For more information:

• Farm House Inn, 735 Taylor Branch Rd., Parkers Lake, KY 42634, (606) 376-7383

Producers: Dan Taulbee, Dave Shuffett
Videographers: Matt Grimm, Dave Shuffett
Audio: Brent Abshear
Editor: Dan Taulbee

B&B Meets R&R

Farm House Inn

Peg and Tim Taylor are fairly typical bed-and-breakfast owners. Both retired educators, they have opened a restored old home to visitors and found new careers as providers of gracious hospitality. But the place itself is a bit unusual: The Taylor’s Farm House Inn in McCreary County is entirely surrounded by the Daniel Boone National Forest, and the B&B property includes miles of hiking trails, waterfalls, gigantic rock shelters, weird rock formations, huge trees, and two fishing ponds. If that’s still not enough outdoor adventure for you, the place is also convenient to Cumberland Falls and the Big South Fork National Recreation Area.

It’s also a working farm, with cows and chickens to feed and eggs to gather each day. The main house was built of logs and stone in the 1920s, and over the decades the place has produced timber, garden crops, and corn, plus a profitable byproduct: moonshine.

For more information:
• Beaver Dam Café, 107 N. Main St., Beaver Dam, KY 42320, (270) 274-9435

Producer: Cheryl Beckley
Videographers: David Brinkley, Aubrey Hill
Editor: Mindy Yarberry

Old-Fashioned Eats

Beaver Dam Café

Even in this era of chain restaurants, strip malls, and interstate highways that tend to make every town look alike, it is still possible to find a truly local eatery. We found one in Beaver Dam, a town of about 3,000 in Ohio County.

The Beaver Dam Café is one of those small-town diners that also serves as a gathering place where you can catch up on local news and debate the issues of the day. Our visit includes a conversation with mayor Mary Pate and several other long-time customers, plus a behind-the-scenes tour from owner Margaret Belford, who has been connected with the café since she was a little girl.

For more information:

• Ballard Wildlife Management Area, (270) 224-2244
• Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, 1 Game Farm Rd., Frankfort, KY 40601, (800) 858-1549

Producer, audio: Brandon Wickey
Videographers: Brandon Wickey, Matt Grimm
Editors: Dan Taulbee, Brandon Wickey

Blizzards of Birds

Ballard Wildlife Management Area

Kentucky Life is dedicated to showcasing as many of Kentucky’s special places as possible ... but some are just so special that they seem to keep drawing us back. In our next segment, host Dave Shuffett pays a return visit to one of his personal favorites: the Ballard Wildlife Management Area.

This 8,400-acre wetland area about 30 miles west of Paducah is a wonderland for bird lovers. It’s the year-round home of a wide variety of avians, including many of Kentucky’s nesting bald eagles. But things really get spectacular in the winter months, when the residents share the preserve with 100,000 or more migrating geese, ducks, and other waterfowl making their way along the Mississippi Flyway. This visit, taped in February 2006, features soaring eagles, snow-covered beauty, and virtual blizzards of geese rising from the many lakes, ponds, and sloughs. Seeing the place at this time is a rare privilege: The Ballard WMA is closed October 15-March 15 so that the eagles may nest in peace.

The Ballard WMA is owned and operated by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Hunting and fishing are permitted during the spring and summer, but special regulations apply, and advance application is required.

Kentucky Life first visited this special spot in Program 102, and it was included in the Kentucky’s Last Great Places special.