THE GHEENOE - AT LAST; ESCAPE!

Today is a great day! Today I am again able to explore the magic of the lakes. The Gheenoe has arrived and I have tested it out on Melton Hill Lake. I really missed the ability to escape the noise and confusion of traffic and gobs of people. I missed the photo opportunities that nature provides. As a matter of fact, at the bottom of this blog entry I was rewarded with an unexpected treat. It caught me off guard and the camera wasn't ready but I snapped off a few shots of a swimming deer. Not unusual but sort of different as it was noon. The Gheenoe is of the custom variety and is powered by a 25 horsepower four stroke Honda engine. With only me and an empty boat the top speed is 29 to 30 mph in slight chop. Loaded with all the stuff I like, the speed dropped to 28 mph with an occasional 29 mph showing on the GPS. She has an 11 gallon inboard tank in the bow and I am proud to say the needle barely moved in three hours. Wow! I can afford to run it. Today is just a test run but full scale camping adventures off this little boat are coming up. By the way; the cliff on the lake is the same one that my Golden Retriever, Douglas, stepped off onto from the government boat in the story "The Storm" that I wrote two years ago. He was six months old then. That story is on the blog in the achieves. I almost ran into that cliff in dense fog during a terrible storm that Douglas and I got caught in a year later.

SCRUFFY

I haven't been on this site in quite awhile. That will change this weekend. I'll have the new boat on Friday and the lake trips will start shortly after. It will be great to be back on the water and away from cars, noise and civilization. I took on a new dog friend. I was told about him two days ago. His owner has to move to an apartment and Scruffy was slated for the pound and scheduled to be euthanized. I told them to hold everything and that I would get him out of there. I did and his pictures are below. He will be living with my little family here with me until a permanent home can be found. Of course he has visited the vet and got all his shots and neutered. What a friendly, sweet little guy he is. He's ten years old but acts like a pup. Scruffy is up for grabs if anyone wants to adopt him. He is great with cats and other dogs. His face appears to always be smiling.

CRANE HUNTING SEASON REVISITED

A representative from TWRA gave a bird presentation at the Knoxville Ornithological Association this week. The questions came up about a crane hunting season. He told them that it was well under way and the plans were submitted to the commissioners; Whoever they are. He further said to them that TWRA is a "hook and bullet" organization by necessity meaning the only revenue they have is through hunting and fishing license. No tax money is directed to the organization from what I can understand. So that's that. It seems there's a lot of stuff out there to shoot at and kill already. I guess the reasoning is that there they are; might as well put a season on them. In Tennessee the hunters can lobby for changes to the hunting and game laws. A season on cranes is not going to cause more licenses to be sold. So there won't be increased revenue unless there's a crane stamp sold. So why do they need to be shot at? And there isn't any glory in shooting one of them as they just fly over like B29 bombers, slow and easy. Can't miss em. Terrible tasting. Not good to eat. They seem to run a gauntlet already flying North. They're shot in Minnesota and Wyoming, Montana and on up in British Colombia. Guess they'll have to run it back through Tennessee now. Wonder what if the Bald Eagle ever succeeded in a population explosion where they were common as crows if they would have a hunting season attached to them. There would be lots of em. Why not? Wonder what it is about this hunting thing. I used to do it a lot. Lived for it. Till one day, hunting on top a tall mountain in Central Pa. I shot a small doe with a black powder rifle at about a hundred yards. Broke her left hip. Remember seeing it flop around as she tried to run. I quickly poured powder and punched a slug down the barrel. Pushed the ram rod home. It split and wedged beside the slug the inside of the gun barrel. I had to take off running after that doe that now lay in the brush. Got real close. 25 feet. She up and ran. I ran after her. I stopped; she did too. She was all in. I took off the wool rich coat and took off after her with just my shirt on. Was 25 degrees that day in Central Pa. I got to ten feet of her and she went strait down the mountain and so did I. I was right on her. Could have touched her. I pulled out my knife and lunged onto her back. We both tumbled, but not before I dragged the knife across her throat. We rolled and rolled and finally stopped. She stood watching me. Then down on front knees and lay down. She assumed a sleeping pose as a cow would lay on a pasture. She stared at me. The blood pushed out the slit in her throat with each heart beat. She stared at me the whole time. I remember thinking she seems to be asking me "why did you do this to me?" Why? Her eyes slowly closed and she bent her head around and tucked her muzzle under the inside of her back leg and fell asleep. I felt terrible; misrable. And I asked myself why. All I accomplished was to put terror into that gentle animal. I did it because it was hunting season and that's what I was to do. That was the last animal I ever killed while hunting. I remember every second of that day. I remember the beautiful face that stared into mine pleading for an answer to her question; "Why did you do this to me?" There is no glory in it. None!

STONE RIVER BATTLEFIELD

http://www.civilwar.org/historyclassroom/hc_stonesriverhist.htm It is a sad place. It is a place of death. It is a place where men laid down their lives willingly for all that they believed; right or wrong. It is a place of terrible suffering. It is a place that represents our countries struggles to find itself. It represents misery and pain; agony and defeat; pride and embarrassment; heroism and fear. But it is one of many battles fought that contributed to the foundation that this great country is built upon and helped sculpture our destiny.

GHEENOE PROGRESS

I drove over to the Boat Locker in Franklin, Tennessee this afternoon to check on the new magic carpet. The guys over there were diligently working on rigging my boat. It's getting close. Hooray! Here are a few preliminary pictures of the new adventure machine. Click on photo to enlarge.