Christmas 2009

I realize its been a while since Christmas but i've been out of town in West Virginia for the past 3 weeks so i have a lots of catching up. Here's me setting up my Christmas tree in the living room. Unfortunately this is as far as i got. No lights or ornaments. I didn't even have time to set up my double manger scene in the window with double baby Jesus'.

Bamboo

Update:
My original bamboo i got in Kentucky but these pictures were taken in West Virginia.

On two of the trips i took for work, i went to the southern part of Kentucky. While down there i noticed bamboo trees growing by the rivers. So on the last days of each trip i dug a few small trees up and brought them back home. The first ones i brought back died, but since they don't have seeds like other trees, new shoots came up from the dead tree roots. The biggest trees i saw in Kentucky were around 40 feet high and 3" around.



The ones in my back yard aren't quite 40' high yet. Hopefully they make it through the winter.

Bamboo 2

The bamboo i transported from Kentucky and West Virginia last year is still going strong, even in the winter. I was worried that the reason it doesn't grow here in Michigan is that it's too cold. But so far they have been doing just fine. The roots are really starting to spread and by next summer i still expect my back yard to look like a Vietnamese jungle.

3 weeks in West Virginia

Work called and i left for West Virginia, for a 3 week trip, on December 27th. So for the 2nd year in a row i was working out of town on New Years. Luckily during the time i was down there, West Virginia was having unseasonably cold weather, with lots of snow. And i found out that down there when it snows 3" school is usually canceled. But as always it was lots of walking, around 100 miles, and during that time i saw lots of cool stuff. I really enjoyed the mountain views, they were everywhere and looked great covered in snow.

Here's what i looked like most days, trying to stay warm.
I also learned that there are TONS of deer in that state. In fact West Virginia has led the US in number of car/deer accidents; Michigan is number 2. They were everywhere and unlike Michigan where they could walk around in farm fields, it was either stand in the road or on the side of the mountain.

Not lots of farms or cattle but there was the occasional cow with an itchy nose.

Measuring out the line
After a couple of weeks in the Super 8, my clothes pile did get a bit messy.

A cold early morning

Apparently where people in this town paid for water. No it was not a double wide.

Instead of burying pipes like gas lines they sometimes just laid them on the ground. Here's their hi-tech solution to crossing a river. Screwing a wire to 2 trees.

Scary land owner that definitely had lots of guns. And had no problems telling the DNR how things were gonna work.

The coolest guy in West Virginia.

And of course he lived on...

Incase you can't read it, the hand painted sign says "Neurosurgical Assoc" on "Knawl Creek Rd" I'm not joking this place was out in the middle of nowhere. If you hadn't already guessed, Knawl Creek road isn't a major highway. It isn't even paved, its gravel. I didn't want to even think about what kind of equipment they used to use in their redneck neurosurgery that got performed in that place before it collapsed.

"Honey my central nervous system's still hurtin' me" "Well time to go down to that neuro-something-or-other down on Knawl Creek"

Typical road names were either "lick", "hole" or "hallow" (pronounced "haller") It took me about 4 months to realize what people were talking about when giving directions and said "ya ya'll want to turn left down at the second haller off a Mud Lick road"

This was a burned down house. But after offering a big reward like that i'm thinking any day now they'll have their suspect. You could have bought the house for around $400.

Fresh bear tracks crossing the road we were walking. We guessed they couldn't have been more then 3 or 4 hours old since it just snowed that morning. That's my boot print next to it, just to give a sense of their size.

Straightforward sign

Charlie

Also on the trip to Onaway we stayed at my friend Laura's aunt and uncle's house. They lived on a farm and had a bunch of cows. While there i saw this cat that came out of the barn and was really friendly. There was something like 20 or more cats living in the barn but this was the tiniest. He was pretty skinny, we saw him eating old Triskets out of the box. So i kind of took him. His hobbies include eating, sleeping and drinking out of the toilets.

3 days later i got called and had to leave for West Virginia for work so i left him with my parents. When i got home 3 weeks later he was a lot fatter and energetic. And i decided to name him Charlie and teach him to kill the squirrels and rabbits in my back yard. I told him that for every squirrel he kills he can have his choice of canned food: Mariner's Catch, Sea Captain's Choice, or Turkey and Giblets. He likes those giblets.

Here he is sleeping on the ride home.

Hatfields and McCoys - The Real Story

There's a new show on the History channel - Hatfields and McCoys. It stars Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton. I guess it's ok for a drama to be on the History channel because it's about two actual families that were all a fussin' and a feudin'. Although beyond that i'm not sure how historical it is.

I was down in Kentucky and West Virginia several time for work, walking along the roads and back in the "hollers". And back in 2010 i was in the same area on the Kentucky / West Virginia border where the whole Hatfield and McCoy feud took place. I saw the original Hatfield home and lots of other famous sites. I even walked to see where the whole thing started. The trees where the first killings occurred. The story was that the old man Hatfield promised Mrs. McCoy that he wouldn't kill her sons in Kentucky. He kept his word. He took them across the border into West Virginia, lined them up against some trees by a river and then shot them all. Here's some of the pictures from that trip, just to give you an idea of what it's like down there now.

West Virginia - Wild and Wonderful. I think Kentucky's state motto is Unbridled Spirit and theirs usually a horse on the sign.

There were a bunch of graveyards scattered all around. I would see them as we were walking along the roads. There were a bunch with the last name McCoy.

The creepy ones were when people would have their own "family" graveyard on the back of their own property. We would see a house on a hill and way in the back would be 5 tombstones. I guess it's legal down there to bury people in your back yard.

And there were lots of stores and restaurants trying to cash-in on the Hatfield and McCoy popularity.

Here's a typical yard in West Virginia. People are really poor, live out in the middle of nowhere and have tons of dogs, which they don't take car of. They are either in a shack or tied up under the foundation of their house.

i also saw lots of rosters, presumably for cock fighting. This was the nice "farm", they actually have little houses for them. Most places just used 55 gallon drums as the roster pens.

All of the roads were dangerous down there. Steep winding paths around the mountains where the speed limit was 55 and people drove 70. I guess no one needs to use the suspension bridge any more.

But most people we talked to were really nice. Everyone always said "How y'all doin'". So i guess the Hatfield and McCoy story is just like any stereotype people have. Not everyone down in Kentucky and West Virginia smokes, while chewing tobacco, caring a shotgun and telling you to get off their property. Maybe 20% of the people we met were like that, but not everyone.

Bamboo - 2011

This was a tough winter on the bamboo, lots of leaves turned yellow, overall though they survived.

I'm still not sure exactly what type of bamboo i have. I think the small trees are Canebreak bamboo (the only native bamboo to the US) and the larger ones are Yellow Grove bamboo I'm only guessing from pictures i've seen. The Canebreak bamboo i got in Kentucky and the Yellow Grove i got in West Virginia.

I also have Moso bamboo that i grew from seeds i ordered online. After reading about the different types i've learned that as long as the roots stay above -10 degrees Fahrenheit they should still be alive in the spring.
In the summer i piled lots of grass over the root area and in the winter i made sure to pile lots of snow around the base of the trees to help insulate them.
Here's the shoots this year from the little Moso bamboo. This plant is only 1 year old and probably will never be very big. Down in Florida it could be 40 feet high and 6" in diameter. But here in Michigan it will never grow that size because of the cold winters.

I was happy with how well the Yellow Grove bamboo grew in 2010. I was really excited this year because of all of the roots i saw growing last year. This picture was taken early in the summer 2010.

Around Easter i noticed the new shoots coming up. Over 30 shoots from this one cluster of trees.

This is one of the bigger shoots, maybe 1/2" in diameter.

These pictures were taken over no more than 10 days. You can see the shoots on the left. They will grow sometimes over 8" on really warm days.

One day i was outside and saw ants chewing on the bamboo. I sprayed some insecticide but this is what they looked like the next day.
Because of the heavy rains and ants, not every emerging shoot fully grew to trees but overall this has been the best year for the bamboo.