The Mountain Thymes

We had lunch in Copperhill, TN today....about 17 miles from here. Copperhill is a unique little mining town. In the middle of this small town you can step over the state line and you're in MaCaysville, GA. The area boasts of miners, farmers, kayakers and canoers. In 1835 about a hundred Cherokee Indians had their village near here. Three years later, they were removed.....The Trail of Tears.....to reservations west of the Mississippi. The mines produced copper, sulfer, zinc, iron and small amounts of gold and silver. I find this town fascinating after teaching social studies in 5th grade for so many years. It's really a neat place. As you walk through town, you become a part of the history. The Mexican restaurant (the building)we ate in dates back to at least 1920 and posts pictures of the area during the mining times. Food was excellent and the price was right!

At 4 this morning neighbors up the street took their dog out to go to the bathroom when the dog smelled and saw the bear, turned and darted back into the house. Deb said the bear growled, ran lickety -split down the dirt road to our driveway and growled loudly again... evidently , not loud enough because we missed the whole thing!

We were disconnected from the universe today!................is there internet on Mars? We've been without phone, computer, and TV all day!!!!..................and we were never aware of this inconvenience. About 4 PM one of our neighbors walked her dog down the mountain to our house to see if Cliff knew what was happening. I was relaxing in the sun on the porch, feet up, reading and Cliff had been busy rearranging his radios in the spare room. Isn't it wonderful...........life does go on without facebook and texting!

just sharing some sunrise photos from earlier this week.............if you click the photo and enlarge, the colors become more dramatic

it's raining......again......still....another inch ........................

It's 6:47 AM and CLiff is on his way to FL to retrieve some antennae equipment that's still on our property there. He planned on leaving around 4 AM to avoid the miserable Atlanta rush hour traffic. But about 2 AM I awoke to a sudden burst of chirp........chirp.......chirp. Which smoke alarm could it be? He changes the batteries every Christmas. Well, we figured maybe one battery thought it was already Christmas, maybe a spider had built a web in one and messed up the system (it happened in our FL house), or maybe (heaven forbid), the alarm was really alerting us of a carbon monoxide leak somewhere. So we got up, got dressed, stratigically stood where we could detect which one was chirping and plan our course of action. The sound was strongly coming from our closet even though there is no detector in the closet. Anyone who knows Cliff, knows that he has 4 or 5 "back-up" alarm clocks or other mechanical apparatus (apparati????)stored under clothes or tucked aw...

Would you believe........it's raining again! We've had a little over 2 inches since midnight and almost 4 inches for the month of October. We were going into town this morning to take pictures of the visiting Vietnam Memorial Wall, but plans have changed. Yesterday our neighbors, Tom and Jean, were returning from town after viewing the Wall in Konehete Park and spotted the black bear walking between houses here on Clay Durrett. This is the first time it's been spotted in our neighborhood during the day. I still haven't seen it. I've had visits from the deer and watched them walk through the neighborhood, rabbits each morning eat the birdseed off the ground, wild turkeys trot across the road, and I spotted my first chipmunk! We've heard strange animal sounds at dusk in our woods and many of the neighbors have had the bear rip their birdfeeders completely off the posts.

Today is Cliff's birthday, another rite of passage, his 65th. Now the government owns his body.....................it doesn't really get any better when you go on medicare. The $$$$ is just sucked out of your bank account in a different way. Cliff just went to our doc. and was put on niacin to help control his cholesterol. I got online to read about niacin and it should be taken on a full stomach. It's an interesting vitamin. It causes the blood vessels to dilate and allows detoxification, decreases the LDL and raises the HDL, and is safer on the liver than statin drugs. A common side effect as the body adjusts to niacin is "flushing." Cliff was taking his niacin BEFORE eating and within 10 mins. was flushing like crazy, beet-red face and neck feeling like he had a severe sunburn. This lasted for about 40 minutes. So we're sitting in the Longhorn in Ellijay, GA, Sat. afternoon to celebrate his birthday, and he takes his niacin before the meal. (me...

Kitchen Art Hello Hayden, Sofia, and Grant.....and of course Olivia. Pau Pau and Papa were so happy to get a box full of pictures from you today. Here are some that we taped on the kitchen cabinets. The rest are on the refrigerator door with Fat Maxine's picture. Roosevelt and his friends told Pau Pau that Hayden has a birthday coming this month. She and Pa Pa had better not forget that Hayden is turning 5 soon. This is Papa trying to smile. He has a birthday this month, too, but he's not going to be 5. Hayden....... Pau Pau just put your birthday present in this box and will mail it on Monday. Watch for your birthday package next week. Pau Pau and Papa send love and hugs to all of you.