Marmalade Hollow: Back home from vacation

I had wanted to post more vacation photos but truth be told, we spent a lot of time running around and visiting, back and forth between states and houses that I didn't really get a whole lot of time to take photos in the first place.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent at Jeremiah's folk's house. Friday we went south in Kentucky to Loretta Lynn's (famous country singers) childhood home. Her brother owns a general store in town (photoed) and we were supposed to go to the store and "ask for Herman". We did and the cashier sent us up the road to Butcher Holler, the same Butcher Holler she sang about in her country song "Coal Miner's Daughter". The song and the movie are a bit off in truth but regardless, it was still a nice day to spend out there. The weather was wonderful, it wasn't humid and it was nice to just sit and talk.

Saturday Jeremiah, Matthew, Drew and I drove up to the graveyard where his uncle was recently buried. When Aunt Ruth grew up there, she said getting up to the church and grave yard was nothing but a walk up the hill but since the coal company has bought the land out, under certain restrictions they must leave the cemeteries alone (there are 3) but the more mines they dig, the longer the road gets so what used to be a short jaunt was a 1 hour ordeal. We had to pass through the guard shack to even get onto the road and passed coal semi trucks going up and down. We could have spent all day out there trying to find that cemetery since the guard said she was new to working there and really had no idea exactly where it was. The older gentle man we talked to down in the town before going up the coal road didn't really know, they said it sounded familiar and thought it was about 5-6 miles up the road.

We were about ready to give up after driving up and down the roads. I saw a coal truck stopped and asked Jeremiah to ask him. He drives the roads all day long, certainly he should know! As it turns out, it just so happens we are at the entrance. It was worth it. The old church is still there and they still have funerals in it. I don't think either of the 2 other cemeteries had churches on them (one had a covered area with pews and long tables for gatherings. Aunt Ruth and Gracie said family reunions are popular at Graveyards.

We stayed for a while. It really was a lovely spot. I wish Rachel would have come along with but she wanted to go with Tonya and Deana for the day. On the way home we stopped at Twelve Pole Church where the boys said they would occasionally attend monthly gatherings for singing. Jeremiah made me cross the cable bridge over a creek, he knows I HATE heights. He said they used to run across as kids...and I used to run across gravel bare foot as a child, so there you go. There were some people there doing work on the church so we chatted a while before heading back out to meet Aunt Ruth and her daughter Candy for dinner.

Sunday we went into Ohio and did some more visiting. It's been so long since we'd been back that it seems a lot of time was spent visiting and I wish we could have had longer. We tried to fish every morning before heading out and the kids had such a wonderful time with cousins!

The goats and animals were taken care of by friends and the garden had grown leaps and bounds while we were gone. It took us 5 days to get caught back up with work and we're finally getting regular rain! It's been so humid the past couple of days but this summer is completely different than the last 2 and is more like what is should be instead of the hot incredibly dry like we've had! The pond isn't holding water but I am hoping we're finally pulling out of this drought. The pastures look wonderful.