My post title is from a book called Positively Pooh: Timeless Wisdom from Pooh, written by A. A. Milne, that we bought Mady for Christmas. This is an amazing book and I intend to share more from it in further posts. In this particular bit of wisdom, Kanga and Roo are spending a quiet afternoon in the forest. Roo was practicing small jumps in the sand, and falling down mouse-holes then climbing out. Kanga said, “Just one more jump, dear, and then we must go home.” And at that moment who should come stumping up the hill but Pooh. “Good afternoon, Kanga.” “Good afternoon, Pooh.” “Look at me jumping,” squeaked Roo, as he fell into another mouse-hole.
Yes, some of the best fun in life IS free. We had a fun, free, sunny Wednesday. We are fortunate here in southeast Tennessee to be the halfway point on the Sandhill Cranes’ 1,200-mile migration from Wisconsin to Florida.
As many as 13,000 sandhill cranes will arrived for rest and food at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, from January through late February. The refuge is a
2,500-acreage at the confluence of the Hiwassee and Tennessee rivers in Meigs County. Several times during the day the cranes fly over into neighboring Rhea County which borders Hamilton County.
So we took a little ride out to the Rhea/Hamilton County line to see if we could find the Sandhill Cranes. Boy, oh, boy did we ever! While we were parked on the side of the road viewing the birds on the ground…..
…..we heard a deep, rolling trumpet and rattling to the far right in the sky. A huge flock was circling around and before we knew it….. 
….all the cranes on the ground took off. It was so amazing! I could not take pictures fast enough! After circling for several minutes, several cranes decided to land. It’s so funny to see them put their “landing gear” down. 
Mady, our granddaughter, really enjoyed seeing the cranes and being outside in a warm 45 degrees! 
What a beautiful day. Yes Pooh, some of the best fun in life is free.
