Welcome Aboard

We would like to welcome you to Cathy and Chuck's blog. We try to make at least twice monthly entries but sometimes get lax and neglect our blog. BUT we try to make up for it with hopefully interesting and informative articles. Happy Reading

About Us

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I'm Cathy, a 67 year old retired Navy wife. Spent 24 years as a Navy wife until my husband retired after 27 years of service. We traveled all over from Washington D.C., to Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. Maartin, Martinique, Japan and Korea. We re-located to this beautiful state of TN from Central FL. We live in the mountains on 5 acres with our 10 cats (5 indoor). I'm Chuck, the Other Half of the equation. I'm a 68 y/o sailor at heart. While in the Navy I was a Cryptologic Tech (Intel type). My most memorable tours of duty were in Submarines (Scorpion, Skipjack, Triton & Ray), as Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Deputy Director National Security Agency (RADM C.F. Clark), and my last tour as Operations Chief at NSGA Homestead, Fl during Hurricane Andrew. It was a good time to retire. We have been looking for this home since 1965 and thank the good Lord that we're finally here.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Freaky Weather

Man - this weather lately is getting weird.  It's extremely cold and snowy one day and sunny in the 60's the next.  Seems it's not just here but all over the nation.  Anywho - we have been spending a lot of time indoors and started getting cabin fever.  So, Cathy's way of breaking the monotony is to cook.  I have to say I'm the benefactor of this and since I really enjoy eating, I don't go wanting much.  Yesterday she decided to try raised donuts.  I even pitched in cause it sounded interesting and man can I put away donuts, with my coffee of course.  This was the result:


Talk about deeeellliiiiccccciiiiooooouuuuusss.  Warm out of the deep fry and I ate them by the pound.  I'll regret it later because without some exercise my shoes seem to get heavier every time I get on the scales.  My Doc says it's the steel toes but I don't wear steel toe boots??????  We figured we'd take some up to our neighbor's, Joe and Jan.  I told Joe the donut holes were for him and Jan was to get the donut. 

Cathy decided that, in addition to glazed, she'd try the powdered sugar.  I guess they turned out alright but I'll stick with the glazed cause you get more that way.  Heh Heh Heh!!!
          Since yesterday turned out so nice, I decided to go arrowhead hunting round about the mountain.  Didn't find anything below the house on the logging road but there was lots of wash out from recent rains and lots of flint chips all over, just no full arrowheads.  I figured I'd go visit a site about 2-3 miles down the road at a logging/lumber mill where the ground is usually very productive for finding artifacts and I have permission to hunt. 

I had just gotten off my 4 wheeler and looked down at my foot and found this.  Unfortunately it's been run over and such but the basics are there.  This was a Big Sandy point (4,000-6,000 yrs old), that by close examination, had been reworked by the original owner back in the day. 


This is what it would have originally looked like before being reworked or re-sharpened.  Obviously my find is a black chert while the one in the picture is probably a grey Ft. Payne chert, which is more common to this area.  Note the value of the undamaged point.  It gives a whole new perspective on hunting arrowheads.  I also came across this fossil:



Note the grooves in the surface.  I'd say it's some kind of plant bark or such.  Will have to do some internet research to see what I can find out.  Anyway between the donuts and artifacts, it was a pretty productive day after all.  Happy VALENTINE's day  ya'll.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

It's hard to get old!!

Wow - Haven't been on the blog since before Christmas.  So - I thought I'd get on and do some updating and couldn't get on.  It's like the blog had been hijacked somehow cause the email it showed was not ours.  Anyway, not being a techy,  I had to play around for a couple of hours and finally got back on.  WHEW!  What a goat rope.   Now I can't upload pics to the blog.  What the Hey...A n y w h o -------
     We had a really super Christmas.  It started with my son, Stephen, loaning us his Honda Pilot so we could bring our daughter the grandkids up for the Holidays.  My truck, good as it is, just won't haul 8 people.  So we headed out south, spent the night in Macon, Ga. then went the rest of the way to Brooksville, Florida.  Picked up Stephen's suv, spent the night at Kristy's and hit the road the next morning for the return trip.

                     ((LtoR Lisa (dau-in-law), Kaylee, Kristy w/Hunter, Jynna, Steve & Cathy))

We drove straight through (14 hours) getting to Tennessee in the evening hours.  The next day the girls decided to decorate the tree and the inside of the house.  Cathy and I had decided to wait on decorating until the kids were here.

                                            ((LtoR - Kaylee, Jynna Mae, Kristy and Lilly))
Then the waiting started.  Lilly, our fashion-plate, couldn't keep out of the presents under the tree and Christmas morning was a whirlwind of activity.  We did manage to work in a quick breakfast.  It didn't snow for Christmas but it did snow just before we had to take the girls back to Florida.

                                                       ((Lilly our 6 y/o grand daughter))
This was our first time to see Hunter, our newest grand son, and it was his first Christmas.  This made it a very special time for them and us. 
                                                                        ((Hunter))

An unfortunate accident happened to this little guy just before they left.  He scooted backwards off the bed, fell between the bed and nightstand and broke his left femur, the ER doctor called it a "buckle fracture" and said it is commonly associated with very young children.  Anyway they took Kristy and Hunter to All Childrens Hospital in East Tennessee, Knoxville by ambulance and Cathy and I followed in the car.  It was a long day but turned out well as they put his leg in a stiff wrap to hold until he was back in Florida where he went to Tampa and had a cast put on.  He's working on his 3rd cast, so far.
                                  ((Lilly, in her Christmas dress made by Gma, and Hunter))

I still haven't figured out what was wrong earlier when I couldn't upload pics but I also found that I couldn't use our Skype to video chat either.  I downloaded new drivers, changed firewall and anti-virus settings, all to no avail.  I finally did a system "restore to earlier date" and !!viola !!,  we're back to normal.  Well, almost.  I'm still trying to figure out what happened.  Of course, with out two older grandkids here, both of whom are heavy into computers and ipads, and love to download songs etc, there probably just ain't no tellin'.  Oh well!  As the sayin' up here goes, "Mountain folk will survive."  Later.....






Back Porch View

Back Porch View
Eastern view off our back porch