Wild South Picnic

The picnic at Brushy Lake in the Bankhead Natl. Forest

A grand daddy showing off his grand baby's
picture to another grand daddy.  

Volunteers of the year....since 2009

Chuck's walking stick

Every Fall, Wild South throws a picnic for it's volunteers.  Chuck has been a volunteer for a number of years now.  It's a great group with a lot of caring people.  They spend hundreds and hundreds of hours in the forest keeping the trails passable, building kiosks, looking for lost people, putting out camp fires people leave and the list goes on.  Chuck received the honor of being " volunteer of the year" for 2014 last year.  The honored volunteer receives a hand carved, hand inscribed with their name on the handle, walking stick.  We keep Chuck's stick by the front door with our other special walking sticks....the one I got in Germany and hiked in the Alps with, the beautiful hand carved one that belonged to Charlotte's father, she gave to Chuck when we first moved up here, one with a hand carved squirrel on the handle that I painted and the tall giraffe stick that I bought  for the memories at Busch Garden's with  Michelle and Genavive, before we moved away.
    Chuck has another year of volunteering ahead of him.  What a beautiful place to spend your time and effort to keep it that way.

A Little Bit of Fall Left.

Yesterday was the " Wild South annual picnic" at Brushy Lake in the forest.  The weather was "Fallish" cold and there was still just a bit of fall left on the trees here and there.  Most of the leaves were on the ground, which is still pretty to me.   It has taken me six years but I have finally decided that Fall is my favorite season.  I know...wait until we get a 10 inch snow and I will be telling you the same thing.  ...but for right now it's Fall!