Pilot Mountain

I said here once that they (The Forest Service) would not hardly drop a match to either the Pisgah or Nanatahala National Forests. Only a small slither of woods between the McCall Cometary and Gloucester Gap was all that had been burned in recent years on the Davidson River District*. In March of this year The Forest Service conducted a controlled burn at Gloucester Gap and up on Pilot Mountain.

Pilot is a unique Mountain and was a very good choice for a controlled burn. These picture and videos are from several of my recent trips to Pilot Mountain. I just can't sit around on weekend mornings I either need to get out and tromp around or work. You better enjoy this post because it ain't being easy to load...At this rate it's going to take a couple of days and Bosco is nervous. Lightening is going to grab her and not let go until it thunders.

As you can see, the date his began and the date it gets up, the night of 3 July, before I gt to bed to catch up on some beauty sleep. I'll add the pictures to it as the days go until I get the next posting up. Which may be a bunch of pictures and such too. I've had a few adventures lately.
The first two pictures are of Galax growing on the ground.
Well, said to heck with it while I went on to bed and let it load. And here July 4th, it's not working. Happy 4th.

Appalachianist guy


*I also know of a couple of places in the Nantahala, Coward Bald in Jackson County and Albert Mountain in Macon County, above Coweeta Creek.

Thank You Mr. President

Mr President,
After a long streak of damages to Liberty, this week the Supreme Court did justice with it's ruling on the 2nd Amendment being an Individual Right. The decision is monumental, perhaps this is the greatest victory for both Individual and Collective Liberties since Prohibition's end.

It didn't occur to me as much until Neil Boortz said: "Without the appointments made to the Supreme Court by George W. Bush this probably would have been completely different. With Al Gore in the presidency your right to own a gun for self-defense would have been ripped away today."

Despite the differences Mr President, Thank You. Let Freedom Ring.
The Appalachianist

June The 25th In History

This is the day the 7th Cavalry got their ass handed to them on the Little Big Horn in 1876. Mainly, from what we know, their Commanders arrogance. But, history is a funny thing, if Cheyenne scouts had spotted the 7th trying to slip out instead of going directly on into the Indain encampment, there could have been a slaughter just the same.
As well, a little over a hundred years before it was a British General named Montgomery that was beaten by the Cheerokee on The Little Tennesse near the present Tesintee Farms. He marched head long into an ambush and had his Supply Train vulnerable in his rear.
It was this time of year a little over a hundred years before that that King Phillips War was being fought in 1675 in New England.


I learned this morning on Writers Almanac that it is George Orwell's birthday. I don't know much about the man. Garrison Keillor said: "At a time when most British intellectuals still supported Communism, Orwell became one of the first leftist writers to speak out against Stalin." I had heard he had gone to the Spanish Revelution. Being the writing of his nature, I wouldn't think him a leftist, I always tended to think of him as a Libertarian. He warned us with Animal Farm (which we read in Middle School)and 1984, which, I remember the movie well. 1984 became something of a realisation to me. A perpetual struggle was needed to keep the people in line and in a fervor. Governments and people will create problems to do just that.I didn't kow no one would publish Animal Farm until after the Second World War.

I've always thought of Orwell as a freedom fighter. Now I want to read his books again.

Keillor also reminded that, and I knew, it was the day the Koren War began in 1950. As he said: "The Korean War was the first war the United States had concluded without success. There were no celebrations when it ended. About 37,000 Americans and more than a million Koreans lost their lives."




How do I feel today? Like A Vibration...
The Appalachianist

What To Say?

It's not that I don't have anything to say...It's wether I feel like saying it or taking the time to say it for that matter.

Quick notes:
Had a great plate of Kufha Kabob, Lebaneese style, in Athens this weekend.

We picked up two more guy's to the Company. One is going to Hunter Ligget with the rest.

I've still got training schedules to write.

I think Barrack Obama is a joke.

We could stand some rain.

Praying for rain
The Appalachianist

A Beautiful Day

Today is the 18th of June, it would be my Grandaddy's Birthday. If he was here, he couldn't have had a better one. It's Beautiful. The skys are crystal clear, the green of the trees contrasting the blueness, the air is fresh. It was 44 at the house, a great night to sleep with the windows up. Today is a fine day.

The Appalachianist

Our Lucky Day

I didn't realize it until I heard it on the radio this morning. It's Friday the 13th. Our lucky day...Unless your a Knights Templar. Sure enough I saw what appeared to be a Thunder Head building back over the Balsams as I passed through town this morning. But, that would be a good thing.



You're standing there bare footed looking at the broken mirror all around you. You're wondering if you should tip toe through the shards or try to pick up the shattered pieces. If you tip toe out of them you will surely get a piece in your tender foot, if you pick them up you could get cut holding the pieces, much less picking them up. Either way you've got bad luck for the next seven years.



Bad luck, it's what you make out of it...

The Appalachainsit

No Title

Tomorrow is the 6th of June. A bloody day in History as we know. It was also the day I saw the sun shine for 26 hours flying back from Iraq. The day my 18 year old Stepson became a Father, and myself...A grandfather...In essence.

I found some material stuck back that I had not posted. This is from the weeks before I left Iraq. I intended it for posting then.


25th May…We’re leaving…No, we’re not. We are told we have a four day window, most likely the last day.

26th of May…I wake to the sound of out going Artillery. Incoming just before 0800. The Chow hall closed and I went to Burger King which is ran out of a little carnival trailer.
We spend the day waiting. I found a rifle online being auctioned, but, can’t get it. I had borrowed an Iraqna Phon e since I had already sold mine and talked to the gun dealer back home about receiving it, and he was willing, but, not willing to fill out the back ground check over the phone. I’m shit out of luck. Calling the States on an Iraqna costs 30 Cents a minute, and the man I borrowed it from refused to take payment.
I write some on one of my novels…One day I will find t in myself to finish them.

27th of May…Sitting around waiting to leave is getting old. A special meeting was called for the out going CMATT. All it was, was some filling in the blanks on some forms, no information…I love the Army. All of the hurry up and wait doesn’t cease to be frustrating, but, maybe this down time helps with some decompression…That’s the bright side, I’d not had but one down day since mid April. I’m told there is a “pissing contest” going on in Baghdad and we’re caught in it.
I become aware of some issues back home, all I can do is pray.
There was another rifle being auctioned, I wrote the man explained my situation and asked if he would hold I if I won the bid. I don’t hear from him.
About 2130 the two girls that moved into the room net to mine are beating and banging on the walls. Come on girls…All of a sudden I hear the plastic table outside getting thrown around, I first figured it was them, but it was the wind, an Aboob, a dust storm.

28th of May. I wake up and look at the clock, and start to get out of bed. I hear impacts an then one rocks my door. I throw my pants on and don’t hear another, look outside but can’t make the impact. I learned the wind was 75 knots last night. The sky is all brown. We won’t be flying today. There is no internet, lines are blown down and the contract has ended on the internet in the MWR. I went to the Depot to use the internet there, I still haven’t heard from the man about the rifle…I’ve got the feeling I’m shit out of luck.

I went to BDOC and looked at pieces of the Mortars that hit us the last couple of days and this morning. The one that rocked my door was a 120mm rocket. It’s a holiday weekend.

Work out for an hour, lay around and do nothing. Time moves slowly. Word has come, we leave the 30th up in the night. I passed word out, a friend loaned me a copy of Curves and FHM Magazine. LOL, one of the pages really are stuck together.

It’s well over 100 degrees and it just sprinkled. Hat’s up with that?

29th of May…I got on line today and got a hopeful e-mail. The man is willing to hold the rife, or as he said, “”. So, I made a bid. I’ll go ahead and pay and he can hold it until I get back and go through the process, which, I’ll do the day I get in town, if I win the bid. The bidding ends at mid night my time, if I can just get on line, I best let the man know
I was loaned a movie, “Naked Weapons”, I couldn’t stand 10 minutes of it.

Sometimes, inside, I'm kind of numb since I've returned. Its not so much as a result of my time in Iraq. No major traumatic, shattering, dramatic event there. It's a culmination of events over the last few years of my life. I still see things plainly."Plainly" is not simple, but what things truly are. It's great to be alive. That feeling has not left.

The Appalachianist