The Hurricane at The Sticks, Tennessee

It is hard to believe that Hurricane Harvey traveled all the way to Tennessee... and beyond.

As it approached local weathermen had no idea what would happen.  Their rainfall predictions were 2 to 10 inches.  Seriously?  

We did what was needed in case it "was" 10 inches with high wind (making sure the downspout extenders were in place, putting away outdoor items, etc).  Then we waited.

After some on and off rain all day Thursday, it finally hit around 11pm.  

It poured.  It was like there were more raindrops falling than should be...could be.

It didn't take long for it to be sheeting down the road, driveway, and our hill.

 It rained and it blew all night long.  Next morning the wind had died back even tho it was still raining.  We decided after our morning cuppa (yes!  We still had power!!) that we would drive around the area and see what happened.

First we cleared small branches out of our driveway and drove carefully over the new 'ditch' across the drive (you can see it forming in the above photo on the left side).  But there was nothing major amiss.

We didn't go far before we came to this washed over area.  Himself moved the branches so we and others could pass through.

Went around this fallen tree...

...but this one turned us around!

Here the river overflowed and pressed down this entire field.  You can see the river back in its banks on the upper right.

Upstream was a MESS!  Look at how the river scoured the side of the bridge!

It was worse on the other side!  Wash out!!  It's going to take quite some work to fix the road here.

Closer to the Cumberland River, the water flowed across from a field into a park.  We stopped here and watched this truck cross to see what the depth was.  As you can see, it was just at his hub caps and not moving fast at all.

Although it LOOKED more impressive than it was.

Where it wasn't muddy from the field, this is what it really looked like.

When the rain finally stopped, we did an 'official Harvey reading' from our rain gauge.

The total of the entire storm here at The Sticks was 8.75 inches in about 30 hours.

If you are looking for an excellent charity to give thru for hurricane relief in Texas, I would suggest Samaritan's Purse  ( https://www.samaritanspurse.org/ )

Sharing Autumn

Tennessee is in a drought so our fall colors are very dull this year.  But there are still beautiful views to see as we go out for our little drives.

Autumn Drive

This first week of October has been super busy, but in the very best way.  We are getting a lot done here at The Sticks.  My KonMari decluttering continues (more on that very soon) and is still going amazingly well.  I have all sorts of fun classes lined up.  With the weather cooling yard projects are resuming.  And we are getting ready to do a makeover of our living room.

Needless to say, I haven't been on the computer much.  

The other day we went for a drive just to get out for a bit and found out it's fall y'all!

Have no idea what they are.

It looks like Larkspur but I thought it is a bit late for it.

It's a bit dry and the rivers are moving slowly.

The earlier wet weather has made the Johnson Grass grow huge and beautiful.  Did you see the little spider?

The smoke barns are going full blast.

Don't know what this is either.  It's not Dogwood.

Now this one I know!  Goldenrod.

And I know this one all too well...

...cockle burrs!!!

Teri's Tours and B&B

Recently we had the pleasure of having Himself's oldest brother (Bro 1) come to The Sticks for a nice long visit.  It's been 11 years since they have seen each other and we wanted to show him a good time while he visited.  Like me, he loves seeing new things and learning.

Well alrighty then!

We did a 'hypertufa' plant pot class (more on that in another post).  Bro 1 made 2 nice pots that I will ship up to him once they have cured.

And Himself arranged a black smith lesson with one of his friends from the Possum Trot Forge.

He also enjoys history so we visited the Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederacy) Monument.

See them right above the word "Jefferson"?

Plus we did another Confederate stop at Ft. Defiance in Clarksville.  The city has a very nice museum and grounds that are free to visit.

We all like genealogy so we visited Greenwood cemetery in Clarksville.

Bro 1 has a degree in horticulture, all things 'plant' interest him.  That was an easy to accommodate!

One of our excursions was out to the Amish produce auction and around to various farm stands.

My favorite farm stand was prepping onions for storage.

A look around a nice garden center.

Checking out burley tobacco in a friend's field.

"If you build it...they will come..."

(Field of Dreams)

In a friend's black bamboo grove.

He also has a taste for good chocolate, so we did a factory tour at Olive & Sinclair artisan chocolate makers.

Enjoying an appetizer of tahdig (crispy rice) at our favorite Persian restaurant.  I also had a blast cooking favorite recipes... Beef Stroganoff, black beans & rice, Chicken Rolade, and Rosemary Thyme marinated steaks.

And of course there was a lot of just sitting on the couch visiting, looking at family photos, and sharing of our home.  It was a great visit and we're looking forward to him coming back.

But alas...there were two things that Northerner did not like about The South:

The insane humidity.

CHIGGERS!!

A Tale of a Tail...

Well... she finally managed her revenge...

Eliza Doolittle, our Garman GPS (so named because we have the English accent turned on AND for reason you'll soon understand) has gotten her 'evens' for all the times she has had to "recalculate".

I had a route programmed in after we left the Blue Ridge Parkway that would take us down the Great Smoky Mountain Expressway for a bit, then turn off to head over to Tellico Plains, TN so we could enjoy a BIT of curvy mountain roads.

And as you saw from Sunday and Monday's photos, the drive was beautiful.

But then we started seeing signs like this...

...and this...

I was really getting confused because I didn't remember the curvy roads I planned for being THIS curvy.

And then I saw it...

We were on The Dragon!!

And the only way out was to go right on down "The Tail of the Dragon".  

That stupid GPS reprogrammed itself.  Really!  When I checked the route, it was a new one over the one I had put in.

Oh. My. Goodness.

The Dragon...

Yes, it is that bad!

Which is why it is THE hot spot drive for motorcycle and sports car nuts.  In those 11 miles there are no intersecting roads or driveways.  We're talking Bucket List sort of drive folks.  And it wasn't on MY bucket list...

The Dragon gets someone every single weekend... sometimes the 'bite' is little and sometimes the bite is fatal.

Yes, it's that bad.

Don't believe me?  Here's a few photos from other sources.

Curves and hills and lumps and wiggles.  However, the tarmac is as close to perfect as I've seen on a roadway.

This is a 'curve'.

Car clubs come every weekend for an outing.  One guy said he'd seen 44 Ferrari in one day.

Plus every sort of motorcycle known to mankind... too many driven by questionable riders...

Uh-huh.

(Killboy dot com is a photo company that sets up on the pull outs and shots photos that you can purchase from their web site.  Unfortunately we went along about 20 minutes after they quit or I would have had a photo of us.  They also are often the ones who call 911 and are the first responders to the accidents.  It takes 40 minutes to an hour for medical response to get to the accidents.)

The dude only broke his arm.

Serious question here.  WHY do motorcyclists ride the center line??  There is absolutely no margin for error... as the above shows.

This one broke a few more things, but survived.

Now here is the unbelievable part.  This road was open to semi trucks until Jan 2016.  That is insane!

So I guess I can write in on my Bucket List "drive The Dragon", and check it off at the same time.  Then I'll head over to the "Tail of the Dragon" web site and order my T shirt!

Been there...done that!