Tribute to Clarence Hancock

This is one of the last pictures taken
of Uncle Clarence and may well be the last
picture taken. I took the last picture
of his mother, my grandmother in the late
1960's. His mothers picture was taken with
a Polaroid camera. This was done with a
digital camera. Uncle Clarence Hancock
passed December 1, 2009.

Uncle Clarence was one of those individuals
who made life interesting and memorable.
Back in the middle of the 1970's my Dad had
a heart attack. I was living in Michigan and
Dad was living here in Tennessee. I decided
to fly down to be with my Dad while he
recovered. My brother and my Uncle Clarence
were already there so they volunteered to pick
me up at the airport. As I was walking down
the ramp this gentleman with a wide brimmed
hat and a lot of black hair walked up to me
and flipped open his wallet and said that he
was with the FBI and he needed to search my
luggage. Uncle Clarence didn't have any
hair so I didn't recognize him. I didn't
think anything about it because a lot of
that was going on at the time. He took
my luggage and put it on the floor
and opened it up. He started going
through my luggage and when he came to a
pair of my underwear he held them up above
his head so all could see. I knew I had been
had by a pro when I saw my brother standing
behind a pillar as red as a beet from laughing.
My uncle Clarence closed up my luggage and
handed it back to me as if nothing had happened.
On the way to the hospital I told my Uncle
Clarence that I would get even. I did get
even about 3 or 4 years ago. Stay tuned.

Music Anyone

Double click any picture for large size.
Please leave a comment if you look.
The flute on the right is the one I am
working on now. It is almost finished.
This flute is for a friend who cut the
Eastern Red Cedar from a tree that his
father grew up with. It has taken almost
one year for the wood to dry enough to
make a flute.













I made this Zither from plans that I
found on the net. I wanted one after
I heard one being played on TV. It has
a very sweet sound.














The large square Dulcimer on the right
is called a Tennessee Music Box. It has
a great loud sound. The three instruments
to the left I call sweet sticks. They
are dulcimers that are played like a guitar.
The long bamboo flute at the left is my
walking stick flute.














There was an ugly spot on the wood
of the Tennessee Music box so I
decided it needed a Woodspirit
and a little turquoise.














This is the first Hammer Dulcimer
that I made. I had to have one.














This is the second Hammer Dulcimer
that I made. Cloudhands had to have
one. I made one more for a niece.














Here are two lap or "Mountain"
dulcimers that I made. The one
on the left was my first lap
dulcimer.














On the left are some of the Native
American style flutes that I have
made. On the right is one of my
guitars. This is a cheap guitar that
plays like an expensive guitar. I
have 7 guitars. I guess I'm a collector.














Two more guitars next to a quilt
wall hanging that Cloudhands made.














This is my favorite guitar. My parents
bought this Gibson in 1954 for my brother
and I. It was made in 1953. I bought my
brothers share last year. Cost me a
bundle.














This Teisco is also a favorite of
mine. I bought this guitar in the
late 1960's for about $70. It
would take a lot more than that
to get it from me now.














This guitar came to me as a basket
case. I had to rebuild it. It plays
nice














This is my last one I think!!














Wow.. a fiddle and a keyboard!!














The last picture I hope. This is a
sweet stick that I built in the late
1980's or early 90's and a cute little
banjo that was built in Knoxville by
someone else. I have a lot more Native
American flutes. The one on the table
behind the banjo is one of my favorites.
It was the third one that I built. On
the right side on my blog there is a
video of me and my friend Larry Patton
playing in church. All of these instruments
that you see here are protected by
Smith & Wesson and Colt. Don't even try!!

Let it Rain

An afternoon at Bee Rock

This is Cloudhands surveying the valley
about a thousand feet below

This is the vertical wall that folks
repel down just for the fun of it. I
think our fire department uses it for
practice.


This video shows one brave soul
repelling down the wall.














Here is Cloudhands getting way too
close to the edge.















Some folks carved their initials into
the rock.














Here is Cloudhands standing between
two X's in front of the cliff on our
way to Bee Rock.














This tree is along the trail up to
Bee Rock. Proof that the Native Americans
use this area for gatherings that were
peaceful.














One more look at the tree that signifies
a peaceful gathering place to all the
native American tribes in the area. I have
written about these trees in an earlier
blog.

Healthcare

Why don't the Democrats want the
American people to see the health care
bill. The democrats said we would not
understand it! A proposal was made to
allow the bill to be posted on the Internet
for 72 hours before the vote so everyone
could read the bill. The democrats on
the committee voted against it. WHY?
It is pretty obvious why they don't want
us to see it. This MONSTER may well
bankrupt the country. Everyone's taxes
will go up, especially those folks who
don't already have insurance. Seniors on
Medicare will lose some if not all of their
benefits. Obama says he will pay for this
scam with the fraud in the Medicare
program. He says there may be almost
1/2 trillion dollars of fraud and overpayment
in Medicare. If that is true then why wait
for a new healthcare plan. Clean it up NOW.
He is still going to have to raise at least
that much more to pay for this farce. What
happened to the campaign promise that we
the people would have the same insurance
that the congress has. This congress has
opted out of the plan. Down the tube with
another campaign promise.
I don't hold the Republicans blameless on
this issue either. They have proven that they
don't have the guts to fight against spending
our money on useless programs. It's time
for a major makeover in DC. Don't vote for
an incumbent. Don't blame Rush Limbaugh
or Glenn Beck for the problems this nation
faces. Blame the person who stares back
at you when you look in the mirror each
morning. As long as you keep voting these
idiots back in office we will have problems
in this nation. It is stupid to march in the
square for a health program that you have
not read. You have no idea what is in this
1100+ page monstrosity. This is not even
the finished bill. DON"T march for something
till you know what it says!!
I agree that the healthcare needs fixing but
not a complete makeover. Start with Tort
reform. A doctor does not need to worry
about which lawyer will be looking over
his shoulder as he does his work healing
his patient. Allow the insured to buy his
insurance in any state. Stop insurance
companies from dropping people off their
plan. Don't allow lawyers to write the health
bill. This bill should take less than 10 pages
to write. Make the insurance forms standard
to all the insurance companies so that the
hospitals don't have to have 100's of
different forms. Most of this is common
sense so it will be like a foreign language
to liberals and the congress.

Unity Quartet

This is the UNITY QUARTET singing "My
God and I" Sunday morning Sept 6, 09
at Unity Church of the Cumberlands.
I think they did a great job. Please
leave your comments. Thank you much.

A Day at the Airport

This video starts our day at the
airport. A small plane taking off.
It looks like a Cherokee 140, which
is a small four seat airplane.


























These last two pictures show that this
is a small airport. Mostly private pilots
and instructors fly here. They do get a
few business jets and helicopters.













This is Cloudhands standing next to a
small fast homebuilt that flew in
for this event.














This is me in the middle and a friend
on the left of the picture. E.B. will
be 90 on his next birthday. His flying
days are over because of his eyesight
but he still gets rides in the small
planes fairly often. I will be 70
on my next birthday and I can still
fly. I sometimes get folks who have
never flown tell me how an airplane
is suppose to work. Most of the time
they are not right, but since it won't
cost me money or my life I just let
them talk. The same thing is happening
with the Global Warming scam. This is
an issue that I have studied for
almost 20 years and I am still not sure
who is right. I usually try to follow
the money and I have noticed that Al
Gore has gotten wealthy and so have
others pushing this issue. G. E. stands
to make tons of money over this issue.
The new Cap and Tax that Obama is pushing
will cost folks a lot of money. A lot
of seniors are tapped out with heating
cost and can't afford any more! This is
an issue that I have to talk about
because it could cost me a lot of money
that I don't have. It probably won't kill
me but I may have to give up some of my
medicines which could kill me. I spend
a lot of time at Dr. Roy Spencer's site
http://www.drroyspencer.com/#satellite-tempsclass="BLOG_video_class" contentid="FAILED" height="266" width="320">
Silver Haired Daddy of mine is a song
that I heard my Dad sing many times.
Cloudhands Daddy use to sing it a lot
also. I guess memories of you father
good or bad cause you to wax sentimental.
This band was at the airport event all
afternoon. They were enjoyed by all.














Future pilot? This little girls mother
is an accomplished pilot with just about
all the ratings you can have in the pilot
world. She is an instrument rated multi-
engine rated pilot with an instructors
certificate. What more could a kid ask
for in a mama?

High Flight

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
by John Gillespie Magee

In this picture I am at about 9000ft above
Florida. I had left Pinconning, Michigan the
day before. I stopped in Crossville, Tennessee
and spent the night with my mother and father-
in-law after 6hrs of flight and will be landing
at Tampa Bay Executive airport.














This is a view of our home near Almont
Michigan. We lived there for about 14
years. It was about 2 miles from the
airport that I learned to fly at. I am
probably about 2-3000 ft above the
ground in this picture.















This is a view of the airport where
I trained for my pilots license, which
I got in 1984. We eventually bought a
home that joined this little airport.














This is my first airplane. It is an
Eagle ultralight. I saw one of these
flying in a TV movie and had to have
one. I didn't need a pilots license
to fly this ultralight.














This was my second airplane. It
is a 4 seat Cessna Skyhawk(172).
This is the plane that I finished
my license training in. I had two
more Skyhawks after this one. I
had partners in all of the Skyhawks.
Made flying more affordable.

Melody of Love

Forty Nine years and wanting more.
Happy 49th wedding anniversary sweet
wife.
Music by Billy Vaughn

A short Walk

These are some of the folks I meet on my walk
in the neighborhood. You will need to expand
the picture to see them














If you look closely you can see two Japanese
beetles making little Japanese beetles.















It is really interesting the different configurations
that the mushrooms have taken this year. May be the
extra rain that we have had this year.














More mushrooms. It has been a wet summer
this year. It's good for some things and
not so good for others. Either way, we like
it.














Grand niece looking cute as usual. Our
little creek has been flowing great this
year.














This is a large geode stone from
Kentucky that is at the entrance to
our labyrinth. This geode is about
12' by 12" in size.















This is a fairly large Petoskey stone from
the state of Michigan. If you look close
you can see the sea creatures in the stone.
This stone is about 6" long.














This is another example of the growth of
the mushrooms this year. Nature is an amazing
thing.