Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Country Extra

Old Man Winter may not have packed his bags and left town just yet, but the folks in a small town in northwest Louisiana are busy planning one of the sweetest spring festivals in the state on March 5. The Jonquil Jubilee Home & Garden Tour is an annual celebration of the blooming of the jonquils, a kind of daffodil. Every year on the first Saturday in March, people flock to the small town of Gibsland, known as the Daffodil Capital of Louisiana, to welcome the bright flowers’ announcement that spring is on its way. Daffodils originated in Spain and Portugal, and early European settlers brought the bulbs to the United States. Neighbors shared bulbs, the bulbs multiplied, and soon they were growing prolifically. Some of the existing bulbs may…

This is the view from the home I share with my wife, Christine, looking toward our daughter’s home. We are lifelong residents of Gilmer County. Our home is just a few miles from the terminus of the Appalachian Trail. We enjoy very colorful autumns, mild winters with occasional snow, and summers that are much cooler than those in southern Georgia. It’s not uncommon to see deer, turkeys, bear and bobcats in our yard. We also enjoy fishing for rainbow, brown and brook trout in the many nearby streams. Though we’ve traveled to many places in Europe, Asia and the United States, we love our home here in Gilmer County like no other place on earth.…

I grew up in Maryland on a small rural property of a few acres where my mother raised chickens. She had about 30 white Plymouth Rocks that our family used for eggs and meat. Tending the chickens and gathering eggs were among my daily chores. I loved those hens and dreamed of having a flock of my own when I grew up and left home. However, I married a Navy officer, and we moved often during his active duty years, never to a place where we could have chickens. After he retired, we bought a country home with lots of space. It wasn’t long before we got a chicken coop, built an enclosure and bought eight little peeps from our local farm store. I had recently been on a trip…

Our surroundings were pitch black, but in our headlamps we could see bits and pieces of rough, twisted terrain so sharp that any bare skin that touched it came away wounded. We were stumbling in the dark with our guides, photographers CJ Kale and Nick Selway, to see the expansion of new land formed by lava on Hawaii, the Big Island of the Hawaiian Islands. They own Lava Light Gallery in Kailua-Kona, and they likely have more photos of running lava than anyone else in the world. The cracks we were stepping over glowed orange, and the heat was intense. CJ and Nick led us through the darkness to the island’s western edge, where we could go no farther. Earth is a constantly moving jigsaw puzzle, and nowhere is…

Hot and crowded in the tool car, we waited until the dispatcher radioed an all-clear, then we finally moved. The wind whipped past, throwing sizable cinders on the crew in their shirts and caps with the number 611 emblazoned in gold. Hands-on workers in steel-toe shoes, work gloves and red rags stuffed in hip pockets, they were the heart of this train’s restoration. I’d joined them as the Norfolk & Western’s Class J series, No. 611, headed home to Roanoke, Virginia. For nearly a year, this core group of 25 to 40 skilled volunteers, some traveling hundreds of miles, felt honored to donate their talent and thousands of hours to bring the world’s most powerful passenger steam locomotive, twice retired, back to life. The crew seemed so casual, in contrast…

MYSTERY TOOL This item is approximately 8 inches wide, 19 inches long and 6 inches tall. It’s electric, with neon tubes on the top that light up and a knob on the front to turn it on. As for markings, it has a UL sticker, and two sets of numbers are on the bottom: 7-3-53 and 603. The first one is likely a date. Any help identifying this item would be appreciated. LONNY CHURCHILL 445 Quail Lane Roseburg OR 97471 lpchurchill@charter.net We think it’s a… Crandall hammer! Bill didn’t know what his mystery tool was meant for, but he knew his granddad used it to scrape clinkers out of fireboxes on old steam engines, first during his employment with the Katy Railroad, then on his farm’s coal-fired thresher. Bill learned…

My grandmother Opal Pitcher tackled every task with enthusiasm and perseverance, teaching her children and grandchildren a country mix of grace and justice along the way. Growing up in the “hills of Kentucky,” as she called them, she helped care for her younger siblings. During World War II that responsibility led her to Indiana, where she worked in a factory and sent her earnings home to the family. That’s where she met my grandfather Arthur. Grandma described her first glimpse of my grandfather to me many times. She looked across the room at a company Christmas party and saw a tall, handsome man in a military uniform. He had just returned from the war and was required to wear the uniform to formal events. She managed to get an introduction,…

CAT PILE! “My friend Ann’s cats squashed together to share the chair where the spring sunshine comes in,” says Penny Eddy of Newark Valley, New York. Runaway Remedy A farmer was coaxing his mule along a dusty road one day when it started to balk. The stubborn mule wouldn’t budge for all the farmer’s pleading, coaxing, threatening and shouting. Just then the country doctor pulled up, and the farmer asked if the doctor had anything that might make the mule go. The doctor dug through her medicine bag and shook out a small amount of powder. She spooned it into the mule’s mouth and stepped back. The mule chewed, swallowed, flicked its ears and suddenly leapt forward and, snapping the harness, galloped away. The farmer jumped down off the wagon.…

1 MAUNA KEA To reach the top of the dormant “White Mountain,” you can drive from sea level to 13,796 feet in two hours—or hike from the Visitor Information Station at 9,200 feet in about eight hours. 2 HAKALAU FOREST NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE Visit this rainforest with a guide to see Hawaii’s colorful native honeycreeper birds and ohia trees. 3 AKAKA FALLS AND 4 RAINBOW FALLS Akaka Falls, with a dramatic drop of 442 feet, can be reached via a short paved path. The loop also passes by Kahuna Falls. At nearby Rainbow Falls, the Wailuku River rushes over a rocky archway, and the morning sun creates rainbows in the mist. 5 KILAUEA VOLCANO Also inside the national park, this volcano has been erupting almost constantly since 1983. Scenic Crater…

All YEAR ROUND Most often, you can visit the 611 at home—the Virginia Museum of Transportation. ALL ABOARD! If you’d rather take a ride, 2016 excursion trips are scheduled to run from April through June. MEET & GREET The 611 will also make guest appearances at local summer and fall events, starting June 4 with the Heritage Railway Festival in nearby Manassas. LET’S BACKTRACK Get the whole 611 story—the history, restoration and return to service—in a new documentary expected to be released in May. WHERE TO START Find all these details online at FireUp611.org, where you can also sign up for updates delivered right to your email inbox. If you have questions, call 540-342-5670.…

Smoky was a gray long-haired cat that adored water. She would bat her water dish, splashing all the contents out. Or she would sit in the tub and wait for someone to pour water for her to play with. One evening I was taking a bubble bath, and Smoky hopped up on the edge of the tub. She paced back and forth, staring intently, then sat down and stretched out a paw to reach those bubbles. There was water on the edge of the tub, and her back end slipped and plunged beneath the bubbles. Her front end desperately clawed at the slick enamel, and I managed to help her out while avoiding those flailing back claws. She streaked out of the bathroom in a way that said her water-loving…

My family lived on a chicken farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains when we were children. Our father often took a job in the Virginia shipyards to make ends meet. Times were hard for us, so everyone was expected to pitch in and pull their load. The cow had been a good buy from Mr. Absher, who said she gave the sweetest milk in the county. We couldn’t swear to that, because so far we had not been able to milk her. Dad said she would calm down once she got used to us. I think he forgot to mention that to the cow. My older brother went out to milk her. Luckily, she was tied to a cinder block to hold her in place. As he…

A Gentle, Steady Hand “Carson, my grandson, loves feeding treats to his pony, Rosie,” says Judy Smith of Homer, Georgia. “His dad, Brandon, teaches him how horses respond best to a quiet, gentle approach.” Best Friends Forever “Amber, my young friend from church, shares a quiet moment under a tree with her mini horse, Dolly Ann,” says Mary Duryee of Cuba, Missouri. Welcoming Committee “My sister, Lindsay, has a passion for horses, and these curious, friendly yearlings seemed to sense that,” says Meghan Burchianti of Louisville, Kentucky. “Lindsay was in pure heaven at this moment.”…

Each morning my mom, Betty Ramsburg, is escorted to the mailbox by her two pets—Lilly, a white Bichon, and Blackie the cat. Seeing them all get the mail together is an interesting sight. Tish Nelson Waynesboro, Pennsylvania CATHY BECK’S STORY in the November issue is about our family, too. It was nice to read about fellow rock hounds (page 20, “Confessions of a Rock Hound”). I still have the pretty pink rock my sister and parents gave me for Christmas when I was 8 years old. It was in a display at a fancy department store, and my sister knew that I had to have it. The rock sits in my living room today. My sons collected rocks everywhere we went and found some heart rocks, too. Before visiting our…

When I was a child in the late 1920s, our family of eight moved from Sedalia, Missouri, to a small farm in western Kentucky. The 80 acres were part of the homestead my mother’s relatives settled in 1794. We had a garden, orchard, chickens, turkeys, pigs, horses and Jersey cows. We sold eggs and cream in town to buy what we needed at the grocery store. With everyone working we always had plenty to eat. Still, as spring approached, we started to dream of pouring maple syrup over our breakfast biscuits instead of sorghum molasses. That meant everybody had to help make it. The two older boys attended high school in town but were home on Saturdays to cut wood for the house and sugar camp. The younger children went…

IDAHO Mountain snowmelt gives Birch Creek something to babble about. VIRGINIA Maple sugar buckets along Doe Hill in the Shenandoah Valley are the sweetest sign of spring. READER PHOTO Anna Dean GEORGETOWN, ILLINOIS “Nubian kids soak up the sun on our farm, Medlar Meadows.” NEW JERSEY “Spring is on the way,” sings a plump robin. WASHINGTON Nothing says winter is over like vibrant tulips and children wading in mud puddles. READER PHOTO Paul Sundberg GRAND MARAIS, MINNESOTA “Our friends’ daughter Kate gives a warm hug to a hen at a local farm.” READER PHOTO Jack Chamblee DESOTO, TEXAS “We celebrated 50 years of marriage with a family train ride through Skagway, Alaska.” MISSOURI Crystal clear Alley Spring powers this historic mill near Eminence in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways park.…

Thinking of Cecil United Methodist Church in Cecil, Arkansas, takes me back to my earliest memories. I remember so many Sunday school classes with Geneva Mitchell and how exciting it was to go to our little church during a revival. How big the church looked! How loud the bell rang on Sunday mornings. How good the music sounded as Uncle Sam Bumpers played his fiddle and Aunt Esther Bumpers played the piano. A church is like a family, and we called everyone Aunt or Uncle; it didn’t matter whether they were actual kin or not. And it still doesn’t. Nestled under big oak trees in the most beautiful corner of the world, the little white church was built in 1910. James Monroe Andrews, my great-grandfather, was a carpenter who constructed…

A Little Nutty Before our second son was born, our oldest, Kellen, about 3, was lonely for a playmate. So he created an imaginary friend, Nut. One Sunday afternoon on our way home from church, I asked Kellen if Nut also went to church. Yes, he did. When I asked where, Kellen said, “He goes to church with all the other Nuts.” Gale King MCKINLEYVILLE, CALIFORNIA Doggie Dialect When I asked my 4-year-old grandson, Chandler, what his dog’s name was, he said “Max.” I told him I had asked the dog what his name was, and that the dog told me “Arf.” Chandler laughed and said, “That’s just how he talks.” Loyd Isley SALLISAW, OKLAHOMA Boy Old Boy! My 4-year-old granddaughter, Emma Grace, was visiting her paternal grandfather in Kentucky.…

The practice of porch sitting has all but disappeared from our society. It’s a skill—no, an art, a way of life—that I learned from my maternal grandparents. My earliest memories of them were made on their front porch. “Don’t put your feet under that swing,” my grandmother warned. “It might fall and crush your legs.” But it never fell. The springs never broke. Our legs never got crushed. Not that we didn’t test it. The porch was quiet, the only sounds being the metallic squeak of the spring and the tap of my grandparents’ feet as they slowly rocked in old, paint-encrusted rocking chairs. If my grandparents were in a reflective mood, they might tell stories. If a train interrupted, they stopped midsentence and rocked silently until the train had…

My husband, Shawn, and I enjoy seeing life through the eyes of our five children. It’s amazing to watch as they discover their world. While we were outdoors last summer enjoying the sunshine, our oldest daughter, Kaytlin, called me to the porch. Beneath the steps was a baby red squirrel. We watched it from a distance, not wanting to disturb it or scare off its mother. But after a long wait—and looking all around our property for traces of a nest or a mother—we realized the tiny squirrel was likely an orphan. Shaking terribly, he was frail, thin and hungry. We tried to find an expert to help, but the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website showed that there were no wildlife rehabilitators in our county. After some quick research, we…