Thanks from the civilians, too!

[Silvana Siddali]

I wanted to thank Carrie Craddock for inviting us to live in the 1840s cabin for the weekend. That was a wonderful experience and a real privilege. Chuck and Laura Winchester, the park superintendents, have done an outstanding job restoring and outfitting the cabin. It's still a work in progress, but it was amazingly comfortable and well equipped with excellent reproductions and even some period antiques. It stayed pretty cool, too.

There are a lot of very dedicated and knowledgeable folks in the park, and I enjoyed the talks with all of them. That was a real education. I love it when I come away from an event with a fund of new knowledge about material culture & heirloom plants.

Carrie is a fantastic cook, Liz is impressively good company, and Anna as always a great pal. Thanks to everyone who made us feel so welcome!

I'd like to add that the ride to Georgia with the Taters was a total blast. The ride back to St Louis was just as much fun, but also much more ... fragrant. Thanks for visiting with us on Thursday night & cooking such a great meal ... I for one loved the chicken!

[Andy Ackeret]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Silvana,

I know of more than one military participant who was surprised that there civilians at the event. I hope you all had as good of a time as most of us seemed to have had.

[MercyAngel62]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

What a wonderful and eventful weekend! Big hearty thanks to the military event planners for inviting and including us for the event at the cabin. Ditto to what Silvana had said about how nice the cabin was. It was very spacious and comfortable for a weekend stay. While it was rather warm during the day, at night with the doors and windows open, it stayed cool enough to sleep. Hats off to Carrie Craddock who is a fantastic cook. The meals were light enough for hot weather, but also very healthy and filling!! I also will always have room for Silvana’s famous Washington Pie (cake)! Yummm!!

When the CS military had camped around the cabin, they were a nice and helpful bunch of guys!! I’m not even sure what time it was Friday night or early Saturday morning when Kiev knocked on the door making us aware of their presence and assuring us of our safety. Of course, Patrick was trying to convince Kiev to throw us out of our home; Kiev quickly reminded him that he will be marrying me next summer, so he had better be nice! ;) I must say, it was a pleasant change of pace having the military fix us coffee Saturday morning…*cough*

I also had a lot of fun visiting with Mr. Wendell Decker Saturday, who spent the afternoon taking our “weapon-GA cracker” image. It was neat to see the processes and transformation of making those types of images. It was evident that Mr. Decker is extremely passionate about what he does and has amazing talent. By the third try he had somewhat reached what he thought was close to perfection and had kept it for his collection. The image I have attached is the second try. What a rough looking bunch! I wouldn’t mess with us!! :p

Again, thanks to all who had made this weekend possible. I really did enjoyed myself and the good company with old and new friends!


Cheers!

[MercyAngel62]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Here are a few other pictures taken discretely, or before/after the event.

1- Jim Conley and Patrick Landrum before the event kicked off
2- Silvana and Carrie preparing greens for dinner
3- Anna Allen, Jim Conley, Pat Landrum, and myself
4- The only little scorpion we saw the entire weekend.
5- Home Sweet Home

[springkeeper]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Thanks to Pickett's Mill and the event planners for allowing us to attend such a great event.

Liz was the civilian coordinator... She did this AND hacked her way through Chemistry. I just hepled out. Liz, You Go Girl!! On to Chem2 :baring_te

Anna and Silvana, it was good to see you again. It is always a pleasure to be in your company.

A special thanks to Mrs. Winchester for bringing fresh herbs to hang in the cabin. Not only did they smell heavenly but also chased away the swarms of flies that plagued the cabin.

Cheers,
Carrie

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Uh oh... the ladies look pretty peeved in that image... :p

They must've known the Yankees were comin'...

Great image- Johnny Lloyd

[Anna Allen]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Had a fabulous time at the Mill! The cabin pretty much took my breath away. Of all the period structures I've stayed in, this one has to be one of the best. I was very impressed by all of the great period reproductions furnishing the cabin. Usually at these sites you'll see lots of 20th century "antiques" and plastic fruit in bowls decorating the tables. But I actually found real apples on the table (they looked rather old and gross, even though Silvana insisted on making them into something to eat...) and all of the furniture and tableware were period reproductions made specifically for this site that we were allowed to use. It was wonderfully refreshing to find that there are people who take the time to research and put an effort into bringing these beautiful structures to life once again. I honestly could say I'd be happy to go live in a building like this.

I'll try to highlight a few of my favorite moments, without going into a long drawn out description of the entire event. :) Silvana and I were able to hitch a ride with our KC buddies, the Tater Mess, and drove through the night getting at the site sometime in the afternoon on Thursday. Since we all were the first to arrive on site, we ended up going to the store to pick up some groceries so we could bring them back to the cabin and have ourselves a period meal. It was simply wonderful. After that long drive, it was just really great to sit back and enjoy a bit of a period moment with the fellows. Dave is a fabulous cook, though I wouldn't recommend putting left over chicken in your haversack and not eating it for two days. I hear tell it tasted like dead cat.

Saturday afternoon getting our image taken by Wendell Decker was also a fun moment. Wendell had us pose for him three times so he could get the image just right. What a great photographer. Of course we really ARE that mean. I sorta have this weird fascination with hatchets. Now all I need to do is learn how to shoot a gun. :D

Another bit of a highlight for me happened later on Saturday. I had written a letter to one of my buddies earlier that afternoon and was trying to think of a way to get it to him. Only problem was I couldn't remember exactly which regiment he was in or if he was in company A or B. Just about when I thought there wouldn't be a way, a guy from the 14th Louisiana happened to show up near the cabin. He came by to get a quick image taken and I asked him which regiment he was in and if he knew who my friend was. He was very obliging and I found out later that he had delivered the letter just before they were all going into battle. If he hadn't shown up, I'd never have been able to get it to my friend before the event was over. The thing with letters is that if you don't have it planned ahead of time, it's so difficult figuring out a way to get the letter to the recipient. But it's also more exciting and realistic when it's unplanned, because you never quite know what's going to happen.

So all in all, I really did have a great time out there. Now that I'm back in ole Iowa, I think I could definitely have stayed out there in the cabin for much longer. This event couldn't have come at a better time for me. It's exactly what I needed. The food was great, the company fantastic, (sleeping on the rope bed Thursday night was heavenly), only saw one scorpion; got a bunch of bug bites but hey, I needed to bring something back from Georgia. :P Always good to see my friends again and meet some new ones. Ya'll are way too much fun. Thanks to the Tater Mess for the drive and a huge thanks to Mike Kupsch for doing all of the driving! You guys are sweethearts. :)

[springkeeper]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

I have bites as well...and they are almost the size of a dime! And they ITCH! :(

Glad to hear ya'll made it home safe.

Cheers,
Carrie

[C.R. Henderson]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

I have bites as well...and they are almost the size of a dime! And they ITCH! :(

Those would be those good ole Georgia chiggers, Mrs. Carrie! I brought home 5 of 'em myself!

[unclefrank]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

So there are scorpions in North Georgia! I thought everyone was just putting me on. :tounge_sm

[M_Kupsch]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Silvana & Anna,

It was a hoot having ya'll ride down and back with us...and yep, lots of good period funk smelling up the old Expedition.

[hpotter]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Yes those were most certainly good ole' southern chiggers and yes north Georgia has scorpions. My buddy had one crawl up his pants about 10 mins after the snake bite.

[Anna Allen]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Silvana & Anna,

It was a hoot having ya'll ride down and back with us...and yep, lots of good period funk smelling up the old Expedition.

I wondered how your vehicle was doing after the drive back. hehe. I didn't notice the smell so much, but I think it's probably due to the fact that we were all pretty ripe. ;) I had fun, though. You boys are seriously a riot.

[M_Kupsch]

Re: Thanks from the civilians, too!

Oh well, I am taking the Expedition in to be detailed. Hopefully, they won't pass out when cleaning it.