Spring is around the corner

Friday morning I woke to the sound of my neighbor preparing for his garden this summer.

This morning we all woke to 1 hour less sleep.

Why don't they just change it and leave it alone?

(Do I sound a little grouchy?

I prepared this post on Friday, but Sunday morning I might be grouchy.)

Settlers Museum of Southwest Virginia

Some more photographs first in color original, then sepia and then black and white. These were also taken in the barn area of Settlers Museum of Southwest Virginia.

Barn at Tipton Place in Cades Cove

I always have to stop at this barn when I am in Cades Cove. When I was 18 years old and visiting Cades Cove for the first time I stepped up on a ladder in this barn. When I stepped down I stepped on a nail. Got a tetanus booster shot because of it. Several years later I also worked with a decendant of this family. I can never go to Cades Cove without thinking fondly of C.O. Tipton, we called him Tip. He has been retired for many years now, boy, the stories he could tell. He was a real story teller, he captured everybody's attention when he started with one of his great stories. Last time I heard, his health was failing, and I keep meaning to go see him. I called him on his birthday a couple of years ago, and he was shocked I knew it was his birthday.

I also had a real hard time waiting here for a shot without people, but it was worth it for me.

Cable Mill Area of Cades Cove

Random photographs taken in the Cable Mill Area of Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This is the actual mill where they still ground the corn to make meal. You can purchase the meal right there. It is very hard to get a photograph without people in it, especially this time of year. That goes for all of these photos, I just had to wait at ready and snapped the instant it was clear of people.

This last photo is a close up (me? a close up?) of the holes in one of the out buildings in the Cable Mill area. It is the building where I took the photographs of the Copperheads earlier in the year. Click here and here for the 2 post of the Copperheads.

Cable Mill area in Cades Cove

The Cable Mill area is the largest home place in Cades Cove. The corn meal is here, which I showed with the Copperheads photos, and am not showing with this post.I have always liked this barn, it is real hard to capture a photograph of it without people. (This area is the most crowded on the loop road in Cades Cove due to the restroom facilities, and there is quite a bit here to see.)
They still demonstrate the Sorghum mill here in the fall, but I have never been there when they were using it.

Just another structure in the area.

These are the last of the Labor Day trip to Cades Cove. I think this is a record for me. I have gone through all the photos, they are posted and filed away for later. Now I need to start going back to June's St Pete trip (going again in October) and the July 4th Perry's Water Lilies trip. I just decided to tackle Cades Cove immediately. Hope everybody has enjoyed this trip through this wonderful cove, which is a very small portion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Maybe it will inspire a trip in this direction. Remember the Smokeys (as us locals call it) is the only national park with no entrance fee, and it is the most visited park.

Laurel Valley Community Church

This church in is Southwest Virginia. I wandered across it while traveling the back roads looking for birds, butterflies, and flowers to photograph.

This is the most unusual outhouse I have ever seen. It has a door at each end, and each end is a "2 holer". The doors were not marked as male or female, but maybe the church members know which are which. The farm equipment was also in the church yard.

I did turn these photographs to Sepia using Picasa. I still have not loaded the Photoshop Elements I bought 3 months ago, but thought I would try this.

Days Gone By

We were invited to a neighbor's house for me to take photos of his farm.He still has his old tractor in the barn.

And actually turns the crank several turns every Monday morning.

Although he has not started it in several years. He said it has been in his family 65 years.

I just wandered around and took photos.

The clothes line is my favorite.

Thank you James Snodderly for an enjoyable afternoon.

Be watching for the post of him feeding his cattle.