Flood in Nashville

Photos on Flickr

Local readers who follow Nashville television news have been seeing video of the devastating flood there. For readers outside the Nashville area, here are links to a few of the photographs that have been uploaded to Flickr by Nashville residents:

Nashville Flood, set by Inyo Photo
Other Situation 2010, Nashville Flood
Nashville Flood, set by Jett Loe
Nashville Flood, 2010, set by Richard Call
Nashville May 01, 2010 Flooding, set by avatar28

Many schools in Tennessee are closed tomorrow due to flooding, including Montgomery County (Clarksville), our neighbor just across the state line south of here. School closings are merely a slight inconvenience, compared to the muddy mess that some people are facing in their homes and workplaces.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avatar28/ / CC BY 2.0

Exploring the Barker's Mill Community

Adventures in local history

It's hard to describe what I've been doing in my blogging time. lately. It's been both fascinating and frustrating. I began with a topic that I thought would be quite simple, and instead, it has branched in a dozen different directions.

It started in early April when I got an e-mail from a reader of the blog. He suggested that I might enjoy visiting the Chapel Hill Church and cemetery in the Barker's Mill community of southeast Christian County, Kentucky.

I found the Barker's Mill Road on my map of Christian County, and late one afternoon, I drove down there. I should have left earlier in the day, because it took longer than I expected to reach the area. It was quite dark by the time I crossed the bridge over the West Fork, and I didn't even see the church and cemetery. I was too busy following Barker's Mill Road, I guess.

I was a little surprised when Barker's Mill Road went over a large 4-lane highway, but I knew it had to be I-24. The subdivisions surprised me too. Soon, my road intersected with a heavily-traveled road whose name I recognized -- Tinytown Road in Montgomery County, Tennessee.  I followed it to Fort Campbell, and went home from there.

I learned a few things on that trip, even though it was too dark to see much. I learned that the southeast corner of Christian County is much closer to Clarksville, Tennessee, than it is to Hopkinsville, Kentucky. I also learned that the West Fork is a river of some consequence. And I learned that on the backroads, there's no indication of the state line between Kentucky and Tennessee.

On my several trips to the area since then, I had plenty of daylight. I enjoyed driving the roads of the area. I saw the remains of Barker's Mill, and I visited the Chapel Hill Church (originally called Carneal's Chapel). The Chapel Hill cemetery is probably the most peaceful, beautiful country cemetery I've ever visited. I will write more about all of this later.

I drove into southern Todd County and saw some of the fine farmland and old country mansions in that area. I also located Glenburnie, a large plantation home that is on the historic register and saw other large, old homes on the Christian County side of the West Fork community.

Glenburnie was the home of one of the Barkers who once owned Barker's Mill, so I decided to do a little research about the Barkers. It turns out that there is a good deal of information about the Barker family on internet genealogical sites, in old books available through Google, and in the Christian County history books that I own myself. It has been fascinating to learn about the generations of Barkers who were wealthy landowners and prominent citizens of the West Fork area. I see their history as not just a story of Christian County, but a story of the South.

That brings me to the point where I am currently. I've been writing and writing about the Barkers, and if I ever get all those words condensed down to something of a reasonable length that might be of interest, I'll post it.

Related post:
Barker's Mill in Christian County, KY

Black Bears in Missouri

Where are Missouri's black bears coming from?

My sister-in-law Donna, who lives in Kansas City, MO, sent us an interesting newspaper clipping about black bears in Missouri. I can't find an exact duplicate of the article online, but a slightly abbreviated version of it is still posted at the St. Louis Post Dispatch: "Missouri Counts Its Black Bears."

The gist of the article is that Missouri doesn't know how many black bears it has or where they are coming from. Missouri's biologists aren't sure if the state's black bears are Arkansas-born bears who have traveled north, or if Missouri now has a bear population that is reproducing.

To help learn where Missouri's black bears are from, biologists are setting up bait stations, Barbed wire will snag a few hairs of any bear who ventures in. DNA testing of the hairs will determine the sex of the bears and their relationship to the Arkansas bears.

According to the article, black bears in both Missouri and Arkansas had been exterminated by the early 1900's. During the 1950's, Arkansas imported bears from Minnesota. The Arkansas black bear population is now estimated to be 3500, and the Missouri population may be as many as 350.

Areas of Missouri mentioned in the article as places where bears have been seen include:

• southwestern Missouri counties
• eastern Ozarks along the Current River
• St. Louis area including southern Jefferson County
• Hurley, Billings, Republic and Nixa in southwest Missouri
• Christian County, Missouri

My parents lived in Hickory County, MO, about 50 miles north of Springfield, from the early 1970's through the mid-1980's. Some of their land was rough, rocky, forested hills, part of a long stretch of mostly rough, mostly tree-covered land that extended for many miles.

My father once told me that he had seen an animal that had to be a bear. There was no other animal that it could have been, he said. There were always rumors about "cinnamon bears" in the area. (Cinnamon bears are a lighter-colored subspecies of black bears.) However, the bear my father saw was dark in color.

Black bears were also native to Kentucky (and most of the United States, except for the most arid regions of the American Southwest.) Nowadays, most bear sightings in Kentucky occur in the eastern part of the state, near borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee.

Like Missouri, Kentucky really doesn't know how many black bears live within the state, but the population seems to be increasing.

Black bear images in this post are courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The artist is Robert Savannah.

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Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum at Nashville, TN

Life in The Upper South...

Dennis had an appointment yesterday at the VA Hospital in Nashville. When we finally finished there, we decided to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. (It's true -- in 16 years of living 90 minutes from Nashville, we had never visited the Country Music Hall of Fame!)

The front of the building sweeps to a high peak on one end. I couldn't get it all in my camera from any position I tried. I think a wide-angle lens might have helped. However, here is the museum from the side, with a huge banner advertising the Ray Charles exhibit that is currently featured.



Here are some photos from the museum. (Most are less than 150k in size.) It was very dark in there, but these images were captured without flash, as the museum requests.

A very young Johnny Cash
Detail of Gene Autry's guitar
Old show bills from Hatch Show Print
Old sheet music
Tex Ritter's saddle
Wurlitzer jukebox
Minnie Pearl's dress
Costume-maker, Nudie, honored
Jim Reeves "Touch of Velvet"
Flatt & Scruggs guitar and banjo
Detail of Merle Travis's guitar
Bill Monroe's Gibson Mandolin
Patsy Cline's blue dress
Chet Atkins's D'Angelico Excel
Faron Young's guitar and a costume
Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys
Hank Snow costumes
Early photo of Ray Charles
Roy Rogers, "Bells of San Angelo"

Johnny Cash's battered and scratched Martin guitar

In the photo above, the reflection in the glass is a wall of platinum and gold record albums. They are displayed in the order that they occurred. Some of them open out, and you can listen to selections from that album.

In fact (brace yourself for the shock!), there are many places in the museum where you can listen to music, watch videos of performances, listen to interviews with stars, etc. Much of the museum's ongoing preservation and research is centered on its immense archive of country music recordings.

The Country Music Hall of Fame is housed in the rotunda, a large, light room. It would be possible to browse for quite a while there. Every inductee has a bronze plaque mounted on the wall, with an image of his or her face and some biographical information.

It was late in the afternoon when we left the Country Music Hall of Fame, but we still had a few minutes to walk a block down to Broadway, Nashville's famous honky-tonk street. The Ryman Auditorium, historic home of the Grand Old Opry, is right behind Tootsie's, the purple building in the photo below.

Tootsie's and other honky-tonks and tourist traps on Broadway

On Broadway, we visited the Ernest Tubb Record Shop where Isaac bought a CD of Johnny Cash hits. (He's always been a closet Johnny Cash fan.)

We listened to it on the way home. It was fun hearing Isaac's reactions to some old songs he hadn't heard before, such as "One Piece at a Time," the song about a car built from many years of parts stolen from the automobile factory.

More images:
Many images of the Country Music Hall of Fame on Flickr
Another image search for Country Music Hall of Fame on Flickr

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Dry Conditions in Kentucky

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South... And What I Think About It...

I wish this was a recent photo of rain on my windshield, but it's not. This photo was taken on May 3 as we were driving through some rain squalls in the northern part of the county. We didn't get any rain at home that day, and we haven't had a good rain since. It is getting dry in Kentucky.

May is typically one of the wetter months of the year here. The May rains help build up soil moisture to carry us through the hot dry months of July and August. But not this year.

The lawn is looking burnt in places already, and the dust from the gravel road is terrible every time someone drives by our place. Thank goodness we have a tall hedge between us and the road that catches a little of the dust.

I've been watering the garden, and I'm sure the farmers wish they could water their field crops. Irrigation is not common here. It's hard to get an adequate well. A few farmers have ponds that they can irrigate from (until the ponds go dry.)

This morning, I heard a weather report on one of the news networks. The reporter read the forecast for the nation, and when she came to the southeast U.S., she waved her arm across that part of the map and said it would be a "beautiful dry weekend."

Beautiful dry weekend? Doesn't she know that 585,000 acres have burned in Georgia and Florida? The fires have been burning for weeks, bringing misery and anguish to thousands and thousands of people. Even in Kentucky, we've had hazy days of poor air quality from the smoke coming off the fires.

I know she can't put rain into the forecast, but she could choose her words with a little more empathy.

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Whitehaven at Paducah, KY

Life in The Upper South... History and Old Stuff

Whitehaven is a beautifully restored mansion at Paducah, KY, located near Interstate 24. If you ever pass through Paducah, I hope you'll take time to visit it. Take Exit 7 off I-24 and follow the signs.

One wing of the house hosts the Kentucky Welcome Center and rest stop. Its facilities are open 24 hours for travelers.

The main part of the house is open for tours every half-hour from 1:00-4:00 p.m. daily. The house is furnished with antiques, and the second floor holds a collection of Vice President Alben Barkley memorabilia.

Even if you don't happen to arrive at the time that the tours are being given, you can walk around the porches, peek in the windows, and enjoy the grounds. And of course, you can pick up a Kentucky map and lots of tourist information in the Welcome Center.

The historic marker at Whitehaven gives a good synopsis of the house's story:

Whitehaven

Main part of house, two-story brick structure, built in 1860's by Edward Anderson. Edward Atkins bought it in 1903 and had noted Paducah architect A.L. Lassiter transform Victorian farmhouse into Classical Revival mansion. He added the Corinthian-columned front portico and named house Whitehaven.

In 1908, Paducah Mayor James P. Smith bought and renamed home "Bide-A-Wee," Scottish adage for "Come Rest A While." Smith family members lived here until 1968. After mansion restored, it opened on June 23, 1983 as Whitehaven Tourist Welcome Center. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

The historic marker doesn't explain that Whitehaven had suffered a good deal of vandalism and deterioration, and its future was uncertain until the decision was made to restore and refurbish it as the welcome center at I-24's northern entry to Kentucky. It's a model of historic preservation of which Kentucky is (and should be!) proud.



More photos of beautiful Whitehaven can be viewed at:

• Photos from Whitehaven
• Whitehaven (includes photos of the mansion before restoration)

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Dafodils Along the Country Roads

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South...

In spring here in western Kentucky and across the region, daffodils bloom along the roadsides. Their bright yellow flowers often mark the site where a farmhouse sat years ago. One can only speculate what the farmhouse might have looked like, but it's safe to say that in Christian County, many of them were log houses.

The daffodils in the photo above were planted within the last ten years or so, but they mark an old homesite. An old two-story farmhouse used to stand here and a young couple lived in it. She loved flowers and planted daffodils, iris, and much more. They moved away when the land changed hands, and the new owner recently tore down the old house and the little sheds that had stood around it.

Unlike most of the daffodils that spring up in such places, these are large-blossomed double daffodils. You can tell by their fat buds.

I was amused yesterday to see a photo of old-time simple daffodils in our local newspaper with a caption labeling them as "wildflowers". They are certainly common enough along the roadsides to be a native wildflower, but they were all planted here by human hands, and they don't spread over much of an area naturally. For efficient propagation, the clumps have to be dug up, and the bulbs separated and transplanted.



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Finches at the Feeder

Life in The Upper South... More About Birds and Animals...

Goldfinches at thistle seed feeders

The goldfinches are swarming the thistle seed feeders this morning. This photo was taken through the glass window of the kitchen door plus the glass window of the storm door. I'm surprised it came out as good as it did.

Dennis has his feeders hanging on the shepherd's hook in my little flower bed, and I'm afraid he (note the emphasis!) will have a big weeding problem there this summer. Maybe the thistle seed is sterilized? I really really hope so.

These little birds are still in their winter color which is more an olive green than yellow. Within the next month or so, the males will begin to show their bright yellow summer color so they can attract a mate.

My parents called them "wild canaries," and I was an adult before I finally realized that wild canaries and the goldfinches of my elementary school science book were the same birds.

Some years back, we drove over to Glasgow, KY, to pick up a purebred puppy we had bought from someone there. They had a pasture in front of their house that had the worst growth of thistles I have ever seen. They couldn't have had more thistles there if they had tried to grow a crop of them.

The air above those thousands of thistles was swarming with goldfinches. I don't think I'd be exaggerating to say there were hundreds of goldfinches zipping around the thistle heads in that pasture. It was an unbelievable, unforgettable sight.

Some states have a "noxious weed" law that requires landowners to spray thistles. In Kentucky, that isn't the case. Thistle control is voluntary. Thistles even grow in the highway right-of-ways without much spraying. The state will come out and spray the thistles in the right-of-way next to your property if you request it after having treated your own thistle problem.

I sure hope I don't have a thistle problem in my flower bed. I tried to move the shepherd hook several times this winter, but it wouldn't budge. I should have got a bar and pried it up, but it's too late now.



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The Glory of Fairview, KY

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South... History and Old Stuff...

Jefferson Davis Monument in the sunshine of a winter morning

I suppose every town in the world seeks a claim to fame -- a famous person or event that has some connection to that place. In Bassett, Nebraska, the nearest town to the place where I grew up, the best they could do was a horse thief, Kid Wade, who was hung by vigilantes on a big hill at the edge of town.

The village of Fairview, Kentucky, can claim a truly famous American in its history. The President of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Jefferson Davis, was born there.

Note: For my readers outside the USA, let me briefly explain that the United States had a civil war from 1860 to 1865, in which the South formed the CSA and attempted to leave the Union, but the North refused to let them go. The great underlying issue and primary cause of the Civil War was slavery and it was abolished after the war, but many people in the South felt they were fighting for states' rights (that is, their state's right to secede from the Union.)

Kentucky was a border state during the Civil War. Though the CSA claimed Kentucky and gave it a star on their flag, Kentucky did not secede from the Union. Some Kentuckians fought for the CSA, but others fought for the USA. That being said, it is certainly true that Christian County had many slaveowners who raised tobacco and other crops with slave labor, and many soldiers from here probably fought for the CSA.

After the war ended and slavery was abolished, a new era began in the South. The thorough defeat left a spirit of defiant resentment that was nurtured and cherished in some hearts. Reconstruction abuses created more ill feelings. Out of the worst, soul-consuming, twisted hatred, the Ku Klux Klan was born.

The Daughters of the Confederacy expressed themselves in non-violent, public ways. They honored the service and sacrifice of their fathers by building many monuments to Confederate soldiers across the South. The monument they built to Jefferson Davis at Fairview, Kentucky, was the largest of these. There's plenty of defiance expressed in it, I think, but in a less malignant way.

I don't really know what other people in Christian County think about Jefferson Davis, but his monument is certainly an element in the landscape here. It can be seen for miles around, towering above the fields, houses and trees.

As for me, I am thankful that I was born in the (Mid)West, not in a state from the Civil War's North or South. My birth state, Nebraska, joined the Union in 1865, the year that the Civil War ended. Some of my ancestors on both sides of the family hadn't even come over from Europe yet, and others were living west of most of the action. If there are any family stories about the Civil War, I don't know them.

Since we live just five miles from the Jefferson Davis park in Fairview, we took the kids there frequently to play on the swings and slides when they were little. The monument and the visitor's center are conveniently-located historic curiosities to show any non-local visitors we have. This is the meaning of the monument to me.



Related posts:
Jefferson Davis Monument, Fairview, KY
Seen at Fairview, Kentucky .

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Flocks of Black Birds (Blackbirds, etc.)

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South...
More About Birds and Animals...

Blackbirds seeking fallen grain

This part of Kentucky (and much of the greater Ohio/Mississippi Valley), is an overwintering area for blackbirds, or more correctly, black birds. Red-winged blackbirds, starlings, grackles, cowbirds, and others roost together in forested areas at night and fly in huge flocks during the day, looking for food in the fields.

I noticed earlier this winter that we didn't seem to have as many flocks of black birds this year, but this morning when I took Isaac to school, I saw big flocks of thousands and thousands of birds in the air, on the fields, and in the trees. I think the recent cold temperatures have finally brought them into our area. It was a frosty +10° here last night, and much colder than that farther north.

Many people don't like these big flocks. They eat grain that's waiting for harvest during the fall and drop manure over what they don't eat. When they roost too much in any one area, their manure builds up and histoplasmosis, a respiratory disease that humans can contract, can be a problem. They endanger airplanes when they roost near airports and they make suburban forests miserable for the human residents. And the complaints go on and on.

Finding food along the road

The birds don't bother me much since I don't have any crops, don't fly much, and don't spend much time in their roosting areas.

Occasionally, a flock will drop out of the sky and land in our trees for a few minutes. Casper, our kitten, is really freaked out by the loud noise of their wings, the cacophony of their chirps and cackles, and the sudden sight of them swooping in to the treetops or rising into flight as a flock.

I enjoy seeing the huge flocks because they help me imagine how a flock of passenger pigeons might have looked. Two hundred years ago, passenger pigeons flew the skies of Kentucky in even greater number than the blackbirds. Here is John James Audubon's famous description of the passenger pigeon numbers in Kentucky:

"The multitudes of Wild Pigeons in our woods are astonishing. Indeed, after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, I even now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that too in the company of persons who, like myself, were struck with amazement.

"In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens a few miles beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the Pigeons flying from north-east to south-west, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I travelled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with Pigeons; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse, the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose."

John James Audubon, in Birds of America.

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What do you think? I enjoy hearing from readers!

Scenes from Dover TN and Fort Donelson

Life in The Upper South... History and Old Stuff...

This morning while Isaac was taking the ACT at Dover, TN, I wandered around the Fort Donelson National Battleground and National Cemetery for a couple of hours. The Union victory here was a turning point in the War Between the States. The grounds were beautiful in the cold bright light, and the extreme quiet of the place was almost eerie.













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Elk Farm in Todd County, KY

Life in The Upper South... More About Birds and Animals... And What I Think About It...

A small elk herd is held in a series of pens, behind the Amish store south of Elkton, KY. We saw these bulls on Tuesday when we were over there, as well as a small pen of younger bulls and a pen of cows.

Elk are ruminants like cattle. Their first stomach, an anaerobic digester of cellulose, is called a rumen, . Ruminants spend their time grazing and ruminating -- that is, regurgitating food matter from the rumen and re-chewing it. (This is also known as "chewing the cud.") When the grass is sufficiently ground up and fermented, it passes to the next stomach.

It seems probable that the elk meat sold within the Amish store comes from this herd. Elk meat, like buffalo meat, is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef, pork or lamb, and it compares favorably with chicken and turkey (according to nutritional information supplied by Grande Premium Meats, an online seller of buffalo and elk meats.)

Personally, I am not interested in trying elk meat for a couple of reasons.

• Reason 1: I am finicky about meats other than beef, pork, turkey and chicken. I avoid mutton, duck, goose, venison, etc. (and the etc. includes elk.)

• Reason 2: Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). I would want certification that the meat was from a CWD-tested animal, if I were to try the meat which is unlikely (see Reason One.)

Some of the Asian countries use elk and deer "velvet antlers" in folk medicine -- antlers that are removed before they are large and calcified. South Korea is a major processor and consumer, as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.

I wasn't able to find any official information about the current market for U.S. velvet antler, but producers have been greatly impacted by North America's CWD problems. I'm always sorry when someone who makes their living from the land is having difficulties, and I hope those people have survived the crisis with their farms or ranches intact, but frankly, the velvet antler business is vaguely sickening to me.

The elk in the photo appear well-tended and healthy and they certainly have handsome racks. Apparently their owner isn't selling velvet antlers. I wish they had a little more room to roam, but I know that Todd County farmland isn't cheap, and neither are the materials for a strong, high fence.

Stagecoach Inn (Gray's Inn) in Guthrie, KY

Life in the Upper South...

Gray's Inn, also known as Stagecoach Inn, sits near the junction of Highways 181, 79 and 41 just west of Guthrie, Kentucky.

This area is known as "Tiny Town", because of the cluster of gas stations and other businesses around the intersection, I suppose. It's located on the Kentucky - Tennessee state line, and Tennesseans come there to buy Kentucky lottery tickets. (This was true particularly before Tennessee recently started its own state lottery.)

I have learned everything I know about Gray's Inn from the historic marker on the property and from the internet.

The historic marker notes that Gray's Inn was built in 1833 as a stagecoach stop by Major John P. Gray, the man who founded Elkton. The National Park Service adds that the inn served several stage lines. I think it's likely (I am guessing) that stagecoaches from Nashville, Bowling Green, Elkton and Hopkinsville met here.

According to various internet sources, the inn was one of the stops along the Trail of Tears, when the last of the Cherokee Indian lands were seized and the Cherokees were forcibly removed to Oklahoma. We can be sure that if anyone from the group stayed in Gray's Inn, it was the military escorts. The Cherokees would have camped nearby.

It is said that White Path, a Cherokee chief who was near death, drank from the well and blessed its sweet water. He named the well "Utok Amawah" which means "well of sweet water". A few days later at Hopkinsville, KY, White Path died. His grave is located on a small knoll above Little River, across from Belmont Hill, on the site of the Trail of Tears Park in Hopkinsville.

The National Park Service notes that the inn was used as a Civil War hospital, according to local oral tradition. It also provides the following cryptic note: "Possibly birthplace of African blackface minstrel." That statement seems to suggest that early minstrel shows were performed there, and that possibly, this was the first place that they were ever performed.

At any rate, it's a handsome old house and a long and interesting history and tradition is associated with it. It's a reminder that Tiny Town has been a busy crossroads for a long time.



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Hopkinsville Football Stadium

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South... More About Trees and Plants...

The Bradford pears around the high school sports fields in Hopkinsville are gorgeous in their fall color right now. This tree species is widely planted through the Upper South, due to its quick growth, attractive shape, long season in full leaf, and beautiful blossoms and color.

Unfortunately, the Bradford pear has a very short lifespan. Because its branches are spindly and weak with a dense distribution, they break easily in any weather event. (This is a weakness of most pears.) These trees are probably a decade or less in age, but they're at their prime. They'll be breaking up soon.

The football stadium was built about 1992, I think. This photo shows just the home side. There's a similar, but smaller, set of seats on the visitor's side.

Like many towns across the south, Hopkinsville greatly enjoys its high school football teams. When I first saw this stadium when we moved here, I thought its size was excessive. It looked big enough to be a college stadium. However, I have seen it filled to capacity during the annual match between Christian County's two high schools.

The stadium is used by both high schools. One high school plays at home each weekend, while the other high school goes on the road.

I'm still a little in awe that this is a high school stadium. In the county in northern Nebraska where I grew up, there was a set of wooden bleachers just big enough for our small high school band. The spectators sat on bales of hay or stood around the edge of the field. Actually, it was usually cold enough that moving up and down the field with the teams helped to prevent frostbite.

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Tobacco in the Barn

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South...

I toned down the color in this photo to give it an old-fashioned air because this photo would have been about the same if it had been taken fifty or even one hundred years ago. (Except that the barn would have been newer.)

This tobacco is being air-cured, as opposed to being fired. The barn doors are open so the air can circulate. The tobacco inside is almost certainly burley tobacco, a much-grown variety around here.

This is an encore performance on my blog for this barn. Its first appearance was on August 17 in full color.

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Firing the Tobacco

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South...

Across Christian County, KY, and (I suppose) other parts of the South where dark tobacco is produced, the firing of the leaf has begun. ("Leaf" is sometimes used as a plural when talking about tobacco.)

In this photo, you can see a heap of sawdust and a pile of hardwood slabs (sides of logs, cut off to square them up for lumber). Sawdust and slabs are placed in trenches in the dirt floor of the barn and set afire. The air to the barn is restricted so that the fire smolders and creates a lot of smoke. The smoke rises through the leaf, coating and flavoring it.

Inside the barn, someone is getting the fire started. When it has started good, he'll close the doors and probably also prop them shut with several long 2x4's just to make sure they don't come open, let in too much air and burn down the barn.

I've always thought that all that smoke must be really bad for tobacco farmers. After a morning of tending barns, they reek of smoke and I'm sure they've breathed a lot of it.

UPDATE: For a view of a barn that's closed up and smoking, see Scenes of Late August.

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Fields of Tobacco

Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South... More About Trees and Plants...

Burley tobacco plants in mid-August

These plants are about 4 feet tall.

The plants with yellow coloration (above photos) are burley tobacco. I am not sure what type of tobacco plants are in the photo below. Farmers grow a lot of dark tobacco here, but I wonder if this is another type because dark tobacco is usually a deeper green than these plants are. Nor do these plants exhibit the yellow splotchiness that's typical of burley tobacco.

These plants are over 5 feet tall.

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