Trip to Tennessee

[Tom]

Deadheader called me and wanted to know if I wanted to ride to Tennessee with him.  I said "sure".

Of course I had to check to make sure I wasn't too busy    so I looked out the front door and there was no one standing around the mill.  I gave a quick cursory glance around the house and found that the wife was still in Indiana and I was alone.   Yep!  I could go. 

Harold showed up at my doorstep about 5pm Sunday, after sawing some cedar in Sebastian.   I was ready.  We climbed into his 1 ton Dodge extended cab and lit out for the mountains.

Rather than take I-10 to I-75, we went north on US-1 to Waycross, Georgia, where we partook of a bountiful supper in one of South Georgia's "low-cholesterol" Buffets.   

With our senior citizen's discount, for $5.20 each we ate creamed corn, fried chicken, beans, hoppin' John and battered, deep-fried, white bacon until we could hardly walk.  They never make the plates big enough in those places and we had to go back for seconds.  I don't know how Harold made it back to the table with his first plate.  It was covered from edge to edge and heaped high with a chicken breast topping it off.

I went to the dessert counter for some ice-cream and found a big tray of home-made banana pudding topped with 3 inches of meringue.  It was wonderful and I'm glad that I didn't eat the dessert first or I would have eaten the whole tub of the stuff.  

Harold picked up the tab for the meal and informed me that he had invited me so that he could have company and the room and board was to be on him.  It was too.  He picked up my whole tab and I, trying not to be a free-loader, supplied the tips.  Pretty good deal, eh?

We traveled to Tennessee, arriving about 1 AM , got a room, and slept till about 7.   A big breakfast of eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, biscuits, coffee and Grits got us on the right track and into the mountains.  We were following instructions I had printed from MapQuest to get us to Dismal.

The roads, which had been 6 and 8 lane super hi ways, diminished in width until we were winding our way along the Liberty To Dismal Road, which was a single lane asphalt trail that ended, with only one retracing, at Woodbeard's house.  Harold had come to buy his Peterson Sawmill.

After offering us a cup of coffee and something to eat, which we graciously declined    , he lead us to his neighbor's house where the Peterson Swing Mill was set up.

Here he is, in his Toyota pickup, with us following
him down the Liberty to Dismal Hi way.

We arrived at his neighbor's place and he and Harold spent a good bit of time discussing the operation of the saw and sawing one of the many Sassafras logs that he had on the ramp.  Being a Florida boy, I had never seen Sassafras that large before.  The size of the logs and the over-powering smell was almost more than I could take.


Woodbeard(George) and Fla._Deadheadr(Harold)
standing at Woodbeard's Mill site in Dismal Tennessee.

As some of you know, I am having some mobility problems.  As a matter of fact, I have become downright useless.  I asked George if he had many snakes around the site because I was going to sit down on a slab pile.  He assured me that there were plenty of snakes and  his eyes quickly roamed the area for a place to sit me down.  Brightening a bit he jumped and ran up the  hill toward the house and returned with a short metal stool.  It even had a back!   He offered it to me and I promptly placed it beside the slab pile and out of the way of he and Harold.  After all, I was a spectator today.  It's sure nice when young fellow like that takes the bull by the horns and looks out for you .....and keeps a big smile on his face too.  I like George.


There began to be a lot of serious sawmill
talk about swing mills.



While George and Harold  were discussing the mill, along comes a pickup truck towing a livestock trailer.  It looked like a horse trailer to me, but Lewis hauls mostly cattle in it.  Lewis is a friend of George's who lives a little further down the road.  The Sassafras logs are his and he is getting 2x(wide) cut from it to floor the trailer.



After speaking with Harold and George, Lewis walked
to where I was seated, introduced himself, sat down on
one of the slab piles and we had a good visit.  

I learned of his logs and some about George.   We mostly talked of the mountains and the creeks ("we call them branches", he said). 

I learned of his early years, his "going with" and marrying his wife, who was "from these parts".   It seems that Lewis' home ground was a little ways away.   He moved himself to Dismal to be married and they bought a little piece of ground to make a living on.   

He offered to me to look at a log barn he had at his place that they had built another barn around.  The weather was so bad that I wasn't able to do it, but, I sure would like to make another trip back and visit with him some more.  I could see the barn then.   I liked Lewis.


As a lightning storm came upon us, the skies darkened and the rain came down and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure dashing across the side of the mountain.  Quickly I raised my camera and was lucky to get this one, single shot of what I think is Big Foot.   The storm got so bad that we all went and got in our trucks, and I don't think the others saw it.  Don't tell anybody of this because they may think I'm crazy.


In a little garden beside the driveway was this Castor Bean plant.  



Castor Beans were banned in S. Florida and the State made every effort to eradicate them.  In Tenn. you find a few of the plants cultivated in many of the home-sites.  They must have a use for them, but, we couldn't find what it was.   

Castor Bean is the plant from which Castor Oil, the purgative, is derived.  The seeds, I've been told, are terribly poison.   But, perhaps the oil is still extracted as a home remedy by those who know how.  Personally, having ingested copious amounts of the stuff as a young child, I hope to never allow a drop of it to pass between my lips for the rest of my days.

George and Harold completed their transactions and we were back on the road about 5 o'clock.  Since I had seen some good stands of Kudzu, I wanted to take a picture so that some of you could see how this plant covers the landscape.  The areas that would have made the best pictures were in places where we couldn't stop.  I took this first picture  through the windshield of the truck.



Harold then found a place where we could pull over and get a picture of some more.  It's not very representative because usually the stuff is growing as far as you can see.  You can get an idea of what it does to trees, power poles and anything else in its way though.   It is reported to grow as much as a 3 feet a day.


We saw quite a bit of Paulownia alongside the road too.  I wanted to get a picture of Harold standing beneath one of the Umbrella sized leaves,but, alas, we weren't able to find a pull-over spot in the neighborhood of any of the trees we saw.  Perhaps on another trip.

Stopping at a Shoney's in Georgia we filled our stomachs with catfish, chicken, some good vegetables, including some niblet corn that seemed to have been fried in butter and sweetened and topped it all off with a plate full of canned pears, pineapple and peaches.

We left I-75 in Valdosta and I directed Harold to Ga-94.  We traveled on it across the bottom of the Okeefenokee swamp to miss the traffic on the major roads.  This road is known to us as "going through the woods". 

Arriving at my house at 2 AM we were only about 5 minutes gettin to bed.  Awakening at about 7 this morning, both still tired and after a light breakfast, Harold took off for Sebastian.  I'm sure he has arrived by now but because of his moving, has no computer.  Perhaps he will have something to say later when they get Teri's computer hooked up again.

I had a good time and sure am glad that I was asked to "come along".

[Buzz-sawyer]

Great story Tom, Reminds me of my recent adventured in Tenn.with J_T

[moosehunter]

Sounds like a great trip Tom. You could sell that pic of Big Foot to the National Inquirer!

[GF]

Thanks for the story and pictures, sounds like you all had a great time.

[DonE911]

Sounds like a great road trip!!!  Now had I known I woulda met ya'll.  It'd be good to see some FL fella's again.

[tnlogger]

Wal i'll be you came within a few miles of me  ifan i'd known i'd a meet ya all. Did you go up 24 or rt 111
good looking mill and a great story there Tom 

[Ga_Boy]

Tom,

I enjoyed the story thanks for posting it.


Harold,

Enjoy that swinger!




Mark

[Furby]

 

[DanG]

Well I'll be DanG! (actually, I am DanG, but that's beside the point)  Harold done went and got him a mill to whittle up them toothpicks Fred has been hootin' about.  That woulda been a fun trip to be on!  I done been on a trip with Tom and Harold, and I can tell ya, it's a HOOT!  Tom, Y'all shoulda took ol' George back to that buffet with ya(I know ya stopped on tha way back ) 'cause he looks like he coulda used it.  If ya go back to visit with Lewis, take me with ya, eh?

[Dakota]

Great storyTom.  It's very interesting to see the plants from your area.

[Part_Timer]

sounds like you had a great time Tom.  I just love the smell of Sassafras. 

Way to go FDH enjoy that swinger

[Brucer]

Castor Bean is the plant from which Castor Oil, the purgative, is derived.  The seeds, I've been told, are terribly poison.   But, perhaps the oil is still extracted as a home remedy by those who know how.  Personally, having ingested copious amounts of the stuff as a young child, I hope to never allow a drop of it to pass between my lips for the rest of my days.

Castor oil was one of the earliest engine lubricants, used extensively in automobile and aircraft engines. Castrol (tm) motor oils were first made from (you guessed it) castor oil. It's also used in dyes and inks, plastics, perfumes, and hydraulic fluids. And as you mention, it's famous as a purgative .

The shells of the seeds contain Ricin, a deadly poison. One hopes that the folks that use the plant medicinally know exactly what they're doing when they process it.

[Don P]

Sounds like y'all had a fun trip. The picture of the castor bean plant brought back one of my grandmother's tales about my father.
 When he was little, he had a runny nose one day and spied the castor beans and decided to "put a cork in it" by shoving a castor bean in each nostril. You can tell by looking at the plant that its one that doesn't need a whole lot of encouragement to grow. Yup, within hours the beans had swelled beyond any home removal and even in those tight times, a trip to the doc was necessary. I think I heard her remind him of that event at least a dozen times while I was growing up...I didn't mind cause she usually brought it up right after I'd done something similarly intelligent  . Come to think of it, mighta heard it a few dozen times  .
The kudzu over here is in bloom, did you all catch that grape nehi smell on the breeze?

[DextorDee]

That is way kool ,I enjoyed the story and the pics

[woodbeard]

Tom, it was a very pleasant surprise to meet you, and Harold, too, but I knew he was coming.
My computer is dead, and I haven't got a new one, yet, so I am over at my friend's house, who just told me that folks grow the castor plants because they deter moles. They are known locally as "mole bush"
Now, I wonder what they use for woodchucks?

Harold, take good care of that mill, I'm gonna miss her. Didn't really hit me 'till I saw y'all heading off down the road. Kinda got a little sad Wasn't really expecting that. But it feels good knowing that the mill is off to new adventures, with a new friend.

[Tom]

Mole Bush!

Don't anybody tell Charlie or he'll have the whole state of Wisconsin planted in the stuff.

What a pretty place you have picked to live, George.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Bein as how TOM, has blown my cover, let me tell y'all that the man is one good guy. WE had a ball and with all the lyin goin on, the trip went real fast.    I truly enjoy Tom's company, along with DanG's as some of the other daredevil drivers that I have encoumtered along the way.

  Seein as how the computer was bein modernized, and I was gonna be offline for 3 days, I had this story all conjured up of how I stayed busy, day and night, for 3 days , and finished my HomeSwinger. Some fuzzy pics wooda got a billion questions from the Forum members. 

[GareyD]

some of the other daredevil drivers that I have encoumtered along the way.

Hey...I think I resemble that remark

Glad ya got ya one o' them swingers

[Fla._Deadheader]

 

[CHARLIE]

As some of you know, I am having some mobility problems.  As a matter of fact, I have become downright useless.  I asked George if he had many snakes around the site because I was going to sit down on a slab pile.  He assured me that there were plenty of snakes and  his eyes quickly roamed the area for a place to sit me down.  Brightening a bit he jumped and ran up the  hill toward the house and returned with a short metal stool.  It even had a back!   He offered it to me and I promptly placed it beside the slab pile and out of the way of he and Harold. 

After speaking with Harold and George, Lewis walked
to where I was seated, introduced himself, sat down on
one of the slab piles and we had a good visit.  

Ain't it interesting that Tom was real worried about snakes in that slab pile and Lewis just walked over and sat down on the slab pile. No fuss, no muss.  While George was being real nice to Tom he was probably thinking, "What a weanie he is! Skeert of a few snakes." 

[Tom]

Charlie,

Those folks back in the hills take snakes to church.   They figure that you won't get bit if you are pure of heart.

I shoot snakes.  My fear is that the word would get around. 

[woodbeard]

I was actually more worried about my meticulously stacked slabs becoming disshevelled. Then the pile would look like the rest of the yard, and I wouldn't know where to put anything!
I found a clutch of 16 or so snake eggs in the sawdust pile a few months ago. Tried to relocate them, but they didn't make it Most likely rat snakes, though.
I wish we'd had a little more time to set and talk, but I really did enjoy the time we had.
Yes, Dismal is a rather lovely place. I do believe it was named in February, though.

Here's an early morning from our bedroom window:



I'm glad the kudzu hasn't reached us yet, and I hope it never does. It was originally imported for erosion control, as a cover crop, right? They later imported a beetle to control it, but that beetle is now known as the pine bark beetle.  Now, stands of dead pine are becoming as common as kudzu jungles. So what did they bring over to eat the bark beetles? Yep... asian nine spotted beetles. 
That bigfoot character is a bit of a pest- he keeps borrowing my shoes and wearing them out. Says he can't find 'em in size 14 anywhere else.

[leweee]

That bigfoot character is a bit of a pest- he keeps borrowing my shoes and wearing them out. Says he can't find 'em in size 14 anywhere else.

George.... If you didn't have so much turned under for feet you would be a lot taller.