Our Creek Bottom

This creek bottom was before you got to Sam Corum's creek bottom. It was still a haul to get to, it was across the Eddy Farm. The Eddy Farm was the name given to the spot of land that we grew cane on for the cows. Over the gate and down a rough road was the way to get to the creek bottom. It was a great adventure to just getting down to it. The first thing that we always had to do on the way to check our cows was stop and swing over a ditch on musquidine vines. The vines were very think, but still broke sometime as we swang across the ditch beside the field road.

Not to far along the journey was a water fall coming out of the bluff. The way to the fall was to the left at a clearing just off the bumpy/rocky road. The road has so many rocks and bumps getting a tractor down it was an all day job. Many times we had the tractor stuck or hung up on rocks. We had to take the tractor when we moved the cows to the pasture in the bottom. There was no way to drive them through the thick woods without loosing them. Therefore we tied them to the plow on the tractor and made them follow. This was even worse a job, because we could only take two or three at a time behind the tractor.

It was not a huge water fall; still it was the only one on the way to the bottom. The fall was surrounded by a plant that we called stinging kneadle. This was what my grandmother had called it, so that is what I called it. It had no bloom, and was a lighter green than the other plants growing below the falls. I had sort of learned to move around it to get to the water fall. There were still many times that it was too think to not get in it. The sting the plant made on the legs was alot like the way picking okra makes your hands sting. The risk of a little sting was worth the cold spring water at the water fall. The spring was to the left of the falls and was seeping out of the bluff. There were also the coolest ferns growing out of the bluff. I have dug up so many and taken the home to get to grow, none of them ever lasted very long. There was something so soothing about the coolness that was surrounding this wonderful spot. The shade was thick and the water was so cold from both the spring and the water fall that it seemed an oasis from the hot summer day that it actually was.