Another beautiful morning here in the Smokey mountains. It is 74 degrees, sunshine, peaceful view over the railing and across the mountain. There is the sound of family talking and sharing the love just inside the door and we try to get months worth of visiting all done in a week.

Steph and Chris left yesterday and made it home about 0100 this morning. So, we are relieved one bunch of our chickens is safely back in their own hen house. Karen and two nieces are coming today. Karen has to drive to Cincinnati first to pick up niece Miranda and then they are coming down. They will arrive very late tonight. They plan to stay until Saturday. Heather and John and Jon will leave Saturday too. The rest of us will be here until Sunday morning and then all go our separate ways. These family reunions are so wonderful. They give us a chance to strengthen family ties, for cousins to get to meet each other and for us to integrate ourselves back into each other's lives. I have said it before and I'll say it many more times, We are so fortunate that everyone in this family likes and loves one another. We are so fortunate that this family wants to be together and wants to share. The only "rule" Ms. Kate has laid down is "No Politics" because we have strong feelings on every side of the spectrum. There is no use for us as family members to argue and fuss about issues that while we may have strong feelings about --- nothing we say is going to change the actions of the boneheads we have that are supposed to be leading this country.

The one thing that continually frustrates me as we come to the Smokey Mountains and all of the other  traveling that we do is we never see bears. Now, I know there are bears in this area. All of the trash cans are put in bear proof cages. Other people report seeing bears. There are people who see them in their yards and people who have actually been attacked by bears. But, as much as we travel, I never see any bears