SPRING FLOWERS IN TENNESSEE.....

Spring has finally arrived here in Tennessee. The winter wasn't very bad as we didn't have a big snow this year only a couple of dustings. Mother nature is busting out at her seams with the trees putting on their greenry. Our yard is growing much to fast and mowing is a weekly chore. A small veggie garden is prepared for planting of tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce and radishes. We will have our hands full this summer with all that is to do outside.
Yesterday my wife removed her potted plants from their winter home in the basement to the out doors. She pruned and place over 100 plants to their new surroundings on tables and the deck. She is very good with flowers and we are running out of space to put in new flower beds. I'm looking forward to planting some new flower seeds from my online friend in France, thanks again Christine. We exchange some flower seeds last winter.
In and around our house we have some early flowers and plants already in bloom. I hope you will enjoy viewing
the photos.

MY FIRST 1940 FORD ADVENTURE...................

Man, when we are young we do some stupid things. Well. OK, I'm speaking for myself. I had a passion to own and fix up a 1940 Ford Coupe while still in high school. I looked high and low for a car to fit my passion.
A friend while traveling to Chattanooga saw an old 40 for sale at a country store he stopped at in Tracy City and told me how to find the store. My younger brother and I set out to located the store and the 40 Ford for sale. I was driving my 1954 Ford Convertible with the top down. Man, I was one KOOL Dude, but back them we didn't call our self's dudes. Tracy City was located about 45 miles from where I lived and we had to travel up a mountain called Mounteagle. Yes, we got lost and had trouble finding the store but finally succeeded.
There SHE was sitting next to the country store just as I was told. She's a little rough, rusty, no motor but I see a beauty want to be. In the store I ask the man who owns the old 40, he replied, "Son I do." " Sir how much do you want for her?" " I will take $125.00 for her son." I asked him, "Would you take $100 for her, that's all I have." OK, son put your money were your mouth is. Out comes my money and the deal is made. "Sir, I will have to come back next Saturday and pull in home, can I have the title. The title is signed over to me and I'm very excited to have my dream car.
The next Saturday I talk a guy I work with in the summer to go with me and my brother to pull the car back to Tullahoma. He will drive my convertible and pull the 40 back to my house. I borrow a old tow bar that will be hooked to both cars. Since the 40 has no motor or brakes I decide I will ride in it on the way back. We hook up the tow bar to both bumpers and with a chain and some bailing wire the tow bar is now SAFE????????? The tires are aired up good at the stores pumps.
Time to hit the road! Man, this 40 rides good I'm thinking to my self. What an idiot I am, riding in a car with no BRAKES hooked bumper to bumper with an old tow bar, bailing wire and chains getting ready to go down a steep mountain grade. Hang ON!!
Things are going well so far, we stop and check out the hook up. Looks Ok!! Now it's on our final descend of about 4 miles and we will be off the mountain. We are into the last curve about 200 feet from the bottom when the tow bar, chain and baling wire breaks and I'm in for the ride of my LIFE. I Pass the car pulling me, No BRAKES but the old car has steering. I'm in the wrong lane as I pass him and another car is approaching me, Harold slows the convertible down and this allows me to get back in the right lane and miss the car coming at me. After the car approaching me clears the 40, Harold speeds up and gets in front of me and begins to back his speed down so I will hit bumper to bumper and this brings both cars to a stop finally. We finally make the trip home in one piece and I have thanked the LORD many times that it wasn't my time to die. Man, as I look back I sure was lucky that the car didn't come lose higher up on the mountain.
The old 40 was fixed up and made a great car and when I married I later sold It to my brother who kept it for several years.

BIRTHDAY BALLOONS FLIGHT...

 

My daughter's boyfriend has a 12 year old son who had an event happen to him that is very interesting to me. Derrick had just celebrated his 12th birthday and among his gifts were 3 of those brightly color balloons with Happy Birthday written on them.
After a few days the balloons would not stay suspended to the ceiling as they begin to lose their helium gas. Derrick had a great idea. He tied the 3 balloons together and wrote a note with his name and telephone number included. "To anyone who finds these balloons please call me." He placed the note in a zip lock bag and secured it to the balloons. The weather at his home near Lynchburg, Tennessee was stormy. Derrick asked his dad how far do you think these balloons will travel?? His dad replied, they want made it far, I think they will get hung up in one of the trees in the yard.
Outside, Derrick launched his balloons into the wind gales and sure enough the balloons became tangled in a tree near the house. Was his dad right? They returned inside and forgot all about the balloons until the next day. Derrick, noticed that the balloons weren't in the tree the next morning. He forgot about the balloons in the following days. On the fourth day since he freed the balloons he was amazed to receive a phone call from a lady in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She had found the remains of his balloons and note while going to feed her dogs in the pen. The balloons had finally touch down from their flight across 453 miles. The 453 miles was estimated by Derrick's dad who is an over the road truck driver.
I'm sure Derrick will remember his 12th birthday and the trip his balloons traveled.

FEARS...

Everyone has a fear of something in life. You say you don't but deep down we all have a fear or phobia. In my early childhood, I was afraid of storms. Mother had a fear of storms and would gather me and my siblings and tells us to lie on the bed until the storm passed. Mother never conquered her fear of storms. I outgrew my early fear of storms but to this day when it gets stormy I instantly think of mother.
They say confessions are good for the soul so I will confess to what fears me. SNAKES, I am totally scared of Snakes!! I was once bitten by a snake when I was 12 years old. I had been blackberry picking and something bite my leg. My leg began to swell and when I got home my uncle told mother we had better get him to the doctor. They never knew what kind of snake nailed my leg but I was sick for several days. Yes, Snakes scare the crap out of me!!!!
In our area of Tennessee we have several species of poison SNAKES. The rattleSNAKE, copperhead and the cottonmouth. Heck I don't care if they are poison or not, if it's a SNAKE, I'm running the opposite way in high gear. Once fishing, the fish were jumping on the other side of the creek. To get across there were several stones in the shallow water that you could step on and reach the other side without getting wet. On the last stone you needed to jump about 4 feet to hit the ground. While in the air, I'm thinking SNAKE. SURE enough I landed on a BIG BLACK SNAKE coiled up . Retreated back across the creek and missed all the stones.
Here at home when I see a SNAKE, I get the hoe and call my wife to kill it. The hoe doesn't have a long enough handle for me to kill that SNAKE.
I would like to hear what you are feared of. Might be fun.

WALLY GATOR......

Several years ago there was a rumor in our area, here in Tennessee,that an alligator had been seen by several fishermen at a small lake called Bedford Lake. Bedford lake is located near Shelbyville and is run by the Tennessee Wildlife Agency. It has a caretaker on duty to sell daily fishing permits, bait and small boat rentals. No outboard motors are allowed on this lake. The lake is spring fed and is set in a peaceful valley.
A friend of mine, Jerry Moore, verified the story that indeed an alligator did live in the lake. Jerry was a regular fishermen at the lake and asked the caretaker, " Is the story about the alligator just a myth?" " No replied the caretaker he's for real, I have seen him many times." Alligators aren't supposed to live in our climate. The lake has several under water caves and the gator would spend the winter in one of these caves. Does the Wildlife Agency know about the gator? "Yes, they know."
Several weeks later Jerry sees the gator for his first time. WALLY GATOR, that's what fishermen named him, lying on the dam sunning himself. News of Wally Gator was in the local newspapers and on TV. He became a local celebrity. Not the kind of fame old Wally wanted.
Many weeks later on another fishing outing the caretaker tells Jerry. "WALLY GATOR is no longer with us." Well what happen to Wally, Jerry asked?
Several dogs in and around the lake came up missing. One day a man brought his black lab to the lake. He would throw a stick out into the lake and his lab would retrieve the stick and bring it back to his master. On one of the tries the lab doesn't make it back, WALLY GATOR got him!! WALLY is now in deep trouble. The Wildlife Agency hires an alligator hunter from Florida to trap WALLY and return him to Florida. The hunter is not successful in his mission and gives up without trapping old WALLY. Round one belongs to WALLY!
Next the Wildlife Agency send a team of their people to the lake with orders to shoot to kill! This time Wally loses his battle! All that remains are stories about WALLY GATOR by the fishermen who came eyeball to eyeball with WALLY.
People said WALLY was between 10 feet and 12 feet long but Jerry said he was only between 7 feet and 8 feet long. How did WALLY get in the lake. Most people in the know thinks someone had a small pet gator and it got to big for them so they put him in the lake.