees — the hottest February day on record. The daily record (80 degrees, set in 2018) will probably fall before lunchtime. Overnight lows of about 65 will be one of the warmest February nights on record as well.

Conditions improve Friday as the ridge finally weakens enough for a passing cold front to pump cooler air into the state. Still, highs in the low 70s are well above average,

By Saturday, the cooler air will knock Fayetteville highs back in the low to mid-60s with clouds and a slight chance of rain. More warm weather is on the way as the cold front retreats out of the Carolinas. We'll be back in the mid-70s on Sunday, and long-range patterns indicate the Cape Fear region should stay warmer than normal into mid-March.

You might want to have your home air conditioning checked out while there's time. Have a great week!

The five warmest February days in Fayetteville history

85 degrees, Feb. 25, 1930

84 degrees: Feb. 19, 1956

83 degrees: Feb. 4, 1989

83 degrees: Feb. 24, 1930

* Expected high in Fayetteville on Feb. 24 is 87 degrees. For those wondering, the earliest-ever 90-degree reading locally was March 17, 1945.

Got a weather question? Chick Jacobs can be reached at [email protected] or NCWeatherhound on Twitter.

The burgeoning local food movement usually seeks to bring the farm to the table. But the Goat Lady Dairy brings the table to the farm.

Several times a month, for most of the year, the North Carolina dairy opens its barn doors to about 50 people who register in advance for a $60-per-person “dining adventure”: a five-course, locally inspired meal showcasing the dairy’s multiple varieties of goat cheese. We signed up partly for the food and partly for the goats, and neither disappointed.

The Goat Lady is tucked away in the rolling hills of Climax, N.C., about a five-hour drive from Washington in the west-central part of the state. (It can be tough to find: Our car’s GPS unit said “turn left” at the same instant the smartphone said “turn right.”) But eventually we pulled up at its red barn and joined the crowd on the porch for a glass of wine with a side of environmental education.

“We do not do this because this is a handy-dandy, simple, easy way to make a living,” dairy owner Steve Tate told our group. Instead, he said, “We discovered that when you change a person’s relationship to food, you change them and the world together.”

Tate started the evening with a short history of his family’s involvement in the goat business. He and his late sister Ginnie, who grew up in rural Illinois, had “regular jobs” but yearned to get back to the land and connect customers with local food. Together with Steve’s wife, Lee, they bought an abandoned tobacco farm in the mid-1980s and moved in with Ginnie’s goat, Nubie, whose presence led curious neighbors to dub her owner “the goat lady.”

The dairy launched in 1995 with a herd of goats that were milked on the premises. Over time, the Tates began to specialize in cheesemaking, and they now purchase both cow and goat milk from neighboring farms and produce cheese that is sold in North Carolina and 10 other states.

The barn where the meals are served is plain but cozy, with folk art paintings of goats lining one wall. As a foursome, we had our own table, but smaller groups were assigned to larger tables. We later peeked through the windows that overlook the cheesemaking operation and saw the spreadable cheese draining in a long row of hanging cheesecloths.

Tate still keeps a small herd. Most are full-grown, but he handed out baby goats to members of the delighted crowd, who cradled the all-white kids while their companions took photos. Even at just a few weeks old, the goats are surprisingly heavy, and they were passed from one person to another to a chorus of “ooohs” and “aahs.”

As his guests bonded with the goats, Tate told us that, despite the growing popularity of goat cheese, the animals are by no means a guaranteed moneymaker. “You can sell goat cheese for a year just on the story,” he said. “But the second year, you had better make good goat cheese.”

On that score, the dairy does itself proud. Its most heralded product is Smoky Mountain Round, dried and lightly smoked over applewood, which took first place at the 2012 American Cheese Society’s competition. The dinner cheese course also included spreadable goat cheese in assorted flavors: roasted red pepper, orange-and-fig and “triple heat.” And there’s a chevre log — air-dried to give it a more intense taste.

The rest of the menu, determined a few days in advance based on what’s fresh, combines local and international influences. After the cheeses and a salad came a cold borscht that we recognized as Polish chlodnik. The deep red of the beets is lightened with a crème fraîche, turning it a glorious pink. Pulled pork, a North Carolina staple, was accompanied by a garlicky chimichurri that holds its own against anything from Argentina.

Dessert included more goat cheese, this time atop a toasted pound cake slathered with a blueberry reduction. As a final touch, the servers brought out chocolate goat-cheese truffles — a bit much, judging from the number of uneaten ones left at meal’s end, but a nice show of Southern hospitality.

A trickle of arrivals from the North is diversifying the folksy charms of Asheboro, a former mill town of about 26,000. The most popular local haunt is the Flying Pig, the first place in town to sell beer (the county was dry until 2008, hence the bar-and-restaurant’s name). Four Saints, a craft brewery, is scheduled to open in early 2015.

Although the Goat Lady experience was what drew us to the area, Asheboro, 15 miles south of Climax, offers other diversions. The North Carolina Zoo houses more than 1,600 animals along its five miles of shaded pathways. Nearby are the North Carolina Aviation Museum Hall of Fame, filled with vintage biplanes and other ancient aircraft, and the American Classic Motorcycle Museum, featuring an extensive assemblage of Harley-Davidsons.

Bia’s Gourmet Hardware was started by a couple who met at Rodeo Bar & Grill, New York’s recently closed honky-tonk. Its menu features a delectable pear-, pancetta- and sage-stuffed pork chop along with lobster, salmon and steaks. The Table draws long lines on weekend mornings for such fare as caramelized brioche French toast with almonds, cherries and shaved white chocolate. For a more basic meal, there’s Mike’s Chicago Dog (And More!), which does an authentic version of the Windy City weenie — poppy seed bun, pickle spear and all.

We also spent a few happy hours wandering the numerous antique malls downtown, which offer the usual hodgepodge of items — fireplace surrounds and rusting soft-drink signs amid Star Trek action figures. One of the most browse-worthy is Collector’s Antique Mall, which sits in a former department store and later expanded into a supermarket next door. It covers 35,000 square feet and boasts almost 100 dealers.

But our lingering memory is of the chirping of bullfrogs at the Goat Lady under the light of far more stars than we’ll ever see in Washington. It was too dark to bid farewell to the goats, but if they ate as well as we did, surely they were happy, too.

Chuck McCutcheon is a freelance writer and editor in Washington; Liisa Ecola, his wife, is a transportation policy researcher who really likes goats.

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If you go

Asheboro, N.C., is about 330 miles southwest of Washington.

Asheboro has several chain hotels, including Comfort Inn, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express & Suites. Double room rates from $75.

Goat Lady Dairy

3531 Jess Hackett Rd., Climax

336-824-2163

www.goatladydairy.com

Dinners are generally offered one weekend per month on Friday and Saturday nights. Reservations can be made through the dairy’s Web site.

Bia's Gourmet Hardware

103 Worth St., Asheboro

336-610-2427

www.biasgourmethardware.com

American bistro featuring hearty fare: steaks, seafood, beef short-rib sliders. From $14.

The Table

139 S. Church St., Asheboro

336-736-8628

twww.hetablefarmhouse.blogspot.com

Stylish farmhouse bakery and coffee shop. Breakfast from $4.95.

North Carolina Zoo

4401 Zoo Pkwy., Asheboro

336-879-7000

www.nczoo.org

Open every day except Christmas. Adults $12, children $8.

North Carolina Aviation Museum and Hall of Fame

2222 Pilots View Rd, Asheboro

(336) 625-0170

www.ncaviationmuseumhalloffame.com

Open Thursday-Sunday. Adults $10, seniors $8, under 18 $5.

American Classic Motorcycle Museum

1170 U.S. Hwy. 64 W., Asheboro

336-629-9564

Open Monday-Saturday year-round. Free.

Collector’s Antique Mall

211 Sunset Ave., Asheboro

336-629-8105

www.collectorsantiquemall.com

Open Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

Asheboro

www.chamber.asheboro.com

— C.M, L.E.