For the week of Thanksgiving, we went back up to visit Chip's family (and some of mine) in east Tennessee. They all live near the Smoky Mountain National Park, and we also lived there for the first few years of our marriage. When we are back, we try to show the kids some of the beautiful things we loved about the area. This time we went to Cades Cove. I hadn't been on the 11 mile loop in many years and it was so much fun to see it all through the eyes of my children, especially the teens.
Towards the end of the loop is the "Tipton Place" house and buildings, and just to the left of the house is a collection of bee gums. I had always heard my father-in-law refer to hives as "gums" so I had done a bit of research to learn that the term came from the traditional use of hollowed out sections of gum trees for keeping bees. But I had never seen anything like this first hand! I am guessing that these are probably reproductions of the original gums that stood under this shelter, but it was still so very cool to this relatively new beekeeper.
