tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65824344055874390392011-11-27T15:37:28.339-08:00Thoughts, observations and perspective on rural life as enjoyed in Tennessee's hills. A journal to promote awareness and celebrate the Volunteer State's many great resources, natural beauty, easy lifestyle and independent values.Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-74443185255428937312011-11-14T15:01:00.000-08:002011-11-14T15:24:09.220-08:00

Available in print from iUniverse If your plans of escaping to a simpler life in the country harbors dreams of living in a simple log cabin you built yourself, I want to assure you it’s entirely possible.  In fact, I can even show you how, or at least inspire you in a book I did on my experiences with four differently log cabin projects. Growing up in New York City, living in a log

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-83134585581170348822011-03-21T08:39:00.000-07:002011-03-21T08:39:20.845-07:00

Tennessee has all sorts of hidden treasures, and this past weekend we explored one: the world’s biggest treehouse, just off Interstate 40 in Crossville up in the Cumberland Plateau. Words and pictures can’t fully convey the marvel of what Horace Burgess has created at the end of Beehive Road there. Inspired by God, since 1993 he’s been working on this expansive complex built on an around a

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-37930095904918598882011-01-12T13:49:00.000-08:002011-01-12T13:49:16.805-08:00

       ...is hard to find. They find you, or you find them, by chance. You choose your place, and once you do, you’re stuck with the neighbors, for better or worse.       We’ve had the good and the bad.        I’d rather speak of the good. The bad speak for themselves by their lack of civility, and how their ways intrude on the peace of your life.       Here in the country, a neighbor is more

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-89986959531440281312010-08-17T13:34:00.000-07:002010-08-17T13:35:13.388-07:00

        I’m always watching the sky for signs of approaching weather, interesting cloud formations, the chance of a rainbow, and I’ve seen them all. But I never saw them all rolled up into one unusual phenomenon, as I did Sunday night. As a heavy thunderstorm was approaching from the West, I  first noticed at the very edge of the storm cloud an unusual stream of color, a mix of pink and blue.

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-50284225135235708042010-07-02T13:31:00.000-07:002010-07-02T13:33:05.057-07:00

It’s Jamboree time here!This time of year Smithville, county seat of our county, invites everyone in for the Fiddler’s Jamboree and Crafts Festival. This is the 39th year for the event. It’s the biigst thing that happens all year in these parts, draws tens of thousands over its two day run. Young cloggers take the stage to dance to some good old time music at the The Smithville Fiddler's

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-31550476430754297022010-06-16T06:20:00.000-07:002010-06-16T06:20:15.898-07:00

The soil here on the ridge where I situated my office is highly acidic. Without a good dose of lime and fertilizer it’s not conducive to much in the way of fruits and vegetables, except for the native wild blueberry, better known as the huckleberry. It’s a deep woods plant here, usually an intermittent shrub found in laurel thickets. Years ago one of those hucklberry bushes established itself in

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-53412097295872958182010-05-18T14:55:00.000-07:002010-05-18T15:06:50.899-07:00

That song came to mind when I checked on my last entry. That’s a thing about blogging. Hard to keep at it, especially when it’s more of a personal journal, than anything else. But time does slip away until you realize it’s gone. Thirty one years ago this weekend the eldest of our children was born, at home in our log cabin in these Tennessee hills. Back in those days we were still fresh from the

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-86572485003108826162010-03-16T09:27:00.000-07:002010-03-16T09:32:18.762-07:00

My hiking buddy and I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon at Burgess Falls, a state natural area bordering Putnam and White counties near here. It’s a great place fora family trek to the outdoors any time of year, but because of the weather we had it to ourselves. Passed only one other hiker during our three hours there. There’s a couple of short trails. The main trail, mile and a half loop, winds

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-56020554248876241792010-03-08T12:30:00.000-08:002010-03-08T12:31:30.666-08:00

Finally a day that feels like early March. Actually it’s been warming a few days now but we’re finally hitting stride after what has been an unusually cool winter. Not that we had a lot of snow, but the two small snows we had lingered for days as temperatures barely pushed past freezing. In the woods, I’ve got my sap buckets set out on the maples. Been making syrup for more than a week now, we

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-61861277404796288902009-12-19T15:12:00.000-08:002009-12-19T15:29:27.690-08:00

ghosts of the morningdance lightly from the hillsweaving in the shadowsof yesteryday's dreamson a lone country roadI go stalking the promisethat led so far from my homethrough the dewdrops and drizzleno echo or thunder, just an isolated stormand the sound of my footstepsover gravel and stoneIn the pluck of the banjo, the harmonica notethere’s a sadness within every songthough I sing out the

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-53310610726087557002009-10-22T08:26:00.000-07:002009-10-22T08:34:11.614-07:00

For the past 10 months, in my capacity as a writer, I’ve been working with a group of local artists to promote their activities and annual fall tour, coming up this weekend, the Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour. Aptly named, by inference it also describes the lifestyles they and we have chosen by living here in rural Tennessee. I guess to some our landscape of deep woods, hills and hollows, creeks

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-30038116775070104072009-08-25T14:25:00.001-07:002009-08-25T14:25:43.625-07:00

I’ve been lax this summer about writing. My mind has been elsewhere, preoccupied.When we first moved here we heard a lot of talk about Detroit and Michigan from the locals. Most of them had family up there, or had migrated there for a spell themselves and returned. Before during and after World War II people from here left the farm for the promise of factory jobs in the north. Any way to make a

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-45970929973853610182009-06-08T09:36:00.000-07:002009-06-08T09:41:23.808-07:00

Went to a “49ers” party” the other night, the honored host being one born that year and turning 60 a few weeks back. Seems like that’s nice way of casting that milestone event. The party was also a reunion of sorts, gathering of locals and a coming home for many people who used to call this area home, and retain some nostalgic attachment to the area. A few guests traveled a long ways to be here.

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-19007075203404757782009-05-20T09:39:00.000-07:002009-05-20T10:06:35.187-07:00

We were so enamored with our march visit to the Stone Door at Savage Gulf we made a return trip this weekend. This time, we took the trail through the door, then down to and through the gulf, and back up along the same rim trail we followed on previous visit. Trees all full now, couldn’t see nearly as much down in the gulf from any of the cliffs. Total hike came in around 10 miles, including a

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-41715384043342003202009-05-08T14:02:00.000-07:002009-05-08T14:05:04.298-07:00

When I woke up 33 years ago yesterday, Tennessee was not on my horizon. My father-in-law to be drove all night from his Nashville home to NYC for our wedding that Friday afternoon. And at one point after the ceremony and during the celebration he pulled my wife and I aside and suggested we consider moving Tennessee. “Beautiful country, a fresh start,” advised the Brooklyn native. We already

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-70305777035664491102009-04-06T09:46:00.000-07:002009-04-06T09:49:52.369-07:00

Last Friday was the 169th anniversary of the Battle of Snows Hill. The Civil War skirmish took place along our road the morning of April 3, 1863, involved as many as several thousand troops. I’ve got a copy of the New York Times from later that month which has a front page headline and account of the battle. The story is based on dispatches from a correspondent traveling with the Union Army of

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-56241542970802117382009-03-23T14:07:00.000-07:002009-03-23T14:21:16.584-07:00

Finally made it to the Savage Gulf, part of the South Cumberland Recreation Area, in Tennessee’s outstanding state park system. Been wanting to visit for years. Worth the trip, only about 45 miles away. We visited the Stone Door end, took the Big Creek Rim and Laurel trails as a loop, after hiking through the Stone Door. Started down into the gulf but changed our minds, as it was already

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-42613114563134009442009-02-18T13:42:00.000-08:002009-02-18T13:44:37.668-08:00

We spent Sunday afternoon hiking the CClayborn/Merritt Ridge Millennium trail at Edgar Evans State Park in DeKalb COunty. Total trail is supposed to be about 81/2 miles, we probably shaved a mile off in the four hours we hiked. It's a pretty easy walk most of the way, however the last 5 mile loop can get to be pretty strenuous. This is the longest trail in the park and it begins with an easy

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-34746605923835411222009-02-12T12:56:00.001-08:002009-02-12T12:57:59.250-08:00

A longtime friend of mine just moved on from these parts.... to the other side of the world, literally. We’d been tight 30-plus years, since we first wandered into here from opposite directions. At this writing, don’t really know if or when I’ll see him again. You learn with age nothing’s certain but the passage of time, and that’s limited. Earlier in my life I might have saddened over such a

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-53099787791344415822009-01-20T13:47:00.001-08:002009-01-20T13:53:30.107-08:00

I’m just back from watching the swearing in of our 44th president, Barack Obama. It’s a proud day for me as an American,. I also take some vicarious pride in this truly historic event for some long at rest in these Tennessee hills.At the heart of our house is a one room log cabin once the home to a family of freed slaves. The cabin has an earlier history, reputed to have served as a toll house

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-6038293361706024372008-12-19T13:23:00.000-08:002008-12-19T13:25:40.668-08:00

The sun’s trying to break through today, a balmy but warm afternoon with the temperature pushing 70. The past four days, fog lingered in the hills and hollers, day into night into day. Everything assumed an eeriness, the ever present suggestion of phantoms in the woods. Just before that we had two days of relentless rain, seven inches or so, leading into an unpredicted snowfall of three inches,

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-47394808471571168812008-11-04T09:17:00.000-08:002008-11-04T09:27:17.793-08:00

Fall is long and warm in the hills this year. Though some were predicting a dearth of colors, due to a prolonged dry spell in late summer, the season has again come on in all its glory. I’m looking out now at a landscape ablaze with reds and orange, yellows and fading greens. What’s most noteworthy about this fall, however, is the bountiful harvest of nuts and fruits. The limbs of apple and pear

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-3267069590917131612008-09-12T14:31:00.001-07:002008-09-12T14:40:47.781-07:00

No wonder there’s so many legends and superstitions about them: You’re out in the woods or walking a field and suddenly you come upon a circular ring or arc of mushrooms, so deliberately placed. so obviously planned. Wherever you encounter a fairy ring, they always catch your eye. I glimpsed this one while driving down the road and had to stop take a picture. I’ve stumbled upon these rings in

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-65941431198505431242008-08-18T08:25:00.000-07:002008-08-18T08:27:24.947-07:00

There’s a landmark here called Short Mountain. It dominates the landscape all the way to Nashville, an isolated remnant of the Cumberland Plateau. You can’t miss it, especially at night as several cell towers flash along its summit. Been hiking there for years. At the very top there’s a series of rock bluffs and large boulders. It’s a dramatic setting but s short and easy hike along a well worn

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-77670530129146181742008-07-14T14:36:00.000-07:002008-07-14T14:38:45.790-07:00

We first moved here around this time, might have been this very week, more than 30 years ago. Many of the things which so amazed us then are now routine parts of our lives: the nightly drone of the cicadas and katydid; the graceful flight of the hawks and buzzards as they ride the thermal waves ever higher; the coolness of the shade as respite from the sun; the seemingly endless shades with

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-36742680715086282112008-05-21T14:19:00.000-07:002008-05-21T14:21:18.635-07:00

Here in the country, the rising price of land is a frequent topic of conversation. Even hillside acres which barely brought $250 30 years ago can average between $1500 to $2000 today. Then, as now, they really aren’t good for much more than running goats. I do have to note, though, at these prices there’s a lot more land for sale here than there are buyers. Last time I looked there was something

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-32747696377658607102008-05-06T10:12:00.000-07:002008-05-06T10:13:50.141-07:00

So far this spring has been distinguished by two appearances I’ve not seen before. Wonder if it's cyclical or somehow a product of last summer’s drought.First, there is an abundance of crane flies this year, not like anything I’ve seen before. Walk through a field or the woods and the rise from the ground in all directions, hovering everything in their awkward slow motion flightThen there is the

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-88080737019372801022008-04-18T06:07:00.000-07:002008-12-13T04:38:43.218-08:00

Woke last night like someone was shaking me awake, only it was the bed doing the shaking. My wife was sound asleep and I lay there a few confused seconds trying to figure out how she was rattling the bed. Then it subsided and right off I noticed the roosters crowing in the dark. After a while slipped back into sleep.Turned on the TV this morning and they said there had been a 5.3 earthquake

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-64398423722005921162008-04-16T15:07:00.001-07:002008-12-13T04:38:43.305-08:00

There’s two times of year when I’d urge all with any level of passion for the outdoors to take in the woods, and its short-lived seasonal glories. The fall, when the forest is consumed with color, and right now for the brief reign of the dogwoods and redbuds. If you can’t walk a forest trail, then drive any of our country roads for the tonic of an Appalachian spring.We’ve just emerged from the

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-40399496505885469602008-04-07T15:12:00.000-07:002008-04-07T15:15:03.577-07:00

We’re into he early throes of spring now, grass and weeds starting to surge from rent rains, leaves taking shape on the branches of all the trees and shrubs. One of the harbingers of real spring in the woods here is the blossoming of the shad bush or serviceberry. It’s what I call an occasional tree, pretty infrequent here. In fact there’s less than a dozen or so in our entire 40 acres. So few, I

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-28088970729082702372008-03-08T14:25:00.000-08:002008-12-13T04:38:43.597-08:00

Where I come from they call them daffodils, ‘Round here these yellow harbingers of spring are commonly know as buttercups. There’s a saying, too, “It always snows on the buttercups.”But it didn’t look like that was going to happen this year. We’ve had a mild winter, with barely a trace of the white stuff all December through February. So over the last couple of weeks, as the bulbs pushing through

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-34138760178682126452008-01-28T15:17:00.000-08:002008-12-13T04:38:43.742-08:00

During the cold snap last week we kept the woodstove in high gear, ‘round the clock.Feeding a woodstove is one of those things I never could have dreamed would become such an essential part of our lives. Late summer our first year here someone asked how we were going to heat the house that winter. We looked around for the thermostat---it had never occurred to us a house could come without heat.A

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-27121011239642504042008-01-14T13:29:00.000-08:002008-12-13T04:38:44.031-08:00

A rainbow is always a welcome surprise. But over the years I’ve learned to recognize when conditions are absolutely right, and thereby increase chances of catching one. We were unloading the truck yesterday afternoon in a cold rain, but to the south and west patches of blue could be seen breaking through the clouds. And no sooner had the rain moved north then the sun was shining on us. Good time

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-84975046158849349112008-01-09T12:45:00.000-08:002008-01-09T12:46:35.904-08:00

Hasn’t been much of winter yet. Except for a few days of below 10 nightly lows to start the New Year, it’s been unseasonably warm since fall. I guess its a continuance of the cyclicly higher temps which made last summer such a scorcher. But it seems, at least for now, the drought is behind us. Rain has been falling with some regularity since fall, the earth is damp. Grasses are starting to

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-66425195847768337372007-12-31T11:13:00.001-08:002008-12-13T04:38:44.215-08:00

For a year-end hike five of us headed over to the Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness(http://www.sparta-chamber.net/attractions_search_details.asp?AttractID=6) area in White County area yesterday. The corporation donated 10,000 acres of Scott’s Gulf to the state a few years ago. What a gift to all! Plenty of trails and much to see if your idea of a great time is the great outdoorsTook

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-17351110577717226522007-12-28T14:32:00.000-08:002007-12-28T14:33:57.127-08:00

Six weeks of not much to say. First day of winter last week but already the dusk lingers longer into the short afternoon, sun already embarking out of South for North on the long journey which will carry it all the way through June.Much needed rain, daffodils showing green through the too-warm earth, but the season hasn’t arrived yet. There’s a cold bite coming. It never misses, if it only

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-65860216523587235222007-11-12T09:24:00.000-08:002007-11-12T09:25:46.519-08:00

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

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-34651185095327124382007-11-07T08:36:00.000-08:002008-12-13T04:38:44.450-08:00

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

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-84351038712756485412007-10-03T07:01:00.000-07:002007-10-03T07:02:46.063-07:00

The man who grew up in our house told me he saw one deer his entire childhood, jumping across a fence, and he thought it was one of Santa’s reindeers ”what had lost its way.” Deer were pretty sparse the entire period these hills were farmed. Now, like everywhere else, they’re nearly thick as leaves. There’s not a day or hour I venture into the woods when I don’t see or hear signs of them. Most

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-71428778674120794052007-09-17T07:58:00.000-07:002007-09-17T08:00:48.020-07:00

Suddenly, it starts to feel like fall. After summer’s relentless heat and lack of rain, the weather turned cooler with a front which moved through last week. There’s a hint of yellow in many of the trees, and now and then in the woods there’s a spot of color where one branch or one tree has assumed its fall colors prematurely. And when there’s a breeze, a few leaves ride it down without hurry

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-63582927492228759852007-08-28T07:01:00.000-07:002007-08-28T07:02:01.320-07:00

The earliest deed I’ve found for our property dates 1870, when the father of a black family living in our house purchased land across the road. I’ve seen the census records from before the Civil War with Stephen Sellars listed as a slave, then after the war, with him as the head of household. At one point there were seven children living in the one room cabin now our living room, including a

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-30935018367663227752007-08-21T05:56:00.000-07:002008-12-13T04:38:44.633-08:00

The heat continues but you get used to it. And it doesn’t really own the land until late afternoon, when the sun rides high, everything still. So the mornings are for enjoying, before the heat grows so relentless. I start the day with a long stroll along our country road, at or soon after sunrise. Our three dogs lead the way, so deliberately at times it’s as if they are taking me for a walk.

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-30680379378410368962007-08-14T08:48:00.000-07:002007-08-14T08:52:26.269-07:00

I awoke at 4 the other night I headed outside for a glimpse of the yearly Perseid meteor showers, always billed as one of summer’s top celestial events. It was supposed to be prime viewing time but I only caught a couple of brief streaks of light, typical of my experience. It’s the random, unexpected sightings which have the most impact, and have most thrilled me: the sudden streak of a glowing

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-15033437508270767642007-08-10T07:19:00.000-07:002007-08-28T07:05:57.497-07:00

When you hear the cicadas chirping at sunrise you know it's going to be a hot day.104 in the shade yesterday afternoon, retreat to the comfort of the AC.Wasn't always that way. 25 years ago you'd still see the farmers in their bib overalls and straw hats working their fields, tracing a mule, riding a tractor no matter what the weather. At night folks would sleep on the front porch hoping to catch

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6582434405587439039.post-91256946643165567742007-08-07T08:07:00.000-07:002008-12-13T04:38:44.815-08:00

I'm starting this blog to celebrate our great state of Tennessee and to let others know what a fine place it is to call home. And, as someone who cares deeply about this state and region, it's rich history, its scenic beauty and good people, I hope to make this forum to instill in others that same sense of pride. I'd like to celebrate the many resources Tennessee offers whether you're already a

Michael Antoniakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15183189170902019197noreply@blogger.com0