Marshall Good Life Magazine - Fall 2016

MARSHALL COUNTY

Cookin’ cousins in Albertville know how to whip up a feast Fly fishing for largemouth bass is making ripples on Lake Guntersville FALL 2016 COMPLIMENTARY

See the winning entries in the first My Marshall photography contest

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Welcome

Learn something new about what’s in your hands P eople often say they read Good Life Magazine and learn interesting new things about their county, their community, even people with whom they grew up.

I believe them. Writing stories, shooting photos and selling ads, I learn things I never knew about this place I call home.

People also say they love our print job, the color and the paper. Me, too.

In the course of our three-year existence, a number of companies in the eastern U.S. have given us bids on printing GLM. But we were pleased with the job the good folks at Russell Printing in Alexander City did for us, and no one could beat their cost.

One of many new things I learned last year was that a company in Boaz – BPI Media Group – prints, among other things, magazines. Hmmm. Right here at home.

Not actively looking to move our business, I met Alan Davis, one of the family owners, and was impressed with their work. Being in the business, he gave us a quote. We ended up better off sticking with Russell, but Alan and I tried.

A few months ago I spoke to the Marshall County Leadership Challenge.

Drew Davis, who works for BPI, is in the 2016 leadership class. Afterward, he told me that BPI had added a second shift and new technology that allowed them to cut magazine printing costs. Hmmm, again.

Long story short, I am thrilled to say Good Life Magazine is now printed in Marshall County. We can keep our printing money right here at home, helping support local jobs, paying local taxes. I’m proud of that. I’ve seen the print job BPI did on the fall GLM in Cullman County that’s already out. I’m proud of that, too.

Read what’s in your hands. I think you’ll learn the same thing. And I hope it makes you proud to know your Good Life Magazine is now printed right here at home.

David Moore Publisher/editor

Contributors Annette Haislip’s granddaughter Caroline is visiting in August before departing for China for two years to earn her MA in international studies on a Johns Hopkins Fellowship.

It’s hardly the ultimate analysis of Annette’s intelligence, but she does say she was smart enough this hot summer to stay inside and read.

Patrick Oden recently refurbished an old building in Guntersville as a photo studio. It was a toss-up which was worse: too many hours on an 8-foot ladder (he’s doesn’t do heights) or riding a grinder three days to remove old carpet glue. He doesn’t know much about fresh glue, but breathing the old stuff is nasty.

Sheila McAnear, Good Life’s advertising/art director, has always had her own artistic style of dressing.

But after a run-in with an aerial boat paddle that landed blade first on her bare foot, her doctors had her wearing an ungainly cast-like boot and now a brace. Dang things don’t match a single outfit in her closet.

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

Steve Maze is plugging along after a string of medical issues and was looking forward to neck improvements after yet another surgery, this July 25. “I’m not bad for a broken down old writer,” he laughs. One morning, he hopes, he can wake up and find his issues nothing but “Yesterday’s Memories.”

What’s Eddie Wheeler, coordinator of the Marshall County Extension office, do when he takes a few days of vacation? Pull weeds and tomatoes in his garden? Attend to landscaping?

Nope. Too much like his job. So he recently spent a few days at Opry Mills Mall in Nashville and Cool Springs Galleria in Franklin, Tenn.

How much coffee is required to crank your engine in the morning?

Good Life’s David Moore finds it doesn’t make much difference if he’s in bed by 9:30 or works to 3 a.m. and later. Along with his wife he usually requires their ritualistic “Sweet Hour of Coffee.” It’s like an all-you-eat buffet, only caffeinated.

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Inside

10 Good Fun

Fall fun goes beyond just football

16 Good People

Boaz teacher Gavin Moy always seeks teaching moments in class, on the farm

22 Good Reads

Shadows of Austen; floods in the valley

24 Good ’n’ Green

Five tree ideas to plant this fall

27 Good Cooking

Albertville’s LeAnne Bryant and Kandie Baker are fine cookin’ cousins

36 A landmark piece of land

Land is something of a foundation in the home of Wayne and June Jacks

44 Writing to the stars

Young girl scores autographed photos

48 Good Eats

Dive into the divine at Aqua Restaurant

50 Pow wow

Cherokees’ ceremonial dances are to honor the creator and their heritage

On the cover: A Screaming Eagle zipline guide at Lake Guntersville State Park launches off a 78-foot high platform with far-reaching vistas through the forest canopy. Photo by David Moore.

This page: Becky DeArmond of Guntersville won an honorable mention in the My Marshall photo contest with “Weathering the Storm.” Unable to beat the rain and wind, this sailor dropped anchor, popped his umbrella and earned a story to tell.

54 Fly fishing for ... bass

Fly fishing is making some ripples in a lake famous for rods and reels

62 My Marshall

Photo contest winners bring an array of perspectives on a place we call home

70 Out ’n’ About

Zipline at Lake Guntersville State Park takes you where eagles, adventure dare

David F. Moore Publisher/editor 256-293-0888 david.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

Vol. 3 No. 4 Copyright 2016 Published quarterly

Mo Mc PUBLISHING LLC

Sheila T. McAnear Advertising/art Director 256-640-3973 sheila.goodlifemagazine@gmail.com

MoMc Publishing LLC P.O. Box 28, Arab, Ala. 35016 www.good-life-magazine.net

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Good Fun

Just a reminder: Fall really does offer more than just football ... no, really, it does • Aug. 18-21 – Auditions: “It’s a Wonderful Life” Be a part of The Whole Backstage.

Land a part in the play directed by Diane DuBoise and based on the classic film by Frank Capra. Auditions are at the theatre at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 18-19, 10 a.m. for children Aug. 20 and at 2 p.m.

Aug. 21. The nine shows will be staged between Nov. 25 and Dec. 4. For more information: www.wholebackstage.com.

In her oils, Robin Roberts remains dedicated to “chasing the light.”

• Aug. 3-Sept. 2 – Robin Roberts exhibit The Mountain Valley Arts Council will exhibit a collection of Robin’s acclaimed serene and southern oil paintings. Register with MVAC for an oil painting workshop the Decatur artist will give – Painting Your Vision – Sept. 8 for beginning artists and Sept. 9-10 for intermediate levels.

Invited for several years to the Huntsville Museum of Art Gala, she also participates in the Alabama Plein Air Artists group. Recipient of many awards, she says her biggest is hearing someone say “Ahhhh” and knowing a painting has touched a chord in a viewer’s heart.

Meet Robin at a reception 5-7 p.m.

Aug. 11 at the gallery. Weekly hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Feel free to make an art supply donation (paper, scissors, glue sticks, paint, markers, etc.) for agencies that work with children.

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• Aug. 26-27 – Jeff Cook Daze The annual birthday party concert for Alabama co-founder and Mr. Guitar himself is expanded to two days this year with gates opening at 4 p.m., music starting at 6 p.m. The concert will be on a 40-foot stage at Civitan Park in Guntersville. Bring chairs but no coolers.

Food and alcohol vendors will be on site.

Friday see Confederate Railroad, T Graham Brown, Judge Talford and Cash Creek. Saturday brings Exile, Shoals Sound Revue, Shelbie Z and Me and the Girls. Two-day tickets online are $27.50

• Aug. 12 – Free foreign film “Son of Saul” is a 2015 Hungarian film depicting the horror of 1944 Auschwitz through the story of a prisoner forced to burn corpses of his own people. He finds moral survival in trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son.

It’s part of the Free Friday Foreign Films series the Guntersville Public Library shows at 7 p.m. the second Friday of the month. Snacks and drinks provided.

• Aug. 18 – Main Event, Arab Sit back in your lawn chair and hear Arab’s Robert Barnes play classic rock and originals.

The Arab Downtown Association’s free Main Event show is 6:30-8:30 p.m. at First Ave NW and Main Street. Check out the shops that stay open late. For updates visit: www.facebook.com/ downtownarab.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

Happy birthday, Jeff

or $42.50 for reserved seating and a T-shirt. Tickets at the gate are $20 per night.

“We are paying some bands this year, but they all want to come help Guntersville and Marshall County celebrate our country music legend’s birthday,” says organizer Rhonda McCoy. “All of the acts are people Jeff has inspired or worked with.”

He will be performing with some of his friends, Rhonda says. “But mostly we want him to sit back and enjoy this. And you never know who might show up to surprise Jeff on his birthday.”

For more info: www.jeffcookdays. com; or call Rhonda, 256-677-9593.

• Aug. 27 – River Run Car Show A ton of people are expected from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. to see hundreds of cool cars, trucks and bikes at the Guntersville Lions’ Seventh Annual River Run Car Show. It’s held at Marshall County Park No. 1 on U.S. 431. Spectators get in for $5 a carload and will also find entertainment, food, swap meets and kid’s activities. Enter your wheels for $20 online (RiverRunCarShow.net) or until 11 a.m. show day. More info? Call: 256677-9763.

• Aug. 30 – Taste of Sand Mountain This could well be the best eating you ever experience – especially for $10. Taste of Sand Mountain opens the doors to more than 30 of the top restaurants across Marshall County.

Last year about 1,000 people came, but there’s plenty of room for table seating and entertainment. Register for gift certificates, prizes and restaurant coupons. Coca-Cola will provide beverages.

The festival is 5-8 p.m. at the VFW Fairground pavilion on U.S. 431 in Boaz.

Get tickets at the Boaz Area Chamber of Commerce. A portion of the proceeds goes to charity. For more info or to sign up your restaurant, call: 256-593-8154 or 256-593-8172 • Sept. 30–Oct. 9– “Jekyll & Hyde” Directors John and Meagan Cardy bring to The Whole Backstage Theatre the epic struggle between good and evil in this musical phenomenon. A love story and horror story, Dr. Jekyll’s

treatments are rebuffed by the powers that be, so he makes himself the subject of his own experiments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons along with the man the world would come to know as Mr. Hyde.

Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, the show features pop rock hits from multi-Grammy and Tonynominated Frank Wildhorn and double Oscar and Grammy-winning Leslie Bricusse.

Shows are Sept. 30, Oct. 1-2 and Oct. 6-9. Times are 7 p.m. except for Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are: $18 adults, $16 seniors, $10 students.

Buy them after Sept. 12 online: www. wholebackstage.com.

• Sept. 2-3 – Ever-popular St. Williams Seafood Festival It may be 46 years old, but at the St. Williams Seafood Festival the seafood is always fresh. Held at Guntersville’s Civitan Park, drive-thru hours for quarts of gumbo and Cajun boiled shrimp are 4-6 p.m. Friday.

Sales start back Saturday at 7:30 a.m. and go until the inevitable sellout.

Dine-in opens at 10:30 a.m. for Creole style filé gumbo, Cajun boiled shrimp, boiled crawfish, catfish dinners and BBQ chicken dinners and more.

• Sept. 7-30 – Anne Blue/ Gail Hooper exhibit Mountain Valley Arts Council Gallery

Patrick Oden found some fun characters to photograph at the 2015 River Run Car Show.

• Sept. 1-Oct. 30 – Joint art exhibit Guntersville Museum is hosting the abstract/contemporary artwork of Annette Brewer and Sandy Mann.

With a studio and gallery in Hoover, Sandy Mann is an interior designer and art teacher. Annette, who lives in Guntersville, also does sculpture.

“Both experiment frequently with technique, color and medium,” said museum director Julie Patton. “It will be an interesting exhibit with their work side by side.”

The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Tuesday-Friday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday: 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. Admission is free.

presents an exhibit by relatives Anne Blue and Gail Hooper. An MVAC board member, Blue studied art at Auburn, taught in high school, has lived in different parts of the country and traveled extensively overseas – offering a wealth of visual resources for her painting. An Ohioan with strong Texas ties who lives in Moulton, Gail Hooper has loved art since age 4. Her passion continues in painting and sculpting and is shared with collectors throughout the U.S. and Europe.

A public reception for the artists will be 5-7 p.m. Sept. 8 at the gallery.

Weekly hours are 1-5 p.m. TuesdayFriday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

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Main Street bustles as Grant’s annual yard sale turns out a crowd, captured here in photos from recent years by Ramona Edwards.

Though a small part of the crowd, Grant youngster AJ Escalera, right, appears to be having some big fun.

• Sept 9 – “Coming Home” The Free Friday Foreign Films series – snacks and drinks provided – continues at 7 p.m. at the Guntersville Public Library with this Chinese historical drama first shown at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. A movie with delicate surprises, it’s the story of a former political prisoner in the 1970s who tries to help his wife regain her memory, rediscover their love for each other and forgive their daughter. Giving it a strong 92-percent rating, Rotten Tomatoes says “The rare tear-jerking melodrama with sociopolitical subtext, “Coming Home” plucks the heartstrings with thoughtprovoking power.”

• Sept. 10 – Music on the Mountain The Gary Waldrep Band with special guest Stacy Grubb will present a 12

• Sept. 24 –Mile-Plus Yard Sale Bigger every year, Grant Chamber of Commerce’s 11th Annual Mile-Plus Yard Sale is expected to bring bargain hunters by the thousands to browse their way for a mile down Main Street. Expect 100 vendors or more offering auto parts, accessories and jewelry, handmade crafts, clothes and more. Other vendors will sell burgers, hot dogs, BBQ plates and homemade fried pies. Want a booth? They’re $25 before Aug. 31 and $40 Sept.1-15. For guidelines visit: www.grantchamberofcommerce.com.

bluegrass concert behind the Norton Building at Snead State Community College. Joining them will be Rocket City Ridge and Crossing Grass.

Presented by The Mountain Valley Arts Council, the free concert is 3-11p.m.

Bring a lawn chair. Food trucks will be on site.

• Sept. 12 – Arab Community Fair The Arab Historical Society invites you for a fun day of food, arts and crafts, games and history in the Historic Village at Arab City Park. Admission is free.

If you’ve never visited the village, now’s the time. The day-long event harkens back to Arab’s first fair in 1922.

Visit the restored buildings. Watch crafters demonstrate their skills and wares.

See old fashioned corn grindin’,

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

blacksmithin’, log sawin’, needleworkin’, soap makin’ and a Civil War reenactment group. Pet a mule, take a wagon ride, join in some foot-stompin’ gospel music at Rice Church and enjoy other live entertainment.

• Sept. 13-17 – 59th Annual Marshall County Fair Engulf yourself and your family in all of the fun, thrills, sights and smells of the annual fair presented at the Boaz VFW Fairgrounds on U.S. 431. Gates open at 4 p.m. and fun goes on until it’s over. Admission is $4; age 5 and under free. Buy a daily armband good for rides Tuesday or Wednesday for $15; or $20 for the other days.

• Sept. 15 – Main Event, Arab Taking the stage for the first time in

this area, Helen Keller’s Ukulele brings an evening of contemporary folk music and musical storytelling to town. All you need to bring is a chair. The Arab Downtown Association’s free Main Event show is 6:30-8:30 p.m. at First Ave NW and Main Street. Check out the shops that stay open late. For updates visit: www.facebook.com/downtownarab.

• Sept. 18 – Lopez/Tabor Duo The 2 p.m. concert at Fielder Auditorium in the Snead State Community College Administration Building is free, but that says nothing about the caliber of talent you’ll experience.

Violinist Alfonso Lopez is also

concertmaster of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra and one of the country’s most versatile musicians.

Pianist Michelle Tabor grew up in Venezuela, now lives in Tallahassee, Fla., and holds a doctorate, master and bachelor degrees in music from Florida State University, the University of Denver and Tulane. They have toured together since 2004 when they last visited Snead State.

• Sept 26 – Rock House at the museum Rock House Eatery’s fourth annual Museum Evening allows you to enjoy unique dishes from one of the city’s finest restaurants while eating with

friends in the ambiance of Guntersville Museum. Rock House will offer a special farm-to-table menu that includes champagne and a four-course dinner for $50, plus tax and gratuity. Social time starts at 6:30 p.m. with dinner at 7. This year there is only one meal, so make your reservation soon: 256-571-7597.

• Oct. 5-28 – Art Klatsch Mountain Valley Arts Council invites you to enjoy an exhibit by Art Klatsch.

A reception for the varied group of artists will be held 5–7:00 p.m. Oct. 6 at the gallery. Weekly gallery hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Saturday. The artists include: • Marty B. Bibee‘s 40-year career

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• Oct. 20, 23 – Gerhart concerts See and hear the Gerhart Youth Concert featuring the famous Gerhart musicians and the Boaz Intermediate School Honor Choir at 6 p.m. Thursday in Fielder Auditorium in the Administration Building at Snead State Community College. Reception to follow. Admission is free.

At 2 p.m. Sunday the Gerhart Chamber Music Concert will be held at Fielder Auditorium.

includes advertising, publishing and non-profit, work. She lives in Guntersville and works with The Institute for Clergy Excellence in Huntsville.

• Lynda Geddes of Horton is an expert on shotgun art, wood art, stained glass and mixed media pieces she calls “FrankenArt.” She is on the boards of MVAC and the Child Advocacy Center.

• Former MVAC President Becky Hallman Scheinert of Warrenton has been drawing forever. She worked briefly in advertising and has created art for schools, churches, banks and friends ever since.

• Jane Waldrop of Guntersville has been painting for years, primarily in oils and pastels. A member of MVAC and The Arts Factory, she’s also on the board of The Whole Backstage.

• Donnie Wier specialized in children’s watercolor portraits in Knoxville for 20 years. Now in Guntersville, she paints abstracts, landscapes and whimsical primitives using acrylics, oil pastels and watercolor.

• Oct 7-8 – Boaz October Harvest Festival Nominated as one of the top-20 events for the Southeast in October, the 52nd annual Boaz October Harvest Festival offers over 200 arts and crafts booths lining the streets, music daily – 14

with special guest the Sweet Tea Trio – food court, 5K Harvest Moon Midnight Run, Moon Pie and RC Cola eating contest and a play area with rides and games. Saturday morning, attend the Miss Harvest Festival Pageant and the Antique Classic car show. For more info, call the Boaz Arab Chamber of Commerce: 256-593-8154.

• Oct. 29 – Pink Pumpkin Run The Seventh Annual Pink Pumpkin Run/Walk is again expected to draw a huge crowd. Sponsored by the Foundation for Marshall Medical Centers, the event takes place at Guntersville’s Civitan Park and raises money to benefit mammography and cancer services at MMC. It features a 10K, 5K and a onemile/fun run along with music, children’s activities and the popular Pink Pancake Brunch at 10:30 a.m.

Register early online, at 3-6 p.m.

Oct. 29 at the Guntersville Rec Center, or from 7-8:45 a.m. race day. Races begin respectively at 9, 9:15 and 10:30 a.m. with awards at 11. For more info and pre-registration: www. pinkpumpkinrun.com.

• Oct. 29 – Downtown Albertville Brewfest Last year the event drew 500 people, and the second year it’s expected to bring out an even bigger

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

crowd from 1-6 p.m. at the Farmers Market/Train Depot. Over 30 mostly Alabama breweries will offer more than 100 beers to sample. There will be live music – opening act Brad & Clint, headliner Rob Aldridge – food trucks and other vendors, life-size Jenga and Scrabble games and more.

Tickets available at the end of August at Albertville’s city hall and chamber of commerce for $35, as well as online: www.avillebrewfest.com.

Cheers!

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Good People

5questions Story and photos

by David Moore Gavin Moy is teaching.

It’s May and his seventh graders at Boaz Middle School have moved outside to Gavin’s greenhouse aquaponics classroom, a facility unique in Marshall County.

To say the kids are eagerly engaged is an understatement. They’re having a blast learning about an unusual ecosystem.

Aquaponics is the process of growing fish and plants in an integrated, closed water system. Gavin and crew grow fingerling catfish and Tilapia in large tanks, feeding them a high-quality diet. They drain the tanks into beds of water where, fertilized with fish waste, vegetables and herbs grow without soil.

The plant roots in turn filter the water for recycling back into the fish tanks.

Gavin calls the students together to divvy up the heirloom tomatoes and basil they grew. The basil, he says, would be good in a salad with a little salt, pepper and olive oil.

“How much basil can I have, Mr. Moy?” “It’s not lettuce,” he explains. “It’s an herb. You don’t want much in a salad …”

Gavin Moy, it seems, is always teaching.

It’s a Saturday in July, and 30 or so parents and kids drop by an open house at Beacon Ranch, a teaching farm he and his wife, Amy, operate on four acres in Horton.

It’s over-simplifying to call it a petting zoo. It’s over-simplifying to say Gavin is teaching agricultural education. Both are true, but his goal with the non-profit, sustainable farm is to positively impact local communities through service, adventure and hands-on agricultural and environmental programs. Through his outdoor farm programs he imparts not only his extensive knowledge of agriculture but his value of the 16

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

Gavin Moy

Boaz teacher answers a calling to share his knowledge and love of agriculture environment, his desire to be a good steward of the land and lives for which he’s responsible.

Not just youngsters are learning.

Gavin offers an unusual husk tomato to John Henderson, his pastor at Compassion City Church in Albertville, who came to see what Beacon Ranch is all about. Gavin shows John how to peel the husk, revealing a small, yellow, sweet cherry tomato inside.

“OMG!” John exclaims taking a bite.

“That’s amazing. My wife will come up with a recipe for these.”

Teaching was not in Gavin’s original plans. “After high school, I wanted to be a civil engineer. When I discovered that wasn’t for me, I transferred to the University of Alabama to pursue a degree in sports medicine.”

“I thought it was a great place for sports medicine with all the successful programs they have,” he says.

In the course of earning a degree in athletic training, he met his future wife, Amy Bright, a Tide cheerleader from Douglas. As a married couple, Amy’s career as a speech therapist eventually led them to Douglas.

In 2008, he was ready to leave the University of Alabama and pursue medical school.

“With a last-minute reevaluation, I realized that what I wanted to do did not involve being a doctor in an office for the next 30 years,” he says. “I was always involved in sports and coaching and summer camps. My best times were associated with that. So I asked myself what was the best route for me to influence others like my coaches and teachers influenced me.”

Teaching was his answer.

Between teaching at Southview Middle School, DAR Middle School, Marshall Christian and now Boaz Middle School, he and Amy gave birth to the idea of an agriculture teaching opportunity they named Beacon Ranch.

“People that know me from California would never picture me as a farmer,” Gavin laughs. “And people here would never picture me surfing, snowboarding, and scuba diving. I’ve been blessed to have many adventures in a variety of areas in my life.”

1.

Where do you think your passion for teaching originates?

A majority of my passion comes from the coaches, teachers, and youth pastor who really influenced me through my formative years. I wanted to be that same influence and positive role model for today’s youth, the next generation.

One of my favorite quotes that encompasses my teaching philosophy is: “People don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.”

Being in a classroom and operating an outdoor education center provides opportunities for me to interact with students and the community on a daily basis.

If I am not at school teaching or teaching on the farm, I am focused on teaching my little ones. I am always looking for life’s teachable moments. I view parenting as raising future adults who need to be trained in right and wrong and able to productively participate in society.

With my students and daughters, I strive to blend lessons from the farm, classroom or greenhouse. The best of these lessons are applicable to academics and life.

I could have made a lot more money as a doctor, but money isn’t everything.

I have found joy and contentment in working with youth and educating the community. That’s where my purpose meets passion.

2.

What are the benefits and goals of having a teaching asset such as the aquaponics lab at Boaz Middle School?

Snapshot: Gavin Moy

EARLY YEARS: Son of Gavin and Pam Moy, he grew up in Los Angeles/Orange County area.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Whitter Christian High School, 2002. Attended an area junior college for EMT certification and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, majoring in civil engineering.

Switched majors and transferred to the University of Alabama and received BS in athletic training in 2008; MA in education from Argosy University, 2009.

CAREER: Taught one semester of science at Southview Middle School, Tuscaloosa. Substituted in Marshall County 2010. Taught and coached 2011 at DAR Middle School. Founded Beacon Ranch in Horton, 2012 while teaching part-time at Marshall Christian, Albertville. 2015-present taught seventh and eighth grade science at Boaz Middle School.

FAMILY: Married Douglas native Amy Bright August 2008; daughters Cally, 4, and Caytlin, 2.

From fish and their waste, to fertilized water in which to grow tomatoes, to root-filtered water that recycles back to the fish tank, Gavin Moy explains the scientific circle of life exemplified by the aquaponics greenhouse lab at Boaz Middle School. The opportunity to use the lab was the main attraction that drew him to apply for a science teacher opening there in 2015. This fall marks Gavin’s second year to teach in Boaz. Dr. David Cline, Extension aquaculturist at Auburn University, visited the program last year and said he came away very impressed.

One of the main attractors for me to come to Boaz was the opportunity to work in the aquaponics greenhouse. It’s an obvious blend with classroom content and my agricultural passion. It’s a huge benefit for life science and all subjects, really.

The miniature ecosystem created between the plants and fish are obviously connected to the life science curriculum, but it also has connections to other academic classes. For instance, last year the seventh grade math classes measured the different tubes and holding tanks to calculate volumes, radii and diameters.

Writing assignments, the history of food production and other disciplines could also incorporate the outdoor classroom.

If I had a future goal or vision for the aquaponics program, we would make it productive enough to provide food for the school lunchrooms – farm to fork – and maybe have a small farmers market selling our produce to go back into supporting the greenhouse, making it selfsustaining.

3.

How did the concept of Beacon Ranch come about?

It was a vision God put on my heart when I was teaching in Tuscaloosa. From my observations, agriculture is almost everywhere in the South, but many kids do not have easy accessibility to it.

I took my love of nature and outdoors 18

with this vision God gave me to provide students with access to agriculture to reinforce content they are learning in the classroom, and to bring families and communities together with agricultural instruction.

Our mission statement is to promote life growth through agriculture, service, education and adventure. …To be a community beacon. Where families and groups can come and interact with nature and each other, like they did in the good ole days, sans technological distractions.

I like to say the farm is a cure for nature-deficit disorder. Families – kids and adults – are so plugged into screens today. They come here and get to interact verbally, face-to-face. They pet the chickens, feel the comb on a rooster, find an egg. They have to physically interact and not just stare at a screen. After all, why would one watch a video about chickens when you can come put your hands on one. It’s a completely different experience. That is the kind of stuff we are here for.

We are a non-profit working farm that uses sustainable farming techniques. We deeply value the environment and strive to be good stewards of the land and the lives for which we are responsible.

To help make Beacon Ranch work, we sell our sustainably raised products. We are piloting a small community supported agriculture club (CSA.) This year our CSA cooperative consists of eggs, meat,

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

and produce from four local farms in North Alabama. The CSA members pay $200 in the spring for a portion of whatever crops come in during the summer, and 100 percent of our produce sales goes back to support the ranch.

We are also a non-profit charity. We probably get half of our donations through supporters and half from produce sales.

The concept is to be a small, sustainable farming venture. We harvest rainwater. We’re installing solar panels.

We grass-finish our beef and pasture-raise broilers. Our layer chickens free range and we grow produce using organicapproved methods.

The goal of our sustainable farming model is to best steward the land for ourselves and the next generation.

We would like our farming practices to naturally improve the land without expensive external inputs. Ideally, the animals get most of their nutrition straight from the land. For example, chickens are supposed to scratch around and eat bugs, weeds, and seeds. On our farm, they get to do what they were designed to do. In turn, they fertilize the pasture and minimize chemical pesticide/herbicide usage. Working with nature helps reduce our input to keep up the land.

We are basically organic, but it takes a lot of paperwork and money to get that label, so we say we sell “sustainably raised” products.

4.

Why do you find it important

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Heath and Tonya Cornett from Nixon Chapel, along with their children, Jett and Zoee, ask Gavin Moy questions about raised gardens, growing muscadines and bees during an open house this summer at Beacon Ranch in Douglas.

They say they are interested in getting back into gardening at home. Below, Amy Moy, holding daughter Caytlin, supervises some of the arts and games offered to children who visit the farm’s free programs. For more information visit: www. beaconranch.org. in this day and age for young people to experience a bit of life on the farm?

There are life applications everywhere in agriculture. So many people move off the farms and miss out on a lot of good experiences, responsibility for one. Plants have to be watered. Produce has to be picked. If you don’t feed and water the animals, they suffer. If you don’t do your part, something suffers.

Patience is another lesson. Everything is instant in today’s society. Ask Siri a question or type something into Google and you have instant access to anything.

But there is no instant access to anything on the farm. To get eggs, you have to feed and care for a baby chick until it grows and matures, a process that takes four to five months.

There is patience in planting a seed, having to water, nurture and cultivate it until you get to harvest the crop, something you get to eat.

Perseverance is another lesson in agriculture. Life is not always fun or easy, convenient or entertaining. On the farm, when the hogs get out you have to fix the fence whether it’s cold or hot or your favorite TV show is on. You have to persevere and do it.

The philosophical lessons of responsibility, patience and perseverance are missing from most youth today.

Another program we have on the farm is an internship where high school 20

students come and learn agricultural principals of animal and garden production. They have also learned basic carpentry, electrical and plumbing; life skills that will benefit them somewhere down the road.

5.

What is something people don’t know about Gavin Moy? Most people would be surprised to learn I was a cheerleader in high school and college.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

My favorite sport in high school was football. I was a running back and safety.

After football my junior year, two other players and I joined the competition cheerleading squad. We didn’t actually “cheer” at games, but we learned how to stunt and tumble and perform competition routines. It was cool to flip and lift girls up in the air.

I herniated two disks in my lower back my senior year and couldn’t do football, track, or cheerleading.

I loved football, but I’m obviously not big enough to play at a big college.

As a random thing – a God thing – I got back into cheerleading after high school and worked summers for the Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders. Over the next six summers I got to instruct and direct cheerleading camps all over the nation and even on mission trips to Europe. My back got better, and I got better at stunting and tumbling by being around other college cheerleaders all summer.

That led me to try out for The University of Alabama cheerleading squad. I made the team and got a scholarship. While cheering I got to compete in the college cheerleading nationals and travel to big games.

Growing up, I would have never imagined being on the sideline of these huge SEC football games, but God’s plans turn out better than mine, every time.

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Good Reads

Modern Emma still meddles, even in Jane Austen’s shadow

In Miller’s Valley, a family is caught in floods of change

n “Emma: A Modern Retelling,” Alexander McCall Smith writes a witty version of Jane Austen’s meddlesome, matchmaking heroine, Emma Woodhouse.

After college, Emma returns to her family estate in the small village of Highbury with little to occupy her “She realized that mind except caring for her happiness is something that eccentric father. But the characters in the village springs from the generous present her opportunities of treatment of others, and matchmaking attempts. that until one makes that There is Philip connection, happiness may Elton, the vicar who has expensive tastes; Harriet prove elusive.”

Smith, a naïve young woman working as a teaching assistant; Frank Churchill, her former governess’ stepson; the mysterious Jane Fairfax living with the improvised Mrs. and Miss Bates; and the handsome neighbor, George Knightly, whom she has known since childhood.

At an elaborate picnic where Emma gathers her unwitting subjects, her laid plans disintegrate. Her condescending behavior to the chatty Miss Bates forces Mr. Knightly to chastise her.

Emma finally recognizes her unseemly pride and insensitivity and begins to make amends. When she eventually apologizes to Mr. Knightly, the inevitable occurs.

The only problem when reading this updated version is the constant mental comparison to Austen’s original, which of course, is the true classic.

– Annette Haislip

n the early 1960s, the low-lying area surrounding Miller’s Valley is slowly being inundated by water when the locks of the nearby dam are closed.

The government had long urged the residents to sell their farms and relocate in exchange for flood “The water would come up control, hydroelectric power and recreation and cover the houses, the opportunities. But barns, the fences, the old a handful of multiswing sets, the bales of hay, generational farmers and the cornfields now refuse to sell. Finally, a heavy rain storm floods lying fallow.” the valley destroying their homes, forcing them out.

Anna Quindlen’s novel “Miller’s Valley” focuses primarily on Bud and Miriam Miller and their children, Eddie, Tommy and Mary Margaret. There is also their agoraphobic Aunt Ruth with her mysterious secret who lives in a small house nearby.

The Millers face the challenge of providing a better life for their children. Eddie manages to succeed while Tommy’s life disastrously changes in Vietnam. Mary Margaret is determined to attend college despite a lack of funds, but a passionate first-love affair interferes with her determination to become a doctor. However, good fortune and inexplicable coincidences intervene.

Though the ending seems a bit contrived and abrupt, this novel is well worth reading.

– Annette Haislip

I

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Good ‘n’ Green

5 ideas

Fall is a fine time to plant new trees Story by Eddie J. Wheeler Photos by David Moore or as noted

T

1. Red Maple (Acer rubrum) combines silvery bark, quick growth

and yellow-to-red fall foliage. The tree grows with a loose, pyramidal shape.

It adapts to most soils but doesn’t like drought. Plant “October Glory” for outstanding scarlet fall color. These cultivars grow 40-50 feet tall with a spread of around 35 feet at maturity.

2. Dogwoods have two choices – native

dogwood, Cornus florida, and the Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa var. chinensis), far right, photo provided. These trees can reach 10 to 25 feet tall and wide, depending on variety. Cornus florida has white, pink or red flowers (actually bracts – the flowers are greenish yellow) and excellent fall color, along with showy red fruit clusters. The green foliage of the Chinese dogwood makes an impressive backdrop to the showy white bracts as they open, and the fruit resembles a large red raspberry.

24

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

rees grab our attention in the fall with their beautiful foliage color.

Beyond fall colors, trees in your yard can reduce the heating and cooling costs plus increase your home’s value and aesthetic appeal.

Fall is a great time for planting trees.

The soil temperature is warm enough for good root growth. Young trees will not require as much water in the fall as in the summer since the temperatures are cooler.

Care taken at planting time and in the early years determines what a tree looks like at maturity.

The statement “right plant – right place” is important when selecting trees. And when planting, carefully select a site where the tree will grow successfully. Be sure it can reach maturity without growing into overhead wires, buildings, fences, other plants and driveways.

Here are five trees you might consider for your landscape in Marshall County ...

3. Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia

species), like these growing in Grant, at right, can reach a height of 10-25 feet and a width of 6-12 feet depending on variety. After the flowers have faded, fall arrives and most cultivars change into rich shades of yellow, orange and red before the leaves fall. Their winter silhouette with the multi-cane trunks and exfoliating bark exposing rich colors of mahogany and cinnamon, stand out during the winter months.

4. Redbud (Cercis Canadensis)

is a native, perennial, deciduous tree which grows 15-30 feet tall and spreads 15-25 feet. Valued for its outstanding display of pink or white flowers in the spring, redbud is an easy-to-grow small tree with delightful heart-shaped leaves that turn golden-yellow in the fall.

Photo by Greg Hume.

Tips for planting trees

5.

Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) this tree grows slowly to 15-25 feet, often with multiple trunks. Green, burgundy or red leaves turn blazing yellow, orange or scarlet in late fall.

• Dig hole 2-3 times as wide as root ball and just as deep, scoring sides with shovel so roots spread easier.

• Remove plastic container, burlap, string or wire. Loosen roots if root-bound. Plant no deeper than original dirt line in container.

• Fill with dirt from hole, tamping lightly.

• Water when roots are have buried and again when hole is full. Initially water every day or two; about 2 gallons per 1 inch of trunk diameter. Later, decrease frequency but increase the volume and area. You may need to water for six months or longer.

• Don’t fertilize or prune first year except to remove rubbing, or broken limbs.

• Apply mulch about 3 inches deep around the plant, but avoid direct contact with the trunk.

• Stake only if in danger of being blown over by high winds. Remove stakes after one year.

• Questions? Call the Marshall County Extension: 256-582-2009.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

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Cookin’ cousins

LeAnne Bryant and Kandie Baker have advanced from mud pies years ago to fabulous cooks today

Good Cooking

Story and photos

by David Moore

I

f you are a member of the Lemaster family in Albertville, or really good friends of LeAnne Bryant and Kandie Baker, or you happened to be in the right place at the right time, you know the women can cook. If not … well, maybe you’ll get lucky one day.

With 60 uncles, aunts, cousins and their kids, no month slips by without a few birthdays, anniversaries, general family get-togethers or a holiday.

And any excuse to eat likely brings compliments to LeAnne and Kandie.

The two are first cousins – cookin’ cousins, if you will. Kandie is a daughter of Don and Linda Gilbert and Nel and former Albertville Mayor Carl Pruett.

LeAnne’s parents are Ann and Bruce Jones. Ann and Nel are two of seven Lemaster siblings.

Three years apart, Kandie and LeAnne have cooked together – sort of – since they were kids.

“We probably made mud pies at my house” Kandie says.

“At our house, too,” LeAnne grins.

“Remember making mud pies at the creek?”

They gave up mud long before high school home ec, but the cousins’ first real collaboration was not over a stove. It was over a copier.

In 1999, with help from LeAnne’s oldest daughter, Whitney, they created a cookbook they titled “Precious Memories.” It was a collection of their grandmother Jessie “MaMa” Lemaster’s recipes to celebrate her and the many good times the family enjoyed around her big table.

“MaMa made the best biscuits in the world,” LeAnne says. “But she didn’t go by a recipe or measure out anything.”

For her biscuit recipe in the book, they used MaMa’s own words, calling

LeAnne Bryant, left, is the secretary at North Broad Street Church of Christ.

Kandie Baker works for Dr. Allen Kirby at Sand Mountain Dentistry.

In their spare time they’ve been known to cook up a feast or two. for a “good little wad” of shortening and rolling the dough to about ½ inch thick, or “half way up the crack of your finger.”

The ring-bound cookbooks contain some 100 sheets printed double sided.

The cousins made 40 copies for aunts, uncles and MaMa’s grandkids and gave them as Christmas presents.

“There was not a dry eye in there,” LeAnne grins.

w

hen Whitney got married in 2008, LeAnne and Kandie did all of the food.

“She started checking into it, and it was so expensive we got together and did it as a family,” Kandie says.

It was such a hit that when their

cousin Emily Houston married four years ago, the cookin’ cousins were recruited to prepare food for 200. They didn’t want to take any money for it, but Aunt Trena Houston insisted on at least picking up the one-ton grocery tab.

It was a heap of work. Shopping alone took a full day. The math involved in multiplying recipe ingredients by a factor of 200 was daunting. With all of the planning and cooking what they could in advance, it was a 40-hour workweek.

“But we make it fun,” Kandie says.

“We laughed until, well … we laughed a lot!” LeAnne says.

“Southern girls,” her cuz adds, “we are.”

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

27

Other family weddings followed. And almost naturally, anniversaries, birthdays and sundry occasions became excuses to beg a meal from the cookin’ cousins.

W

hile they love MaMa’s dishes, they’re not bound to “Precious Memories.” LeAnne especially has a knack for branching out.

“She is the type person who can eat something somewhere, and if she really likes it, it’s her challenge to figure out the ingredients and mimic the recipe,” Kandie says.

CAJUN ROASTED TURKEY BREAST Our family members, who don’t usually even like turkey, love this one.

There are rarely any leftovers for sandwiches the next day.

Ingredients: 1 bone-in turkey breast 1 cup orange juice 1-2 tbsp. Tony Chachere’s Creole Original Dry Seasoning Directions: Preheat oven to convection bake 325 degrees.

Use 1 – 2 tbsp of Creole seasoning depending on your personal taste, and mix with orange juice in a small bowl.

Wash turkey and place breast side up on a baking pan.

Using a basting injector, inject turkey with orange juice mixture, evenly distributing throughout the turkey. Sprinkle the outside of turkey with Creole seasoning.

Bake the turkey uncovered according to package directions and weight.

Convection bake is the best setting as the turkey browns better and quickly seals in the juices. Let it rest for 10 minutes and slice.

Turkey is great with a meal or on slider sandwich rolls.

28

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

For instance, “Blondie Cake” is LeAnne’s highly successful version of a dessert she tried in a restaurant and loved. Her ultimate challenge is to crack the recipe code to the smoky, tangy-tasting barbecue sauce at Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous in Memphis.

Yep, the cooking cousins are good. But if you want to find out for yourself, you need to marry into the family. Or maybe crash a birthday.

Or you could try your own hand at some of Kandie and LeAnne’s recipes …

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DOWN HOME ALABAMA GREEN BEANS People have joked that these green beans are as addictive as crack.

1 gallon can green beans, drained 12 slices bacon 1 cup brown sugar ½ cup butter ¼ cup soy sauce 2¾ Tbsp. garlic powder Preheat an oven to 400 degrees.

Place the drained green beans in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

Cook bacon in microwave for 5 minutes until almost cooked. Cut or crumble bacon and lay on top of the green beans. Combine the brown sugar, butter, soy sauce and garlic powder in a saucepan and heat until butter is melted and garlic powder and sugar are dissolved. Mix into beans and bacon. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.

Yield: 15 servings.

LEANNE’S LASAGNA 12 ounce No-Yolks noodles 2 tablespoons olive oil 8 ounce sour cream 8 ounce ricotta cheese ½ cup Parmesan cheese 1 egg 1 teaspoon dried oregano ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon pepper Cook noodles according to directions and drain. Mix together the next 8 ingredients and stir in drained noodles. Spread noodle mixture in the bottom of a greased 9x13 casserole dish. ¼ cup diced red onion ¼ cup diced bell pepper ¼ cup diced mushroom 1 Tbsp. olive oil Sauté onion, pepper and mushroom in olive oil just until tender crisp. Sprinkle on top of noodle mixture.

1 pound ground beef 30

1 pound sausage 1 clove of garlic, crushed 2 jars of Barilla pasta sauce (I used the Sweet Pepper flavor) 1 can (14 oz.) of diced tomatoes ¼ cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese Brown beef, sausage and garlic together. Stir in pasta sauce, tomatoes, sugar and salt and bring to a boil then simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Pour evenly over noodle mixture. Sprinkle with both cheeses and bake on 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly through and through.

I usually sprinkle the top of the cheese with garlic salt and dried oregano (or dried parsley) for a little color and added flavor.

I also like to double this recipe and freeze one for later.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

BEST SLAW EVER Ingredients: 1 (16 oz.) bag slaw mix 1 small bunch green onions, chopped ¼ cup chow mein noodles ¼ cup sliced almonds Slaw dressing: ½ cup oil ¼ cup white vinegar ½ cup sugar 2 tbsp soy sauce Directions: Mix slaw and green onions in a bowl and set aside for at least one hour for flavors to blend. Mix vinegar, soy sauce and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in oil. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve. This dressing will keep for several weeks. Just before serving, sprinkle chow mein noodles and almonds over the top, add dressing and toss.

Serve immediately.

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HOME BAKED MACARONI AND CHEESE Ingredients: 1 lb. box macaroni noodles 2 cans cream of chicken soup 1 lb. sharp grated cheddar 1 cup mayo ½ cup onion, finely chopped 1 small jar chopped pimento 1 stick melted, salted butter Salt and pepper

Directions: Cook noodles according to package directions. While noodles are cooking, mix remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Drain noodles and stir into mixture while still hot.

Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.

One recipe yields approximately 15 servings.

Note: Macaroni Bites Variation: add 2 eggs beaten to macaroni mixture.

Spray mini muffin tins generously with cooking spray. Sprinkle ½ tsp. panko bread crumbs in the bottom of each muffin cup and spoon 1 heaping tablespoon macaroni into each muffin cup. Sprinkle tops with another ½ tsp. panko and a dash of cayenne pepper.

Bake on 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

WARM FRENCH BREAD DIP We have cooked for our aunt’s office Christmas party for years in a row, and this is the appetizer they keep coming back for.

Ingredients: 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese 1 lb. sausage, crumbled 1 (8 oz.) pkg. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded 1 can green chilies 1 (8 oz. ) carton sour cream 32

1 loaf fresh French bread Olive oil Directions: Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Hollow out the center of the bread loaf. You may want to do a V-shaped cut. Reserve the bread center and serve with dip.

Cook sausage over medium heat until browned and thoroughly cooked. Drain fat. Stir cream cheese

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

into the sausage while still hot and stir until cheese is melted. Stir in the remaining ingredients and spoon the mixture into the bread center.

Brush the bread with olive oil and wrap in foil. Bake 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Toast the bread reserve brushed with olive oil.

Serve with corn chip “Scoops” and the bread reserves (toasted with olive oil).

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BLONDIE This is a vanilla version brownie that is scrumptious served with a warm vanilla sauce and scoop of ice cream.

Ingredients: 2 yellow cake mixes 2 eggs, slightly beaten ½ cup buttermilk ⅔ cup oil 1 tsp. vanilla Cake directions: Pour cake mixes in a mixing bowl and make a well in the center.

Pour liquid ingredients in the center and mix until dry ingredients are well blended. No need to over mix.

Pour batter into a 9 inch round springform pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Sauce ingredients: 1 cup buttermilk 1 ½ cup sugar 2 tsp. vanilla ¼ stick butter 1 Tbsp. cornstarch Sauce directions: Melt butter in a small sauce pan.

Add milk and sugar and simmer, stirring constantly, over low heat until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk corn starch into small bowl with two Tbsp. of hot milk mixture until there are no lumps from the cornstarch, whisk into the remaining

milk mixture and simmer until sauce thickens to a thicker, but still screaming, consistency. Add vanilla.

Spoon warm sauce over a slice of Blondie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and toasted or candied pecans.

CHILI CHEESECAKE This is a very attractive appetizer that is great for fall game day festivities. It is baked like a dessert cheesecake, but is a savory TexMex dish to serve with corn chips.

It is always a good sign when you have a dish requested over and over and this is one of those dishes.

Ingredients 1 cup crushed tortilla chips 3 Tbsp. butter, melted 16 oz. cream cheese, softened 2 eggs 1 tsp. chili powder 1 tsp. cumin 1 tsp. garlic salt ½ tsp. cayenne 1 can diced green chilies, drained (4 oz. can) 34

1 whole jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced 4 oz. shredded Colby-jack cheese 4 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese ⅓ cup sour cream Garnish Tomatoes Green onions Black olives Cilantro Directions Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the tortilla chips and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven, and let cool. (I usually place it in the fridge so the crust firms up.)

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

In a large bowl, blend the cream cheese, eggs, chili powder, garlic salt, cayenne and cumin with a mixer.

Add the green chilies, jalapeño, both cheeses and blend with mixer.

Pour over the crust and bake for 30 minutes at 325 degrees. DO NOT OVERCOOK. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan.

Let cool to room temperature.

Spread the sour cream over the top and decorate with the tomatoes, green onions, black olives and cilantro.

Refrigerate until serving.

Remove the sides of the pan and serve with tortilla chips.

This can be prepared 1 day in advance.

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35

The 535-acre spread and the house are called the Diamond J Farm, but more often than not Wayne and June Jacks just call it home. Former owners Ocie and Eloise Cook planted the oak trees that line the driveway.

36

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

You know you’re home when ...

Wayne and June Jacks call their ‘landmark’ land in west Marshall County a blessing Story and photos

by David Moore

T

he land itself is a landmark, and it triggers the message: you’re home.

If you’ve returned to Marshall County from the west a few times, chances are you’re familiar with two-lane Ala. 69 through eastern Cullman County.

Driving up the last hill out of Joppa, you might not notice the small green highway sign announcing you’re in Marshall County.

But 500 yards farther up the road and with any daylight at all it’s impossible to miss the sudden expanse of grassslathered land on either side of you, meandering over easy waves of hills to far-off lines of woods or to Arab’s distant water tower; land interspersed with a pond, several barns and often dotted with dozens of grazing cows. As you drive across this expanse of land – 535 acres worth – on your left you pass a wrought iron gate mounted to off-white brick pillars at the entrance of a driveway, bordered by two ranks of stately oaks standing at stiff attention. The drive curves up a gentle knoll to a low-slung, long white house guarded by a flagpole from which the Stars and Stripes fly.

Land as a landmark, this property is a geographical trigger that for many motorists announces like no mere road sign can that you are home, back in Marshall County.

The same is especially true for Wayne and June Jacks.

They live here.

“We used to drive past this place a lot of times,” Wayne laughs. “And I’d say to June, ‘If we owned that place, we would be at home right now.’”

“I think for most anyone from around AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

37

Arab, when they get to this point they think, ‘Well, we’re home,’” June says.

She and Wayne don’t know the deep history of this land they call home. But for decades Ocie Cook, a founding partner of Eagle Motor Lines in Birmingham in 1945, and his wife, Eloise, owned and lived on the spread.

Ocie died in 1993.

In 1997, while living at Cherokee Ridge, Wayne and June bought the 335 38

acres on the southeast side of Ala. 69 from Eloise, planning to build the Southern Living Centennial House there – a project that never got beyond blueprints.

They sold their house in Cherokee Ridge and moved – temporarily, they thought – to nearby Arab. Strongly attracted to the rest of the Cook property, they negotiated two years with Eloise before she sold them her house and remaining 200 acres across the road.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

Bonded to the land and home she and Ocie had loved, Eloise’s deal allowed her to live in the house another year – which she stretched out several more months – before moving to Vestavia Hills.

Rather than build, Wayne and June decided to move into the sprawling, old rancher that had undergone several expansions. And then they were home on the luscious sprawl of land just west of Arab.

Wayne and June Jacks’ house was a basic rancher built in the ‘60s and added onto several times before they bought it. Today is sprawls over about 7,000 square feet including the basement. There are four bedrooms, five baths, two kitchens, living room, dining room, two dens, a raised patio accessed from a smaller eating room and a cozy Nall-decorated reading room. Artwork ranges from originals of their dog and cows, to sculptures in the yard.

L

and, actually, is a landmark theme in June and Wayne’s lives. His parents were poor and never owned land, but he made up for the deficit by buying thousands of acres over the years. June’s parents, the late Aaron and Odell Beaver, were rich in land but free-wheeling cash was scarce.

Aaron formerly farmed with his father in Colbert County but itched for land

of his own. In 1950 he borrowed and paid $12,000 for 480 acres in the valley community of Florette in eastern Morgan County, and – his family pitching in – began growing cotton and raising cattle.

“We grew our own food,” June says.

“We went barefoot and hauled cotton. We didn’t have money to spend on frivolous things. We were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor.”

Later, Aaron rented another 750 acres,

raised about 100 head of cattle and up to 1,200 acres in cotton. June’s job was rounding up 50-75 cotton choppers and working the fields with them. Still, some years, after covering other costs, it was hard to pay the $800 bank note.

“It was strictly up to Mother Nature whether or not you had a paycheck,” June says. “I don’t have to be on a farm to remember cows and cotton. That’s just part of my DNA.”

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

39

She graduated from Cotaco High School in 1966 then went to Alverson-Droughn Business College in Decatur. She married, built a house on the family farm and raised two children, Lisa Cox of Decatur and Cary Kirby, her son who still lives on the old farm.

W

ayne hails from Elora, a small, Tennessee community a few shakes over the Alabama line. “It’s another Florette,” June grins.

“I grew up squirrel hunting, fishing, fighting and swimming in stock ponds full of cow manure,” Wayne laughs. “I didn’t know we were poor, either.”

But poor they were. Early on, his father worked for the WPA for a $1 every other day. He later worked for the railroad, ran a grocery. He never owned land to speak of, but he did instill in Wayne a strong work ethic.

“Dad got up and left for work, for whatever he was doing, at daylight. He’d come home at night, have dinner and be in bed 10 minutes later,” he says.

For years he played baseball and basketball. His dad never saw Wayne play the latter, and it was ages before he caught a baseball game.

“I picked cotton as a towheaded kid to buy clothes, even as a teenager,” he says. “I knew I had to leave if I ever wanted to get ahead.”

A golden ticket materialized after high school when the FBI recruited Wayne as an agent. He eagerly hustled off to Washington, D.C. Luster lost its sheen when he learned agents had to have accounting or law degrees. He ended up married, taking college classes in the day, working nights at the FBI mailroom for pay he calls little better than free.

“They told you where to live, how to act,” Wayne says. “I figured I didn’t fit.”

Living up North erased any remaining luster D.C. had, and he soon returned south.

O

n the fun side, in his early 20s Wayne played semi-pro baseball for Elora in the Sequatchie Valley League. On the work side, he got a job soldering wiring chassis for the former Spaco Inc. in Huntsville.

“I don’t apologize,” he says. “I’ve had to work hard all my life.”

Work and pay, however, changed.

Through several electronics jobs Wayne advanced to buyer to VP. Then, in 1976, he went into business with Ray and C.M. 40

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

One of the ponds on the Jacks’ property lies in a low area to the east of Ala. 69. The barn in the background is visible from the highway, which passes the western Arab water tower just inside the city limits.

Carter who wanted to expand their precision machine shop in Lacey’s Spring, C&C Fabrication Co., into electronics assembly work.

Business rocketed. In a year, Wayne bought out the Carters and founded Whitesburg Electronics in Lacey’s Spring, contracting to do most any electrical assembly work he could.

“A lot of our equipment,” Wayne says,

“has flown in space. We are a real little SCI.” Today, his plant employs 20-25 people, but at its peak up to 75 worked there and another 100-plus worked at a North Carolina plant Wayne has since sold.

His first year in business, he hired June.

She came to the interview straight from the dentist, her bumbling mouth novocaine numb. She figured that blew her chances,

but Wayne was impressed and soon found her indispensable as office manager and accountant.

To make a long story short, they eventually began dating, fell in love and finally got married in September 2015.

N

early four decades of business success allowed Wayne to buy something unheard of in his family – land.

He bought nearly the entire valley where Elora is located, even building a complete western town on it. It was handy for the camaraderie of Wayne’s livestock parties – especially when he raised purebred and Santa Gertrudis cattle – that drew crowds from 15-20 states and featured authentic Indian teepees for camping, hot air balloons and live entertainment.

His cattle “hobby” often took him and

June out West, where he bought and sold several ranches. He still has a 3,000-acre hunting ranch in South Texas.

So, what’s their strong draw to land in general, especially this expansive landmark spread west of Arab where they make their home and cattle still roam?

June mentions the wide-open spaces, the reality of land. But perhaps her answer’s best expressed in the needlepoint piece she AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

41

did for her father, which now hangs in the rear foyer of her and Wayne’s home. It reads: This land’s my own and by my labors here I have made myself a farm, a life I understand.

This land’s my own and by my labors here I have made myself a man.

Wayne puzzles the question of land for a minute before recalling a recent gorgeous day. He was driving over the west side of their property when his attention was piqued by water in a ditch he knew came from a spring he’d never seen back in the woods.

“I pulled over in the truck and thought, ‘Today is the day I am going to find the head of that spring,’ and I walked on land I had never been on.

“It doesn’t take long for a fat boy to get worn out, and when I got there I sat down on a rock in the shade with the breeze blowing, and I thanked God that he led me to that place at that particular moment,” Wayne says. “We call that a blessing.”

Good Life Magazine Wayne and June finished out the basement using arched alcoves along one wall of the den. Much of the furnishings and artwork were collected during extensive trips out west over the past 25 years.

42

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

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Writing to the stars Author’s daughter amassed a nice stack of autographed photos from stars in 1988 Story by Steve A. Maze Photos provided by the writer

I

t all began innocently enough in 1988, but anxiety, nervousness and an impatience for the mailman to run soon followed.

I brought home a magazine that sported an advertisement for a booklet supposedly containing personal addresses for famous celebrities in the acting and music business. I didn’t even notice the ad, but it caught the eye of my 10-year-old daughter, Tonya.

She glimpsed over the names shown in the ad and wondered aloud how neat it would be to write them for an autographed picture. She then looked up at me with her baby blue eyes and asked if I would spend the $5 cost to order the booklet.

“Aw, that thing is probably a sham,” I groaned. “Besides, they wouldn’t send you a picture even if that book has their correct address in it.”

I whined and moaned but couldn’t resist the request from my only child.

I sent the money in for the booklet the following day. Two weeks later, it arrived in the mail.

Tonya pored over the book and quickly picked out 60 names of celebrities she wanted to write. Once again, she looked up at me with those baby blues and asked me to write the 60 letters for her.

“Nope,” I declared. “It was your idea.

You write them.”

I didn’t tell her, but I also thought she would get a better response from the celebrities if the requests were made in a child’s handwriting.

T

onya scrawled out as many letters as she could – eight or nine a day – until they were all completed. Then she sat back and waited on the mailman. Well, she didn’t exactly wait for him … Tonya 44

actually peeked in the mailbox the day after she mailed her first requests.

I explained that if she got a reply – and I doubted that she would – it would probably be a month or longer before it arrived. Still, my nervous fourth grader found it hard to resist running to the mailbox as soon as she arrived home from school each day.

A week went by … then two … then three ... then four.

Not a word. Nothing. Tonya was beginning to think I was right. The celebrities were not going to send her a picture. She decided to wait one more week before giving up altogether.

The following week she ran to the mailbox and spied a single, large envelope that had her name on it.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

She ripped open the envelope while standing on the edge of the road, and inside was a picture inscribed “To my friend Tonya – Best to you – Johnny Cash.”

My wife and I heard her screaming before she got inside the house. She quickly showed us the photos, but I was not allowed to touch it. I was a “doubter,” you know, and no doubter was going to touch her new treasure.

A

fterward, she anxiously peered through the living room window each day in anticipation of the mailman’s arrival. At times, she would even beat him to the box as he rolled up in his car.

The photos soon began arriving at our Arab home on a daily basis. Some days

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Among Tonya’s collection of autographed photos from the stars of yesterday (some of whom are still going), are, clockwise from upper left, Carol Burnett, Chevy Chase, Priscilla Presley, Bob Hope, Betty White and George Burns. there would only be one photo, but at times there were as many as four.

Imagine her delight when she opened an envelope to discover a signed photo from Tammy Wynette, Kenny Rogers, Chevy Chase, Charles Bronson, Liza Minelli, Bob Hope, Donna Mills, Carol Burnett, Penny Marshall and the country music band Alabama.

She especially loved the photos that were personalized: “To Tonya – Best – George Burns,” “To Tonya – Love, Vicki Lawrence,” “To Tonya – Many Thanks!

– Betty White,” and “To Tonya – Dennis Weaver”.

Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna White was 46

nice enough to send her a personalized photo as well as one for Tonya’s cousin she’d also requested. Priscilla Presley even enclosed a nice letter thanking her for writing.

Of course, being 10 years old, Tonya had to write to a few of the not-soordinary television characters. She received an autographed photo from “Miss Piggy” as well as one from the extraterrestrial “Alf” – complete with paw print in place of an autograph.

A

ltogether, Tonya received 30 replies to her 60 requests. I was shocked that half of the celebrities had actually

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

answered her letters, especially since she had not enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope with them.

Tonya placed all the autographed photos in an album and that is where they remain to this day. A few of them are probably worth a little money in today’s market, but she is not interested in selling them – at least to me anyway. I was a “doubter” you know.

Actually, I don’t think she would sell them to anyone. They have a fond childhood memory attached to them. And, whether you’re a celebrity or not, it’s hard to place a price tag on memories like that.

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47

Good Eats

Dive into the divine at Aqua Restaurant Story and photos

by Patrick Oden

T

ucked in the back of the Wyndham Garden Hotel and wrapped in glass with magnificent views of Lake Guntersville hides a local culinary treasure.

You may remember the location as the Sunset Bar and Grill, and you might know manager Beatrice Glover from her former Sand Mountain restaurant LaStrada.

It’s now called Aqua, and at Beatrice’s hand, LaStrada’s standards have merged with picturesque lakeside dining.

She even describes Aqua Restaurant as she once did LaStrada. “It’s a taste of Europe in the Heart of Dixie.”

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

And nowhere does that taste come through more than in Aqua’s homemade sauces and fresh ingredients.

“Everything is prepared from scratch … no microwaves,” says Swiss-born Beatrice.

Aqua’s chefs even fillet their own fish and cut their own steaks from beef they have dry-aged in house.

“We get whole fresh salmon from Alaska and fillet it here,” adds Beatrice.

“And sushi-grade tuna.”

And while Marshall County residents love fresh fish, Beatrice is very conscious of her customer base.

“This is a steak-and-potato town,” she says. “And if I’m going to sell a steak, I want it to be the best steak in town.”

It’s not just a hollow statement for Beatrice. It’s a commitment taken quite seriously.

Aqua orders all of its seafood, beef and produce fresh several times a week, but occasionally a product received doesn’t meet her standards. She cites a shipment of crab claws she found to be too dainty.

Despite their cost to her, she wouldn’t serve them.

“I can get a product I don’t like, and we’re not serving it,” Beatrice says emphatically.

I

t may be worth issuing a warning to those who haven’t dined at Aqua before.

Be careful not to let your food get cold.

Clockwise from lower left, Beatrice Glover in part of the dining room; crabmeat-stuffed tilapia; the Martini Fillet; a tempting Strawberry Burger; mahi-mahi with confetti and spaghetti vegetable, a featured dish; and a sample of Aqua’s wine selection.

With Lake Guntersville just outside the large windows, it’s easy to become distracted. With the immaculate plating of each dish served, you could as easily stare at your meal a little too long.

Like great food, presentation speaks to the caliber of a restaurant’s chef.

Beatrice has always sought out the best chefs, and Albertville native Jimmy Glover, head chef and Beatrice’s husband, learned under the best chefs Marshall County has known.

Following in those chefs’s tradition, Jimmy and Beatrice work together to develop new dishes and regularly have featured items available that aren’t on the menu.

The Martini Fillet for example, a dry-aged Black Angus baseball fillet, marinated in gin, cooked to perfection and topped with a perfectly sharp blue cheese cream sauce. Or the crabmeat-stuffed tilapia, made with fresh crab legs … not artificial crab meat.

A menu like Aqua’s can make it hard to decide what to order. Don’t worry, the staff is glad to make a recommendation.

Beatrice says her favorite item on the menu is the beef tenderloin, served with a wild mushroom and wine bordelaise sauce accompanied by mashed sweet potatoes.

In the same way Aqua is committed to fresh ingredients, it’s committed to healthy eating and lists numerous gluten-free

items on the menu, going as far as to offer spaghetti cut vegetables as an alternative in pasta dishes.

In fact, if you don’t see what you’re looking for on the menu, or you have a special dietary need, Beatrice says, “If it’s in the kitchen, we will make it for a guest.”

W

ith a full bar and ample selection of wines, Aqua is a premier dining experience on the shores of beautiful Lake Guntersville not to be missed.

Ambiance, service and cuisine may compete to be the thing you love most about your visit to Aqua, but one thing is fairly certain. You will love it.

Good Life Magazine AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

49

Members of the Warrior Society, all veterans of the U.S. military, prepare to enter the pow wow ring.

Story and photos

by Patrick Oden

H

POW WOW

istorically occupying the fertile river valleys of the lower Appalachian Mountains, war and land cessions began to divide the Cherokee Nation, and by 1782 the first Cherokee settlements in Alabama had emerged.

The Cherokee had been heavily involved in and affected by the Revolutionary War, but that was over. We were a new nation, and for the next 50 years the Cherokee who settled in North Alabama began to farm, establish towns and raise children.

They played a large role in the shaping of the state’s history during that time, but the federal government passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Though the Cherokee, led by Chief John Ross of Alabama, took the issue of sovereignty all the way to the Supreme Court and won, President Andrew Jackson refused to recognize the high court’s decision, and in September 1838 the forced removal of the Cherokee people began.

Some 1,200 Cherokee were displaced from their Alabama homes, but there were those who refused to leave, either escaping en route or hiding out. And the descendants of these 50

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

brave men and women keep the history, customs and spirit of their ancestors alive in North Alabama to this day.

One custom is the pow wow. Not only is it of cultural significance to the Cherokee today, but it serves to engage and educate both young Cherokee and the communities these people have called home for more than 230 years.

T

he pow wow also “is our way of praising our creator,” says Melinda “Mystic Gazer” Ivey, treasurer of the Arab-based Cherokee of Alabama tribe. It is one of many Cherokee tribes in Alabama still trying to gain official recognition. Like most of the others, they hold several pow wows during the year.

Their pow wows are held in front of the Arab National Guard Armory. The atmosphere is festive, an obvious celebration, but there is also a palatable reverence in the air.

When the deep pounding of the ceremonial drum and sacred chants of the Cherokee begin, it’s enough to send chills down your spine. There is emotion in the air.

Dressed in traditional and some modern adaptations of traditional regalia, the most sacred moments of the day begin … the Cherokee dance.

“Skyhawk� Smith, wearing ceremonial Cherokee attire, performs the ancient dances inside the sacred pow wow ring.

They dance to honor the earth. They dance to honor their ancestors. They dance to honor American veterans and POWs. It’s keenly obvious, in fact, that patriotism for the United States runs deep with the Cherokee of Alabama with nearly every male member being a veteran.

At first it seems counter intuitive given the United States history with the Native people, but then the beauty of the Cherokee spirit emerges. Despite it all, this is their land, their country. And as it was in history, it continues to be in present day.

The Cherokee are proud to fight for their land … their country.

A

Abigail “Bearfoot” Davidson, left, and Donna Lockhart Daniel enjoy socializing at the pow wow. Below, Kenneth “Tuscarora” Bryant demonstrates the purification smudging ritual with sage smoke on Christopher “Healing Eagle” Jones.

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

t the pow wows, kids dressed in traditional regalia dart about as they laugh and play with one another, and another significant layer of this ceremony becomes screamingly obvious.

The culture of the Cherokee is preserved because of each generation of children.

“The youth are very important to us,” says Mystic Gazer.

“They are our future.”

They are the future of shared communities as well, and community pride runs deep in the tribe.

“We want to do good for the community, to help where help is needed,” says Mystic Gazer. “We just want to be a positive impact on people and the community itself.”

If you missed the pow wow in Arab in June, you’ll have another chance Nov. 4-6 at the National Guard Armory there when the Cherokee of Alabama once again assemble with members of other local tribes to celebrate heritage and host the community.

An exciting and visually spectacular cultural experience, it certainly warrants checking out. If you go, make sure you try the fried bread.

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53

Fly fishing ... for bass Story and photos

by David Moore

E

ventually, writes Norman Maclean in his classic memoir, all things merge into one, and “a rivers runs through it.”

Marshall County may be a far piece from comprising that final, complete one, yet still a fine river runs through it, carved into ancient mountains through the dark channels of time. In 1939 a dam was completed across the river to create a great lake, and in both its shallows and murky depths swim fish that today lure anglers who plumb the waters in hopes of catching them for food on the table, for trophies on the mantel, for the sheer joy of the fight that brings their shimmering wet bodies on tightened line into the light of day, into the field of vision, into the very life of the eager, fighting protagonist. And perhaps it is, in the few moments of that catch, that fish and angler merge into one.

Crappie, bluegill and cats make Lake Guntersville their home. But the largemouth bass is king fin.

Non-conventional for these warm waters, fly fishing’s mystique is now making ripples on Lake Guntersville

Applying the methods they’ve long known and honed, most anglers go after bass with rods and reels rigged from a nearly infinite array of enticing lures, worms and live bait. Few of them think about, much less attempt, fly fishing for bass using equipment and techniques more readily identified with casting in the cold, fast, pristine streams of western mountains or perhaps the ancient Appalachians.

John Agricola of Guntersville and Shannon McCurley, who lives just over the line in Etowah County, are among a minority who enter the bass arena here with lightweight fly rods and tackle. And so it is that fly fishing is how the two men occupy themselves this cool Saturday morning in May. Absent is the high-pitched whir of weighted tackle sent zinging on a long conventional cast. In its stead, lightweight yellow line esses back and forth, back and forth over John and Shannon’s heads, silent metronomes keeping time with poetry in motion as each false cast takes the leader and hand-tied fly farther over the fog-wisped surface of the water until they let it plop precisely where, they hope, a largemouth bass lurks.

Letting out a little more line each time, John Agricola swishes his fly rod back and forth over his shoulder before finally letting go, above, hoping his skill lands the fly where it attracts a big lunker.

T

“With trout, you have to know how to and was surprised when he caught a few his morning John and Shannon read the water and where the fish could largemouth. take out Shannon’s Carolina skiff, be. I kind of knew how to do that,” he “I didn’t really know what I was launching at the ramp near the Lake doing,” he says. “I didn’t know how to says. “But when you have a huge body Guntersville State Park beach. The sun target them.” of water and can’t see the current, you has yet to peer over the lip of Taylor have to know the topography under the About 2010 John hired Shannon for Mountain and the silhouetted hulk of a few guided tours and began learning surface.” the lodge as Shannon bears northeast the art of fly fishing for bass. Today, Bass like transitional zones, John to Minky Creek where fog lies in quiet says, the edge of a weed bed, the drop they fish as friends. patches and shifting, ethereal tufts along where water falls from shallow to deep.

Shannon lives in the Rock Ledge the shore. community off U.S. They snake their 431 south of Boaz thick lines back and and works for CSX forth in the fog before out of Birmingham dropping them silently as a track-side on the water. With no construction drag system on the engineer. In 2005 reels, they “strip” the he started a guide line in with their free service, North hand, letting it fall in Alabama Fly Fishing, lazy non-patterns on but his interest in the the deck and the water. sport started 10 years Their hand-tied flies earlier. jerk along the surface He remembers his with barely audible first fishing trip with ripples designed to fly gear, using his sound like breakfast to brother Sean’s cheap, a bass. beat-up rod.

John lands a small “I had been fishing largemouth. Shannon worms and lizards all quickly follows suit along, but I picked Early light washes night’s gloom from the lake at the state park. with a pound-and-athat old fly rod up halfer. and wore the bluegill Easy come … easy out,” Shannon grins. go. As oft happens with conventional rigs, And such are the places on this pretty “Pretty much from then on, I kept at it. abruptly the bass simply quit biting. What spring morning that he and Shannon I wouldn’t say I was good, but in less looked promising disappeared like a wisp than a year I got comfortable with fly patiently and relentlessly target their of fog snagged by a breeze. fishing. It is a continuously learning flies. thing.”

Not unlike their counterpart Shannon takes out a half-dozen fly conventional anglers, John and Shannon ohn grew up in Mississippi but fishing clients a year, often to Little keep fishing. Because you never know. spent summers at the family compound River Canyon. on Signal Point in Guntersville. He “The majority are novices,” he says. fisherman in a nearby boat earned a bachelor’s degree in history and “They want to give it a shot before notices their gear and technique and hails American studies from The University of they go buy a bunch of stuff. I provide them across the water.

Alabama. tackle, rods and flies.”

“I started to bring my fly rod today, but The allure of fly fishing hooked John As with any sport, natural ability it’s a little too early,” he calls. as a 19-year-old visiting his grandfather and aptitude are variables to the fly“It’s never too early,” Shannon replies. on the Madison River in Montana, so fishing learning curve, but practice is Actually, more people than one might he later went West for the fishing while key to mastering the art. think, fly fish on Lake Guntersville, earning a master’s in American studies “Think about golf,” Shannon says.

Shannon says. But the majority fish for from the University of Wyoming in “The first time you go out you can bream when they bed in the spring and in Laramie in 2009. After a second masters hit the ball, but to be really good at it early July when the willow flies hatch. from Ole Miss, he moved to Signal Point you have to play and play. Fly-fishing “That’s when most people around here in 2014, where his dad and aunt have competency depends on how long and think about fly fishing,” he says. houses and he shares a third house with dedicated you are at it. I’ve seen a guy John says many fishermen probably his sister. put a fly in a tartar sauce cup at 75 don’t realize that they can actually target Back home, just for fun, John gave feet.” and fly fish for bass. his fly gear a whirl on Lake Guntersville

A

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

J

Shannon McCurley and John Agricola fly fish in the wispy, lingering fog on the calm morning surface of the lake near Minky Creek.

The day started out with promise as Shannon soon landed a little bass. In the end, though, they did a lot more fishing than catching.

And, as any angler knows, there’s a big difference in the two.

Later in the morning, Shannon McCurley and John Agricola, right, try their luck fly fishing in a small cove near the cabins at Lake Guntersville State Park. John recently organized “Alabama Rigged,�a series of lectures in Guntersville, Florence and Gadsden tying in history and regional sociology with fishing, sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation. For those interested in learning more about fly fishing, google the Tennessee Valley Fly Fishers in Huntsville or the Rainbow Fly Fishing Club in Gadsden. Shannon operates North Alabama Fly Fishing: 256-572-9007. John is starting a fly fishing service called Carp South Guide: 256-478-0806.

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From amongst his gear and tackle, Shannon on this day uses his Ross Reel on a 7 weight rod. It’s rigged with an intermediate Clouser he tied.

P

erfection of technique cannot make a fish bite.

“This is called fishing,” Shannon says.

“It ain’t called catching.”

Seeking luckier waters, John and Shannon boat back to the launch and fish their way down to the park cabins.

Conversation, drifting as it is in currents of fly fishing, eventually arrives at “A River Runs Through It.” First published in 1976, Norman Maclean’s monumental, 161-page, semiautobiographical novella streams together family, love, tragedy and questions of metaphysics using lyrically wrought descriptions of fly fishing in Montana’s Big Blackfoot River. For Maclean, the river represents life, and fly fishing, done correctly, becomes the art of wading into life’s untamed currents with grace and economy.

If the book stoked the glow of mystique around fly fishing, Robert Redford’s 1992 movie of the same name – starring Brad Pitt, Craig Cheffer and Tom Skerritt – set it ablaze in Hollywood spotlights for a much larger audience.

Certainly, Shannon says, the movie boosted fly fishing.

“But a lot of people put more mystique

into it than what there really is,” Shannon says. That’s because fly fishing is simply unfamiliar to them.

“It’s like anything else,” he continues.

“You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. You can put three or four flies in your shirt pocket and you’re good to go, or you can take a box with a thousand flies in it.”

John agrees that fly fishing harbors a mystique, but sometimes it’s counterproductive to promoting it, especially in the warm waters of the South.

“Catching bass is already difficult,” he says. “Why would you make it more difficult by throwing a fly rod into the mix?”

To John, part of the answer is that fly fishing so actively engages his mind and body – perhaps to the seemingly contrary point of disengagement.

“You are always thinking about what you are doing,” John explains. “But you actually do better when you are not thinking about it, when it’s second nature and the rhythm takes over.”

A

s for Shannon, he loves fly fishing in part because it can take the angler to spectacular mountain streams, whether out West or, like his recent trip,

in the Smoky Mountains. He also loves the challenge of mastering the more technically involved casting techniques.

“Why does one guy like football and another guy like baseball?” he says.

“Some guys only bow hunt because they’d rather be closer to the deer. When you get down to it, it’s what you are interested in, the personal challenge. To me, fly fishing is not any better, it’s just a bigger challenge to me.”

Others, he says, might see it in a completely different light, but the bottom line is that he absolutely loves fly fishing.

“If I couldn’t go fly fishing?” he asks rhetorically. “Yes, I would pick up a conventional rod and reel and go fishing.”

Either way, he laughs, it makes no difference to his wife, not if she thinks he should spend Saturday somewhere other than the lake or Little River.

Likewise, it makes no difference to him if he’s using a fly rod or a conventional rod when he lands an eightpound bass.

“You catch it either way,” Shannon says, “and it’s still a great fish.”

And ultimately, in those moments in which the catch plays out, fish and angler merge into one.

Good Life Magazine

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

59

What’s a fly fishing guide box hold for a day on the lake?

W

ant to fish outside the box, so to speak?

Go after bass in Lake Guntersville with a fly rod?

Shannon McCurley, a local guide who operates North Alabama Fly Fishing, offers a few tips.

The best times for catching larger fish is in early spring and again in late fall. Late spring and summer bring top water action.

“Concentrate on coves that warm up quickly.

Fish patchy grass and the edge of grass lines early in morning and late afternoon,” he says.

Shady banks in the creeks, Shannon adds, sometimes buy you some mid-day action.

For colder weather fly fishing, Shannon says, you’ll want to use a sinking line and subsurface flies.

So … just what kind of tackle, the curious conventional angler might wonder, does one use to fly fish for bass in Lake Guntersville?

H

Among Shannon’s many trays of flies are these poppers he tied using handcarved balsa. Not everything about fly fishing has to be fancy. While he has an expensive fishing line cutter, he usually just uses his fingernail clippers.

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

ere’s Shannon’s four-point guide …

• Rods – You want 6-to 9-weight. “With 8-weight being the best all around, especially when the grass is up,” Shannon says.

• Line – Weight forward floating lines with a bass taper help deliver larger poppers and flies (more about those shortly). Intermediate sinking lines work great for fishing bait fish patterns in deeper water.

• Leader – Shannon uses 8-9-foot tapered leaders in the 10- to 15-pound range for casting poppers. He usually opts for 14-pound leader for larger flies, though he’s gone up to 20-pound leader in heavy cover.

For sinking lines he usually uses 6 feet of straight fluorocarbon leader, 10- to 12-pound test.

• Flies – “Top water poppers are probably my favorite way to bass fish due to the strikes being so visual,” Shannon says.

His poppers range in size from 4 to 2/0 with a size 2 fitting him best. White, yellow and chartreuse are the basic colors you need, with black and frog patterns working well at times.

Fishing sub-surface, he finds a feathery Clouser minnow, size 4 to 2, hard to beat. The larger Woolly Buggers, such as a 4, also work well.

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61

My Marshall Photo Contest

First Place Judy Kennamer of Guntersville A flock of cormorant fly through the morning fog on Lake Guntersville.

More than 30 local photographers entered more than 70 images in the My Marshall photo contest. Limited only by their imaginations and the requirement that their images be of Marshall County, the photographers turned in an entertainingly varied assortment of pictures.

The contest was sponsored by Oden Imaging and Marshall County Good Life Magazine and judged by Patrick Oden and GLM publisher and editor David Moore. It took several hours to pick the winners.

Among many impressive images is John Sharp’s shot of a stunning sunset-lit landscape at Buck’s Pocket. But it drew close scrutiny.

Marshall County claims the park, but it’s also located in DeKalb

and Jackson counties. Poring over a topographic map, the judges determined that while John shot the photo from outside of Marshall County, his sprawling landscape encompasses a portion of Marshall County and allowed it.

See John’s shot and – what the judges thought of it – on pages 6667. Outside of this grouping, don’t miss Becky DeArmond’s honorable mention on page 8.

In addition to publication here, winning entries will be displayed at Guntersville Public Library, along with 30 other photos submitted for the contest.

Enjoy the views.

Honorable Mention Ted Richard of Grant Abstract reflection of an old business in Boaz, seen in the taped glass of a garage window.

Honorable Mention Delphine Dal Cengio of Guntersville shot her husband’s hands removing the hook from a fish’s mouth.

AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

63

Second Place Ted Richard of Grant found this unique image of an old wall on a building in Boaz with some obvious history behind it.

Third Place Terry Sharp of Arab shot this rose from his neighbor’s garden.

Oden Imaging Pick Judy Kennamer of Guntersville photographed the lights of a passing truck on a wet U.S. 231.

Good Life Magazine Pick Jeff Horton of Georgia Mountain caught two fishermen making their last cast of the day.

Best in show John Sharp of Grant shot this image of a sunset at Buck’s Pocket State Park.

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67

Honorable Mention Amy Rush of Arab Steeple on Red Hill United Methodist Church

Honorable Mention Kary Sims of Boaz A pond in Boaz reflects the sunset sky

Honorable Mention Don Uhlir of Guntersville Friends enjoy their company while trying to catch fish

Honorable Mention Amy Rush of Arab Four generations celebrate the coming of a fifth

Honorable Mention Jeff Horton of Georgia Mountain A fisherman tries out the new pier on Sunset Drive

Honorable Mention Joe Gilbreth of Baileyton A June sunset over Lake Guntersville

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

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GUNTERSVILLE

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256-586-8303 256-878-4591 256-582-5641

1-800-552-1382 AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

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Out ’n’ About The newest adventure in Marshall County opened this summer at Lake Guntersville State Park – the Screaming Eagle zipline. Even those who scream at the thought of heights have signed up for the nearly two-hour tour and found themselves enjoying the adrenaline rush and having a blast. The existing tour –a second is in the works – entails scooting down 10 ziplines ranging from 75 to 400 feet long and crossing four cable-suspended adventure bridges. Heights are as low as 20 feet and as high as 78 feet – about as tall as an eight-story building. Vistas are exhilarating as is the rush of zipping through the forest canopy on the side of Taylor Mountain. At right, Jeremy Dobbins, one of the attentive and entertaining guides, watches from a launch platform as Luke Harold of Newnan, Ga., flies down the cable. At far right, Alex Mosley of Painter, crossing a bridge to the golf course, finds the adventure a fun world apart from the tour he served as a military medic in Afghanistan. Photos by David Moore.

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AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2016

Say hello to the newest member of our stroke response team.

Thanks to telemedicine, distance is no obstacle for lifesaving neurology care.

When stroke occurs, minutes count – fast treatment can save lives and minimize long-term damage. That’s why Marshall Medical is working with the North Alabama Neuro-Stroke Network and Huntsville Hospital – we’re closing the gap for local patients through telemedicine. Now, when a stroke victim arrives at Marshall North or South, the local ER team can provide detailed patient data to a neurologist at our regional Certified Primary Stroke Center. Using a hi-definition camera system, the neurologist can examine the patient remotely and provide precise care instructions.

Telemedicine is a lifesaving solution to a critical need. We’re glad to make the introduction for Marshall County.

256.571.8925 (256.753.8925 for Arab area residents) • mmcenters.com