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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT gmail.com>]

 My homesteady neighbors, George and Nancy, are moving and have bought 
a house in Arkansas near the Bull Shoals dam.    This is the guy who 
taught me to gut a deer, render lard, hunt...OMG, just know I am going 
to miss them. They invited us out for a vacation and I told Ron that I 
wanted to go.   They are both extremely talented artists.  Nancy can do 
anything with paint and George is equally talented but also makes knives 
and forges other metal artwork.  He was a friend of Mr. Nelson, the guy 
in the Foxfire books that makes the horse carriage.  They are  good 
people and I am so sad that they won't be my neighbors anymore.  They 
gave this valley character, and it is really hard to see them leave, but 
I totally understand that this place has changed in the years since her 
daddy bought all this land.  It has changed just in the 12 years we have 
been here.    Granted, the changes are slow, and I still say that I made 
a good decision on picking land with a 15-20 year buffer against new 
developments, but it definitely won't be the same without George living 
on Rock Creek.
I know that is really, really close to you, Gene, and some others on 
this list that I would like to see, so I think we will heading to 
Arkansas/Missouri sooner than anyone knew.  I definitely want to fish on 
the river and see some old friends and meet some of you fine folks.  
Ron's monk brother lives nearby in Ava as well.

The new guy who bought George's place is a rich architect from Atlanta.  
They plan to use the house as a weekend getaway so that their kids can 
ride 4 wheelers and experience the country.  They mistakenly think they 
can ride them on the forest service roads and land..they are in for a 
rude awakening.  I have heard all kinds of things about them...they 
ripped native flowering vines out of a small tree...they did not know 
what turnip greens were when they saw them...the kids were not minding 
the parents and were extremely unruly and disrespectful...they were 
playing with George's axes and throwing them, causing him to have to 
resharpen everything.
I am holding my breath and I'm trying not to prejudge, but what I have 
heard is not good. The winds of change are blowing...

Speaking of changes, it is kind of a joke...
A mile or so down the road there are 3 or 4 'new neighbors' all Atlanta 
escapees who have moved here in the last 4 years.  One of them started a 
petition to get our road repaved.  It really was the most horrific paved 
road I've ever driven on and you literally drove an obstacle course 
swerving to hit only the shallowest of potholes instead of the larger, 
deeper ones.   We live at the tip of the loop, which is 3.5 miles in 
from either direction.  Most folks only had half that distance to drive, 
but I ran the full gauntlet.   It was tearing up peoples' suspensions in 
their big trucks..lol...  So anyway, they took this petition around and 
from peer pressure, I signed it.  There was only one resident, the local 
'crazy' guy, who refused, and I really should have joined him because I 
was thinking that if the road was paved better then there would be more 
traffic, more dope dealers, more teens racing, and more development.  
This is a 7 mile long loop, and there are 5 or 6  ritzy houses on the 
other side of the loop that had a decently paved section of the road.   
They even have a fire hydrant (county water access) and DSL other 
there.  Alas, though, we are back in the hollow, the poor hill billies, 
and the county has overlooked us more than once, which really is a 
blessing in many ways.   But I digress..

So we sign the petition and less than a month later, a new sign goes up 
at the entrance to the loop-"Loose Gravel", and within a week, they are 
ripping up the road surface and laying gravel.   They have packed it 
down and it is better than having all the potholes, but everyone hates 
it.  All the new people, including the rich folks on the other side of 
the loop that did not sign the petition are now up in arms because the 
county has left us with a gravel road..lol..I actually this is hilarious 
and once it rains good and settles the dust I think the new gravel road 
will be fine.  At least no one will be racing and no one will get their 
trucks damaged.  It is horrible for our bikes, though, and the rich 
people will probably get their way and have their little half mile 
repaved.  It has to be a sign of the times that a paved road becomes a 
gravel road.  I could be a conspiracy theorist and say that the rumors 
for this valley long term might be true..I have long heard that this 
might become a new reservoir for drinking water for Atlanta..it makes me 
wonder if this valley and my home might be underwater in 100 
years...maybe I should move to Arkansas or Missouri, too.

B



--
EarthNSky Farm  34.498N 85.076W
SISU! (Finnish--There is no single word in English that encompasses
all that sisu means, but it combines the following ideas: guts, pep,
determination, stubbornness, perseverance, hardiness, stamina, go, do,
nerve, spunk, pluck, and grit.  It's like "Just Do It!"&  "Go for It!")