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Man finds meaning breathing new life into old wood

An old, fallen tree laying on the side of the road is often seen as just that — an old tree. But Jason Shrader sees the beauty in what the wood can be, and he strives to bring out its potential.

Shrader doesn’t love the title “jack of all trades,” but that’s exactly what describes him.

“I do different things all the time,” he says. His skill set ranges from tiling showers to making tables and a lot in between. But woodworking is where his true passion lies.

Shrader doesn’t work with the type of wood you can go out and buy at any lumber store. He prefers wood with lots of character.

“That’s what I gravitate toward,” he says. “I like boards with knots and cracks that look unique.”

Making functional pieces like cutting boards and tables takes up most of Shrader’s time, but he really loves the accomplishment of breathing new life into old wood.

“My interest in woodworking is the old wood — we try to uncover it and bring it back to life to let it tell its history,” he says.

He enjoys making Christmas ornaments for his friends and family each year, using pieces of wood that aren’t able to be used in any other project.

Shrader’s work is mainly known by word of mouth, with the exception of social media. At one time he set up his workshop at a building he bought in downtown Stevenson. After several years there, he began working out of his shop from home, which is what he does currently.

He wanted a unique name for his business and decided on The Ivey Court, inspired by a road he once lived on.

“When I see an old piece of wood I think I can turn or make something with, I throw it in the back of the truck to save it from being burned,” he says. He is always trying new techniques and expanding his skills.

Building a Dream

Building has always been in Shrader’s blood. He grew up on a farm in Wannville and currently lives less than a mile away from his childhood home. “At the farm, we were always building fences, so I had a general understanding about some construction growing up,” he says.

After graduating high school, he went to college at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He started building furniture, making pieces for himself while in college.

During the summer, he worked for a home builder as a member of the trim crew. “We would go to a house site and flag and mark boundaries for the brick layers, then come back to hang molding and install baseboards, doorknobs, and other finishes like that,” he says.

During that time, a master craftsman took Shrader under his wing, and he learned a lot of techniques from his time working with him.

In 2000, Shrader graduated from UA with a degree in business management and computer science. He accepted a job with Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, where he operated the facility used to purify water to produce electricity.

“I worked by myself,” he says. “There were days I’d work every other day, and with the time off I was either doing farm work or I was doing side work for people, like building decks or remodeling a bathroom.” As the days passed, Shrader just wasn’t feeling fulfilled with his work at the plant.

“It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy. I was just producing numbers and turning the same levers every day,” he says. “The only time I felt a challenge with that job is when there was an outage.”

After some reflection and evaluating what he really wanted in life and his work, he promised himself he would get his homebuilder’s license before he made a decision about what he would do. He decided to walk away from his job, after giving his boss a one-year notice, and he went into business for himself.

Even though he took a huge risk leaving a steady job, Shrader knows he is where he is meant to be. “I couldn’t imagine sitting at a desk from 8 to 5 doing that type of work,” he says.

He began residential remodeling in 2006. After receiving his license he considered becoming a custom home builder, but with the housing market crash in 2008, he was able to maintain his current business.

While he finds a lot of fulfillment in his work, Shrader says, craftsmanship and doing the job well aren’t his only concerns.

“The client’s reaction is big,” he says.

Occasionally, Shrader’s clients will ask him if he has a vision for the finished product. If they like what he’s thinking, they give him creative freedom.

“That’s when I know I have to produce something they are going to like,” he says. “When you do that, you take a chance on yourself. If they are beaming at the end, you know you did it right. Ninety-five percent of the time that’s what happens, and that’s what keeps me going.”

Currently, Shrader is working on a project to help restore a 200-year-old cabin in the Stevenson area. The house is the client’s family home, and Shrader is helping bring back some of its original glory.

“We’re exposing the walls, taking carpets out, and removing drop ceilings,” he says.

During the restoration process, the owner told Shrader she wanted a screened porch on the back of the house. Shrader harvested cedar trees on the client’s property that had been damaged in a storm. “Everything I needed for the inside came from that farm,” he says. “Now she has a room on the back made from materials that came off her property.”

Grad student analyzes local waterfowl

Brittany Hansey may be far from home, but she feels comfortable anywhere she gets to be outdoors. She dedicates her time and education to learning more about waterfowl, including their habits and migration patterns.

As an Auburn University graduate student, she is working on a project with two primary objectives: to determine if and how hunting affects the waterfowl population on Alabama state lands and in the Tennessee River Valley, and to evaluate if drone-based surveys are better, worse, or equally effective as traditional methods of research. Prior to the accessibility of drones, agencies would conduct surveys via manned aircrafts.

“My project is a novel approach,” she says. Hansey, who is from Bowman, North Dakota, earned a degree in wildlife conservation and management from the University of North Dakota. She made her way to Auburn University after applying for an online program she found interesting.

The waterfowl study, done in cooperation with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, typically puts Hansey in the field from mid-November to mid-February. She began work in the Stevenson area in late October 2020 and expects that one more season in the field will complete the project.

“One day we may focus on Crow Creek, and then Raccoon Creek the next, and then Mud Creek,” Hansey says.

Most of her days in the early fall consisted of setting up preprogrammed paths for a drone to follow. While the drone flies, it takes a photo every two seconds from about 200 feet.

“We fly the drone in the morning and again at night about an hour or two after sunset,” she says. In the evenings, Hansey uses a thermal camera for imaging to determine where the fowl have roosted for the night.

When field season is over, she will review the photos, count the waterfowl and compare those findings to the numbers from before, during, and after hunting season. She will determine if birds are using the waterfowl management areas and whether they are there during the day or at night.

Planning a Life Outdoors

During college, Hansey worked a variety of seasonal jobs that took her across the country. These experiences, paired with the love of the outdoors her father helped instill in her, put Hansey on the right trail she expects will guide her future.

“During undergrad, I wanted to go to school for environmental engineering,” she says. “But eventually, I realized I wanted to work with game species.”

She also became a seasonal park ranger with the Army Corps of Engineers and worked in a variety of campgrounds.

One job took Hansey to the White Mountains of California, where she spent much of her time in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest within Inyo National Forest. While on this assignment, she studied the greater sage-grouse, a species of fowl that is threatened because of limited habitat and disturbance. The sage-grouse spends time on and off the endangered species list.

“In the beginning of the season, we were capturing and collaring the grouse. Throughout the rest of spring and summer, we would monitor them via radio telemetry to determine brood survival,” she says.

One summer she also served as a biological science technician, working with threatened and endangered species. She helped the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, primarily testing deer and elk for chronic wasting disease.

After Hansey completes her master’s degree, she plans to move closer to home and work as a wildlife biologist for the state of North Dakota.

Eye on Local Waterfowl

Brittany Hansey is surveying:

• Mallard
• Black
• Gadwall
• Wigeon
• Green-winged teal
• Pintail
• Canvasback
• Scaup
• Ringneck
• Wood
• Goldeneye
• Bufflehead
• Merganser
• Blue-winged teal
• Shoveler
• Muddy
• Redhead
• Mottled
• Long-tailed ducks

Couple finds purpose rescuing and rehabbing wildlife

Shamballa Wildlife Rescue is tucked away from the world on a dirt road surrounded by woods. But to John and April Russ, Shamballa isn’t just a place. It’s a state of mind.

The couple made their property in Woodville a peaceful sanctuary for rescued animals. They established Shamballa 10 years ago, and they acquire more animals each year.

“Our biggest year we had about 80 animals, and that year we were taking possums and squirrels, as well,” April Russ says.

The inspiration for the name Shamballa was from a trip to Nepal. The word translates to peace and harmony with nature and animals, or “place of peace.”

“I was looking for my own Shamballa, and I found it here,” she says.

Lifetime of Inspiration

Originally from Belgium, Russ spent much of her childhood in Zaire. Her father worked as a mining engineer and would often bring animals home for her to take care of and befriend. Most notably, she had a baby giraffe named Frida.

“I was big into ABBA at the time,” she says, noting the name inspiration came from one of the band members. “That was in the 1970s.”

Even with access to so many exotic animals, including baby crocodiles that lived in her family’s backyard pool, the young April still had a fondness for one species in particular — raccoons. But there were no raccoons to be found where she grew up, so now she truly loves working with them every chance she gets.

John Russ has also always had a love for animals. At 16, he worked at the Kim-O Pet Shop on Governors Drive in Huntsville.

“I’ve had a hamster since I could walk,” he says. “I’ve also had baby squirrels and birds. One time I brought home a three-legged guinea pig.”

After joining the Marines and serving in Vietnam as a helicopter structural mechanic, Russ found himself in California. “I loved the weather and ended up staying there for almost 26 years,” he says.

He volunteered at the L.A. Zoo and at Wildlife Waystation, an organization that rescues exotic animals that have suffered abuse. But in 2008, he packed up his Toyota pickup and moved back to Alabama.

Russ says he and April met online through some mutual friends. They bonded over their love for animals. Soon, she came to visit him and never left. They just celebrated 11 years of marriage in December.

One day, while out on a drive, the couple took a turn on a dirt road and fell in love with the cabin and land they now call home.

“I met April, and we both decided we like being out in the country,” Russ says. “It’s a dream come true.”

Teach a Raccoon to Fish

Shamballa Wildlife Rescue serves as an animal orphanage and rehabilitation center. It is one of the few licensed rabies vector species wildlife rehab centers in the state. Working closely with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the facility specializes in rabies vector species animals, which are animals with potential to carry rabies. RVS doesn’t necessarily mean the animal has rabies, but it could be more prone to get it than other species.

Shamballa focuses on rehabbing raccoons, foxes, bobcats, and deer.

The center takes in abandoned or found baby animals. Often, fawns are found near where their mothers were hit by a car, shot or injured. People also find abandoned or displaced animals and notify the Russes. April Russ raises the animals and feeds them according to their nutritional needs, which includes some bottle feeding.

The Russes’ mission is not to make pets out of these animals. When the animals are grown or healed enough to survive on their own in the wild, they are released within 10 miles of where they were found.

It takes about five months for a raccoon to be ready to be released back into the wild. During that time, the animal is taught to climb trees and even how to fish.

“When they’re very young I give them their first wading pool,” April Russ says. “Raccoons love water, it helps their dexterity.”

She starts putting ice cubes in the water, and after a couple of days, the raccoons understand how to grip the cubes. Then she buys minnows for them to learn to catch in their pool. After they master grabbing the minnows, she catches fish for the raccoons so they are more familiar with what they’ll actually be surviving on when they are out on their own.

“It’s a process,” she says.

Hey There, Delilah

The acres at Shamballa have seen many animals come and go over the years, but a very special girl named Delilah still comes back to visit. She was the facility’s first rescue, a tiny fawn that weighed about 4 pounds and was just 2 weeks old.

A young couple found Delilah, whose mom was struck and killed trying to cross the highway in Stevenson. The Russes bonded with her and nurtured her. She was bottle-fed before being released into the outdoor enclosure.

Soon, more fawns were brought to the rescue, and Delilah watched after them like they were her own. Eventually the deer were let out to graze, but they still returned in the evenings for their bottle.

April Russ often walks out to the edge of the woods whistling a tune, specifically a Christmas carol. She says she chooses a Christmas song because it’s out of season for the majority of the year. Her fawns recognize who she is and that she is harmless.

“I speak French, English, raccoon, and deer,” she says.

Delilah was eventually released, but year after year she returns with her own fawns to graze in the same space where she grew up. She is identified by a notch in her ear, an injury she received when she was caught on barbed wire.

If a fawn is seen alone, the Russes urge people not to move or relocate it. It’s completely natural for a fawn to be left by itself for a short time while the mother is out foraging for food or has been scared off by humans. Whatever the reason, it is wise to leave the fawn where it is.

“Mothers will come back for their fawn,” John Russ says.

While Delilah certainly has a special place in their hearts, the Russes cherish and remember each rescue that has come their way. “I learn every day,” John Russ says. “They teach us as much as we teach them. That’s why we wanted to share these stories.”

He released “Critter Tales: Adventures in Rehabilitating Wildlife” in 2020. It’s a book filled with stories about the mission of Shamballa Wildlife Rescue, how the center got started, and notable rescues that have changed the Russes’ lives.

“You need a purpose in life bigger than yourself,” April Russ says. “Wildlife is so misunderstood — this is our contribution to this world and to life.”

Local couples celebrate six decades of marriage

The Matthewses

Roy C. Matthews says the key to a long and happy marriage is always getting the last word, which is, “Yes, ma’am.”

He and Aileen McCallie began dating when she was still a student at Stevenson High School. “It was a small school, but we knew each other,” she says. “He took me home from school the night I graduated and told me he would be back to pick me up on Saturday night. The rest is history.”

On October 10, 1959, the couple married in their pastor’s home at 6 pm She wore a lavender dress, which she still has, for the occasion. She was 19 years old, and he was 21. After the ceremony, the couple didn’t immediately leave for an elaborate honeymoon.

“I had to work,” she says. “You sell a lot of groceries on Saturday.” At the time, she worked at Bogart’s Grocery Store in Stevenson and got off work just in time to get ready for the ceremony.

They made their home in Stevenson and have been residents of the area ever since, raising their family there. He worked for the United States Stove Co. for 41 years, and she retired from North Alabama Electric Cooperative after 26 years in 2002.

The couple enjoys traveling and working in the yard. They credit their successful marriage to their Christian faith and attending church together.

“We’ve had a good life,” Aileen Matthews says. On October 10, 2020, they celebrated their 61st anniversary in a special way. Their granddaughter, Bailey Crabtree Chisenhall, was married on that day.

“It just thrilled me. I was happy she wanted to do that,” Matthews says.

The Matthewses have one daughter, Stacey Crabtree, who is married to Roger Crabtree, and a grandson, Dakoda.

The Ikards

The first time she saw William Ikard walk into Skyline Church of God, Betty Shelton told her mother she was going to marry that man.

Ikard didn’t have a car at the time, but his friend Wayne Hughes did. Hughes and his girlfriend, Yvonne Cook, began double dating and attending church together with Ikard and Betty. After dating for a while, Hughes and Cook decided to go get married one Friday. “That broke our double dating up, so we just decided to go get married, too,” William Ikard says.

The next Saturday, April 29, 1961, the Hugheses drove Ikard and Betty to Trenton, Georgia, in their ’56 Chevy sedan to be married by a judge. William was 17 years old, and Betty was 16. “We didn’t dress up,” Ikard says. “I probably just had on blue jeans and a dress shirt.” They will celebrate 60 years of marriage in April. After the wedding, the young couple rented a house and bought furniture.

“It wasn’t easy, but the Lord helped us and people helped us,” he says. “We’ve had hard times and good times.”

While his bride attended Woodville School, Ikard earned his GED and found work to help support the couple. But one day, he felt the Lord steering him in another direction. He felt a call to be a pastor, which he answered. Over the years, the couple has served many churches. They are currently members of Skyline Church of God.

They’ve had a life full of ups and downs, but what makes the couple most proud? “Our children,” Ikard says, looking up on the wall where his wife hung a big family portrait. “I was thanking the Lord and how he blessed us with them.”

The Ikards have two children, Edward and Connie, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“I would tell people to trust in the Lord and make sure that’s where your main trust is,” Ikard says. “We’ve had to stand by each other, and I couldn’t have made it without Betty.”

Cumberland Mountain Road receives marker

In the wake of the Great Depression, a road brought a glimmer of hope to Jackson County. The Cumberland Mountain Road provided access from the remote Cumberland Mountain to the Paint Rock and Tennessee River valleys, allowing commerce to begin again after many years of isolation for the region.

Eighty-seven years after the road’s completion, the Jackson County Historical Association unveiled a historic marker at the base of the mountain to commemorate the road’s significance.

To honor the efforts of the New Dealera project, the Skyline Farms Heritage Association hosted a barbecue picnic lunch at the home of Dr. Mark Reece and his wife, Lisa, in the Tupelo community. The featured dessert was a sweet potato pie, a nod to farmer Hal Cunningham.

He once lived at the base of Cumberland Mountain. During road construction, he provided sweet potatoes from his farm to feed the workers. When construction of the road was complete, 1,000 people attended a celebration lunch on November 1, 1933.

“It was a community effort,” says Judge John H. Graham, Jackson County circuit judge. “It’s important because this accomplishment helped bring relief to people suffering during the Great Depression. This road opened Cumberland Mountain for development.”

Graham says the idea for the marker came up at a Skyline Farms Heritage Association meeting several years ago. Many people, including descendants of those who built the road and of the Skyline Farms Colony, showed up for the food and socially distanced fellowship to celebrate and honor the importance of this moment.

Skyline Farms, originally called Cumberland Mountain Farms, was a settlement developed on 18,000 acres of land purchased by the federal government. It was established when the Cumberland Mountain Road was completed. Settlers were given livestock and other resources needed to survive, and they built homes and other colony buildings with the materials they harvested from the land. They were able to pay back the low-cost loans from the government from the profits from their farms. Skyline Farms operated until 1945.

The 5-mile stretch of road that covers 1,300 feet of elevation was the vision of Probate Judge James Morgan Money, chair of the Jackson County Relief Committee. At the time of its completion, that road was considered a significant engineering accomplishment. The road was built in seven months for $12,473.75.

Construction began in March 1933, and out of 5,000 locals who applied to work on the road, 3,500 were hired. Men who were paid $1 per day could not work more than two days each week — for 10 hours each day — so others could also have a chance at employment.

“The men did not have a single piece of machinery,” says Joyce Kennamer, lifelong resident of Jackson County and daughter of Judge Money. “They had a couple of oxen, axes, shovels and dynamite. They built that road, which was known at that time as one of the best roads around.”

She recalls hearing stories of her father making a very special trip to Birmingham with her brother.

“So many of these men did not have shoes suitable to work in gravel and rock,” she says. When construction began, the Depression had been looming over the country for years, with the residual effect felt in the farthest reaches of the country. Shoes were scarce.”

At the time, many adults did not have work shoes. Money went to Birmingham and bought work boots for the ones working on the road who did not have any.

“My daddy was a great man and a great philanthropist,” Kennamer says.

She was just 3 years old at the time the road was finished, but Kennamer can vaguely remember traveling it.

“I was scared of the curves and would get down on the floorboard of the car,” she says. “Compared to a lot of roads at the time, it was a really good road, and it did its job. It got you to Skyline and from there you could cross into Paint Rock valley.”

Kennamer, a member of Skyline Farms Heritage Association and Jackson County Historical Association, also taught at Skyline School from 1966-1987.

“When I first went there in 1966, very few of the children knew what I was talking about when I referred to the colony,” she says. “I taught them their heritage. I would tell them, ‘You have a wonderful heritage.’”

The marker sits at the base of Cumberland Mountain as a proud reminder of the resilience of a community and strength of the people.

“I hope it always stands as a monument to Judge Money’s vision,” Graham says.

Last year brought sweeping challenges few anticipated. In the midst of learning to cope with a global pandemic, Americans faced many changes to day-to-day life. Some people lost their jobs, and others adapted to working-from-home scenarios or the need to find new child care solutions.

Many graduations, proms, athletic events, and holiday gatherings with friends and family were canceled, and vacation plans were postponed. The list of losses was long for many. While still adapting to challenges such as those from 2020, it’s easy to feel yourself fall into a rut, especially in the winter months when days are shorter, darker, and colder.

Veronica Woodall, who works with the Jackson County Council on Aging, has seen the effect the COVID-19 outbreak has had on the local senior community. For example, before the pandemic and its associated restrictions, seniors could pick up hot to-go meals. Now, they receive shelf-stable meals every two weeks.

“Life has drastically changed for seniors,” Woodall says. “People used to come daily to eat and socialize, but none of that is available to them.”

With so much changing in the world, keep in mind that mental and physical health remains important. Here are some tips to hopefully keep your time at home a little more productive during the new year:

Keep Your Mind Busy

Doing activities like jigsaw and crossword puzzles help keep your mind sharp. Set a goal to read a specific number of books each month, and put aside time each day to read. Card games and board games are also good options for entertainment and mind stimulation.

Stay Motivated with At-Home Workouts

There are plenty of online resources for workouts that don’t require gym equipment. Incorporating stretching, yoga, or body-weight resistance training will vastly improve your mood and release endorphins.

Get Outside

Take a walk every day, whether it be in your neighborhood or around a local walking trail. When temperatures are mild enough, the sunshine and fresh air can better your mood. If you aren’t able to walk long distances, set an alarm for every couple of hours and walk to the end of your driveway and back.

Establish a Productive Morning Routine

Instead of rolling over in bed and hitting your snooze button for the third time, get up and start your day like you would if you were reporting to work pre-COVID. Establishing a morning routine sets your day up to be productive and successful.

North Alabama Electric Cooperative received many great entries for the eighth annual Christmas Art Contest! With so many wonderful and creative options, choosing a winner was difficult. This year’s winner is Paisley Blevins, a fourth-grader at Bridgeport Elementary School. Enjoy Paisley’s art along with many of the other entries we received.

Local woman spreads holiday cheer through sweets

Lauren Parker remembers standing in her grandmother’s kitchen as a little girl, tying an apron around her waist and making chocolate oatmeal cookies.

“My grandmother’s are out of this world,” Parker says.

She grew up in a family of confectionary royalty. Her nanny, Mary Jones, is known as the dessert queen. Her mawmaw, Priscilla Loyd, is known as the sourdough queen. Parker aims to carry on the tradition of baking delicious treats and sharing them with her family and friends.

“My whole family cooks, so I was destined,” she says, “I had to do something. I couldn’t let down the family name.”

While Parker grew up in her grandmothers’ kitchens watching them bake breads and other sweets, she credits her mother, Christel Jones, with her passion for baking and decorating cakes.

“My mom is the reason I got into baking,” she says.

When Parker was growing up, she remembers her mother, who took cake decorating classes at Northeast Alabama Community College, baking her birthday cakes.

“I’m the artistic one in the family, and her taking classes is what got me into it,” she says.

Parker’s desire to bake for others soon turned into a business and inspired her to start Cakes by Lauren Ashley about 10 years ago.

She sells intricate, delicious wedding and birthday cakes, but during the holiday season, the kitchen in her Skyline home is filled with all the ingredients she needs to make all the sugary delicacies requested by her customers.

“Our community is super small, so word spread fast about my baking,” she says.

Soon, Parker received requests to bake desserts for Thanksgiving and Christmas family gatherings. Just last year, using her aunt’s recipe, she made a batch of tea cakes
— buttery, thin and flaky cookies — for a church dinner. Before she knew it, people were ordering them. She made nearly 200 tea cakes before the end of the season.

“I enjoy doing it,” she says. “It helps people.”

Making a List

Organizing and gathering the ingredients for a marathon of baking may sound like a daunting task to some, but after several years, Parker has it figured out.

“I just take it day by day,” she says. She tracks sales, makes a checklist, and uses two planners to help her keep up with everything.

Parker has her process down to a science, knowing how long she needs to make each item and in what order. With the volume of orders, she has no choice but to be organized and timely.

Managing time comes naturally to Parker, as she is a mother of seven children, ranging in ages from 2 to 10 years old.

“My daughter Aly is 7, and she likes to help me in the kitchen. She’s about the age I was when I started helping my mother and grandmothers,” she says.

Parker also recruits help from her husband, Tyler.

Typically, she has about 12 dozen pies due the week of Thanksgiving and about a dozen banana or coconut cream puddings. Red velvet cakes are a customer favorite, and she usually makes about two dozen of those.

“It’s actually my dad’s favorite. My mom has had the recipe since she was a teenager, so she passed it on to me,” she says. Pumpkin rolls are Parker’s favorite item to make, followed by buttermilk pie and sticky buns.

During the holiday season, Parker estimates using 12 pounds of butter, 2 gallons of buttermilk, 25 pounds of flour, 6 pounds of sugar and at least 8 dozen eggs.

Her eggs come from the 40 chickens she raises on her property, and she dreams of having her own dairy cow. “I don’t buy eggs unless my chickens are being lazy,” she says.

Her trusty sidekick, a red KitchenAid stand mixer fondly named Sherlene, mixes the batters and dough needed to fill the orders. Parker says she finally gave in and purchased Sherlene after the motor blew out of six handheld mixers.

“I make everything superfresh,” she says, “My last-minute orders will still be warm when I deliver them. But, if they know me, they already know where I live and will pick up their order. I do get nervous delivering, though. I drive like a granny. I won’t hit over 40 mph.”

But whether she delivers an order or the customer picks up an order, she greets them with a smile.

“I love to make people happy. It’s a contagious thing with me,” she says. “I love to see people smile and see their face light up. Just makes me happy to do stuff for other people. I show my love with my baking.”

Does she ever get tired of having delicious baked treats around the house?

“No, never,” she says with a smile.

Baking Breakdown

During one holiday baking season, Parker estimates she will use:

• 12 pounds of butter
• 2 gallons of buttermilk
• 25 pounds of flour
• 6 pounds of sugar
• 8 dozen eggs

When NAEC lineman Jason Johnson enlisted in the Marines in 2001, he didn’t fully understand what serving his country meant. But he learned.

“The greatest men and women serve in the military,” he says.

Each year on November 11, we observe Veterans Day to honor the men and women who have serves the United States both in war and peace. Just over 18 million Americans have been in the military or currently serve.

In 1938, Armistice Day was created to honor veterans of World War I, which ended on November 11, 1918. After World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress in 1954 amended legislation and changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day, creating an opportunity to acknowledge all veterans and active-duty military members.

“I think everybody should honor the veterans,” says retired NAEC lineman Bob Harrison. “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do around here if not for the veterans – we wouldn’t have a free country.”

Many veterans have worked at NAEC over the years, and the skills gained from their military experience translate well into the civilian workforce.

“In the Marines, they work you hard,” Johnson says. “There are no sick days in the Marines. That’s where I learned to work hard.”

Bob Harrison

In 1966, Harrison received the news that he had been drafted to join the U.S. Army. He was 20 years old.

“I was fearful, had no idea what was going on or what to expect,” Harrison says. He would be carrying on his family’s tradition of serving in the military. His father was also in the Army, and his brother was in the Navy.

After receiving his orders, Harrison was sent to Frankfurt, Germany. Like everyone else, he went through infantry training. But he ended up working as a telephone installer because of his previous experience working for South Central Bell after graduating from Stevenson High School.

“I really enjoyed it, and I liked the Army,” he says about his time there.

Harrison loved being able to see and explore his new surroundings while he was overseas, but he says that things were a little different when he came back to Alabama.

“Things are regimented in the Army. When you come back home, you’re on your own,” he says. “I was a little cleaner and neater about things, and I have a lot more respect for people out there. I was glad to get home, but I really liked it.”

when Harrison came home from Germany in 1968, he found a place to live in Bridgeport “temporarily” until he could find somewhere more permanent in Stevenson. As time passed, he became content in Bridgeport and has been there ever since.

In October 1968, he came on board at NAEC as a lineman/service foreman and absolutely loved the work he did. “I got to help people,” Harrison says, “and that makes you feel better, you know when you get to help somebody.”

He enjoyed reporting to work daily, excited for the challenges each day would bring. “I liked the type of work we did. It was hard, but I enjoyed it,” he says. In October 2008, 40 years after he began work at NAEC, he retired from the job he loved so much.

Harrison has stayed busy in retirement, doing woodworking projects, welding, and riding his motorcycle. He is a member of First Baptist Church in Bridgeport and is also a Mason. A lot of his time is spent keeping up the land around his home, mowing and bush hogging. Harrison and Betty Ann also own the Three Oak RV Park in Bridgeport.

In early September, Harrison completed his last round of chemotherapy to treat his third bout with cancer and was recently declared cancer-free. “It’s not slowed me down,” he says enthusiastically. And it certainly hasn’t.

Jason Johnson

Johnson was in Marine boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, when he heard the news about September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“I’ve got myself into something now,” Johnsons says he thought after hearing what had happened.

There were no televisions at boot camp. All he knew was there had been an attack, and that fueled his desire to serve even more.

“I wanted revenge,” Johnson says. “There’s no other place I’d rather been at that point in time.”

He was freshly graduated from North Jackson High School, with a burning desire to serve his country and following the footsteps of his hero, his grandfather, who served in the Army.

After boot camp, Johnson was stationed at Camp Lejune, North Carolina, where we would learn how to handle explosives and land mines as a combat engineer. Soon, he would be part of the initial forces to invade Iraq post-9/11.

He served in the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion and completed two tours of duty in Iraq, from March to July 2003 and again from November 2004 to March 2005. He was wounded on the first tour, losing part of his eyesight and obtaining shrapnel in an ambush attack.

“I was really lucky,” he says, “I was only out for a few weeks.” He received two Purple Hearts to honor his service and sacrifice.

After returning to the states, he went to the Engineer Training Area at Camp Lejune, which trains Marines and prepares them for IED attacks and land mines.

When his time was up in the Marine Corps, he returned home to work for TVA. He came to NAEC as a lineman in 2017.

Johnson lives in Hollywood with his family, and in his spare time he enjoys coaching his young son’s baseball team.

Even though Johnson’s experience in the Marines was intense, he is glad to be part of such a revered network, “It was probably the best time of my life, with the best people,” he says. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. That was teh best group of men I’ve ever been around.

“If somebody would die for you, they’re a different group of people. It’s a different type of brotherhood. They call it ‘America’s Finest Fighting Force’ for a reason.”

Kelly Stacy knows he can express how he feels about something verbally, but he prefers to use photographs to communicate.

“You can read a whole chapter in a book, but if you see one picture it explains a lot more,” he says.

A retired boilermaker, Stacy once spent his days working with construction crews to build power plants. Originally from Hindman, Kentucky, he ended up settling in Stevenson after his work brought him to the area.

Stacy always enjoyed dabbling in photography. But after his retirement in 2005, he began pursuing it with more passion.

“I started shooting film in the 1970s with a Yashica camera,” says Stacy, who now prefers Nikon equipment.

He photographs a variety of subjects, including wildlife and local scenic landscapes. Birds, however, are his favorite to capture. He’s spent hours sitting in a blind on his property, waiting for the right moment. The birds will eventually show up – especially if there’s food involved.

“You can chase them, or you can feed them,” he says.

His camera has captured a variety of different birds, including osprey, ducks, eagles, hummingbirds, and cardinals. He says the easiest bird to get photos of is the hummingbird because of it’s predictability of showing up at the feeder. “They’re all colorful and different,” he says of the tiny birds, but they also present a challenge, which he loves. “They’re only still for a split second.”

Stacy says inspiration comes from the drive to always improve himself and hone his craft. “You never get the perfect picture,” he says. “I like the challenge of picking the right light. That’s the most important thing: light.”

In fact, light is so important in making or breaking a photo, Stacy has been known to scope out a scene at different times of the day, waiting for the light to be perfect.

Once, while on a drive with his wife, Deborah, he pulled their car over at the bridge near South Pittsburg, Tennessee. “It took me five years of watching that bridge to get the right light for a photo, and I knew I had to get one that day,” he says.

Since rekindling his love of photography, Stacy sees the world around him in a new way.

“I love to get out in nature,” he says. “You just start looking at things differently. Like the old barn, I see regularly. I start thinking, ‘If I come back later in the day, the light will be much better.’”

It isn’t just the barn Stacy cares about, but the entire scene. He considers it to be a story he has to tell without using words.

“I just let people make their own judgment,” he says of his work. “I don’t want to pollute their mind.”

Stacy says if you’re learning about photography, the first step is to gain knowledge about aperture, ISO, and shutter speed.

“Shoot in manual mode,” he says, “You’re never going to learn photography until you twist a few dials.”

But the real secret to good photography, he says, is just having fun and doing it because you enjoy it.

“Just take pictures of what you like,” Stacy says. “If no one else likes it, it doesn’t matter. Don’t make it hard, and don’t be hard on yourself.”