This week on All About Home Construction, we take a look at a material most of us use every day but probably don't think much about — rubber.

We talk about where natural rubber comes from, how people first discovered its waterproofing properties, and how rubber went from a product harvested from trees in South America to an important material in the modern world.

We'll look at the development of rubber boots and waterproof footwear, the invention of vulcanized rubber in the 1800s, and how rubber eventually found its way into tires, shoes, seals, hoses and countless other products.

And there's another side of the rubber tree that may surprise you: rubberwood. After a rubber tree has spent years producing latex, the tree itself can be harvested for lumber and turned into furniture, flooring and other wood products.

From the rubber tree to the rubber boot — and eventually to the lumberyard — we'll explore the history and modern uses of this surprisingly versatile material.

Listen to All About Home Construction Saturday mornings at 8 AM on WATA, and wherever you get your podcasts. Have a question for Randy and Terry? Send it to us during the week, and it could become part of a future show.

Labor Day is more than the unofficial end of summer. In this episode of All About Home Construction, Terry and Randy take a look at the history behind Labor Day and some of the major events that shaped the American workplace.

We’ll go back to the first Labor Day celebration in New York City in 1882 and explore how the holiday eventually became a federal holiday. Along the way, we’ll look at some of the dramatic and sometimes tragic events in American labor history, including the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead Strike, the Pullman Strike and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

We’ll also talk about the fight for the eight-hour workday, the rise of organized labor, workplace safety, and how tragedies and conflicts helped lead to changes in building codes, fire safety and working conditions.

And because this is All About Home Construction, we’ll connect that history to the trades and the millions of workers who have literally built America.

Whether you're interested in American history, construction, the skilled trades, or just want to know why we celebrate Labor Day, this episode has plenty of facts and stories you may not have heard before.

Listen, learn, and share the episode with someone who enjoys American history or the stories behind how we built this country.

Before there was a booming Boone, paved roads, big-box stores, and modern construction, Watauga County was a collection of small mountain communities connected by trails, rivers, stores, mills, and the people who lived and worked there.

In this episode of All About Home Construction, we go back to the early days of the High Country and explore the important role of the general store.

We’ll look at Council’s Store, the early settlement that eventually became Boone, and how a simple general store and post office became the center of a growing community. We’ll talk about why old general stores were so important—not just for buying supplies, but as post offices, places of credit and barter, sources of news, and gathering places.

It’s a look at the High Country not just through its history—but through the buildings, businesses, forests, and people that built it.