Trip to the Smokies

We met up with John, Joie, Mark, Maureen and Hailey in Charlotte North Carolina. We went on to the Smokies and met up with Cleon, Carla, Dominique, Alicia and Amanda. We are standing by the highest waterfall in North Carolina 230 feet.

Dominique and John were best buddies because Dominique LOVES his cowboy shirt and boots. As soon as he saw that John was wearing the same thing as him, he latched onto John and asked if they could be buddies. It was very cute.

This is the Billy Graham Library. This place is a wonderful tribute to Billy Graham and the ministry that he has had all over the world.

This picture is where our friends live. They built this house. They also have two beautiful cabins that they rent out to tourists. They sleep eight. I loved their cabins. Ginger decorates the cabins with fresh flowers in season, decorates them for the holidays and makes them very welcoming!

This is an old grist mill in the Smokey Mountains National Park. They still grind corn at certain times of the year. The grinder has been disconnected for the winter.

An old church in Cades Cove. Notice the two entrances...yep, one for the women and one for the men. They couldn't walk into church together. Cades Cove is a valley where people lived until the area became part of the national park service in the 1930's. When the area became a NP, they had to move.

This is in the living room of the house where Billy Graham grew up on their dairy farm. It was a very nice home.

Alicia took this picture of the buddies


On our way back to Charlotte, we got into a terrible rain storm. We were going 15 mph on the freeway and you couldn't see a thing. Tornado warnings were issued around the place where we were. The next morning when we went to the airport, our plane was delayed by at least three hours because of a bad storm in Minnesota. They told everyone who was passing through Minn. to try and find another way home. We ended up going to Atlanta where it started to rain when we arrived and our plane was once again delayed by one hour because of the rain. There was a break in the clouds and the crew was told to "get these people on the plane and out of here while you can." There was tornado warnings outside of Atlanta also. We were glad we were able to get to SLC the same day.

telephone booths, carts, etc

I have had the privilege of going to the Amish country in Ohio 5 times now. I've been enough times that I know where the cheap China shops to avoid are, and I know where the good quality "locally made" shops are. I have enjoyed every trip and find more little shops to go to every time.

These people don't have phones in their homes or businesses, but some of them do have a phone in a phone booth where you can call and leave a message. They will get back with you at their convenience.
This is a telephone booth by some houses

They put up earlage into these corn cribs.

We took a ride in a buggy

We usually eat a meal in an Amish home. This is a fun time to get to meet new people and have DELICIOUS food! I just took a trip with Joie, Sharla and Loretta. We had dinner in an Amish home. She had 27 people that she cooked for that night. She had also made over 600 doughnuts in the early morning for a big bake sale they were having. Once again we had a great time.

Wild Horses

This palamino was in the last bunch to come in and my camera card decided it was full so I didn't get them coming in. There was also a dark grey applousa that was gorgeous.
These are the babies separated out. They didn't get many babies today. I think there are
10 of them.

The helicopters herd them into this fenced off area and a Judas horse leads them into the corrals.

This is the corral where they sort them out and load them onto trucks to take to another sorting area before taking them to Delta.

This was one of the first bunches to come in. They hoped to get 75 horses today and they got 79, so they were all happy.


John, Sharla and I went to look for wild horses about two months ago. We saw 21 that night around Skunk and Conger Springs. I had contacted the BLM because I was concerned about there not being hardly any water at Conger Springs and wondering if they could put a little trough there to catch the drip. In the course of the conversation I was told about this gather they planned to have. John & I, Brad & Cheryl and Sharla spent the day with the BLM folks watching the horses come in and the BLM folks working the horses in the corral. It was amazing and I'm so glad I went. They are going to be corraling horses east of Partoun next week in the Confusion Range.

Here and there

(more on this later)

Hi all,

It isn't that we haven't been doing anything, I just haven't had my camera with me.

The summer went somewhere, but I don't think it went by me! :-)

Josiah is back in school, I am closing year-end at work and John is building a house for a guy up Snake Creek.

Jesse finally went part time on his night job, so now he is only working 12 hours a day instead of 16. He is renting a room from a guy that does what he did. (rents rooms out to other guys in his house) He is trying to sell his house.

Nick is working for a construction company and Tiffany works at a really good bakery sandwich shop.

We received some wonderful news this labor day weekend...We are going to be grandparents! Can't quite picture myself Grandma yet, but it's exciting news.

Well, like I said, since I don't remember June, July or August, here's what's happening so far for September.

Take care and keep posting. I enjoy reading about your happenings.

Anita

This is Mark removing trees to make the road up to Wheeler Peak. This is real horse and man power.

Cement edges around the graves at Garrison cemetery

finished product

camp on the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive (by the Osceola turnoff)

Another shot of the road

I have been going through old pictures to get copies made for the picture wall at EskDale. I am always amazed at how the pioneers worked and the machinery they used to build what we have today.

Hansen Outing

We decided to go camping with our family and Bruce's family. We went to the Aquarius Ranger Station above Loa and rode bikes and 4 wheelers on the Great Western Trail. There was water everywhere!

This is the ranger station. There is a propane cook stove, a wood stove, table, hot water, double bed and a set of bunk beds. My kind of camping.

Jesse built this raft under the condition that Logan would try it out with him. Logan and Josiah had to try the freezing water, and got wet. Nicholas and Tiffany tried to fish but they haven't stocked the lake yet.

We made it! We made it!

It took us 4 hours to go 90 miles. The road is very rough but it is a very pretty drive. There is a ranger station and a ranger who lives out here year around. The wildflowers were fantastic! I took about 15 pictures of just flowers.

This is Lava Falls Rapid. It is the biggest rapid on the Colorado River. If you look real close, there are 6 orange rafts around the falls. Some are getting ready to go through them and a couple have gone through. There is also a trail off to the right for those who get chicken to go through the falls. We talked with a man who had run the river two weeks ago.

3,000 feet straight down!

Mt. Trumball school house. The last day school was held was in 1968. This used to be a valley with 200-250 people living in it. Now the ranches are summer homes for the families. Lack of water and drought forced them to the cities.