Little River's South Fork

Little River, South Fork, east of Hopkinsville, KY

This photo of the South Fork of Little River was taken from the bridge on Little River Church Road in eastern Christian County, Kentucky, during the summer of 2013. The South Fork looks quiet and docile here, but whenever we get a period of heavy rain, it overflows its banks and spills into the nearby fields, covering the bridge and the roads that approach it. Not uncommonly, the flood waters menace the Little River Church of Christ, a quarter-mile or so from the bridge.

The photo below was taken in 2016, when the flooded South Fork was exhibiting typical behavior from the dark side of its personality. Little River Church Road, the blacktop seen in the photo, was closed, and the bridge was probably under water.

The flooded South Fork seen from Highway 68/80

Hayes Road, 2006

A gravel road in Christian County, KY

This isn't a great photo, but it's the best I'll ever get of this scene. This road has been paved since I took this picture on a gray day in 2006. Today, it's a blacktop road instead of a little gravel road.

This is Hayes Road in eastern Christian County. It meanders through the countryside between Pilot Rock Road and Butler Road, a few miles from the Christian/Todd county line. Some local people call it the "Holler" Road because it passes through the Honey Grove Hollow.

Location of Hayes Road in Christian County, KY
from a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet map

Hayes Road was named for Mr. William Hayes who gave Christian County enough land to make the road along the edge of his property, years ago.  I suspect that a little road already existed, and the county took it over and improved it. I don't know exactly when Hayes Road became an official Christian County roadway, but I believe it was mid-century (1950s-60s) or earlier.

You might enjoy a 2006 blog post where this same Hayes Road photo appeared (cropped a little differently.)

1936 Drought in Christian County, Kentucky

Plow covered by sand in Oklahoma

This photo of a single bottom plow, half-buried in sand, was taken in Oklahoma in the spring of 1936. Drought hit Kentucky that year, too.

According to the June 17, 1936 edition of the Kentucky New Era, record-breaking temperatures of 99° had been recorded two days in a row in Christian County. Some areas of the county had not received rain for two months, and no part of the county had received rain for the last four weeks. The unusual, springtime drought was having dire effects.

The county agent [W. E. Wiedeburg] said pastures are suffering heaviest among crops of this section. He stated that there will be a shortage of hay here regardless of rain during the remainder of the summer. A number of pasture[s] in the county have already dried up and disappeared, and even the best of the pastures now will have little value unless there is rain in the next two weeks.

An awful summer followed. Dry, hot weather continued in Kentucky and throughout the central area of the United States. On August 19, 1936, the Lexington Herald reported that drought relief officials in Washington D.C. were sending the Bluegrass State 100 carloads of foodstuffs and livestock feed, including "33 carloads of mill feed, 11 cars of canned beef, 50 cars of flour, one car of dry skim milk, two cars of dried peas, and three cars of prunes." In addition, the WPA would employ 8507 Kentucky farmers on drought-relief projects.

Autumn Is on the Horizon

A partially harvested cornfield

Weather Underground predicts that our temperatures will drop into the 70s by the end of next week. I hope that comes to pass. I don't care to endure any more days in the 90s or even the near-90s.

Proof of impending autumn has been cited every day for several weeks on the Weather Underground website: ragweed pollen is high.

A few days ago, I was amused to read about someone's first sighting ever of a whirlwind. A woman described a spinning wind that appeared out of nowhere and threw dry leaves around and around in the air. What was it? She had never seen anything like it!

Supposedly whirlwinds occur throughout the year, but I think of them as a fall phenomenon. I suppose they are most noticable and noisy when vegetation is dry and crunchy .

A sure sign of the season is that people have started wondering what winter will bring. Dr. Lucky Pittman, a veterinarian at Breathitt Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in Hopkinsville, has cut some persimmon seeds from his orchard, and the seeds all had spoons in them. (I received a report of the seed cutting from our daughter, a serologist at Breathitt.) Spoons are a symbol of shovels -- in other words, we should prepare for a snowy winter.

I have ordered and received my milkweed seed. When the weather gets a bit cooler, I will plant it. My plan is to rake the soil, lightly scatter a seed-and-sand mixture across it, and then walk on the sandy areas to push the seeds into contact with the soil (but not cover them.) This method is said to result in an even distribution of seeds.  Nature will give the seeds a cold treatment this winter, and they will germinate next spring and bloom next summer, if all goes well. This is all for the monarch butterflies.

Grassmere: Historic Home at the Nashville Zoo

The Nashville (TN) zoo has a historic plantation house (Grassmere) on its grounds. A half-hour tour of the mansion is included in the price of the zoo ticket. I've been in the house several times now, but I always learn something new about its architecture, furnishings, and history.

The tours start at the front door. I always take a lot of photos inside, and I'm always disappointed in how they turn out. They don't allow flash photography and it's quite dark in many of the rooms, so a very steady hand is needed.

Chairs pulled close for winter warmth

Nursery, with door to another bedroom

Another bedroom on the second floor

After the tour ends on the back porch, it's a short walk down the sidewalk to the kitchen (a separate building) and across the lawn to the vegetable garden.  Visitors can walk through the arched trellis, open the garden gates, and wander through plantings of heirloom and period vegetables and flowers.

Shaded benches for weary gardeners

The family graveyard is also in the back yard. The last burials there were the Croft sisters, Margaret and Elise, who were the last residents of the house. The story of their desire for the Grassmere farm to become a nature sanctuary is told very well on the zoo's website.

A number of farm animals live in the barn and barnyard. and some sleepy barn owls roost under the barn's roof trusses.They don't seem to be caged in any way, so I suppose they fly around outside at night. It's always nice to see native animals living of their own free will in a zoo. The Croft sisters would be pleased.

Barn owls on top of their nest box

You might enjoy this post about the Nashville zoo on my old blog, too:
Memorable Visits to the Zoo

Double Cross Ranch near Fulton, KY

Double Cross Ranch, Inc.

I buzzed by this tumbledown house north of Fulton, KY, dozens of times before I finally happened to read the words on its sign. Then I was intrigued, so the next time I went by, I paused for a moment and took a picture from the highway. 

The sign reads:

The Double Cross Ranch, Inc.
"Cow Farm"      734-479-1885

I especially like the description -- "Cow Farm." Below the sign at right and left are some symbols that might be double crosses.The telephone number has a southeast Michigan area code. Spoof or real? I'm not sure, but it's entertaining.

A closer look at the sign.

Purple Prairie Flower

Purple prairie-clover, a Kansas wildflower

I visited my brother and sister-in-law in Kingman County, Kansas, this summer, and as always, I enjoyed going to check the cattle with my brother on his 4-wheeler. I saw a number of big clumps of this pretty purple wildflower, growing along the pasture roads we traveled. 

The plants can be sprawling. I think that the persistant southwest winds of Kansas lays them down, unless they happen to grow in a sheltered area. I had a hard time getting a good picture of the clump in the picture above, but I did my best without completely lying down. (I'm not as spry as I used to be.)  That's a wild plum thicket in the background. 

I remembered these flowers from my Nebraska childhood, but I did not know their name. Identifying the plant via the internet was easy, because the blooms have such a distinctive shape. This is purple prairie-clover. It is a perennial wildflower of central North America that requires full sun. It's a nutritious plant that is good for livestock and for the birds and small animals that enjoy its seed heads. It's also a pollen source for butterflies and bees. Though it's a legume, it's not a true clover.

A clump of purple prairie-clover along a pasture road