Thursday, November 27, 2008

Deer Hunt - November 22, 2008


Fred's bruise over the left eye!


Fred and Chub O'dell with freshly pulled turnips



Ed Williams, William Wright, Chub O'dell




Two of O'dell's grandsons examine the lake.


In a state of euphoria I heard the alarm sound at the un-godly hour of 4:00am. I quickly shut it off and sprung from the bed into my insulated clothes and quietly but hurriedly heated the home-made chicken soup Frances had prepared for me the night before and packed it in a thermos, together with apples, bananas, licorice and cookies and into the cooler. Finally I grabbed coat, gun, international orange hat and vest and placed them in the truck. Ed Williams was ready and waiting when I arrived at his house at 5:00am. We chatted about everything and nothing as we drove through the dark roads to Chub O'dell's farm about four miles out of Tellico Plains.
Chub and his wife Christine were both in the kitchen cooking a mountain man's breakfast of eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, with home-made preserves for the 16 hunters who were hunting today. Chub and his family (children, grandchildren, nephews, cousins) were all very polite and cordial with each other and with their elders and made Ed and me feel right at home. There was lots of laughter and expressions of gratitude from all the diners.
After all had been fed the 16 hunters all loaded up in separate vehicles and drove to a part of the farm I had not been to before. Half of us were posted on "stands" while the other half were taken to the top of the ridge where they began their slow walk down to where we all were posted. This was to take advantage of the deer who would see and hear the hunters walking down the mountain, become nervous, move ahead cautiously through the woods and, hopefully, walk into range of one of the hunters at the bottom of the mountain on "stands". Actually these were not stands in the common understanding of the term. It was just a tree or a log or a place where the hunter chose to stand waiting on the deer. Hey - it worked! Three deer walked right into range of my gun about 30 minutes before the walkers came down the mountain. Trouble was the three were does. It is illegal to kill does at this time. Still - it was exciting for me to see them. One was so close I was tempted to shake hands with it!!!
I must tell you about the turnips. As Chub and I were reminiscing about times when I was his pastor back in the '60's, I was reminded of the time we had walked so far and were so thirsty and hungry. We came up to one of his Aunt's homes and she had about 25 or 30 turnips laying on the back porch. She offerred one to us to eat. I had never eaten a raw turnip before that I knew about - but that day I peeled and ate a big one. I discovered I LOVE turnips. Wow. What a sweet tasting vegetable. As I was telling that story to Ed and others, we were passing Chub's turnip patch so he jumped into the patch and pulled up one and threw to me to eat! YES! It was good - but somehow not as good as that one was about 40 years ago.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

My Thoughts On "The Shack"

After reading "The Shack", a book recommended by one of my very good Friends who teaches Theology, I must make the following observations:

1. The shack is opposed to guns! Not only am I NOT opposed to guns, I am a member of the NRA and a strong believer in man's right to self protection. For me, one of man's responsibilities which I believe is taught in the Holy Bible is the duty a man has to "provide for those of his own household." Failure to provide the basic necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing) is condemned in Scripture in the strongest terms. I believe that the protection of his family is one of the things God has charged mankind with.

2. The shack is of feminist views, portraying God as a big, fat, happy, black woman. I have nothing but the fondest feelings for the character traits ascribed by the author of "The Shack" to the person of God. I have nothing against women who are qualified being in positions of leadership. I see women Judges in the Old Testament and women pastors and evangelists in the New Testament. I see nothing wrong with the idea that God may be of a different ethne than most of us have always thought. However, gender is something else again. The God in my Bible is definitely not a female.

3. The shack presents views opposed to authority. For example on pages 123 and 124 it states, “We’ve been seduced into this pre-occupation with authority” and again, “…There would be no need for hierarchy!” I will not quote all the scripture references that may be pertinent but suffice it to say that the Bible teaches us to be subject to authorities, to kings, to religious leaders and to one another. To advocate that we do not need heirarchical systems would be like advocating that we build an automobile with a most powerful engine, powerglide clutch, well greased ball-bearings and strong axles with the capability of driving at high rates of speed - but including no steering mechanism. I submit that the heirarchy is the steering mechanism in any system, without which we are destined to a cataclysmic pile-up!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

More Progress





Things are beginning to take shape on the room addition here. It is now "slow work" and since we have reached jobs such as electrical wiring and plumbing it is difficult to tell when progress is made. Son-in-law Rick was up and glued the cold water lines together on Friday. I've tried to run wiring so we will have a light switch in the bathroom and over the shower. In addition I need to put a light in the bedroom where there were no 110volt outlets. Maybe you're wondering about electrical wiring - since you know that we are 3 miles from the nearest utility pole. I'll run these lights with the solar powered battery operated 110v inverter. These things work wonderful as long as your batteries stay charged. When the sun does not shine a full day's worth of sun (like now) we have to use the gas-operated generator more often. As long as the generator is running we have lights and also have a battery charger boosting the batteries.

Also bought a 6x9 flooring remnant for the bathroom floor. We put it down on the living room floor so it can get soft and pliable before we put it in place. Do you believe it has a mind of it's own and "walks" all over the place? :D! I know it sounds strange but it does move whenever we turn on the pump or the generator or if we walk on it -- it scoots on the living room rug.

I don't think I've reported here that I was trying to straighten a corner of the "fireplace" and pulled it off the wall. Thank God the gas heater was not burning. I broke one of the kerosene lanterns in the fray and spilled kerosene on the floor. I had left it off the wall until this past Tuesday night. I was thankful to have a propane bottle with some gas left in it after our summer cook-outs, for I was able to attach a propane heater to the bottle to keep warm - that is until Monday night/Wednesday morning about 2:00a when the little tank ran out of fuel. That morning, my neighbor came by to say hello so I took advantage of his expertise and we put the heater back on the wall and it's operating again.

There's more to say - but it's boring. Maybe later.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

This is Fall




Today, while taking a break outside by the camp-fire ... I heard the sound of the wind in the tops of the trees and noticed that it began to rain leaves! The places I had raked up and cleared completely were soon covered again. I laughed to myself while ruminating and pondered that maybe the leaves falling at this time of the year is why the old timers called this fall. :) Leaves fall. Limbs fall. Man climbs ladder to rake leaves off the roof. Man falls. So this is fall. Oh well. Truly - this is a most spectacular time of the year if one loves the outdoors. It was just right this morning for a camp-fire. Trouble was I wanted to stay close to the fire but cannot get any work done that way. Then around noon it had warmed up to about 68 degrees which was so cozy that I stopped putting up paneling, picked up the guitar and grabbed a root-beer to drink while sitting in the sun and playing a little. What a wonderful day!!! These pictures were made today.