All Sorts of Waters - Wild Beach Pictures

We went to the beach yesterday and that is what inspired me to write about all the different kinds of waters I've been to. I took pictures too so I'll be working them in throughout the text even though its not directly related.

I've had a pretty eclectic experience when it comes to growing up with different kinds of waters. Our family has always been active and my parents made a point to take us as many places as they could.

One of those places was the mountains. Mom and Dad would take the four of us kids (this was long before Jubal was born) on weekend camping trips so often that we practically didn't have time to put our sleeping bags away. We lived in South Carolina at the time so went to the Smokey Mountains, which is at the tail end of the Blue Ridge Mountain range. The drive was part of the adventure and I remember being able to recognize the roads because we went that way so often. Up there in the clouds we would go on hiking trips or playing in the freezing cold mountain streams, sliding down slippery rocks or standing underneath pounding waterfalls and swimming in the pools formed below them.

When we weren't in the mountains we would go to the lake. There was a lake called Lake Hartwell (we called it Lake Cartwheel) that we frequented. Once we had a bonfire there with some friends and Uncle Mike melted the souls of his shoes and my friend Emily swallowed a fish and got sick. Someone else got their fishing line stuck in a tree. Once time I went walking along the red clay shore a long ways from the group an found an old log and some dog poop. Other lakes we visited were Lake Jocassee and Lake Keowee which were much bigger and colder. I remember some kind of party at one of these big lakes. We went boating and water skiing and I almost lost my goggles. Another time I went with my friend for her birthday to Lake Keowee. There was a low rock cliff face, probably about thirty feet, and at the foot of the cliff a shallow shelf of rock just beneath the water . At the top of the cliff blue lines were painted on the rock and if you ran and jumped far enough out you would miss the rocks below and land safely in the icy cold water. I was there with my friend and her brother and their dad said he would give us a dollar if we would jumped off. Of course a dollar was a substantial sum of money in my mind back then so quick as a wink I ran through the blue lines and launched myself into the air. The fall was thrilling and folks cheered me when they saw my head bob up from the lake below. My friend and her brother were too scared and eventually their Dad said he would give them five dollars so they jumped too. I was mad at my friends because they got more money than me.

Christmas Tree Farm 2014

As a little girl the anticipation for our Christmas tree was almost immeasurable. In fact it was, because I don't think anyone has invented a way of measuring anticipation. The point is, getting our Christmas tree, putting up decorations around the house, and watching Daddy and Mama stringing lights outside was one of my favorite things about Christmas.

For the tree all four of us kids would follow Mom and Dad to the attic where we would crowd around the base of the rickety ladder (I was always afraid it would break) and watch the top half of Dad disappear into the dim space. On this one day the attic was no longer a forsaken creepy spawn for all the monsters we would make up and scare each other with. On this one day the attic was a place full of delightful surprises and forgotten toys - so of course we would always clamor for Dad to take us up with him. And sometimes he would!

Watching from below the wait was unbearable. I am sure it would have been much easier for Dad to send us away so he could bring down the tree without being pestered and without worrying that he would step on one of us on the way down or drop the long skinny box with all the branches in it on our heads. BUT, I am glad he didn't because I will always treasure these memories.

From Here to There Incredible Things are Everywhere...

Come with me back to 2010. I am standing outside with a pair of rubber boots I threw on - no socks of course. It is January and I grabbed my huge white coat that makes me look like a walking marshmallow. I didn't zip it up so instead I hug myself stuffing my hands in my pockets, keeping the cold at bay. I stand ankle deep in fresh clean snow. Up in the sky I watch my breath float away towards the gorgeous full moon. The light of the moon is so bright that no stars can be seen for at least one outstretched-hand-length away and when the light hits the snow it lights up the whole field almost as bright as day. I can see the Milky Way. The sky is black as tar. The sounds I hear are comforting. A pack of coyotes yip and scream as the hunt in the night. Owls talk. Chickens murmur and cluck softly. I walk into the driveway and admire the beautiful snowflakes on the hoods of our suburban, truck, water trailer. They are incredible. I turn back towards the house and head inside. By this time I can't feel my toes. Our blue Christmas lights have faded since we put them up last year. Icicles hang from the roof.

Now, step back into the present. It's December. I am sitting on the short flower bed wall, bare feet planted firmly on our concrete sidewalk.

Setting Brush Lines on the Blackwater

Saturday I decided to treat my Saturday like a Saturday. I slept in and woke with the intention of having some fun. I sounded off some ideas to the boys but they didn't go for any of them. Then Zachary suggested going fishing.

So Saturday we went fishing. First Zachary and I went to town with Jubal to pick up some supplies. We bought chicken livers, hooks, line, nets, a fishing pole for Jubal, and I picked up some groceries I had forgotten to buy the day before. By the time we got back home it was noon. We dropped Jubal off to take his nap and the rest of us four went to the river to set some brush lines. Here are the pictures for that.

First we look over our gear.

Then the fun part, setting the lines. First you tie the line onto a hook. In this case both the hook and line are big because we are going for catfish and it has to be strong enough to hold the fish there for several hours until we come back to check it. After you tie the hook on you take a piece of chicken liver and put it on the hook for bait. You have to be sure the liver is hooked securely otherwise the strong current will wash it right off. The chicken livers have been left unrefrigerated for a while with some minced garlic which makes it smellier and helps to firm up the livers.

Photo Gallery

[March 16, 2012 Well I guess I won't be adding any more pictures to this page because I've got plenty of pictures in my posts. I made this page before I knew how to put pictures in the posts themselves]

This is the remains of our house. You can see the red shed in the background. Most of the front half was destroyed. The windows were broken and we got water damage in result of the firemen's hoses. Dad called Scrapper Dan and sold him the metal pieces of whatever he could salvage. This is a later picture, you can see that Scrapper Dan has already taken the big steal frame of the house.

These are the goats and our big dog Remus. They had all ran off when the house was burning. Thankfully they came back. The goats like to dig around in the ashes and sniff at things. (They also like all the normal goat stuff like jumping on cars, playing king of the hill, and other goaty things.)

The Joys of Siblings

Just an account of what we three middle siblings did today at Grandmas:

Well we went out on the river again. This time we took with us Jill, Jex, and Pappy. We started off headed for Nelsons Fishery, the same place my grandma used to boat to to get groceries. I wanted to go inside and see if there was somebody that might have worked there a long time. I wanted to ask this friendly white haired old man if he had any recollection of my grandmothers family and to see if he could tell us about our great grandfather - who I thought must have surely brought his boat full of fish there to unload. (Grandma later told me he actually took it further down river to Allen's) When we arrived we tied our boats and dogs to the root of a tree growing on the shore laden with oyster shells.

What We Did While Our Parents Were Gone. (centipede infested water, bitter plums, tans, half mile run, horse and showers)

Well we went down to the swimming hole yesterday. We were all ready to get into that cold water, but we didn't. This is the third year in a row that the centipedes took over our swimming hole! They were all in the water and all over the walls of the big pipe (goes under the road). Ick! We walked up stream instead. Wasn't as much fun. I got about four centipedes crawling on me as soon

Buying Goats

May 25, 2011
We were suposed to leave the house at 9:30 this morning but we just now left at 9:52.
Bed Bath and Beyond
Wallmart
Orshlin
Music store
Thrift store
Great Grandma
Grandma DD
Look at some goats
Sam's Club
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