September 2010
Tyrrell County’s Country Magazine Published Monthly Online & In-Print!
3
rd
Anniversary Issue
September 2010
Photo by Sara Lilley Phelps
9th October 09, 2010
19th Annual Scuppernong River Festival
The Scuppernong River Festival celebrates our community! Come join the locals for a full day of celebration and fun, followed by evening fireworks. The day starts with the parade at 10:00 AM. Vendors, food, all day entertainment at numerous locations. And, after the fireworks, dance the night away at our street dance. Phone: 252 796-2781 or 252 796-1371
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
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PUBLISHERS: INGRID & NELI LEMME / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SUNNY LEMME
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Quote of the Month
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“The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.” ~ Jim Rohn
DEAR READERS
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We are getting lots of emails from people from all over the US who like print copies of our magazines, and we just don’t have the funds to snail-mail free magazines. But you may print any magazine at anytime and in any color if you like FREE! GOOD NEWs! We found MagCloud and tried it. The magazines looks awesome, they are of high quality, semi-gloss,
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truly collectors pieces. You may order them anytime online with a credit card or by Pay Pal for $5. We are getting 20 cent per issue, that’s all! We are supporting many of our wonderful charities and organizations and would like to keep on doing that. A yearround 12x business card size ad is $200 or $25 per month. We love Tyrrell County! - Ingrid & Neli
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September 2010
Man of the Month
...On the Board Walk... Teen of the Month
Nice guy Eddie Peartree Gorgeous works presently on his Miss Haley Carson, read CDL license, is happily more about her in this married to Suzie Peartree issue and visit her on and loves the Lord, his www.facebook.com/hcarson23 family and dog Bruno.
Business of the Month
Cherry Farms Seed Company, a Customer Service company producing wheat and soybean seeds. Â http://cherryfarmseed.com
Lady of the Month
Mrs. Linda Hassell, wonderful wife, loving mother, and a cool grandma who manages the office at Cypress Cove Marina www.cypresscovenc.com
WE LOVE TYRRELL COUNTY!
Book of the Month
Movie of the Month
Couple of the Month
Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Not Just Who You Know by Tommy Spaulding
EAT PRAY LOVE with Julia Roberts
Claudia Lee Dooley & Corey Waters
Kids of the Month Annie, Chris, and Whittney Workman cool, creative kids!
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
Couple of the Month Claudia Lee Dooley & Corey Waters Congratulations on your recent engagement! Photos by Song of the South Photography www.songsouthphoto.com
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
“BUCKY” BY WILLIAM WEST I once met a white-tailed buck that had a 12-point rack and wore a heart-shaped “necklace.” Although he had a nice rack, both he and the antlers were small. For want of a better name, I called him “Bucky.“ Three or four years later, I met Bucky again when he was a fine mature buck with a trophy eight-point rack. Bucky was just one of a number of bucks that I spent quality time with at a distance of 6 to 12 feet.
Other than Tyrrell County, Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee is my favorite place between Alaska and Antarctica. I have camped there for more than 50 years and every year in a row for more than 30 years. Hunting is not allowed in the cove and the animals are acclimated to people. If a person uses common sense and an unhurried approach many of the animals will allow close approach. They are still wild animals, however, so one must be cautious. Park rangers would not approve of my close encounters, especially now. www.ScuppernongGazette.com
For several years I camped alone for a week at the cove and spent the days rambling through the woods and open pastures looking for bucks and bears to videotape. My favorite part of the cove is the ridge in the woods down from the right side of the Primitive Baptist Church. One first passes through an area of pine trees, down into a swale and then up onto a ridge with several white oak and chestnut oak trees. Down-slope from there is another area with pine, hemlock, oak and maple trees. The entire area is open and much like a park since deer have for years browsed any small seedlings. Over the years I learned the bucks’ favorite areas for bedding down during the day. They usually hunker down to rest and chew their cud next to a fallen tree and always in shadow. A fallen tree with branch stubs is a choice site for that is where their antlers blend in for almost perfect camouflage.
I approached a bedded down buck slowly with no attempt at “sneaking up” on him. I also talked to him. You may think that I had popped my cork but I am convinced he understood my intentions though not my words Tyrrell County, NC
-- “yes, I am in your space but I mean no harm.” Time and again I approached to within 6 to 10 feet of a fine buck, knelt down, and with my video camera on a tripod recorded his rumination, all the while talking quietly to him. Sometimes I could see by his body language that a buck became nervous at my close approach but at such times I looked all around at the ground as though looking for a lost wallet. In nearly every case the buck settled down and having once accepted that I was not a threat, allowed my close approach. At other times a buck arose when the sun shone onto him and then lay down again in the shade near me. In such encounters I felt honored, awed and humble.
One of my sons-in-law was with me when I first met Bucky. The buck was at the base of the ridge slope, beside a pasture, lying among the branch stubs of a pine tree that had fallen years before. I approached slowly, watching his body language for signs of uneasiness, while speaking quietly to him. At a distance of less than 6 feet I set up my tripod and camera and
September 2010
began taping as he chewed his cud, swallowed, regurgitated another cud bolas and began chewing again. Deer are ruminates, mammals that eat and swallow their food and then retire to a safe place to regurgitate and chew the food. After I had recorded several sequences of his rumination, Bucky turned and looked directly into the camera lens. It was then that I saw his heart-shaped “necklace.” It was
actually a cow lick almost centered just beneath his white throat patch.
Three or four years later, accompanied by Lewis Parrish, one of my camping/rambling buddies, I saw Bucky again. He was on my favorite ridge, lying beside a large, fallen oak chewing his cud. Lewis had his still camera mounted on a tripod and
Bucky as a mature, 8-point buck. www.ScuppernongGazette.com
I had my similarly mounted video camera. After some minutes Bucky faced us directly and I saw the unique cowlick. He was a fine, mature buck with a fine eight-point rack and a handsome specimen. It was like meeting an old friend.
continues...
Photo by Lewis Parrish, FBPA Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
Over the years I spent quality time with many fine bucks, does and even bears. On one foggy morning I was walking across a large pasture videotaping a nice buck when a couple appeared out of the fog and told me that two bucks were sparring in the back corner of an adjacent pasture. The bucks were still battling when I got there. One had a 12-point rack while the other, slightly larger, buck sported an impressive eightpoint rack. I set up my tripodmounted video camera and recorded several minutes of their sparring, sometimes down on their knees in the fog. The resulting footage is almost surreal with the only sound being the rattling of their antlers.
I know of no other place where I could experience the close encounters with trophy bucks that I enjoyed. I also know of no place more beautiful than Cades Cove on an October afternoon of Carolina blue sky, golden hued light, and a few white scud clouds. Even more beautiful is the cove on a clear full-moon night. Over the years a number of people have accompanied me to Cades Cove
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and I always try to share my favorite places and times with them. For example, I try to pick the week of full moon for my camping trip. After dinner on at least one night, I hike 1¼ quarter miles to the cabin of John Oliver, the first permanent white settler and there “commune with the spirits.” There have been times when almost as though on cue an owl hooted on the mountain behind the cabin or coyotes serenaded. Years ago, when the red wolves were in the cove, they serenaded me on many such nights as I walked in the moonlight. More than one of my friends has told me that such times were spiritual experiences for them.
I am sure that Wilbur and Marietta Liverman, lifetime residents of Tyrrell County, and Chris and Allisa Lucash, both newcomers to the county, will agree with me that Cades Cove is a special place. I met Chris and Allisa when they worked with the red wolf project in the cove. When the project ended and the wolves were trapped and moved to the Alligator River refuge the Lucashes moved to Tyrrell County, where they now reside.
Tyrrell County, NC
Bucky must surely be in greener pastures by now but my encounters with him were special times that live on in my memories and video footage.
WILLIAM WEST IS A NATIVE OF TYRRELL COUNTY
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September 2010
Boat of the Month “Making Cents” Captain: Denny Reynolds of Columbia
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
quotations on her Facebook page is: “Peace will come when the power of love, overcomes the love of power.” Haley likes the music of Jonny Waters of Tyrrell County and Spare Change.
TEEN OF THE MONTH MISS HALEY CARSON
She enjoys playing soccer because it allows her to travel a lot and she
hopes to play soccer in college, too. Some of her favorite things to do is to go out with her friends and eat dinner or go shopping and she also enjoys spending time with her ‘fantastic’ family! Haley has a cool job: “I’m an intern for a biologist and we work with the RCW (RedCockaded) woodpeckers, so I spend a lot of time in the woods, its pretty grand,” she says.
Haley Carson, born March 20th 1993 and lives with her parents Chris and Jacky Carson right on the water in Tyrrell. “ So I spend a lot of time on the boat either fishing, wakeboarding or just hanging out,” she says. One of her favorite
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
NORTHWEST FORK BOG FLOWERS BY WILLIAM R. WEST
arvense). Arrowleaf or tuckahoe (Peltandra virginica) grows on the bank of the roadside drainage ditch. Tiny duckweed (Lemna perpusilla) grows on the bog ponds. It is a favorite food of wood ducks.
The peat bog that is located just south of the Northwest Fork bridge on highway NC 94 hosts a On the roadside opposite the bog unique variety of wild flowers in you will see zenobia (Zenobia the summer. One must drive by pulverulenta) plants with clusters slowly, or better yet, park at the of small, white blossoms at the entrance to a dirt road some ends of their branches. The distance south of the bridge, and walk along the road shoulder to really enjoy the show. Among the sedges, shrubs, smilax brier, sphagnum moss and other plants on the bog are grass pink orchid (Calopogan pulchellus), rose-crested orchid (Pogonia ophioglossoides), slender ladies tresses (Spiranthes gracilis), purple pitcher plant Grass Pink Orchid Photo by William West (Sarracenia purpurea), yellow pitcher plant blossoms resemble Japanese (Sarracenia flava), hooded pitcher lanterns, similar to but fatter than plant (Sarracenia minor), fragrant those of blueberries. Titi, or water-lily (Nymphaea odorata), swamp cyrilla (Cyrilla yellow bladderwort (Utricularia racemiflora) grows nearby. It is a inflata), purple bladderwort small shrub with small, white (Utricularia purpurea) and other flowers borne in elongated species. On the shoulder of the racemes fastened at or near the road look for blue-eyed grass apex of the previous yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s twigs. (Sisyrhinchium angustifolium) Nearby, fetter-bush (Leucothoe and rabbit-foot clover (Trifolium www.ScuppernongGazette.com
Tyrrell County, NC
axillaris) bears 3 in. long racemes of small, white flowers. Sweet bay, or swamp magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) also grows in the area. It has 3-6 in. semievergreen leaves and fragrant ivory-white flowers 1-2 in. broad that are followed by red cones. Sweet bay usually grows from a busy stump sprout in areas that have been frequently cut or burned.
Some distance south of Northwest Fork bridge is the entrance to a dirt road, on the right. Park at the entrance, walk up the path and look for a small shrub with pink, cup-shaped blossoms on the canal bank. Swamp laurel, sheep-kill, and wicky are all names of Kalmia angustifolia var. caroliniana, September 2010
Rose-Crested Orchid Photo by William West - a relative of mountain laurel. Herbivores, especially the young, can be poisoned by eating the plantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leaves, hence its alternate name. I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t noticed it along the path but you might see dwarf wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), another interesting, but small, plant growing among the ground cover. Dwarf wintergreen, or teaberry, is an inches-tall, upright, evergreen perennial whose leaves are very aromatic. It usually produces two, pendulant, Japanese-lanternlike, white blossoms that are followed by two pendulant, fleshy, berry-like fruits. The fruits taste like teaberry chewing gum, hence the name.
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
Faith Williams, who lives just down the road in Kilkenny, told me that as a child she accompanied her father when he paddled up Northwest Fork to a bog to pick cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon). Other people in Tyrrell County have also told me that years ago they picked cranberries in local bogs. Although I have not observed the low-growing cranberry plants in the roadside bog they might possibly grow there. You may also see swamp rose (Rosa palustris) in bloom near Northwest Fork. The thorny canes grow into head-high clumps along the banks of the forks of Alligator River. Its pink blossoms with five petals and yellow stamens are about 2 inches across and quite attractive. Just North of the forks bridge I saw a mass of blue-eyed grass (Sissyrhinchium angustifolium) several feet long on the shoulder of the road near the boat launch area in mid-June of 2008. The half-inch wide blossoms have 6 Carolina-blue petals and yellow stamens. The plant is actually a member of the iris family and not a grass. The 1-2 ft. tall flower stem of the grass pink orchid usually bears several lavender-pink blossoms 1-1.25 in. across. It is the showiest www.ScuppernongGazette.com
of the orchids on the bog. The somewhat smaller rose-crested orchid bears a single flower on a stem usually less than 1 ft. tall. The lip formed by the lower petal is a little less than 1 in. long and crested or densely bearded. Its pink flower is lighter in color than that of the grass pink. The slender ladiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; tresses orchid has a 6-12 in. stem and a single row of strongly spiraled, small, white flowers. Although I have not observed it on the Northwest Fork bog it is possible that the rosebud orchid (Cleistes divaricata) occurs there. It has narrow, 2-3 in. long, spreading, brown sepals that remind me of a Plains Indianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feather headdress. Its 2 fused, lavender, upper petals have a darker striped, slightly fringed lip. Its stem is usually 12-18 in. tall. Observe these words of caution! Do not attempt to walk onto the bog to observe the orchids more closely. In doing so you will certainly sink in over your shoe tops and possibly to your waist. Besides getting wet and muddy you would most certainly lose your shoes and your dignity as well. Use binoculars for a closer look. Neither pick nor dig up any of the orchids. They are classified as endangered plants and protected by law.
Tyrrell County, NC
When I was a child, there was a small bog along the (then) dirt road to Newlands, about a halfmile away. On that bog I saw the white fringed orchid (Habenaria blephariglottis), yellow fringed orchid (Habenaria ciliaris) , yellow-eyed grass (Xyris torta) and the rosebud orchid. Canals dug to drain the nearby pocosin pinelands lowered the water table and the bog and its unique flowers disappeared. Sundew (Drosera intermedia) grew on the margins of a small spring-fed pond in an old sand pit on our farm, just down the road from the bog. Its small leaf blades suggest ping-pong paddles with slender red trichomes (hairs) tipped by bright red glands that are covered with sticky, shining, dew-clear mucilaginous material. Midges, ants and similar small insects mire in the mucilage and soon thereafter nearby hairs bend toward and cover the victim. Eventually the leaf folds around the victim and glands secrete enzymes that digest the itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soft inner parts. Other glands absorb the freed nitrogen ions. Although I have not observed these species on the Northwest Fork bog they might occur there. William R. West is a native of Tyrrell County
September 2010
Purple pitcher plant trap leaf.
Bladderwort "bladder" trap.
Photos by William R. West
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
HOT TIP OF THE MONTH FISHBONE SKIFFS MADE IN TYRRELL Cypress Cove Marina Launches Fishbone Skiffs! Cypress Cove Marina proudly announces the introduction of Fishbone Skiffs to its lineup. These boats are not massed produced in some factory in a foreign land, rather handcrafted one by one right here in Tyrrell County. These versatile skiffs are constructed of hand laid fiberglass for durability and long term use. Each skiff is designed with the best components on the market today. Fishbone skiffs are made to endure and withstand the harsh elements the surrounding waters may throw at them, which will allow the customer to feel the strength and durability of each vessel. These affordable skiffs are available in 16 & 20 foot models and built with
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everyone in mind. Whether you are a recreational or commercial fisherman, pleasure boater, or an avid hunter, Fishbone Skiffs can be customized to your individual taste. Choose from various gel coat colors and seating configurations. Do you want just the boat or do you want it rigged with a motor and trailer?
Cypress Cove Marina can offer Yamaha or Mercury motors as well as aluminum or galvanized trailers for your skiff. There are many options to make your skiff fit your needs! “Come by and check out these new boats, we believe you will agree we’ve got a good thing going!”
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT ANDY JONES: 252.796.0435 andy@fishboneskiffs.com
Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
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Kids of the Month Annie, Chris, and Whittney Workman, here showing us their sculptures they created at the Pocosin Arts Center!
RIDE TO A WISH
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THE 2010 RIVERFEST 1M/5K 4BUVSEBZ 0DUPCFS UI t ". 5IF 'JSTU "OOVBM 3JWFSGFTU .JMF 'VO 3VO 8BML BOE , 3VO 8BML XJMM CF IFME JO $PMVNCJB /$ For more information please contact %PO $PCFSMZ at dcoberly@ridetoawish.com. All proceeds benefitting Tyrrell County Public Safety
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
THE COLLARD MAN BY WILLIAM R WEST I first met Duard Brickhouse, the “Collard Man,” when my grandmother, Susan Beasley, died and we moved in with my grandfather, who was infirm with rheumatism. It was 1942, I was 11 years old, and Duard, who lived just across the road, where J. D. Clough now lives, was 2 years older. He was living with his grandfather, Amos Brickhouse. Duard and I hunted rabbits together, swam and fished in the river bay where Vera Clough now lives and rambled. A few years later the Brickhouses moved away and from then on I saw my rambling buddy only now and then. One morning, 10 or 11 years ago, I was “down home” on a working trip, videotaping the redcockaded woodpeckers and other things at Palmetto-Pear Tree Preserve for an educational video program about wildlife management that we were producing. While I was eating breakfast at Sentell’s Restaurant, Duard came in, spoke, sat down across from me, and we began chatting. He asked when was I planning to leave for home and I replied: www.ScuppernongGazette.com
“Just as soon as I finish eating, brushing my teeth and checking out of Dalton House.” He suggested that I drive down to his place on the Sound Side Road before I left for a “mess” of collards. When I turned into his roadside stand at an old barn, Duard met me, picked up a 2-bushel box that he shipped his produce to market in, and we walked over into his garden patch. First, he pulled up and removed the tops from several turnip roots the size of oranges and grapefruits, which he placed into the box. Then he cut four or five big collards and placed them in the box. From there we drove up the road to his cabbage patch, where he gathered a couple of cabbages each of two different varieties. Then, it was on to another patch, set back from the highway, where he gathered other greens from a sizable patch in which there was neither a sprig of grass nor a weed. He kept gathering various greens until he had to push hard to close the box lid. All the while I kept telling him that there were only two of us at home, to which he replied, “Share some with your friends.”
Duard wouldn’t let me pay him for the box of soul food and I had a sudden inspiration. I just happened to have a bottle of my “recipe,” wine that I make each year from grapes in my small, backyard vineyard, in my car trunk. He grinned like a Cheshire cat when I passed him the bottle. You see, it was with Duard that I made my first wine. We picked James grapes from my grandfather’s large grape arbor, placed the crushed grapes, sugar and water in a wide-mouthed jar, covered it with cheese cloth, and topped that with a slab of pine bark to keep out rain. We placed the covered jar beside a pine stump behind our barn. The resulting wine didn’t have time to get anywhere near ripe before we drank it. As soon as I reached my Burlington home I called two of our Sunday school lady friends and told them that I had some Tyrrell County collards. Both of them came over that afternoon and I shared Duard‘s largesse. The next morning, one of the ladies came to meet us as we entered the hallway to our classroom. She said, before we even got close, “Those are the best collards I have ever eaten! continues...
Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
Bill (her husband) always uses vinegar on his collards but he said that these were too good to mess up with vinegar. The next time you go down home, please bring me $10 worth of those collards.â&#x20AC;? She went on to say that she had cooked them and all the trimmings as soon as she returned home the afternoon before. The other couple also remarked that Duardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collards were outstandingly good. I told both ladies that Duard would not let me pay him and suggested that I share with my friends. I gave them his address and both ladies wrote thank you-letters to the generous man whom they knew only by his outstanding collards. continues....
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
Sharing with others is a fundamental part of Duard’s personality. While I was with him at his garden patches on another occasion, I watched him pick a mess of cabbage for a lady who had called him earlier that morning. When she stopped by his garden patch, he loaded the cabbage into her pickup but wouldn’t allow her to pay him. She was a neighbor, he later told me. I’d bet a pretty penny that he gave more produce to his friends than he sold.
arrangement on the road to the Outer Banks. The fellow asked Duard if he had trouble with people who helped themselves when the stand was unattended and then drove off without paying. Duard replied, “If they
At his roadside stand, Duard had a scale on which to weigh produce and a sign indicating the per-pound price of each vegetable and “help yourself.” The idea was that the customer gathered what he or she wanted if Duard was not in attendance, weigh what they gathered and leave payment in a box. He told me about another fellow who had a similar stand and
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do I wouldn’t know about it and it wouldn’t matter anyway.” Now, truth to tell, I don’t know what it was that was so special about Duard’s vegetables. Was it the variety or was it the sandy, loamy soil and the proximity to Albemarle Sound?
The same thing goes for J. D. Clough’s sweet potatoes. I usually try to get down home for three or more boxes of his sweet potatoes each fall. One box is for our use at home, another is for a couple of our church friends with whom we eat lunch at a restaurant after church almost every Sunday. Their grown grandson, who lives in Chapel Hill and visits them often, “loves” sweet potatoes and his grandmother prepares them for him every time he visits. The other potatoes we share with our daughters and their families and with other friends. Almost invariably people who eat J D’s sweet potatoes tell us that they are the best they have ever eaten. I just tell them that, like Duard’s collards, they came from Tyrrell County, where everything is better.
William R. West is a native of Tyrrell County
Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010
Those were the Days Photos: Nancy Meekins Ferebee
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September 2010
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September 2010
Visit us on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=hPbbnZnaIDE
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September 2010
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September 2010
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Tyrrell County, NC
September 2010