Cloudland Cat Cam 4/30/4, 7:43am, the Fat Cat and the Trail Cat - any time is snuggle time at Cloudland. NO photo Saturday or Sunday mornings - we'll be busy with photo workshops. |
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Cloudland Cat Cam 4/30/4, 7:43am, the Fat Cat and the Trail Cat - any time is snuggle time at Cloudland. NO photo Saturday or Sunday mornings - we'll be busy with photo workshops. |
4/1/04 The sun was already up when Amber and I pulled out and headed for the bus stop - Amber at the wheel (sitting in my lap). She drove all the way out to the main dirt road and didn't even hit a single tree! Her mom got in late last night from class in town, and brought home what I consider to be her third painting that is just incredible. I don't know how artists can make a two-dimensional object like paper alive with "life!" She is still right at the beginning of her learning this craft, but it is obvious there is some genuine natural talent in there - it will be great to watch that develop over the years! Speaking of my bride, she is also neck deep in re-blazing the entire Ozark Highlands Trail - she will hike more than 300 miles, nailing up new blazes on trees to mark the way. Hope to have it done later this year.
We had one tremendous storm pass through the other day, which not only included high winds, black clouds, and a great deal of thunder, but one cloudburst produced enough rain to create one of the most vivid double rainbows I've ever seen. All three of us were here, and while Pam and Amber stood on the back deck in awe, I scrambled around with the camera gear trying to get a photo of it, including racing up onto the rooftop to get a better view - the rainbows were behind the wall of trees on the east side of the cabin. Try as I might, I was unable to get a good photo of it all, but did get to spend a few moments myself with jaw open at this amazing sight.
Later that same afternoon I got a photo of some of the thunderheads that were hanging around:
We have been swamped with work here this week and I have not had time to go on any hikes, nor write in the Journal. But I am happy to report that spring is in full swing up here in the mountains. More and more trees are popping out every hour - especially when the sun is out. Probably 15% of the trees have begun to pop as of this morning. Down in Boxley Valley that number is more like 50% - much more advanced down there. Spring beauty wildflowers are all over the place, as are phlox. I have not seen but a couple of bloodroot yet, but plan to go hunting them soon. In fact I am going to force myself to get out and hike later today or tomorrow. Redbud trees are coming out nicely not, especially down in Boxley. Dogwoods are not out yet, although the one right next to the cabin is about half-way open - little green blossoms.
Speaking of Boxley, I drove through there yesterday on my way to teach a photo workshop to 30 educators from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. All of them were from different offices all over the state, with different digital point-and-shoot cameras and levels of expertise with digital photography (most of them had very little). It was my job to bring them all up to speed and get onto the same page with their photos that will be used for many different educational purposes. After spending several hours with them and talking about all sorts of camera things, I walked right on out the door and left my very own camera sitting on the table! Had to send my bride back to get it for me - some teacher I am!
Speaking of teaching, all of my spring photo workshops are filled up now but one - on May 2nd. There are still a couple of spots left in that one if you know of anyone who might be interested. Also I have posted some details about the extended fall color tour in October (along with several normal fall workshops). And at some point I will be adding some very basic digital workshops for those who just want to learn how to use their new point-and-shoot digital camera. You can see about all of this via the link on my main web page.
There really is no finer season any place on earth than SPRING in the Ozarks. They call it spring fever for a reason - the warming temps, sunshine, and Momma Nature bursting out with new life all over the place reach out and grab you and force you out into the woods - or at least makes you want to be out there if you are unable to. Each day brings on a new landscape, new smells and sounds, textures and color. LIFE happens in the spring, the best kind of new growth. I plan to spend a great deal of time outdoors this month and this season, and will try to bring as much of it to you as I can.
We went on a quick hike around the loop this morning and found these:
4/2/04 Just went on a moonlight stroll through the forest. Delightful, quite delightful. Warm temps, no wind at all, quiet, very quiet, and the 3/4 moon was shining down brightly and lighting everything up in a way that only moonlight can do. Soft light that whispers in the night. Crunch, crunch, crunch were the only sounds I heard - that of my feet moving through the crumbling leaves on the forest floor. Bright stars and a planet or two joined me on my hike. With the leaves still not on the trees yet those stars shine right on down through the leafless canopy above - won't be long now before walks like this one will be tough to do - not nearly as much moonlight will get through the dense cover, and there will be snakes!
One thing I noticed tonight - heck, I guess I notice it every time I step outside at night when the moon is up - were the many and varied shadows of the trees and their trunks and branches. As I walked around and marveled at all the different patterns and shapes of the shadows, I realized that I hardly ever give them a second glance in the daylight - even on the ends of the day when the shadows are long. I guess it is because on bright sunny days there is just too much glare. But tonight, in the softness of the moonlight, the shadows are easy to see and interesting to look at. Enough moonlight to cast shadows for sure, in fact some pretty darn good shadows at that. But not enough for glare.
The cabin is busy now from early to late - we are working on the newest guidebook that will hit the shelves later this spring or early summer - that is Glenn Wheeler's SWIMMING HOLES OF THE OZARKS guidebook that we are publishing. Amazing how much time and thought are going into every little detail. Glenn has been out this past couple of years doing all of the field work for the book - collecting locations and photos and GPS info and loads of other details. Pam and I will be doing all of the rest of the book, including putting it all together and organizing it into book form. Pam is drawing all 80+ maps from scratch. We'll be sizing and editing photos, moving text around, and in general trying to spit and polish and come up with a very fine product. Glenn has done a great job, and I think you'll like it!
Speaking of books, we have also been working late putting together yet another web photo gallery for your enjoyment. This one contains all of the photos in my most favorite coffee table picture book of all time - not only was it fun and crazy to shoot (drove over 50,000 miles and shot 40,000 photos in 43 states - most of it in a single year!), but I honestly believe there is no finer book on wilderness beauty available anywhere. And to top it off, copies of this gorgeous book are on sale this month for only $20!!! (original price was $50) These are the regular hardcover books in individual boxes, and autographed to the person of your choice, even if that person is you! Even if you don't want to buy the book or purchase a print (prints are available from all the images), it would be worth your time to go look through the gallery - click here and wait for it all to load. You can order the books (and prints) through the online Retail Store.
We installed one of those neat bird feeders that fits into a window and has a one-way mirror all around - put it in the new drawing room. The birds actually come inside the room to eat (still are in the feeder though - it just sticks out into the room). There are often 10 or 12 finches and other small birds in the feeder at once, and Aspen just loves to walk on over and put his nose up to the other side of the mirror, with the birds happily eating away not realizing that certain death is only an inch away.
We're going on an unusual adventure on Saturday, and I hope to be able to post a photo or two from it - another location that will be in the Nature Lovers Guide to Arkansas I hope.
And for any who are interested in hiking, our Ozark Highlands Trail Association monthly meeting will be this Sunday evening at 7pm - refreshments served at 6:30. Everyone is welcome, member or not. You can find all the details on our web site - go to HikeArkansas.com and follow the link.
When I was in high school I used to spend my school nights at home on the floor of my bedroom, not actually doing my homework but rather just lying there on the floor, quietly. Of course, I had on a great pair of headphones and the music was blasting in my ears. I didn't have many friends, and hated school work, so when I was not able to be outdoors I was usually in my room with the headphones on (so as not to disturb the rest of the house). I bring this up because today I put on a pair of headphones and listened to an entire album for the very first time since probably high school (Shania Twain). I had forgot how incredible the sound can be from even a tiny pair of ear phones like they have now. I arrived at this point today via a roundabout trip that involved my camera. A few months ago they came out with a 4gigabyte microdrive that fits my camera - the darn thing is so tiny - only about an inch square and 1/8 inch thick, and it holds 4gb of data! Anyway, I held off getting one of them because they cost $500, which is actually not too bad for that much storage space for your camera (my digital camera takes files that are 11mb's in size, each one, so that memory is taken up in a hurry). Back in January it became known that a new little mP3 music player used this exact same 4gb microdrive as its storage device, and the cost of the entire player with the 4gb drive inside was only $200! So what folks began to do was buy the players and rip out the micro drives and use them in their cameras, saving $300 in the process. What a great deal! Only problem was that as soon as the word got out about this great deal those mP3 players got very scarce and you could not find them anywhere. I put in orders at several different places, but they were all back ordered for months. Well, one of my orders arrived today out of the blue. Good grief this player is TINY! Before I took the player apart and extracted the microdrive, I decided to see how it did as a stereo. The darn thing is only supposed to be used in a windows machine, but I was able to figure out how to get it to work with my Mac (Mac has their own iPods - with as much as 40gb of memory - enough to store 10,000 songs!). Once I got it working and a CD loaded for Amber to use, I sat down and began to listen to it. WOW, what beautiful sound it has! I was really impressed, and plan to purchase a real player soon, one that we can put our entire CD collection on and take on the road and play through the stereo. Or when things get too loud, put on those tiny headphones and crank up Beatles.......Oh yea, in another week or two I'll rip that hard drive out of the player and put it in my camera where it belongs, saving me $300, which I can put towards the larger player!
4/3/04 The alarm went off at 4:45am. I had already been up, got dressed, and was on the bed just waiting for the alarm so I could turn it off. After six months I finally figured out how to turn this radio-controlled alarm on, but I have not mastered shutting it off until the actual alarm goes off, so sometimes when I am already up and ready I lay and wait just to shut it off.
An hour later I was standing next to my tripod and waiting for a yellow ball to make an appearance. I found this potential sunrise spot the other day, but didn't really know exactly where the sun was going to rise - only when - at 5:53am. Getting good sunrise/sunset photos is tough in the Buffalo area because the canyons are so deep and twist around so much so that you just cannot find a spot where the sun is deep in the canyon - where it needs to be for good color. Sure, you can see the sun popping up over the ridgetop just about anyplace, but by then the color and light are plain and harsh - I want that wonderful color and glow that happens as the sun is just coming up shining through the longest part of the atmosphere - that's when you get that great color.
It was 47 degrees when I left the cabin, but up on this windy hillside overlooking the Buffalo canyon far below the temp was 33 degrees, with a wind chill much lower than that - in other words, I was not dressed warmly enough! But that seldom matters if there is a photo op about to happen - you tend to disregard other things that are going on around you. And then all of a sudden, there it was - the glow in yonder hills intensified, then the yellow edge of the rising sun appeared, just about in a perfect spot for my photo - what luck! Over the next three or four minutes I shot about 50 photos, using a long lens, big sturdy tripod, and a bean-bag placed over the lens to help keep it all stabilized. OK, by 6am I had my shot and was on my way back to the cabin. In another week or two this scene would look good too - as the sun moves to the left - I'll have to come back for more early mornings.
By the time I got back to the cabin the girls were all up and packed and ready to go. We were headed down to one of the most unique spots in all of Arkansas - an elephant preserve! It is the only one like it in the world - literally. They are sort of a homeless shelter for elephants, and will accept the two species of elephants (African and Asian), male or female, and it doesn't matter what the circumstances of the arrival are. Many are circus elephants that are either too old, injured, or have other problems. They have about a dozen elephants now, ranging in age from one year (born at the refuge) to 46 years old. We really didn't know exactly what to expect as we paid our $5 entrance fee (per person), parked the truck and followed the elephant signs until we saw a lot of big flesh moving around. The refuge is entirely non-profit and runs on donation and whatever other cash they can scrape up. They normally don't allow visitors, but one day a month they do allow the public in for several hours. At first I was a little disappointed by the fact that while we were pretty close to the elephants - 20 feet or so - we were not allowed to get any closer, and all of them were behind very large barricades. But after a few minutes of watching stupid parents allow their 2-3 year old children run under the rope and towards the giant beasts, I could fully understand why we were all kept at a distance. The man behind the rope said that elephants tend to be wary of anything "small" and would most likely have simply stepped on the little girls if they had gotten too close. Hum.
There were a number of volunteers and staff around to help answer questions and give educational talks. This is obviously a low-budget operation, but certainly a very worth-while one, and the folks there are doing a wonderful thing. The refuge has been in operation for more than a dozen years, and has already collected world-wide acclaim. They have a program where you can go stay there for a weekend and actually get to get up close and personal with the elephants, including feeding and bathing them, but the cost is high, and they are booked up for a long time into the future - a great source of funding for the refuge.
The lighting was terrible, but I stood back and snapped away just the same with my long lens as our favorite elephant "Maximus" - who is having his first birthday next month - and his mom "Felicity" played around and hammed it up for everyone there. Not sure if I got a photo that I will use in the Nature Lovers Guide to Arkansas guidebook, but it was a worthwhile trip and I suspect we will be back! I will certainly put this neat place in the book.
It was late afternoon when we arrived back at the cabin, and as soon as I took my shoes off I put them right back on again, grabbed the snapshot camera and my walking stick, and headed out the door. It was a textbook spring afternoon here and I did not want to waste any of it. Still mostly bare trees around here, but more and more of them are busting out every hour of the day that the sun is shining, and there was a lot of sunshine today.
The first thing I noticed as I made my way down the steep hillside was the fact that there were about 200 bugs of some sort hovering around close to my head. Not much of a winter means lots of BUGS this summer.
The second thing I noted was the fact that as far as I could see in all directions - all the way down the hillside to the bottom - there were individual patch of phlox wildflowers - here, there, and everywhere! They surely did add a nice splash of color to the mostly-brown forest floor.
The farther I got down the slope the more wildflowers I could see, although most of them were still all curled up and not quite out yet. Bellworts, spring beauty, toothworts, some little yellow flower I could not identify, and just all sorts of little guys all over the place. Oh yea, the bloodroot - there were thousands and thousands of them all over the place - they are the ones with one of the strangest leafs you can find - but few of them had opened up yet. I did find one that I could get a shot up, after I got down on my belly.
And Rue-Anemone - those darn things were EVERYWHERE! Although unlike their delicate pink color of years past, nearly all of them today were just about pure white.
As I got to the bottom I found my old friends the yellow trout lilies that were also growing by the thousands, although few of them were up and in bloom. Also found a few Dutchman-Breeches, one of the most interesting-shaped flowers of them all.
I wandered on over to Whitaker Creek to see what it was singing about. The sun was low and just about to disappear down in the bottom, but just enough brightness on the water to make it sparkle. The very first boulder that I came to along the streambank had the leftovers of someone's lunch - probably a coon. What's the matter with that coon - don't he know the claws are the best part!
The main Buffalo was up and running pretty well, although still quite low for this time of the year. We didn't spend any time there, turned around and headed back up the hillside, where I was stopped along the way by a flash of green out of the corner of my eye - a beautiful luna moth. This guy was clinging to a small plant, low to the ground. It took me about ten minutes to get these simple photos of him - for some reason I just could not get into position - impeded by a couple and hard and quite sharp rocks that were sticking up out of the ground. I eventually had to grind myself down into the soft earth, disturbing quite a few poison ivy plants in the process. My goodness the day that I become allergic to poison ivy will probably be the day we have to pack up and move! So far, so good.
It is getting late this evening, and I have spent about two hours just going through all the photos that I shot today. I have not "processed" them, only picked out a few to post here. One of these days I will spend the better part of a day going through and processing my RAW files from the two shoots today and place them into my "keeper" files - actually will probably just do the sunrise shot, and pick one of the elephant shots out for the guidebook.
One quick story that was e-mailed to me yesterday about not being too careful while out in the woods. It seems some folks who do a lot of hiking around took some friends of theirs on a trip last weekend to visit a number of waterfalls in the Ozarks. The wife on the friend's side started off the day by nearly grabbing a big fat timber rattlesnake as they were leaving Pam's Grotto. Their next stop was the Glory Hole, where her husband climbed on down to the very top of the "hole," promptly fell in, and was injured badly. You cannot get to this place casually - you have to go out of your way and climb down some pretty bad stuff just to reach the top edge of the "hole." Obviously a very dangerous spot. Well, this guy was unlucky, and one slip was all it took. It is like a giant funnel, and you have nothing to grab onto - he got sucked into the hole and down he went, falling through the bluff, down the free ride in the waterfall, and landing on the rocks below. Broke an ankle, foot, wrist, and no telling what else. They called the emergency number listed in the guidebook and got help, and a couple of hours later the guy was airlifted to the hospital. Waterfalls are quite beautiful, but most of them are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!! We wish the guy a speedy recovery, and hope he is able to come explore more waterfalls - from a distance.
4/6/04 Since the time change Amber is once again going to the bus in the dark. By the time Pam gets back from taking her the sun is still hiding behind the big ridge to the east. Today I could see the full moon (well, actually it WAS full sometime before midnight yesterday) in the western sky so I got out the camera and went down into the meadow to shoot a few photos. It was kind of neat being out there this morning, with the moon setting on one side of me, and the pre-sunrise on the other side really beginning to light up the sky. It was warm, with no wind. And birds, goodness there were dozens and dozens of birds playing and flying and working all around me. I was especially interested in several bluebirds that kept flying all over the place. We have several bluebird houses here, but they have never actually used them, preferring to nest in natural cavities in dead snags nearby. That is fine with me, as long as they hang around and nest here - love to see those bluebirds!
At this time of the year - and until after all the leaves drop off in the fall and the sun has gone way down south - we don't have a good view of the sunrise - just one through the crowded treetops - so you won't see any actual sunrise photos from here until winter. But where the sun is right no on the eastern horizon, and the way the moon was setting today, from my computer I could see BOTH the sunrise (out of the drawing room window) and the moonset while sitting in my seat and working - it was quite a treat! How does one ever get any work done around here?
Speaking of getting work done around here, we are headed out the door at 4am tomorrow to spend a week at a remote location on the Gulf Coast (well, actually not too remote - we will be able to drive there and will be staying in a friend's beach house). While this will be a much-deserved vacation for the girls, I HOPE to be able to spend a good part of my time there working - I say that because of late I have not been able to get a lot of work done here because there are SO many distractions - like the phone ringing, or having to process book orders for UPS, and stuff like that. I am not complaining mind you - I absolutely love to work here - but sometimes there is just too much work to do and we can't get it all done in one day. But during this week I'll be away from all of that, with only my computer and a ton of files for Glenn's new swimming hole guidebook to work on. (As soon as we return my lovely bride will get to spend a couple of weeks creating all of the maps!) I don't know if I will be able to make any posts to this Journal or not - there is internet access to the house be don't know if I will be able to get it to work with my computer or not. So if you don't hear back from me until next week, you will know why!
SPRINGTIME is charging on here in the Ozarks, with more dogwoods beginning to pop out a little bit - most of them are still tightly closed up and not open yet, but one right next to the cabin is about half open. I suspect that by the time we return the dogwoods will be well on their way to being open here, with more and more trees leafing out. Looking out the window right now and doing a quick count of the landscape, I would say that up here anyway the normal trees are about 25-30 percent BEGINNING to leaf out. Still mostly brown, with patches of green popping up all over the place. The river below is also a marvelous shade of green, but I'm sure still quite chilly to jump into!
One problem that we do have right now is lack of water - the rivers are getting pretty low, and we need some rain badly. Not a drop last night as predicted, and I hear there is a new front moving in tomorrow - I hope it dumps a load this week - we could use a foot or two or three.
Sometimes you don't pay too much attention to all of the "pets" that you have in the house - the total number of them I mean. That is until you go on a trip and have to outline feeding schedules for each one of them for a caretaker! Good grief, we have a LOT of critters around this place! And each one of them normally eats a different diet, although Pam has run across one food item that will feed all of them - Tender Vittles cat food! Dogs, turtle, fish, fish, and yes, the cats all love it. Oh yea, I forgot about the birds in the window - they probably need real bird food. Put it on the list.
Aspen knows that we are about to leave, and he is becoming a real pill.
At the moment there are about a dozen vultures circling the canyon right in front of the cabin. I don't know if that means there is an injured hiker down in there, or they know something we don't. I guess they are getting all excited for us to leave! I may or may not make another post today. If not, so long until we get back (or before, if we can get connected...)
AFTERNOON UPDATE. Our beautiful spring day turned dark and dreary once again - another forest service "controlled" burn, and within an hour the clear blue skies were replaced with nothing but total white out - or should I say blue out, because the air and our cabin and our lungs were filled (are filled) with thick blue smoke. Haven't they burned enough this year???!!! My head is pounding now and my lungs are beginning to complain - no wonder a record number of folks in Newton county have had to go to the doctor with respiratory problems this year - how much extra are the taxpayers paying for not only the burn, but also for the extra medications and doctor visits? When I called in to inquire if it was indeed a controlled burn or a wildfire, they told me that the forest service had received an "extension" of their allotted time that Congress had given them to burn, and so the burning would continue farther on into springtime, ruining it in the Ozarks. I guess it is a good thing we are getting out of here for a week, but goodness what a shame it is that they are messing everything up, and causing so many health and other problems. Of course, they will say that all of this controlled wildfire will only help keep down real wildfires in the future - that IS true out West, but it simply does not work that way here in Arkansas. I guess that's the price you pay for the pockets of our national elected officials in Washington being lined with gold by the big corporations that helped put them in office. Hum, isn't there an election coming up this year? Nuff said. Cough, cough, cough............
4/13/04 We had a quick trip down to the Alabama gulf coast and stayed in a friend's beach house (thanks Ray and Susan!). It was pouring when we arrived, but it was great to feel rain again - wish we could have sent some of it back up here. (Glenn Wheeler kept watch at the cabin while we were gone, and reports a total of about one inch of rain here - hardly enough to settle the dust.) The house was literally right on the beach, in an area of very nice and colorful family homes. Most of the time we either had the beach to ourselves, or just a few folks around within shouting distance - not crowded at all. We were just a few miles from the very tip of this narrow bit of land, where the historical Fort Morgan is located. This is a most unique fort, and for anyone visiting the area I highly recommend you go take a look. I managed to slip away for one evening of shooting with my "real" camera, and found an entire area of mostly hidden rooms and passageways deep within the fort - they were open to the public, but the public never knew they were there - had to do some hiking around in between the walls of the fort in order to find the passageway that led into this area.
The rest of my time was spend either on the beach or at the computer. I got to spend some great quality time walking along the beech hand-in-hand with my ladies at sunrise and sunset, and visiting with Pam's parents. We got to do a bit of swimming too, and Amber built a sand fort, then a sand sea turtle with her grandma's help.
One memorable moment was when Amber and I were far out into the ocean swimming - actually the sandy bottom wasn't too deep there, so I could stand up. Anyway, we swam over to a huge black object in the water that turned out to be a gigantic school of little black fish - 20-30 feet in diameter. As we were in the middle of them several pelicans were dive-bombing the fish - they would hit the water right next to us!
Amber got to swim with the dolphins that came by most every morning, plus we went for a long boat ride to hunt for dolphins, and we found a number of them that included a two-week old baby. (I forgot my camera!) We also took a ferry across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island to visit a place that had tons of fish and other sea critters on display - the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Estuarium/Public Aquarium. It was Easter Sunday, and took us about an hour to get to the place (ferry cost $25). When we arrived we were told the manager of the place just decided that he would not open that day (only closed four days of the entire year, and Easter was not one of them). Since the fact this place was indeed supposed to be OPEN on Easter had been published far and wide, that was quite a dumb move on the director's part. We were not amused, nor were the others who had made the costly trip across the ferry. But sunshine spilled into our dreary day when an employee of the place came out, unlocked the doors, and said we could all come in and enjoy ourselves and look at the exhibits FOR FREE! That is the sort of person you want working for you - she could have easily just left the "closed" sign on the door and told us all to go home, but instead she stuck her neck out and did the right thing. She is a shining example of how to act. (the exhibits were very good)
When we arrived home I found more than 1,100 e-mails in my in-basket - many of them were junk, of course, but still I had to wade through many hundreds of real e-mails. And believe it or not, but 8am this morning I had either answered or trashed every single one of them! One note from some of you who may have sent me an e-mail and not received a reply - our server just installed more SPAM filters and tell us that some normal e-mails will get deleted before they reach us. If you have sent me an e-mail that needs a reply and I have not, please send it again, and if you still don't hear back from me, please call. I know that Congress finally tried to act on this issue, but they really haven't done much to help out yet.
"FREEZE WARNING!" That's all we heard on our way home yesterday, but the temp here at Cloudland barely dipped below 40 degrees this morning. The wind was blowing at first light (and continues to do so at midday), so the wind chill was kind of raw for April. Trees are popping out everywhere, although we are several days behind what I have seen in other parts of the Ozarks just a few miles away. Redbud trees are in full bloom with some on the way out; dogwoods are beginning to come out in full force in some areas - we have one really nice on just outside Amber's window that is just about perfect, while others in the forest in general are still hiding. I expect the next two weeks we will see an explosion of dogwoods up in the Ozarks as the redbuds fade away. There are still a few wild plums in bloom too, but mostly gone.
The forest floor around here is beginning to turn from shades of brown to shades of green and RED, with the red advancing rapidly. Hum, what is that red plant on the forest floor you ask - poison ivy, and LOTS of it, coming on STRONG! It's going to be one fine year for poison ivy that's for sure.
While out on a quick stroll around the loop this morning Pam found that most of the colonies of mayapples have not bloomed yet - in fact we only found one hint of a blossom, and it was PINK! Never seen a pink mayapple blossom before, and I suspect by the time this one opens up in the next few days it will be mostly white. Still, no telling what neat stuff you can find while down there on your hands and knees crawling around!
This afternoon I broke free from the computer and headed on down the hillside towards the river. When I went down yesterday Aspen slipped when he jumped over the bluff and landed hard - thought he had broken a leg. But just as I scrambled down to see about him he jumped up and took off running on all fours, like nothing happened. Today when we approached the top of the bluff he stuck close to me, then waited until I said GO before he leaped over. He landed on a ledge that he normally just bounces off of, and came to rest there and waited, then proceeded down the rest of the plunge, landing on all fours once again, safe and sound.
The forest on this steep hillside was probably 35-40 percent leafing out - meaning still most of the trees were bare or with very little green showing. The rest of the trees were sporting bright green baby leaves, all backlit and highlighted by the warm afternoon sun. And on the forest floor, it seemed like all the wildflowers that I could see last time going on forever had doubled, no tripled in both volume and color. And not only the phlox were shining - but probably a dozen or more other species of colorful wildflowers had joined them. Blues and yellows and whites, oh my! The farther I got down the hillside the more flowers there were (or it could have been that as the terrain got less dramatic I was able to view and enjoy them more).
Soon Whitaker Creek came into view, with a soft rush of running water to accompany the brilliant canopy of trees arching over it. I stopped briefly to admire the view and let the dogs take a dip, then went on to the main river.
The Buffalo was running pretty good, and that nice shade of green that mixed well with the blue of the clear sky above (and its reflection on the water). Did I say running pretty good? I really meant to say LOW, the river is really low for this time of the year. Still it was too deep for me to cross without getting wet. I made my way through the thick brush along the bank, down to the old swimming hole, just to see how it was coming along. Seemed like lots more erosion along that bank this year than normal, with tons of small, beaver-chewed sticks piled up by high water from days gone by.
4/17/04 Bright sunshine is just now hitting my monitor - the sun is lined up at the far edge of the drawing room, just barely getting past the edge of what used to be the east wall of the cabin, and SPLAT, right onto my monitor. It is both a welcome and comforting sight, but also quite annoying! The wind stopped last night for the first time all week, and I don't know if that was to blame or it was just time, but we heard a very loud chorus of frogs performing all night long - first time this year. I laid awake and listened long into the night, and then again several times during the night, and early this morning, when I woke up. And then all of a sudden, they stopped, all at once, and the forest was quiet. When I got up a little while later for a soak in the hot tub, there was a single frog that had started back up again. It was beginning to break daylight by that time, and the airwaves quickly filled with the songs of a hundreds birds, nearly drowning out the frog. Must be springtime in the Ozarks!
Yesterday morning when I ventured out to photograph sunrise 45 minutes away from here, I heard the first whip-poor-will of the season here - that is a sure sign that summer will be here soon.
And day before yesterday - actually two nights ago - the first lightning bugs came out and began to move through the forest.
Day before yesterday the pre-dawn glow in the eastern horizon (actually more NEON than a glow) was bright purple. Yesterday it was more orangy. This morning it was pink, not only in the east, but also directly above. Scattered all about up there were dozens of pink blots of color - the sort of clouds that are so soft they have no edges - no way a silver lining could be hiding in there, nothing but soft, delicate pink through and through. I could actually paint these clouds into a photograph, but you would not believe they were real. Often times Momma Nature IS much more than real.
Sunrise yesterday morning over the Ponca Wilderness.
Sometimes you never know exactly where the sun will rise, but this
morning it was easy to figure it out - X marked the spot!
(This is the same spot I shot sunrise from on 4/3/04 - look at how
far to the left/north the sun has moved in just two weeks!)
The sun has now disappeared into a bank of clouds and my monitor is once again clear. And the wind has started blowing. I cannot predict with great certainty, but I have a feeling today is going to be just one wonderful, delightful, beautiful, classic spring day in the Ozarks!
We have been steadily working away on two computers here at drawing the maps for Glenn's swimming hole guidebook. I can give you a little hint that this is going to be a neat book, especially if you like to get away from it all and take a plunge now and then into a pristine hole of water in the hot summertime!
A couple of photo notes: If any of you are interested in one of my photo workshops there are only two slots left in all five of them this spring, and those are on the May 2nd workshop (go to the main web page for the link for more info). And there is a photo contest that is going on here in Arkansas that might be of interest to some of you - first prize is $1,000! I will be judging the contest with world-renown nature photographer George Lepp in Little Rock in late May. It is all sponsored by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and Bedfords Camera & Video stores. I have met George Lepp a couple of times and he is a real hoot and a good guy. Pretty darn good photographer too.
We have returned of late to the tradition of Cloudland Pizza on Friday night around here. It was started many moons ago and quite a few folks have sat in on it. I developed these little pizzas back then that were made from this special dough that came right out of the bread machine. The tradition was lost soon after my girls moved in because a) the ingredients were a little bit much for their tastes; and b) Wal Mart quite stocking that special bread mix that was used for the crust. Recently we were able to locate that bread mix once again (thanks to my brother Terry!), and now the ladies absolutely love the pizza, so pizza night has returned! The ingredients are listed on the recipe page - that herb/olive bread mix really is the key.
Along the very same lines as the pizza, I developed Cloudland Appetizers, with the only real different being the addition of little smokies, everything rolled up into pieces of the dough and baked. It was fully SIX YEARS ago today (actually less one month) that I made them for the first time. I took them to the first annual WALKER MOUNTAIN party on our friend's Dean and Bonnie LaGrone's property high on a hillside overlooking Boxley Valley. Well guess what - we will be showing up at the very same party tonight with the very same appetizers in tow. Oh yea, that party six years ago (minus one month) was also the very first day that I wrote in this Journal, so it is sort of a banner occasion for me. They changed the party from May to April, but I still consider it the beginning of the Journal and the appetizers.
Nearly all of the trees have begun to leaf out up here now - both up on the mountain and down in the valley. This next week or two will be the most colorful of the spring, not only because we have dogwoods and redbuds out, and wildflowers a plenty all over the place, but because all of that new green growth in the trees and bushes is sort of like a giant landscape-size NEON GREEN light - don't ever see color like that at any other time of the year. I hope you all get a chance to get out and enjoy! Bad planning on our part to be stuck at the computers during all of this, but such is the nature of the beast. We'll try to sneak out once in a while to have a look too.
4/21/04 Took Amber out to the bus stop early this morning - getting light now at 6 something, light enough to see without any lights. Heavy overcast, with a very wet forest all around. We had a storm roll through during the night, but only got 1/4 inch of rain at the most - nothing like the wide dark green and even orange radar scan that is shown on the weather channel! I guess all of that rain is absorbed into the air before it hits the ground because it certainly is NOT getting down to us. We've had very little rain this month. I had to laugh at the local weather person this morning - "scattered tornadoes" today! Never heard that one before.
Last evening I had a delightful hike in the near-darkness. I've been hitting the computer pretty hard working on Glenn's book (Pam is buried in the computer too as she is drawing all of those curves), did not even set foot outdoors during the day, and really needed to get out and breathe some non-cabin air. The wind was blowing hard, and really whipping the trees around. It was just light enough for me to see without a flashlight, but just barely. Hiked up the road, through the woods, and out to one of the meadows. The forest was about as vocal as I have ever heard it - the wind in the trees. In fact, there were not only moans and cries coming from the trees but also screams, and I swore I also heard voices - indeed they were voices, the trees speaking the language only they understand, although if you stop and listen long enough you sometimes think you know what they are saying.
When I got to the meadow and gazed up into the open skies I saw lots and lots of movement. There were three different layers up there - the closest layer of clouds was moving rapidly from left to right; just up above them another darker, thicker layer of clouds that were moving in the opposite direction; and now and then there would be an opening and bright stars and black sky shown through.
The temp was rather odd during my evening stroll - I could not figure out if it was warm with a touch of chill in the wind, or cool with a bit of warm in the wind. Either way it was pleasant, and nice to feel the differences in the temps.
Right now the sun has come up over there from behind the hill somewhere, but it has not actually made and appearance yet. Oops, I take that back - the very tip tops of some large thunderheads down south are just now beginning to light up with brilliant sunshine. The wilderness and all else around me are still dim, although there is blue sky above, so I suspect it won't belong before all that spring green is illuminated. Way down in the bottom of the canyon there are several clouds hanging around - these are the new baby clouds that are just now being formed. There are also several cloud banks backed up into side canyons - Boen Gulf, Bowers Hollow, and Hubbard Hollow. Nothing up in Whitaker Creek though.
Springtime is in full swing, with dogwoods shining through all of that bright green. Not too many dogwoods in bloom out in the open forest though - mostly just along the edges of roadways, meadows and streams. The big one right next to the cabin is still all bloomed out and pure white - has been that way for a week or two. Plenty of wildflowers in the forest, also tons of them along the edges and out into open areas. Soon there will be baby this and baby that hopping and jumping and crawling and trying to fly all over the place.
We had a milestone here yesterday at the cabin, one I've personally been working on for nearly five years now - we got the first ever LOCAL television broadcast! Our "local" satellite station these many years has been New York City - the television mafia would not allow us to receive local stations. But finally they did become available in our area, and it only took us four months to get the equipment upgrade required (DISH network is about as a company as Fed-X ground is - and those two must be the worst in the business). Anyway, it was quite a thrill to sit there and actually watch them point to Fayetteville or Harrison or Jasper on the weather map instead of the Broncs or New Jersey. And one funny thing - when we finally got the new signal to work (the DISH computers were "down" went it finally came time to activate us - so we had to wait another hour) - the very first person that popped up on the screen was none other than my friend Jeff Beauchamp from BEDFORDS CAMERA. He was on the "Arkansas Outdoors" show giving some photo tips for aspiring photographers. Bedfords Camera is the best place around the state to do any sort of photo business in my humble opinion (I think they have six stores now), and they continue to help me out in so many ways with the digital transition that I've been going through for the past couple of years. Anyway, it was great to see his mug on the tube - and it really drove home in a hurry the fact that we could actually view local programming instead of New York City - no one is more LOCAL than Jeff!
Those baby clouds down in the canyon are moving around now and getting larger. Still no sunshine other than on the top of that cloud bank. I'm going to step out onto the back deck and shoot the Cloudland Deck Cam now and will try to include the top of that big cloud bank as well as the baby clouds down in the canyon...
Just about as soon as I pressed the shutter, the sun broke through and is now lighting up the canyon below. Looks like we'll have sunshine for a while today, but I hear there are more storms on the way - we can only hope some of them produce actual rain instead of just a radar blimp. For those of you who don't get to see the daily camp shot, here is what it looked like this morning - the second shot I took after the sun popped out:
The wind was blowing and dark clouds hovered overhead. Pam suggested that I not take a rain jacket with me - that would give us more of a chance that it WOULD rain - sometimes being prepared for rain keeps it away for sure. I stopped and talked with Benny, who was working one of several gardens that he is putting out this spring. A 100 foot long row of potatoes were already coming out of the ground. He was planting a 100 foot row of green beans, one of squash, corn, and several others. This particular garden patch is isolated and has always been a favorite dinner table for bears. Benny knows this full well, and urged us to come gather some veggies during the summer before the bears eat it all!
We drifted on down into the forest on the other side of the isolated garden area, past dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of wild crested iris that were in bloom. There were many patches of 30-40 plants, and often half of them were in bloom. The color ranged from nearly pure white to very deep and saturated blues and purples. I always love these little guys, and especially that range of personality.
Overhead the dark clouds began to gather up some strength, and made a lot of loud noises. Hum, could my wife's plan have worked? There I was out in the middle of no where with just my t-shirt and shorts! Come on rain!!!
A while later I happened upon the small grove of lady slipper orchids. One was already in bloom, with another 8-10 "boats" out but completely sheltered. Another week and these babies will really be something.
Umbrella magnolia trees are poised for greatness, and it won't be long now before they will erupt with their incredible blooms - when that happens, the forest is heavy with sweet fragrance - always reminds me of Hawaii.
As I approached the stream area that was the target of my hike today, I heard what I did not want to hear - absolutely nothing. The waters were silent. Yep, all of those big thunderstorms that have rolled through this week have produced zilch as far as the streams go - everything has been soaked up by the landscape. It should be high tide in the Ozarks right now, and I guess it is in other parts, but not up here. (are you tired of hearing me complain about the weather yet?) Oh well, the forest is nice and healthy and looking might fine - we'll have plenty to shoot this weekend, and, of course, they are predicting more RAIN tonight and tomorrow.
As I turned around and headed back towards the cabin, there was more loud thunder. And then it began to sprinkle. Man I thought I was really in for it. CRASH! Drip. Drip. Drip. I was torn between wanting to really pick up the pace and get back to shelter, and wanting to simply amble around in the wilderness and get rained on. Chances are it was going to be both of those - I was still a mile away from the cabin, and really didn't care. Come on rain!
As luck would have it, those first few drops turned into a few more, but that was about it. It got darker and darker and darker, and there was a lot more noise, but in the end only a handful of sprinkle by the time I reached the cabin. Two hours later now still nothing. However, it is dark outside now, and I hear some rumblings going on outside, and yes, YES, it is raining! Yippie! But not too hard. Just a foot or two is all we need.
4/23/04 Not quite light yet, although the sun should have already been up by now. Lots of heavy clouds above, and it is raining hard. Actually I should take part of that first sentence back - it has been LIGHT all night long! We've had one of the most powerful thunderstorms right on top of us for hours and hours. I'm sure it was several of them rolling through, but it seemed like there was so much lightning that we had daylight all night long. Many of them landed quite close, shaking the cabin with a great deal of force. Right now it is still dusky dark, on the dark side, and I'm watching one brilliant bolt after another hitting just to the south of us. The power went off around 2am. I got up at 5:30 and hooked up the generator and got the cabin going and we got Amber off to school just fine.
The rain gauge has been out all night, but before it died we already had 2-3 inches of rain, and I suspect we've probably received at least another couple of inches. So that would put us at 5-7 inches of rain in the past 48 hours - just what we needed and wanted! It is still too dark to see the river below, but here in a little bit I should be able to get a glimpse of it, and I'm expecting to see a muddy torrent. I'm sure the river will be closed today and with more rain on the way, probably all weekend. But it will be a PREMIUM weekend for waterfall hunting! One caution though for any of you heading out to do that - FLOODED STREAMS CAN KILL YOU! My general rule is that if I can't see the bottom of the stream, I don't cross. The only fatality that we've ever had on the Ozark Highlands Trail was a Supreme Court Justice from New York who got swept off his feet in about TWO FEET of water and drown. So be careful out there!!! Actually all of the falls will be running full tilt even on Sunday, and the water should be cleaner by then and down some, so I recommend to wait until Sunday or even Monday if you can. However, with heavy rains like this you can see some really spectacular waterfalls from your car - drive around the Buffalo River area, and on over along the "low" roads towards Cass and White Rock Mountain.
A couple of items of note from yesterday. Pam and I took a short break from the daily grind to hike around the loop. Once thing we found were GIANT dogwood blooms all over the place! I mean they were literally as large as you hand - this photo below is not manipulated! And some of the trees were covered with blooms this size.
And mayapple blossoms too seemed really large this year - several inches across some of them. A week ago I could only find a single plant in bloom, but all of a sudden this week they have popped out like crazy, and you will find hundreds of them in bloom all over the forest floor.
Last evening I attended a press dinner of sorts at the BOC lodge overlooking Ponca. There were reporters there from the www.gonomad.com web sight who were doing a story on northwest Arkansas. Billy McNamara and I were the "featured" guests. Actually we just all sat around and drank and ate (some wonderful food) and shot the bull for several hours. Very nice folks from Boston (the big city in the east, not the wide spot in the road over on Hwy. 16). Anyway, for the last hour I couldn't help but notice the incredible lightning storm that I could see out one of the windows - looked like it was approaching Cloudland. I finally had to excuse myself and get up and go home. As I did, it began to rain. I tuned in to the 96.1 radio station in Harrison that we have come to rely on for weather reports here, and the commentary was filled with the account of the large storms moving through the area. The guy kept talking about the "worst" storm being at Boston (the wide spot in the road over on Hwy. 16 not the big city in the east) and heading towards Fallsville and the "community" of Ryker (there is no such community - it used to be where our mailboxes are now up on Cave Mountain road). Each time I heard that report and could see another big flash off in the distance that direction, I hit the gas just a little bit more.
The more I drove the harder the rain got, and the more lighting there was. "Golfball-sized hail" they were reporting on the radio. The wind was really bad, and the rain was heavy. I sped on. Seems like the truck continued on at about the same speed once I hit the dirt/mud road, and I swear I could hardly feel the rough road! My main concern was that the girls were OK, but I also didn't want to get stuck out in heavy hail, so I pressed on. There was talk on the radio of tornadoes, and rotation in the clouds (via radar) in the storm that was "bearing down on the community of Ryker." I bore down myself even harder.
FINALLY I turned down our lane and a few moments later I was home. Everyone was safe and sound, no hail, and not leaks at the cabin. But man what a light show was going on outside!
OK, it is getting light outside now, and while the river is up and running wildly as expected, what I did not expect to see - while standing in the middle of the living room - are parts of the river way upstream - we can NEVER see that part of the river, especially from the living room! The river is indeed up, way up, way way up and headed out of its banks. I'm sure there are kayakers at this very moment drooling and making plans to ditch work and head for the "Hailstone" as this most upper stretch of the river is known. We'll see them charge past the cabin later this afternoon.
Still lots of noise and lightning off to the southwest, and I suspect that will continue for a while. I'm going to sign off now and get this posted, then go give the generator a rest...
Oh by the way, THANKS for the rain dance - it worked!
10:15am update: the power is back on, the rain has stopped for a few minutes. We have two photo workshops out here this weekend, so Pam is in town getting needed stuff and I'm here putting the finishing touches on workshop info and getting our digital projection and computer stuff all set up, and processing book orders. The dogs have been busy all morning out chasing turkeys. I suspect we'll have a good bit more rain today, tonight, and tomorrow - that should keep the waterfalls running for a while!
4/26/04 Our sleepy little mountain cabin was turned into a hub of activity during out digital photography schools over the weekend. Got to meet and spend time with a number of great new friends, which included several Journal readers (hope it was everything you expected guys!). Saturday morning began with a bang - literally. I was up and working at the computer at 4am when a bolt of lightning hit somewhere nearby - bolts and heavy rain had been keeping us awake most of the night. The power went off at 4:20am. I called the power company to report, and they called me back with a live person about ten minutes later to say they would be sending out a repair truck - what great service! Turns out a pole had broken off about a mile back up the line, and it took them most of the day to get it fixed.
OK, so we fired up the generator and got the cabin back online again. The rain continued to fall - more than a FOOT of rain in the past three days. When I met our first crop of workshop people, it was still raining, and would continue to do so all morning. We gathered at the cabin and went over all sorts of stuff in the digital classroom that we had all set up down in the basement. One of the things that I enjoy doing in life is passing on some tidbit of info to another person, especially about photography. One of the highlights of the weekend for me came just a few minutes into my first "lecture" that morning. One of the students who was seated comfortably on the couch lit up with a great big smile after I talked about a particular item, and then said "Gravy. That is exactly what I came here to hear - I've already gotten my monies worth - and it's all gravy now!" The workshop was only ten minutes old. I hope he got a lot more gravy out of the rest of the day because we sure did cover a ton of info - both indoors and out. Sometimes I worry about tossing out too much gravy - there is so much info to disperse and accept, and it is tough to capture very much of it at one time. That particular student added a great deal to the day for me as the others as well, which is part of doing all of this - sharing and learning together.
The rain finally did stop around noon, when Pam laid out a nice spread of BBQ from Penguin Ed's in Fayetteville (plus a homemade goodie), then we loaded up and headed into the woods to shoot a few photos. The plan to was to visit a neat waterfall area nearby, but the problem was that the heavy rains had really swollen the small stream - the waterfalls were running much more than full bore, and in fact were WAY too high! Not only was the water muddy, but also the spray from the thundering falls so great that we could hardly get close enough for good photos. But somehow everyone one of the students returned to the cabin with a great photo or two, which we eventually printed for them to take home. My able assistant, Glenn Wheeler, found a very friendly copperhead snake nearby the shooting location, and many of us were able to get a good photo of him. The snake was quite a ham.
It was late in the day before we had processed, edited and printed out a print for everyone to take home with them. And the power did eventually come back on again by mid-afternoon.
One more note about the power company guys from Carroll Electric. As we were driving back to the cabin at 8am (still raining), we passed two power company guys who were walking down the road in the pouring rain. I stopped and asked them how it was going. They told me about the broken pole and how they were trying to splice the wires back together again so we could have power, but that their truck had gotten stuck in the mud. So here these guys were, called out in the middle of the night in nasty weather, their truck buried in the mud, and they were on foot, and as they were walking off one of them said most sincerely - "I am sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused you." Good grief, what an incredible attitude! I do believe a letter is in order to the local office about this crew.
The alarm went off early Sunday and we were back up again and ready for our second workshop bunch. The rains had stopped and the sky was clear blue with bright sunshine - NOT good conditions for nature photography! We returned to the same waterfall area and found it much more photo-friendly, although this time there was no snake. We returned to the cabin later and spent the rest of the day in class processing and printing. Oh yea, first thing that morning as we loaded up to drive to the shooting location one of the students found that a hummingbird had flown into his truck. We were unable to get him out, so Glenn reached in and grabbed the little guy. You never realize just how tiny these birds are until you see one stopped and up close. He was, of course, released unharmed after a few photos.
At one point during the weekend - Saturday morning I think - much of Boxley Valley was under water, including the highway. Some of our workshop folks had been turned back by the high water and needed to drive a long way around to make our meeting place. Others rivers in the area were quite flooded too, and in fact we did not get any mail on Saturday because the main truck coming from Little Rock to Fayetteville (via Huntsville) was unable to get through. Lots of great rain all around!
OK, back to realtime. The sun popped up and shown across a bright green landscape, but it only lasted a few minutes and it is now hidden and overcast. There are still a few baby clouds hovering down in the canyon below, just waiting for the warmth of the sunshine to set them free. The water level in the river below has dropped probably 10-12 feet from where it was on Saturday, and most streams up in the mountains are already back to normal flow levels for this time of the year. After having been down so low for most of the winter it is great to see it. They are calling for more rain this week - which would be great. Perhaps we could spread it all out over a longer period of time though! But I cannot complain - I'm the one who has been pleading with the rain gods for months now for rain, and they finally heard me!
One last note about the photo workshop folks. One of the students turned out to be a girl that I went to high school with. She was a very striking young woman, and every male in school had visions of going out on a date with her - in another lifetime (she also happened to be extremely nice, a rare combination in high school!). I was, of course, scared to death and in awe of someone with such great beauty, and was scared to death to have even talked to her (and I told her so this weekend). Boy, did I miss out on a lot by being such a wimp!
In many ways I still am (a wimp), but somehow I did manage to get up the nerve later in life to talk to another of the world's great beauties, and now she not only keeps me on my toes 24/7, but also just happens to bake perfect cookies, which we all devoured during the workshop! Pam and Amber both did a great job of putting up with all of us, and added a great deal to the weekend as they always do.
Today it is back to the grind for us - working on the swimming hole book, processing book orders, and we also have to get the OHTA newsletter written up and off to the printer. Oh yea, and that letter of appreciation to the power company...We also have to prepare for a major slide program in Eureka Springs later this week (in conjunction with the "Buffalo River Symphony" by Chadwick Martin and 28 other musicians at the Eureka Springs City Auditorium on Friday), plus two more photo workshops next week, and have at least two trips into town, plus a basketball game or two of Amber's to go watch. At some point I hope to be able to get out and take a few photos of my own, but that all has been put on the back burner since there is just so much other busines to do. I'll make as many posts this week as I can - hope you have a great one!
Yesterday I did get to "take off" a few hours from work and get out and do some much-needed road repairs. The rains from last week washed away probably $1000 worth of gravel, leaving 6-8 inch deep canyons that needed to be filled in. I fired up the tractor, put on the box blade, and spent the next four hours in the warm afternoon sunshine riding around working on the road. At times it was actually really nice just to sit up on that big seat and lean back and watch the world go by - brilliant greens and blues all around me. And then the sun began to drop into the western sky, and I kept right on working. I did stop once at the cabin and made a nice big glass of cheap whiskey and coke to bring aboard. Eventually it got so dark that I had to turn the tractor lights on so I could see. The girls came home a little later on - Amber made her very first shot during a basketball game - the first of many I'm sure. All in all it was a great break for me up on that tractor, and the road is in much better shape now too, although still have a lot more work to do on it, but that will have to wait.
This morning I got up early and put the finishing touches on the May/June OHTA newsletter - it is now online for any of you who want to read it. I'm trying to get our members to read the newsletter online instead of waiting for the hard copy to be mailed to them - so they will see the info more quickly, plus so we can save a few trees and not have to print and mail so many copies. As time goes on as we adopt this as the standard, we'll be able to update the newsletter frequently, post notices and cancellations and the like, plus color photos and links.
Right now Pam is on one computer slaving away on swimming hole maps for Missouri, and I have a large print processing downstairs - got a big slide program in Eureka Springs on Friday night and am making a few prints to take along with us to show and sell. Looks like this will be the swan song for the BUFFALO RIVER WILDERNESS slide program - it contains all of the photos and paintings from the book of the same name, all put to music. After this show is over I will be switching my slide programs to all digital, and I will not be able to bring those images along into the new format, so Friday is the last one! (I think I said this last year too, but now I am beginning to invest in the hardware and software to make the digital projection thing happen - to the tune of nearly $10,000).
One morning this week I was sitting in the hot tub watching the very first rays of sunshine touch the tops of the peaks way out yonder. The forest was alive with activity - both motion and sound. A flash or brilliant red caught my eye - it was a scarlet tanager flying right at me. He pulled up at the last minute and landed on a branch about ten feet above my head. Looking around I realized he was not alone up there - a bluebird, goldfinch, and flicker were also in the very same tree! Quite a colorful lot they were.
Speaking of bluebirds, it looks like we finally have some residents in our large martin house - the entire bottom row of apartments on one side of the house has been taken over by bluebirds! First time we've ever had anything in there - I had just taken it down and looked in there a couple of months ago. It will be great to see if they stick around. Martins would be great too, but we'll take bluebirds anytime.
One note about the mess going on over in Iraq. Yet another good friend of ours has landed at ground zero, and he sent out the following account of his arrival in the country as they were driving towards the capitol city: "The locals greeted us with a traditional Iraqi display of horizontal fireworks.Ý I didnít take any pictures of that, as I was so busy admiring them and trying to figure out who I should return greetings in kind to." His unit had come under attack, their very first day there, and later on one of his friends was killed. In fact a number of folks from Arkansas have been killed in the fighting this past week. While I am not privy to what all is going on over there, and while I am very supportive of our brave troops (and their families), it seems to me that we now have no business being in Iraq, and we need to get the hell out of there and back home again as soon as possible. Perhaps it is time we concentrate on and put our resources into the great people of these United States and not continue to try to be the bouncer for the world. There is a large print of the scene from Cloudland hanging on this soldier's wall, and I hope that he will return to view it in person soon. Ditto for all in our armed forces serving on hostile soil.
EVENING UPDATE. Still lots of wind outside on this dark night, but no signs or smells of rain yet. I got to slip away this afternoon for a quick trip down to the river - the first since the flood. The trail down the hillside had been swept clean, and there were dozens of other clean paths as well - must have been millions of gallons of water pouring down last week, taking leaves and stones and branches and small critters with it. When I reached the bottom and made my way towards the river I realized that I was standing right in the middle of where the river had been - must have been more than 100 feet wide - and this was WHITAKER CREEK! It is normally 15-20 feet wide at the widest point in this area near the mouth, but the valley had been full, and I could not reach up high enough to touch the top of where the water had been.
The Buffalo was flowing nicely, and obviously had also been much higher. When I stood on the bank today I could see debris about ten feet up in the trees branches above me. Reports had the river way downstream cresting at more than 50 feet above normal flow, 30 feet high in the middle of the river. But all looked pretty normal today, other than all the piles of leaves and branches all over the bank and out into the low landscape around the river, and up in the trees.
Everything in that landscape from top to bottom was green, GREEN, lush green! Some wildflowers added additional color, but mostly it was green. On the way back up the hill I stopped and photographed a little ladder fern, and then just as I got on top of the real ladder I came across a little green snake - what other color of snake would be out today but a green one! This little fellow was a sweetheart, about 18 inches long, and friendly as could be. I love green snakes - they are just to darn long and thin. They really should be called "thin" snakes, but, of course, they really are green.
It is late tonight and the cabin is quiet. The ladies have gone to bed, and it is just Aspen and I burning the midnight oil. I have been working on the swimming hole guidebook and trying to keep up with e-mail and phone calls. The book is coming along fine, and I think Glenn will have a very nice guidebook that will direct folks to some pretty neat swimming holes in the many hot days to come. Speaking of hot days, that is one thought that I had as I made my way down and then back up the trail to the river this afternoon. Not too long ago the landscape was all brown, today everything was green, and in just a few weeks there will be cobwebs across the trail and I'll be battling bugs all the way down. How things change so rapidly. Nice to have at least four distinct seasons of the year.
I will leave you this evening with a photo of another little fellow that was holding on for dear life in the heavy winds of this afternoon - a lonely goldfinch that came by the drawing room window looking for a snack.
Looking up Whitaker Creek on the morning of 4/29/04
4/30/04 Just now, as I sat down to begin to type here (11am ish), an incredible bold of lightning flashed and hit somewhere to the south of us - I had a clear view of it, looking directly up the great Buffalo River Valley. A few seconds later the air began to fill with noise, a deep bass, then a rumble, an exploding shockwave hit the cabin, and the ground shook, and the logs and windows seemed to vibrate on and on an on for what seemed like a minute, although more like two or three seconds in reality. We've had quite an electrical storm here the past hour, with some heavy rain, but so far the power has remained on, thank goodness. We had our pond cleaned out yesterday, and it took most of the water supply that we had in our storage tank - actually it took every last drop. I did not realize that the storms of last week had knocked off the breaker to our water pump! We've got two photo workshops here this weekend - our well only produces 5-10 gallons of water an hour. Oops, where is the toilet - just go behind any tree sir!
It was on one of my many trips up to the deep well water pump this morning that the first big storm hit - by the time I could even access the situation, it was raining, no pouring, and coming down so hard I could not see the trees around me - just a wall of water. I was able to make out a dark figure on the trail just a few feet ahead of me - it was Lucy, hanging close and watching what I was going to do next. "Let's get going girl!" I yelled at her, and we both took off like bolts of lightning ourselves. Getting caught in a rainstorm like this one is no big deal - especially when salvation is just a 1/4 mile away, but for some reason I felt like running, I mean RUNNING through the forest as fast as I could, and Lucy was game for the race. I flew like never before, leaping into the air over logs and rocks, almost floating down the steep slopes, and covering a flat bench that spread out for what seemed like forever in a couple of breaths. It was a great deal of fun! And the rain, heck it continued to pour on down, but really, I didn't feel it much, except for the cool and relaxing wetness that covered my face. BOOM! That one was CLOSE! (that boom came while I was on my run, not right now - the booms seem to have drifted on past us now, at least the close ones) My pace quickened and before long I was standing in front of the cabin, not quite ready to go inside and dry off.
I have not written about the wonderful rainbow that we had here yesterday morning. Pam and Amber were gone to the bus, and I just stepped outside for a moment to take in some of the sweet early morning air - still not quite sunrise yet. There was a rather unusual color and feel and quality to the light this morning, and it even seemed lighter than it should be. I happened to look to my right - up Whitaker Creek Valley - and son of a gun, there arching from Beagle Point on over the valley and past Hawksbill Crag was a very intense rainbow. I looked to the east, and the sun had not even appeared yet - and when it did, there was a cloudbank ready to obscure it. In fact most of the sky was cloudy, and to the west, there was a very dark bank of clouds behind the rainbow, making those colors stand out even more. I raced back into the cabin to get my camera. By the time I had it all set up some of the intensity had gone, but still a very colorful rainbow indeed. And then it began to sprinkle, but that was about all we got out of all that drama. Oh yea, the sun did show up a few minutes later, but went hiding into the clouds.
While out in the forest early this morning I got to thinking about what was going on here exactly three years ago today. Little six-year-old Haley Zega had just spent her first night alone in the wilderness, perched on top of a boulder down in Dug Hollow. She had been lost since noon the day before, and there were several hundred volunteers out scouring the woods for her, along with several teams of bloodhounds, and four rescue helicopters. All in all there would be more than 1,000 folks join the search, from more than 80 government agencies and organizations helping out, plus the media from around the region was here covering the event. Haley's parents and other family members and friends had arrived at the cabin overnight, and would take up refuge here throughout the entire ordeal. Gosh, this morning as I wandered around in the rain I could only imagine what would have happened to Haley if the weather had been like this - she probably would have not survived. She did survive, through sheer guts and determination, and a great deal of luck. Thank goodness everything that happened back then during those long three days of hope and despair happened the way it did, and Haley is now safe and sound and enjoying being a nine-year-old. You can read some of what was going on by looking up the Cloudland Journal for April and May three years ago. Looking back I wish I would have written a lot more - especially about what was going on here at the cabin - but really, much of that was very private and no one other than those present needed to be involved anyway. But it was nice, and actually kind of fun to be able to let a little bit of what was going on here get out to the rest of the world. I know that many of your Journal readers took part in all of this in some way or another - no matter how small a part you played, I know the family would like to pass on a huge THANK YOU once again to each and every one of you - these people know how lucky and blessed they are to live in such a great state filled with terrific people, and they think about what you did for them each day.
OK, back to the storm! I'm getting ready to head up and take another look at our water situation, and begin to load up the truck for our program in Eureka Springs tonight. I guess this will be the first time that I have ever "opened" for a musical act before - not exactly Britney Spears, but I bet they don't lip sink this wonderful symphony they are about to perform for the very first time either!
And oh yea, here is a tiny bouquet of wild roses not yet quite ready to open that I would like to send out to Haley - thank you for touching so many lives three years ago and for being so brave and setting an example for the rest of us.
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