Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Mackenzie Free and Roxann Edsall Submitted photos
It may look like just an ordinary landscaping job to many who park at the Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville. There, in the middle of the parking area, is an island of landscaping. Lovely, but on the surface, unremarkable. It is, however, quite remarkable.
This is a bioswale, a highly efficient and aesthetically pleasing landscape engineering tool, whose job is to control stormwater and its resulting erosion and to limit the transference of pollutants. It functions a bit like a stormwater detention basin, but it looks far better.
Why is it needed? In areas with solid surfaces, like roads, driveways, and like BCCNP’s parking lot, storm water is not able to soak in, so it runs off, taking pollutants like oils, pesticides, micro garbage and cigarette butts with it. With enough rain, the volume of water takes these pollutants to grassy areas and to creeks.
Now landscaped, the bioswale underneath is unnoticeable, but its environmental impact looms large
Enter the bioswale. Graded to be lower than the rest of the parking area, it is essentially a trench, into which all the rainwater funnels. The trench contains perforated drainage pipes and layers of gravel, sand and organic materials to filter the pollutants before they are absorbed into the ground soil.
Flood and drought resistant plants are then placed into the area to keep the filter materials in place. Domed metal grates are tucked into planting areas on either end of the planting area to handle extreme volumes of water.
Granger Waid, vice president of Norris Paving and Excavating, worked with Joey Breighner and Schoel Engineering on the design and installation of BCCNP’s bioswale.
Waid used both his work experience with concrete and asphalt surfacing and his degree in Horticulture and Landscape Design to come up with a different design for the parking lot that would be both attractive and functional. “I drew it up with the help of Joey,” explains Waid. “We then were able to make my two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional one, so we could just plug it into a bulldozer, and it automatically graded the parking lot that way.”
Breighner and his crew gave Waid detailed specifications for the soil mixture to put on top of all the drainage layers. This “dirt recipe” was designed specifically for the native redbuds, sweet bay magnolias and pink muhly grass. Because it is a Forever Wild property, only plants approved as native to the state by a botanist from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources were allowed.
Since this bioswale is in the middle of a parking area in a remote setting, the plants had to be drought tolerant, but be able to survive in standing water. And they had to look good from all angles and in all seasons.
They do look good, but understanding the greater purpose makes them even more interesting.
Waid and the team at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve are working on a documentary on the bioswale and its function. Soon, visitors will be able to scan a QR code on a sign to connect to that information.
This landscape area is definitely not just a pretty space.
The most entertaining way to showcase watercraft and more
Story by Linda Long Submitted photos
Brand new and tech ready. Tech ready? Yes, indeed. Seems boating has gone computer in a big way. From pontoons to fishing boats, today’s vessels are equipped, with everything from big screen monitors to stereo systems to USB charging ports and even cruise control.
In a word, boats today are just plain “smart.”
Boats showcased at this year’s Logan Martin LakeFest and Boat Show are no exception. The 14th annual, admission free event is set for May 10-12 at Lakeside Park.
Logan Martin is the perfect lake to host an on-water boat show
Though LakeFest features music, fireworks and a lot more, Eric Housh, event coordinator said, “the boat show, of course, is the centerpiece. Folks come out to see the boats because of the latest and greatest technology out there. Brand new boats do all sorts of stuff now.”
Lee Holmes, one of the LakeFest founders, and co-owner of Sylacauga Marina and ATV, agreed, saying he “never thought he’d see the day” when boats would be computerized. But, they have conquered it, and it seems to be working real well.”
Some boats today “basically have a touchscreen that, with the push of a button, controls everything on the boat. They’ve got new systems now and the water and fuel gauges are all digital.”
The hottest new thing in pleasure boats these days is the Wake Boat. “They create waves for people to ride wake boards. That’s where they can do flips and turns and all that kind of stuff. You can control the size of the wake. You can make it bigger or smaller,” Holmes said.
“It’s controlled through touchscreens, and if you’ve got four or five people in your family, you can set a profile for each. That profile gets copied every time so it can go 8 miles an hour or 18 miles an hour, whatever the speed that was copied. So, it automatically knows which guy is fixing to ride and at what speed to set. It repeats exactly what it has done before,” he explained.
Rodney Humphries, owner of Rodney’s Marine Center in Cropwell, cited “all the amenities” on pontoons and tri-toons these days, from Bluetooth stereo to LED lighting. “We sell one that even has USB chargers on all the seats. I guess that shows how dependent we all are on our phones these days,” he smiled.
Beachside view of the festival
But it’s in fishing boats where he sees, perhaps, the most innovative technology. “Most of them are equipped with a trolling motor which can actually hold its position and the electronics and depth finders are very advanced from just five years ago.”
Humphries, who has lived on Logan Martin “all my life,” marvels at some of today’s technical enhancements, particularly the depth finders that anglers are using. It’s so advanced it seems almost unfair to the fish.
“A lot of them have three depth finders on the boat,” Humphries said. “The depth finders have 12- to 16-inch screens. This means they can see where the fish are, actually see them on the screen. People really seem to enjoy this technology.”
As well they should, but do the fish have even a fighting chance? “Yes,” laughed Humphries. “They’re still pretty hard to catch.”
It’s not all about technology, as Housh points out. “Every year, manufacturers are coming out with more and more things that are more comfortable and useful. For example, the pontoon boat seats don’t get hot anymore. They’re covered in a special fabric that’s easier to maintain. It doesn’t fade, and it’s more comfortable to sit on.”
Among the pontoons featured at LakeFest, “we’re going to see these luxury brands, and they’re going to have state-of-the-art entertainment packages on them from speakers, GPS systems, cruise control, things of that nature. Every year, you’ll see a couple boats out there that are just decked out with the latest and greatest. It’s interesting to see how these manufacturers keep innovating to deliver just world-class products.”
How big of a dent will these “world class products” put in your pocketbook?
“Honestly, you can spend as much as you want to spend,” Humphries stated, from $20,000 to $200,000. “There are different price points for everybody.”
Holmes concurred. “We sell $100,000 boats. We sell $200,000 boats, and we sell $20,000 boats. We got fishing boats that start at $14,000 and we’ve got fishing boats at $110,000. There’s really a boat out there for everybody.”
And that’s where LakeFest comes in.
As a mega, in-water boat show, boat dealers will be on hand to demonstrate all the latest innovative technology. With over a dozen lines of watercraft and more than 80 models, there’s going to be plenty to see.
“The ability to put product in the water and to put somebody behind the wheel of a boat to test drive it is special,” Housh said. “You can’t do that in a dealer showroom. It’s a try it before you buy it sort of plan. It’s really a great opportunity to see how the boat feels while it’s actually on the lake.
Housh has been with LakeFest since its beginning. “I was volunteered by a friend,” he chuckled. That means he’s been planning, organizing, handling communications and coordinating it for over a decade. During that time, he has seen the event’s mushrooming popularity. This this year’s attendance could top 50,000.
“I never thought I’d see the day that 40,000 people would show up. That first year, we sat down there on the lake in front of those condos (Horizons), it was just me and Jerry (the late Jerry Woods, Woods Surfside Marine) Maybe, we had two or three vendors. There was hardly anybody out there, but we had a good sale, and it just started growing and more and more people wanted to participate.
“It was all Jerry’s idea. All I did was answer the phone when he called to see if I wanted to participate.”
As he does on every LakeFest weekend, Housh is hoping for fair skies and good weather.
“Luckily, we’ve never had a bad thunderstorm. We’ve never had to shut the event down. But, he admits, he’s come mighty close.
“One year, I remember, we were watching the radar, and this real gnarly looking storm was bearing down on us. We were certain we were going to have to call the event – to shut it down. But, that that storm broke up and went right around us, on either side like you just parted the waves.”
“And, I remember another year on Saturday, we were watching the forecast for what was coming down on Sunday,” Housh said. “The team that puts LakeFest together, we are exhausted by this time. Now, the forecast called for 100% chance of rain. So, we made the call just to shut down a day early. We made the announcement and took all the precautions, and I want you to know it did not rain a drop.”
But, whatever the weather, Housh says “We’ll deal with it. We always do. It’s just the magic of that weekend.”
In addition to boats and financing on the spot by America’s First Federal Credit Union, other activities include dozens of vendors with food, arts and crafts, home goods, apparel, lake lifestyle items, home services and more. Other activities are a fireworks show, a salute to veterans, music all weekend, including a concert by the Velcro Pygmies on stage Saturday night. Mother’s Day is that weekend, so there are free Mimosas for Moms on Sunday.
“We’re trying to design it so it will be family friendly and offer a little bit of something for everybody. It’s also a pet friendly event. I know some of the vendors actually set up little pet friendly areas providing water bowls and a little shade so they can get out of the sunlight.”
While folks are encouraged to bring their pets, “we also encourage them to bring plastic bags to pick up after them and to keep them on a leash.”
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Mackenzie Free and Roxann Edsall
John Liechty and Richard Edwards chat about old times as they turn along a switchback on Slab Creek Trail at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville. The two have spent countless hours hiking together over their nearly three decades of friendship.
Edwards got Liechty hooked on hiking when the two worked at the same company in Columbia, South Carolina. The friendship grew when the two moved their families to Birmingham to open a new office for that company.
Liechty has since moved back to Tennessee, where he was born, but hiking, and their passion for it, continues to be the thing that brings them back together.
The Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve has been open less than two months, but the word is out about this hidden gem.
Doug Morrison, the driving force behind it all
Liechty and Edwards heard about it in a newsletter update from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Recourses. “We’ve done a lot of hiking, lots of backcountry stuff,” says Liechty. “The trails here are great with the elevation, the rise and fall. It’s all good. Y’all have a good thing here.”
The 422-acre Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve is a Forever Wild Land Trust property, owned by the state of Alabama and managed by the City of Springville. It boasts four hiking trails, for a total of 7.3 miles of trails. Creek Loop Trail is designated solely for hiking. Fallen Oak Trail and Slab Creek Trail are open to biking also, while hikers on Easy Rider Trail share the space with horseback riders. Benches along the trails offer a place to rest or to bird watch, with picnic tables and portable restrooms available in the parking area. While you can canoe or kayak the creek, there is currently not a put in or take out point on the property. Plans include adding pavilions for outdoor education.
Preserve Manager Doug Morrison says environmental education is a top priority at the preserve. “Personally, I’d like to make 70% of our mission about education,” he says. “The recreation is going to happen. There are so many things to enjoy here. But if you can somehow get the message out that you can enjoy nature and not love it to death, that’s a good goal.”
Morrison’s personal motto is “explore and discover,” and it’s what he hopes people will do at the preserve. “I love to see kids outside learning and discovering things as they run around this place. There’s a lot to learn in nature. We had a home-school group out here yesterday, and they had a great time.”
With a little research, a visitor might learn that the area provides critical habitat for many aquatic creatures. One might discover that clean, moving water is necessary for mussels to thrive, and that the existence of several species of mussels in the Big Canoe Creek watershed is a testament to its cleanliness. One might further note that 18 miles of Big Canoe Creek has been listed as a “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act.
John Liechty and Richard Edwards
After moving to the area in 1999, Morrison began kayaking the creek and learned about the environmental importance of Big Canoe Creek. He helped to form the group “The Friends of Big Canoe Creek,” which at the time was mostly neighbors who loved the creek.
They learned about the critical habitat that is provided by the Big Canoe Creek watershed and about the threatened and endangered species that make their homes there, including the threatened Trispot Darter and the endangered Canoe Creek Clubshell mussel, found only in the Big Canoe Creek watershed.
The 50-plus-mile-long Big Canoe Creek, runs through the nature preserve and is touted as the “Alabama’s crown jewel in biodiversity.” More than 50 fish species can be found in Big Canoe Creek.
In 2010, and again in 2018, this exemplary biological diversity was explored and documented during what scientists call a “BioBlitz,” a 24-hour-long period where experts from various environmental fields survey and catalog all forms of life found in the specified area. Finding such biodiversity and both threatened and endangered species is what helped in the efforts, spearheaded by The Friends of Big Canoe Creek, to preserve and protect the land for future generations.
Had Morrison and The Friends of Big Canoe Creek not stepped in as advocates, the area might look very different today. When they learned of a developer’s plans to build a subdivision on the property, the The Friends of Big Canoe Creek petitioned the developers to make changes to ensure the creek would be protected.
When the economy took a downturn in 2008, the planned development stalled and gave members of The Friends of Big Canoe Creek a chance to talk to the landowners about nominating the land for purchase by the Forever Wild Land Trust.
Established in 1992, Alabama’s Forever Wild Land Trust purchases lands to expand the number of public-use natural areas to ensure they will be available to use freely forever. It took nine years to get the initial 382-acre parcel and another 40 adjacent acres approved for purchase, but by 2019, the combined tract officially became Forever Wild property.
“In conjunction with the Economic Development Council of St. Clair County, Freshwater Land Trust nominated Big Canoe Creek to be acquired by the Forever Wild Land Trust,” said Liz Sims, Land Conservation Director of Freshwater Land Trust. “We are elated to see such a large portion of the Canoe Creek watershed and its biodiversity protected, including the threatened trispot darter fish habitat.”
Horse trails are a highlight
Since that time, Morrison, along with the The Friends of Big Canoe Creek, has worked with the City of Springville, the St. Clair County Economic Development Council and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to develop plans for the property.
In 2022, Morrison was hired by the City of Springville to officially manage the project. After 15 years of work to protect and preserve the land and creek, Morrison is finally seeing the joy it is bringing to visitors. He is seeing crowds of at least a hundred on weekdays, with weekends and holidays swelling to nearly twice that number.
Vicki and Kevin Folse heard about the preserve on Facebook and came out to hike. “It is absolutely beautiful,” says Vicki. “We took some time to sit on a bench on the trail and had some quiet time with God.” She thanked Morrison and all those who worked on the project for the opportunity to enjoy the property.
Jeff Goodwin lives just four miles from the preserve. “I come a couple times a week,” he says. “I’m a big hiker, so having this land to hike on this close is a huge benefit. And it’s way more interesting than walking through the neighborhood. I’m hoping they add some longer trails.”
While the trails are not the longest they’ve ever hiked, Richard Edwards and John Liechty agree they are well planned. Edwards, who grew up just minutes from a section of the Appalachian Trail, has spent countless hours hiking trails around the country. His longest hike was 160 miles on the John Muir Trail in California.
Six years ago his sight began to deteriorate due to a condition called nonarteritic anterior ischemic optical neuropathy. “I’m almost blind,” explains Edwards, “so rocks and roots are hard on me. These trails are really a dream.”
Even so, Liechty walks in front of his friend to alert him to any potential hazards. “We’ve kind of had a role reversal,” laughs Liechty. “He led me to hiking, but now I’m leading the hikes.” They agree that time spent together enjoying nature is good therapy.
Good therapy in the form of outdoor recreation can be enjoyed at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve Wednesday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. now through October, with closing time shifting to 5 p.m. from November to February. Admission is free.
If you go in the afternoon, take a good look at the metal fish on the left side of the entry gate. The color of the Trispot Darter changes as you move to the left and right. It’s just another thing that’s unique to this beautiful piece of paradise. And it’s forever protected, forever yours to enjoy.
Editor’s note: Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve is located at 1700 Murphree’s Valley Road in Springville. If you would like to help support the preserve, you can make a tax-deductible donation online at bigcanoecreekpreserve.org.
New Springville barn uses horses to heal peoples’ bodies and souls
Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Mackenzie Free and submitted Photos
“There’s something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man.”
While that quote has been wrongly attributed to several famous people, including Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan, research indicates it probably dates back centuries before they were born.
Nevertheless, the sentiment expresses in a nutshell what Nicole Whitehead Tucker has in mind for Canoe Creek Stables in Springville.
“Canoe Creek Stables is home to Light Of The World Adaptive Horsemanship, a faith-based nonprofit with the mission of helping others heal and grow while enjoying one of God’s greatest gifts, horses,” she says, quoting her mission statement. “We use adaptive horsemanship to provide both physical and emotional benefits to those in need.”
Jake and Nicole Tucker
Adaptive Horsemanship is recreational horseback riding and horsemanship lessons adapted for each individual’s needs, goals and abilities. It utilizes mounted and unmounted activities to provide both physical and emotional benefits.
Potential students include autistic children, children suffering from emotional and physical trauma, those with crippling diseases such as cystic fibrosis and veterans suffering from PTSD. Nicole wants to use horses to help these folks and more. That’s why she is working on her certification from CECTH, the Council for Education and Certification in Therapeutic Horsemanship.
Nicole has had horses all of her life. But her dream to use them to help others mentally and physically began when she was a teenager.“My younger brother, Kyle, was born with cystic fibrosis,” she says. “I watched him grow up battling this disease. He inspired me because he never gave up. He died in May of 2019, when he was 29, but he never lost his spirit. I owe a lot of my personal and spiritual growth to him.”
Her husband, Jake, also comes from a horsey family. He lost his brother the year before Nicole lost hers, and it helped Jake develop the same passion she has. “I also want to take horses to places like Children’s Hospital, church events and nursing homes,” Jake says.
“My brother and I talked about doing this for about a month before Kyle passed away,” Nicole says. “I told him about my dream, too, and he said, ‘That’s awesome, Sis.’”
The Tuckers broke ground on a 100 x 100-foot barn on April 1, 2023, after Jake had sketched the design. They contracted to have the outer shell erected, and they finished the inside themselves. “What a journey,” she says. “Jake even built the wooden fence, and he has never done that before. He has no training in carpentry. He was a fuel truck driver for McPherson Oil for 10 years, and now he’s maintenance man at the new Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve, which is next door to our property.”
Ella and her horse Shady
One side of the barn measures 30 x 100 feet and has 15 stalls. The arena is 50 x 80 feet and covered with sand, while the other side is 20 x 100 feet and has space for seven more stalls. Ten skylights and a chandelier in the center of the arena light up the premises. “I ordered the chandelier via Amazon, and Jake built a crank system so we can lower and raise it,” Nicole says. When he asked her why she needed a chandelier in the middle of a riding arena, she replied, “For barn dances and fundraisers.”
The structure is bathed in Scripture, literally. Several posts and internal walls are covered in Bible verses because Jake and Nicole invited people to write their favorites on them. Some wrote the Scripture reference, while others scribbled entire verses.
“If you take out the wall panels of the social room, for example, you’ll find the internal walls covered with verses,” Nicole says. “Friends, family members, even the Alabama Power crew and concrete contractor wrote them on studs, posts and the plywood under the paneling there.”
To handle the $250,000 price tag of the barn, the couple dipped into their savings account and took out a loan that comes with $1,400-a-month payments.
Lessons are one hour long, and include riding, grooming, lunging, tacking up, learning the parts of a saddle and building a relationship with the horse. They cost $65 per hour. However, low-income persons can be sponsored through donations and fundraising.
“This barn has been a Band-aid for me,” says Nicole. “In the past few weeks, I’ve had conversations with families about what they are going through, including a couple of people who were autistic, and a couple with sensory disorders. They found me via Facebook.”
She started a Facebook page in October, before the barn was even finished. As of Feb. 29, she had 5,500 followers, but her goal is 10,000. “Imagine if 5,500 people said a prayer for our program,” she says.
The barn houses nine horses and three ponies, with five of those used for equine assisted activities. The others are personal ones. Two activity horses include a white horse and a pony from a woman in Mississippi who learned about Nicole’s mission via mutual friends on Facebook and contacted her. “She drove them over the next day, along with some hay and feed,” Nicole says. “That’s a four-hour trip one way.”
Other donations have included two Haflingers, a brother and sister named Candy and Cane. “These are our two main buggy horses, but we use them in our adaptive horsemanship program, too,” Nicole says. “They were given to the program by the family of my great-uncle in Tennessee, who died in the summer of 2022. We got them that November.”
Open house was a great time to meet the animals
A more recent equine donation was the return of her “heart horse,” which she had sold when her brother was ill. “As my brother got worse, I started riding less, because I was just too emotional to enjoy it,” she explains. “So, I sold Handsome to a sweet lady in Georgia. I stayed in touch with his new mom for five years, and she’d update me on him from time to time. Then in February she gave him back to me because she wanted him to be part of something special. I still can’t believe it!”
Handsome is a 16-year-old Tennessee Walker with a lot of personality. “We used to compete in local horse shows in Western and English gaited classes,” Nicole says. “I feel like I got a HUGE piece of my heart back. My brother would be so happy!”
Other in-kind donations include the bathroom, three carriages and the sound system for the barn. The donation of the three carriages came as the indirect result of fulfilling another lifelong dream, that of becoming an airline pilot.
“I had wanted to be a pilot since I was 6-years-old,” says Nicole, who is 43. “My grandmother lived near the Birmingham airport, and I grew up lying in her yard and watching the planes go over. I’m stubborn, and I had no back-up plan.”
She got her pilot’s license at 19, started her aviation career as a flight instructor, then did corporate flying to get jet experience. Later, she was a commercial pilot for ExpressJet, a regional airline, for five years. She quit to start a family. “I’ve gone back to corporate aviation so I can control my schedule,” she says.
During the Springville Christmas Parade of 2022, she saw people like the homecoming queen riding in cars, and joked to her husband about how great it would be to have a carriage so she could auction a seat in it and donate the proceeds to a charity. The next day while she was co-piloting a corporate client to a meeting in Texas, he came into the cockpit and struck up a conversation.
“I showed him pictures of our horses and told him about my dream, and when we landed back in Birmingham later that day, he asked if he could talk to me. He said he had three carriages he wanted to donate, and he did. He paid for the delivery of the first one, and we picked up the other two.”
And that’s why an additional side of the barn was added to the original plans. The carriages include a Purple Princess that has hydraulic brakes and battery-operated lights, an Amish buggy and a covered wagon.
Other animals besides horses are being added to the mix. “We were given a five-day-old lamb whose mother rejected her, and we are working on adding more little critters to the barn, including a mini cow,” she says.
“We will also be taking over the petting zoo at Homestead Hollow this year. I’ll be working the May events with Anne Sargent, who has run it for 10 years. She’s going to show me the ropes, and then I’ll take over for future Homestead Hollow weekends. The petting zoo will be a big part of our barn, as it will bring lots of smiles to children. I’m so excited!”
And what about those “dream crushers,” the people who said she and Jake can’t do it, it won’t happen, they need deep pockets to make this dream come true? Nicole says phooey! “Think of what would not be accomplished except through deep faith.”
Braving Logan Martin Lake in winter to help support veterans
Story by Carol Pappas Photos by David Smith
Whether it looked like a leap of faith or a deep dive, what clearly surfaced on Logan Martin Lake New Year’s Eve Day was a small, but enthusiastic group of Polar Plungers determined to raise awareness and support a good cause – helping veterans.
The invitation went out on social media for what was billed as the First Annual Yeti Plunge. “The event is dedicated to the remembrance of military members we have lost to suicide and to bring suicide awareness to the local populace.”
A couple of dozen brave souls navigated the icy cold waters in the first Polar Plunge while a group of onlookers – a bit too reluctant to even put a toe in the water – lent moral support, cheering them on. They splished. They splashed. And they seemed to emerge as one big, continuous smile stretching across all their faces.
Taking the plunge
With the plunge, it brought on a sense of accomplishment. “It was a challenge,” said Terry Harrell of Cropwell. “I thought this was a pretty good cause.”
Catrina Cedotal agreed. To her, it was a sense of understanding. “My husband is a Marine veteran. My son is medically retired from the Army.”
Their cause? Project Absolution, a nonprofit effort to help veterans transition through returning home by taking the path less traveled – offroad. The project is a part of a group of veterans called Absolution Offroad, which is now 1,500-strong from multiple states.
Chase Poland of Riverside, who founded the project, is an Iraq War veteran. “It took me years to get myself together” after the war, he said. A buddy got him interested in offroading, and he saw that experience as dealing with what came next in his life, “helping me get through stuff without medication.”
They wanted to turn that experience into helping others just like them. It earned the name when Poland was reading Sun Tsu’s TheArt of War. In it, he came across the word, “absolution.” Its meaning was a perfect fit – “a form of relief from one’s past, forgiveness.”
He named his Jeep, a specially-rigged offroad vehicle, Absolution, and the offroad group that followed bears the same name. Now comes another evolution for the name – Project Absolution – which seeks to get veterans out into the woods, experiencing the outdoors and new adventures. Under the umbrella of a its pending nonprofit, they hope to expand the adventures into hunting and camping and paramotor excursions. All expenses are paid for by the donor-supported organization.
The veteran community who rides calls it “a breath of fresh air to have something like this in Alabama,” Poland said. It is an effort to reverse the suicide rate among veterans, which has become alarmingly high – nearly 17 veterans take their own lives every day.
What Absolution Offroad finds is that getting them out of their homes and into these rides helps them deal with the aftermath of war. It’s as if they get home from service and retreat into themselves. “They build their own unit,” Poland said.
Absolution Offroad provides a bridge leading out from inside the walls they build around them. Riders and members now come from all over, from places like Alabama, Florida and Georgia to join the camaraderie and the challenge of offroading on trails from Stony Lonesome to Top Trails Cheaha and the Talladega National Forest to Chief Ladiga Trail.
Those who don’t have an offroad rig are equipped with one free of charge. The aim is to remove any obstacles en route to their offroad experience and along the way, the hurdles of life after war.
“We want to curb veteran suicide,” Poland said. “We want to make a difference in this world.”
Editor’s Note:To donate to Project Absolution, you may do so through Cash App. The account is $projectabsolution.
Mandy and son, Corbie, share a moment on a tractor
Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Mandy Baughn
If you Google “poppies,” you’ll learn that poppies aren’t recommended for growing in this area (Zone 8), poppies don’t do well with root disruption, and poppies typically don’t bloom the first year they are planted.
Mandy Baughn’s poppy experiment defied all the odds and confirmed her idea to develop a flower shop by the side of the road.
That experiment began with a seed packet she picked up at a dollar store, planted in trays on her kitchen table, then transplanted into a garden bed. They survived transplantation, sent their roots deep during the winter of 2022-23, then bloomed beautifully their first season.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to grow poppies to sell for many reasons, but for me, that first brave, pink poppy bloom was a sign and a confirmation that this is what I’m meant to do,” she says.
Seed + Sun Blooms, the name she gave her new flower business, involves growing a large variety of colorful flowers, arranging them into bouquets, placing them in Mason jars and selling them on the honor system in a little stand next to her house on Mays Bend Road. She charges from $5 to $40 for a bouquet, and purchasers leave the money in a lock box.
“They can take the flower jars home with them and keep or return them,” Baughn says. “Most folks return them, and some even bring me extra jars.”
She presented the idea for a flower stand to her husband, Scott, this past April. They had been on their 10-acre homestead for two years and had been tossing around ways to have it make some money. “I’ve always loved growing things,” Baughn says. “I come from a long line of green thumbs.”
She came up with this honor system, which, as she points out, isn’t the first in St. Clair County. “There are several in this area, including the Wadsworth Farm that sells blueberries and others who sell veggies. I’m a dreamer – it was my idea – my husband is the logical one. To my surprise, he said, ‘Let’s do it!’ ”
They had no tiller, no tractor and no experience in flowering farming. Then a friend explained the no-till method, where you lay a tarp down, and it kills the vegetation underneath, decomposing it and putting the nutrients back into the soil. So that’s what they did.
A workshop using pumpkins as vase
This growing season, the flower beds are covered with landscaping fabric, and she’s trying a gardening concept called the Cool Flower Method that a woman in Virginia named Lisa Mason Ziegler came up with. “You plant hardy annuals in the Fall, they over-winter, and do their thing in the Spring,” Baughn says. “Their roots are stronger because they survived the winter.”
In addition to the poppies, she grew sunflowers, zinnias, celosia, gomphrena, strawflowers, cosmos, marigolds, lots of Black-eyed Susans, Bachelor Buttons and more – all easy to grow, according to Baughn. “We hope to add tulips and daffodils this year,” she says. “We have 1,000 tulip bulbs and almost 500 daffodils already in the ground. We planted them during the first week of December.”
The “we” includes her husband and their two children. Son Corbie, 11, and daughter, Ellery, 9, help with the digging, planting and harvesting. “I have my own seed business, too,” Corbie says. They purchased a used tractor last November, which should help with developing the garden bed.
The whole affair has been trial and error, but has turned out even better than they had expected. “I have always grown things, but never from seeds,” she says. “I have been very surprised. I pictured people coming here just to get flowers, a destination, so to speak. But to my surprise, people in the neighborhood and passersby stop, some on their way home.”
Last year, after a late start, the stand opened in early July and closed in mid-December. Baughn estimates they sold 300-400 bouquets during that time. “Whew, that’s hard to think through and just a guess,” she says. They plan to open this year as soon as the bulbs start blooming, which could be as early as mid-February, weather permitting. “We’re hoping to have flowers at least through the end of October and maybe into November,” she says. Maybe we’ll establish a U-Pick patch with sunflowers and zinnias this summer. Obviously, everything is based on the weather.”
Mandy’s daughter, Ellery, takes her pick of flowers
The family wants to make enough money off the flower stand this year to fence their property. Then they can get some horses, sheep and chickens. “We love horses,” she says. “For three years, I taught riding lessons two days a week at RaeAnn Ranch in Moody. The kids, who are homeschooled, would go with me and had a ball roaming the ranch and taking riding lessons.”
She plans to set up a picnic table near the stand, a place for people to hang out, have a picnic, relax and enjoy the Spring and Summer breezes. “Our goal is to nurture community by building more of a community atmosphere so people can connect,” she says. “Young people are always on their phones, and older ones like to socialize. I want people to pass by and say, ‘How cute, let’s stop and sip our coffee at that picnic table.’ We may even offer coffee later. There’s a little bistro table out there now.”
It thrills her when people message her and say, “Someone gave me your flowers, and they made me feel so good. They cheered me up.” That cheers Baughn up, too.
“Flowers are a miracle of God, the way everything comes together to make them grow,” she says. “I go to the garden and know this is not a coincidence, and it strengthens my faith.” l
