Just a reminder to area residents and visitors alike, LHVFC is still selling tickets for a Gourmet Grill from Chramglow.  THis grill has lights, a refrigerator, 36,000 BTU sear burner and other burners/features to make any backyard chef compete like an Iron Chef.  Tickets are available through the fire company, area businesses such as The Country Peddlar, Nick's Lake House, The Bradley REALTORS^® Team at Century21 Select Group in Lake Harmony and are only $2 each.  Agreat way to support a local organization to get a much needed new truck and popssibly win an extreme gas grill.  The Second prize is a round of gold with cart at Split Rock Country Club and Third prize is a $300 gas card!  Come on and support a local volunteer by buying a few tickets - they even make great gifts!

Shananigans in Lake Harmony is hosting another golf tournament to benefit the Helping Hands Society.  THis a great childrens oriented group and the event is a wonderful way to suppirt their efforts.  Registration starts at the Lake Harmony area restaurant with coffe and a continantal breakfast buffet followed by a shotgun start scramble at Split Rock Country Club then a one hour open bar back at Shananigans followed by a wonderful dinner.  Golf results prizes and door prizes are also awarded at the dinner.  This is a well attended event every year so if you want to participate, call Shenanigans at 570-722-1100 for your reservation and costs information.

We (The Bradley REALTORS^® Team at Century21 Select Group in Lake Harmony) are a Silver Sponsor once again for the upcoming SJRA Golf Tournamnet to be held on Sept 19th.  This tournament benefits the local school (in Jim Thorpe) by raising funds via the event which is held at Blue Ridge Country Club in Palmerton, Pa.  Attended by people from all over Carbon County as well as outside the area (one player comes in from Canada every year!) the day provides an active list of things to do - there is registration (and of course raffles, 50/50 drawings and such) lunc before the shotgun start scramble tournament, followed by dinner and prizes after thge golf (also at the Country Club).  All participants receive door prizes and a chance to give to a owrth cause while having a great time that day.  If you are in Carbon County, please consider attending this event for the golf (the golf sells out quickly so contact us or the SJRA ASAP) or for the dinner held afterwards.

August 6, 2008 is the next dinner being held for the benefit of the LHCC group.  The dinner will be held to raise monies for the group which monitors lake water quality, depth and other issues of concern to having a vialble lake which is not in a state of declind.  Lake Harmony is a natural spring fed lake of about 125 acres and lake any lake can age or decline of not properly maintained and cared for.  Stormwater runoff (especially in an area experiencing large growth is usually the main concern once any septic system issues are corrected.  Thnks in part to the LHCC efforts plus Pa Act 537 and Act 167, Kidder Township acquired the sewage treatment plant at The Resort at Split Rock and expanded it to include most of the Townsip residences and budinesses around or near the lake itself.  As a result the lake is cleaner than ever and the prognosis for its on-going viablity is good.  But diligence is always prudent so the effort continues with the addition of rain gardens in some public areas near the lake to slow down stormwater runoff into the lake itself.  THe Kidder Township Environmental Advisory Council has been advocating the addition of rain gardens to residence landscaping and encouraging participation by sponsorong a contest for area residents to enter their efforts in that regard into a contest with prizes for the winners and plaques for the participants.  If you are in the area on the 6th of August, his is a worthy group to support as they are working to preserve the economic engine of this area, Lake Harmony itself.  The lake is what generates most of the tourism here as well as the investment or vacation homes found in the Township.  Information on raingardens can be found at www.lakeharmonyneighbor.com with links to other sites of similar interest such as Kidder Township, FX Browne enginees etc.

If you like the Localism content about these communities you may also want to check out the information available at www.splitrockneighborhood.com or www.albrightsvilleneighborhood.com  These sites allow local residents and visitors to keep up with the news, events, happenings etc in the area.  People can post pictures and events/news of their own as well as restaurant reviews, recipes and other useful information geramine to area residents/visitors.  The sites are an easy way to keep up with the area even if you are on vacation elsewhere or if you have investment/vacation home property here and your primary residence is not this area.  You are only a Click Away!

Lake Harmony Resuce Squad held its first Annual Family Fun Day and Clam Bake on Saturday 7/19/08 from noon to 10 PM.  The event was staged at Nick's Lake House, organized by Joyce Bradley and Maureen Kemmedy and sponsored by the Penn-Kidder Council of the Carbon County Chamber of Commerce.  In addition to a CoinToss for passing motorists, the event featured a bake sale with many tasty treats donated by the accomplished bakers in the area, Hot Dogs and drinks, make your own ice cream sundaes, various booths and displays by area vendors and residents, a Rock Climbing Wall and was ended with a Clam Bake with music and dancing.

The booths sold everything from books, tee shirts and sweat shirts, ice cream sundaes, hot dogs, popsicles, candy pops, temprary tatoos, face painting, basket auctions, a basket of cheer raffle, a fifty-fifty raffle, a gourmet Charmglow gas grill raffle, psychis readings, children's craft activities, to Tupperware!  Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein came and seemed to enjoy the activities, especially the Rock Climbing Wall.

The event had something for everyone from the young and fit on the rack wall --

To those older and perhaps less fit seeking relief from the sun  ==

the day was hot and humid for the Pocono Mountains but the event was well attended, raised a significant amount of money for the rescue squad and will be held again next year.  Maybe we will see you there then!

In addition to the tastes and pleasures of an event like this (the music, the dancing, the food and the wine) is the opportunity to see a lot of people and, of course, people watch.  The Wine Festival attracted about 12,000 on Saturday and about 4-5,000 on a partially rainy Sunday.  For an area like Lake Harmony, other than one of the two NASCAR weekends. that's a lot of people (it swells the local population by about 10 times! - of course NASCAR races bulge it by 100 times!!).  Here are some crowd shots or faces in the crowd shots, so to speak, from a wonderful weekend in June (and fortunately held every year right here in Split Rock)                                   

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As you can see there are many people at the Wine & Food Festival, they are very diverse in intersts, hanits and dress but they all com eotgether that weekend and have one big PARTEEEEY!  Hope to see you there next year.

18^th Annual Great Tastes of Pennsylvania Wine and Food Festival

The Resort at Split Rock held its 18^th Annual Wine Festival this weekend.  There were an estimated 12,000 people in attendance on Saturday and an estimated 4-5,000 on Sunday (which had a few passing showers thrown in to dampen the crowd, no pun intended).  Wineries from all over the state (31 of them) had booths set up for tastings and bottle/case sales (for picnic area consumption immediately or to be picked up as you left).  Here a few of the 16 tasting tents:

There were also about 80 vendors there selling everything from cigars; to birdhouses; to arts and crafts items; to pottery; to glassware; to wine related gadgets, clothes and paraphernalia; to food of all descriptions; specialty food stuffs (like hot sauces, wine jams and jellies, pepper jams); to tee shirts; etc. Here are a few of the many vendors present:

Five bands were performing on three different stages providing continuous music ranging from reggae (George Wesley & The Irietations), to semi-psychedelic (CRUSH), to Country & Western (Farmers Daughter), to Blues (BC & The Blues Crew) to the unique sounds of The Daisy Jug Band playing an eclectic mix of musical genres.  DJB combines a blend of vocal harmonies with unique instrumentation (the traditional guitars, keyboards, banjoes, mandolins and violins as expected with the surprisingly unexpected kazoos, scrub board, wash tub, and garden hoses!).  

All in all, the weekend was a great success and everyone seemed to have a wondeful time.  Maybe next year we'll see you there -- it is an experience that is worth the trip.  Plenty of places to stay in the area (private home rentals, hotels, motels, Time Share Villas and Condos for rent, and camping in nearby Hickory Run State Park).  Venue is easy to get to being close to I-80 and I-476 off PA Rt 940 or Pa Rt 903 in Lake Harmony (in Kidder Township in Carbon County) in the Pocono Mountains of NE PA.

The new indoor water park at The Resort at Split Rock continues to move toward completion which is set for Fall 2008. Seems that the name will be H₂O..oooh.  The new entrance has been connected to the existing Galleria building as seen here below and the building enclosed.

The slide tower is enclosed now and the internal equipment is starting to makes its way indoors as well

The opening should be a gala event for the Resort and the area.  I am still trying to be the first one down a slide but know full well that this is an impossible request,  I sure plan to be there on opening day and be one of the first day's sliders for sure.

I recently read some posts where people were wondering when the total AR Membership would hit 90,000 or to some when it would hit 100,000.  I had never really thought about the numbers before then.  Since then number has grown steadily BUT for the last few days it seems to stay at 89,376.  Does this mean that the new members (seen listed each day through a link on the home page) exactly equals the number of people leaving?  Does anyone ever really leave or do they just not participate any longer?  Or does it jsimply mean that the count has not been updated for a while?  What is going on with the membership totals?

I have found AR to be an interesting endeavor and it may even have lead to some business for us.  But the benefits derived from networking are found in an ever-growing network, not a stagnant one.  Does anyone have any ideas about this?