Bike rides

Nantahala Lake. 

On the dock. 

Photography vehicle. Well, that is, when I can get the driver to stop.... 

Helmet hair. 

Sunset and smoke

The clear winter sky around here has been fouled with smoke from land clearing, almost daily. With lack of rain and lots of wind it's not a good time for fires. This one, though, a couple valleys over, was in or near the National Forest so may have been a controlled burn. Whatever it was, the smoke filled the air from here to Murphy..... 

More signs of spring. 

Sign of the times. 

Overlooking Brasstown valley. 

Folk School craft shop entrance. 

They really do turn purple in the winter. Near Brasstown. 

Tennessee ride

Looking over the Ocoee gorge towards the Big Frog wilderness, TN/Cohutta mountains in Georgia..... 

Looks like a spring day, but cold. Gliderport near Benton, TN. 

Looking towards Chilhowee Mountain. 

The view from Chilhowee Mtn, looking towards Chattanooga. A hazy day for winter, must be pollution blown in on the northwest wind.... 

Parksville Lake, Sugar Loaf, Cohutta Mts to the left..... 

Deep woods. 

It almost looks like spring

....but those are red leaves, and behind is an engine-block dinosaur (with sparkplug teeth and claws, brakepad tail scales) near the courthouse in Waynesville. 

We have crocuses. 

Followup

The Forest Service's website for the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act program, which is charged with providing funds from the National Forest lands to schools and roads in rural communities, explains why they want to sell off land: revenues from logging are down and they need the money.

Note there is information here about how citizens can comment on this proposed land sale: we have 30 days. Also note although the list of properties is identified only by parcel numbers, there will be maps available sometime soon so at least we might be able to tell whether it's land next door to us that might be on the block.

How can we save the land?

Found browsing around the Stop I-3 Coalition website, links to some stories and opinion pieces that really make me fear for the future of this beautiful area we've chosen to live in.

Back in November, Newsweek ran a feature by an East Tennessee native, Abe Whaley, about what's happening to the land he loves: Once Unique, Soon a Place Like Any Other: It's heartbreaking to watch the Appalachia I love disappear under endless condos and cabins.
It only takes one look at the photograph with this story to understand how a beautiful mountain can be defaced by the desire of developers to sell homes with a view.
"no ridge is too steep, no mountaintop too high, no creek too pristine to bulldoze and build on."

Here's an editorial from the St. Petersburg Times, which compares the government's interest in the I-3 road to the slow response to Hurricane Katrina: From Disaster to Disgrace.
"But as recently as this spring, the New Orleans district sustained a $71.2-million cut. At the same time, Congress happily conjured up a pork barrel bill that contemplates, among other things, the justification for an unnecessary and unwise $50-billion interstate highway through the North Carolina and Georgia mountains. The same president who signed that bill rationalized last week that nobody foresaw the New Orleans levees giving way. Only someone who prefers to dwell in ignorance could have said that."

And, in the news this week, and even more scary, the new reports that the government is considering selling off hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest land. Here's a list of the potential areas. Listed here, dozens of tracts in the Nantahala and Pisgah and Cherokee national forests, including a couple in Cherokee county. These national forest lands are our last protection against the overdevelopment which seems to be happening everywhere around. There isn't enough public land already. We can't lose any more.

More snow

It snowed much more over the weekend, and into Monday. Unfortunately we came down with flu so couldn't go out and play in it.
 
 

Winter storm

More snow again last night.

 
 

Warm enough to melt, the sound of dripping water is everywhere. But more snow is falling.....

 
 

Winter's finally here

This morning: a winter wonderland.
 

 

This was not expected; at least not so much. 

 

It came down hard last night: trees are covered.
 

 

This snow was leftover from Monday nights's slight fall.