Monday, November 12, 2007

Homesteads

A friend and I spent yesterday wandering the shore and woods surrounding Center Hill Lake. We’d come across an old map of the area and wanted to see if we could find a couple of landmarks. A good excuse as any for getting out and about in the brisk November weather.

The lake was created by the Army Corp. of Engineers back in the late 1940s/early 50s’s with the construction of Center Hill Dam across the Caney Fork River. The dam stopped the water of the river and its tributaries— forcing all who had lived along their banks to relocate to higher ground.

We never made it to our destination; even the best map is a poor indication of the rigors of the hike, through gulleys and brambles, up bluffs and around mud.

In the course of our ramblings, though, we came across the tell tale signs of a few abandoned homesteads. Up one branch, the water level had retreated to winter lows, revealing the fallen chimney and rock foundations of someone’s dreams. In the thicket woods we traced an old wagon road to remnants of another chimney, a mountain spring beneath a moss carpet nearby. Further on, down another hill, a rectangular limestone wall encircling a rich patch of bottom was all that suggested here was home, long ago.

In passing, we briefly wondered what life must have been like there, way back when, and moved on.

I always think about places like these after the hike, and wished I’d spent just a little more time there. For I may never pass that way again, and there’s something I might have missed.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Colors



As the days grow shorter we start looking forward to the fall colors. They’re never the same, and they never disappoint. Because of this year’s drought some were predicting this wouldn’t be a good season. Hah! though there were a lot of early yellows, the colors have come out now. And with last night’s frost, first of the season at the top of the ridge, the next few days should see a dramatic transition as the forest gives up its cloak and readies for the long rest.

Lot of deer, but not many hunters, at least in the early season. I don’t hunt but if I did I could get a deer on every venture into the woods. They’re that thick now. And with a poor crop of acorns, walnuts and hickory nuts due to our Easter freeze, they could face a tough winter. But there’s also been some sort of disease thinning the herd; hear frequent stories of people finding fallen dear near the creeks, or of staggering to water and then expiring without taking a drink. nature takes care of everything.

A new comet in the night sky, visible to the naked eye. Below Cassiopeia, near Perseus. Can’t miss it here in the country. Looks like a fuzzy star, and will be a nightly visitor from fall into winter.

Worth a look. as are the colors defining our landscape, in every season.