WTL Summer Edition

Summer 2022 • vol. 13, no. 2

C OT TAG E S

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A PA R T M E N T S

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ASSISTED LIVING

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MEMORY CARE

Enjoy the little things.

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1 4 0 1 N O R T H H I G H S T R E E T, F R A N K L I N , VA 2 3 8 5 1

western tidewater living

contents summer 2022

Photo by Titus Mohler

ON THE COVER: Giving representation to the birds and the bees that comprise a significant part of their lives are Lucky Streich, holding a couple of his bird mounts, and Amy Streich, holding a honeycomb with some of their bees working on it.

INSIDE THIS EDITION

5 Betty J. Ramsey Publisher Titus Mohler Staff Writer Clyde Parker Contributing Writer Troy Cooper Designer

PARTY PIX Area residents, movers and shakers, enjoy getting together in person

GATTENS Introducing the community to pickleball

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Loretta Lomax Designer Mitzi Lusk Advertising Director Michelle Gray Office Manager Western Tidewater Living is published four times a year by Tidewater Publications, LLC P.O. Box 497, Franklin, VA 23851 757-562-3187 Advertising rates and information available upon request to ads@thetidewaternews.com.

Subscriptions are $20 annually in-state, $24 annually out of state and $30 annually overseas.

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BIRDS AND BEES Learn about the crafting of duck mounts and the ways of the hive

SOUTH QUAYS Discover these riverports on the Blackwater River

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ption publisher's notebook APPRECIATING THE GREAT OUTDOORS As the weather warms and we advance deeper into the days of summer, many of us look for opportunities to get out, soak in some rays and enjoy life outdoors in Western Tidewater. I hope you find yourself in such a scene this summer, and if you do, I believe this edition would provide you with perfect accompanying reading material. Each feature touches on life lived amid the great outdoors.

Lucky and Amy Streich grace the cover of our summer edition, showcasing bird mounts and bees tending to a honeycomb. Lucky’s ability to take a duck that has been harvested and restore it to a scene of life is nothing short of a marvel, and it merits your time to gain some insights into how and why he does it. Equally remarkable is the work Lucky and Amy do with bees, managing around 70 hives and conveying the extensive knowledge they have accumulated to others through mentorship and demonstrations. You can find this story starting on page 18.

For many, summer is a great time to get outside and participate in sports. If that describes you and you are unaware of pickleball, let Burdette and Joann Gatten introduce you to the sport, starting on page 10. Pickleball is reported to have been the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. from 2019-21, and it combines many elements of tennis, badminton, ping-pong and

racquetball.

Starting on page 29, Clyde Parker gives us a look back at the two South Quays of southeastern Virginia. He notes that both of them, during their respective existences, were riverports on the Blackwater River, with one existing on the eastern bank and the other on the western bank. The history of the South Quays also intersects with that of the Civil and Revolutionary wars.

At Western Tidewater Living we are blessed and grateful to be a part of this community and are thankful that there are so many great stories to share.

We hope you will enjoy the stories found within this edition, and we know there are many more to tell. As this is a magazine about and for you, we welcome your ideas and invite you to share with us what you would like to hear more about by sending us a note at P.O. Box 497, Franklin, VA, 23851, giving us a call at 757-562-3187 or sending us an email at Magazine@ TheTidewaterNews.com.

We publish Western Tidewater Living each season — summer, fall, winter and spring. We invite you to pick up a copy of the latest issue as there is sure to be someone you know inside — a neighbor, a family member, a friend or perhaps even you!

If you want Western Tidewater Living delivered to your home or office, we offer subscriptions and gift subscriptions for $20 per year (in state), just enough to cover the postage. To subscribe, call us at 757-562-3187.

Betty J. Ramsey is publisher of Western Tidewater Living.

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2022 FRANKLIN CRUISE-IN KICKOFF

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party pix

Helping draw people to downtown Franklin on Saturday, May 7, was the eighth annual Franklin Cruise-in Kickoff, which organizer Mike Smith said drew around 100 vehicles at any point during its run on the day. PHOTOS BY TITUS MOHLER

Howard Barnes poses with his 1931 Chevrolet that he has owned for nine years. He bought it from the man who built it.

Mike Edwards sits in the driver’s seat of his 1966 Ford Mustang with his son, Preston Edwards. Mike has owned the vehicle since March 1989 and put a lot of work into it. “I know this car from front to back, from top to bottom,” he said. “We just got it back on the road this year.”

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party pix

HOMES AND FARMS AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS TOUR

The Homes and Farms at the Edge of the Woods Tour took place in Franklin on Saturday, April 23, as part of Historic Garden Week, which is presented by the Garden Club of Virginia. Homes on the tour included an updated farmhouse on a 600-acre working organic farm, a cottage at The Village at Woods Edge and two homes in neighborhoods whose owners can still enjoy the beauty and freshness of the tall pine trees that have meant so much to the city of Franklin’s history. PHOTOS BY TITUS MOHLER

Rebecca Harper and Jennifer Stephenson

Verle Weiss, Erin Farrow and Dottie Lindley

Pine Crest Garden Club members Jan Street, President Barbara Fickler, Jane Darden, Beverly Brown

Kathy Humphrey, Diane Liedman and Luana Hugel

Robert Holt and Sandy Holt

Elizabeth Dalzell and Ken Kramer

party pix

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LUMBERJACK FESTEVENT

Torrential rain and hail on the day before and the threat of rain the day of did not end up derailing the inaugural Lumberjack Festevent, which drew a crowd to downtown Franklin on Saturday, May 7, and effectively conveyed an important part of the city’s history. The event, organized by The Franklin Experience Inc., featured the Paul Bunyan LumberJack Show, ax-throwing, wood-carving with a chainsaw, a farmers market, music and more. PHOTOS BY TITUS MOHLER

Margaret Whitehead and Alvester Whitehead

Raquel Miller, Samuel Miller, Isabel Miller, Imanuel Miller and Clarence Miller

Danielle Stallard, Taylor Stallard, Tyler Butler and Megan Freeman

Woodrow Hedgpeth, of Woody’s Wood Carving, from North Carolina, carves a bear with his chainsaw as spectators look on at the Lumberjack Festevent in Franklin.

The axes of Jonathon Morrison, left, and Phillip Raisor fly through the air as they participate in an ax-throwing feature of the Lumberjack Festevent on Saturday, May 7, in Franklin.

Webster “Web” Beckstead, left, takes on his sons, Daniel Beckstead and Jason Beckstead, in a one-man versus two-man sawing competition during the Paul Bunyan LumberJack Show at the Lumberjack Festevent in Franklin.

8 western tidewater living

party pix

2022 FRANKLIN SPRING FEST

The inaugural Franklin Spring Fest was a notable success Saturday, April 23, drawing around 1,500 patrons. Franklin Director of Tourism Carson S. Blythe said the weather was beautiful and there were about 75 vendors on hand. “We had I think it was around 800 patrons at the farmers market, around 500 patrons at the (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) art mobile,” she said. PHOTOS BY TITUS MOHLER

Kyle Messer, Miranda Tillett, Mackenzie Messer, Kynlee Messer and Natalie Dauphin

Stephanie Gunter, Abigail Taylor and Wambi Tutashinda

Angela Draughn, Wade Draughn and Katrina Draughn

Taylor Martindale, Rhiannon Walker and Mickey Walker

Michelle McDaniel and Edward McDaniel

Zakhari Bynum, Kyleigh Bynum, Katisha Bynum, Ava Elliott, Alyssa Aguilar and Jayden Elliott

western tidewater living

party pix

2022 FRANKLIN SPRING FEST

Abigail Prater and Tommie Prater

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western tidewater living

The Gattens: Ambassadors of pickleball

STORY BY TITUS MOHLER PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY BURDETTE AND JOANN GATTEN

From left, Burdette and Joann Gatten compete in the Go Beyond Pink Sun Classic, a breast cancer awareness pickleball tournament, on June 18 in Virginia Beach. They competed in the open division, which allowed them to do what they enjoy — play higher-level competition.

About four years ago, Burdette Gatten, of Franklin, made a discovery that has proven to enrich the lives of himself, his wife Joann, and a growing number of friends in the area. “(Joann and I) had gone to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and we saw these courts, and I wasn’t quite sure what they were,” Burdette recalled. “And so I walked up, and I asked someone, ‘What is this game?’ And they said it was pickleball, which I thought was a pretty foolish name.”

However, the sport drew his interest as he learned how to play it.

As USA Pickleball explains on its website, pickleball is a “fun sport that combines many elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong,” and Gatten added that racquetball is an influence as well.

Gatten, 70, has played tennis most of his life, including in tournaments and competitions requiring travel, but this new sport he was learning about would go on to become an activity he now describes as more enjoyable than tennis.

When he returned home from South Carolina after his discovery, he started paving the way for pickleball.

“I had a tennis court in the backyard, and so I painted the lines on the court that I needed for pickleball,” he said. “I bought some nets that were portable, and I set up two courts.”

He invited over a friend, John Rabil, and others as well, telling them they were going to try a new game.

“And so we all started learning how to play, and they loved it,” Gatten said.

“And we added more people, and then I changed the layout of my court so I could have four courts instead of just two. So then we had even more participation and more ability to handle more players.

“And we’ll have weekends where a lot of the players from out of town will come to Franklin and play, and we’ll have 16 to 18 people who are serious See GATTENS, page 12

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12 western tidewater living

GATTENS, from page 11

pickleball players — they travel and play (at) a high level.”

Burdette and Joann enjoy playing the sport at a highly competitive level, though their enjoyment of the sport is not restricted to that mode of play.

“The people who we play with in Franklin that are more social pickleball players, we’ll play with them too,” he said.

“So it’s whatever you want to make of it.”

It turns out the rest of the U.S. was discovering pickleball on a similar timetable to that of Burdette.

NBC News reported in April 2022 that pickleball was the fastest-growing sport in the country from 2019-21 according to

an industry group that tracks sport participation.

“We have been promoting it in Franklin at the (James L. Camp Jr. Family) YMCA,” Burdette said, noting he had gotten some of the tennis and racquetball players converted.

He also got Ken Cussick, a tennis pro in Franklin, so interested that Cussick became certified in the sport and is teaching it at the YMCA along with tennis.

“His pickleball group keeps growing and growing, so it’s really taking off,” Burdette said.

USA Pickleball states that the sport was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, a

short ferry ride from Seattle, Washington.

“Three dads — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum — whose kids were bored with their usual summertime activities — are credited for creating the game,” USA Pickleball officials note.

“Pickleball has evolved from original handmade equipment and simple rules into a popular sport throughout the U.S. and Canada. The game is growing internationally as well, with many European and Asian countries adding courts.”

USA Pickleball confirms that the name “pickle ball” is a reference to the throwntogether leftover non-starters in the “pickle boat” of crew races.

See GATTENS, page 13

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GATTENS, from page 12

The game of pickleball is played both indoors and outdoors on a 44-by-20-foot badminton-sized court with a slightly modified tennis net, USA Pickleball officials say. The game can be played through singles or doubles matches, with participants of all ages and skill levels using a paddle and a plastic ball with holes.

Burdette said the pickleball is “pretty much a whiffle ball, even though that whiffle ball is a little bit heavier, and the holes are round in a pickleball, and then there’s a certain pattern they use on the ball.”

He said that the paddles do not have strings but have to have a certain texture.

“You have to serve in an underhanded motion,” he said. “The ball has to be hit from below your waist, and then the paddle has to be below your wrist.”

He noted that participants can hit the

pickleball as hard as they want, but it has to go into a designated area of the court.

“You have an area called the kitchen, which is 7 feet by 20,” he said, referencing the area that extends 7 feet directly from the net on either side of the net.

“When you serve, the ball has to clear the kitchen and get into a certain area,” he said. “When you return, you can return anywhere, and you can’t hit the ball when you’re in the kitchen unless the ball has already bounced.”

Burdette explained that you have to be serving to score, and you get only one serve attempt.

“When you serve, the ball is returned by your opponent, typically, and you have to let it bounce before you hit it,” he said.

“You can’t just rush the net.”

Burdette noted that most people who play pickleball play doubles.

“People who play singles are the more mobile and athletic players,” he said.

“Doubles, you’re only covering part of the court, and so you can be less mobile and highly skilled, but it takes a little different skill set.”

Burdette has become highly capable and experienced at both singles and doubles play.

He and Joann have played doubles in Franklin and far beyond, including South Carolina, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida, Texas and Utah.

If Burdette, who is an optometrist, happened to be going to an optometry convention somewhere in the country, he said that he and Joann will see where they can go that is nearby to play pickleball against good competition.

“Wherever you go, there are places to play,” he said. “The places we enjoy the See GATTENS, page 15

Contributing to Burdette Gatten’s assessment that pickleball is more enjoyable than tennis is the opportunity for more continuous and efficient play. “In two hours of playing pickleball, you may play a game and a half in tennis, and you’ve played six games of pickleball, unless you want to play it slow,” he said.

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Burdette Gatten, of Franklin, presents his gold medal after winning the 70-plus age division at a 4.0 Mens Skill level at the largest pickleball tournament in the world — the Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Florida.

western tidewater living

GATTENS, from page 13

most are the places that have the best players.”

Like he used to do with tennis, Burdette also participates in formal pickleball tournaments and competitions that require travel.

He has competed in doubles tournaments, and for the past year and a half, he has begun participating in singles play, winning numerous events, none bigger than the Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Florida.

“The U.S. Open is the largest pickleball tournament in the world,” he said.

He competed in that tournament in the 70-plus age division at the 4.0 Mens Skill level, a level which Burdette said equates to “very good,” with 5.0 being the pro level.

He was the No. 5 seed and trained for the event with a couple pros, including Cussick.

“In the semis, I beat the two-time U.S. Open champion, but it took me three games to beat him,” Burdette said, coming from behind to topple No. 1 Matt Rumpsa by a score of 6-11, 11-8, 11-7.

In the finals, Burdette faced No. 6 Jerry Jacob, who Burdette said was the twotime national champion, having won an Indian Wells, California, event that is the second-largest pickleball tournament in the world.

“I beat him handily,” Burdette said, and the set scores supported that assessment — 11-3, 11-6.

He noted that it is in singles play that he has experienced most of his success in competitive pickleball, and helping him excel have been his mobility, length and accuracy.

While competing in the South Carolina Open, Burdette defeated a player from England who was so impressed with his singles play that he invited Burdette to come play as his doubles partner in England.

“It was an indoor tournament, and I declined because I prefer playing outdoors,” Burdette said.

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Burdette Gatten, of Franklin, participates in the sport of pickleball, playing on a court in his backyard that he converted from a tennis court to multiple pickleball courts. This is where he has introduced a significant number of people in the area to the growing sport.

Burdette has also earned medals in doubles play with different playing partners, including his wife.

He highlighted how Joann, who enjoys pickleball as much as he does, played a major role in his having the opportunity to compete in the U.S. Open.

“We had qualified to play in the National Senior Games as a doubles team in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (that were set for) two weeks after the U.S. Open,” he said. “When I got in the Open in singles and we did not get in, in doubles, she wanted me to play the U.S. Open since it was so prestigious. We couldn’t miss work any longer to do both tournaments, so she sacrificed a chance to play in the National Senior Games Championship in mixed doubles with me.”

After his success in the U.S. Open, Burdette is looking to challenge himself further in terms of skill level.

“Would I play 4.0 (Mens Skill level) again in a national tournament? No,” he said. “I’ll be playing up. I would like to play in some pro brackets.”

He said he will be able to get into pro tournaments now, especially since he won the Open.

“I will be playing 4.5 and up from here on out,” he said.

However, he is aware this territory will come with a major challenge that he already has some experience dealing with — playing against players significantly younger than him.

The wide age range of players is a testament to the universal appeal of a sport that also draws avid interest from both serious competitors and laidback participants.

“The game is fairly simple, and you can play it at an enjoyable level the first time you ever play,” Burdette said. “And you say, ‘Well, no, I don’t think I could.’ No, I think you could.

“With just a little bit of instruction and help, you would be going out and buying a paddle and getting your ball and getting a pair of tennis shoes that you felt would handle the court well, and you’d be ready for it, because it is that addictive,” he added. “You get exercise, you get to be outdoors, and you get to compete.”

Those interested in learning how to play pickleball can contact Ken Cussick at the James L. Camp Jr. Family YMCA at 757-562-3491.

16 western tidewater living

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18 western tidewater living TITUS MOHLER Giving representation to the birds and the bees that comprise a significant part of their lives are Lucky Streich, holding a couple of his bird mounts, and Amy Streich, holding a honeycomb with some of their bees working on it.

BARNES, from page 18

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A tribute to life through the BIRDS and the BEES STORY BY TITUS MOHLER PHOTOS BY LUCKY STREICH AND TITUS MOHLER Lucky Streich never does anything halfway.

That’s why he now keeps pretty busy creating duck mounts for paying customers, and that’s why he and his wife Amy also now manage around 70 beehives and have mentored many people in the role of beekeeping.

That said, Lucky also has no interest in being made out to be something he is not. Modestly, he noted he is not trying to claim he is better than anybody else at mounting ducks, and he also indicated that the bee knowledge and experience he and his wife possess does not make them “the bee whisperers of the state.”

Nevertheless, they have made significant impacts locally in the realms of birds and bees, and these impacts both reflect Lucky’s interest in restoration.

“I’ve sewn on a duck for two-and-a-half solid hours before I could even think about getting him ready to mount just because he was so shot up that bad,” he said. “That means everywhere that there’s a hole put through that hide, whether it was from shots from a gun or dog teeth from retrieving it, from me making a hole in it — whatever holes that are in it need to be sewed before I can mount that bird.”

He enjoys the challenge of taking birds from that rough state and bringing them back to the point where they can be part of a mounted scene that represents an aspect of the life they had in the wild.

Of course, Lucky and Amy, who live in Southampton County, do much to help their bees, but one of the things that drove Lucky’s fascination with bees was their ability to be resilient on their own.

See STREICH, page 20

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TITUS MOHLER Left, a swarm of bees forms around a queen after the queen left one of Lucky Streich’s hives because it had gotten so big. The queen took half the bees with her out of the hive and is going to start a new hive somewhere else. Streich estimated the pictured swarm includes about 10,000 bees.

Right, Lucky Streich holds up a swarm of bees while wearing the top of his bee suit. (SUBMITTED | LUCKY STREICH)

STREICH, from page 19

“Whatever we screw up, they’ll fix,” he said.

Lucky’s history with mounting birds is technically much longer than the one he has with keeping bees, but there is a large gap in that history that doesn’t exist in his beekeeping experience.

Nicknamed by the nuns when he was baptized back in the day, Frazier “Lucky” Streich estimates he got his start with bird mounting when he was 12 or 13 years old.

One of his aunts bought him a little taxidermy kit.

“I played around with it, being a kid,” he said. “Then I ended up helping a guy when I was probably like 14 or 15 — not making any money, just hanging out.”

What he liked doing most was mounting

birds, more so than fish or deer.

“So I just kind of stuck with the bird thing, and I did some then when I was younger,” he said, noting he made a fair amount of birds for his family and himself.

But baseball was one of the primary things in his life at the time, and he ended up letting the bird mounting go.

“Probably between then and three, four years ago, I may have mounted two or three birds in that whole entire time,” he said. “I’ve been married with my wife, we’ve been married 24 years and been together five more, so almost 30 years, and she’s never known me to mount a bird before (2018).”

Lucky, who will be 60 in October, has worked in the wildlife removal business for

almost all of his life, removing raccoons, squirrels, snakes, birds and the like from people’s homes, doing repairs, etc.

But he made the decision to largely move on from that occupation.

“When I sold my businesses and stuff like that, I just said, ‘You know, I’m going to try to do something for some extra money and just something I like to do,’” he said.

In 2018, he decided to return to creating bird mounts.

He also does european mounts, which is where just the skull is mounted, not the whole head.

“I do those, but I’ll do those for deer, bears, turkeys, ducks, you name it,” he said.

But birds draw his interest the most, and he explained why.

See STREICH, page 22

western tidewater living CARVING, from page 20

TITUS MOHLER Above, this photo shows the groupings of beehives that line the Streich’s long driveway in Capron, helping form their Bee Haven Apiary. Right, after cutting the branch with the swarm of bees off the tree, Lucky Streich lowers it into a bee catch box to help the bees create a new hive.

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22 western tidewater living TITUS MOHLER Lucky Streich mounted these two buffleheads and created a winter scene for them to inhabit, complete with artificial snow and icicles.

STREICH, from page 20

“You could just make that bird do a lot of different things and just really bring them back to life a lot of different ways,” he said. “But this is through my eyes, OK? Not everybody sees what I see through my eyes, so another taxidermist that does animals, small animals are pretty cool because you can do a lot of things with them as far as motion and that kind of stuff.

“Birds just always caught my fancy, and they’re probably one of the harder things to do,” he continued. “I don’t know. It was just something that I just did when I was a kid, and I liked it.”

A lot of Lucky’s bird mounts feature the bird in flight, some show it swooping down and grabbing a minnow in its mouth, one features both a drake wood duck and a hen wood duck, with the drake looking down at the hen, which is peaking out from a nest.

“There’s just something about birds that I just like to do,” he said. “These doves I did, it was on a dare, because somebody

said, ‘Ah, I bet you can’t do a dove,’ because a dove, when you touch him he loses feathers.”

When Lucky returned to mounting, he found that much has changed in the way they are crafted, drawing a significant contrast to the “old-school” methods he was taught and used as a teenager.

“So I had to teach myself, and that’s exactly what I did,” he said. “I didn’t pay one cent to go to school or class about this.”

He already knew essentially how a bird comes apart and goes back together, so then it was just a matter of putting methods into practice.

“I knew I could figure it out,” he said.

“Yeah, I did some research. I’d look at a DVD here and there, but when I say I look at a DVD, I look at five minutes of it, go to the part I’m looking for, and that’s it.”

When he was a kid, he was trained to build the bodies of the birds he was mounting by using the stuffing formerly found within car seats.

“I’d make my bodies out of that, and I still make my bodies sometimes out of that,” he said.

He recalled a time when he mounted a couple wood ducks for someone and made almost everything from items he had, needing to order only acrylic eyes.

“We used to use all the real skulls, the real head in the ducks,” he said. “Now all that is artificial.”

He puts in an artificial duck head after painting the bill.

The bird bodies in the mounts are now made of polyurethane.

Providing insight into his workflow, Lucky summarized the process of mounting a bird.

“Well, first you’ve got to harvest the bird,” he said.

He is usually mounting birds for other people, so that means they harvested the bird and decided they wanted to have it mounted.

“So I’ve got to have a federal license to See STREICH, page 23

western tidewater living

STREICH, from page 22

do ducks, not just a state license … because I’m doing migratory birds, which is important because even doves come under that,” he said.

The federal license renews every five years, and the state license renews every two.

After he receives the bird from a customer, “then you’ve got to take care of the bird, whether you’re going to put ’em in your freezer or whatever, because you want to take the best specimen you can to the person that’s going to mount it for you,” he said, reiterating that he has received “some crazy specimens.”

“So then I’m going to get the bird, and I’m going to skin the bird completely out — everything out of it except the wing bones and the leg bones,” he said. “And then I take all the fat off of the bird inside, so all you’re left (with) is the skin itself.”

At this point the bird is just skin and feathers.

“Then I wash ’em, get ’em clean, dry ’em, wash ’em again,” he said, noting that he washes them in probably three or four different types of baths before he gets the bird dry. “Then I’m going to get ’em dry, and I’m going to get the head prepped, that kind of stuff. The body, I’m going to shape the body, which is a polyurethane body now.”

He said he always keeps the old body of the bird close by and uses it as a guide, because he wants the mounted version to be as close to a match as possible.

Then he has to add back all the fat he took away from the bird that the polyurethane body itself is not going to provide, likely prompting him to use some of the old car-seat stuffing material. He said he adds padding or backing in and around the wings and up around the back “to get that fattiness that we took off, that little extra weight, the plumpness part of it.”

Then he wires the birds in, puts the

23

head on after painting the bill and applies the eyes.

“Then of course, you’ve got to sow them up,” he said. “Then I’ve got to start positioning them, getting them ready, and now I put all these feathers back in line to get them done. Then I tape ’em up in place or (use) pins — I use lots of pins to hold everything where I need it (to) hold.”

He uses these pins and wires to help put the bird in the ultimate pose he wants them to be in when the mount is complete.

“Then of course, I shoot the feet up with foot epoxy and that kind of thing because it needs to get the foot dry,” he said.

“And then it’s a drying period of a good few weeks,” he continued. “And then I’ll go back and paint their feet.”

Following this, he mounts the bird on a piece of driftwood or whatever the customer decided they wanted.

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24 western tidewater living STREICH, from page 23

“Then I’ll do my final touches and then call the customer and tell them it’s ready,” he said.

The drying period is part of the process, but that aside, Lucky said that with no major catastrophes, he could mount a mallard — a good-sized duck — in a day, from skinning him at 8 a.m. to mounting him by 4 p.m.

“Now, am I done primping on that duck?” Lucky asked rhetorically. “Nope.

Every time I walk out in the next day or two, I’m going to constantly be playing with him a little bit, putting a feather in place, out of place, whatever, something I don’t like, until it really starts setting up, and then once it dries, then I can go ahead and paint the feet.”

After he became reengaged with creating bird mounts, Lucky did not immediately jump into offering to do them for others.

“If I’m going to do them for people, I need to do them for myself first to make

sure they’re good enough for myself first,” he said. “I’m my worst critic. If they’re not good enough for me, they’re not good enough for anybody.”

So in 2018, he did some birds for himself.

“Then I did a few the next year for a few friends, that kind of thing,” he said. “Then the word-of-mouth started getting out a little bit, and so now I stay pretty busy at it.”

He would not call it a full-time job, but he reiterated that “it’s kept me pretty busy.”

He has been crafting bird mounts for customers for two years now.

At his busiest, he said he has done a duck a day, minimum.

He estimates he has created hundreds of mounts since 2018.

“This year alone, when I get done with all the birds that I have, it will probably be around the 60 mark,” he said. “Since January, I’ve done 40 birds, probably, and I try to guarantee my work in six months, which

is pretty fast.”

In terms of the range of birds he has mounted, “I would say probably 25 ducks and geese species and some upland birds.”

Examples of his work can be seen on his Facebook page called “Feathers & Bones Taxidermy.”

Entwined with his history of crafting bird mounts is his history with beekeeping that began after he met his wife nearly 30 years ago.

“My journey with bees began with my wife because my wife is the one that got us into bees,” he said.

Amy said she was looking for something to do for a hobby.

“It’s always fascinated me, the bees, and of course, I love honey,” she said.

Lucky noted that she went to some classes on the bees, and then she ended up getting two beehives of her own.

“Bees are very important to us as we all have learned and found out here more reSee STREICH, page 25

TITUS MOHLER A drake wood duck looks down at a hen wood duck in the nest in this mounted scene crafted by Lucky Streich. He said this is one of his favorite mounts.

western tidewater living

STREICH, from page 24

cently in the years, and I just think they’re really fascinating,” Lucky said. “That’s how I got involved. When she got her bees, I read ‘Beekeeping for Dummies’ the first night, and I was in(to) it. I was in(to) it, then. And I don’t do anything halfway — it’s either all or nothing. If it was her, she’d probably just have two hives still.”

She laughed later when, in agreement, she said, “Sometimes I still want to tell him, ‘Just give me my two hives, you can have the rest.’”

The Streichs’ home, which has a Capron address, features what they have called the Bee Haven Apiary, and it consists of around 70 beehives.

“Somewhere around there, give or take — any day, one or two more, one or two less,” Lucky said, estimating the beehive count. “I just took it to a whole other level.”

From the bees, Amy produces and sells honey, lip balm and more.

“The wax we render, and she makes candles, beeswax, all kinds of stuff,” Lucky said.

Drawing on his background in wildlife removal, Lucky cuts bees and their accompanying hives out of people’s homes in instances where they found their way in through a small crack or crevice.

This action not only saves people and their homes from the issues and dangers brought on by the bees, but it also saves the bees.

The Streichs have created a Facebook page called “Bee Haven Apiary.”

“We don’t sell anything on our site,” Lucky said. “It’s just mainly information and things that we share. That’s all.”

He noted that he and his wife mentor a lot of people in connection to bees, including teaching them how to manage their own hives from start to finish.

The Streichs have previously been involved with Southside Beekeepers Association in Emporia, where Lucky was the president for more than five years.

“I teach people bees all the time,” he said.

He made a point to state that he has learned about bees from hands-on experience, but he also noted that he has benefited from mentors of his own and that he learned much of what he knows from his wife.

“There’s always something out there to learn about a bee, always something to learn,” he said. “There’s always a new problem, and they always teach you something new. I just can’t tell you enough about them. I could talk bees for hours — days, actually.”

He has spoken at state meetings, at different club meetings as a guest speaker, and he was the regional state representative for a time with Virginia State Beekeepers.

“I think every third bite of food you put in your mouth is because of a honey bee,” he said. “With no bees, no people. That’s one thing about it; we need our bees. You need them for the pollination and that type of thing. Honey is the only food that doesn’t spoil.”

“A honey bee only lives 20 to 24 days on the average, that’s their lifespan,” he said.

“From the time that honey bee is born, they start cleaning cells out. They’ve got a job. Right to the day they die, they’re doing something. Their last job is foraging.”

Bees can face significant hazards at times, though, so there is no guarantee they will see the final days of their average lifespan.

“They’ll travel up to two miles to feed,” Lucky said. “You’ve got to figure they’re dealing with cars, birds, dragonflies.

They’ve got to make it through the gauntlet on top of it to get to that old age.”

The bees may unwittingly draw some hazards to the beekeeper’s property, as well.

“We got whacked by a bear a few years ago, took seven of our hives,” Lucky said.

He noted that sometimes bees’ instincts are misapplied, too. He recalled how the queen may lay eggs in February when there are quite a few cold days still to come in Virginia before spring.

25

Because she laid those eggs, other bees will faithfully sit on them to keep the brood warm, but when multiple consecutive cold days come, the sitting bees freeze to death.

Lucky said it frustrates him so much because a good-laying queen lays anywhere from 1,500-2,000 eggs on a good day later in the year, so all the worker bees need to do is simply sacrifice the brood when it’s too cold and live to protect a new brood when it’s warmer.

“The way bees protect themselves in the winter is when there is no brood, they get in a ball, and the ones in close move outside constantly, and they keep that hive at a certain temperature, and that’s how they survive the winters when it’s super cold,” Lucky said.

When tending to the bees, Lucky said he may get stung four or five times in a day, but it depends on the day and the circumstances, as bees will only attack in certain situations.

“When we first got bees, I’d go in there with no shirt and flip flops,” Lucky said.

“But the more bees we get, you could have a hive that’s queenless. They’re a little more angry.”

He said that they may come over and zap him, and then with that pheromone in him, he is going to get zapped some more.

Lucky and Amy have bee suits that they wear at times.

Nevertheless, Lucky is able to go without gloves a lot, and when he does wear some, they are usually latex gloves, at the most.

“I don’t wear leather anymore,” he said.

“I haven’t worn leather in years, unless I’m doing a cutout, cutting them out of a house or something. Then I’m going to wear leather till I get them under control.”

He said that bees know they are going to die if they sting you.

“They sting you once, they’re dead,” he said. “They know that, but they will defend...”

He said that bees do not like cloudy, rainy days.

See STREICH, page 26

26 western tidewater living STREICH, from page 25

On days like that, “You’ll hear them pinging off your hood, that kind of stuff.

They are not going to want to be messed with, so you always kind of pick a nice day to work your bees.”

Lucky noted that it takes 16 days for a new queen to hatch out, 21 days for a worker bee and 24 for a drone.

The drone, which is the male bee, does nothing but breed, Lucky said.

“Once he breeds one time, he’s dead,” he added. “He doesn’t forage, he doesn’t do anything in the hive. He has no jobs except take up room and eat. That’s all he does.”

All the bees in the hive that are working are girls.

“Come September, all these girls are not going to let these drones winter,” Lucky said. “They’re going to push them all out of the hive, and they’re going to die.

They’re not going to stay in there, because they ain’t going to do anything.”

He said the queen will lay more drones the following spring to breed the new queens.

“So there’s a pretty big revolution going on in there when they say, ‘Hey, guys, y’all have been cool, but it’s time for you to go,’” he said. “And that’s it; they’re gone.”

Lucky marks all his queen bees with a dot.

He noted that some queens have been documented as living for more than 7 years.

However, she has to live up to her very important role.

“Without her, there is no beehive,” Lucky said.

If she fails and does not produce the eggs needed, the bees will make a new queen themselves through a process called a supersedure.

“Most hives are going to requeen themselves one or two ways,” Lucky said.

When not done through a supersedure, the other process takes place when a hive gets too big.

On a day in early June 2022, Lucky was coming home when he saw a swarm of

SUBMITTED | LUCKY STREICH Lucky Streich holds one of his favorite duck mounts while sitting at the desk where he crafts his mounts.

around 10,000 bees buzzing around one of his trees.

He correctly guessed which hive they had come from and indicated that the hive had gotten too large, so the old queen left a new queen in charge, taking half the bees in the hive with her to go create a new hive.

Lucky saw them buzzing around some of the higher branches of a nearby tree and predicted they would form a ball around one of those branches.

Sure enough, the queen landed there, and about 10-15 minutes later no bees were seen flying around because they had

congregated tightly around her.

Lucky took his truck, put a ladder on the bed of it and climbed up to the high branch.

He cut it off and put the swarm in a catch box to facilitate the start of a new hive.

Lucky was doing his part as a beekeeper, and the bees were illustrating through the swarming process how good they are at problem solving, restoring order to their world.

Whether it is through mounts that restore ducks to key aspects of their former glory or through the facilitation and observance of a hive’s resilience, Lucky’s work with birds and both the Streichs’ work with bees is a tribute to life.

western tidewater living

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looking back This June 18, 2022, photo provides a view of the Blackwater River — near where Old South Quay was located — just off Highway 189.

SOUTH QUAY — ON THE BLACKWATER RIVER STORY BY CLYDE PARKER PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY CLYDE PARKER

A

ctually, there are (or were) two South Quays in southeastern Virginia. Both, during their respective existences, were riverports on the Blackwater River.

In the present-day, the South Quay that comes to mind or is mostly known about, is the one that was located on the EASTERN bank of the Blackwater River in the former Nansemond County (now the City of Suffolk) and near where the Route 189 drawbridge (now, being disassembled) is located. Most old maps identify that location as New South Quay. For the most part, though,

the area is known as or is referred to as just “South Quay”. It is no longer a riverport. That area, today, is a subsiding roadside community, with just a few houses - here and there.

(New) South Quay, though, has historical significance. It is where, during the American Civil War, in 1863, Confederate General James Longstreet and his men, going east to begin the siege of Suffolk, crossed the Blackwater River on pontoon bridges. At the end of that campaign, they retraced their steps, and came back by way of New South Quay, on the way to join General Robert E.

Lee’s army for the invasion of Pennsylvania. On those two passages of confederate troops hangs all the significant history of the present-day (New) South Quay.

The other South Quay - the original one - referred to, historically, as “Old South Quay,” was on the WESTERN bank of the Blackwater River, but in Southampton County, Virginia, just about a couple of miles downriver from the present-day (New) South Quay.

(Old) South Quay, although significant in history, no longer exists in present-day geography. It was the South See SOUTH QUAYS, page 30

30 western tidewater living SOUTH QUAYS, from page 29

Quay of Virginia’s colonial days: Early references to it go back to 1657; by 1701, it was the site of a river landing; and, as early as 1712, it was a rendezvous for the Virginia Militia. In 1712, it was the site designated for a conference between Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood and North Carolina Governor Thomas Pollock - to make plans for war against the native people, but Pollock did not attend.

During the mid-1700s, John Cotton was engaged in trade at that site. By 1757, Thomas Fisher’s enterprises made (Old) South Quay the leading riverport of the Tidewater Virginia interior. He was engaged in trade with two warehouses, a general store, and other facilities – all at the river wharf. The Virginia Gazette, in 1776, made reference to South Quay; schooners from the West Indies were delivering goods there: loaf sugar, coffee, bottle corks, cotton, wool carding, sail canvas, rum, wine and cloth.

Visits by foreign ships to unload their cargoes and take on stores were frequent and did not go unnoticed. For example, in December 1778 the Spanish brig “El Sagrado Corazon de Jesus” sailed up to South Quay’s wharves. Its name, translated “The Sacred Heart of Jesus”, may well have affronted the strongly Baptist and Quaker neighborhood. The original South Quay Baptist Church, founded in 1775 in Southampton County, stood nearby. However, that ship’s cargo must have been most welcome. She unloaded twenty-two cannon made of Swedish iron, purchased in France, having already delivered an equal number at Edenton.

The guns, however, were never of much use; most of those arriving in Virginia stayed at South Quay until the end of the war. The captain of the ship stayed on as a temporary, perhaps a permanent, resident of Edenton.

(Old) South Quay developed into a major trading center and had become a port of entry with a customhouse. Warehouses and wharves were in existence

This is a highway marker on Route 189 near the site of the former Old South Quay.

there well before the revolution. A shipyard was put in place. At the shipyard, during the late 1770s, at least two vessels were built for Virginia forces - while Patrick Henry was governor. The ships drew eight or nine feet of water, and each carried about eighteen small cannon. After being launched and manned at South Quay, those row galleys were used to defend North Carolina and Virginia waters from depredations by the British naval and land forces. One vessel, the “Caswell”, was named for Richard Caswell, then governor of North Carolina, in what would seem to be open flattery designed to induce his support for the building and equipping of both ships. The other was the “Washington”, commissioned shortly after “Caswell”, named for President George Washington.

The careers of both galleys were brief; in 1779, Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson complained that the two ships had proven to be ineffective for the applied purposes.

As the Revolutionary War was going on, (Old) South Quay was one of the few posts left open for the patriots’ use. It and other points when approached by ships through the inlets of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, though dangerously located, were not completely blockaded by the British Navy as were the major ports of Wilmington and Norfolk and

the harbors to the north of them. Governor Jefferson was intent on keeping open his backdoor waterway through North Carolina to Virginia. He well-knew how remote and unsuitable South Quay, with its long and slow approach from the sea, was for those shipments that did arrive, and how laborious transport was by wagon-train over the twenty-five miles of road to Suffolk which had been called the chief depot for military supplies in Virginia during the late months of the war. Admittedly, South Quay was inconvenient for trade, he said, but it had the advantage of being hard for the enemy to get at.

When the British closed Chesapeake Bay, in 1781, the Blackwater River port of (Old) South Quay, accessible - by way of the Chowan River - from Albemarle Sound, became an important supply center for the Southern American Armies; so much so that the British finally sought it out and destroyed it, by fire. Nothing of any significance ever rose from its ashes - at that site.

(Old) South Quay is now merely an indefinable spot of land on the Blackwater River, where many things happened, whose traces have long since disappeared. It is now a small-boat-landing area. No buildings are near the ancient landing place and no signs of man’s activities are in evidence except Highway 189, which skirts close to the riverbank, and the well-tilled fields that adjoin it.

No noises are heard except the hum of passing automobiles and the clatter of distant farm machinery. It is a peaceful spot, with no vestige of the transactions and events it once witnessed. A historical marker, by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, is located between the highway and the river.

SOURCES: “Old South Quay in Southampton County” by John Crump Parker Southampton County Historical Society The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

western tidewater living

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