Category Archives: New Resident Tips

Norris Lake Water Level

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Norris Lake Water Level

If you are new to Norris Lake, you’ll find it interesting to know that there is a useful website that graphs the Norris Lake water level and compares it to previous years.

There are many uses for it.  I checked it when I wrote a recent post about an underwater spring on Clear Creek to see if it was still visible or not.  This tool made it possible for me to go back and get the historical elevation of Norris Lake on a particular date to know what elevation the spring was…and if it was submerged yet.

Life is an Adventure!

How to meet new people? Leave it to the dogs.

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Jim and I went jogging this morning and for the first time had, not one, but two dogs decide to follow along with us all the way home.

They both were very good natured and we enjoyed their company. I thought for sure that they would turn around and head for home but after a cool drink of water, they settled down on the porch, quite content.

One, named Idgie, had a dog tag and I was able to call her owner to pick her up. Debbie came right away and we got to talking. She said she already knew me because she reads this blog! I immediately remembered her because she had commented on a blog post some time back and we exchanged emails. Small world.

Debbie recognized the second dog named Macie, a boxer, and was going to drop her off but apparently she couldn’t get her in her truck because some time passed and Macie was still here. She appeared not to know how to return home! I thought all dogs could do this.

I, too, could not get her in the bed of the truck. What to do? I got in the car and slowly drove down the road, calling her name. She followed me! When we got to her home I could see her pick up her step and go up the driveway. I quickly sped on down the road so she would not follow me again.

Of the two dogs, both of which had sweet personalities, there was something about Macie that seemed special.  She was so gentle and had a look of pure devotion.

All in all it was a fun experience and I welcome getting to know Debbie better. But does anyone have any tips on how to keep them from following us again?

White Lightning Trail in TN

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Tennessee Historical Commission marker along M...

Tennessee Historical Commission marker along Maynardville Highway (TN-33) in Maynardville, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Country music singer Roy Acuff was born in Maynardville in 1903. The town's local history museum and library are both named for Acuff. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We’d heard about the White Lightning Trail in TN and recently Jim discovered this great website that details all of its 163 featured stops — 200 miles of fun.

When my sister Sharon and her husband Ed came to visit last week, we were driving around showing them the sights and we spotted the White Lightning Trail signs all over the highway.  Sharon and Ed, who are from Florida, shared that they had just completed driving the entire Blue Ridge Parkway (albeit in segments).  IThis sounded like a fun thing to do with  the White Lightning Trail — explore it in-full and check it off our list of things-to-do.

Since we hail from Dayton, we were already very familiar with its National Aviation Heritage Trail and knew it had lots of historical aviation-related stops to explore in a rather compact area, so I was anxious to see what the White Lightning Trail had to offer in terms of moonshine sightseeing.

Jim and I have already visited several places on the trail (Museum of Appalachia, Roy Acuff Museum and a few others), and enjoyed them immensely, but one thing I noticed from the website is that the white lightning “moonshine” theme is really in name only, as I only saw a handful (maybe one or two) places that even mentioned any history related to moonshine — one of them being the town of Luttrell, near Maynardville, where they mention a notorious distillery during the Thunder Road period.  I hope I am mistaken because it would be fun if we could learn more about the history of this feature unique to TN.

We do plan on exploring many of these sights on the trail.  If you recommend any in particular, please let me know.

Life is an Adventure.

Lost Electricity For the First Time

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Two Candles

Image via Wikipedia

I got home this evening to find that the power was out. This was the first time I experienced it here in Sharps Chapel but was prepared with candles, matches and a flashlight.

What I was not expecting was my reaction to lighting the candles. I felt a joy knowing that I was using candles for a utilitarian purpose! I had brought candles that I had not used for 20 years and was joyful to be lighting them.

The power came on an hour later. I was actually sad. It feels so good to experience what real life throws at you and know that you can make it through.  It gives you feelings of  empowerment.

Life is an adventure.

Sharps Chapel Litter Pick-Up Yields 52 Bags of Trash

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Until you’ve picked up litter on Sharps Chapel Rd., you really don’t have a true appreciation of how much traffic drives by on that road — or should I say “flies” by, as many of them were surely exceeding the speed limit.

For 2 1/2 hours today, I joined a group of Sharps Chapel community residents in picking up litter along Sharps Chapel Road.  To complicate things, there was a road crew laying a 3 mile stretch of new asphalt, so we avoided that area — but the big trucks carrying the asphalt flew by like there was no tomorrow.

The time went quickly and it was amazing how much trash we ended up collecting.  The photo only shows half of it, the rest was in the pick-up truck behind us.  Jackie Erlbacher, who organized this, sent all the participants an email update this evening giving us the results.

Drum roll please.  We picked up 52 bags of trash (which equates to 1300 pounds of litter) today! She also thanked all the pickers: Chris Browning, Frank Buchanan & Pid LaWare, Tom & LorI Clark, Dave Dettling, Sandy & Mike Devery, J. Ron Erikson, J. Erlbacher, Rebecca Hoberland, Emily & Rich Lemming, Mary Johnson (that’s me in the blue shirt and brown fanny pack), Bob & Kitty Scott,  Nancy Starr, and Les Sponseller and his group from Leadmine Bend Road.

Beside doing a good deed for the community, I equally enjoyed the time I spent getting to know my partner in crime for the day — Nancy Starr.  This is a great way to get to know someone a little better.  I truly appreciated her helping hand on those especially trashy spots that always seemed to be on my side of the road!  Thanks Nancy!