If you ask Terri and Don Uptain to pick their favorite spot at their Neely Henry Lake home, they’d be hard pressed
to choose between the kitchen and the gazebo just outside its door.
Story Scottie Vickery
Photos by Kelsey Bain
If you ask Terri and Don Uptain to pick their favorite spot at their Neely Henry Lake home, they’d be hard pressed to choose between the kitchen and the gazebo just outside its door.
Like in many homes, the kitchen is the gathering place for family and friends, and every detail in theirs was planned to accommodate their lifestyle, needs and even their kitchen gadgets. The eight-arch brick gazebo, just off the breezeway that runs the length of the house, boasts cool breezes and is the perfect spot to read a book, enjoy a peaceful meal or spend some quiet time in nature.
“This lot was just a hidden gem that sat here for years,” Don said. The Uptains, who built their home near Shoal Creek 11 years ago, were thrilled to make it their own. Each living area – the family room, kitchen and all five bedrooms – has a spectacular view overlooking Rock Island.
One of a series of islands that made up the area of the Coosa River known as Ten Island, Rock Island is the only one that remains visible after the construction of Neely Henry Dam. “All the others were flooded,” Don said. “Before COVID, someone used to do a fireworks show on the Fourth of July on Rock Island. We had a great seat.”
Holidays on the lake were the perfect opportunities to fire up the grill, something Terri said Don do often. “Actually, he’s a better cook than I am,” she said. “I’m definitely a recipe follower. Some people taste to see if the seasonings are right, but I smell. I have to get him to do the tasting.”
Although they share many of the kitchen duties, Don acknowledges that Terri has come a long way. “I’ll say she’s much better than she was when we got married,” he said with a laugh. They both remember the time she served pork chops with undercooked, crunchy rice.
In fairness, the Uptains, who recently celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary, were only 18 when they got married after graduating from Erwin High School in Center Point. Don joined the Navy a few years later and they count San Diego and Guam among the places they lived.
“When we were stationed on Guam, one of the wives was from the Philippines, and she could really cook,” Terri said. “She taught us to make lumpia, and it’s still one of our favorite things.”
The dish, which is similar to an egg roll, includes ground beef, carrots, bean sprouts, black olives and corn wrapped in a thin wrapper and fried. “For me, it’s an all-day process, but we love it,” said Terri, adding that she found the lumpia wrappers at Rainbow City International Market in Gadsden.
In recent years, Terri and Don have picked up some more recipes during their travels. One of their favorite dishes is Grilled Mediterranean Lamb Chops that they pair with Mediterranean rice. “We went on a cruise to the Greek Isles, and I figured that they would know how to do lamb,” Don said. He’d been disappointed when he’d ordered lamb in a Birmingham restaurant, but one bite of the dish on the trip convinced him of its merits.
“The way you season it is important,” he said, adding that he and Terri got some tips from the chef and experimented in their own kitchen until they found the perfect blend of ingredients. “If you overcook it, it’s nothing but shoe leather,” he said.
Building a home
There’s plenty of room for creating in the Uptains’ kitchen, which features a large island with lots of storage, a Wolf gas range, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and a deep, single-basin sink. A huge pantry just off the kitchen offers plenty of room for groceries, serving dishes and small appliances.
Terri, who designed the home before turning it over to an architect to make it official, oversaw every detail. She focused on the flow of the kitchen and even measured her bread machine before determining how wide the cabinet she planned to store it in should be.
“She designed this house and the one we lived in before in Beaver Ridge” in Ashville, Don said. “She’d take her drawing to the architects and tell them that this is what she wanted, but she didn’t know if it would work. They never changed a thing.”
The Uptains weren’t planning on building when they bought the lot with nearly 600 feet of shoreline. They had looked for years for a lot at Logan Martin and kept a boat there when a friend from church told them they ought to take a look at the lot on Neely Henry.
Paul Kell, who was the owner of Kell Realty before he passed away in 2011, had owned the lot and built the boathouse and the boardwalk in the 1990s, Don said. The lot is about eight miles from Ragland’s Main Street, and “once we got here, I said, ‘There’s no way I’ll drive this far out every day,’” Don said.
He couldn’t get the beautiful scenery off his mind, though, so they took another look a few weeks later. “That time it didn’t seem as far,” he said with a grin. They used it as a weekend place for nearly a year before deciding to build and moving to the lake full time in May 2010. “We decided we liked it out here,” he said. “You just can’t beat the views.”
Room for a family
Although they didn’t know it during the building process, their daughter Amber and her two boys ended up moving in with them, and they were there for 10 of the 11 years they’ve been in the home. “When we were building, there was space for a bonus room upstairs over the garage, and the builder said they could add flooring and wiring,” Terri said.
“We weren’t planning on doing anything with it, but we ended up finishing out the room,” she said. “Then we found out Amber and the boys were coming. It was the perfect place for them, and it had to be God’s work.”
The lake was a wonderful spot for the boys, who were 3 and 10 months old at the time, to grow up. The Uptains’ other daughter, Dana, and her family were frequent visitors, as well. “Her husband is an avid fisherman,” Don said. “He took our neighbors’ grandson out one time, and they caught about 20 bass in just a few hours.”
Don and Terri said they have especially enjoyed all the wildlife on the lake. In addition to fish and turtles, they’ve seen everything from red foxes, gray foxes, turkeys and deer to osprey, bald eagles, egrets and herons. “We were sitting in the gazebo one day and looked up and there was a deer swimming across the lake,” Terri said. “I’d never seen that before.”
Don’s favorite spot is the gazebo, and Terri knows that if she can’t find him, it’s the first place she should look. “I’d be out here 80 percent of the time if I could,” Don said. “My favorite thing to do is just sit our here and watch the boats, the people and the wildlife. There’s always something to see here; it’s the most relaxing place on earth.”
Although life on Neely Henry has been a wonderful chapter in their lives, the Uptains have listed their house and are making plans to build a new one in the Friendship community of St. Clair County. “I was an Army brat growing up, so I would move every few years or so,” Don said.
Terri said that 10 or 11 years in one place seems to be their norm. “That’s how long we seem to stay before we move,” she said. “I think our interests change or something happens in our lives. Now that the boys are gone, we just don’t get the Sea-Doo or the boat out much.”
Although they’ll miss the water and the laid-back lifestyle the lake affords, they know it’s time for a mountain view and for someone else to love life on Neely Henry. “I hope someone with a family can enjoy it as much as we have,” Terri said.
Grilled Mediterranean Lamb Chops
8 Lamb Chops, about 1¼” thick
¼ cup Olive Oil
1¼ teaspoons Granulated Onion
1½ teaspoons Salt
1¼ teaspoons Granulated Garlic
Olive Oil
Salt
2 Tablespoons Fresh Rosemary, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Fresh Oregano, finely chopped
Wash and pat dry the lamb chops. Drizzle olive oil on the top side of chops and spread with your hands. Sprinkle each chop with salt, onion, garlic, rosemary, and oregano. Use your hands to work the seasonings into the olive oil. Carefully, turn chops over and repeat this process on the other side.
Place chops on preheated grill (500 degrees). Cook to medium/rare or medium doneness. Be sure to not overcook. Remove from grill, cover with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Enjoy!
Mediterranean Rice
3 cups Jasmine Rice, cooked
1 teaspoon Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
½ teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons Greek Dressing
¼ cup Black Olives, chopped
¼ cup Onions, chopped
¼ cup Canned Muchrooms, chopped
3/8 cup Canned Artichokes, chopped
1/8 cup Capers
Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Adjust ingredient amounts to suit your taste. Enjoy!
