Some times I wonder

The Battle of Mill Springs

The park service maintains this historic mill which gave it's name to a Civil War battle. The Confederate general had established his headquarters in a home on top the hill above the mill on the south side of the Cumberland River. He attacked the Union forces on the north side of the river and lost the battle and his life there. Today Lake Cumberland divides the Mill and headquarters home from the area of the battle. These are some pictures I took of the mill recently.

The Winery

On the way back from Berea we took a side trip to this winery. I had expected some big professional outfit and found it's store ensconced in what used to be the one room wooden Plato Kentucky Post Office. They had bottles of wine displayed in the pigeon holes. They had started growing grapes and making wine to try to save the family farm. It's a tobacco and cattle farm out in the middle of nowhere, and we had the most delightful talk with the young lady that has the winery, and tasted some of their wine. One bottle just tickled me, so we bought it to bring home. They've named it "Prohibition Repeal Red", because it's the first legal alcohol made in that county since Prohibition was repealed. It's a fairly mild, sweet wine and tastes really good. http://www.sinkingvalleywinery.com/

I don't know if this fall will have as many spectacular colors or not. It's been very wet this year, and continues to be drizzly, raining, pouring, overcast, damp, humid and dreary out. I took this picture in the back yard the last sunny day we had. Not being an expert on such things, I do know if it's too dry the leaves just drop instead of giving us great color, but I don't know how it is if it's too wet. In the five falls we've been here, two have been really impressive. The good news is, we're supposed to have a few sunny days this week if the weatherman isn't wrong again.

Courtesy of a Christmas gift certificate from our youngest daughter, the wife and I spent a Friday and Saturday night in an 1820's plantation mansion that's been converted to a Bed and Breakfast. There were over a million and a half dollars spent on renovations to the place. It's part of a property that was originally 6000 acres and the commerce center for 140 years for that area of Kentucky. The current owners have a full golf course there, building sights for sale, are renovating some of the old buildings (store, mill, etc.).

There is the old fireplace from the original summer kitchen behind the house 30 feet or so. Though the kitchen building is no longer there, they've built a beautiful deck with tables and chairs, and Saturday night we enjoyed a roaring fire in the old fireplace while sitting and talking with a couple that are part owners in the property.

The owner was talking about some of the interesting history of the Green family that owned this property until the last descendent passed away a few years ago. In the early days the Greens had slaves, and at the end of the Civil War one of the northern carpetbaggers came through, rounded up their slaves, told them they were now free and they were to come with him to be resettled. The Mr. Green that was the owner at the time, went into the house, came out with a shotgun and killed the carpetbagger. They threw his body into the Rough River to never be seen again. He then told the slaves they were indeed free, could do what they wanted, but he wouldn't tolerate some outsider saying they had to go with him. He told them they were free to go or to stay on the property, and they all stayed. He gave them each an acre of land, a cabin and a cow to do with as they wanted, and hired any of them that wanted to work for him just as they'd done as slaves. The Green family was such an important family to the commerce of the area they even issued their own money that was recognized as legal tender over many surrounding counties.

I carry a gun. Usually when I'm out in public I carry concealed, and around home I have a semi-automatic on my side. It's not that I feel inadequate without a gun, I know full well that against a couple of armed thugs I am inadequate without a gun. Where we live we could not count on less than a half hour response to a 911 call, so I take the responsibility of being the cop on this beat. Yesterday I had to make a run in town for some stuff though, and decided just to leave the gun visable on my side. I was curious about the response I might get, because there are some people just deathly afraid of a gun (though I've never been able to understand that). I was proud of our little town. I went to two different stores, did my shopping, and just watched the other people in the stores for any reaction. There was none. At the check-out line for one store a little old lady was next in line behind me, so had a good view of the holstered gun. She didn't bat an eye. If any discussion on gun laws included the number of crimes that are stopped or prevented in this country each year by an honest person with a gun, maybe a lot of people would look differently about open carry in public. There are areas of this country that would get you arrested just for that, but the greatest deterent to criminals is and has always been an armed citizenry. Oh, the number of crimes that are stopped or prevented each year? About two million.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html

The Old Covered Bridge

I attended a birthday party for my uncle. He lives in Indiana and was celebrating 90 years, and the good news is he's in amazingly good health and could pass for at least 20 years younger than his actual age. As we were wandering back toward my daughter's home I was talking about a little community somewhere in the country near there, and how more than 50 years ago I'd found a covered bridge on a gravel road near that community. My daughter had printed out a map to direct us to the birthday party and looking at the map she found the community I'd mentioned. We turned off the highway onto a county road and with a zig and a zag found the town. Not much there. Just 10 or 12 houses, but we started out due west from there and soon found ourselves on a gravel road. When it wound down into a river valley we came to the covered bridge, not only still standing, but in wonderful repair. It's a double span bridge with a center support mid stream. I believe I'm going to spend some time in that area of the country and try tracing through some of my old stomping grounds.