Happy 75th Anniversary

Mingus Mill


Bear Jam!

My favorite place on earth is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

Random Ramblings

Empty Nest Syndrome
The last baby robin fledged yesterday. At first, it hopped across the rafters in the carport. It hopped over and sat on the rafter directly over the boat. Now normally, I would have been pleased at the progress it was making, but it just so happened that the CAT was sleeping on the boat. This was not good. Thankfully, the next time I checked on it, it had hopped onto the front rafter and then...I got to watch it fly away and make it to a nearby tree. Here it is before it ventured away from the nest.



Would you know this was a robin? They look so different than their parents when they are fledglings. Oddly enough, the very day the last robin left the nest, all four bluebird eggs hatched!

Christy is Back!
The television show Christy is now showing on the Gospel Music Channel. It's channel 338 on DirecTV. It has been coming on this week at 4pm. Yesterday was the pilot.

"Can" Supper
Last night I fixed my "can" supper...you know....the kind where you just open some cans. I made salmon patties out of two cans of salmon. I served them with two cans of Lucks pinto beans and a large can of seasoned mustard greens. Of course I made a pone of cornbread to go with it.

Speaking of supper, it's almost that time, so I will close here. Thanks for stopping by.

A New Post

A good thing about blogging is that you can come back and post even if you have been away from it for a while. I truly wish I could blog every day. It was my intention when I started this blog. Unfortunately, there are days that I just don't seem to have my act together enough to sit down and compose my thoughts and share them with others. This means when I do have the time to blog, I have to pick out all the things I want to share. The sad thing is, a lot of little sweet memories are forgotten by the time I get back to the keyboard.

So now...I need to go back through my feeble memory bank and decide what is blog worthy...

1. Dear husband and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary in February. I have known him for two-thirds of my life, and have been married to him for over half my life. I can't imagine my life without him.

2. Youngest dear son turned 15 in March. I don't even want to think about it. This means next year is the LEARN HOW TO DRIVE year. Let's move on...

3. Oldest dear son turned 24 in May. He has one more year to go to get his Master's Degree in History. He is back home for the summer and working.

4. Sweet Potato! Can't have an update without mentioning the sweetest cat in the world. He comes and he goes. I am still not certain he is our cat, but we are always glad to see him and he is always welcome.




5. This has been a most wonderful year for birds. You cannot know how it blesses my heart to see them in my yard and at the feeders. Currently, we have three active nests in the carport. The robin is on her second nest. She fledged four babies the first time around when she built her nest in the rafters on top of the fence stakes for our garden beans.



This is a terrible pix, but you can see four little robins peering from the nest atop the fence stakes. We took this nest down as soon as they fledged and retrieved the stakes. They fledged on Mother's Day. The following Tuesday, momma robin built a new nest about a foot from where the old one was located and shortly after that laid three eggs. We have had the opportunity to watch her feeding them and seeing them grow. Yesterday, two of them fledged. The third one was still in the nest last night. I haven't checked this morning, it is pouring the rain.

The bluebirds finally found our nesting box and fledged five babies the first time around. The first group also fledged on Mother's Day. Now, there are four eggs in the nest. They should hatch any day.

And finally...sweet Carolina wren that loves to build in the oddest places. If you will remember, last year she built a magnificant nest in the basket ball goal...





Well, this year she chose a spot in the rafters on top of dear husband's trolling motor! Thankfully, it is an older one that needs repairs and he can do without it for a while.

We have had lots of fledglings at the feeders. A brown thrasher brought three fledglings to eat and now the three siblings are still coming together to eat. A male Cardinal has been introducing his brood to the feeders. We have blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, titmice, wrens, song sparrows, robins, mourning doves, a few gold finches, a couple of house finches, mockingbirds, downies, white breasted nuthatches, one catbird, and a hawk. The hawk has flown over the yard a couple of times, always being chased off by crows or robins.

6. Other wildlife...We have one small rabbit up on the hill, several squirrels, and a few chipmunks. The squirrels continue to "plant" walnuts in my flower pots and around my bushes and shrubs. Black bears are really becoming a problem in the county. Thankfully, we don't have them around the house. Our honey bees are doing great. I am fighting slugs tooth and nail this year. I think I am finally winning the fight! It has taken a while.

I need to close here. I don't want to tell you everything in one day. I know a lot of what I have written may seem trivial to some, but these are the things that make me happy...except the slugs.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are blessed with your own good memories.

Fun At The Wax Museum

Mr. Spock



Jack Sparrow




Willie Nelson



Michael Jordan



Gandalf



The Crypt Keeper



Jeannie



Scarecrow, Tin Man, Dorothy, and Cowardly Lion

These were taken at the Hollywood Wax Museum in Gatlinburg during our recent trip.

Random Ramblings

I couldn't find my blog this morning. All I saw was a blank white page. I could access my dashboard. I could see that all my stuff was still there...somewhere. It was a spooky feeling. I published a test entry and it went through. When it did, my blog came back. I hope that never happens again. I have a lot of stuff on here now and I would really hate to lose it. My three year blogging anniversary is coming up soon. Actually, IT IS TODAY! I almost missed it. I knew it was in February. Maybe my blog was off somewhere celebrating the occasion. Happy Anniversary dear little blog. I love you.


I walked up on the hill a few days ago to look around. My primrose and the lone creeping phlox that I planted last year are coming up and doing well. My Easter flowers (daffodils) are up. I even saw a little green in the grass. It was a welcoming sight. I am so sick of winter. We are expecting more snow this week and temps are supposed to dip down into the teens. Hurry, sweet spring.


My family and I have been watching several bluebirds in the backyard. The bluebirds have been checking out the nesting boxes. I read that bluebirds will use nesting boxes to roost in during the winter. One man found 11 bluebirds all huddled in one box. I hope that when they decide to nest, they will stay here. They seem to be playing house. They fly in and out of the boxes and sometimes, just stick their heads in, like they are feeding young. Chickadees have already claimed one of the boxes.


We won't raise a big garden this year, but we will set out some tomatoes and sow a few rows of green beans to can. We didn't raise a garden last year because of the drought. We have had plenty of rain this winter. Hopefully, our summer won't be as dry as last year.


I continue to declutter. I was able to get dear husband to let go of some BassPro and Cabela's catalogs last night. He is holding on to all of his BassMasters and Kentucky Game and Fish magazines. We have boxes of them already up in the attic. Men are such packrats. I used to be very sentimental about keeping things, but the older I get, and the more stuff my guys decide to keep, the more I feel the need to lighten the load and free up some space. Our little house can only hold so much. Decluttering gives me a good feeling.


I guess that's it for this morning. It is so easy for me to sit at the computer when I need to be doing other things. I best scoot. Thanks for stopping by.

Winter Ice

More From The Aquarium

I try to take my camera with me every time we go to the aquarium. Here are a few new "faces".

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day around here sure has changed. When I was a little girl, I loved Valentine's Day. At school, we would all bring a box to decorate. Then each student would put a valentine in each box. Sometimes, the teacher would just have us make a valentine holder from lacing paper plates together with red yarn. She would give each one of us a red paper lace doily in the shape of a heart to glue on the front of our creation. This was before glue sticks! Remember the old glue bottles with the red rubber top? Or the big jars of white paste with the stick on the lid? Yes, sir, those were the good old days.

By the time our oldest dear son started school, things had changed. Children started getting roses and helium balloons delivered to class! I had a child in my church class tell me that she hated Valentine's Day. I thought, "It's no wonder." I am sure there are children whose parents cannot afford to do this. I don't think it should be allowed in schools. Call me an old stick in the mud.

Our youngest dear son told me that he didn't really like Valentine's day because it made him feel lonely. He will turn fifteen next month. I remember being lonely many times on Valentine's Day.

I am never lonely now on Valentine's Day. I am coming up on my 26th wedding anniversary. Dear husband and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, but we do always buy each other a card. On rare occasions, I may get flowers or candy.

I remember our very first Valentine's Day. We were engaged to be married and our rings had come in. I received my engagement ring on Valentine's Day. We were to be married ten days later. We were renting a house, and were spending every afternoon at the house getting ready to move in. I had gotten dear husband-to-be a card. We were sitting on the couch and he was pretending he had forgotten. I gave him his card, and then he opened the doors under our new coffee table and pulled out a beautiful pink heart-shaped box of chocolates along with a card. I still have both. I read the card so much I memorized it and know it to this day:

You must know I love you
And you must know too
That my happiest moments
Are those spent with you
For when we're together
Or when we're apart
You're first in my thoughts
And first in my heart

Happy Valentine's Day, honey. I love you.

The Sweet Potato Saga

Sweet Potato is our cat...kind of...maybe...I don't really know. We thought he was our cat. We took him in and nursed him back to health. We fattened him up, and bought him a food dish and a bed. We love him and spoil him. He loves us. I know that for a fact.

The problem with Sweet P is that he likes to roam around. He is an outdoor cat and he will leave and stay gone for days. Sometimes, I wonder if he really belongs to someone else and we just think he is our cat.

Most of the time he comes back healthy and well-nourished. Sometimes, he comes back wounded. Recently, he showed up at the door with a fight abscess on his paw. It was bitter cold and snowing. We took him in and let him stay for three days and nights in the house. I bought a litter box and another bed for inside. He spent most of the time in our laps or locked in the bathroom while we ate and slept. On the fourth morning, he went to the front door and scratched to be let out. He was gone again for days until dear husband heard him scratching on the back door Monday. He let him in and fed him and checked his paw. It was healing nicely and he was bearing weight on it.

I hadn't seen him again until 2 o'clock this morning. I heard him scratching at the front door. I opened the door and in he walked. He tried several times to meow. He has never been able to meow quite properly. It comes out more like a bird squawking. It really just makes him that much more adorable. He walked through the living room, through the kitchen, into the mud room and placed his paw on his bag of Iams cat food. I fed and watered him, and yep, you guessed it, he is gone this morning. I am starting to feel like a Holiday Inn for cats.

Happy 400th Post

Dear Little Blog,

I know I have been neglecting you lately. I didn't even notice that my last entry was my 400th post. Please forgive me. This old computer just will not cooperate with me. Sometimes, it won't even let me log in to blog.

Other days I am just busy, tired, or really don't have anything interesting to share with you. I will try to do better. I've missed you.

Winter Hiking

The day after Thanksgiving is a very good day to go hiking, especially, if you eat like we do! We rarely go hiking in the winter, but I have to say that I really enjoyed this trip. We were back at Lewis Hollow Trail, one of my favorite trails to hike. Despite the fact that it is straight up, there is a prize at the top: Skylight Cave. My pix today are of "mast". Do you know this word? Is it commonly used where you live?




These are hickory nuts, or rather the shells of hickory nuts left by a squirrel or other creature in the woods. Acorns, hickory nuts, beachnuts, etc. are all considered "hard mast". Mast is any fruit or nut used as a food source by wildlife. Around here, we think of it mainly in the winter. It is the food source for bear, deer, and other mountain wildlife that gets them through the winter. An example of soft mass would be persimmons and berries. From these pix, I would think that our mountain critters will be eating high on the hog this winter season. I hope so. The bears of course will settle into a den for a nap, but they have to forage for mast before they hibernate, and get fattened up before they sleep. Some years we will hike and hardly see any signs of mast. We saw very few acorns, but they could have been gathered before our hike. I did see a few on a beautiful moss-covered rock that had been the banquet of a squirrel or chipmunk.




The last time we hiked Lewis Hollow Trail, part of a bridge had been built across a dry creek bed. It was finished this trip. The drought has caused many of our mountain streams to disappear. I guess someone has faith that we will have our lovely creeks again some day.




Baby stalactites in Skylight Cave.

Mountain Icicles

I live in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky. Many of our highways are carved through the mountains, leaving tall cliffs on either side of the road. When it rains, run-off spills out of the hills and down the cliffs causing thousands of waterfalls on the sides of the roads. Some are big, but most are very small and some only appear as mist. In the winter, after heavy rains, all the water freezes into magnificent icicles.

Cornbread at Mamaw's

My mom taught me how to make cornbread when I was a little girl. It was one of the first things I ever learned to cook. I guess a mountain girl has to know how to make a good pone of cornbread. She taught me how to bake it in a little cast iron skillet.

Shortly after that, I went to spend the week with my Mamaw and Papaw who lived across the mountain. This was many, many years ago when one of my aunts and two of my uncles still lived at home. My uncles worked at the quarry and would come home for lunch. Mamaw and my aunt would cook a huge breakfast on the coal stove before my uncles left for work. Then they would clean up the mess and start cooking lunch. Then they would clean up the mess and start cooking supper. You get the idea. Cooking was a big deal and they took great pride in their meals. I have to add here, that both of my uncles were skinny as rails and they still haven't fattened up much.

One day, I told them that I knew how to make cornbread and wanted to make it for my uncles and papaw for lunch. Mamaw said I could. I got Mamaw's little metal mixing bowl, that I own and use to this day, and made up my batter. Mamaw got a large cast iron skillet and sat it on top of the stove. I noticed that it was much larger than the skillet I used at home, but being little, I had no idea how it would affect the outcome of my bread. I poured my batter into the skillet and Mamaw put it in the oven.

We had crust for lunch that day. My pone of cornbread had a top crust and a bottom crust, but there was no bread in the middle. My aunt just smiled and said, "Just the way Papaw likes it."

Random Ramblings

It has been a while.

I am sick and have been sick the whole month of November. I think I now hold the record for suffering the most days with the common cold. Many people here have it and cannot seem to get well.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For years now, I have cooked at home for my dear husband and sons. Oldest son was in four days from college and dear husband and a four day weekend. I cooked a huge dinner:

turkey
dressing
dumplings
Stovetop stuffing (don't ask)
mashed potatoes
gravy
green beans (canned from the garden)
corn (frozen from the neighbor's garden)
deviled eggs
Pillsbury crescent rolls (because we love them)

For dessert
two cherry pies
Pina Colada cake
chocolate cake with chocolate icing
Fantasy fudge

Moms sent over a pumpkin roll and some cranberry bread.

Thursday, we watched the parade and had dinner. Friday, we went hiking up Lewis Hollow Trail to Skylight Cave. This was the first time we have hiked it in the winter. It looked very different. We walked on a foot of fallen leaves. We saw a couple of chipmunks and squirrels that we probably would not have seen in the summertime. Saturday, we put up the tree and Sunday, we cooked supper at our local soup kitchen. Of course we had turkey salad sandwiches. I made them and I have to say they were very good!

I guess that's it for now. This is a busy time of year for me. I will try to blog more. I have just been busy and also dry. I have never thought of my blog as "a phase", but for some reason, I have gotten out of the habit of writing and can't seem to get back in a routine. If you miss me, there's plenty here that you can read. Just click on one of the links in the sidebar. I personally love the funny stories like this one and this one.

Take care.

Love,
Fairlight

Natural Tunnel State Park

The natural tunnel sits at the bottom of the gorge. It provides a way through the mountain for the freight trains in the area.


This little engine sits just off the parking lot of the park. You can climb aboard.


More on the little engine.


Man-made tunnel known as "Little Tunnel" just opposite the natural tunnel.


We saw several trains the day we were there. Here's one coming through Little Tunnel.


View from one of the overlooks. The natural tunnel is in the mid-lower right of the pix. You can see another overlook on the other side of the gorge in the upper left corner of the pix.


We hiked across a bridge and into the woods to find this cabin.


One view from Lover's Leap. Notice the train in the lower right corner going through the gorge. Another overlook is above it.


Another view from Lover's Leap.

Still On The Planet; Among The Living

I didn't fall off the planet, and yes, I am still among the living. I have just been...busy...weary...uninspired...and scatterbrained...in no particular order. I had no idea I would ever be so disorganized. I thought that the older I got, the wiser I would get, and life would be so much easier, being that I was so smart and all. I wish. I have found out that the older you get, the more things you have to worry about. To make it worse, your brain doesn't work like it used to and sometimes...it quits on you all together. I have started misplacing things. Right now, I have a book missing, along with my one-fourth measuring cup. I have looked the house over and cannot find either one of them. I hadn't even read the book and I have no idea how long it's been missing. I am in the process of organizing and moving books and I realized it was gone. I've also started talking to myself. It seems to help.

I've decided to title my posts again. I grew tired of giving them all a name, but it is so much easier to locate a post if it has a title. Also, I am not finished with the Free Things in the Smokies posts. I stopped to look for a pix and never started back again. I will try to do that soon.

Dear husband pulled 18 frames of honey off our one little beehive. We bottled 18 quarts of honey this year. That is the most we have ever gotten. Most of the honeybees in this area have died. We have had this one little hive since 2001 and it is thriving.

The humming birds are all gone now. They left about a week ago. I miss them. Many of our other birds are gone, too. I love fall, but it always makes me a little sad. I know that winter is coming.

This is one of my favorite poems. I usually post it on the blog this time of year.



Something Told The Wild Geese

Something told the wild geese
It was time to go.

Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered,--"Snow."

Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,

But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned,--"Frost."

All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,

But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly,--

Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

by Rachel Field

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, September 22, 2008

We woke up this morning to another week and another season. My favorite season. Welcome, fall. I've missed you. We have been having cooler mornings and shorter evenings. Some of our leaves are already changing colors. Fall is a great time to find spider webs, especially in the morning dew. Here are some older pix of webs I have found:

A Variety of Webs

Webs on Laurel Lake

More Lake Webs

Have you ever learned about something and then wondered why you had never thought to wonder about it? I read in the newspaper on Sunday that cashews are never sold in the shell. I had never noticed this before, but it's true. What a strange little bit of trivia that had escaped my attention for 47 years. Cashews are in the same family as poison ivy! It takes quite a bit of work to get the cashew out of its shell. You can read a little about that HERE.

That's it for this post. Happy Fall or Autumn. Whichever you choose! I think autumn is a lovely word, but rarely used around here.

Fairlight's Free Things To Do In The Smokies #10

This is a terrible pix, but such a good photo op! Go on...stand beside that gorilla in front of Treasure Quest golf in Gatlinburg and get your pix taken! It's fun!

Fairlight's Free Things To Do In The Smokies #9

Visit one of the churches in Cades Cove. Go in and play the piano. Sit in a pew and pray. Stand behind the pulpit. Walk out into the cemetery.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Better late than never...
Back in May, I sent an email to Cornell University to ask if they knew why we didn't have any hummingbirds this spring. I received a response from them today! I had almost forgotten about it. I saw a new email in my inbox this morning and was trying to figure out who I knew named "Cornell". According to the email, Cornell has received many letters from people in the southeast concerned about the decline in hummers this year. They think the decline has been caused by the drought. They also are concerned about how Hurricane Ike will affect the hummer population next year.

We have a few hummers visiting the feeders now. Since the days are getting shorter, they will be migrating. Be sure to keep fresh sugar water for them in your feeders. You do not have to worry about causing them to linger and not migrate. They know when to go. They will not stay unless they get trapped in a garage or something like that. I leave my feeders up until they completely stop feeding. Sometimes, I forget to take them down.