Hiking to White Rock Ranger Station

At the end of October, Leroy, my nieghbor that I go hiking with, and Bill, another nieghbor that hikes with Leroy, hiked up to White Rock. 

White Rock is a former Ranger fire watch tower that has not been in use for quite a few years, but at one time was manned by Rangers in rotating shifts of 3-6 months at a time.  It is located on the East end of the Smoky Mountain National Park at an elevation of 5,900 feet. 

It is still accessabile by trails that are maintained by the park service, but in Leroy's true fashion (that I REALLY enjoy), we don't always stick to the trails and this was one of those times.  We took a VERY seldom used (or probably known about) route that starts a couple of miles up from our cabin that took us up some very challenging terrain and obstacles........and of course, Leroy (remember that he is 74 years old) had no problem with, but to be honest, it KICKED my butt.......but was well worth the views that were enjoyed.

Here are some pictures that I did manage to garner the strength to click the shutter...!!

 

White (REALLLLLLLLY WHITE) Christmas...!!

The kids (and Mom and I too) were really excited when we saw the forecast last week that we might get some snow on Christmas Eve.......well, we got home from Church around 8:30 and it still wasn't snowing, but we held out hope.

Christmas morning there was a few inches of snow on the ground.......how sweet was that!!

And then..........it kept snowing........and kept snowing........and kept snowing........and it's now Sunday night, 36 hours later and it's STILL snowing!!!

Current depth is about 15-16 inches.......so I guess we got our wish.....thank you Jesus...!!!

It's a blast.....we've taken several walks just enjoying the "new landscape" of the mountain, the kids have played.....we've gone through quite of bit of Chris' homemade Hot Chocolate (it's to die for) and since I couldn't really work outside, I even got my shop cleaned up this afternoon. 

Here are a few pictures.......I'm only going to post a few right now because we are on satellite internet and the snow is interfering with our connection, but we'll be posting some more a few at a time and also sharing some Christmas activities also.....enjoy..!!



Dollywood Christmas

We went to Dollywood during Christmas time the first year we bought our place in Tennessee and have made a Christmas tradition out of going there the night before Christmas Eve to see the lights, listen to the music and see a show or two. 

Since Dollywood is only about 30 minutes away, we buy season passess each year as a Family Christmas present and we really get our moneys worth with several trips during the summer and ending it up with our Christmas trip. 

We always make the Christmas trip at night since the lights are awesome.....!!



Let It Snow......AND IT DID..!!

We've had a few snows so far this fall, but we had a doozie last weekend......totaled about 7-8 inches as well as got down into the single digits....(4 degrees Wednesday morning when I got up at 4:00 a.m.).

The first winter we bought this place I was still playing golf in January, but now that we've moved here it's been record snows and record cold.......I LOVE IT....!!!!! 

One thing about it, when you look at snow on the mountains, uncluttered by homes and people on top of each other like we've been used to, it's a real nice change.....!!!

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The Cabin that started out as a storage shed......

Well, we decided to build a "shed" for Chris to put her craft stuff in and have a place to work on it.......o.k., I really wanted her out of my shop, but I didn't want to sound like a real butt head, but that's the real reason..!!

Anyway, we started pricing some sheds, then we contacted the contractor that did the addition to our cabin and the next thing you know, we decided to go ahead and just build a small cabin that we can also use for visitors and maybe even rent some during the tourist season.......seemed like a good idea since money isn't making anything anywhere else since the government has run our economy into the ground and contractor pricing is about as competitive as I've ever seen it...!!

Lydia has already claimed this cabin as hers when she turns 18, so I guess we are going to have to build another one for Lauren.......and then I guess the rest of the kids will want one, so we will probably eventually have a regular compound going here someday......might not be a bad thing when the country goes into revolt, eh?????