As Dead As A Doornail, Literally

I stumbled upon a beautiful old cemetery yesterday that took my breath away, AND it's only a couple miles from our place in Limestone!

It wasn't the biggest cemetery but I must have spent over an hour in it reading, and trying to read, the old headstones.  It was so peaceful and quiet. Most of the headstones were from the last 1800's to early 1900's, and there was a section with some newer stones and dates too. 

Many were very difficult to read, covered in lichen, moss and other fungi but some were simply just faded too.

There were enormous cedar trees inside too, and I mean enormous.  Most I couldn't wrap my arms around, beautiful -

Many of the headstones and markers were in disrepair, with some broken and some simply sinking into the ground or perhaps the ground growing over them they've been there so long.  Here is one of the cedar trees that is swallowing up a smaller headstone -

Here is a sampling of just a few -

Oddly, I had to drive through a newer looking development with BIG beautiful houses.  Build houses.  Houses with foundations, garages, basements and attics.  That BIG! And at the other end of this development and at the dead end of a street sat this historical treasure!

How Precious

 And a 1 maybe, and a 2, and a 3...

This is udderly adorable 😂

They were all looking at me like, moooove along...

My Bologna Has A First Name...

It's a thing here in East Tennessee...

Buccaneers

I was today years old when I noticed that the middle line of the "E", in the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers logo, is in the shape of the state of Tennessee 😮, DUH!

It's everywhere...

A Bit Abrasive...

Lawn And Order: Special Seeds Unit 😂

Did more manual labor earlier in the week, UGH!

We raked all the old straw from the entire knoll; top to bottom and from left to right and carted it all off.

We then spread pelletized lime and grass seed over the entire area, and then covered using 100'x6' straw seed blankets, 17 rolls!

Before, with old straw -

After, with straw seed blankets laid and stapled in place -

Fingers crossed that our hard work pays off and the grass takes off and starts growing!

Of course, it will depend greatly on making sure it's kept watered and doesn't dry out but that'll be the challenge, as that area sits and bakes in the hot sun all day AND it's a super large area that requires the sprinklers to be moved constantly to ensure the entire area is getting plenty of water.

“Seed, Water, Pray: The Holy Trinity of Lawn Care”

Find The Critter

Can you find the critters, two of them, in the below pic -

Things Are "Coming Together"

Well, great new, Yurezz actually stepped up and sent a crew of four to fix the setup issues with our house!

The crew drove over 9 hours, from Georgia, and arrived Tuesday afternoon.  They wasted no time in assessing the issues, then up on the roof they went and began pulling off the ridge vent (which was not an actual ridge vent) and flashing that the setup crew had originally installed -

Reminder of what the issues we were facing -

From the room, the crew was able to correct the 4" left to right offset and pull the two halves back in line AND they also we able to close the 4"-5" gap between the two halves!

Once everything was in placed and lined up properly, they secured the two halves with bolts, installed a proper ridge vent, completed installing the trim and siding on both ends -

What a difference!

We thought this issue was going to be a battle and that it would linger on for weeks before getting resolved but pleased it's been fixed!

With this issue resolved, the trim out team, which had been put on hold pending this issue, was back at it yesterday and making progress inside the house.

Things are starting to "come together", no pun intended...

Up And At Em!

It's shaping up to be another East Tennessee beauty again today -

Get after it!

So So Weird!

A Black Beauty For Sure

Caught this beautiful Black Rat Snake on our farm yesterday!

It tried to get away but there was no where for it to go, as we were in the open field. Guessing close to 3 feet long and not overly aggressive at all.

When bushhogging the property last week we noticed oodles of mice scurrying about, so after admiring this dude, I let it loose with instructions to search out the rodents and help keep them in check -

Hoping to see more of these beauties about!

A Stairway To Heaven

"Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow? And did you know

Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?

And as we wind on down the road

Our shadows taller than our soul

There walks a lady we all know

Who shines white light and wants to show

How everything still turns to gold

And if you listen very hard

The tune will come to you at last

When all are one, and one is all

To be a rock and not to roll

And she's buying a stairway to Heaven"

Led Zeppelin ‧ 1971

We have front stairs (still a work in progress) and much easier access into the our house!

The Ole Frye "Fishin' Hole"

Similar to the iconic opening of the Andy Griffith show that features Sheriff Andy Taylor and his son Opie walking to a fishing spot.

Below was me recreating a similar theme in the Frye pond (not Myers Lake) and my soon to be wholesome life in Limestone (not Mayberry) -

The fishin' hole -

We've not had much rain, so the pond is very low, too low actually.  I could see some small fish, perhaps sunfish, oodles of tadpoles and several frogs but not a bite or a nibble was to be had, alas.

However, you know the ole saying, "A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work!", well it's true, VERY true.

#Blessed

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the first picture below -

This Garter snake was peacefully coiled and staying cool under a large piece of cardboard in the trash pile.  Was a bit covered in this beautiful East Tennessee red clay and seemed a bit disoriented -

There was no aggression when I first picked it up but got embolden once I put it down on the green septic tank cover.  That's when it flattened itself out and started striking towards me, big toughie.

The dude was missing the end of it's tale - 

It slithered off under a pile of straw that was out of the way of being stepped on or disturbed.  Perhaps, we'll meet again once I'm official in our house.

What The Flock Are They Doing?!

There was a "wake" of turkey vulture positioning themselves to dine on a, unfortunate but delicious looking (not to me), beat up and ripe looking opossum roadkill.

We kinda ruined their gathering as we approached but here's an adult and a juvenile perched just above the carrion they're after -

Now here is where my camera skills, if you can call them that, come into play trying to capture these dudes taking flight.

There goes the adult -

There goes the juvenile -

Oops, but a good looking and health feather pattern -

Um... -

The back end of the juvenile -

Seems I need to work on my camera skills.

As a stuttering Porky Pig would say, "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!"...