Tullahoma Outdoor Classroom

When I got up this morning and looked at the temperature gauge outside my kitchen window as I was making coffee it read 35 degrees.

A couple of hours later it read 30 degrees.

The sky was completely overcast and by mid-morning it was very windy and there was very light snow falling.

It was not sticking to the ground because the ground was too warm.

Yesterday it was cool and cloudy but there were birds flying and chirping everywhere around me.

This morning there were no birds.

As I was pouring my second cup of coffee I looked out the window and saw this squirrel sitting on a tall pole close to the car port.

Believe it or not I recognized this little guy as one of four small and young squirrels that scamper around the trees and across the carport and along the power lines throughout the area around our house.

He is a small and wiry little guy who often sleeps on the pole and in the trees in our back yard.

Sitting completely still for long periods with his tail up and protectively covering his back and head...........

By mid morning I was getting restless and wandered aimlessly around the house wondering if I had the fortitude to head to the base and run.

I did not.

My Mountain Boy seemed content to sit at the desk in the office beating strangers from foreign countries in cyber games of checkers while still wearing pajamas and drinking coffee.

I asked him if he wanted to take Jamie for a walk.

Half-heartedly he said yes, looked at me doubtfully and then immediately recinded.

By that time James was standing in the office looking expectantly at me and I looked down at my bright eyed pup, patted her on the head and smiled at her.  She knew as she always knows.

She followed me into the bathroom as I got washed up and then followed me into the bedroom as I got dressed and then followed me to the closet as I grabbed a winter jacket and hat and then followed me into the kitchen as I sat down on a chair to put my shoes on.

And then followed me into the den as I made a grab for my cell phone and camera and her leash.

And by that time she was barking wildly and dancing excitedly around me.

We live on the east side of town and not very far from the house is a small natural area that is maintained by the city and that is known as the Outdoor Classroom.

As Jamie and I walked down roads leading towards the classroom I was freezing.

I was dressed in multiple layers top and bottom and still very cold, and with the wind blowing coldly and wildly I wondered just how long this walk would actually turn out to be. 

Maybe not long at all.

LC and I have only been to the Outdoor Classroom once before, about four years ago and I did not remember a lot about it.

I remembered that it contained multiple grassy walking trails, a couple of bridges, a swampy low lying area, lots of trees.

We had visited the area in the middle of summer and on that day came across both deer in the woods and a couple of kids driving a golf cart on the trails.

This natural area also contains a good number of markers showing the placement of small historical trees.

Looking online there was not much information that I could find about the classroom, but buried on one site I did find this:

The tree saplings were part of a national tree program which encourages the historical connection between events and trees to create a memory key to assist in learning.

It is through this classroom that students can learn not only tree identification but tidbits of history that has been marked by the presence of the great trees in this country.

This place is used both for educational purposes for school-aged children and as a natural area located in town that is easily accessible to residents for hiking.

On a freezing cold, windy, cloudy, snow-flurry day, there was nobody else at the classroom but me and Jamie.................

As Jamie and I wandered through the grassy open areas and single track trails that wound their way around the site I was gratified to realize that hidden in this maze and surrounded by trees, Jamie and I were protected from the worst of the wind.

It was still cold but not unbearably cold as it had been on the walk to the trails, and for the first time I thought that perhaps - just perhaps - my dog and I would be out for a long while rather than a short while.

As we continued walking we came across many of these signs.

There were 20 or more of them, located at regular intervals throughout the trails, and each sign contained information about a tree in the immediate area.

Each sign contained information about an historical figure, the origin of the seedling that the tree was derived from (all the trees looked simply like gangly sticks at this time of year) and often, associated historical information.

I took pictures of some of the signs, and if you click on the picture it will enlarge.

Very interesting information.

Even for someone who has only a low tolerance for such things and who would rather be moving than reading...................

We did not see any deer this morning, but did see many deer tracks...............

My dog was having a great time running and walking and sniffing and marking.

Sometimes she picked our route and sometimes I picked it, and we wandered together with the ease of two partners who have traveled together many times.

This natural space really is a maze of trails.

Located in town it is not a large area, but the place has been designed so well that while we were walking this morning I easily forgot for a while that we were so close to civilization.

We were hidden in the trees and followed every single trail (many more than once).

By half way through our walk there was no more snow.

Unexpectedly the sun came out briefly and for a few moments it was warm.

And then it quickly disappeared again..............

An old tree ball completely covered in feathers.

The most unexpected thing that Jamie and I found today, and it begs the questions why and what?.............

Jamie and I hit the large swampy boggy area many times, running into dead-ends and then turning back so that we could pick up another trail.

I remembered from a walk here in the past that there was a trail that ended at a bridge overlooking the swamp.

It took us a while to find it but eventually we did.

Why there is a bridge stretching out into the middle of a swamp I don't know...............

I was not wearing my watch so had no idea how long James and I had been wandering through the classroom, but we spent much longer than expected.

When we were finally done exploring the grassy trails we headed back on to a muddy double track road and continued walking further just to find out what was there.

We were back out into the open and again I was battered by the wind and freezing cold..............

An old baseball backstop................

The dirt road eventually dead-ended and Jamie and I continued walking a little further, wading through long grass and thorny leafless bushes.

Looking around me I could see other backstops, buried in tall grass and long ago abandoned.

Curiosity satisfied, we turned around and headed for the house.

By the time we arrived back at the house I was freezing cold, but both James and I had had a great time quietly exploring close to home.

And as of this writing my sweet girl is curled up at the end of the bed napping with my Mountain Boy...............