Toilet Paper

The other day we were have some plumbing problems, again, due to excess paper. I believe that my kids thought that they needed to completely wrap their hand and arm prior to wiping. When I was told that there was a problem again I was a little frustrated. I called all of them together and in not so calm a manner told them that they needed to save the paper, the plumbing and my sanity. I took a lesson from my sister Shannon and told them that all they needed was 4 squares. I was feeling confident that my message would be ignored but I was hoping for at least a little awareness.

Well it was just a couple of hours later when Adam comes out of the bathroom looks right in my eyes and was so proud to announce "Dad, I listened to you and I only used 1 sheet" Paige and I looked at each other and started laughing. We asked him if he also washed his hands. He was so proud that he listened to me and was trying to do better. You never know what you kids are going to listen to.

The Mother of Invention

On our walk in the Smokey Mountains we came upon the cabin of Elyah Oliver. The best part was behind the cabin about 200 feet , right in the valley where a small creek came through. I am not sure what it would be called but it was built to gather and store water from the creek.


There are pipes made out of wood that carry the water to and from the building. You can get an idea of how old they are by the amount of moss growing on them.

Even the trough was hand carve from a large piece of wood.

The creek was nothing more that a little bit of wet mud. By putting these wood pipes up the hill right where the water had to flow over some rock there were able to gather and store water. The building is set up to keep animals from it and also to provide some protection.

Knoxville

A couple of weeks ago I had a business trip to Atlanta and took the opportunity to jump up and visit my sister in Knoxville, TN. They just moved into their new house a couple of weeks earlier and were still getting set up. We did have a chance to go for a hike up in the Smokey Mountains one day. The hike was great. The car ride was another story all together...thanks Kate. Here are some pics from the walk and also a cool cabin that we saw, more on that later.