When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, the classic beautiful ballad by the Platters comes to mind every time we step out our cabin door lately. The forest fire that started a month ago in the Chattahoochee National Forest with a single bolt of lightening has now burned over 21,000 acres of land and is only 20% contained. They don't expect to have them totally controlled for at least 2 to 4 weeks yet if we don't get any considerable amounts of rain. Since that first fire started, there have been many other fires that have also taken off. Unfortunately, they are finding that some of the more recent fires that have started have been set by obviously deranged people. Thank goodness, they have already found a few of these criminals. I know that forest fires can be a cleansing thing to happen to forest land- burning up old dead wood and allowing new growth to come up from the forest floor fresh and new. I understand that, and I don't have a problem with it as long as the fires are able to be contained inside the boundaries of the forest and not have any ill effects on any homes in the area. My only problem at this point is breathing the sooty and smelly air that is constantly surrounding us and our entire town. Since we don't have a garage at our cabin, my car and Mountain Man's truck are constantly covered in a layer of gray powdery soot. Not good for the lungs! Since the smoke is getting heavier and more consistantly in our area, Mountain Man went to the local big box store and got us some masks to wear. I must admit, it's not a very becoming style, but it does make breathing a bit easier!
As with most tragedies and catastrophies, there is always a bright side. The bright side in this story is the outpouring of love and generosity that is coming from ours and all of the other surrounding communities. We have firefighting teams from all around the country and Puerto Rico, Sky Crane Helicopters with their flight and mechanic teams, and tanker airplanes with their crews that have all come here to help us control and extinguish the fires. Even though most of these heros are being compensated for their time spent here working on these fires, there are also countless numbers of volunteer firefighters that are actually taking time away from their full time jobs so they can be here to help. All of the communities that are being affected by the fires are so grateful to all of these people that the local restaurants are providing free meals, people have been preparing food and bringing it to the fire departments, collecting water, toiletries and other necessary items to keep these firefighters as healthy and comfortable as possible while working on these wild fires. To be a part of and a witness to this southern hospitality makes me proud of my community and happy to be a resident of Georgia.
As I mentioned in the last paragraph, there has been a Sky Crane Helicopter, which is equipped with a snorkle to suck up 3,000 gallons of water in 45 seconds that can then be dumped on the fires, stationed at our local airport. This past Sunday, Mountain Man and I were making a trip the Walmart to pick up a few things. The road that leads to the Walmart passes by the end of the runway. We could see that the helicopter was there as we drove by so on our way home we decided to stop in at the airport and see if we could meet crew and thank them for risking their lives to save our forest. We pulled up to the operations center at the airport and Mountain Man went in to ask if we could meet the crew. I am still not totally used to small town living, the operations manager at the airport told us to go ahead and drive across the runway to see the copter and the crew! Yes, you read right, drive across the runway. Well, he did tell us to be sure to look both ways for landing planes! Good enough for us, off we drove across the runway. When we got to the other side, the copter and crew were all just hanging out waiting for their next call. We were able to have a nice visit with the whole crew and much to Mountain Man's delight, he was able to cross another thing off of his bucket list. He not only got to get his picture taken in front of the giant flying machine, but he also was able to get up inside of it and have the captain give him a lesson in how to start up and fly the big bird. Needless to say, it was one of the great highlights of recent times for my Mountain Man. To be able to watch him getting to experience something that brings him such joy and to see his childlike awe brings me such great joy, there are just no words.
So, until next week, wash your cars, clean your windows, forget your umbrellas, do a rain dance and most of all, pray for rain!
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Green Acres, We Are There!
There is definitely a "slow southern style" way of living here in these mountains. There is an inbred politeness and kindness that just about every soul in this area carries with them. Case in point: nearly everywhere that I have been in this country I have seen No Littering signs. They are usually matter of fact and are accompanied with a threat of fines. On the roads in our community, we also have similar signs. The only difference is that they are polite reminders. These signs say "NO TRASH PLEASE". As we were taught as youngsters, please and thank you goes a long way. I'm not sure whether there is just more pride and respect in our community or whether people appreciate the manners, but either way, it is rare to see any trash along our roadways.
We also have, as most other communities do, community online yard sales. I have taken to reading these posts on Facebook, not because I'm in need of anything. Heaven knows I've got way too much stuff already. I ready them for the pure entertainment value. As the oldest of my chillin' called to my attention, most of these people have no filters. Everything from phone numbers to personal information as to their whereabouts is openly shared on these sites. You can tell that this is a small, trusting community because you could never get away with these things in big cities. Here are a few of my favorite posts from these sites. I hope that you will also see the humor and innocence in them.
The first one that every caught my attention was a desperate woman with an unemployed man. This ad read something like this: "My boyfriend needs work now. The baby's coming soon and he needs to be working. he will do almost anything. Please call me at --- ----." The way I read into this is that he will do almost anything other than look for a job!
The next one was a man trying to sell his truck. He was also including the wench. Yup, you read that one right. So did a lot of other people. The first person to pull the trigger on that one wanted to know if she works and what does she look like and is it legal to sell wenches in Georgia. The gentleman that placed the ad soon saw the error in his spelling and corrected it promptly!
Sometimes people aren't looking to make money on their items, sometimes they just want to trade. There was this one gentleman who was looking to get rid of his car. He wasn't interested in cash he only wanted either a truck or weapons! There are no words!
The last one for today is a lady that was interested in getting rid of some of her farm animals. She had the usual goats and chickens for sale, but the one that caught my eye was the silky chicks. She said that she had a whole batch of silky chicks for sale, but they were too young to be sexed. My question is: How old does a silky chick have to be to be sexed???
Now for my Green Acres moment. Last week, Mountain Man was trying to make a phone call. When he picked up the land line, he heard a man's voice on the other end. After a few confused moments, he found out that the phone line was being worked on and he would have to wait to make his call. I was starting to feel a Green Acres moment coming on. If any of you are old enough to remember Green Acres, you'll remember that the Douglas's had to climb to the top of the telephone pole to make their phone calls. After they would climb all that way, they had to talk to the operator if no one was using the line so they could make their call. Later that day, our middle chile called us. The only problem was that when she called, the person that answered the phone had an unusually thick southern accent. Her, knowing her Mountain Mama like she does, thought that I was playing around with her so she just refused to say anything until Mama straightened up and talked right! The voice on the other end again said hello, can I help you? Now, realizing that this isn't the Mama, she looks at her phone to make sure that she hasn't dialed the wrong number. Reassured that she had indeed dialed the correct number, she, now wondering who exactly is in her parents house, said, "I'm trying to call my mom." The kind voice with the strong southern drawl then politely informed her that he was working on the phone lines and that she should try back in a few minutes. When I did finally talk with her, she asked if the lineman had given me the message that she had called. I told her no, but that wasn't his fault. I only waved and kept on driving when I passed him. I'm sure that if I had stopped and said hello, he would have given me the message! That's just how things work down here!
We also have, as most other communities do, community online yard sales. I have taken to reading these posts on Facebook, not because I'm in need of anything. Heaven knows I've got way too much stuff already. I ready them for the pure entertainment value. As the oldest of my chillin' called to my attention, most of these people have no filters. Everything from phone numbers to personal information as to their whereabouts is openly shared on these sites. You can tell that this is a small, trusting community because you could never get away with these things in big cities. Here are a few of my favorite posts from these sites. I hope that you will also see the humor and innocence in them.
The first one that every caught my attention was a desperate woman with an unemployed man. This ad read something like this: "My boyfriend needs work now. The baby's coming soon and he needs to be working. he will do almost anything. Please call me at --- ----." The way I read into this is that he will do almost anything other than look for a job!
The next one was a man trying to sell his truck. He was also including the wench. Yup, you read that one right. So did a lot of other people. The first person to pull the trigger on that one wanted to know if she works and what does she look like and is it legal to sell wenches in Georgia. The gentleman that placed the ad soon saw the error in his spelling and corrected it promptly!
Sometimes people aren't looking to make money on their items, sometimes they just want to trade. There was this one gentleman who was looking to get rid of his car. He wasn't interested in cash he only wanted either a truck or weapons! There are no words!
The last one for today is a lady that was interested in getting rid of some of her farm animals. She had the usual goats and chickens for sale, but the one that caught my eye was the silky chicks. She said that she had a whole batch of silky chicks for sale, but they were too young to be sexed. My question is: How old does a silky chick have to be to be sexed???
Now for my Green Acres moment. Last week, Mountain Man was trying to make a phone call. When he picked up the land line, he heard a man's voice on the other end. After a few confused moments, he found out that the phone line was being worked on and he would have to wait to make his call. I was starting to feel a Green Acres moment coming on. If any of you are old enough to remember Green Acres, you'll remember that the Douglas's had to climb to the top of the telephone pole to make their phone calls. After they would climb all that way, they had to talk to the operator if no one was using the line so they could make their call. Later that day, our middle chile called us. The only problem was that when she called, the person that answered the phone had an unusually thick southern accent. Her, knowing her Mountain Mama like she does, thought that I was playing around with her so she just refused to say anything until Mama straightened up and talked right! The voice on the other end again said hello, can I help you? Now, realizing that this isn't the Mama, she looks at her phone to make sure that she hasn't dialed the wrong number. Reassured that she had indeed dialed the correct number, she, now wondering who exactly is in her parents house, said, "I'm trying to call my mom." The kind voice with the strong southern drawl then politely informed her that he was working on the phone lines and that she should try back in a few minutes. When I did finally talk with her, she asked if the lineman had given me the message that she had called. I told her no, but that wasn't his fault. I only waved and kept on driving when I passed him. I'm sure that if I had stopped and said hello, he would have given me the message! That's just how things work down here!
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
A Walk In The Forest On An Autumn Eve
Well, the work on the mountain cabin has all but been wrapped up. After a few more deliveries and a new HVAC unit going in this coming week, we will be all settled in. The rooms have all been painted, cleaned and decorated and the place now feels like home, our perfect little mountain cabin. We will now have time to relax and enjoy our beautiful surroundings before heading back to Ohio in a few weeks. We will be going up to celebrate birthdays and Thanksgiving with the Ohio Mountain Chillins. I am looking forward to seeing them all again, along with all of our extended family and friends that we left behind. With all of the modern technologies that we have now in our lives, it is so much easier to stay closely connected to our loved ones, so even though there are over 600 miles between us, I can still talk to them almost daily and see their face. It does help with the homesickness. Still, nothing is better than a good hug! I'm looking forward to lots of those!
Since we have more free time now, we have been taking advantage of having the Chattahoochee National Forest in our back yard. There is a beautiful, gently sloping trail that leads through the mountains that we have been walking. With each walk that we take, we have ventured further up the mountain. With Mountain Man being a hunter, we normally can navigate the trails looking for signs of all of the forest creatures and sometimes even stumbling across a few without making a peep. With this years drought, though, there is no such thing as a silent step. The beautifully colored leaves that carpet the trail are so dry that the crunch of our footsteps is almost deafening. There is absolutely no chance of quietly coming upon a feeding doe or any of the other small wildlife scampering about. They are able to hear us long before they see us. Just as when we are sitting on our deck, we can hear them making their way along the well worn trails long before we can see them. Autumn in the mountains is so different from Autumn anywhere else that I have experienced it. The air is cleaner, the sky is so clear and blue that I sometimes feel like I'm looking at it through a high definition camera lens. The leaves vary much so in color that I'm sure there are not even names for some of the beautiful shades that they turn. If you stop long enough and sit quietly, you can hear the birds and critters calling out to one another in their own personal conversations that we are blessed to be able to eavesdrop in on. The wonders of nature are truly here in these North Georgia mountains. I'm not wishing my life away, but I am living in anticipation of the spring, when hopefully the drought will subside and the creeks and rivers will once again be filling and the sounds of the babbling waters flowing down the mountain. Since I am a water baby by nature, I do miss having the water around me.
After a light dinner this evening, we trekked back out into the woods to collect some wood to turn into walking sticks and curtain rods. We hiked up the hill across from our cabin, selected the perfect saplings; a hickory for me since Mountain Man says that a hickory is a lady's stick and a mighty oak for him. In true Mountain Man nature, he used his handy little ax to cut them down. No chain saws for this Mountain Man! As we were dragging our saplings back up the road to our cabin, I secretly hoped that none of the neighbors would drive by. You see, the hickory that I was dragging was nearly 20 feet long and the Oak was every bit of 15 feet. Oh, and, I forgot to mention that since this wasn't a planned adventure, I was wearing my slippers. When you are alone on a mountain most of the time, you tend to forget that, on occasion, other people are around! We were almost back to our driveway when we heard a car coming up the road, I didn't realize how fast I could move in slippers dragging a big stick. I felt like I was doing the mountain version of Cross Fit! I beat the car, so no explanation needed! Mountain Man then cut the sticks to length, skinned them both and they are now drying so they can be sanded and oiled. This will make our hikes quite a bit easier. Plus, having it made with love, just for me, makes it even more important. I will be making curtains for the basement windows when the fabric comes and I will have enough of the saplings left to use as curtain rods. This living off of the land thing is fun. Now every excursion into the forest will surely provide more decorating ideas and materials!
Since we have more free time now, we have been taking advantage of having the Chattahoochee National Forest in our back yard. There is a beautiful, gently sloping trail that leads through the mountains that we have been walking. With each walk that we take, we have ventured further up the mountain. With Mountain Man being a hunter, we normally can navigate the trails looking for signs of all of the forest creatures and sometimes even stumbling across a few without making a peep. With this years drought, though, there is no such thing as a silent step. The beautifully colored leaves that carpet the trail are so dry that the crunch of our footsteps is almost deafening. There is absolutely no chance of quietly coming upon a feeding doe or any of the other small wildlife scampering about. They are able to hear us long before they see us. Just as when we are sitting on our deck, we can hear them making their way along the well worn trails long before we can see them. Autumn in the mountains is so different from Autumn anywhere else that I have experienced it. The air is cleaner, the sky is so clear and blue that I sometimes feel like I'm looking at it through a high definition camera lens. The leaves vary much so in color that I'm sure there are not even names for some of the beautiful shades that they turn. If you stop long enough and sit quietly, you can hear the birds and critters calling out to one another in their own personal conversations that we are blessed to be able to eavesdrop in on. The wonders of nature are truly here in these North Georgia mountains. I'm not wishing my life away, but I am living in anticipation of the spring, when hopefully the drought will subside and the creeks and rivers will once again be filling and the sounds of the babbling waters flowing down the mountain. Since I am a water baby by nature, I do miss having the water around me.
After a light dinner this evening, we trekked back out into the woods to collect some wood to turn into walking sticks and curtain rods. We hiked up the hill across from our cabin, selected the perfect saplings; a hickory for me since Mountain Man says that a hickory is a lady's stick and a mighty oak for him. In true Mountain Man nature, he used his handy little ax to cut them down. No chain saws for this Mountain Man! As we were dragging our saplings back up the road to our cabin, I secretly hoped that none of the neighbors would drive by. You see, the hickory that I was dragging was nearly 20 feet long and the Oak was every bit of 15 feet. Oh, and, I forgot to mention that since this wasn't a planned adventure, I was wearing my slippers. When you are alone on a mountain most of the time, you tend to forget that, on occasion, other people are around! We were almost back to our driveway when we heard a car coming up the road, I didn't realize how fast I could move in slippers dragging a big stick. I felt like I was doing the mountain version of Cross Fit! I beat the car, so no explanation needed! Mountain Man then cut the sticks to length, skinned them both and they are now drying so they can be sanded and oiled. This will make our hikes quite a bit easier. Plus, having it made with love, just for me, makes it even more important. I will be making curtains for the basement windows when the fabric comes and I will have enough of the saplings left to use as curtain rods. This living off of the land thing is fun. Now every excursion into the forest will surely provide more decorating ideas and materials!
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