Garden: Worked in the garden changing up the trellises.  Set them straight up and down for the beans, blue lake string beans and Florida butterbeans.  Also moved the bottom rungs up to 1 foot or so above them and added string rungs between the wooden ones.  Also set them slightly to the east of the rows, since the beans lean toward the south mostly and east some.  Turned over the clover and weeds in the tomato patch, so that should help provide nitrogen.  Restaked the cherry tomatoes--they are above head high already--and ate the first one--orange, but good.  Also got a few roma beans, but didn't want to pick more since I was knocking off too many blossoms.  Lettuce and kale need turning under, but that will have to wait until after we return from vacation on July 7.  Garlic is getting pretty low and I could dig it before we go, but I think it will last ok until we get back and I'll do it then.  Bradley and patio tomatoes have lots of green ones as do the grape.  We'll be gone when this stuff starts to ripen.  Hope it works out ok.  If not, oh well.

Went out to Percy Priest and got a load of flat rocks for Mommy's retainer wall at the Sunnymeade place.  Washed them and left them on the patio out front.  If someone is goofy enough to steal them, fine.  It would be almost as easy to find new ones as to move those somewhere until we get back.

Trellis	Down the rows	Basil
Sherry's rock garden	Sherry's big garden	Pretty flowers by the walk
Blue Lake String and Florida Butter	Beets	Bradleys
Sweet 100's, Cherry	Garlic	Grape
Last of the lettuce	Roma bush beans	What?  Miscounted!

 

We left around 11am to go to Erwin, Tennessee, for a family outing.   Travis and James got in late Friday night and stayed with Hanley.  We stayed in a cabin at the river camp.  I fished hard from around 5-7 but didn't get any satisfaction.  Water was a little high.  Fished both fly rods and the spinning rod.

Saturday I fished early for a couple of hours and then went to wake Sherry up for breakfast.  Still no luck. Went back and fished some more while the kids were getting organized for the river trip, but caught only a very small bass.  On the trip Hanley rowed a two person raft so I could fish (I used a brown rooster tail the whole time).  The rest were on inflatable kayaks.  I was proud of Sherry.  She didn't dump once and only got stuck on rocks a few times.  Travis took a tumble but came out OK.  Later we ate at Hanley's house.  It was his birthday party (one day early).

Sherry comes triumphantly through the "Jaws Of Death."	Travis almost made it, but had to swim a little.  Only lost one shoe which I managed to snag as it floated by.
Mike and McKinsey.  Nice time for a nap.  Natasha coming up fast in the background.	Travis and James at the elegant luncheon  provided by Madame Sherry.
Richard and Hanley in the hospital ship.	Sherry plays a very low and childish trick.

Garden: Sunday when we got home I made trellises for the butter beans I had planted.  They are "Florida Lima Beans, a climbing viariety.  They were already up.  We have had a lot of rain.  I've also planted amaranth where the spinich was.  When we get back from the trip I'll need to restake a lot of stuff and catch up on the weeds.  I'll get some photos of all this later.

Got up to Happy Hollow Saturday around 12pm and lot was full.  However, few people fishing upstream except at run 2. Went up to run 3 and fished wooly boogers and princes.  Has one fish on on a prince, but none in the boat. Used the 5 rod for wet and the 3 for dry (black ant).  Around 4 drifted down and hooked a large one at bottom of run 2 but got off and lost my last wooly booger.  Below run 1 began to see action on surface and caught 5 in just 15 minutes or so.  Could have stayed home until 4 and fished 30 minutes and quit.  Ah, well.  Fishing is not always catching and it was really pretty up there.  Sunday I helped Sherry with the Sunnymeade house.  Started facing her retainer wall with rock.  Need more.

Garden: Planted three runners from the plum tomatoes and cleaned up and staked tomatoes.  Picked the last big run of peas Sunday.  Monday I cleaned out the peas and cut the weeds.  Tuesday I turned under the peas and clover and planted two rows of blue lake stringless pole beans and estended the lattice to about 7 feet high.  Hot work. Next will be butterbeans and black eyed peas.  Hope this works.  We are still getting some lettuce and the basil is big enough to eat.  Some green tomatoes showing up.  Lots of staking needs reinforcement.  More to do before we get off on vacation.  Probably everything will come in just as we leave.  That's the rule.

Saturday I went fishing at the Caney Fork.  No generation from 8am to 2pm and then only one
generator.  Caught a couple at the 3rd run and then went up the the 4th run because a couple of
rednecks with corn parked at the head of the run and started pulling them out one after the other.
This was irritating and rather than confront them I moved.  Up at run 4 I has not much going until
after a couple hours and then scored three at the input using 1/16th brown rooster tail.  Floated on
down with the rise and caught a few on the way.  Kept three nice fat 12-14" and have them on ice.

Sunday Sherry wanted to go canoeing and she called Harriet.  Harriet and Andrew went with us and
we had a very nice time getting on the water around 11:30 and out around 2:30.  Andrew is all grown
up and seems to like college.  Saw a few nice birds, but not really that much on this lower section of
the river.  Much better wildlife viewing from Flat Woods.  Here are a few photos.

Here we are at our last shore stop.  Little did we know it was just before the end.  The best rapid on the river was just before the take out. The ledge of the bridge before the take out was  packed with swallow nests, looking like minature hornet nests.	Here are the Lollers.  Sherry is, as usual, very photogenic and I am in the photo too.  The last bridge reminded Harriet of an episode way back when the Sherrif and all his deputies were lining the bridge pointing shotguns down at canoers.  A couple of other guys had done something bad.
Well, I asked them to take a second photo, but evidently it was too big a struggle for Harriet.  She told us a dream about a cult she was going to join, but turned out the women had to wear red and  white gingham dresses, so she passed.  I tagged this photo "smileh.jpg."	Sherry still perfect and I'm a little better.  Need to get some tooth whitener.  I'd do it on the  photo shop, but too lazy.  All in all a good day on the old Buffalo River.

Monday, May 31, was Memorial Day so I tried Caney Fork again.  Kid catching fish on a rooster tail when I got to run 3 in the narrow upper part.  I caught only two a bit below him.  Both on a rooster tail.  When he left I tried the run, but fish had quit.  Went up to run 4 and caught four more.  Water was dingy from rain and seemed to put the trout off.  Hot day and slow fishing.

Tuesday morning Sherry heard the wrens in the plant next to the front door were raising hell and looked out and they were dive bombing ANOTHER black cat!  This is the third one.  I saw it later and it's another tom.  She went out in her night gown and ran it off.  The baby birds are gone.  Sherry said she found one in the monkey grass that wasn't doing very well flying.  Anyhow, they are finally gone and I hope they find another place to nest next time.

Garden:  We have gotten so many snow peas that Sherry said to let them get full peas before picking.
Did that and the peas are really good.  They won't go much longer and I'm not sure what to plant in
their place.  Beans? or more tomatoes?  Spinich is gone, need to pull it up.  The lettuce is still good for
a week or so.  Really like the swiss chard.  Steamed like beet greens.  Sherry also puts walnuts in it.
Forgot to plant okra until last weekend, but soaked the seeds first and they were starting to sprout when
I planted them (sunday or monday?).  So now they are about three inches high and I will transplant some
and cull others.  Garlic is putting out the heads and look like slim goose necks.  More later.

Tuesday afternoon I pulled the spinich and planted amaranth, which is supposed to taste like nutty spinich and be tolerant of hot weather.  We will see.  I'm going to pull the lettuce this weekend and maybe the peas, since they won't last much longer.  What to replace all this with?  Don't know.
 
 

Since I've been having little luck with crappie at Fall Creek I was happy to find that there would be no generation on the Caney Fork from 8am-2pm Saturday.  Got a late start and fished from 12:30 to 3, when the water begin to reach Happy Hollow.  One of the big reasons for trying the CF was to give me new 4 piece fly rod a go.  It was great.  Rain hit just as I got to run 3.  It was hard but passed over.  Caught 6 nice ones at run 3 upstream.  Got home in time to do some garden work and watch the dark come down.  Saw the wood ducks come in and the female popped into the hole, so maybe we will see some babies before long.  The wrens have hatched on the porch in the flower pot and so far the cat hasn't caught on.

Big news for Thursday night was the catching of the bold black tom cat (another one) who had actually come in through the cat door a day earlier.  We took him to the Inglewood home for naughty tom cats across the river at the cemetary.  Great place for cats and we are helping the population grow.

Sunday I went back to CF and caught seven (or, since one was tiny, closer to six and a half) trout.  Love my rod. Got a flat just as I unloaded my inflatable canoe and had to change it and clean up before I got started.  So it was 12:30 again, but that's enough time.  Fished run 3 upstream mostly but caught two on the float back to takeout.  Weather all weekend was great, hot but with a fine strong wind that made things just ok.

Yesterday we saw the hummingbird again.  Just as she did two weeks ago, she darted in for a drink at the
feeder on the deck rail and then zoomed off.  Very timid, which is strange, since most hummers are pretty
oblivious to humans.  No sign of the Hooties now since the 8th, so I guess they're gone.  And we haven't
seen the wood ducks in the woodpecker nest for over a week now, so they are probably gone too.

Something definately gone is my beard.  Decided to give the naked face a try.  I  guess the hot weather would have been  a pain with it, but shaving isn't much fun  either.  I'll grow again if it gets to be  a hassle.

Gone, but not forgotten--my beard and Mei Hu.  Shown here with Sherry and me at Sitar at the  farewell dinner we gave her before she went back  to China.  She was a sweetie--Ms. Volley 2003 too.

There are nesting birds in the purple martin house, so I climbed up for a look.  They turned out to be starlings.  I was pulling the nest out when I found it had baby birds in it.  So I quit, although I should have killed them.  I just didn't have the heart for it.  They are awful birds, but there are too many of them to expect killing a few will change much, so I didn't.  I told Sherry about it and she said,  "Starlings may end up being all that stands between us and the bugs."  True.  They are filling all the niches other birds filled, so she is probably right.

I truly am the Pea King of Pennington Bend.  They are coming in droves.  Picked a bunch Friday and
another huge bunch Sunday.  You always miss so many when you pick them that they are right back at you the next day.  And this rain is just encouraging them.

I am about decided to shave the beard since it is finally getting a  little warm.  Might wait a while.  I usually do it on a sudden whim.  It's an interesting problem.

Saturday I went to Center Hill and fished below the dam. Fall Creek was muddy and high (490') from the rains in the night.  Caught nothing but three small sauger and some skip jacks.  Got rained on.  Then I went below the first island and caught 4 or 5 stocker trout and one fair size--12 inches or so.  Headed home early and worked in the yard.

Sunday I fished Fall creek, but seemed to lose every fish I hooked.  They were scattered and not eager to bite.  I did hook a fine bass on the jigging pole in shallow water, but she took a run and snapped the line.  Got a good look, however.  Finally went home.

Garden:  Saturday I transplanted beets and pulled weeds.  Sunday I did the same and picked the hundreds of new peas.  We had some for dinner and froze some and I brought Rosy the rest.  Almost have to pick them daily to keep them from getting tough.

Travis and James were coming to visit for my birthday and Mother's day.  They got in at 3am, so I went fishing at 7.  It was cool to start but warmed up rapidly.  No wind at all.  Got a photo of the dead calm, unusual for Priest.  Crappie thought so too.  I only caught 6 by noon, so went on home.  They were up and on the back deck and Travis said, "What's that?"  It was in the elm tree that shades the back deck.  It looked like a wad of leaves, but turned out to be Hootie, sleeping with his head tucked under his wing.  Then we found another one.  The leaves were pretty thick, but this one was awake and looking right at us.  Then we had the binoculars and James spotted a fluffly grey baby owl.  So cute!  So Hootie and Mrs. Hootie and little Cutie Hootie were all just over our heads.   Such excitement!

Papa Hootie	Mama Hootie
Baby Hootie	Where did everybody go?  And what are those  strange folks looking at?

After that Sherry and kids went to the museum and I went shopping for corn and ribs for dinner.  Later, around 7,  I went out to get the grill going.  I saw that the big owls had gone and only little Cutie was left.  Then the kids came out and I began to cook.  Then, I heard a "Yeeeech!"  and then a whoosh and the kids were pointing toward Bruce's yard and there was little Cutie on a branch of the hackberry tree.  Travis said he tried to fly but dropped fast and barely made it past me without flopping into the grill.  I guess his mamma and daddy were calling him  so they could get him to fly and  teach him how to catch his dinner.  Then he flew on across Bruce's yard and into the woods.  What a great show!

Sherry has got the small bed going.  Note  the azalias in bloom in upper left corner.

Here is the new perennial bed with about  4 times the mulch needed.  Oh well.

The big honeysuckle tree with the  martin house above.  Never a martin!

Went back to Fall Creek.  Threatened rain, but ended up with sun.  Nice and warm by noon.  Got some tan.  Caught exactly 3 crappie on the north side of the island up near the bridge.  All in shallow water.  Wind was from the north or east, varied.  No photo.  All crappie look the same.

Left in time to get home by 4.  Sherry said we needed to get to Democrat fund raiser at Hermitage--Andrew Jackson Day--by 5:30.  Cleaned up and dressed and she called at 5 and said she was running late--forgot.  Anyhow, we got there around 6:15 and the rain, which had held off all day started coming down slow.  Had to park way off.  People were already leaving, having glutted themselves, apparently.  Finally got there with a hitch on a golf cart.  Ate and listened to good speech by Georgia former senitor who was a Viet Nam vet (double leg and one arm lost).  Great speech.,  Saw no one we knew but rain began to really come down, so when the end came people were grabbing plastic sacks and plastic table cloths to face it.  We had a golf umbrella, so just waited and drank beer.  Finally caught a golf cart and young man took us to the car door.  Great kid.  Lavished $ on him.  Home.  Sleep.

Sunday I went back around 11am.  It was cold and the wind was completely variable--from the north, east, west.  Only direction it didn't come from was the south.  Caught 12 fish.  Three from Attractor  2, four from 3, three from 4, one from numbers 5 and 6.  Only a small bass from number 1.  No good at all on hidden attractor at the bend.  Nothing upstream, although I went all the way up and tried for bass up there.  First time I ever caught anyhting from attractor 5, however, so something was positive.

Garden:  Found some trumpet vines out near Fall Creek.  Supposed to dig some up next trip and try to get them growing in back to attract the hummers.  Our azalias are losing blossoms.  Planted 6 each Celebrity and Better Boy tomatoes.  Also two shrubs for Sherry.  She has finally put some of the pine chip mulch in her garden, but it looks like I bought twice as much as needed.  Plan to transplant the beets to the south side, so they will have a better shot at the sun.  Soon it will be time to plant other things where the salad things are now.  Most of the salad greens are topping out and going to seed.   Need to plant okra too.  Plants are finally getting really green and full. Nice spring, but really cool today.

Fished Saturday, strong wind and water deep at 489.  Caught only one crappie.  So quit early and went home.  Sunday I got there late after doing a lot of chores but caught 12 nice fish.  Saved them for a guy fishing off the bank at the ramp and damned if he didn't want them.  So I let them go.

Storm threatened all weekend.	High water hides unmarked attractors.  Little bay before the bend.
Good catch, most of them at the hidden  attractors slowly trolling a 1/64 jib with  brown tube.  Brown has been good.	Guess what we have?  Another screech owl has  moved into the owl house.  I guess he/she will  have to be called Hootie II.

Garden:  All coming on fine.  I planned to plant tomatoes, bell peppers, and egg plant but just as I got home the threatening rain came down finally.  Did it on Tuesday afternoon.
 
 

Rained a lot this week so water at Fall Creek was at 488, which was good.  It covered the fish attractors and I had good luck Saturday fishing with the fly rod and a 1/64th jig with a brown tube.  They didn't like the chartruse one today.  Also caught them near shore where the underwater attractors without a marker has caught a lot of floating trees.  On Sunday I went back for half a day but only caught 5 or 6, most on a stick up straight out from the put in that probably was the top of a snag.  I also fished the bluffs straight across and had fair luck on fish in pretty shallow water as it was up in the trees and stumps there.  Caught a photo of a fellow showing his grandson something or other.  Noisy little fellow.

Garden--We are eating lots of salads of lettuce and spinach.  Kale is coming on but beets are way behind.
Had to augment the pea trellises with horizontal strings to help them find a hold.  Have to redesign the things next year.

April 11--Easter

Three nice  crappie.  I let them go.

We got up and made the 9:30 service at St. Ann's and it was really good.  Maybe I should go more often.  They have bought the lot next door where the Veterans Thrift was.  They say it is paying or itself with the money the earn from parking during Titan's football games.  Certainly it was a good thing they had it this morning, since we had to park in it. Church was packed with the usually St. Ann's mix.

Got home and took photos of the flowers and veggies.  Packed up and went back to Fall Creek again.  Colder today and threatening rain.  As I was putting in an older gentleman stopped at the top of the ramp and walked down to talk.  He said he's a retired commercial fisherman from the north.  Now lives in Franklin and wanted info on what we do and how we do it here.  I gave him 5 or 10 minutes of info, but decided he needed to talk to someone else or get busy learning by doing.  Excused myself and took off.
Caught 5 very nice black crappie on the deepest attractor using the fly rod and 1/64th oz gig on a small chartreuse tube.

Came home at 4:30 and built two more trellises for the peas I planted last.  Little radishes now showing up and we actually had a salad tonight of all the young green things coming on.  From here on out it should be salad city around here.  Here's some photos of the little plants and things.

Here's Sherry's flower bed along the drive.	These onions are doing well an made it through the winter in fine style.
The little beets are coming up, but need  weeding and spacing.  Job for next week.	The kale is getting 3 or 4 inches high.
Lettuce mix has some yummy little leaves big enough to eat.  We did, too.	The peas are outgrowing the lattice.  It is probably too frail too.  Oh well.
The garlic is going wild.  Some of this  is the giant bulbs Jim Taft gave me.	The spinach looks good and tastes good too, as we now know.
The little parsley is growing right well  along with the plants from last year.	Mesclum mix is the kind Sherry likes.  Lots of strange varieties--BUT GOOD!

Went back to Fall Creek.   But first had to dig out a flower bed for Sherry.  She is going to plant perennials this year so she won't kill herself.  Naturally, I do the digging.  Anyhow, we got that done
and I finally got to go fishing.  Saw the Osprey again, but far away and never saw him dive.  It was
a clock calm, no wind at all, which made it very hard to fool the wary crappie.  I used the ultralight with
a cork and a normal 1/32 jig and tube, but no luck.  Finally, I switched to  a 1/64 oz black head jig on
the fly rod and a very small chartreuse tube under a small cork and started catching fish.  Ended up with 8 nice crappie and quite a few stripe. Caught the crappie by letting the jig sit or move just a little.
Gave the fish to a black man on the bank who gave me the time (4:00), oops--thought it was probably
around 2.  Hustled home and put up the stuff.    Sherry got in just after me.  Instead of going to Lowes
to pick up stuff for her new rental house we are going to eat Thai with Billy and Ginger.  That's Ok.

Today is Good Friday.  Was off to day and went to Percy Priest, water at 485.  Bryant Grove
completely loaded with boat trailers and two putting in.  Went to Fall Creek.  Much better.  Saw
a big hawk light on a tree next to the road winding down to the  launch.  Had a nest in the tree. Take binoculars next time.  Just as I got the boat headed toward the bluff I like to fish I saw an
Osprey  fold its wings and cannon into the water.  Came out and rose rapidly and circled.  It had
missed.  It worked the area where I was for an hour, but I never saw it dive again.  I worked very
hard and caught 5 fish over 6 or 7 hours.  No one else had much luck either.  Man and two boys
out in a plastic pontoon boat.  Came in behind me, had two drum and a large catfish.  Offered them,
but I declined.  Five crappie plenty to clean.

Watered the garden and cut the yard and went to Los Americas to dinner.  Sherry got mad because
I don't like mariachis and told them to skip us.  Had a dream last night and worked it out.   Now
realize my attitude is dumb.  Should enjoy all the small pleasures and changes to routine, since that's
all life is.  No change and you are dead.  Besides, if she enjoys them then I should enjoy her pleasure.
So, another painful lesson in how to be a nice person.  Maybe it would be easier to die and try again
next round.

Saturday was cool and gusty, but it got up to 70, so I was able to sun myself a bit below the dam at Center Hill.  Regular access completely blocked with canoers, so I put in on the other side and had to fight upstream to get out  of the current.  Caught one nice bass and a few skip jack.  No trout under the water falls at high water and I left  when the water was still falling.  Back home around 4 to cook out on the deck.

Sunday, first day of daylight time, went over to Percy Priest and caught lots of little bream casting against the  cliffs above the curve where I usually fish.  Too many folks fishing off the bank there.  Did catch several small bass and one nice crappie, very black--first of that kind I've seen in a long time.  After a while on the stringer the black faded and he looked almost normal by the time I let him go (since I had no others to keep him company).  Finished taxes today and will have to pay which means paying quarterly estimates from now on.  Poop!

Garden:  My trellises aren't really  going to work, so I'll have to move them and double the number.  Always something.  Sherry decided to put mulch over her part and to plant perennials.  I'm glad since she nearly kills herself every year getting the weeds out and planting.

After almost six months and several different traps  the black tom cat finally fell for beer can chicken scraps and the trap finally worked.  The night  before he got all the bait and the mouse trap fired, but the string to the pin that lets the door fall broke!  Before that he managed to knock the trap over and the door fell off so he escaped.  This time he took a trip to the other side of the river and the lovely cemetery with the woods at the east side, then a nice street and then the river.  If he makes it back to Pennington Bend he'll have to learn to swim or dodge 6 lanes of traffic.

I planted some radishes and watered the garden Saturday after getting back from fishing.  Weather was beautiful and warm both days and I wore only my shorts and got a nice pink on back and legs.  I caught 3 trout by the waterfall at low water but no crappie.  I was using a tiny white Rooster Tail on the fly rod casting across the turbulence.  Lots of skip jack as well.  On Sunday I went back and caught 4 trout right at the bottom of the falls by just letting a gold Little Cleo flutter down and then jigging it in just off the bottom.  Has to get deep.  No crappie except one little one.  This was the weekend when Sherry took Billy and Ginger to see a house on Stones River Court.  They  said they were going to buy it and that she wanted to buy their house.  So until Sunday evening I thought we would have to move.  Then Sherry said they had changed their minds.  "We live on this magical river, in this magical house--why should we move," quoth Billy.  I would have moved, but was not going to sell.  Would have rented our house with
the garden reserved for us.  Glad it didn't happen.  Took some photos of all the nice little plants coming up now.

Mesclum Mix	Spinach	Peas
Garlic	Kale	Beets
Spring Beauties	Violets	Forsythia
Stripe	Skipjack	Four Trout ready for the freezer

Went fairly late, about 11 to Fall Creek. Water was very low, so I went on to Center Hill.  Weather was supposed to be warm until mid afternoon when a cold front was to come in with rain.  Sure enough it did and I decided to leave, since lightning was getting too close and here I am in a metal boat in the middle of a broad stretch of water.  As it was I delayed getting out until the horns started blowing indicating the generation was about to begin.  Had the motor, rods and tackle box out and the back of the boat on the truck tailgate when I saw huge regular ranks of waves bearing down, evidently the first surge from the beginning of generation.

Sherry's Japanese Magnolia went crazy this week.

One of a dozen skip jack (river herring).  Very slow crappie day.

I dropped the back of the boat onto the rocks, since it looked likely to fill up if I left it pointed down.  By then the waves hit and washed up to my knees.  I grabbed the floating tackle box and the rods were sliding down the rocks with the retreating waves.  Got those into the truck, then the motor.  The boat was rushing along the shore about 20 feet away and moving out.  Just then two bubbas rushed up and one caught the boat.  They helped me load it and I drove it up to the parking lot and bailed it out and changed out of my water filled boots.  Exciting times.  It's good to live in the South where guys volunteer to help and get wet feet and legs for their pains.

I used the landmarks to find the underwater stump and got right on it first time.  Nothing but one crappie and I lost him at the boat.  Caught nothing all day, although I had two crappie on, except Skip Jack, which are pretty but not really why one goes fishing.  Noticed two old guys fishing off the bank when I got there (the water was falling pretty fast then) who had caught a couple of nice stripes, probably with minnows.  Saw another guy over by the left wall where the water gushes out of the cliff catch a few crappie, but not many.  This was the first day of spring.  Just glad the adventure with the boat wasn't worse.  Note to get out well before or after the generation starts.

Garden:  Picked all the Japanese magnolia pedals out of the little lettuce, spinach, onion, chard, beet and parsley plants.  They are just coming up now and tonight (Sunday) it's supposed to drop to 26 degrees.  Hope they are all bold little soldiers and fight it off.  I think the snow and sugar snap peas will be able to take it.  Maybe the ol' weatherman will be wrong again.