DOGWOOD ACRES, 09/15/08, ELANE CRUM
Hello friends. Hurricane Ike has passed on through, leaving us almost six inches of rain and a yard full of limbs. Only a few trees were blown over at our house and they were dead ones that Rick had flagged for firewood. Over at Justin and Kasie’s a big green limb came down barely missing their pickup.
We were just one of many throughout the county that had no electricity for at least twelve hours. That was not really such a terrible hardship, although Pastor Neal gave us a rough time for missing church. I told him we couldn’t take showers and he asked if that would have been our weekly shower.
Brother-in-law Bill Biggs missed the Chiefs game and could have watched it on my 4” battery powered TV, had I only known.
Rick and I drove down to Bull Creek but the Gravely Hollow Branch was flooded before we got to Meadows. We drove out to Ronnie Bilyeu’s bluff and looked straight down at the rushing waters of Bull Creek where it runs past Saddlebrooke and the Chapman Place. It was really wide, swift and muddy.
Our next leg of the journey was down Lone Star Road to Swan Creek. Jay Gideon and Quentin were out in their yard picking up limbs and we visited with them for just a minute. As we drove along the bluff road, Swan was lapping at the edge, and then all of a sudden the road was covered with water.
David Rittershouse was just ahead of us and turned around trying to get to the Taney Co. Historical Society’s monthly meeting.
Since we couldn’t cross Swan, we turned around and went to Forsyth to look at the lakes, both running high and muddy. Rick couldn’t help but wonder if the high water might push the Wall Eye back up by the dam.
I took a lot of pictures of the water; had hoped to see a black bear somewhere along the way, but they must have been hiding. The squirrels were all in hiding too; I wondered if the high winds had scared them deep into their nests.
We talked to Roscoe and Wanetta Keithley late Sunday afternoon. Uncle Ros said that Taneycomo was running full and muddy below their bluff top home. He said he could usually tell whether the mud is washing in from Bull Creek or Turkey Creek but they both seem to be running full speed this time.
The Keithley’s had a little hunting news from Jacob Rock, who had killed a 250# hog in Texas and also came face to face with a Cottonmouth.
Georgine and Darrell Cummings have been traveling around the country again. She said their first stop was in Boise City, OK, to visit with Bubby Wade. From there they went to Springfield, CO, to visit Ann Cummings Wade and her sister-in-law, Margaret Wade. Then, to Ordway, OK, where they spent three nights with old time friends, David and Dave Monett.
Rick Crum and Jeff Dalton have been buzzing the woods on their 4-wheelers. They found a patch of Coral Mushrooms and picked a big mess to split between them. I don’t really like cleaning mushrooms, but soaked them in salt water to kill the itty-bitty bugs and picked out the leaves before battering and frying them. They fried up kind of like deer steak and left enough good stuff in the skillet for flour gravy.
Makaylee Tilley’s freshman year of high school is off to a busy start as she is playing third base on Forsyth’s Varsity Softball Team.
Neal, LeaAnn and the girls have been making jelly from the wild plums and possum grapes that grow near their house. They also gave me a jar of apple syrup and have promised me a jar of yummy apple molasses.
Christie made blackberry and peach jellies on Saturday and gave me a jar of each of those too. Jelly calls for biscuits, so I may be in big trouble by the time we empty all of these jelly jars.
Christie, Rhonda Phipps and I used a lunch hour last week to attend Silver Dollar City’s new Culinary School. That is a fancy name for a cooking class, but it was very enjoyable. Debbie Uhrig is the cooking instructor and a distant cousin of ours, Rick Bilyeu, was the merchandising director. There is more than one Rick Bilyeu in our family, but we had never met this one who is the son of Morris Bilyeu from Ozark.
I took a day off to stay at home with Rick and we took to the woods on his 4-wheeler. Four hours and thirty-two deer stories later, I managed to lift my body back onto the ground and waddle to the house. I thought I knew these hills pretty well, but had he left me on the High Hill, I would only hope to have found my way home before dark.
He took me to the High Hill where Grandpa Clarence and Daddy hunted year after year and killed more deer and turkey than one could count.
After our Grandpa passed away, Daddy found it hard to hunt there, but had
another tall White Oak that he liked to hunt from. Rick took me there too and I finally saw this legendary tree where Daddy had killed at least twenty-two deer. Our son, Neal, at the age of ten, killed his first deer from that treetop. Had I ever had any idea just how far they walked and how high that tree was, I don’t know if I would have had a moment’s peace.
Before taking the final turn toward home, we rode to the spring where my folks hauled our water from for several years. We had two or three milk cans in the back of the car and would fill them with that fresh spring water. While the cans were filling, us kids would catch crawdads in the spring branch. I enjoyed going back there and took another drink of that cold water. Bye for now.
STILLHOUSE SPRING
Hello friends. Hurricane Ike has passed on through, leaving us almost six inches of rain and a yard full of limbs. Only a few trees were blown over at our house and they were dead ones that Rick had flagged for firewood. Over at Justin and Kasie’s a big green limb came down barely missing their pickup.
We were just one of many throughout the county that had no electricity for at least twelve hours. That was not really such a terrible hardship, although Pastor Neal gave us a rough time for missing church. I told him we couldn’t take showers and he asked if that would have been our weekly shower.
Brother-in-law Bill Biggs missed the Chiefs game and could have watched it on my 4” battery powered TV, had I only known.
Rick and I drove down to Bull Creek but the Gravely Hollow Branch was flooded before we got to Meadows. We drove out to Ronnie Bilyeu’s bluff and looked straight down at the rushing waters of Bull Creek where it runs past Saddlebrooke and the Chapman Place. It was really wide, swift and muddy.
Our next leg of the journey was down Lone Star Road to Swan Creek. Jay Gideon and Quentin were out in their yard picking up limbs and we visited with them for just a minute. As we drove along the bluff road, Swan was lapping at the edge, and then all of a sudden the road was covered with water.
David Rittershouse was just ahead of us and turned around trying to get to the Taney Co. Historical Society’s monthly meeting.Since we couldn’t cross Swan, we turned around and went to Forsyth to look at the lakes, both running high and muddy. Rick couldn’t help but wonder if the high water might push the Wall Eye back up by the dam.
I took a lot of pictures of the water; had hoped to see a black bear somewhere along the way, but they must have been hiding. The squirrels were all in hiding too; I wondered if the high winds had scared them deep into their nests.
We talked to Roscoe and Wanetta Keithley late Sunday afternoon. Uncle Ros said that Taneycomo was running full and muddy below their bluff top home. He said he could usually tell whether the mud is washing in from Bull Creek or Turkey Creek but they both seem to be running full speed this time.
The Keithley’s had a little hunting news from Jacob Rock, who had killed a 250# hog in Texas and also came face to face with a Cottonmouth.
Georgine and Darrell Cummings have been traveling around the country again. She said their first stop was in Boise City, OK, to visit with Bubby Wade. From there they went to Springfield, CO, to visit Ann Cummings Wade and her sister-in-law, Margaret Wade. Then, to Ordway, OK, where they spent three nights with old time friends, David and Dave Monett.
Rick Crum and Jeff Dalton have been buzzing the woods on their 4-wheelers. They found a patch of Coral Mushrooms and picked a big mess to split between them. I don’t really like cleaning mushrooms, but soaked them in salt water to kill the itty-bitty bugs and picked out the leaves before battering and frying them. They fried up kind of like deer steak and left enough good stuff in the skillet for flour gravy.
Makaylee Tilley’s freshman year of high school is off to a busy start as she is playing third base on Forsyth’s Varsity Softball Team.
Neal, LeaAnn and the girls have been making jelly from the wild plums and possum grapes that grow near their house. They also gave me a jar of apple syrup and have promised me a jar of yummy apple molasses.
Christie made blackberry and peach jellies on Saturday and gave me a jar of each of those too. Jelly calls for biscuits, so I may be in big trouble by the time we empty all of these jelly jars.
Christie, Rhonda Phipps and I used a lunch hour last week to attend Silver Dollar City’s new Culinary School. That is a fancy name for a cooking class, but it was very enjoyable. Debbie Uhrig is the cooking instructor and a distant cousin of ours, Rick Bilyeu, was the merchandising director. There is more than one Rick Bilyeu in our family, but we had never met this one who is the son of Morris Bilyeu from Ozark.
I took a day off to stay at home with Rick and we took to the woods on his 4-wheeler. Four hours and thirty-two deer stories later, I managed to lift my body back onto the ground and waddle to the house. I thought I knew these hills pretty well, but had he left me on the High Hill, I would only hope to have found my way home before dark.
He took me to the High Hill where Grandpa Clarence and Daddy hunted year after year and killed more deer and turkey than one could count.
After our Grandpa passed away, Daddy found it hard to hunt there, but hadanother tall White Oak that he liked to hunt from. Rick took me there too and I finally saw this legendary tree where Daddy had killed at least twenty-two deer. Our son, Neal, at the age of ten, killed his first deer from that treetop. Had I ever had any idea just how far they walked and how high that tree was, I don’t know if I would have had a moment’s peace.
Before taking the final turn toward home, we rode to the spring where my folks hauled our water from for several years. We had two or three milk cans in the back of the car and would fill them with that fresh spring water. While the cans were filling, us kids would catch crawdads in the spring branch. I enjoyed going back there and took another drink of that cold water. Bye for now.
STILLHOUSE SPRING
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