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

Morning drive at WRJZ and Middays. 1977, CP and Walker in the back Adel with the CP and Walker T in the front. Taken at the GRAND OPENING of Captain Ds in Gburg. We always got the BIG GIGGGGGGS! 

The Maryville High School class of 1966 and a few from 65 at their 35th and 36th combined reunion.

This is WBIR on election night in 1962. WBIR was the second TV station to go on the air in Knoxville, Tennessee and as of this afternoon is still the number one local news station. Note the LACK of computers! Note the amount of people SMOKING! Note the boards being used for the results! TV was really big WAY back then, only three and a half channels in Knoxville and air talent were local celebs!

VOLS win one today. Although there are two more games left the biggest thing the team and fans want to see is this season crawl away into the sunset! 

Is this not a great picture of my dawgs! Ya know people are just wondeful but dawgs will like you in the evening and again in the morning. They give a big hoot about who you are or what you do, if you will just give them a tug behind the ear and a lap to sleep in they are cool!

I just found out (like i said I am NEW to this blog thing) if you go to PROFILES and click on your music it pulls up other folks who share the same feelings. Well lord help us all, if you are into guitars and folk music drop a note in the bucket and lets talk! Shocked me that there are more than a few under 30 who have a clue who Carolyn Hester or Tom Paxton are! GOOD FOR YOU!

Oh and if you think it was all just like the movie A Mighty Wind, you ain't far from wrong!

kicked back

WHAT a great afternoon! The big dog took to the lower deck, lobbed a paw over the side and just let the cool wind blow around his ears. It gets no better than this! Now it is dark, the temperature is falling and he has crashed behind the big leather chair.

Tomorrow is it!

Local Knoxville paper said the world would end tomorrow. Load of my mind, now the trash can stay at the in the house, the dogs don't have to get up and pee and all those property taxes can take a hike!

And yep, it was in Ina's column just can't remember the day. Some guy was sure tomorrow will be the last day. Reports are Phil and the boys are smiling and on the phone to the SEC to invalidate this season!

BABS, the star of Meet the Fockers is asking for GW to be impeached on Drudge this morning. BABS! LOOK at what you are doing (what a MOVIE) and then check your cred meter before you talk about GW! And yes I know DRUDGE, a right wing, FOX loving, middle AMERICA, southern loving, republican slanted, news page..So what? Last time I watched NBC nightly their first 5 stories were left winging it all the way past Catalina and CNN was worse! Again, BABS please get on the phone to Jenny Craig and leave GW alone!

Mistletoe

Years ago rednecks and their children would pack off to the woods this time of year and touch off shotguns into the trees, trying to bring down mistletoe. Those proficient in the shooting of said tree "bushes" knew a 410 was much better than a 12, if didn't wanta mess up the meat!
Yesterday I found several nice clumps of toe, problem was they were across the river and on the University of Tennessee Farm. A school that won't let you take a half pint of Jack into their football games sure won't let you go tree bush shooting on their land!

The River

Hiked down to the river yesterday to get an update and the leaves were all floating down stream to Ft. Nasty! Was a nice windy day, but the color was all gone, bummer!

A year ago the trees turned in October on Little River, if I can tear myself away from this new BLOG thing I will hike down the street and get a current (get it river current) picture. Here is October 04  

Fall came very late this year but last year it came earlier, with more rain and the leaves really put on a show in Maryville! 

Sad Day

East Tennessee had a very sad day yesterday. Three school administrators were shot less than 45 miles from here, one passed away and the other two are doing better after emergency surgery at UT. The police say a child did it, but why is still a mystery.

In the south (a blessed region that if you are not born into you will never understand) good times and horrible times are shared equally. People watching the stories on CNN from Memphis to Knoxville and beyond all felt for the families and prayed for the wounded, it is something we do down here and it is something that makes living South of the Ohio River very special. Just because you have not been blessed with a southern birth certificate, you are still welcome to offer a prayer for those touched by this dark day.

Hi guys! This is one of 4 offices/commercial areas we have JUST finished renovating! Here is one of the many cool things about this space. A new book comeing out in December says my building was built in 1878! Really, less than 12 years after the great Northern Assault on our region this wonderful building was built in downtown Maryville. We are marketing the space (complete with 4 keyed large rooms, a break room, two bathrooms and a big conference room) through Charlie Blankenship. Call the old boy at Realty Executives 588 3260, but hang on until monday the 15th he is over in middle TN deer hunting and won't be back until then. let him give you the cooks tour of the place, it is outstanding! 

SO did you kids have a good BOO day? At the bunker we went all out. Starting early I fired up the old 77 pick up and bought a load of black mulch from Popes. They are not the old POPES, Sara sold out and these folks are just a shell of what was. Anyway they wanted 25 biggunes for a half a scoop. I bought it and the guy in the back felt sorry for me and gave me a full scoop. THEN it was back to the bunker where John England was already mowing the yard. I first hacked down all the big Cantas (sp) and then John spread the much. Fine now we are ready! Mom and I had found a place on Lamar Alexander Parkway where they had these HONKING pumkins for 6 dollars American. We bought two, one for her house and one for the bunker. THey also had small dudes for 2 for 5. I carved two small ones and the one you see here is the one that made the cut and got to stay at the Rockford estate. The other went to her house along with the "biggun" After John mowed and spread the black much we dropped the mega pumpin in the garden next to the steps. Then I set the carved on on a big can and placed 4 electrified (is that a word?) bats in the ground. Locked and loaded we put the dogs in the back yard and stood over our pint size Baby Ruths. Not a knock until 7! Then it was a steady flood of bloody faces and dancing ladies until about 10. Mother was out of candy by 8 at her home but hey, she was on her own, we were still riding the tide out in the county and couldn't come to her aid! At last it was over, the dogs were hacking from all the barking and the last dude that came to my porch looked old enough to be packing so I wrote him a check and gave him a can of veg. soup. Heck of a night!