Dear Cousin,
Well the beautiful fall days of October are here. The leaves are slowly turning and the last of the fall hay is in the barn. And what a beautiful cutting it was. No rain, big fluffy bales, nice and dry! What a change from when we did the big hay patch here and got storm after storm. What a relief to be through with hay for the year. Yet we still need to buy some more for winter. This farm has plenty of pasture, not plenty of hay fields. And speaking of fall it’s that time of year again, time to go to Clinch View Farms and Big Lee’s corn maze over at Nash’s Ford. The maze is open Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. until dark. And the Haunted Barn is open every Saturday night in October from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. They have hot apple cider, hot chocolate, coffee and baked goods you can buy. There are also pumpkins, corn shocks, hay bales and mums for sale.
Cuz, I have been working on a project and in the process, I happened to step into “Bee My Honey Bee” in Lebanon. I was never really sure by the sign out front what those Acai bowls were all about, but I had a few extra minutes before better half came back through town, (We’ve been down to one truck as better half’s was in for repairs.) so I decided I’d find out. Now cuz, if you want to feel like you are eating real healthy, get you one of these bowls. They come in three sizes and since I had had a good lunch, I got the small bowl. Basically, you get either yogurt or sorbet (good cold ice cream) you pick out the flavor, I picked coconut and then you add your toppings; they give you a paper to mark your choices, a real good idea. I picked mangoes and pineapple for the fruit and then coconut and walnuts in honey as the topping! Wow! Cuz you’ve got to stop in there and try one. And when you do tell them your mountain cousin sent you, it’s a real treat! It reminded me of a Dairy Queen tropical blizzard but better. Plus they have bees wax products, like bees wax lip balm, and cinnamon infused honey. They are at 107 East Main Street, right below the courthouse. I think it’s a good idea to support our local business, and if you want to score some points with your sweet thang, take them there and try one of these yummy bowls. I’m already thinking of something with strawberries or blueberries next time.
Cuz, my sister is visiting from Florida. She was a schoolteacher down there and hasn’t seen a true fall for forty years. Last time she was here in September was four years ago when our Mom died. She was here for the funeral as Hurricane Ian hit her house in Florida. We had to postpone mom’s burial until after the hurricane passed. I do believe my sister has gone back to her second childhood as she is running about the old home place, visiting all the places of her childhood. She has been picking up walnuts and hickory nuts and fighting with the squirrel who keeps stealing them from the cast iron skillet she put on the porch. They have been sitting on the steps shelling out nuts lately.
The other rainy day she went back to bed after breakfast and I called to check on her at suppertime and woke her up. She had slept the whole day. She said it was just so quiet and peaceful there in the holler. This break is definitely good for her brain as she is recovering from a concussion after a fall. Her doctor told her it would take a year for her brain to recover. (old people should never wear heels) She lives in a beautiful retirement place in Florida, Shell Point, but this past year they have been doing construction on the island, so there has been no “peace and quiet”. Lots of olds folks are leaving the island.
Now if the data center goes through over here, and I bet it will, there will be no peace and quiet for Clinchfield for quite awhile. But I guess there was plenty of noise when the prep plant was built and operating. I’m thinking the campgrounds around will benefit, as they will probably be full of campers if construction crews come in. And I bet the stores in St. Paul and Handy’s will see a big boom in business as well as the Western Front hotel in St. Paul.
Oh and talk of noisy construction, better half and I drove over to Damascus and went up to Green Cove for a birthday picnic get away. The Creeper Trail is closed from Green Cove clean to Damascus. They are busy rebuilding bridges and stacking huge cut boulders to rebuild the mountainside where the old railroad used to run. I love the Creeper Trail and personally, and it’s neighbors are having to listen to a lot of noise right now, but soon the trail will be filled with happy families biking down the hill.
I think we should not let the Data Center come in unless they help build or support a rails to trails from Wilder to Clinchfield. Now that would bring in some wonderful tourists and I think there should be a big park built all along the creek in front of Moss 3. Fill the woods with flowering trees, like dogwoods and redbuds, plant azaleas and daffodils to bloom in the spring and fill the stream with ducks and geese. Plant fruit trees for the deer and nut trees for the squirrels. We need jobs cuz, but we need peace and quiet too. We love beauty, harmony, and a place to enjoy nature. If they plant a big buffer zone of evergreens, it would help to knock down some noise. Plant some good grass, sow some wild flowers for the bees.
I don’t see why we can’t have both jobs and beauty. And whatever happened to extending the four-wheeler trails to join up with the ones in St. Paul? You can see how much money that thing brings in, just go eat in St. Paul on a summer evening and you’ll see.
Until next week,
RJ Kennedy
