tennessee

History Lesson – Cumberland Gap

September 5, 2017 — 6 Comments

Don’t worry, I’ve already turned myself in to the fashion police for wearing those socks with those sandals. In other news, today I went through 3 states: Tennessee, the Volunteer state, Kentucky, and Virginia, which apparently is for lovers, all in about 15 minutes.

virginia is for lovers

 

The mission was to visit Martin’s Station, an old frontier fort, which was surprisingly fascinating because there were men in funny costumes talking about frontier trades, such as gun making and blacksmithing. I ate it up, especially because the blacksmith was really cute and made me a nail which I will cherish forever. I swoon.

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Then, to top it all off, a trio of cherubic fiddlers played some 18th Century Irish and American tunes and shared a little info about music on the frontier, which I also ate right up. Too bad I already missed the annual Indian raid reenactment, sounds like quite a show and I wonder how they’ll deal with the scalpings.

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And here’s a not so good photo of the general area I’m staying in. Those are Appalachian Mountains and I was at Pinnacles National Park, which is part of Cumberland Gap, a famous military passage way during the Civil War.

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Then, to top everything off, I went into Walmart for the first time in my life and survived.

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More to come.

LOL (lots of love, according to my grandma Helene),

Kelly

Ps. Hi family! Hi Grandma Pat! Grampa, sorry to hear you cut off all the fingers on your left hand today with a table saw. Love you anyway.

WWOOF – Mountain Hollow Farm

August 28, 2017 — 6 Comments

Hello All,

Today I’ve got some farm updates for you.

Woof, Wwoof!

No, I’m not a dog, I’m a WWOOFer.

For those of you who don’t know, theres this thing called WWOOF, which stands for “willing workers on organic farms.”  It is a world-wide network of farms that accept volunteers in exchange for room and board. It is a great way to live and travel affordably, meet people, experience culture, and learn things, many things!

I started WWOOFing after graduating college because I didn’t know what else to do, first in Hawaii, then Israel, Germany, and now Tennessee. Along the way I have met many interesting people and places, learned a lot about farming and handiwork, and experienced crazy things, like being chased by a camel and accidentally going to Palestine. WWOOF has been a very enriching aspect of my life and I encourage anyone who doesn’t mind working while they’re on vacation to give it a try.

Anywho, this time around I wanted to work on a farm with horses, because I wanted to get to know horses. After searching the WWOOF-USA database, which costs about $20 for a one year membership, I found Mountain Hollow Farm, which not only has horses but also cashmere goats. Since I am the spawn of my mother, who LOVES cashmere clothing, I have developed an affinity for cashmere and thought it would be interesting to visit this farm to satisfy multiple interests: horses, cashemere, and music.

So, here I am, WWOOFing in Tazewell, Tennessee, learning about goats, horses, chickens, guinea hens, giant dogs, a llama, yarn, and knitting. I am about an hour from Knoxville, which hopefully will provide some music connection…I did see there is a Johnny Cash museum in Knoxville and Dolly Parton land isn’t too far away either.

Well, that’s all for now. More about farm life to come.

Cheers and thank you for reading.

Feel free to make comments, suggestions, or ask questions below.