Deer, Turkey and Ground Hogs

I suppose we could have taken the lazy, sure way and let our traveler company get us lodging at an extended stay hotel - but then we wouldn't have four rooms, a FULL kitchen, front porch, and be surrounded by tobacco fields.  The tobacco plant is pretty - but more importantly is the wildlife we get to watch in and around the fields.

Nearly every evening about dusk there are three deer that mosey across the field southwest of the farmhouse.

Ultimately I begin to get brave (brave meaning I think I can get closer without scaring them) and slowly, step by step, I ease up closer and closer:

I've heard deer will raise their heads and look for predators every 7 seconds.  They are very alert to danger, and soon they decide, no matter how slow and careful and quiet I am, that there is a threat to their safety and high tail it out of there.  When a deer bounds off, it raises it's tail high and shows the snow white fur on the back side.  That's called "flagging."  Off they go!  But they'll be back, if not tomorrow night, then the next.  We've also discovered that they are in the front of the house nearly every morning about 8 a.m.

In the same place we see the deer, we sometimes see a small flock of wild turkey.

Wild Turkey

We absolutely can't get close to these guys, hence the not so wonderful picture - but you get the idea.  There were "wild" turkeys at Natural Bridge that I got only a few feet from - but the ones at the house are truly wild.

Natural Bridge's "Wild" Turkeys

Just outside the back door we have a goundhog.  Think "Punxsutawney Phil."  He apparently lives under the car port.  Eastern Groundhogs are cousins to the Rocky Mountain Marmot.  Ours is about as shy as the turkey and deer.

We also have squirrel and rabbits.  In fact, a rabbit was sitting in the driveway waiting for us the first evening we arrived!  So, yes, we prefer not to stay in hotels.  It's no big deal; John says we can do anything for a few weeks, but we do like our wildlife.  I suppose if we were younger we might like night life - but then, we never have before :-)  Hunting wildlife with a camera is our thing.  For Christmas I'd like to get John a better camera.  Our blog audience might like that, too!

Ominous Warning!

Take heed, George the Third!  It's 1765 and the sleeping giants in The Colonies are about to be wakened by your oppressive taxations!  Stamp Act, indeed!  A taxation on TEA?  Why, that would be like taxing the very air we breathe!  (Hmmm.  Is that what the EPA is doing to America right now??)

Have you ever READ the Declaration of Independence?  It's not just that opening paragraph.  It details exactly why the colonists had reached the limits of their tolerance for the King's governmental threats to the freedom those in America had found.  They came here for freedom, found it, and by-jingo, not even the King was going to take it away!

Patrick Henry, as a very young man, became a firebrand, a great Voice of Liberty:

Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third ...may profit by their example. -- May 29, 1765

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.  I know of no way of judging the future but by the past. -- March 23, 1775

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! -- March 23, 1775

And now his warnings to US!

June 5, 1788  Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings -- give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else! ... Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. --

1799  Whether (independence) will prove a blessing or a curse, will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which a gracious God hath bestowed on us ... Reader! whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others. -- Patrick Henry's message for posterity

Patrick Henry knew something about posterity:  He had 17 children and 77 grandchildren!  The foundations of freedom no other population on earth has ever known were laid by Patrick Henry and those who crafted the Declaration of Independence.  It was won by those who fought the battles and died, or lived to build a nation like no other before or since.

He drew his strength from Red Hill, the home he built in central Virginia.  It is an exquisite estate, a peace exists there that we have not found at all the other locations we have been to.  There is a tree there that has been living undisturbed since Patrick Henry's time. 

Up close you can see it's age and it's strength.  One would have to step way, way back to see it's size.

The structures on the land are not magnificent like Point of Honor or Monticello, though Patrick Henry knew both Dr. George Cabell and Thomas Jefferson as close friends.

Notice the magnificent old tree on the left.

If I remember correctly, Henry's descendants continued to live here until the 1930's  (Again with the "no house payments for 300 years" thing!)

This outbuilding was his law office.  One room was for lawyer-ing and the other was where his law students slept.

 This was his desk and chair.  No massive filing system.  No copy machines or computers. 

And this is a very unique work table.  The "arms" would extend when Henry had large documents or maps to support.  (Think of the size of the parchment the Declaration of Independence was written on.)  I thought it was a pretty clever design.

But, is this what the Founding Fathers have come to mean to us?  Even those few of us that are even curious about the truth of those times?  Is it now all about old trees and buildings and land?  artifacts?

To honor their memories and their sacrifice to gain the liberty and freedoms we still know today, shouldn't we continue to fight for those ideals, albeit at the voting booth?  As a matter of fact, if we DON'T fight for that liberty and those freedoms with our votes, we might very well have to fight with even stronger weapons. (God forbid!)  "Know the truth and the truth will set you free!"  Who said that?  Bless his heart, he did know what he was talking about! 

The Fall of Virginia

It's another cloudy, rainy, cool day in Virginia.  Light breezes scatter leaves over paved surfaces and sprinkle the lawns with bright crimson red, silvery-gray, orange, and lemon yellow leaves.

The tobacco fields have been plowed and made ready for the winter.  It is amazing to think that this cycle of life has gone on for a couple hundred years.  Maybe tobacco one year, corn another, or a field may have been allowed to lie fallow and hopefully regenerate it's willingness to spring up another crop.

John Adams had just five acres to provide food for he and Abigail.  It was important back then to maximize space and minimize effort.  They HAD to grow enough food to feed the family but not so much as to waste it.  If they couldn't eat it quickly, can it for the winter supply, have enough room for it in the root cellar, or sell it at market, then they would have put forth effort  uselessly.  I think that, with our abundant supply year round of food on supermarket shelves, we don't appreciate what was required back then.  We in America take food very much for granted.

Thomas Jefferson and "Stonewall" Jackson's letters and journal are full of the kinds of vegetables that grew best in this area. Instead of water-cooler talk they had feed store chat.  Jefferson was always experimenting with different things.  Jackson's kitchen garden was essentially his whole back yard and was beautifully kept.  Their version of a scarecrow consisted of a huge potato tied by twine to a very supple sapling so that it would bounce up and down.

He then stuck huge (turkey?) feathers into the potato so crows and other birds would think it was a giant predator bird and be scared away.

Fall is the time to get our flowerbeds, vegetable gardens, and fields ready for a winter rest and prep'd for spring planting and growing.  It will soon be time for people to settle in for long winter nights, too.

Sam Houston in Virginia ?

First Edgar Allen Poe in Virginia and now Sam Houston?  What gives?

I did find out why there's a statue of Poe in Richmond:  that was his home!  I always thought his home was in some opium den in New York City.  (So much for my English Lit class)

Sam Houston was born in Virginia.  (Shame on me, a Texan, for not knowing that.)

We are just a few miles up the road from the home of "Stonewall" Jackson.  At the visitor's center there John happened to see a blurp on the wall about Houston's birthplace.  Well, as Texans, OF COURSE we had to search this out.  If it hadn't been for lil' Miss GPS though we would never have found it.  I can't imagine why the state of Virginia hasn't had this at the top of their tourist promotion list... :-)

It's really a beautiful location and there's a really cool, very old church there - but Houston's home is long gone.  There is a huge chunk of red marble there:

 I'm not sure why it had to be fenced off... maybe to keep small children from climbing on it and falling off?

This was a really pretty monument, and we're glad we discovered it.

This plaque mentions Houston leading his forces "to victory in the battle of San Jacinto."  Interesting story about the San Jacinto battlefield.  John's grandmother was living on Galveston Island during the hurricane of 1900.  Her family evacuated, and during the night they witnessed and heard what they thought was cannon fire, rifle fire, and forms moving around as though in a battle.  When the sun came up and they surveyed their surroundings, they discovered they had ridden out the hurricane on the old San Jacinto battlefield.  To her dying day she believed that the ghosts of Houston's battle shared that stormy night with her and her family.

The Waterfall

One of John's co-workers told him about Crabtree Falls over by the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Not having a whole lot planned for the weekend we decided to check it out.  It was raining but not pouring.  We thought maybe the rain would actually improve the waterfall.

The drive is beautiful - as has been every drive we've done here in the Virginia area!  Once again we have to go on faith that our directions and GPS will get us there - eventually.  The farther we go on the Tye River Road the narrower it gets and the more scenic.  (Remember one of the waterfalls we told you about on Kauai?  The road narrowed and became covered in debris from a recent rain, but there was no place to turn around?  This wasn't quite as "spooky," but almost.  I LOVE it!)

The Falls is in the middle of the George Washington National Forest and operated by the National Forest Service.  And there it is!  A really nice parking area, and a PAY PHONE.  You know you are really in the boonies with no cell service when the National Forest Service provides a pay phone...  One is supposed to pay $3 to help fund the Forest Service, but it's on the Honor system.  While we are there we see not a single person slip money into the envelope provided.  Bummer.  The National Park Service and the National Forest Service are heritage kind of organizations.  They are the first to suffer when budget cutbacks come.  We even have to write a personal check to put in the envelope because we don't have cash on us (we're debit card fanatics.)  Finally, we are ready to take a hike.

Crabtree is a series of waterfalls stacked on top of each other.  The first one we come to is only a few hundred yards away from the parking area up a paved path.  Nice.

There ARE signs warning about the dangers of waterfalls and surrounding rocks due to perpetually being misted by the spray of the waterfall:

But this is for the edification of raucous teenagers and other silly people. 

John has one foot on the asphalt path and one on the rocks - he's safe.  And no, he doesn't have a broken rib sticking out - that's his camera.  He's trying to keep the lenses out of the rain!

The hike to the top of the Falls is just over a mile (so two miles round trip)  The path is VERY well maintained, steps are built into the path, and there are rails along the side to a) discourage folks from taking shortcuts on the switchback and b) to give ME an assist on the way up.  Just teasing.  You can see that the path is not terribly steep.

The second level of the falls is really pretty, too.

As the trail gets steeper the rails become anchored in concrete and made of metal.  It's cold and wet so you might want gloves of some kind.

It was a really nice visit.  Picnic tables are available and so are restrooms.

The Civil War Dictator

I sent a cell phone picture of this baby to one of our sons with no words, and he immediately sent back, "Now THAT's a siege mortar."  How did he know what that was?  It's a guy-thing I guess... The next picture kind of puts it's size in perspective.  John is over 6' tall...

Yes, The Dictator is a siege mortar used at the 9 1/2 month siege of Petersburg by the Union army commanded by Ulysses S. Grant.  This puppy weighed in at 17,000 pounds (that's 8 1/2 tons!) and is actually a seacoast mortar. She used 20 pounds of gunpowder to throw a 218-pound, 13" cannonball almost 2 1/2 miles.  (Who was that man that picked up the 218 pound cannonball and slipped it down the throat of The Dictator !?! )  Mercy me!

A soldier in the 35th Massachusetts described a mortar attack: "In the daytime the burst of smoke from the Confederate mortars could be seen; a black speck would dart into the sky, and hang a moment, increasing in size, rolling over and over lazily, and the revolving fuze would begin to whisper audibly, as it darted towards us, at first, softly, 'I'm a-coming, I'm a-coming'; then louder and more angrily, 'I'm coming! I'm coming!;' and, at last, with an explosion to crack the drum of the ear, 'I'm HERE!' "
(Excerpt  from "The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865", by Noah A. Trudeau)

Notice that that's a Union soldier talking about a Confederate mortar - and their's were nowhere near as big as The Dictator.  Perhaps this was the first Bunker Buster bomb?


Other types of fortifications were:

Actually, I think this was the opening of a tunnel dug by Pennsylvania coal miner / soldiers from Union lines under the Confederate lines 400 feet away.  8,000 pounds of explosives were packed in and detonated.  Union troops were told to charge AROUND the crater created and seize the Confederates ending the then month old seige.  278 Rebels were killed by the explosion, but the Union soldiers charged INTO the crater rather than around it and for the Rebels it was like shooting fish in a barrel.  Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...  When all was said and done, almost 3,800 Union soldiers were killed, wounded or captured and only 1,500 Confederates.  And the seige went on.

The seige museum exhibits are really cool and deserve a bit of your time if you're ever in the neighborhood.  Museum's aren't the boring places they used to be when I was a kid!  No, really. Historians are doin' themselves proud.

Walton's Mountain, Monticello, Poplar Forest, and Madison's Home

Sometimes it amazes me how much we accomplish in a single day.

We were on our way to Monticello, and what pops up but the home of Earl Hamner, the author of "Walton's Mountain" that the TV series, "The Walton's," was based on.  There's a little museum there and his childhood two-story home.  It's only six miles off the main road so, what the heck, we'll take a little side trip.  What I found most interesting on the way was how many place names were used in the TV series.  Wow!  That stuff Hamner wrote about was for real (mostly.)

Then on to Monticello.  Well, almost.  How about another side trip to Thomas Jefferson's retreat, Poplar Forest?  It's only 90 miles from Monticello, but given it was the 1700's that was a pretty fur piece.  I'm sure he wanted a place where he could get out of the public eye.  It must have worked then - and now.  I read a LOT of history-related stuff, and I can't say as I ever heard of Poplar Forest.  Just like Monticello, it's an architectural masterpiece.

NOW can we go to Monticello?  I've only been trying to get there since we arrived in Virginia!

Monticello is (of course) gorgeous architecturally and very innovative.  Cool things before you even get in the house are the weather vane on the roof that is connected to a compass in the ceiling of the port o'coche.  That's so you don't have to walk fifty feet out into the yard to see which direction the vane is pointing.  (By the time you do that, who needs a weather vane to tell which direction the wind is coming from - just check your hair!)  And a huge wall clock above the front door that is a mirror image of the one in the entry hall.  There's a good story about that clock, but I can't remember all the details now... you'll have to visit on your own to find them out!

The entry hall is decorated with things he acquired over the years - like maps made by Lewis and Clark on animal skins.  Stuff like that can't be kept by presidents nowadays, so I think that's pretty special.  (That and, again, I love historic relics. I'm gettin' pretty close to bein' one myself you know!)

Jefferson never got up on the wrong side of the bed because his bed was in a niche connecting his office with his bedroom.  The side he got out of depended on what he had on his mind.

Monticello was located on the top of a small mountain, and in fact, Jefferson had to have that top shaved off so he could build there.  Being on top of the mountain gave him a 360 degree view.  So as to not block that view, he had all of what would have been necessary outbuildings built into the hillside at right angles to the house and out of sight.  Hmmm.  I guess you could say he built the first mini-mall because all of these were along hallways, and you could get to them from the basement of the house without going out into the weather: the laundry, the ice house, horse stalls, etc. That included the kitchen, and he had the food and wine brought up on dumb waiters so he and his guests could dine in private.  He learned that trick from the Cafe Mechanic (say it with an accent) in France!

There were walls of books, but these were acquired AFTER he donated 7,000 volumes to Washington City (now known as Washington, D.C.) after the British burned the White House in the War of 1812.  (That's when Dolly Madison saved the original Declaration of Independence and George Washington's portrait  from burning.) That's a lot of books - but I think the Adams' have him beat. (Go back to one of my earlier posts about Connecticut.)

I was also sort of surprised to discover that he surrounded himself for the last ten or fifteen years with all of his grandchildren.  They loved him and loved to crawl over, under, and around him.  Given the amount of knowledge he had to share with them, I think I'm kinda jealous of those grandchildren!

There is a huge amount of things to see at Monticello.  I highly recommend it - but plan on a whole day just to hit the high spots, two days if you want to do it right.

You leave Monticello by a different drive than when you arrived.  That's when we discovered that James Madison's home, Ashland, was just a very few miles away.  The Jefferson's and the Madison's were good family friends.  We knew we wouldn't have time to tour Madison's place, but we did do a drive through.  It's not nearly as magnificent as Monticello - but I would have loved to have gone through it, too.

Southern Belles, Pig Iron, and a Cherokee Chief

(Where do I come up with these titles?!?)

Travelers, if you simply go from city to city, to the hospital and back home, you've put yourself into a box.  Ever heard the term, "You've got to get out more!"  Well, that's you.  You are missing life - past and present!

I've lived in Texas 99% of my long life, so I guess you could say I was a Southerner.  But Virginia must be the most "Southern" place I've ever been.  Everywhere we go the men are gentlemen and the ladies seem to have never heard of the feminist movement.  (Yea-a-a-a!)  It's a very gentle society.  These ladies would be very much at home in the frilly finery of a by-gone era.

We moseyed up to Lynchburg to see what we could see, and we liked what we saw.  It had it's Civil War battle as most places in Virginia did, but even so, it sure is a pretty town.  Beautiful old architecture, graceful and yet solid enough to withstand a century of time.

The Lynchburg Museum had some nifty stuff and nifty information.  I found out how "pig iron" got it's name: when iron became molten at the foundry, poured into a channel known as a sow, then into molds of sand, the cooled bars looked like a litter of baby pigs feeding off the sow.  (Talk about trivia!!  Somone should make a game show called, "How terms got their names.")

Virginia, of course, is tobacco country, and I discovered chewin' tobacco used to come in "twists."  Folks would braid and then twist tobacco leaves together before curing them.

A twist was about 8" long.  When it was cured, men would bite off a chunk.  (Eewww.)  Later on, folks began chopping the tobacco into really fine pieces and that's when they began to smoke it.  On our way home we passed one of the many, many, MANY old two-story log buildings.  This one had a door open, and we could see racks of tobacco leaves hung up to dry.  It is so easy here to have my imagination carry me back to the 1700 - 1800's...

We also had the opportunity to tour a home known as "Point of Honor."  Some say the location got it's name from the way gentlemen used to settle issues involving their honor: duelling with swords or pistols.  This location was outside the city limits and so duelling was not illegal here.

The land was previously home to the Monacan Indians.  The Quakers are responsible for the first white settlement around here.  The home, Point of Honor, that we toured was completed in 1815 by Dr. George Cabell, Sr., and ultimately became home to some pretty impressive people.  Dr. Cabell was friends with the Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty, or give me death") and corresponded frequently with Thomas Jefferson.  The home is one of the most handsome old homes I've seen - and, trust me, I've seen a bunch of 'em.

Lest you get the idea Virginia women are shrinking violets, one of the residents was Elizabeth Langhorne Lewis who led the fight for women's suffrage (wanting the right for women to vote - black men already had that right.)  Being strong-willed does by no means prevent one from behaving like a lady.

Other residents of Point of Honor were a judge on the state of Virginia Court of Appeals from 1846-1865, a U.S. senator, a founding member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the original "Gibson Girl, the first woman elected to the British Parliament, and the wife of the president of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad who just happened to be the daughter of a Cherokee Chief.  Their son was Oklahoma's first U.S. senator.  Not a bad resume for a pile of bricks on a hill, huh?  Heritage must count for something...  I still think it's a beautiful home!

1935 Ford Panel Truck - The Restoration

On a Sunday evening before services, our Virginia church, Mount Hermon Baptist, had a car show.  The main attraction was a 1935 Ford panel truck that had been restored.

The Service consisted of the owners of the panel truck telling the story of it's restoration and how it relates to how God uses Jesus and the Holy Spirit to restore us to His righteousness.  How we might look right on the outside, but on the inside there's rust under the paint.  Before we can remove the rust we have to admit it's there.

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
John 3:3  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God
Luke 13.3b  Jesus said "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish

Once the owners realized how much had to be fixed in the life of that truck, they moaned and groaned and agonized over whether it was really worth all the effort.  It took a lot of faith to believe something could be made of the rusted out hulk.  Larry and Glenda CHOSE to believe that the transformation could take place.

Interestingly, it takes a lot less work to restore a man's life than it took to restore that panel truck - and God's restoration lasts an eternity!

I John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
John 3:16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

How can you be saved?  It is so very simple - Faith!

Acts 16:31  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

Like the panel says, Jesus Christ delivers!

II Corinthians 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

All you have to do is realize you are a sinner, believe in Christ, turn from your sins (repent), ask Him to forgive your sins - past, present, and yes, future - and you become a new man in Christ.

There were a lot more restored vehicles that came the Mount Hermon car show,

but none would shine like Jesus' delivery truck!

Huron Indian Myth

In Gene Borio's "The History of Tobacco Part I," he relates the following:

Huron Indian myth has it that in ancient times, when the land was barren and the people were starving, the Great Spirit sent forth a woman to save humanity. As she traveled over the world, everywhere her right hand touched the soil, there grew potatoes. And everywhere her left hand touched the soil, there grew corn. And when the world was rich and fertile, she sat down and rested. When she arose, there grew tobacco . . .


EEEEW!  If that's not enough to make one stop chewing or smoking tobacco, I don't know what would!!

 James Leavey in "A History of Tobacco" states the same legend, but goes on to say:


How and when it (tobacco) was first discovered is unknown. Perhaps a native, cooking food on a leaf over a fire noticed that it gave off a particularly appealing aroma, and took his or her first sniff. Then threw the food away and settled down to a serious smoke.

Neither John nor I ever smoked and truthfully are glad of it.  We have enough habits we need to resist without adding that one to the pile.  But being in a lil' ol' Virginia farmhouse in the middle of tobacco fields makes it easier to imagine Colonial times in America.  Tobacco in indigenous to the Americas.  That makes it interesting.  And it doesn't hurt that the plants are really pretty.  Some folks even use them as ornamentals in their flowerbeds.

 
Now a days, what with the "sin tax" on tobacco products, people are beginning to rebel as the moonshiners did after Prohibition was passed.  They are beginning to grow their own patches of tobacco.  The problem there is, they suggest that one dries the tobacco leaves for a year or two before smoking them.  What smoker has THAT kind of patience?

Here on the farm, they are beginning to harvest the tobacco crop.  I say "beginning" because apparently the way you do it is one yellowing leaf at a time from the bottom of the plant up.  The workers walk down each row pulling off the leaves and stacking them up, then the farmer pulls a trailer up and the leaves are stacked on.  This goes on each day, and only the yellowing leaves are picked.  Next day, more yellow leaves show and more picking goes on.  The plants are really pretty and not a bug bite to be seen anywhere.  (Obviously they spray insecticide - which is ANOTHER reason not to smoke tobacco.)  Pretty soon the stalks are stripped clean of leaves and the barns are full.

Then the leaves are hung up to dry.  These log out-buildings that are certainly a century old are all over the countryside.  But mostly the leaves are now put in a drying room heated by propane heaters.  I know this because there is such a metal room here by the farmhouse that has been filled with racks of leaves.

Once the tobacco is cured, unless you want lots of additives for flavoring and shelf-life, all that is left to do is slicing the leaf into very thin strips, twist it for chewing, wrap it in cigarette paper for smoking, or roll the leaf up for a cigar.

Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

Surprise!  The Appomattox Courthouse is not the Appomattox Courthouse Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederacy at!  (I know.  One is not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but this is a BLOG, not a grammar textbook or a college English course.)  It was at the OLD Appomattox Courthouse a few miles away.  And even THAT is not accurate. 

This is the new courthouse

Apparently, Lee invited Union General Ulysses S. Grant to meet him at the (then) Courthouse to accept Lee's surrender, but Grant refused because "gentlemen" didn't meet in public places to do business.  Lee, in effect, was saying Grant was not a gentleman.  Tacky, tacky.  Grant suggested the McLean house across the way, and so it was here that the surrender was accepted.

The McLean Home

There's a museum at the old courthouse which is worth a look.  Afterward, across the yard, there is a man who poses as a doctor from the Civil War period.  He's pretty interesting.  If you ask him a question the answer will be as though it was 1865.  If he asks you a question, he's expecting the same period answer.  He is not a jovial man; quite the opposite.  Ultimately, I figured out that he was "holding his temper" because his two sons were Confederates and just came home after a couple of years' fighting.  They were skin and bones with rags for clothes.  The doctor was angry at the Union army for hounding the soldiers almost to death.  I've always heard that an army fights on it's stomach, meaning that if you can't feed 'em they won't fight - they might even desert!  Well, Grant's seige of Petersburg and then chasing the Rebels relentlessly prevented Lee from feeding his army.  The race to Appomattox was all about the Rebel supply train.  Once Grant captured that, well, Lee didn't have much of a choice.  Literally, war is no picnic!

The Virginia Trapper

Good morning!

We had a visitor last night - a mouse ate part of one of my apples and left some tiny poop behind.

 (Surely you don't want to see the tiny poopy pellets!?!)

Now, to friend or not to friend? that is the question.  I wouldn't mind a bit of company, but what if it decides to bring friends and family?  Better to not friend.  Who knew Granpa would move to Virginia and become a trapper!

We are off on another quest to find history - in the rain.  That's okay; Granpa and I can have fun wet or dry!

We tripped over the Staunton River Battlefield.  Seems there was a bridge Jefferson Davis had to flee over when Grant took Richmond, and this was a battle to save the bridge - at least until Davis got over.  (Then he established Danville as the capital of the Confederacy.)  It's pretty cool, lots of interpretive signs, breastworks, boardwalks and low-fenced paths.  Fencing is good considering all the beautiful, shiny, healthy lookin' poison ivy!

 

Then on to Richmond.  Tripped over Tredegar Iron Works.  Never heard of it before, but apparently they got the contract to supply 75% +/- of the Confederate munitions IF war broke out.  Secession was voted against one week, but Fort Sumter was shelled the next week, so secession was voted for. (Shades of John Kerry!) Richmond-ites found out the results of the vote because the Stars 'n Stripes came down and the Stars 'n Bars appeared over the Tredegar Iron Works.

In video we discovered the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia was only 100 miles from the Union capital of Washington, D.C.  The Union thought they'd waltz on down the highway, whup up on the Rebels, and the war would be over.  Not so fast there, Yanks.  When a man fights for his way of life he doesn't give up so easily.  And so the war went on for four vicious years.

We moseyed through the Tredegar Museum/National Park, the Richmond Civil War Museum, checked out the Virginia capital building (designed by Thomas Jefferson), and snapped a shot of a bronzed (literally) George Washington on horseback and (of all people) Edgar Allen Poe.

 (What's POE doing here?!)  

Now what.  It's only 2:30.  Okey-dokey, let's check the maps for something more or less on the way back to Danville.  Mm-hmm. Petersburg was under seige by Grant for nine months.  Must be somethin' to look at there, and it's on the way home.  So off we go into the wild blue yonder not havin' a clue what we're lookin' for. 

Ah-ha! The Petersburg Battlefield.  Looking.  Looking.  Looking.  Can't find it, but how about this?  It looks interesting.  Appomattox Manor near City Point, Virginia at the confluence of the James River (Tredegar was on the James) and the Appomattox River.  Seems this is where Grant stayed while he held Petersburg under seige for six months.

The Manor was Union headquarters; Grant stayed in this cabin in order to have a bit of privacy.

A bunch of stuff happened here besides Grant.  A Confederate spy put a timed explosion on one of the munitions ships there and blew up 80,000 pounds of explosives.  Beau coups of troops were stationed there rotating out on the seige of Richmond.  Lincoln was there for three weeks in April, 1865 just before the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.  (He stayed on a paddlewheeler, so I guess it was the first Presidential yacht :-)

Besides the Civil War history, how about some Revolutionary War history.  The Appomattox Manor and land was owned by the Eppes family.  They came in 1635 (that's right: sixteen-thirty-five!) and the land remained in the Eppes family until the 1970's.  Who-hoo!  almost 350 years.  Can you imagine, no house payment for 320 years. :-) The Manor was also shelled by the British during the American Revolution.  Now THAT'S history.

Well, it looks like everyone is closing up shop as it's after 5, so we'll head home and 'spect to be there by 8:30 or 9:00.  And that's our trip through history for today.

Google's New Blogger Look

Since the beginning of time, well, since the beginning of personal computers anyway, I've said "DON'T MESS WITH THE SOFTWARE!"  You can do whatever you want with the hardware, but I've just figured out all the in's and out's of this silly program; don't go "improving" it now.  Well, Google has gone and done it anyway.  I don't have much choice but to explore and understand and learn - or learn and understand.  Which comes first? the chicken or the egg.

Okay.  Click here.  Go there.  Try this.  oops.  Untry that.  Oh, look.  They've even made it mobile compatible.  That looks good.  Yup.  I'll make that permanent.

I survey all the visual options: Classic, Flipcard, Magazine, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot, Timeslide.  FINALLY I decide I like "Magazine" the best.  I think Google must have also upgraded their ability to show graphics because my photos look GREAT.  So, now to save "Magazine."  Aargh.  It won't save.  Time for a cup of tea and a chocolate bar. (See previous post.)

Well, actually I ate some of my homemade brownies with chocolate fudge topping and a side of ice cream. The fudge I made yesterday didn't set up so I had to do something with it and pecan brownies sounded like a solution.  You know what they say about chocolate: A moment on the lips, forever on the hips.  Gives a whole new slant on being a hip-pie.  One of our past pastors gave a sermon once titled, "It's The Heart, Stupid."  I'm glad people love me for what's in my heart 'cause my looks sure have "grown" over the years.

Back to Google.  Deep breath.  Log into the blog.  Well, looky there.  It did save.  Ah ha!  those visual options?  Those are for YOU to decide how YOU want to view our blog!

I run through them again.  Yup.  I like "Magazine" the best.  One of my daughters-in-law likes "Timeslide."  And, here's a bonus:  John is spending more time flipping through the blog.  (Gosh.  I hope he doesn't find something in there he doesn't like.  He might take away my keyboard.)

Oh, and you're joining the blog as a Friend is easier, too.  Try it.  Don't forget to set your Options.  I've made the blog so that whatever comments you send come to me first, and then I decide whether to publish them to the world or not.  Feel free to communicate with us - and if you don't want it to go public, ask.

So that's the new blog format.  Whaddya think?

Texas While We Were Gone

Just before we left for Kauai (over a year ago), my brother was contemplating moving back home to Texas.  He has a travel trailer, so we offered to let him come stay on our land in the trailer while he did some house hunting.  Well, you know the saying:  Let no good deed go unpunished...  Between the offer and our getting the assignment in Hawaii, he began moving things to Texas.  Then we flew the coop.

Murphy's Law kicked in and if something could go wrong for my brother, it did.  First his medical problems from Viet Nam and "old" age kicked in along about Abilene, Texas and he had a wreck.  His truck and travel trailer were seriously wounded, and he ended up in the hospital.  Our son/land manager went to the rescue, sorted things out for him in Abilene and stayed with him until his daughter and grandson got there to take over.

Well, this left my brother in transition with no travel trailer to live in.  No problem.  They could stay in our home until they found a place to buy.  It took several more trips back and forth to Nevada gathering up their belongings and wrapping up business there.  They only had to live in our home for a few months before buying and settling into their own.  It was good to have him back in Texas (even though I'm in Kauai!)

Then, of course, all major holidays are spent at "Granma n Granpa's," so our Dallas and Houston sons and their families were staying in our home off and on over the course of the year.  And remember those teenage grandsons that got to go to Kauai?  They got permission from their dads to sleep over in our home on the weekends.  They do their own cooking and cleaning and Dad/Uncle was always popping in from his home at the other end of our land, so it wasn't like they were on their own...

All of this to say, my home was "out of place" when we got back.  Now, I'm not obsessive/compulsive, but I am an organizer.  I began locating things - especially in the kitchen - that weren't where I normally put them and put them where they "belong."  There were groceries to be bought.  Laundry to be done.  My land and animals to feast my eyes on.  A front porch to be sat on in our rocking chairs.  Showers to be taken in a not-Menehune shower! (See "The Menehune" post from September 6.)  And working with our traveler companies to find another assignment.

Believe it or not, within a week we were being sent to Virginia. But that's okay.  My home was set to rights, cleaned, fluffed, and buffed.  I could leave with a peaceful heart.  And so we did.  Off to Danville, Virginia - wherever that is.

Back to Home, Sweet Home!

Has it really been a year!?!  Amazing.  Unbelievable.  We just lived it, and we still can't believe it.

Our son, Jamie, and his family met us at DFW to give us back our car.  We had thought to leave it with them for four weeks, and they've had to babysit it for over a year.  Family is so good to us!

Now for the two hour drive HOME to East Texas.  And, yes, that picture of the log home at the top of the blog is our HOME!  We had a log home builder do the structure, but we (the whole family) did all of the finish-out.  For those of you on a mobile device, here's that picture again.

Texas has had record extreme heat this year and is in a severe drought.  We've reminisced about life before central air conditioning - or even window-unit air conditioning!  We both remembered high school in Texas un-airconditioned.  It was so hot your forearm would sweat and stick to the notebook paper.  Final exams in May with not a single breeze coming through the windows was certainly no picnic.  There was no air conditioning in cars either - which is why our parents chose to leave on a trip at 10 o'clock at night instead of driving across Texas in the heat of the day!   Bedtime.  Oh, the misery of trying to go to sleep in the heat.  I wonder how many of us remember to add the blessing of air conditioning to our daily prayers?  Now, with everywhere you go air conditioned, it could be deadly to do without it.  Our bodies are no longer accustomed to the heat.

With those memories in mind we located the house at the top of the hill and next to our forest in order to get a breeze from the shade of those blessed trees.  (Our neighbor laughs at us when we call it "the forest."  He says it's a stand of trees.)  We also added a few windows to the basic house plan - from nine to nineteen and two sets of atrium doors next to "the forest" -  and placed the windows and doors so that, if the electricity or a/c went out, we would be able to get a cross-breeze by opening doors and windows. 

Extreme heat couldn't harm our homecoming.  The grandkids had painted a HUGE sign saying, "Welcome Home," and everyone was there to greet us.  I felt like kissing the people and hugging the trees.  This time our dog, Junior, forgave us for leaving him behind and was immediately happy to see us.  The nine cats always hide when there are multitudes of people around so it was a day or two before we were able to love on them.  Our care-taker-son's dogs even seemed happy to have us home.  Their new goats were there to say hello, too.  The horses and Mordacai, the donkey, were sort of ho-hum about it all.  And have you ever tried to hug a chicken?  Yeah.  First you have to catch one.

But we are HOME!

We have no idea if we'll be here for two days, two weeks, or two months before there is another assignment.  John likens it to Boris and Doris in that movie, "True Lies."  The phone rings and off we go on another adventure.  But for now, we're home.  I shall feast my eyes on hearth and home and family.  Thank you, Lord!