Country Connections By James and Ellen Perry
It’s an early morning in June 2023 and Norris Lake is quiet. No jet skis and fast boats with raucous passengers. No houseboats and pontoon boats bouncing over waves created by jet skis or fast boats this early June morning. All the barbeque grill fires are out with most
grills put up ’til the 4th of July.

By Rick and Lori Southard
We are Ricky and Lori Southard and we left everyone we loved and everything we knew in California and moved to Knoxville. We, along with our two dogs, moved here in November. It was cold and the once colorful fall trees were now bare.
Everything was wet. And cold.
But it was absolutely beautiful! Our house is older and needed a little work done to it. Most of our belongings were way behind us. But we knew we were home. We made it to our little part of “God’s Country”. We were scared to death yet more excited than at any point of our lives.

I was a silent stalker during elementary and high school.
Sounds ominous, right? Just exactly who did I stalk?
For whatever reason, from my first day of my two weeks as a Headstart student to the end of my public-school student experience, I was fascinated with schools and teachers. Same with church and preachers. Same with funerals and undertakers. Anything that had an air of formality and order attracted my attention.

Last week Anne came into the house in a hurry with something on her mind. She had been down at the road getting the mail. “Guess what?” she said, “You have been called for jury duty.”
“ME?” I screamed. “But I'm ninety-five years old… Yes, I would love to serve on a jury. Say! You know I COULD do it. There is an elevator at the back of the courthouse. I could take it to the second floor, wheel myself down the corridor to the court room at the front of the building and sit comfortably in my wheelchair at the jury box. I would be fulfilling my civic duty.”

This is another easy pork steak recipe. I am a great fan of casseroles. Stir it up and pop it in the oven for an hour or so. I can be busy doing something else while it bakes. Brown pork steak on both sides in hot shortening in large skillet. Drain steaks, reserving drippings in skillet. Sprinkle steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. Set aside. Add raw rice to hot pan drippings.

“It’s my lucky day!”
Do you say that when you find a four-leaf clover? Or how about if you find some money in a parking lot?
Personally, I don’t believe in luck. Instead, I believe in the Lord and how He works. Let me tell you, He led me to find a treasured jewel of a friend: Jeannie Cox.
It started in August 2016. That’s when our beloved dog Little John died. Tim loves dogs, so he had to have another one. He soon found one he wanted at the Union County Humane Society.

Perhaps you have heard Balm of Gilead mentioned in a church sermon, read it in the Bible or perhaps through listening to the old spiritual hymn, “There is a Balm in Gilead.”
As a student of medicinal plants, I learned of a tree being used in Appalachian folk medicine. So let me see if I can link together all these references.

The spine is made up of distinct areas: the cervical spine, which is essentially the neck; the thoracic spine, in the mid-back; the lumbar spine, the lower back; and the sacral spine, in the pelvis. The lumbar vertebrae—the individual bones that make up the lumbar section of the spinal column—are described as L1 through L5. If one or more of those vertebrae are out of line—what chiropractors call a ‘subluxation’—here are some problems that may ensue:

What’s your favorite thing about visiting another town? Mine is eating at local restaurants that we don’t have back home. It’s usually a great experience. Usually.
Recently I was in a small town when lunch time rolled around. I was excited because I was going to eat at a local Barbeque restaurant. A couple of different people had recommended it to me, so I was giddy with excitement when I pulled into the parking lot. I did notice there wasn’t a lot of cars there. As I walked into the dinning area, I was going over in my head I was going to order. Soon, I realized I was the only ...

I related in my last article about my aunt Fleetie and her daily review of obituaries. This has rubbed off on me, and I know I’m not alone. I have at least one friend who is younger than me who also does a daily obituary check.
Occasionally both my friend and I notice an obituary that “stands out”. It might be due to the picture of the deceased, or the length of the obituary (the longer, the more impressive, when the cost of printing an obituary is considered).