Appalachian Patria

Appalachian Intellectual. To me that means plain thinking. I am A Non Commissioned Officer in the Army Reserves. Let me say...My views expressed here are mine and not those of The U.S. Army, Army Reserve or my fellow brethren in The National Guard. This is entirely Sua Sponte. This is My Thinking. I'm single and in my mid 30's. Politicaly, I'm a Libertarian. (Again, Sua Sponte.I do not represent the Libertarian Party.)I love my native Appalachia, Rock n Roll and...I love God.

Name:
Location: Brevard, North Caroilina

I started blogging for two reasons. I was concerned about the changes to the area I live in, Southern Appalachia and I was about to go to the war. I was in Iraq in 06 and 07 and now Kuwait in 11 and 12. Blogging was a means of documenting my experiences and hoping it would help gain clarity. I don't feel that way about it any more. It's said people write blogs because they are frustrated, that's why people read them too. That makes us sound apocalyptic. Are we? Let it be said, what I say here is of my own thinking. This is entirely Sua Sponte and not an official representation of the U.S. Military or the U.S. Government as a whole.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Leap Day Video's

Obama Girl Wins Iowa

I've seen her around on YouTube...I first saw her on Neil Boortz. Politics aside, I really like Obama Girl. If she had a penis and I had a vagina, I'd have her baby.

Iron Maiden, Run To The Hills

A Britsh Heavy Metal band singing about a fight our Nation ancestors were on both sides of. Now I wonder if that silent film they featured won an Oscar...

Happy Leap Day
The Appalachianist

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Strike and Stay, A Review

Among Hound Hunters it’s often the subject of teasing over dog breads. Often Hunters have a mix of breeds of what ever dogs they feel has the ability. But one thing stands; everyone respects the Plott Hound. A “true bred” Plott is an intelligent, cunning, fierce, strong and agile dog. Plott Hounds are Bear Dogs.

The Plott is a product of a stock of five Hounds brought to Colonial America by a sixteen year old German immigrant, Johannes Plott in 1750. For over two hundred years the Plott family which later settled in now Haywood County NC and friends of the family bred these fine dogs to create the breed now known as Plott Hounds. This is a unique breed of hound for several reasons, though the breed came from the five original stock dogs, they are not the sole ancestors, over the years careful attention was paid to crossing of other breeds of dog to create the Plott breed. It is the only breed of “hound” that is not of English stock, being the only breed developed in the United States. The Plott Hound is a dog rich in history. This history is often guessed at, and mistaken. Until recently there has been no official history of the breed. This has changed with the arrival of “Strike and Stay, The Story of the Plott Hound”, by Bob Plott.

Bob Plott, himself a descendant of Johannes, owner of Plott Hounds and Bear Hunter has compiled an interesting and well written history of his families dogs. From Elias Plott, a Game Keeper for a German Baron who gave the five dogs to his two sons to bring to America to the National Plott Hound Association of today. Bob tells...As much as he can.

As the author points out, little or no record was left as to what dogs were bred into the Plott Hound. It's exact lineage is a mystery with Bob explaining the obvious evelution of the breed. But as to how it was done, the carefulness and attention of training he explains. Bob Plott puts forth interesting and colorful tales of these dogs once exclusive to Southern Appalachian Bear Hunters. Tales of the dogs and the men who hunted with them and how they became a nationally recognized breed hunted on both large and small game. Among these are old timers, Mountain Men such as Montraville Plott, who insisted his dogs were Curs and didn't like "Houndy Traits". Hence the Plott was once a "hot nosed" dog. This is mostly different today*. Later Bob rites of "The Big Five", five men all in southern Appalachia (I'm being kind to West Virginia)that accelerated the Plott into the national spot light. These men were dedicated Bear Hunters and sometimes guides such as Von Plott that was hired by Base Ball Legend, Branch Rickey to take him Bear Hunting and Taylor Crockett that was known to do some guiding as well as Von's older brother John that preffered dogs as his father Montaville did. Prior to my reading of the book I had learned some contradicting information of one of the Big Five's stock, but the man was well respected and is no longer alive to defend himself. None the less, there are people that like his strain of dog.

As one "Plott man" said to me, the Plott Hound is a "Registered Grade Dog" and arguments about the different lines of the breed will go on.

Along with the men, Bob speaks of the dogs themselves, Pistol Packing Mama of Tuckasegee fame, Jap, and Blue Boy, a superb strike dog. Also included is a frank and well said discussion of Bear Hunting and ho it has changed over the years with technology and loss of hunting lands and a glossary of terms used by Hound Hunters and Dog Breeders.

Strike and Stay is both informative and entertaining with a host of unfortunately all black and white yet good pictures. It's 192 pages of unique Appalachian history and a must have for any Hound Hunters library.

*Something said by some Hunters to have had to have happened with the loss of the Chestnut trees and the decrease in Bear because of it. With less Bear colder nosed dogs were needed.

There you go, it took me a while to get it written...But it's wrote.
The Appalachianist

Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Adventures of Wiggly But Walker Dog with Funny Dreamss and Memories in the Land Of Sky

It’s over. Wiggly Butt Walker Dog’s free rein is over. She’s chained. I snapped her to that chain and she panicked. She pulled, hollered then twisted around before laying down on the ground depressed and whining. I told her it would get easier, it was a necessary evil. I walked off and she hollered. Eventually she settled down. Little does she know, she’s getting trained. This fall she rode in the box and would yelp and cry as we went off. She was familiar with the box, now she has to get used to the chain, the necessary evil. Now she has to get used to more control. She had began to roam around, dragging everything in the yard. A couple of weeks ago she brought in a fresh shed antler. Her nose stayed to the ground, she treed cats and she bawled at boogers in the night. Now she will get off of the chain to go on the lead. Come late summer she will run hard when the training season begins.

Wiggly is a quarter Plott. I hope she takes more of a Plott personality than a Walker’s. Walkers get crazy, Plotts are more cunning.

A Funny Dream
I’ve had some strange dreams, but I’ve never dreamed that I got married before. I’d always heard that it meant something to dream such a thing, but, I don’t know what. So I searched and this is the best I can find. It was a funny dream. I guess my masculine and feminine side are getting along.

Thanks goes to someone for showing me that site once that I had every intention of marrying and would have absolutely treated like a Queen and I will always Love very deeply.

Funny Little Memories
This morning I ate down at the diner, one of the girls down there’s son sat at the counter trying to see how long he could make a nickel spin before laying flat. The longest it would go was thirteen seconds. One night I jumped out of a C-130 at 800 feet and 13 seconds later was laying flat on my back on Fryer Drop Zone. 13 seconds. Probably would have took a little longer in the day light.

Land Of Sky
I went up to Asheville, AKA Ash Vegas, to a gun show this weekend. It had been going on for over an hour when I got there and there was a line backed around a corner. It stayed hat way for another hour. I ran into all kinds of folks, a couple I seen at the Down show I went to Monday night. Two boys from Haywood County I had Bear Hunted with, and a few Transylvanian faces. Everyone was at the gun show and we’re in a recession.

Gotta stay focused on The Righteous Path
The Appalachianist

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Jaded Tid Bits

I stood out in the yard and watched the eclipse with the dogs last night. Wiggly Butt Walker Dog is getting lanky.

Once in a while I will read my horoscope at Free Will Astrology. It's informative and makes me chuckle. I don't know if he can predict future events, but he seems to have read my mind...
Some religious traditions don't motivate you through the threat of punishment and don't make you scared of God. Some corporations don't rip off their workers, don't despoil the environment, and don't have tyrannical bosses. Some politicians don't lie constantly, haven't sold out their ideals, and aren't power-mad narcissists. In light of these facts, Cancerian, please try to keep an open mind about them all in the coming week, as well as about any institution, idea, or person about which you have made dogmatic generalizations. It's a perfect time to shake up and even purge some of the personal biases that you have enthroned as absolute truths.
Heck, it seems every where I turn anymore I see dogma. At times it concerns me, but, I'm an open minded fair person, I can discern. Yeah, part of it is being jaded.

Everyone makes a big deal out of Hillary and Obama running for President. A woman and a black man...They ain't the first and only ones. I voted for Allen Keyes( heck until I linked that I didn't know he was running for President again...Run Allen Run!). But, he is a Conservative, sometimes almost Libertarian, Republican. The other woman currently running for President is a Libertarian, Christine Smith.

I took a test about what Presidential Candidate I was to vote for. It was only the two big players, the Republicrats and the Demublicans. I agreed on eight out of ten with Ron Paul. I scored 50/50 with Mike Huckabee and John McCain, then Obama and Hillary came in last. I guess she is getting to know how Ron feels. Yet if the Libertarians win their lawsuit in NC and get back on the ballot, I'm voting for Wayne Allyn Root. Hey, the guy's initials are "WAR", how cool can that be? You'll vote for who ever you want to.

Thanks to Twisted Twister the Militant Mulungeon for the voting link.


Heck, makes you want to go bird hunting with the Navy
. Shot that big dangerous Hydro benzine filled electric eye right out of the sky. Now the Chinese are demanding we give a full explanation as to how we did it. A 16 gauge Shotgun with an improved cylendar and steel shot.

Like one of my co workers said if we'd missed it Bob would be out in the back yard with a beer in one hand and a pistol in the other..."I'll get it!"

My mind is pretty made up about political dogma. Not much more to say about that.

These Jaded Tid Bits were brought to you by
The Appalachianist

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Cantrell Bridge



Dirty South
That is the “Canterll Bridge” over the West Fork of the French Broad River in Transylvania County NC on Thanksgiving morning. That is an isolated stretch of road through a section of the Pisgah National Forest, it’s Game Lands. There is a story that a long time back there was a murder in the county. The Deputies found the killer there along that stretch kicking the mans head up and down the road with nothing but hatred in his eyes. It’s a pretty stretch of road and peaceful along the river. You’d never know that something like that had occurred there.

Hatred
I got that look of hatred twice in Iraq. They hated everything about me, everything they perceived me to represent and everything I did actually represent. It was brief, seconds, but it was there, probably not as severe as a man kicking someones head down a road. I have people that don't like me, but that was seething hatred, not anger, not resentment, hatred. They weren't all like that, but that was hatred.

Last Post
To say Rush was the greatest out of Canada is a matter of opinion. But that was a note of my opinion. Music has fore shadowed what I meant to be a...hint...spark of a thought, without conclusion, that not all in this world is set in stone. But there is a constant, an undeniable fact that if you don't decide, a choice will be made for you. While there are times when one can stand back and see what falls into place, to accept the results is a choice.

It's storming and Bosco has come inside, keeps climbing on me...oh her breath stinks...
Well, that was last night and God has given us a beautiful morning.
Both my Dad and my Brother are working on a paper mill in south Alabama. They live in campers there during the week. That town got hit with a tornado last night. I hope they have campers left.

The Appalachianist

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Choice of Free Will

I wasn't going to do this, I was going to write somethig out. But, this came to my mind in my ponderings. Life is about choices, not playing along. You can say Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul have done the right thing about staying in the Republican race. The Libertarians and the Green Party are still running.

RUSH! Best rock band to ever come out of Canada.

Free Will


Rush, Free Will
There are those who think that life is nothing left to chance
A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance.

A planet of playthings,
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive.
"The stars aren't aligned
Or the gods are malign"
Blame is better to give than receive.

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose free will.

There are those who think that they were dealt a losing hand,
The cards were stacked against them
They weren't born in lotus land.

All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate.

Kicked in the face,
You can pray for a place
In heaven's unearthly estate.

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose free will.

Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete.
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet.

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose free will.

Friday, February 08, 2008

It's a Hillbilly Thing.

Anymore, it seems like any time I post, I've got a video up. All video and little words makes dan a dull boy. Oh, but "Bohemian Like You" was so appropriate to the last post.

I intended to pick a Hog Hunting video...ooops, capitalised hog. So I grabbed one that was from Tennessee. Well, turns out it has Hayseed Dixie to it. Something I thought of doing with their cover of Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" with a Bear Dog theme.

So, get a little taste of hog Hunting.


There is a lack of Bear Hunting with Hounds on YouTube. We might have to do something about that. No, that was not a campaign promise. It was a notion.

Another thing lacking on YouTube is a video of either (The Late, Great) Ralph Stanley or Levon Helms performing "False Hearted Lover".

So, this is it. Nothing else.
The Appalachianist...

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Tuesday

"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites."
Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday

Fat Tuesday, Super Tuesday, Wall Street Not So Hot Tuesday. Too many Tuesdays...Today was Unseasonably Warm Tuesday here. I hope it's Obama beat the snot out of Hillary Tuesday. There is more diverse thought on the Republican side, Uncertain Tuesday. It's raining (Thank You God!) Rainy Tuesday. What Tuesday are you? There's no damn on line test for that!

Bohemian Like Me
I found an on line Bohemian test. Here you go! I answered five of five. Are you Bohemian like me? Or are you Heathen like them? If you want to continue and soul mate shop, that's up to you. I don't endorse the chic in the mini skirt.

Appalachiaism...Bohemianism...Living in Bohemian Hills!


Be an Individual!
The Appalachianist

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Sally



Sally was killed by a car Saturday. Twister had let her run at his parents house while he cut fire wood and she had made her way down to the road. Sally was a smart dog and had potential as a Bear Dog. She was good to follow other dogs leads and to stick with them. She did some funny things. We were off in Jackson County near Pinhook and she managed to squeeze out of s dog box as the truck was rolling down the road. She got skint, but she ran behind until another hunter picked her up. sally had been on a bear once. Hounds don't know borders. The world is a forest to them. A black top is not an over romanticized strip of pavement, it's something to cross. Hunting dogs are true to Woody Guthrie's lyric, "I saw a sign and it said not trespassing, I looked on the other side and it said nothing." She was about a year and a half old.

The World Is A Forest

Think of me what you wish, but, I believe God holds a place for dogs. A place where they run and hunt the wild animals. He gave them that nature. He made them and everything else as he did us. Why would he not?

A higher love that rises above
Rises above yeah a higher love
See the silver set beneath the stars
a hundred million voices that cry as ours



Bosco Race

I had no intentions of posting about dogs. But the day started with them. I let Bell run loose off of her chain this morning. I had Squeaky on a a lead. Bell got off in the woods. I hollered for her then as Bosco, loving yard varmin she is, went to loafing, Bell opened up. I looked down the drive way and Bell was in Bosco's face bawling. Bosco reared her head back and looked puzzled. Bell ran along in Bosco's face bawling, down the driveway and out across the creek with that Wiggly Butt Walker Dog in tow. I had to laugh. Finally I caught Bell and had to carry her over my shoulder all the way back up my drive way, about a third of a mile. Low and behold, it appears shes in heat, in February. I guess Bosco looks a little like a Bear. But Bell hasn't seen but one hanging. I've had some concern of her, but maybe she will do good. Right now she's locked up safe and sound.

To rise above it all above our hearts
she gave everything everything to me
See the silver set beneath the stars
a hundred million voices that cry as ours


The italicized words come from The Cult's song "Citizen", from Born Into This.

More to be said later...
The Appalachianist