1. Dyion. He's a lot of fun to be married to. He likes people and wants to be doing something fun all the time. In this picture he's grilling some hamburgers for some friends who came to ride horses with us.
2. Bluegrass Music. I've always loved Bluegrass, but I get to hear it a lot more here. This group is called "The Front Porch" and we've heard them 4 or 5 times. There are some really good groups around here. Most of them have been playing all their lives and learned from their parents, and they are just very good.
This was some man at the last bluegrass event we went to doing a little "flat foot." Flat foot is a cross between old Irish dancing and clogging. You don't have to move your feet much to do flat footing if you don't want to, or you can really get into it and dance like crazy. I love to watch people do this. Usually, it's the older people who do it.
3. Pig Pickin's. This is a cooker that is pulled behind a truck. They are very common around here. You put a whole or half pig on the cooker, close it, and let it cook for 10-15 hours. When it's done some of it is chopped up with vinegar-based barbeque sauce on it, and some is left to "pick" what you want. Contrary to Heather's opinion, pig pickin's are wonderful. You just have to be careful not to overdue the vinegar barbeque sauce. Dyion said before these cookers were made, a pig pickin was done by digging a hole and lining it with stones. Then you burned hickory logs in a different area, and when the logs had been burned down, you put the very hot wood in the hole. Then you put a grate over the hole and put the hog on the grate and stayed up all night keeping it hot with new coals and turning the meat. It would be done by the afternoon of the next day.
This shows a half of a pig ready to eat. They've chopped some and left some for people to "pick" what they want from it.
This was a lovely t-shirt a girl was wearing at the last pig pickin we went to. It says, "Fish Naked. Show off your fly rod. Maggie Valley, NC." Just had to through this in.
There's a long line of side dishes with a pig pickin. They usually serve coleslaw, pork and beans, hush puppies (worth the whole meal), potato salad, banana pudding and sometimes pig pickin cake. Pig pickin cake is a mandarin orange cake with cool whip-pineapple icing. There's always tons of food and you can go back over and over and get all you want. They usually have soft drinks, water or sweet tea (blech).
4. The Bible Belt. It's so interesting to live here and see how the protestants (usually the Baptists) try to integrate Church and State. Last year our board of education passed an agreement allowing the Gideons to pass out Bibles in the schools. Everyone thought what a great idea that was, until someone pointed out that if they do that they will have to allow other churches the same privilege. So they changed their minds and made a statement on the news and said they realized they couldn't do it without letting Muslims and Mormons pass out their literature, too, and that wasn't going to happen. End Of Bible Day.5. The beach. I love to go there when others have all gone home. It's so peaceful and calming. I don't go there enough.
6. The Church outside of Utah. Totally different attitude.
7. Having a fun place for my family to come visit and spend good time with them.
8. Horses. Who would have thought I'd like horses, but I do, and we have a lot of fun riding and driving them. This is a new horse we got last summer named Gypsy. We hooked her up today for the first time and she drove like a charm. 
9. The Trees. There are trees everywhere. Very beautiful. In the western part of the state the trees are hardwood and are beautiful in the autumn. The trees here on the coast are mostly tall pine trees.
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