Working on the cane gang.

One of the ongoing crafts here at the Plantation Camp Ground is learning the old art of chair caning. Cane in a natural product cut by machine from the outer bark of Rattan, a jungle vine that grows in Borneo, Sumatra and Malaysia. The same company that supplies cane also carries basket weaving materials. They have been in business since 1934.

Our friends Bob and Barb have taught caning for a couple of years now. Bob learned from his mother and spends his summer repairing a steady stream of chairs. Luckily for me Bob usually brings several chairs with them and I was able to learn on a very pretty one. Last year a number of chairs were caned then sold at auction raising about $1800 for the Escapee Care Center in Livingston Texas. The same is planned this year with the hope of breaking $2000.
Since I am still a novice at caning, there is no point in trying to explain more so a few pictures should help.

This is typical of a chair in need. Someone probably stood on it.

This is the chair I was given to learn on.

The caning material before soaking in water. Water makes it pliable.

The first step.

Me, hard at it.

Many steps later,almost finished

Detail.

Cane field

I really did do this chair. I may even do another one.

Trip to Bellingrath

A few weeks ago we went on an bus excursion to the old (old by North American standards) Bellingrath Estate on the south side of Mobile. We left about 3 in the afternoon because the trip's objective was to view the extensive Christmas light display, not the famous gardens where they are situated. My words won't do it justice so once again I'll put in some pictures.

The lights got better as darkness fell.

This pond was originally a mud hole.

The lights on this one flowed making it look like a fountain.

Most of the lights were flickering or flashing and dancing.

The Bellingraths made their fortune producing and bottling Coca Cola in the early 1900's. They purchased the property about 1930 and by 1935 were welcoming the public to view the flowers. Walter Bellingrath established a trust fund to keep the gardens open, and the rest is history.

We finished the evening at a nearby seafood restaurant.

We wish you all a blessed Christmas and a happy healthy New Year.

Carolyn and I will be attending St.Paul's Episcopal church in Foley tonight and you will be in our prayers.  

Just a Cotton picin minute.

Ever since we moved to Hastings, we have lived with and come to respect the men and women who farm the land. All around lower Alabama, cotton fields are common. At this time of year, many are already harvested, but not all. We let it be known amongst our friends here that we would like to see a cotton field being picked. Last Saturday, Al Kinney stopped by our trailer to tell us he had just seen the big machines in action not far away from us. Carolyn and I jumped in the truck and soon had stopped by the side of the road and were watching these 3 large, noisy machines moving quickly up and down the rows of cotton. There were other machines in the field as well. Unfortunately, I don't know the names of any of the equipment so I will just try to explain what they were doing. I hope the pictures will help.

Here you can see the 3 harvesting machines in a sea of white!

Raw cotton gets dumped into the compacting unit.

Those yellow upright posts move up and down compacting the cotton.

Raw cotton. The black spots are seeds.

Carolyn got a running commentary.

My view from the harvester.

Me on the balcony.

The product of the compacter, a modular awaiting pickup.

After the harvesting machines had made several passes through the field they were met by another machine that looked like a big motorized basket. The harvested cotton was transferred to the basket and it in turn moved to the edge of the field and transferred the white balls of raw cotton to another piece of equipment that compacts them into a large bail we learned later is called a modular. We watched this noisy and dusty operation for several minutes then started back to our truck. One of the harvesting machines was coming straight toward us so we stopped and waited til it passed only it didn't pass. The operator stopped, turned off the engine and asked if we would like a ride. It didn't take us long to climb up to the cab where Carolyn got to ride inside while I rode on the veranda like area beside the cab. I had to hang on with one hand while I took pictures with the other. The farmer gave Carolyn a running commentary as we went to the other end of the field and back. He is the owner of the field and says he likes to show people around. He asked if we were farmers too. He also mentioned he gets three crops a year, rotating between cotton, oats or hay and peanuts. Also he doesn't till the soil between crops, just harvests then plants the next one. 

This all happened about 3 weeks ago, but the internet connection is so slow at our park I had to send from the Foley public library. Here there is a real WiFi connection and it's free.

If we don't get to you again before Christmas, have the best one you've ever had.

Finally, south again

Sunday December 04, 2011
Hi all, we are back at our favorite park, the Rainbow Plantation in Baldwin county Alabama. I was slow getting the blog out because the internet was down for almost a week and we are right back in the swing of things, busy busy. I did try to keep a log of the trip down and that is going to fill out the rest of this post. No pics yet though.

Friday November 18, 2011

We're off! Up early, packed the truck, shut off the water and turned down the heat. There was a light dusting of snow to remind us why we were doing this. Said our goodbys to our good neighbours, Sandy and Horace(who are looking after a few things for us). A few of our local dog walkers (Nicky, Lois and Jim with Buddy, Molly and Bear) went by as we were packing and wished us well. Dorreen (another good neighbour down the street) called just as we were going out the door to ask what time we were leaving. When I told her she had just caught us at the door she said she would meet us on the road to say goodby.

We drove the 15 minutes to Greg McCracken's Repair Shop where we are fortunate to keep our trailer, and after a half hour hooking things up we were really on our way. South through Warkworth to the 401 and after 1 1/2 hours (maybe 2) we arrived at the Ivy Lea bridge and had a very smooth border crossing. When the Border Guard asked if we had any alcohol or tobacco products, I told him about our 2 bottles of Old Tom's Egg Nog. He chuckled and said “egg nog with the rum already in it. That's good, have a nice trip.” We joined Interstate 81 and drove through some ice pellets in upper New York, but that was it for bad weather.

We went on till after dark, stopping for the night at a recommended KOA campground in Pennsylvania. It was quite chilly but our furnace worked first try and the little electric heater made up the difference.

738Km.(443mi)

Saturday, November 19

Another uneventful day. Through Pennsylvania on  I 81, a little of Maryland and West Virginia then stopping at another recommended campground near Fort Chiswell, Virginia. 615 Km. (369mi)

Sunday, November 20

Interstate 81 ends in Tennessee as it joins Interstate 40 where we go west through Knoxville. We decided to make this a shorter day, do some shopping at Walmart then stay at the Escapee Park at Raccoon Valley. By now the temps had warmed considerably. We were welcomed to the Tennessee woods with shotgun blasts as some of the good old boys did target practice. They were uncomfortably close. Went to the Sunday ice cream social and by the time we returned to the trailer the shooting had stopped. 356Km (214 Miles)

Monday November 21

We were on our way early this morning but still got caught in Knoxville's morning traffic. It really wasn't too bad and soon we were back on I 40 west till we joined I 75 south. Other years we went south on I 59 at Chattanooga but there is a very bad stretch (about 40 miles worth) of really rotten road. We've been caught on it twice, but not this time. We went a little further west and got on a scenic byway called Alabama 75. We had to climb to get to it. At the top we were almost 2000 ft above sea level. It was a pleasant change from the interstate. By the time we reached Birmingham the temp had reached 80+ degrees. Just past Montgomery, tonight’s stop was a park near Hope Hull, Alabama. It was a former KOA that had seen better days. Expensive and nothing special. 605Km (353 Miles)

Tuesday November 22

Our first stop today was a Flying J for gas and breakfast at Denny’s. As we pulled out another truck pulling a 5^th wheel trailer was behind us. Surprisingly they followed for quite a while. When they did pass us I recognized them from last year. We caught up with them at a rest stop and we were greeted warmly.

I had discovered last night that we had a problem with the faucet set in the bathroom because they would not turn off. So we stopped in the Walmart in Bay Minette to see about a replacement. I didn't like what I found so we stopped at Camping World. Still no good. Next stop was Ace Hardware. There we got a nice metal (chrome) set and in line shut off valves. Total cost $50.

About 2 pm we arrived at our destination, the Escapees Rainbow Plantation Park. The park manager Gary and his wife Millie met us at the office and asked “what took us so long?” Our site from last year was open, so we took up residence again. It was nice being back in our winter home. 272Km (163miles) Trip total so far 2595 Km. 1557 Mi. Gas mileage seems worse this trip, not sure why.

Wednesday November 23

First on the agenda today was get that water faucet set working. Plastic pipe plumbing is a lot easier than that  old copper stuff. It still surprises me that it works as well as it does. The only real problem was getting down on the floor to do the work. All those years repairing photocopiers has taken its toll. My knees just aren't what they used to be. At least our home away from home has water now.

If this works like I think it does, you can clik on the location button below to see a map of where we are.