August 26, 2007 – 7:18 pm
I’ve been doing a ton of genealogy research on both my side of the family and my husbands side. My husband is a Baltz, and I’ve discovered that the Baltz’s (or is it Baltzes?)have a long and interesting history in Nashville. A lot of people still remember Baltz Brothers Packing Company on Elm Hill Pike, and something called “spice round”. I’ve been asked several times “are you related to so and so Baltz?” and the answer is always yes because I think all the Baltz’s in Nashville are related somehow. When we went to my daughter’s open house at her school last thursday and even her teacher asked if we were the same Baltz’s that had Baltz Brothers Packing because her brother (I think) used to work there. A book was written about the Baltz family in 1988, “Something from Nothing” by Robert J. Baltz Jr and Jim Sparks, which has helped my research a lot.
The Baltz’s owned Hermitage Landing at one time. When I was at Granny and Pa Baltz’s today, we found an old picture they had of Hermitage Landing when they owned it in 1977. (I think it said 1977, it could have been ‘76 or ‘78 too). There are also a few pictures of Baltz Brothers. Click ‘em to make ‘em bigger:
August 25, 2007 – 8:58 pm
It’s hard to get a good picture of these little guys!
August 23, 2007 – 6:49 am
I saw on the news last night that Nashville is almost entirely in the “exceptional” drought category, which is the worst it can get. We are 15 inches below normal for rain, it’s been over 99f for the entire month of August, our water tastes like pond water, and everywhere is brown. (Well, except for my asshat neighbor who is watering his lawn.) My backyard isn’t any different. All my grass is dead. One of the two little slow growing pine trees I planted 6 years ago has died. My elephant ears are dying. My crape myrtle , which took a hard hit during the late spring freeze we had is trying hard to hang in there. It never did bloom this year. The food supply for the birds must be low because my feeders are busy all day, when normally in the summer I rarely see a bird at the feeder. Even my hummingbird feeder is busy.
But there is one bright spot in my yard. I planted some cosmos by the air conditioner, so they get their water from the water that comes out of the AC. I’ve never paid that much attention to butterflies before. But their beauty stands out, and my kids and I love watching them (from the comfort of our air conditioned house!).
