Cypress Trees at Reelfoot Lake

On a blistering, steamy day in early July, I spent a few hours at beautiful Reelfoot Lake State Park in northwest Tennessee.

I've always been curious about Reelfoot Lake. It was created by the massive earthquakes on the New Madrid Fault in 1811-1812 that made the Mississippi River run backward for a short while. That's very interesting, but the bald cypresses that grow there are the real reason I wanted to see it. The lake covers what used to be a cypress forest. The trees still thrive at water's edge.

Reelfoot Lake is a wintering place for many waterfowl, and it's also a great place to fish for crappie, bluegill, bass, and catfish,according to locals. Much of the lake has a floor of cypress stumps that provides habitat for a large variety of aquatic species.

"The largest Buffalo ever caught in Reelfoot Lake.
Caught 10-20-23. Weight 66 lbs."

The visitors center and park headquarters are on the west side of the lake, near Tiptonville. They have exhibits and a wonderful boardwalk about half-a-mile long that lets you experience first-hand the cypress swamp at the edge of the lake. I saw more cypress knees in the hour that I spent on the boardwalk than I've seen in the entire rest of my life.

Mosquito repellant is a good idea.

The boardwalk and the lake beyond

Bald cypress trunk and knees

Cypress trees and the boardwalk

The Eclipse Was Glorious!

Bulletin about the eclipse

sent to all local residents

The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017

My husband and I live about 20 miles from the point of greatest eclipse, near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Our county and town governments planned for months to accomodate a huge crowd of Great American Eclipse viewers. No one knew how many people to expect; estimates ranged from 50,000 to 200,000. (Actually, between 100,000  and 150,000 visitors came to Christian County. They're still not sure how many!)

Dennis and I spent several quiet days at home before the eclipse, avoiding the crowds and traffic. It was pleasantly like being snowed in, except that the weather was hot and there was no snow. We followed the celebration through news reports on radio, television, and the internet. I worked on the rag rug I'm making, and my husband puttered around the yard and read his books.

I had bought our eclipse glasses months in advance. I saw a good idea online for children viewing the eclipse: mount the eclipse glasses in paper plates, creating a mask. It looked like an easy way for us to hold our eclipse glasses in front of our eyeglasses, so the day before the eclipse, I made masks for us.

Ready to view the eclipse

Finally Monday, August 21, 2017, arrived. The Great American Eclipse began at 11:56 AM in Christian County. A minute or two after it started, my husband grabbed his mask and went outside to check what was happening. He reported that he could see the edge of the moon, covering a small part of the sun, so I went outside with my mask. And it was quite amazing to see that a bit of the sun was indeed blacked-out. My daughter texted me, "It's starting! You can see it in one corner!", and I answered, "We're outside watching it!"

I had read a suggestion to observe the shadow that a collander cast on the ground as the eclipse progressed. So, I experimented with that, between my times of viewing the progress of the eclipse through my mask and going inside to escape the heat.  I shared a couple of colander photos real-time on Facebook, and it was fun to read some responses from other eclipse viewers. As you can see in the photo below, the holes in the shadow of the colander mirrored the progress of the eclipse. We saw the same effect in the sunlight shining through tree leaves and other small openings.

Shadow of a collander

Eclipse light and shadows on the ground

As the moon passed in front of the sun, hiding more and more of the sun's face, darkness crept over us. The temperature dropped ten degrees. The air was very still, and the remaining light became strangely gray. The birds stopped singing, and even our Mennonite neighbor's chickens became much more quiet. Witnessing the changes on earth in response to the event in the heavens was an oddly beautiful experience.

I had wondered how I would know for sure when I could safely remove my eclipse glasses and look directly at the sun. But the moment of total eclipse was very obvious. As I watched the last tiny glowing sliver of the sun through my eclipse glasses, the light suddenly disappeared completely, and I saw nothing but the darkness of mylar lenses in front of my eyes. 

Dennis was talking on the phone to his brother-in-law, giving an eyewitness account of the eclipse. I put down my mask and looked around. At all points of the horizon in all directions, I saw an orange glow that looked like sunset. It was as dark as early twilight. The sun was black in the center, with an orange glow around its outer edge. The coolness of the air was refreshing, but a sobering reminder of our planet's dependence on the sun for warmth. I hadn't expected to think deep thoughts, but I found myself pondering how tiny I was in comparison to the heavenly bodies passing each other before my eyes, and how our sun and moon are mere specks of dust in a vast universe.

The two minutes and forty seconds of the eclipse passed very quickly. As the sun began to emerge from behind the moon, the brilliance of the first blast of sunlight was astounding. Time for the eclipse mask again!

Later, I answered a questionaire online that asked for a one-word description of the eclipse. "Humbling," I wrote. Another good word would have been "unforgettable."

Watching the Great American Eclipse from our backyard

Horse and Buggy in Hopkinsville

Homeward bound

I saw this horse-drawn buggy rolling through Hopkinsville on a recent Sunday evening. I think the passengers were probably headed home at the end of a full day of faith, fellowship, and family.

I believe this is genuinely a buggy. It fits the definition -- it's a lightweight, open-air, one-seat, one-horse, four-wheel vehicle.

The SMV triangle must have caught reflected light from the shiny awning of the building I was standing by. Reflections from that awning caused strange light effects in some other photos I tried to take, too.

Sunflowers and Seasons

Autumn decor

I am done with summer for this year. August hasn't been quite as torrid as usual, but I'm ready for fall to arrive. I'm looking forward to cool days and crunchy leaves on the ground, pumpkin pie and hearty soups -- and right before Thanksgiving, retirement from my job. It will be the beginning of a new season of my life.

I saw these sunflowers at the Kroger in Murray, KY. They are a refreshing change from the ubiquitous mums of autumn. My daughter-in-law loves sunflowers, so I snapped this picture and sent it to her on my phone. Seconds later, she texted back: "Those are beautiful!!!"

Sunflowers are easy to start from seed, and they look so cheery when they bloom. And when the flowers fade, the birds love eating the seeds from the heads. What a fabulous flower!

Maybe I'll plant some sunflowers next spring. And some dillweed for the gold finches and the black swallowtails. And also, milkweed for the monarchs. A few tomato and pepper plants for us. Maybe a hill of zucchini. These are the flowery, seedy, gardening daydreams of a woman who is looking forward to retirement.
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I wrote about growing dill in 2006. You might enjoy reading that post on my old blog.

Eclipse Puts Spotlight on Hopkinsville

Eclipse watchers in Paris, 1912.
(Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

It's so exciting! On August 21, 2017, the Great American Eclipse will occur, and the point of greatest eclipse (the place where the sun, the moon, and the earth are most perfectly aligned) will be just a few miles from Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

The eclipse is the main topic in our local news and talk. Apparently, a lot of people are coming to Hopkinsville -- thousands and thousands of people. Maybe 20,000, 50,000, or 100,000. Or more? Or maybe, not that many? No one knows! We're trying to be ready.

Hopkinsville has just finished building a new visitors' center. It's supposed to be open next week, just in time to serve the eclipse visitors. Road crews have been working on city streets and some of the highways coming into town. Improvements have been made to our little airport. Obviously, we're trying to make a good first impression. 

The Kentucky New Era published an editorial (July 30, 2017) about the importance of this event. The gist of it is that we'll have all those visitors in town, and we'll be in the spotlight of national news that day. We want and need to make a good impression, Our civic leaders are trying to plan, but Hopkinsville is unaccustomed to and under-equipped for big events. So, wherever plans fall short and needs develop, every local citizen should step in and help with a spirit of genuine southern hospitality.

The editorial offers the following suggestions in conclusion:

Our advice to cut down on your own obstacles is to simply be prepared. Mentally prepare yourself, but also stock up on what you need well in advance, including gassing up the vehicles. After you enjoy a day’s worth of activities at one of the events around the county, end it with a family dinner at home allowing greater opportunities for our out-of-town guests to sample the local food offerings.

Then, for those who simply can’t get their heads around this astronomical event, make sure you have plenty of reading material at the house or take a road trip beyond the eclipse path. But, be sure to leave early. 

Oh … and by the way, first impressions also include the astounding beauty of this community. Keep your curbside trash off the street, at least until after our guests leave.

It's ironic that any local residents who actually might need the condescending advice of the last paragraph are the ones who are least likely to read and heed it.

Related:
Eclipseville, Hopkinsville's official eclipse website, lists many eclipse events in the area
Camera atop Hopkinsville Elevator to stream eclipse (in case you can't attend in person)

The Eclipse Song performed by Barrenhart (video below) 

Wary of Ticks and Chiggers

A profusion of tall flowers

I have two things to say about this scene:

1. Nature certainly can be exuberant! 
2. That patch of flowers was probably full of ticks and chiggers.

Here in Kentucky, we accept ticks and chiggers as a hazard of warm weather. Most of us guard against them as much as possible, because we suffer if we don't.

For example, if I was going to wade into that patch of flowers, I'd spray myself from the neck down with heavy duty insect repellant, and I'd check myself thoroughly for ticks at the first opportunity. I know from past experience that the itching of a mass of chigger bites is hell on earth, I don't want to go through it again. Tick bites itch, too, and even worse, ticks can carry serious diseases.

Believe it or not, when I was a little girl, growing up in the Nebraska Sandhills, I didn't know that ticks and chiggers even existed. I think that they weren't a problem where we lived because the Sandhills are so dry. Rock County, Nebraska (where I grew up) has an average annual rainfall of 24". In comparison, Christian County, Kentucky has an average annual rainfall of 51".
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I wrote a post titled "Chigger Territory"  on my old blog in 2007. You might enjoy reading it, too.

Photomyne as a Downsizing Tool

I'm in my mid-60s, and after a lifetime of collecting books, my house is full of them. So I'm trying to reduce the size of my library. It's part of a desire (and a need) to downsize my entire collection of worldly possessions.

I've been looking through the old school textbooks that I've gathered over the years. I like them because of the insight they give about life in former times and I've collected them for that reason.

To help me let some of the old school books go, I installed an app called Photomyne on my smart phone. With the app, the camera on your phone acts as a scanner, so you can capture any printed image. The basic version is free, and the pro version costs 99¢ per month. I went pro because it allows you to store your images online (if you want) instead of filling up your phone with them. The scanned images upload automatically to the Photomyne website, and then I can download them to my desktop computer.

The Photomyne people mostly talk about using their app to scan loose snapshots or in pages in photo albums. But I have been using it to scan some pages.from my old school books. It works fairly well. I'm pleased enough with it that I've now scanned parts of four textbooks. After capturing what I want to save from them, I am now OK now giving three of those books away. I'm going to keep the fourth one.

If I keep working at the rate of one book every day or two, and my discard ratio holds true, I should see a bit of empty bookshelf space soon. That would be a good thing.

Here are a few images from one of the books I am letting go (Healthy Living Book 2, by Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, Dr. P.H. Published in 1924 by Charles E. Merrill Company.) These scans are exactly as the Photomyne app produced them.

Switchboard operator

Some of the images have some arcing of the straight lines.  That's because the pages of the book were not lying perfectly flat. I believe it would be a problem when scanning from a book in an ordinary flat-bed scanner too. I could try to fix the distortion with imaging software, if it really bothered me. (I use Paintshop Pro, but Photoshop, Gimp, and many other programs would do the job, too.)

Bacteriology lab equipment of 1920s

All of these images were small pictures on the pages of a small book, but the app did a good job of enlarging them, in my opinion.

Alcohol content of a popular patent
medicine compared to various liquors

Three W.E. Blackhurst Books for Sale

Riders of the Flood, Sawdust In Your 
Eyes, Of Men and a Mighty Mountain

Note: These books were sold on 8/23/2017! They are no longer available.

I have three W. E. Blackhurst books that I'd like to place in the hands of someone who will enjoy them. Do you have an interest in obscure history or a family connection to logging? Did your ancestor work in lumber and pulp mills in West Virginia or elsewhere? These books may be for you!

• Riders of the Flood, published in 1954, 5th edition.
• Sawdust in Your Eyes, published in 1963, 5th edition. 
• Of Men and a Mighty Mountain, published in 1965, 5th edition.

All three books are in very nice, nearly-new condition with a small amount of shelf-wear. All three have their dust jackets.

I bought them at an estate sale, and they have been in my library for several years. Now I am downsizing my book collection, but I don't want to send these to Goodwill. I'd like to place them with someone who would appreciate them.

If you are not familiar with W. E. Blackhurst, you can read a short biography of him on Wikipedia. He grew up at Cass, West Virginia, a mill town. He knew every aspect of the lumber industry very well, because he was immersed in the lumbering and milling culture from infancy, worked in the mills as a young man, and avidly researched and collected the history of the area.

If you would like to give these books a good home, I am asking $20 for the set of three. If you live in the continental United States, this price includes postage. If you don't think that price is fair, you can make an offer, and I will consider it. Please contact me at gnetz51@gmail.com .

Note: These books were sold on 8/23/2017! They are no longer available.

One of the historic photos in
Riders of the Flood

Grandmother Patience (Rogers) Hill, c. 1780 - c. 1835

The area in Sussex Co.
where Patience grew up.

My 5th great grandmother, Patience Rogers, was born about 1780 in Sussex County, Delaware. Her father, John Rogers, was a sea captain and a property owner. John and his wife Comfort (Prettyman) Rogers lived and raised their family near Lewes, Delaware, where the Delaware River meets the Atlantic Ocean. Both John and Comfort came from long-established families of the Delmarva peninsula.

John Rogers passed away in 1794. In his will, he described himself as "John Rogers, planter," and called his wife and children "well-beloved." The older girls had already married when John wrote his will, but Leah, Unice, and Patience were still at home. Patience, about 14 years old, was the youngest of the family. John Rogers left livestock and farm equipment and tools to his sons and land that they would inherit after Comfort, their mother, died. He did not mention any slaves in his will, so he probably didn't have any. Leah, John, Eunice and Patience were to divide their father's "movable property" after their mother's death.

Comfort (Prettyman) Rogers lived less than three years after her husband's death. She signed her will with her mark on January 28, 1797. She provided for her two youngest daughters, Unice and Patience, by willing her "dwelling house" and the old orchard and peach trees to her son John Rogers and stating that Eunice and Patience were to have a home with John as long as they were unmarried.

From Comfort Prettyman Rogers' will

Soon after her mother's death, Patience married my 5th great grandfather, Robert Hill. Y-chromosome DNA testing has proved that Robert was related to a Hill family who lived in the Sussex County area, but I don't know whom Robert's father and mother were.

A year or two after their marriage, Robert took his bride and their newborn son, Rogers Hill (my 4th great grandfather,) and moved to western Pennsylvania. Patience probably never saw her brothers and sisters again. I don't know if she was given her share of her father's belongings before she left or if she was able to take any family mementos with her.

By 1810, Robert and Patience had settled on Beaver Creek in Columbiana County, Ohio. Soon, their family grew to ten children -- six sons, three daughters, and one child (sex unknown) who probably died young. Patience named two daughters for her sisters -- Eunice and Orpha.  The first son (Rogers Hill, my 4th great grandfather) was given his mother's maiden name. Three other sons were named John, Robert, and George. I am still researching the names of two sons and a daughter.

An early Ohio cabin

Life in the wilds of Ohio must have very different from civilized Delaware. Patience and Robert surely missed the seafood of the Atlantic coast, but they probably caught fish in Beaver Creek and the Ohio River.

Robert took up shoemaking as a livelihood. He probably tried to grow some farm crops too. I am certain that Patience had a work-filled life. She probably had to spin and possibly had to weave for the family, as well as sew their clothing by hand. I am sure she had a big garden in summer and preserved as much food as possible for winter.

I think that Patience knew how to write, which was somewhat unusual for a woman in her time. In 1833, marriage records of Columbiana County, Ohio, state that George Hill brought a certificate from his mother Patience Hill giving him permission to marry at the age of 17. Later that year, Patience Hill sent another certificate, giving permission for her daughter Orpha Hill to marry at the age of 14. It appears that Patience gave permission because Robert was deceased. Those marriage records and their mention of the certificates Patience provided are the last record of her that I have found.

 Robert Hill is buried somewhere in Mahoning County, Ohio, probably near Youngstown. I do not know where Patience was laid to rest, but I am hopeful that she is at her husband's side.

This narrative of Patience Rogers Hill's life was written by Genevieve L. Netz. Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use this document for genealogical purposes. It may be attached to online family trees. This note about usage must remain attached. Any other use requires written permission. Contact the author at gnetz51@gmail.com .

Download an easy-to-print copy at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0WMJrHF96-UbmFCYXJMZGc4aG8/view?usp=sharing .

Four Ways to Improve Your Health

Four of your best friends

I scanned this illustration from a 1924 health textbook. Isn't it cute? And I don't think that any modern doctor would disagree with its message:  On the road to Health, four of your best friends are:

• Pure food
• Fresh air
• Exercise
• Rest

This drawing reminds me a little of Dorothy and her friends on the road to the Emerald City in the Land of Oz.

From: 

Healthy Living Book 2:  Principles of Personal and Community Hygiene by Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, Dr. P .H. Copyright 1924. Published by Charles E. Merrill Company, New York and Chicago.

Chasing Rainbows

The sky was rumbling with thunder and sheets of rain were falling when I left home yesterday to run some errands. Simultaneously, the sun was shining brightly. I looked to the east, and I saw a bright, full rainbow, and at the very end of it, a neighborhood church. The tall white steeple was gleaming in the strangely intense, rain-filtered sunlight. Beautiful! I needed to get that picture!

I slowed down and began groping for my camera with one hand. Somehow I couldn't pull it out of my purse. I drove slower and slower -- still couldn't extricate the camera! Finally, I stopped in a driveway so I could look in my purse and use both hands. The door on the battery compartment of the camera had popped open and was jammed into the corner of the purse pocket. Also, one of the batteries had fallen out.

I fixed all that and then looked to see if I could still get the rainbow and the church in a photo. No, I had gone too far down the road. The view was obstructed, and also the sky had changed.

Rainbow over a soybean field

I drove a little farther, and suddenly the rainbow was a bit brighter. I pulled into another driveway to try to get a picture. As I opened my car window, a spray of rain hit me. A stiff wind was blowing straight into my camera and my face.

I took several pictures of the rainbow here and at another spot farther down the road. This was the first picture that I took and the best that I got. All the others have strange blurred spots in them that I think were caused by raindrops on the lens of the camera.

I read once that the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur is that the pro doesn't run out of fresh batteries. I think another difference is that a pro sees the picture and gets it, whereas amateurs like me see the picture and start fumbling around.

Wild Turkeys in Christian County, KY

Why did the turkeys cross the road?

We've lived in Christian County for almost 25 years now. One of the changes we've seen in that time is a big growth in the wild turkey population. It's not a surprise anymore to see a flock of turkeys in a field. Some of the biggest flocks I've seen were grazing near a river or creek.

I took this photo in 2005 on a county gravel road near Honey Grove. These turkeys walked out of the ditch and strolled across the road in front of our car. It didn't bother them at all when I got out and took their picture. My husband speculated that they had lost their fear of humans because someone had been feeding them.

If they had been frightened, they might have flown away. I saw a wild turkey fly one morning when I startled it on our lane. It lifted off the ground with a great flapping of its wings, achieved an elevation of 15 or 20 feet, and flew into the trees. I was amazed that turkeys could fly like that and also amazed that I had seen one so close to our house.

The Barn at the Intersection

Tobacco barn in autumn, 2008

This old barn sits at the intersection of Butler Road and Vaughn Grove Road in Christian County, Kentucky. It's an intersection, not a crossroads, because Vaughn Grove Road ends, and the driveway to the barn is on the opposite side of the road.

Every time, I pull up to the stop sign on Vaughn Grove Road, this barn is right in front of me, looking photogenic. I have a lot of pictures of it. I took the photo above in 2008, and nine years later (photo below,) it still looks much the same.

Weathered wooden barns like this are a common sight here. Many of them are used in late summer and autumn, either for air-curing burley tobacco or for firing dark tobacco. The firing process involves a smouldering fire on the barn's floor that flavors and colors the tobacco as it cures. I've never seen this barn being fired, but it is often used for air-curing tobacco in the fall.