While I was teaching for the Blue Ridge Quilters Guild in Johnson City, TN, Joe was driving around the Johnson City area. He visited the colonial, territorial home of William Cobb near Piney Flats which was completed in 1771. Cobb named it Mount Rock and in 1790, Cobb’s home and property became the first capitol of the Southwest Territory.
Rather than drive the main highway, Joe decided to head down a country road through the village of Piney Flats. He passed its General Store…
and saw this sign –
After he saw this sign, Joe just had to stop and visit. Joe said he was only going there to insure the owners were not falsely advertising their product.
At the door to the distillery stood a large man who introduced himself as Tiny Robertson.
East Tennessee Distilleries was started by Neil (call me Tiny) Robertson in 2011. To learn more about Tiny, his family and great products visit his location or his website http://www.mellomoon.com/
After serving in the United States Navy, Tiny worked as a chemist in a corporate lab. He followed the call and has become a master moonshine distiller. His process and facility are wonderful. Mellomoon starts with pure, limestone Tennessee water
Corn and cane sugar are added to produce a beer which is fermented for specific periods of time
When perfectly fermented, the beer is sent to one of two stills: Beulah and Suzie (Suzie is the larger of the two)
Once distilled to the desired percentage of alcohol, the moonshine is sent to Tiny’s better half, Doris, for bottling and labeling.
According to Tiny, the end product is “the planet’s finest Moonshine!”
Of course, Joe visited the tasting room and had to sample all twelve of their flavors, the 100 and 151 proof shine. I think he had to call a cab for his ride back to the hotel.
My Joe knows his Bar-B-Q, his Beer and his Moonshine and he agrees that Mellomoon is, in fact, the “Planet’s Best and Finest Shine!”
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STUDENT’S WORK
Brenda Barnhardt from the Clustered Spire Quilt Guild in Frederick, Maryland sent me this photo of her finished “Circles Squared” class project. I love all the embellishments she added. She took a first place ribbon at the Frederick Fair. Here is the story Brenda shared with me:
“I really had fun with it and took it much further than my initial expectations. There was a woman at my mother’s nursing home, Verna, who used to be her roommate. Verna had to go into Hospice in recent months. She was a vibrant, intelligent and interesting woman. She and I shared a love of sewing and fabrics. As her health declined, her mind never did and I was inspired to take my quilt to a higher level as I thought about her. I named it “Verna’s Garden – Ladybug Love” as it evolved and took it to show her at various stages. I had hoped to finish it for her though her eyesight was failing, but she passed away a couple of weeks ago before I finished it three days later.”
Brenda, thank you so much for sharing your quilt and your story. And congratulations on your 1st place win. I was having a bit of a bad day, nothing serious just some minor things that were getting me down, and your email just lifted me right out of my funk. Thanks.
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BOOK REVIEW
I cannot stop myself from reading more of Heather Gudenkauf’s books. This one had me sucked in from the first page. Amelia Winn is a nurse. When helping a rape victim in the parking lot of the hospital, both she and the patient are hit by a car that does not stop to help. The patient is killed and Amelia suffers numerous injuries….. the worst…..she is now deaf. She spirals downward and her husband, who has tried to help her, kicks her out of the house because of her drinking. Amelia is getting her life back on track with the help of her trained hearing dog, Stitch. As Stitch and Amelia are paddle boarding on the river they come across a dead body. Good read. I could not put it down.