The End of an Icon

It sits nestled in the very corner of Clay County. It’s owned by a man named Clay Logan. It is called Clay’s Corner—an apt name. I pass it on every trip to town. It is the morning gathering place for the locals. It hosts a Friday night convocation of musicians and whoever else can fit into the back room for a jam session of fiddles, guitars, and basses. And on New Year’s Eve, a couple of thousand folks gather for the Possum Drop, where (depending upon what lawsuit PETA has filed), they lower a caged possum around midnight after music, skits, and general fun. It’s also where I buy gas for the lawn mower—it’s one of those old analog machines, and you can’t pay at the pump.

And last week it closed. Clay has decided he’s ready to hang up the general-store-manager role. He said the Possum Drop will go on as planned this December 31, however.

A couple of times since we’ve lived here a hurricane or tropical storm has hit the North Carolina coast, and we’ve been asked if we were affected. Seeing how we live over 500 miles from the North Carolina coast, there is usually no sign of storm in our neck of the woods. Irma, however, is not supposed to stay on the coast but come north through Georgia right into our neck of the woods with tropical storm force winds. If it follows the track below, it will pass right over us (we’re just south of that S on the map). The last time I was in a tropical storm was at a UT football game sometime in the 90s when a storm came ashore from the gulf and went right up I-35. I don’t remember who we were playing, but it came quite a squall; there was a rather lengthy delay, and then all was well. I’ll be curious to see if this is anything like that.

The garden is still plugging away. We did pull up two tomato plants today to make room for some spinach and kale, but we are still getting okra, though the cool nights have certainly slowed it’s growth (it was 46° this morning), and my peppers are producing well again. One of the plants is taller than I am and putting out some rather good sized jalapeños.

 

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And Then There Were Three

We dropped Jenna off last night at Belhaven to begin her junior year.

She’s all ready to go and should have a fun year with a class in aesthetics, Victorian Lit., History of Grammatical Structures (they are using a text book I used in college a long time ago), biology, and honors where the subject they will tackle (from looking at the reading list) appears to be something to do with the role of work.

We also got to see Lauren briefly on our way back home as we dropped off some essentials that she needed, like her coffee mug.

I think we’ll probably feel like we’re missing someone for awhile. But I am personally looking forward to diving in with Rebekah in lots of fun subjects this year in school. Adjustments for everyone ahead.

Eclipse

We thoroughly enjoyed the total solar eclipse from our front yard. Jenna hung up her Eno that she got from the Baileys and we hung out in the shade of the trees in the front yard as it got dimmer and dimmer. The final few seconds before the sun was completely obscured was like someone turning down a dimmer switch. And then this bizarre scene for the next two and a half minutes.

It was very much like a deep dusk and yet very different. The feel and the colors were all somehow not dusk-like at all.

As David would say, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1).

And just as quickly as it happened, it was over as the dimmer switch was turned back up—not all the way, but it was a clear difference between completely covered and almost.

It was such an enjoyable event, that I’m already thinking that in April of 2024, I might need to take a vacation back to my hometown as they will be on the center line.

In other news, Lauren is doing well in her first week away, making new friends, working hard, getting books bought, and figuring it all out. We have Jenna for just five more days. Dana started back babysitting today for the Classical Conversations group. Rebekah added two more subjects this week: history and Spanish and will add Botany and World Literature next week. We are starting with the Odyssey.

Goodbye #1

One girl is off to college. We dropped Lauren off today at Covenant, got to meet all her roommates, and got her settled in. She has orientation activities for the next several days before she starts class on Thursday. We are very excited for her, but we will miss her greatly. We have Jenna for another few days—she goes back next Sunday—before we’re just down to Rebekah.

We stopped off at a used book store on the way home and sold a bunch of books—and bought a few more, mainly for Rebekah’s world lit class.

First Day of School—Sorta

Today is Rebekah’s first day of her sophomore year, sort of. She’s starting math today. The rest will wait until next week after we take Lauren to school. But no back pack this year, no actually going anywhere, as she will be home all week. We are still hoping that there is another student she will be able to work with on botany and literature, and there is a chance she will work with some other students on Spanish as well, but for the most part, the kitchen table (or couch) will be the classroom this year.

I spent almost all day yesterday working through almost 8 weeks of plans for botany and ordering supplies. I would like to finish the first semester this week, but we’ll see how that goes. I’d also like to make a final decision on literature. Anyone out there ever read the whole of Don Quixote?

I think I will be subbing for a CC tutor in September, and since Dana is still doing childcare, I am sure Rebekah and I will be up there some for lunch.

 

Camp Cherokee

We had a wonderful week at Camp Cherokee. We had 26 kids from Andrews come out each day to the day camp our youth initiated, planned, and ran. It was a fun week of building relationships with the kids (and some parents), sharing God’s love, and having lots of fun. While there are a few tweaks we will make if we do this again next year, overall it was a great success, and Jenna did a great job with the planning and organizing. And as usual all of our youth stepped up and did what was asked of them. Everyone had a great time. A few pictures from the week:

Now hopefully everyone can catch up on their sleep before we take Lauren to school in less than a week.

Last Sunday was a sad day as a couple of our seniors helped lead worship at church for the last time. Jacob and Lauren have been a blessing to our church for the last couple of years by sharing their talents with us and they will be missed and for far more than just their abilities to share music.

 

 

School, Camp, and Driver’s Ed

We are quickly approaching the beginning of school for all the girls. We take Lauren on the 18th to Covenant, Jenna on the 27 to Belhaven, and Rebekah—well, that’s up in the air. For the first time in 6 years, I will not be tutoring a Classical Conversations class and Rebekah will not be with any of her classmates. For lots of reasons, her class disintegrated over the last week or so, and so she is left without classmates, and we are left scrambling to figure out what she will be doing for her sophomore year. Since she wants to join the class below her next year when they move up to Challenge II (order is not necessarily that important in Classical Conversations in the high school level), we need to come up with something else. So the plan right now is World Literature (The Odyssey, Cry the Beloved Country, Les Miserables, some Russian short stories, and Don Quixote, but that’s not set in stone), Algebra II, Spanish, Botany, and US History. We are looking for one more class to fill out the year. And then at some point in time, she’ll start, probably between Lauren’s departure and Jenna’s. But in the mean time, I need to write some curriculum plans so we can get started.

On Sunday afternoon our youth group will begin a week we are calling Camp Cherokee. It is modeled after the week they spend in Mississippi every year that they have wanted to implement here. We are doing a day camp for about 40 elementary kids that we help tutor during the school year. Then in the afternoon and evening, we’ll do camp stuff with just our youth. Should be a fun week.

And finally, in another “last” for the Herrington household, our last daughter has finished a week of driver’s ed. She now has to drive for 6 hours with the driver’s ed instructor (don’t know when that will happen), and then she’ll get her permit.