Fort Donelson

I spent an early morning at Fort Donelson National Historic Battlefield near my dad's place capturing these images.  Fort Donelson is on the Cumberland River (Lake Barkley) adjecant to the town of Dover, TN.  This is a small, but well restored Civil War battlefield. General U.S. Grant's first major victory was here and where he earned the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.   You can read more about the Battle for Fort Donelson here:

Fort Donelson

Sunrise on the Upper Battery

The Sentinel

Waiting for Grant

The Last Cruise

By lucky chance, I happened to catch the Delta Queen docked in Dover.  This is her scheduled last cruise.  Why?  Bureaucrats and politicians, of course.  Read about it here:

Save the Delta Queen

Tennessee Green

I left the hot and dry dog days of central Texas behind and spent about 10 days in Tennessee recently celebrating my Dad's 77th birthday and enjoying the greenery.  

Just a shot of one of my Dad's apple trees.  This image really doesn't do justice to how many apples are overloading the tree limbs.  The deer are eating well in the orchard.

Flower gardens inspired and planned by my sister Michelle.  These are all HDR images, and I never could catch a perfectly calm condition to keep the wind from fuzzing these up a little.

My dad's old tractor.  This is a Ferguson 35 (horsepower) circa 1947.  He still uses it and it does some tasks better than his much newer Kubota tractor

Birthday fireworks.  This was a fun experiment shooting in manual mode and timing the shutter release.