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By Posted on Posted in family, FloydCountyAlmanac, PhotoImage 2 Comments

Excerpted from “November” in the Floyd County Almanac (unpublished first draft.) …A seriousness settles upon us by mid-November, mornings not light enough to cross the creek to tend the cussed birds until after seven. The board-bridge across Goose Creek is treacherous, enameled with a coating of ice droplets, tossed up by the riffles we will hear from the porch. Soon they will go muffled by ice so thick it will hold our weight. Mostly. Mornings now, my chores include making sure I head out to …

Prelude to Winter Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Environment, FloydCountyAlmanac, seasons No Comments

While man and raven endure a gray, unpleasant day here in Floyd County, our friends and relatives and their’s, on up the coast Jersey and New York, will experience a day that, unfortunately, will only be “unprecedented” by comparison to the past. Evidence is mounting that these once-in-a-1000-years storms will show up on the radar on a much more regular seasonal basis, going forward. The extreme warm waters of the North Atlantic this late summer and the open waters of the melted Arctic sea …

October Leaves in a Huff–cont’d Read more »

By Posted on Posted in FloydCountyAlmanac, nature, seasons 2 Comments

It is the last day of October. The winds of superstorm Sandy will deal us only a glancing blow. At first light, inland morning gales smell of sea salt, strong and steady out of the Northeast. Shards of it break into the southern mountains, whistling through trees on ridges, we hunker below on Goose Creek, tending to business, vigilant. Battering winds buffet our friends who live up top where the sun sometimes shines, though today there will be warmth and light only high above …

October Leaves in a Huff Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Floyd County, FloydCountyAlmanac, PhotoImage No Comments

By the turn of the 20th century, Goose Creek was home to an established community of hardscrabble farmers, our level five acres being one of very few tillable plots in this deep cold valley. Watermelons were grown on nearby land so steep [Johnathan Lemuel Boone 200 acres from which our 80 were divided] that the ripening fruits had to be wedged in place by rocks to keep them from rolling down the hill. Other well constructed old homes along Goose Creek no longer exist, with …

Floyd County: Times Past #5 Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Floyd County, FloydCountyAlmanac, PhotoImage 1 Comment

[Part four of five] There was at best a primitive road through the creek bed beyond the three bridges, and the same along the source headwaters of Goose Creek at the time of the Civil War. Consequently, given its isolation and difficulty of access, deserters from both armies are said to have hidden from bounty hunters in a large, still-roadless area nearby, locally called Free State, as well as in the several side-creek creases of the rugged valley in which we live. [Some Sissons who …

Floyd County: Times Past #4 Read more »