Smokey Mountain Breakdown

It’s been a busy, busy day! I sure hope all of you had a great 4th.

I attended a large local gathering. The food, as usual, was spectacular!

I thought Scott was working today, which is why I didn’t drag him along with me. Then a woman who was there says she ran into him at the Food City and he’d been hit upside the head with a shovel.

When I came back to the house, there was a long sort of tearful message from Scott asking me to come over, so I bedded down the goats and headed over to the pink house in the holler.

Basically, a tragedy happened during his camping trip up in the Gulf this past weekend. The attempted murder sort of tragedy with Scott as the intended victim. One of the campers, drunk on moonshine and about 20 klonopins, took a shovel and struck three blows to Scottie’s skull. The final blow broke the shovel. The metal part, not the handle. The daughter-in-law of the camper attempted to pull the crazed camper off of Scott and was struck in the forehead. She had to be airlifted to UT where she lays in an induced coma. Scott had a concussion. He did nothing to incite this and was sleeping at the time.

So, Scott is going to move back home to South Carolina. I’ll be sorry to see him leave, my great big buddy, but I agree with his father that he needs to get out of here. It’s just not safe for him anymore.

In other news, the neighbor has been busy committing social suicide by badmouthing me all over the mountain. I’ve heard of three places he’s been kicked out of for running his mouth. My muleskinner friend stood up for me saying, “That’s a real good woman. A real good woman. She don’t hurt nobody!”

I’m going to give that big lummox a huge hug next time I see him. Great big old sweetie.