2/1/00 We were up very early today, around 5am. A silver sliver of a moon hung low in the eastern sky, soon to be blinded by the rising sun. As I lay back in the steaming water (it was 17 degrees outside, water temp about 104), a shooting star streaked across the black sky, leaving a trail of stardust for me to marvel at.

I made a quick trip into town, but returned in time for an afternoon stroll through the melting snow. Aspen got filthy dirty from head to toe in all the mud. Nothing is as messy as frozen dirt that has melted.

It cooled down in a hurry once the sun went down, and I spent a bit of time chopping wood to feed the hungry fireplace. For some reason, the fire was especially pleasing this evening, and I was forced to take a seat in front of it and spend the evening sipping a bit of Merlot and reading. Aspen's favorite spot in the cabin these days is curled up on the floor in front of the fireplace.

2/2/00 It was rather noisy out this morning - lots of woodpeckers working. In fact, I had stereo drumming to accompany my morning mocha in the hot tub. The sunrise was unusual today - it was a big red ball instead of the usual yellow glare.

I fixed a big breakfast, which included tea, the world's most wonderful Irish oatmeal (with brown sugar and cream), toast made from fresh-baked bread (the cabin smelled wonderful), and OJ.

Then I drove up into Aspen's meadow and began to spread the 150 pounds of grass seed that I had brought from town. It was important that I drove up and worked and then drove away before the ground melted - otherwise I would have made deep ruts in the exposed earth.

It took me over an hour to spread all the seed, but it was a delightful hour of examining the meadow and enjoying the views. Plus, an added attraction was the constant aroma of sassafras. The dozer had scraped up a lot of sassafras plants, and the scent of the roots were simply wonderful!

Aspen had his usual big time running back and forth and jumping into the air. He must have covered ten miles before I was through with the seeding.

Once when I turned around to change directions, I was stunned by several figures standing at the far end of the meadow - four deer. Two of them were big bucks, both eight pointers, a third was a spike buck, and the fourth was either a yearling buck with no horns, or a doe. It seemed kind of late in the season for the rut to still be in progress, but perhaps she was a real cutie, and the bucks just couldn't help themselves.

All four deer froze in their tracks, as had I. Fortunately, Aspen was no where in sight to scare them off. I very slowly reached into my fannypack to grab the digital camera, knowing that they would bolt at any moment. And sure enough, before I had a chance to take a picture, the two big bucks flipped their tales and all four went bounding down the hillside and disappeared into the woods. Wow, that was on incredible sight! Since the seed that I was putting out would soon grow into a form of deer food, I suspect these guys would be back, along with many others.

Later, while we were standing next to the bull dozer with Charles, Aspen jumped into a pile of snowy brush, and exited with a world record field mouse in his mouth - this dude was HUGE! It was large enough to be a small rat, but it was a field mouse for sure (they have ears like Mickey Mouse). He played with it for a couple of minutes, and then just gulped it down in a matter of seconds - he ate the entire mouse! It was Groundhog Day. Some groundhogs saw their shadows, some didn't. Aspen ate our groundhog, the miniature version. Hum, I wonder how many more weeks of winter we will have now?

We headed out towards the mailbox to take the outgoing mail, and found one of the buildings at the Faddis cabin moving across the Faddis meadow. Charles was dragging it with the dozer. Bob never has liked the tool shed that he had built on top of the root cellar there, so he was having it moved over to the end of the big garden, which really made sense. It was just kind of funny to see the building moving across the meadow.

After lunch we returned to the mailbox to pick up any new mail, and this time hiked along the wilderness trail. Melting snow is funny. While the temp was up in the low 40's this afternoon, and the sun shining brightly, it only melted certain parts of the hillsides. Any slope that was facing the sun (south) was melted quickly in the day, with only dry leaves showing now. But all the other slopes still were covered with snow. This is really evident where two slopes meet - one slope will be completely bare of snow, while the other is covered with six inches of snow. And there is a line right down the middle.

This snow divide is really evident from the back deck of the cabin. Since the view is looking directly south, what you see are the north-facing slopes looking back at you. And the sun hardly ever reaches these slopes, so the snow takes its time melting. Today, all of those slope are still covered with snow, and probably will stay that way for a few more days. So even though most of the countryside is back to the normal brown color, my view is still winter!

Aspen was covered with mud from head to toe again. I don't really have anything set up to bathe him in out here, so I got a large towel, soaked it in hot water, then gave him a sponge bath. This worked out pretty well. I need to teach him to stay on his back for this chore, and not bite the alpha dog.

Sunset seemed to linger around for a long while today. I spent most of it chopping wood. It was a happy, healthy day at Cloudland.

2/3/00 The phone rang at 5:23am - a guy from Ohio ordering a trail guidebook. I quickly went back to sleep. But was BLASTED awake a little while later by the brilliant pre-dawn light show coming in my window. I hate to sound like a broken record, but this was one intense display of color!

As I sat in the tub sipping my mocha in the lingering glow of the light show, something just felt different. The woodpeckers were replaced this morning by the sound of wild turkeys down in the wilderness, plus a couple of other birds far off singing. I don't know, but it just felt like spring. Hum, how could that be - it was February! Then I realized that it was rather warm - 38 degrees - nearly twenty degrees warmer that it had been at sunrise this week.

I fried up a batch of fresh-grated 'taters and onions, threw in some little smokies, and covered it all with sharp cheddar. Aspen wasn't hungry - could it be the groundhog in his belly?

A splendid day outside, lots of sunshine and warm temps, and still that lingering snow on the north-facing slopes. Unfortunately I had a pile of office work to do this morning, so we only managed a shot hike through the forest on our way to work. I plan to make up for it later in the day.

Well, I mounted the mountain bike to make a mailbox run, and that was a big mistake. Mountain bikes are not built to run in mud, and I spent a lot of time bogged down and going very slow. We still made it out to the mailbox in fifteen minutes though, and got to hang around for nearly an hour until the postman showed up with the incoming mail. I was forced to nap in the sunny meadow nearby, while Aspen ran around getting more and more muddy.

When we returned to the cabin, I gave Aspen another sponge bath. It was only then that I realized that I too was covered head to toe with mud - splattered from the bike tires.

The afternoon sunshine was too much to take, so I crawled up into the log swing on the back deck and took a long nap. It was kind of strange, being so warm on this side of the hill, while just across the way Beagle Mountain was still covered with snow.

The phone rang a couple of times, and I decided that I had napped enough, so we headed on up the hill to the office and spent some time answering e-mail and doing office work. Man, it was one incredible day outside, one of many terrific Ozark winter days!

2/4/00 After a quick trip to town and to Jasper to pay my taxes, I returned to the cabin and logged onto the internet - for free. Up until now it has been a long distance call to get into my ISP in Fayetteville. But now I have a local number that I can call to get into the net, for just $20 a month. All of my e-mail addresses will remain the same. PLEASE NOTE that I will continue to DELETE before reading any forwarded e-mails, as they are almost always junk mail or jokes or lists that I have seen a dozen times. Real e-mail are welcome anytime.

The very first thing that I did on the web today was to dial up the Arkansas Parks and Tourism web page, and discovered that they were using an image of mine on their opening page (and several other places) without my permission - a clear violation of federal copyright law. I told them that I did not mind their using my image, I just wanted to know who to send the bill to. It is illegal to use any photographs without the permission - and compensation - of the owner of the photograph. They are looking into it.

The next thing that I did was to do a little research on the next dwelling that I am going to put out here at Cloudland. It will go up at the high point in Aspen's meadow later this spring. It will be another cabin, or lodge actually, although it won't have plumbing or any of the normal amenities, and will be very primitive. It will mainly be for parties and a spot to get away from it all. I'm not going to use the Amish folks in Montana that I used for the main cabin, but rather will order it from a different group in Colorado. I'll keep you posted.

2/5/00 A cool day at sunrise, but a gorgeous morning - lots of wind though. We went on a hike out to the mailbox, and then returned via the Faddis Cabin, where we found Dr. Bob out burning brush. The hike was only about five miles, but I bet Aspen ran ten or fifteen.

After a bit of office work, I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the cabin, as company was a coming. Then it was time for a nap. Later, Roy and Norma rolled up. I met them at the door with a pan of warm chocolate chip oatmeal cookies just out of the oven.

We headed out into the chilly afternoon breeze and took a tour of Aspen's meadow. I showed them where the lodge was going, and we spent some time surveying the views with a pair of binocs. I think I'm going to get one of those powered telescopes for the new lodge. I found one that has 14,000 stars and all the planets and comets programmed into it, and all I have to do is press a button and the telescope will rotate around and not only find the object in the night sky, but track it as well. It will be a great scope for looking down into Boxley Valley and other places too - might even be able to see some elk down there!

Speaking of the elk, I forgot to mention that on my way back from Jasper the other day, I passed a herd of about 35 elk next to the road - the most I had ever seen in one bunch down there. And I forgot to take the camera with me! None of the elk have ever climbed up to Cloudland, and I doubt that they ever will - there is just too much food for them down in Boxley Valley, where all the big hay fields are.

When we got back to the cabin, Roy and I went in and got the four and a half pounds of black Angus steaks that Norma picked out ready (it took nearly two beers worth of time to get the marinade just right), while Norma and Aspen headed down the ladder trail to the river. They returned an hour later and reported a wonderful trip. Roy kept in contact with them via a new set of tiny radios. They worked pretty good, and I will probably get a set of them to keep at the cabin.

It was another typical SPECTACULAR sunset this evening, and we all took time out to admire the light show.

Hete came out to help eat the mountain of steaks, and to cook up a pan of 'taters. It was a good evening of fine food, drink and company.

2/7/00 A very warm day at sunrise. Clear, with no wind. But LOTS of birds out everywhere! Most of the snow had melted from Beagle Point, although there was still a spot or two left. But way up the valley there was still one hillside that was completely white - the hillside that got hit by the tornado a couple of years ago. Strange to see snow after all this time (more than a week since it snowed).

Most of the morning was spent in the office, then we biked out to take the outgoing mail to the box. No mud today.

On the way back we stopped and talked with Kenny and Benny. They were working on putting a top over the cellar at the Faddis Cabin. This is where the tool shed originally stood that is now at the end of the garden. They were prepping it to be covered with about five inches of concrete.

After a little more office work, lunch, and a nap, we got on the pony express bike and returned to the mailbox to get the incoming mail for the day. On the way back I put it in high gear just to see how fast Aspen could run. Son of a gun, even after having run at full speed many miles already today, Aspen kept up with me no matter how fast I went.

Later, we hiked on up to the new meadow, where we found evidence that a flock of wild turkeys had been there. I had hoped that wildlife would find and enjoy this meadow as much as I intended to, so we are on our way.

Aspen failed to show up back at the cabin - he must have been after the turkeys or something. It was nearly an hour before he came running up. While he was still full of energy, it didn't take him long to hit the floor. And he never got up for the rest of the night. I believe I finally tuckered him out!

The night sky was filled with shooting stars as I laid back in the hot water and enjoyed the show. The Milky Way was out too - the first time I recall seeing it in a while.

2/8/00 Temp 35 degrees at sunrise. No wind. Clear skies. Turkeys making noise off in the distance. Aspen romping in the woods nearby. Another fine day at Cloudland!

On our way into town we passed by three typical country characters hard at work. They were putting up a fence out by the mailboxes, and had broken the shaft on the post hole digger.

It was another starry night, with a streak or two leaving stardust trails.

2/9/00 VERY warm at sunrise - 47 degrees. And clear and blue at first, but a strong wind soon blew in dark clouds. The breeze was up in the 40mph range, and blew stuff off of the back deck. I spent most of the morning surfing the web, doing more research on "Aspen's Lodge" as I have now dubbed it. I may get part of it from Colorado, and part from a company in Oregon.

Then we made the mail run, which was pretty tough going into the stiff wind. But the ride back was very quick! Along the way we passed those same three characters. They had just finished putting a cement top on the root cellar, and Aspen had to check it out. Bob was out on his tractor, grooming the field around his big garden. Hum, Bob sure is spending a lot of time grooming out here these days - could a new house be in the making?

After an early but large dinner (chili mac), we eased on up to Aspen's meadow and spent some time just hanging out there and thinking. This is going to be a GREAT spot for that! The wind continued to howl, coming mainly from the east.

Darkness brought more wind, and there were white caps on the hot tub. But it remained rather warm - in the 60's.

2/10/00 It was 58 degrees when I slipped into the hot tub an hour before sunrise. A heavy cloud cover was moving towards the east, but the surface wind was coming from the east. Hum, east and west winds - something must be about to happen.

As I was frying up a pan of shredded taters, I saw movement outside. No binocs needed for this guy - a HUGE mature bald eagle was soaring around in the wind currents. Pure white and coal black. I just had to sit down and admire this great animal.

The Wildman came by in the afternoon, and we scoped out sites to put our "lodges" when they arrive. The Wildman is getting one too, and will keep it at Aspen's meadow for a while. One thing that I was trying to figure out was the direction of the prevailing wind. It seems that the wind does not blow from the same general direction out here at Cloudland as it does most other places. I have installed a post with flagging tape on it up in the meadow, and will monitor the wind direction for a couple of weeks. So far, the wind has come from just about every direction, with no one single direction being dominate.

It was like a spring day this afternoon, with temps in the mid 70's and sunshine. The wind died down near sunset, and all was calm.

2/11/00 A bit cool this morning - 37 degrees, with a heavy cloud cover. Make that heavy CLOUDS! The cabin was socked in, although I guess it was more of a very thick haze rather than actual clouds. I could just barely see Beagle Mountain across the valley, but nothing else. As I fixed dinner, the mountain would disappear in the haze, then reappear.

The haze has lifted somewhat this afternoon, and the air is still, but the temp remains in the upper 30's. Supposed to rain this weekend, but I am not holding my breath - we need about a foot or two of rain! My new picture book project will be springtime in Arkansas, and so I personally need a lot of rain so that the wildflowers and waterfalls look great for me to take pictures of. I already have many new images from last spring, but I still need a few more.

2/12/00 Today was one of the better days ever at Cloudland. It was just one of those days when the weather felt terrific, a lot was accomplished, and I felt like I belonged here. And this DOG of mine - good grief!!!

We set out on a little hike, and when we got down to the top of the bluff by the ladder, Aspen came running over to the edge and LEAPED right on over the ladder, bounced off of a spot on the bluff, and continued on down, landing well below the ladder, then sped off down the trail, not missing a single stride. He jumped down about TEN FEET!!! And he never slowed down a bit. The more I watch this guy, the more I am convinced that he is some sort of superdog. I need to look into getting him a cape.

The Amish came by to install a new section of railing around the hot tub. And they brought with them the newest member of the Cloudland family - a new BEAR, carved right into the post. This is bear #5, and he is now standing guard over the hot tub, ready to enforce the rules (no clothes, no sex). There has been a chunk of railing missing every since I installed the hot tub last April, so it was great to get everything installed at last.

And another addition to Cloudland was ready today as well. It has actually been out here for nearly two weeks, but only ready today. I got this beer machine from Cabela's, and the very first batch matured today. This is a neat little machine. It makes a little more than a case of beer, in bulk, and will keep it in the frige, carbonated, for up to several months. I am not a big beer drinker, but do enjoy one every now and then. Sometimes I just want a taste, and hate to open an entire bottle. This mini-keg will allow me to do just that, and without the bother of having to collect and recycle glass bottles or tin cans.

Oh yea, the beer tastes GREAT!!! I have four different types here. The first batch is called CANADIAN RED. I will carefully brew and sample each one, eventually landing on a standard batch, which will be called CLOUDLAND BEER, of course. I hoped that this beer would be good, but was really surprised when I drew off the very first glass and sampled it. It is easily the smoothest beer that I have ever tasted. Now, if I can just keep my superdog from getting into it...

The wind blew and blew all weekend, up in the low 40's mph. And it broke my last remaining bird feeder.

2/16/00 I was up and in the hot tub at 4:45am today, under the watchful eye of my new wooden bear friend. First thing I saw was a streak of light above - a shooting star, a sign of good luck.

Unfortunately it was not a lucky day for my little superdog - he had a date with the vet today, and lost his manhood. But as usual for him, when I picked him up from the vet, he wanted to get out and run and chase birds and the wind and such. I was told to keep him held back for a couple of days. I will try.

2/17/00 RAIN TODAY - YIPPIE!!! The rain didn't appear over the weekend last, but it did show up finally today. Along with lots of fog, thunder and lighting. At first it was a nice light, soaking rain. But it soon turned violent, and before long there were pools and streams of muddy mess everywhere. No matter - we will take the wet in any form that we can get it. Only problem is that much of my 200 pounds of rye grass seed carefully planted in Aspen's meadow will get washed away. We need the rain more than the seed - I can always replant.

My superdog is doing just fine today, anxious and ready to get out and run and run. But I am keeping him close by and dry all day, as ordered. We made two trips out to the mailbox, both of them via the motorized pony express - hey, it was raining!

The rain faded by dark, but a thick fog bank engulfed the cabin. And then a very strange thing happened - on the top ten list of bizarre sights ever at Cloudland. You see, the moon high above was nearly full, and quite bright. But there was all this fog. What happened was that the moon actually lit up the fog and created this incredible BRILLIANT glow everywhere. I've never seen anything like it before.

The temp hovered in the upper 30's, so I built up a big fire. I spent the evening curled up in front of the fireplace, reading and sipping a bit of sherry, superdog at my feet.

2/18/00 Not much sleep last night - the wind HOWLED and blew and crashes were heard all night. Lots of thunder and lighting as well, and several downpours. A total of two inches of rain. I hesitated to get out of bed this morning, knowing it would be frigid out with the wind still blowing in the 40mph range - I slept in until 9am. Good thing there is no boss here.

When I stepped out into the damp morning, I was shocked to discover that the temp was 60 degrees! They were saying on the radio that the HIGH for the day would only be 40 - hum, something was going on.

I spent the entire day in the office, and for the first time in a couple of months, I found the top of my desk. This spring is going to run at a HECTIC pace, but I am going to try to keep at least part of my desk free and clear.

The temp dropped all day, and was in the mid 30's by dark. No more rain though. But the river was up and singing at the top of its lungs. And much to my surprise, the waters were clear and clean. With the hard rain that we had, I would have expected the river to run muddy for at least a day or two. And Whitaker Creek was singing too - first time in a long while. So I got to sit in the hot tub and enjoy a bit of natural stereo.

2/19/00 A calm night, and Aspen got me up at daylight. ICE on the deck today, and lots of puffed-up birds flying around. While we were hiking up to the office, there were a few bits of snow coming down.

Spent most of the day in the office, but we did get out for one good hike in the afternoon, near dark. The light on the Crag was terrific - lighting it up against a black background of the mountains in shadow.

The sun set unexpectedly while we were on the way back. It was nice hiking in the twilight, and the glowing clouds in the western sky provided plenty of light. We made it up to Aspen's meadow and anxiously awaited the rise of the full moon - the first ever from there.

But there was no moonrise. I was a little disappointed - looked like there was a band of clouds over along the eastern horizon that was blocking the moon.

Just as I turned to head on down the hill, I was stunned at this huge, incredible, BLOOD RED ball inching up over the far hill - I had never seen a moon so intensely colored before! No silence tonight - the wind was blowing, and there were a number of night birds flying around. And, of course, there was the sound of me gasping at this marvelous sight.

The red turned to burnt orange, then deep yellow, then finally the perfect round ball was high in the sky and all silver.

2/20/00 Clear and bright sunshine this morning. And no wind at all. Lots of birds though - big ones soaring down in the valley too.

After a bit of office work and a nap or two, we headed out for an afternoon hike. The temp was climbing into the low 60's, and it was one PERFECT day for a stroll through the "winter" woods.

I wandered on down the hillside a bit and followed a bench that I had not been on before - had only crossed it a few times. What I found was a bunch of large boulders and blufflines, many hollowed out by the wind or water or something, which created many odd rock formations.

I crawled into a dozen or more refuges inside the rocks - some almost tall enough to stand up in. All were equipped with this amazingly soft power floor - rock dust built up over the years I guessed. It was all kind of weird, especially because there were so many of them, one after another. I tried to take a picture or two, but as is often the case, pictures just don't tell the whole story. I had seen rocks like this before, but never so MANY of them at once!

The views from our little bench world were great - looking down over the roaring Buffalo far below, and across to the massive blufflines across the way. I'm afraid that I was forced to lay back against a tree a time or two in the warm sunshine and take it all in. Aspen was his usual self - constantly running and jumping and flying all over the place. I have gotten to where I pay less and less attention to his antics these days - they are just non-stop.

We turned the corner and headed up into Dug Hollow, passing over the top of Robert's Falls, which was running pretty darn good. Just beyond, we entered the thickest beech forest that I know of anywhere - so thick that you can't stand in any one place without part of you touching a limb or leaf. Hundreds of little beeches, all decked out with their winter coat of bronze leaves, but tons of giant trees too, towering above the thick mass below.

It was somewhere in this beech forest that I lost sight of Aspen. He was off on another adventure I'm sure, so I didn't worry about him too much. I would not see him again for the rest of the hike.

I continued on through the beech forest and eventually came to a waterfall area. It was SOOOOO great to see this creek, and all the rest, running at something near normal water levels again - that rain that we got was very nice to the wilderness, and to all of us who spend our lives chasing waterfalls.

I took a few pictures, then began to worry a bit about my lost superdog. Still no sign of him, which was most unusual. I picked my way back through the beech forest via a different route that afforded me a commanding view of two entire benches. Then I eased on up the hill in the direction that I last saw him running towards. I could see a very long way from my vantage point, but no superdog.

Reluctantly, I left the wilderness, and made my way back to the cabin via a route we had hiked many times before, just in case he got my scent, so that he would know where he was.

Perhaps he had returned to the office - nope, nobody at home. Hum, it was beginning to get dark, and if I did not find him at the cabin, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Just as I got within range of the cabin, the alarm sounded, and I heard barking coming from behind the logs - Aspen was found!

He was glad to see me, but really muddy. Since he was still huffing and puffing, I think that perhaps he had just arrived. I was a little concerned that he had run off, but glad that he was able to find his way back.

2/22/00 The afternoon was warm and sunny, and Aspen and I found ourselves pulled up to the new meadow. I had a splitting headache and just could not work inside any longer. I sat down there in the dirt (no grass yet) and soaked up the warm breezes. As I rolled over I noticed something next to me on the ground - a chip of flint. After a little more looking around I found a handful of them. Hum. They were bits of rock flaked off by a previous resident of the mountain while making an arrowhead. That is not really all that uncommon here in the Ozarks, but I was thrilled to find them on my little hilltop!

OK, the chips set me off on a mission - I had to find an arrowhead. Since this bit of ground had recently been disturbed by the bulldozer, and we just had a very hard rain, things like bits of flint tend to rise to the surface. I spent the next two hours pacing back and forth across the meadow, my eyes glued to the ground. No arrowheads, but I collected a pile of the flakes. And they seemed to be concentrated in two general areas. I decided these two spots would be the location for Aspen's and the Wildman's new lodges. It was fate.

It was getting late, so I gave up my search and started to walk away. Just then I looked down one more time, and EUREKA, an arrowhead! It was broken off at both ends, but a genuine Native American artifact for sure. In fact it was probably a small spear point instead of an arrowhead, since it was so large. OK, now it was official - Aspen's Meadow is a historical site. And as I walked away back down to the cabin, I realized one more thing about the meadow - there was great medicine up there, because my terrible headache was GONE!

2/23/00 I felt like I was being watched as I lay there in the bubbling hot water. Then I opened my eyes and looked skyward. There was a huge cloud blanket stretching from north to south that was inching its way over me. The leading edge of it facing east was BRILLIANT orange.

I was called into town to pickup the first part of Aspen's Lodge, which had just arrived by truck from Utah. While it put quite a strain on Wildman's van, we managed to get all 34 lodgepoles loaded onto the top of it. Each pole is 27 feet long.

These special poles are hand-peeled and oiled lodgepole pines. I had ordered them Reese Tipis, makers of the finest Native American Lodges in the country.

It was quite a drive back out to the cabin, but the old van did a great job. The rest of Aspen's lodge won't be here for a while, so we stashed the poles at the edge of the meadow. Hum, the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to come together.

The wind was really strong, and as the Wildman and I celebrated our delivery with a sip or two of Turkey, we nearly got blown off of the deck. The wind had just topped out at a RECORD tying 55MPH - the strongest wind ever recorded at Cloudland. Some of the deck furniture went flying, but no trees were blown down, at least that I could see.

The wind continued to howl, which kept Aspen on his toes. And he really went wild when the outside alarm went off at about 10pm. We never saw anyone or anything, but something was out there wandering around.

Then we went out into the night for my nightly dip in the hot tub. Aspen ran out in front of me. It was pitch black out since there was no moon up. I started to make my way towards the hot tub when all hell broke loose. I heard Aspen's feet clawing and scratching - he was trying to back up, like he had just ran into something there in the darkness. He let out this weird bark/howl/cry, then came streaking past my legs and jumped through his little dog door and back into the cabin. Uh, oh. There was something coming at me there in the darkness, and I was totally unprepared, and naked to boot. Was it a bear? A person? A skunk? I didn't know, since I could not see squat, but a chill ran down my spine as I realized I was about to find out what it was. And it was obvious that my superdog wasn't going to be any help.

Just then I decided that I was not going to just stand there and be eaten by a bear, or stabbed by some intruder, so I wheeled around and ran back into the cabin and turned on the outside light. Nothing. Aspen came out and cautiously approached the edge of the deck, the inched his way out into the night. Something had REALLY spooked him.

Convinced that I was not going to be eaten by a bear, I slipped on down into the hot tub and enjoyed the light show provided by the sky filled with stars.

The wind howled all night once again, and I didn't get too much sleep.

2/24/00 It was very warm as the sun peeked over the distant hill at 7am. While we were hiking through the forest up to the office, there were a couple signs of spring evident. First, there was the sweet smell of WITCH HAZEL in the air. I LOVE this stuff! No finer fragrance anywhere. But I couldn't believe that I could smell it up this high on the hill - the bushes were probably down along the creeks below somewhere.

And I could see flashes of green here and there on the forest floor. As I got down on all fours, I could see tiny plants of some sort pushing up through the leaf cover, reaching for the morning sun. The process of wilderness rebirth had begun!

Later in the day I spent some time in the new meadow, which had taken on an overall green cast - the new grass was coming up! I had put down 200 pounds of the rye grass seed down, so it had better start to get green. Although the hard rains had washed away much of the seed, it looked like enough had stuck around to do the job of holding the soil in place until everything could get established.

2/25/00 As I laid there in the hot water there were black clouds swirling all around. The strong wind that blew all night once again was coming from the east - a sign of WEATHER moving in - YIPPIE! I know I sound like a broken record, but we sure do need more rain, lots more rain.

Later in the morning, after a short stroll in the dark woods up to the office, the sky opened up and it began to rain. I was so buried in the computer that I never even noticed. That is until a wet dog came running in the open door and jumped up in to my lap! The air temp dropped about 15 degrees in ten minutes.

2/27/00 I got called out of town for a few days, and so missed a major storm that rolled through the area yesterday. I spent today down in the Ouachitas, walking a short stretch of the Ouachita Trail. It was a marvelous stroll through the early spring woods, with a nice stream singing next to the trail. The first service berry tree of the year had bloomed, and many trout lilies were beginning to spring up all over the forest floor - just their leaves - no flowers yet.

When I got back to town I was met with one incredible newspaper article. The main newspaper in the state (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) did a huge article on my life at Cloudland - nearly two full pages worth. Over half of one of those pages was filled with a picture of me (taken by Karen VonDonge, who has been to Cloudland a couple of times, and is a terrific photographer) - I guess they made it that large so it would make a good dart board. I would much rather the image had been smaller, with more room for the wonderful words of the writer.

Many of the more famous (or infamous?) visitors here were included in the story, including Scott, Roy, and Terry Eastin. Plus a valued journal reader from California (Nanette). My ma and pa would be very proud of this article! And one really nice thing was that the Cloudland web page address was published (more on that later).

2/28/00 Still out of town this morning, but I did make my way back up into the Ozarks just as the sun was popping up over those rolling hills. I had to give a program to a group of young folks at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville. This was the Teen Leadership group, composed of the cream of the crop from the local high school. Boy, if I could just go back and walk in their shoes! I handed out a guidebook to each, showed a few slides, and talked photography and quality of life. Then it was back to Cloudland.

I had been away toooooo long! As I drove up to the office, I noticed that my little porch on the front of the office was piled high with boxes - oh boy! In those boxes were Aspen and Wildman's new lodges, and my new super computer. It was Christmas in February!

I was in a big hurry to rip open all of the boxes and have a look inside, but before I did that, I wanted to do a quick check of the e-mail. Big mistake. At first I thought the count was wrong, but after a few minutes of download time I realized that I was not seeing things - a new record for e-mails at Cloudland - almost a HUNDRED!!! And most of them were about the article in the paper. Not only did folks READ the article, but they went to the web page and read the journal and sent me an e-mail - I was THRILLED!!!

Sometimes when you spent a lot of time watching the news and reading the paper and talking to people and listening to the radio you get the feeling that the world is a rotten place. I'm here to tell you that as long as these folks who sent me these e-mails are in the world, it will be one fine place indeed. So many wonderful things were written to me by some very remarkable people.

I spent the next several hours trying to answer each and every one of them. Not long answers, but I did want to connect. I got a lump in my throat more than once while reading these nice e-mails. Every time that I would log on to send a batch, there would be more, and more. And the phone rang every ten minutes with someone saying what a great article it was. I was literally STUNNED at how many folks responded to this article.

Cloudland is one magical place, and somehow all of you fine new friends out there are now connected to it. I will humbly try to continue to update this journal as often as I can, and live up to a tiny part of what has been written and said. Thank all of you so very much.

All the while I was working with the e-mails and talking on the phone, this new fastest-in-the-world personal supercomputer was sitting on my desk, un-boxed and unplugged. Just begging me to fire it up and runnnnn. But I held fast to my chore at hand - it would see the light of day and spring to life tomorrow.

One of the phone calls was Kelly Kemp from KFSM TV 5. She was out to Cloudland last spring and did a lengthy feature story that aired on the 10 o'clock news (and on her own noon news show). Well, Cloudland struck again, and that bit of video won FIRST PLACE and is now the FEATURE STORY OF THE YEAR for 1999 in the state of Arkansas! Kelly and her staff obviously did a terrific job with the production of this piece, and really deserve this award.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention - my superdog ASPEN made it into the Democrat-Gazette article!!!

Good grief, all of this high brow stuff is making me dizzy. After all, I am just a country boy, no make that a wilderness boy (John Denver was the country boy), out here in my element trying my best to stay out of trouble and enjoy life.

Oops, backing up once again, I must pass on one of my favorite comments from the e-mails today that seems to fit particularly well right now, with me sitting here in my office flanked by not one but two computers:

"...you're sort of a Thoreau with a laptop..."

I will take that as a HUGE complement, and will now sign off and go un-box my new computer. I will return to earth tomorrow.

2/29/00 LEAP DAY! It began as bright sunshine, and that big yellow ball was pushing a lot of wind in my direction. High above dark clouds had gathered and were racing to meet the sun. Hum, big winds going in opposite directions can only mean one thing - WEATHER! It felt and looked a lot like rain, which would be just fine with me.

Knowing that I had a very long indoor day today, I was in a hurry to head up to the office. Aspen had other ideas, and begged me to talk a long walk instead. What the heck, I could probably use some time in the morning air before disappearing in the office for the day. So we took off through the woods towards the East meadow.

I decided that I would make this the initial attempt to locate the very first wildflower of the new year. It was still February, but March would come tonight, so wildflowers would be peeking their little heads up soon, and perhaps had already done so, and I wanted to be there to greet them.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. Lots of dry leaves along the trail. But no flowers. I kept my eyes glued to the ground for any sign of color. Spring always begins in southern Arkansas first, then gradually makes it way up here to the north. It was obvious that we were still a couple of weeks behind the Ouachitas in that progression. But I searched on.

Boy, my dog was smart to insist on a hike this morning. Especially since we had just spent so much time in town, and would be indoors much of the day. I don't know, I guess I have become an outdoor animal of sorts, and require a hike and lots of fresh air before I can get on with the day. Kind of mini renewal of the soul every day. No matter that the flowers were keeping themselves hid, it was a wonderful stroll through the forest.

We made our way across the East meadow, which was green with new growth of grass, or oats, or wheat, or whatever Dr. Bob had planted there. Aspen was running and jumping for joy as always.

I continued my search for tiny wildflowers along the lane that connects the east and Faddis meadows. Then I heard Aspen squeaking - sort of a high-pitched bark. He makes this sound when he is in pursuit of something. I had been so interested in the flower watch that I had not been looking around in front of me, and I probably should have this time. When I did look up, and down the hillside to see what all the commotion was about, I saw a flash of black. And then there was lots of crashing noises. It took me a moment or two to realize what was going on, but Aspen was in hot pursuit of a BEAR!!!

Bears don't hibernate here in the Ozarks, they just sort of go into their dens and sleep hard most of the winter. But they do wake up now and then and go out for a stroll if the temps get warm, like they have been here for a while. While I didn't get a good look at this beast, it was certainly not a deer or coyote, and nothing out here is that large and BLACK.

Aspen squeaked on for a few more seconds - he was really excited. Then he came running up the hillside through the thick brush. My first thought was that the bear was now chasing him and that I would be greeting the bear soon. But that was not the case. Mr. bear just wanted to get the heck out of there, and had talked Aspen into leaving him alone. Thank goodness - I was not ready for this encounter just yet. I know that Aspen will no doubt meet bears numerous times later this spring and summer, but I could wait.

As I walked on down the lane, I realized that the encounter Aspen had on the back deck last week might very well have been this same bear. And he was almost up on the deck next to the hot tub with me!

There was a bit more spring in Aspen's step for the rest of the hike this morning, if that is possible. And he lifted his leg to mark his territory - my pup just grew up a bit.

We made our way through the Faddis meadow and along the edge of the bench that overlooks Whitaker Creek. We did spot a single trout lily leaf, but no flower. Probably another week before someone sticks his colorful head up. But I will be out here looking for him again tomorrow. And I will be looking out in front of me a bit as well, scanning the forest for flashes of black.

After the exhilarating hike, I was now ready to head indoors and play with the new computer. Uh, er I mean get to some serious work. The sun was gone, covered up by the black clouds, and the temp dropped from the mid-50's to the 40's. I expect rain sometime later today.

Well, if I ever need a real job, I could get one as a weatherman - never rained a drop all day. Since their forecast is wrong more than half the time, I could do that job with ease! The black clouds stuck around all day though, and so did the rain.

It was after 11pm when I finally shut my two computers down and headed out in to the night (the new computer was set up on one desk in front of me, with the old computer on the other desk to my right, their twin 21" screens facing each other as I moved files from one to the other).

I was nearly blinded by the darkness as I made my way down the hillside towards the cabin - it was pitch black outside, but the stars above were sparkling bright. Sometimes stars just sit there, but tonight they seemed to be bouncing around - pure silver points of dancing life. Like every month out here at Cloudland, it had been one terrific February. I was now ready for spring to MARCH on in!

March 2000 Journal