The year 2005 was momentous for me. I had been looking for work in an ever widening circle from Athens. I had interviewed in Monroe, Loudon, Bradley, McMinn, and sent applications to every school district that I could drive to in 45 minutes.

Finally in August, I sent applications to Knox and Hamilton counties, even as I cringed at the commute time it would be to any school in those counties. Two weeks after I had sent those applications, I received a phone call from the principal of an elementary school at the northern tip of Hamilton County.

When I was a kid, the fall of the year was butchering time. Dad usually had a castrated boar that he had fattened up for the kill. I never understood why a farmer would fatten up a pig. You can only use so much lard. Anyway, I have a question for you. Have you ever made scrapple? I remember when the pig's head would be cooked and all the meat carefully cut or pulled away from the bone. Sounds gross, doesn't it? Head cheese is good but it is a bit different from my recipe for scrapple. Do you have some pork sausage languishing in your freezer? Here's a use for it.

I haven't seen this way to fix carrots at any potluck around here. Usually, carrots are not a potluck item, and that is too bad. This dish is delicious. Try it yourself at home and then take it to the next potluck. Be ready to answer the question of how to fix it.

ORANGE GLAZED CARROTS WITH BACON
2 pounds fresh carrots
1/4 cup orange juice
4 slices bacon
3 tablespoons orange jello (1/2 of 3 ounce pkg)
1 teaspoon orange zest

We have four outdoor cats. We feed them dry cat food on our side porch. Cats aren't like dogs. Dogs will eat every drop of food in the bowl. Cats only eat enough to satisfy their hunger at that time. There are always a few kernels of cat food left in the evening. Guess who comes to dinner then? Raccoons. We have two mama raccoons with a total of seven youngsters on the prowl around here come sunset. There never is anything left by morning. I couldn't stand to kill one of them. They are like family to us.

Union County’s Under the Tree program helps to make Christmas special to children across Union County that are in need. More than 500 children that live right here in Union County benefit from this program each year. Under the Tree is well known and is formerly recognized as Toys for Tots.

Maynardville welcomes a new business, 5 Sister Variety, to the community. Adrian Hamilton, along with daughter Stephanie, recently opened the storefront in the Food City Plaza. Upon entering the store, you can be sure a smile and a willingness to help awaits.

“I don’t think I can go through with this!”

Panic is how I would describe the expression that crossed my dad’s face after I made my little announcement. I can understand why. At this point, we were standing in the church foyer waiting for my bridesmaids to walk down the aisle.

That would be a horrible situation to be in. Think about it. You’re waiting to walk your daughter down the aisle and she says she can’t go through with the wedding.

I attended a writer’s meeting last week and one of the members had researched the months of the year and the different affiliations with those months. Thanks Jared Jackson.

Jared passed the info along to all of the members and I thought it might be fun to share with our HUC readers. We have already passed through many of them, but there is still a lot of October left.

A 2016 study on back pain caused by backpacks revealed two notable findings: Teen girls appear to experience more severe backpack-related pain compared to boys, and the time carrying the backpack—not the weight—is likely causing that pain.

The study covered 5,318 students aged 6 to 19 years. The researchers broke the student sample into three age groups: children, younger adolescents, and older adolescents.

I recently came across the question, “When is the last time you did something nice for a stranger?” There are indeed instances when we encounter strangers who have legitimate needs, but the bad experiences that we have with strangers who do not seem to be “on the level” make us cautious when dealing with all people unknown to us.

Most of us were probably taught as children to not talk to strangers. This was sound advice from our parents to prevent us from being harmed or kidnapped, and I believe in my case it once possibly saved my life.