Local Happenings…

This has been a quiet summer and fall for us.  Starting with a surgery in June and another on November 1, my movements and hence our travel, local exploration and even dining out has been quite limited.  Limited activities provide fewer blog postings of much interest to me, much less to anyone else.  I’m actually considering slowing down from my regular blogging schedule and spending more time working on our family ancestries and our multitude of photo albums.

Still, I do like to blog and enough has been happening locally to provide me with a bit of material for yet another posting…

Just 2 lots up the road from our house, a builder purchased a lot and recently began construction of a spec home… We, the deer and our local flock of turkey lost a lot of big trees, food source and ground cover. 

Laurie spoke to the builder and he told her that this house would go up fast…and he was definitely telling the truth!   Note the lake view in the distance…

Crews have been working on this new and large home from 7 Am until dusk 5 to 6 days a week ever since they cleared the lot.  It’s been interesting to watch their progress. 

These are the most recent photos of the new home that we’ve taken.  Laurie is going to create a construction photo album for whoever buys this new home.  Issues have been far and few between.  Laurie made sure that the crew cleaned up their trash on a daily basis…and our neighbors, Jill and Paul, who live on the other side of the new home, have had their internet, TV and phone line cut twice by construction equipment.

We’ve now been told that the same builder is planning to build a home right next door to our house in the not too distant future.  We’ll be sorry to see the woods go on that side of the house but we knew that it would probably happen at some point in time.  We’ve been here more than 7 years now…

This is J.D., the cat who rules the home that he allows us to live in…and serve him.  For cat lovers, he’s a bit of an oddity.  Every November, he loses hair on his legs and underside and he ends up looking a bit ‘skanky’.  Logically, the fall and winter is the time that his coat should thicken to provide additional warmth.  In his case, his coat will thicken again…when it warms up in the spring!

These are views of Tellico Lake taken from Tennessee Hwy. 444.  That haze isn’t fog or even smog per se.  It’s smoke from the dozens of wildfires that are burning in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.  This smoke problem has been going on for a couple of weeks now, with sporadic breaks when the wind clears it out.

Yes, those are silos in the lake.  Like all Tennessee Valley Authority dam impounds (lakes), farm land and homesteads were seized for the projects and the ‘better good’. 

Due to the smoke, you can barely see across the lake.  On November 15^th it was reported that about 250 Tennesseans had been treated for smoke related breathing problems.  There are estimates that roughly half of the fires at this point are arson related!  One fire, dubbed the Tellico Fire, has covered 13,740 acres!

This view through the bridge over the Fort Loudoun Dam shows just how smoky it’s been in Lenoir City Tennessee.  Outdoor activities have certainly been hampered by this unusual situation.

Some fires in the Southeastern USA have been burning for over a month now, especially in the mountains where tough terrain limits access for firefighters.  We’ve had very unusual weather…a very hot summer combined with a lack of any serious rainfall.  It’s been 2 months since we’ve had any notable rain here. 

I’ll end this blog posting with a couple of Laurie’s photos of the recent “Supermoon”.  The first photo was taken through the smoky haze from the forest fires.  The second photo was taken a day later when the wind had blown much of the smoke away… I almost like that yellowish moon the best, from an esthetic viewpoint.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what’s going on in our area of East Tennessee!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave