Mother and Edith

Another shot from the day after Christmas gathering. Mother is decked out in her new Ho Ho stuff and Edith is being an outstanding friend and relative as she talks with her! Hey, if you are going to be 90 in Feb. You can also find folks to sit with you at a party!

STORM!

How odd, December and 70 bigunns this afternoon. Tonight the storm stuff started beeping on the network TV and around dark here it came! Wild wind and all sorts of stupidity normally reserved for May! Gone now and all is at rest in the Rockford Bunker!

Family 26th of Dec

On the 26th the family got together at Stephens new home in Knoxville to see his digs, tell stories and enjoy the day after the day.

First Cuz SM and Loretta listened to something from someone that I am sure was riveting!

Great dang time was had by all!!

GOLF BALL GIFT

Cause I love to hit golf balls hard as heck and when I do they often disappear either into some rich fellows back yard or the woods I buy these things call WHITE GOLF BALLS! Tonight (Christmas night) Newton (guy with the T on his shirt) gave me two doz. ULTRA golf balls! By gosh I will now leave the big birtha in the bag and use the 3 wood so they will stay in the short grass! Soon as the knees (got one in a brace and the other is now big from a fall yesterday"don't ask") are working we shall head up to laurel Valley (beautiful short track with fareways tighter than dick's hat band) and I will proceed to loose all of these great ULTRAS!.

Great Christmas dawg!

This is the puppy that made it back to TN from Arkansas! Dang thing was having a very good Ho Ho evening and got more than a few ear scratches!

Christmas night visit

HELL of a nice break from the TV and home! Hills was in from Arkansas and a great time was had by all, little too soon on the departure, but still it was a holiday get-to-gether that has been going on for decades and tonight's was great!

OK I know it is cheese

but anyone with a dig-cam has thought about it. Stick it up to a K-Mart ball on the tree and take a dang picture! Well bro, there it is!

MAN IT WAS GOOD

and then there was meat!

MERRY MOLLY!

What a great Yule!!! Lots of papers and both dogs got into the act to the point where Molly went bunker on all of us! Smart dawg!

Forrest creature likeness.....

Carved from a long dead (of natural causes) gift from Mamma Tree, the happy smiling northern endangered creature would like to wish you and yours a very merry ...................



CHRISTMAS!!!!

Soon to be re-cycled

The forrest gifts, soon to be re-cycled back to Mamma Earth, are resting above the non polluting natural heating source

Hearth prep!

The red SEASONAL flower is in place!

Ready!

The NON-DENOMINATIONAL shrub is covered in PC ornamentation!

Everything has a gender

This rabbit and this bird both have a gender, can you tell which is which?

You may not know this but many nonliving things have a gender.
1) spills Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2) Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3) A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4) A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part.
5) Sponges are Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6) A Web Page is Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7) A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8) An Hourglass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9) A Hammer is Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10) A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it'd be male , didn't you? But consider this - it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!

Evening visit

Mother and I dropped by Daddy's grave last night to say hello and noticed his mother and father had wreaths. Naturally we made a fast run into town, found a better looking one and put it on his grave this morning. We would have put it on last night but as you can see from the picture, night caught us.

It was SO COLD THIS MORNING...

IT WAS SO COLD THIS MORNING:
It was so cold...hitchhikers were holding up pictures of thumbs!

the squirrels in the park were throwing themselves at an electric fence!

Starbucks was serving coffee on a stick!

we had to chop up the piano for firewood - but we only got two chords

the beagles had to put jumper cables on the rabbits!

terrorists started to stockpile weapons-grade hot chocolate!

the politicians had their hands in their OWN pockets!

Pamela Anderson was downgraded from "hot" to "tepid".

we had to push the house down the street to jump-start the furnace!

everyone wanted to make antifreeze - so we hid her woolly pajamas!

a man stumbled into the coffee shop and yelled "Perk me!"

I tried to take the garbage out - but it didn't want to go!

Great wireless security system!

How To install a wireless security system:

Go to a second-hand store, buy a pair of men's used work boots, a really big pair.
Put them outside your front door on top of a copy of Guns and Ammo magazine.
Put a dog dish beside it. A really big dish.
Leave a note on your front door that says something like, "Bubba,big Mike and I done gone to get more ammunition - back in 1/2 hour.

Don't disturb the Pitbulls, they just been wormed."

CHRISTMAS IS DANG NEAR HERE

CHRISTMAS is close, the Maryville Trees are all lighted and the dogs have mailed their santa letters!

The WALL

FIFTY years ago my Daddy (in the south we call our father that even after they are 6 years gone) and I built this wall across the back of our yard. The bricks came from a building he owned downtown that was knocked down when I was but a gleam in my parent's eye. The brick has to be close to 90+ years old and not a drop of cement was used to hold it in place. The tribe that lived behind our house thought best to sell out and naturally the buyer is crowding 4 houses on the land. SO, John England and his son were hired to take down the wall and stack it close to the house. Shame to see it go, but truth is it is anything but gone, just preserved! Here is the last picture of it and the COOL thing was, John told me he had to use a tire iron to dig the foundation bricks out of the earth! Daddy flat ass put them in to stay! Naturally I had a talk with him (again a southern thing you won't understand) about taking them up and his thoughts were that taking it down was better than having some strangers cart them and sell them. Bless his heart it is sad to see it gone, but man he was so smart to bless the removal!

Denver looks to the west

Denver loves to watch the sun go down and when I told him that was the direction the Maryville High team was traveling to win the state on Saturday he really got excited!

MHS wins AGAIN, over the Memphis guys and on Friday Alcoa became a state champion. Blount County has more than a little to be excited about.


Also seeing LSU take it on the chin was just outstanding! I have no use for those people and even thought it was GA that beat them, it was just GREAT to see them GO DOWN! Time now to get ready for Coach Pearl and the NEW UT BB VOLS!

Tonight was a THRILLLLL

I ate the very LAST of the turkey tonight! Man what a thrill to know you are eating something that is right on the edge of giving you salmonella! Rest of the kids had trout, but I pushed the envelope and never felt more ALIVE! Now the big bowl is clean and the baster is back in it's scabbard until next year. As for the big S, I figure if I don't flop out of bed before dawn with a fever I dodged the bullet. Pray for me.

Standing and sleeping!

When just the right combo of wind, warm sunshine and karma flow around my big dog (Denver) he can actually sleep standing up! YOU know you see it all the time at the post office or at the bank!

River Reflection

It was just about 5:15 Friday evening when I noticed the reflection in the river, no wind and it really did show up the bleached logs and the tree limbs!

Denver HAD to get into it

GOOD OLD TVA has lowered our lakes and rivers to reduce the chance of flood (no rain in 6 weeks but TVA never looks at the 'small" picture) and Denver just had to find the only muddy spot on Little River to hang out in. Truth was if he was not leashed he would have been flat IN that river! Sun was just about down and no wind but colder than a used car salesman heart!

Late afternoon

Took a walk to the river to kill time before the UT game, and really enjoyed some nice shadows bouncing off the trees!

day after T DAY!

Man the day after is outstanding! First the cold bird has had an entire night to rest and yet there is little to no "white goo" around his edges! Second, a few choice sections of the "dark" meat, with a couple of nice slabs of Swiss melted over them and encircled with a generous portion of Smoky Mountain Chow Chow, flanked by three nice dabs of smoked trout spread make a fine 1:15pm SNACK! Tonight the first fire of the season, followed by the UT game (basketball, football is tomorrow) and topped off with three people all hiding from each other as they slip turkey to the dogs is just a nice way to top the holiday off!

Mother GETS IT

After all is said and done and Dallas is on TV and dogs are sleeping and people are watching football and drifting, MOTHER takes to the upper deck, enjoys the late afternoon breeze and has a heck of a laugh over one small dog trying to get close to her foot, while she is having her picture taken in her NEW Christmas top!

THEN EXPOUND

Then after said feed, we expound on the wonderment of how the young can influence the old BUT the old will always finish ahead of the YOUNG!

and then GOD SAID

EAT the turkey, along with some Mac&Cheese, SweetTaters, Green Beans, Dressing with amazing gravy (made with drippings of wine/butter/&turnkeyviseralFluids and then clear the table, leaving nothing but plastic boxes filled with said left-overs to be carted out of said bunker!

AND when the three hours had passed GOD said, kick the oven up to 400 bigguns, tent the sucker and REALLY lay the WINE/BUTTER to the sucker!

In the BEGINNING

In the beginning God looked down and said let there be TURKEY! Then in a loud voice he said, COVER it with CHEESECLOTH and SQUIRT WINE MIXED WITH MELTED BUTTER ON IT every 15 minutes for three hours!

Turkey DAY

NO snappy pictures until after tomorrow, sorry.

Martha Steward had a great way to cook a turkey yesterday on her show (I have NO life) and it involved wine! Woman said to get some cheese cloth (is that what a cheese uses to take a shower with?) and soak it in wine! OK, I know the old fish joke..."and then you throw away the fish and eat the board" but there is more to this! Then you put the cheese cloth (ya know that even sounds nasty!) over the bird and every 15 minutes you take a Baster (don't EVEN go there) and squirt the wine on the thing till it is an hour away from touch down. That final hour you just start splashing the wine right on the bird (the C Cloth has now been removed and is deep in the back yard behing fought over by the Bumpus Hounds) until you pull it out. Two other things, use an entire bottle of wine, add two sticks of butter, a pinch of salt and pepper and warm it up before you soak the Cloth of cheese. Also put the turkey in the oven FEET FIRST, then an hour before you birth the sucker you take it out and reverse it. Not a clue why? OK, that's it, have fun and if you know where they sell CHEESE cloth let me know!

Remember summer?

Winter in the mountains, 9 inches of snow in the higher elevations, cold wind and rain in the valley, yep it is time to officially start missing SUMMER!

You have heard of the "Travelers" (band of gypsies) who hit communities and half way pave drives, use watered down paint to sort paint kitchens, flash their puppies in check out lines and grab money out of the drawers and then run like dawgs back to the hills of North Carolina?? Well these are also sinsiter packs of people who show up on your back porch with very inexpensive snack food and after offering you a chip and dip spend the entire day swimming in your pool, checking out your medicine cabinet, scaring your pets and making overseas calls on your phone. KEEP AN EYE PEALED FOR THEM!

Best I can figure this was in Wyoming in 1949 or 50. Mother had me out there and thought it would be cute to let her 1.5 year old look at a 1 year old? The momma cow was kinda upset but I had a fine rock in my hand and stood my ground. If you are from the south you won't understand but if you are from the west just think of it as a "Cowboy" thing.

3 years ago

Last good snow we had was back in 2003. Low in the 20s for the next few days and this afternoon it looked like some snow was on the third range of mountains. It is November and we have YET to build a fire in any of the fireplaces. That is really odd, used to have fires after the third UT game and here we are set to play VANDY (next to the last one) and still no fire! Al Gore was still wrong about global warming but something is up in the Tennessee Valley!

It is 45 here today and tonight they (just who are they?) are saying it will be in the 20s. Molly is the only smart one under this roof!

Great DAWG story

Our local paper, Maryville Daily Times has a great story about a lost coon dog. OK, give me a break, this IS Tennessee and most of us think more of our dawgs then of our distant kin!
Click here: thedailytimes.com - Hunting dog found in cave after 16 days

Here is the story behind the "Thing" resting in a wide ditch less than 3 miles from the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Growing up in the Maryville, Tennessee school system I was blessed at times to be placed in the same room at Sam Houston elementary with Jan Van Meter. Her dad and mom had a bakery and often they would drop in with cupcakes for the entire class! Riding with Morton up to his bunker on the mountain one winter afternoon he pointed out one of Jan's delivery vans, long dead, resting in this wide ditch. Naturally the very next trip the camera went along and this picture was taken. We even talked about getting a chain and snaking the thing out, getting some shade tree mechanics to look her over and see about getting it back on the road. Yep, we "talked" about it but on closer examination we felt it would add more to the beautiful mountain hill side left right where it was. If you want to go get it I bet the owners of the ditch would "work" with you on a great price!

I was driving home Christmas Eve 2000 from work and this car pulled up next to me. Just thought at the time, that DAWG has got it SO MADE!

VP's visit

The VP came in this morning to honor Howard Baker and his new center to be built at the University of Tennessee. 4 really sad protesters started yelling as he was speaking, but he never wavered. Soon they were told to run along and they did. Later they were given a street corner to do whatever it is these people do and it was just mess. Even the new Pres. of UT said they were just not up to the level we remember back in the 60s and I have to agree. Bless their hearts, they didn't have very many in their pack, their signs were not spelled correctly and they forgot to have a runner tell the TV dorks where they were set up! Only one station (locally) gave them coverage and naturally they picked the kid who couldn't cobble two sentences together without the obligatory "YOU KNOW" tossed in. NEXT time you want to protest take a page or two out of the past and get organized OK? Heck this is college and there are certain standards for protesting created over decades of yelling, chanting and sign waving, today's sad attempt just didn't get the job done!

PS
Great presentation by the Gov. Lamar Alexander, Duncan, Howard Baker and the VP and well worth the effort to get up that early and get the wand when my watch set off the detector!

check out the column

More than a tad of the info on this self serving blog is about the media in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you want a weekly fix (if you are not from this area, what da heck it can be a hoot to read) then just amble over to hallsnews.com and click on my column. Like all markets not in the top 25, Knoxville is starting to leak both local viewers and listeners. The sad thing is the slidddddding away from local radio to XM and its evil twin. Kind of like boiling the frog, the powers that run the things don't really notice the situation and won't until they are toast! This week a couple of AM radio stations went on the web and the column (should be up after WED night) will direct you to their site. Kids they are just fun as can be! Got a very conservitave morning drive talk show and then a thing called THA BIG DEAL, where an old local radio king holds court! No kidding you have to fire it up on the web and see what just "might" keep the XM types from the door!

My grandfather in WY with me when I was all of 4.5 years old. Those logs were cut my him to build a big home across the river but when the dam was built that very spot went about 40 feet under water. There is a boat ramp near it and you can put in and float down to Devils and Bighorn Canyon from there.

Group of family pictures. Upper left are my three Aunts and I think the others are also all kin? If any relatives know who these kids are drop me a note! 

This is one of my aunts and I half way thing it is my Aunt Sally? It is from the mid 1900s and it was taken in Maryville, Tennessee. 

fall of 2000 off Andy's back porch.  

At the OLD WKVL I was always a nice guy and respected women like i had been taught by my mother. Todd (guy on the left) was also nice but had this thing about checking out girls when they thought he was not looking! Bless his heart. 

Before DOLLYWOOD it was called SilverDollar City and the WRJZ mob always worked it for some odd reason. L2R Henge Pie,CP,Walker,Fred, Whammy Pammie. KNEELING is the famious John Boy of John Boy and Billy