Bones of the Cedar Bucket, part 3

This sculpture was created from the charred remains of the world's largest cedar bucket. Sculpted by Murfreesboro-Rutherford Art League member Carl Morris Brandon. Carl brought to bear much of the remains including charred nails.

Red Cedar (or Juniper) is one of nature's many gifts to Middle Tennessee. in "Bones of the Cedar Bucket" the natural grace of the tree limb, the beauty of the red heartwood and the skill of the artist are all represented. The last vestiges of the world's largest cedar bucket are used to represent the bones of the human hand, symbol of the artist's creativity, making beauty out of destruction. One mad cut the cedar, another made the bucket, someone set a fire, the artist creates a memorial.

At the time, July 2008, this sculpture to the memory of the bucket sat just inside the entrance to the museum in Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro. It is still unknown to me the fate of the rest of the remains of the charred bucket. It is still unknown whether or not a new bucket will ever be built. You can never truly replace history, but you should never forget it.

The night the bucket burned; part 2

In the early morning hours of Father's Day, June 19, 2005, an arsonist went to the historic village of Cannonsburgh in Murfreesboro and set fire to the World's Largest Cedar Bucket. By the time the fire department arrived, most of the bucket was a total loss. The upper half of the bucket was scorched, the roof of its shelter had burned through, and the walls of the next door blacksmith were blackened.

Two days later, I hurried down to see it with my own eyes and was horrified at the scene. The marvelous bucket, which my daughter and I had just visited and photographed a few weeks earlier(for the umpteenth time), was in ruins. Surrounded by crime scene tape, the smell of burnt wood was overwhelming.

As you can see, the bucket wasn't burned completely to ashes, but the damage was done. The guilty party-to my knowledge-has never been found. Local blacksmiths have vowed to rebuild the bucket, but it won't be the same. A local artist has taken some of the charred remains and created a sculpture that now stands in the museum at the village.

Big Red Bucket, a 3 part story

The World's Largest Red Cedar Bucket. This bucket was originally built as a promotional item in 1887 by Tennessee Red Cedar Woodenworks Company in Murfreesboro. A height of 6 feet, weight of 800 pounds, and capacity of 1,556 gallons. It spent time at its factory in Murfreesboro, with trips to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 and St Louis in 1904. It was sold to a grocer where it sat from 1950 to around 1965. It was sold to an amusement park in Georgia. It was eventually brought back to Murfreesboro in 1976 where it was placed on display at Cannonsburgh Historic Village.

Cannonsburgh was created as Murfreesboro's 1976 Bicentennial project. The buildings around the village, for the most part, were brought from around the county and some date back as far as the 1830s. The bucket sat next to the blacksmith shop, and across the path from the grist mill.

June 19, 2005, arsonists visited Cannonsburgh late at night and set fire to the Bucket. What was left was mostly charred remains.

Snow expected!

They are predicting 2-4 inches of snow for the Middle Tennessee area! I have been waiting a few years now for a really good snow in order to get out and take some cemetery photos in the snow, particularly Stones River National Cemetery. If I can get out and get any photos, I will certainly post them here.


**update: they have downgraded us to only maybe 1-2 inches. That stinks. I WANT SNOW!

**update 2: 11:03am on Thursday, still no snow!

The New Year

Time to think about the things I want to get done in 2010. I think last year pretty much sucked. I have my fingers crossed that this year will be better.

• Work on my personal website more.

I did get some things done on it last year, fixing up a new look and sectioning it out more. Now I just need to add more of the hundreds of thousands of photos I have to it. I really want to work on the cemetery and historic places sections. Those seem to be what I have the most.

• Add more and better photos to my Flickr page.

I don't have a 'premium' membership, so I'm only allowed around 200 photos. I just want to make sure that I upload the best and most interesting photos I have and hope that it leads people who look there to my personal website to see more. I don't get many views right now though, not really sure what I need to do to get more out there. Maybe I should comment on other photos I like more, and that will lead others back to my page. Not certain.

• Get back to posting more often on my Photo of the Day blog and Cemetery of the Day blog.

Maybe I'll just get over my fear of rejection and link my 'photo of the day' to some of the contests that they have. And maybe link the other to some cemetery blogs I've come across. Either way, they need help and they need me posting more often and not playing games so much.

• The big one, of course, is to get more organized.
  

I have stacks of photos all over, they need to be scanned and re-filed. I have boxes of tourism pamphlets that I've considered scanning and organizing somehow. A box of maps that need filing. Books need to be straightened out. Copies from reference books at the library need to be placed in notebooks. I even need to go through the cups of pens on my desk and throw out the ones that don't work anymore!

• And finally, get out more!

If only I can convince the hubby. January and February really are the best times to get out and see things, when all the foliage has died back and there are no bugs or snakes! So much to see, so little time. So much to do, time to get started!

Battle of Franklin 145 years reenactment

On Saturday, November 28th, we attended the Blue and Gray Days and Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee. As a part of this day, they had a small reenactment. I wasn't certain if this was supposed to be a show of what happened in this area at the time of the Battle(somehow that didn't seem right), or just a small show for the people who came to pay their respects. Unfortunately, we happened to be standing next a group of teenagers who had very little respect. Shame to think of how many of those who died that day were the same age as these punks. And yet one hundred and forty years ago, the boys of this age fought bravely and had respect.

I hate to compare this small reenactment to the one five years ago that took place at a plantation home in Spring Hill. It was massive and quite impressive. Today there were only about 20-30 soldiers on each side, and two cannons each. Their dedication to recreating and keeping alive the memory of those who fought and those who died so many years ago does not go unnoticed by me. It is the closest those of us now can get to feeling as if we were there. And for someone like me, who reads and researches so much about this period of time, it is truly thought provoking.

I'm not much of a photographer I think, but I imagine myself as a Matthew Brady or Alexander Gardner when I watch reenactments, or visit the reenactors in their camps. I've posted just a few of my photos from Saturday here. A few of them I've done a little playing in Photoshop to see about getting a more historical look and feel to the photos.

And a big Thank You to these reenactors, for all you do.

Battle of Franklin 145 years later

It is the 145th Anniversary of the Battle of Franklin. This past Saturday we attended the Blue and Gray Days at Carnton Plantation in Franklin. They had a small reenactment and a luminary lighting.

This post will be about the luminaries. There were 10,000 of them, for all the casualties of this horrific battle in 1864. We arrived at Carnton at about 1:30pm. Sunset came around 5pm. As the sky grew darker, the sight of so many lights was stunning. I stood across the Confederate Cemetery from them, and I couldn't help think about the lights that were taken away so many years ago, and lay under the ground here before me.

I hope these photos can give some sense of the amazing sight of so many candles.

Just when you think

you are out of the woods. And JUST when we had finished paying off the broken wrist that my daughter managed back in April-she breaks it again. Yes, on a lovely early November trip to the Smokies, on a beautiful day that I will get to spend with my mother and my husband. Daughter is going with my sister and nephew to a Boy Scouts cavern trip, and before they even leave the parking lot, she falls while racing around and breaks it again. There goes the weekend. And the Christmas money.


We have had a bit of time to visit some local places lately, and some local events, and I will be posting about those in the next few days.

Things have been crazy

I was pretty upset for awhile after July 4, as can be seen in the post below.

The rest of the summer was a mixed bag.

Our air conditioner went out, it was rough for a few days. And then my daughter and I were told to go spend a few weeks with my mom in Sevierville. I felt bad for my husband having to stay at home in the heat-but at least he wasn't home all day in it like we would have been.

So we spent a couple of weeks near the Smokies. I got out to visit quite a few places that I had been wanting to see for a long time. John Sevier's home, Sam Houston's schoolhouse, several cemeteries and other historical places. And I got to spend time with family.

I'd like to say I will post photos, but I won't lie-I've been playing a LOT of World of Warcraft lately and I just can't seem to bring myself to work on my website-as much as part of me REALLY wants to get it done. C'est le vie. :(

And now school has started, and the kiddo has already brought home a cold that she shook off in one weekend-but has stuck with me for just over a week now.

And the car has so many things wrong with it that I fear driving it around during the day-and the AC on the truck doesn't work. So I sit at home...and play.

Well, at least we were lucky enough to get out for a Titans game(hubby's boss gave him the tickets), and I got to take loads of photos at that.

Sigh.

Memorial at LP Field

Fitting that today is July 9th. We went to the memorial for Steve McNair at the Titans playing field, LP Field, today. We went early to avoid the crowds. And I couldn't bring myself to go to the actual funeral home and viewing. I wanted to remember Steve where he made us happy.

There was a photo board, notebooks to sign, and a video playing on the jumbotron. I don't recall much of what I wrote on the notebook, I could barely see what I was writing, I just couldn't stop crying.

I took a few photos. Just a few. It was a beautiful Columbia Blue sky. I remember as a kid, back in Houston we always said that God was an Oilers fan, that was why the sky was Columbia Blue. I thought about that today.
This poster was just outside the gates. Someone had placed some candles near the base of the pillar.
The photos of Steve.
Flower arrangements and mementos.
Video of Steve's life on the jumbotron.
Steve's name on the "Ring of Honor".

Thanks for the memories Steve.