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Published: July 28th 2012
Wading in the Creek
Visitors in the Smokey Mountain NP enjoy a roadside stream.April 5: The visit with Anita was short, but sweet. I stayed just long enough to want to go back again. Time, however, is moving on and I have more places to go and people to see! Time to head to North Carolina by way of Tennessee. I drove through the Cherokee National Forest and the Western part of the Appalachian Mountains and spent the night near Pigeon Forge. The town is very tourist-oriented, much like Gatlinburg. I found a good photography shop, however, and got a new lens cover for the camera. (I'm always losing those.) I bypassed Dollywood. I'm not even sure it was open!
April 6: Although I have been to the Great Smokey Mountains NP a couple of times before, I never get tired of seeing it. This time I stopped to visit a replica of a typical mountain farm around the turn of the 20
th century. I am always amazed at how small the houses and the rooms in them are. Today's society seems obsessed with space—the houses just keep getting bigger and bigger. Yet these farm families often raised five or six children in a house less than 1000 square feet. Of course in
On a Clear Day
Good view of the Smokies or Blue Ridge Mountains those days people didn't spend a lot of time in the house. They worked from dawn to dusk outside. There were no TVs, video games or computers to keep them in. Even the cooking was often done outside or at least in a room semi-attached to the house. Children often slept three or four to a bed. I can't imagine what that must have been like in the summers!
April 7-13: I have come “home” again. ( I always think of Balsam Grove as my heart's home.) I love the mountains and the people here. This time of year it is really beautiful; everything seems to be in bloom, except the rhododendrons. They won't bloom for a few more weeks. Most of the trees are just starting to get leaves, which means one can see more and further in the mountain scenery. I stayed at Keitha's. I consider her my soul sister and her family, my family. We walked every day over winding mountain roads, along creeks, by the church and cemetery as well as over to see Joy or Barbara, her sisters, who live on the next hill. We just enjoyed the warm days and cool nights and
Mountain Farm House
This is an authentic farm house which was moved from a place in the mountains to this "living" farm display in the Smokey Mts NP. a beautiful spring in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Went to church, prayer group and just visited with all the friends here. The wood violets were all over the place and the cherry trees are in blossom. The woods were full of foxglove, sedum and so many other wildflowers I don't know the names of. There is a different kind of dogwood I don't remember seeing before. The blossoms are still on the tree when the leaves open up. I wonder if it is a new variety of dogwood. I hope you don't get tired of the flower photos. Everything was so beautiful, I wanted to give you readers a taste of a mountain spring. (Plus I can't restrain myself when it comes to photographing flowers!!!)
April 15—Left Balsam Grove Friday and dry-camped a couple of nights across North Carolina to the coast, arriving in Vandermere this afternoon.. I will spend the next week here at a NOMADS Disaster Relief project. Vandermere is located on the coast of the Pamlico Sound area, behind the Outer Islands, e.g., Cape Hatteras. Even with the “protection” of the barrier islands, this area was hit hard wind and flood-wise by Hurricane Irene last August.
Mountain Farm House Back
The rear view of the farmhouse shows the attached kitchen area. Just behind that was the smokehouse. NOMADS and several other relief agencies have been working here the last couple of months helping to rebuild homes that were damaged or destroyed.
NOMAD's disaster relief projects, like the one at Vandermere, differ from the regular projects in several ways. First, volunteers can sign up for as little as one week of working, but more if they want. This kind of scheduling results in revolving teams and leaders being on site for several months rather than one team for a single three-week length. Each week the volunteers build on the work a team has done the previous week. Second, these are non-recurring project sites. Once the entire disaster response project term has ended, it is unlikely that there will be future NOMAD projects at this site.
Our RV hook-up location was a a church camp on a lake. It was a beautiful site to be, looking directly over the water. We car-pooled to the actual houses we worked on. I was assigned to a house about five miles from where the RVs were parked. Previous NOMADS had torn out the old, water damaged, moldy walls of the house, almost gutting the interior and built a new area
Mountain Farm Barn
The barn was one of several buildings in the living farm display in the Great Smokey Mts NP for the kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and one of the bathrooms. Our job was to finish painting the living room, put down flooring in the front bedroom and complete the bathroom. We got it all done in the four work days we had.
Bootsie—There aren't too many variations in my days. Marty may walk around outside, visit friends work on a project and take pictures, but I spend my days looking out the window at scenery and critters and sleeping. Sometimes I get bored, but it's a pretty good life over all. I liked parking at the lake. There were lots of birds on the water and in the woods behind the camper. I also spotted squirrels. There were two little boys that played around the camp and they were pretty interesting. I did manage to get out of the camper the first day we were there. Marty was out talking to people (ho-hum) and didn't close the screen door all the way, so I slipped out. I thought it was pretty funny, because she didn't see me do it. I overheard some of the people ask her to describe me and when she did they Barn and Fence
Another view of the barn over the split rail fence. said, “There's a cat that looks just like that over by the water.” Boy, did she pay attention then! Everybody seemed to get a good laugh at her reaction to my wandering around. (I'm always up to entertain!) To be fair, Marty let me wander around some more before she took me back to the RV. I never run away from her because she treats me pretty good. I do wish she would let me out more often, though.
I started something new for me while we were at this place; I started drinking from the water faucet. Remember when Marty left me at her niece's house for a few weeks while she went to Hawaii? (Where-ever and whatever “Hawaii” is...) Well, they had a cat's drinking fountain where the water shoots out of a bottle into the water dish. I could drink from the dish or the moving water. I decided I liked the moving water. So, now when Marty turns on the faucet in the RV, I hop up to the counter and get me a drink while it is running. Tastes a lot better than what's in my bowl! (Note from Marty—I do change the water
Wild Violets
These flowers were growing profusely all around my friend Keitha's house. Violets are one of my favorite flowers. They seem so delicate, yet survive some very harsh climates and soil. in his bowl everyday and sometimes more than once! I do get a kick out of him asking for a drink from the faucet, tho!)
By the way, I am a smart cat, but I'm glad Marty puts in all the words and names for the doodads I want to talk about. I really didn't know what a faucet was, but I am learning!!! What a blessing it was to see the damaged house start to look livable again. We finished our assigned work. Next week's team will lay the floor in the other bedroom and in the kitchen and put the finishing touches on the bathroom. We moved all the stuff stored from one bedroom to the newly finished one so it is ready for the work. The owner of the house fishes for shrimp and was in Florida while I was there. His sister, however, came often to chat with all of us and see our progress. She was so grateful for the help we were giving often saying they would never had this home to move back into if it were not for all the volunteers and their dedication. I was humbled by her gratitude
Another "Orchid Tree"
I think this is still another variety of a Japanese magnolia or tulip tree. and when I compared my problems to all she and her family had been and are still going through, I also felt very blessed! Now that I have had this experience, I am looking forward to working another disaster relief project when I can. I had worked previously with two couples on this week's team, so this was a time of being with old friends and making new ones. It was a great week.
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Vesta
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Smokies
We've driven through the Smokies a couple of times ourselves. So beautiful! Love your photos.