5/1/99 It was another delightful spring sunrise at Cloudland, with a red ball sun, broken cloud banks hovering over the river, trees filled with singing birds, and me in the local warm swimming hole, grasping my Starbucks. There was no wind at all, and the temp was about 52. Mostly clear, with a few clouds here and there.

I have decided that I will make at least one post a week to the web site, as long as there is interest and I am able to. That post will normally come on Monday, although I will post more often if I get the chance.

It took me nearly an hour to finish my toasted bagel and OJ breakfast. The food disappeared in a hurry, but the view was just too good to leave. The first hour at Cloudland is so fine - just like it is most places. The quality of light then is wonderful, as is the promise of the new day.

I spent most of the morning working on poison ivy control. The sprayer that Bob brought out for me worked a lot better than the little hand sprayer I had been using. And I found a not-so-friendly critter at the base of an oak tree - a brightly colored and pissed off copperhead, about 18 inches long. He was not happy to see me, nor I him. After a minute or two of discussion, it was decided that it was time for him to relocate. His new home is down below the bluff.

I also got one of the log rails down on the lower deck moved from one side of the hot tub to the other. The last section of rail is on order, along with another bear post.

A herd of hikers appeared. Really - 24 of them! And they were coming up the trail to have lunch at Cloudland. They were members of a new hiking club from Russellville - TAKAHIK. This club is only a few months old, and they are already having two dozen people show up for their hikes - that is wonderful. And so were the folks who spend an hour or so munching on the deck and looking around. Lots of questions about the cabin - the logs, how old, where from. A number of these hikers follow the journal, and it is always great to meet them, and see what they have to say about the place "in the flesh."

As the hikers were headed out for their next destination, my friends Ray and Susan Scott drove up. Ray is the drummer for this great rock band that was going to play at the Ozark Natural Science Center fund raiser in Springdale tonight, and they were on their way there and stopped by to take a few pictures of the lady slippers.

The light was not very good for flower photography, but we were able to use a shade to bring the light under control a little, and Ray got some wonderful images of this group. And the wind even cooperated a time or two.

On the way back out, we came across a hognose snake, who was madder than heck, and was hissing loud and trying to make himself look like a cobra. This snake is commonly called a puff-adder, because it flattens its head and neck and makes all kinds of racket. I mean this guy was really steamed.

The afternoon found me back in the sun with a spray bottle in hand, working on the poison ivy. As the sun got warmer, and the breezes came up a little, I was forced up into the swing for an afternoon nap. What a spot for a swing. For a nap. Just to be.

I got up and headed down to the river as the sun began to drop. The trail on the way down was lined with poison ivy (IÕm beginning to notice it more now - the darn stuff is EVERYWHERE!). I stopped and admired several of the giant trees that tower above the forest. The canopy above is so thick this time of the year that hardly any light at all reaches the forest floor. It's a wonder so much of that ivy can grow in the in the dim light, but I suspect that you could grow this stuff on concrete.

The river look especially gorgeous this evening - deep shades of green and blue, reflecting from the trees and the sky. And all of the little single-stalk sycamore trees were full of leaves, giving a new color to the rock bar. It won't be long now before we are all making the trek down to the swimming hole just downstream.

The trip back up was a quick one, and I hardly even notice the steepness anymore. Well, I take that back, it doesn't KILL me quite as much as it has in the past.

Dinner was left-over grilled salmon and Cloudland appetizers (from the photo workshop). The evening light show was terrific as always. And just before the sun went down, I headed out for a short hike.

The trip up to the East Meadow seems so easy and short now with the new trail, even though it isn't completed yet. This will be a perfect nighttime hike route for sure, not to mention all of the other use it will get.

No critters in the meadow. The big dogwood at the far end was still in full bloom - the one that got knocked down by the ice storm. It seems to want to hold on until the very end. The blossoms were about the largest and best that I had seen this spring. Way to go dogwood!

A little ways beyond I came across the two peach trees. Both of them were full of tiny fruit. Now that I know about them, I will keep an eye on their progress, and report on how they taste.

No critters in the Faddis Meadow either, but the breeze was blowing the lush meadow grasses and flowers around, and it felt and looked and smelled great. My next big project will be to build the trail from this meadow to the cabin, along the edge of the bench that looks down onto the maple swath. This will complete a very nice little walking loop.

I spent the rest of the evening working on the journal and listening to folk music on KUAF radio. The moon slipped up over the hill soon after 9pm and lit up the world. It doesn't have to be a full moon to make me stop and stare - something about that moonlight! I shut down the computer and slipped on down into the tub to join the lightening bugs and the whippoorwills and the owls. It was a great May Day.

5/2/99 Same old gorgeous morning as the day before and the day before and the day before. I never tire of them! No wind at all, cool temps in the mid-50's, and blue skies at sunrise. Lots of birds out playing and singing to each other. There was one particularly loud bird, and it took me several minutes to locate him. A brilliant scarlet tanager was high up in the tree right next to the hot tub. There have never been so many tanagers around, or for this long. I like seeing them.

After a quick breakfast, I hit the computer, and worked on the journal backlog most of the morning. I finally got caught up from the long week at the end of April - almost. Then some friends from Fayetteville arrived for the afternoon. Ken and Terry Eastin, their daughter Jessie, and our friend Bryan Kellar (from Little Rock).

They always bring lots of food with them, and today was no exception. BBQ, and coleslaw, and all kinds of goodies. We ate well. Then we all strapped on our boots and headed out for a hike. First we went up the new trail corridor to the East Meadow. Terry had never seen such a terrific crop of may apples, and most of these were still in bloom. Soon there was a blossom behind her ear. Then we dropped on down the old road and went past the large groups of wild iris, although most of them were past prime. I commented about how they weren't very photogenic without their blossoms, and both Terry and Brian lectured me on the merits of the great pattern shots available with just the leave. As I got to looking at the little plants, I had to agree with them.

As we dropped down into a little hollow, the forest opened up with large trees, and magnolia blossoms. Then we found the showy orchids, now nearly fully open. The more we looked around, the more plants we found - there were nearly twenty orchid plants, although only four or five had blooms on them.

Then we visited the yellow lady slippers - always a treat! Next we dropped on down through the woods towards RobertÕs Falls. Bryan knows a lot about the flowers and other plants, and he was a wealth of information about some of the species that I had not been able to identify, like False Solomon Seal and wild comfrey. We also saw lots of horsemint and even some yellow honeysuckle, along with shooting stars, more iris, and a few flowers none of us could ID.

And the waterfall was running pretty good, and with the lush magnolia in bloom all around, made for a pretty stunning sight. The wild azaleas up on top of the falls were just beginning to bloom.

We stopped by Bob's cabin on the way out for a drink of water. He was out mowing the lawn, but took a break to talk a while with his guests. Bryan identified a plant growing in the flower bed at the cabin as chives - "grab some of those and load up your potato."

It was somewhat of an unexpectedly long hike for some of the group, but everyone did very well, but was glad to see the cabin. The hike had worked up an appetite or two as wall, and soon Terry turned to me and asked what was for dinner. Dinner? Hum. Well, here is what we found in the frige and put out on the table: grilled apple sausage, grilled veggies (zucchini, red and green bell peppers, green onions, tomatoes), sauteed onions, fresh organic green salad, fresh corn on the cob. It was a pretty good spread if I do say so myself. And it all disappeared in a hurry. Then we dug into this wonderful rum cake that had been hiding in the freezer.

After the dinner dishes were washed and stowed away, Jessie and I got out the stones game, Terry wrote in the journal, and Bryan and Ken fixed the swing. Oh yea, I forgot to tell ya about the swing. Jessie and Terry were just settling in for a nice relaxing swing when the eye bolt came right out of the roof fixture, and one end of the swing came tumbling down. Jessie couldn't stop laughing, so we figured that Terry was OK.

Anyway, Jessie and I played the stones game - she is very sharp and had me running in circles in no time. Then she taught all the rest how to play. Once it got dark, we all gathered out on the lower deck and looked at the various planets through the tele. By the time they all reluctantly packed up and drove away, it was 9:30pm. They had just come out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Cloudland does that to people. All in all is was one fine visit, and I enjoyed having them all out. Oh yea, and here is what Terry had to say:

"Dear Tim - I can not remember an afternoon I have ever enjoyed more than this afternoon. My surprise and delight at all of the wonderful things you, Ken, Jessie, Bryan and I saw on the hike will stay with me long after this day. More often, than not, the beauty of the simple, non-obstrusive plant life so full of the richness of life brought tears to my eyes. I am so grateful that somewhere in this often disappointing, and frequently frustrating thing called life, there is so much harmony and peaceful coexistence in nature. Isn't it delightful that plants don't take offensive at one another's actions, that there is always another place where some new species can announce its existence, After passing through the twilight of their existence, they fall to earth to nourish the next, brave attempt. And, so on. All things begin and end in this cycle. I would hope, if you are still around and not totally incapacitated or incompetent, you will bring my ashes to the showy orchid place perched above the bubbling stream in one of the prettiest hollows I've ever seen. Scatter my ashes near the orchids, under the wild magnolias, so that I will rest knowing the last of my earthly existence was used to nourish a few of the crowning glories of the natural earth. For me, that would be heaven. With honor and great respect for the work you do, --- Terry Eastin"

Well, I couldn't have said anything near as good. So I shut down the computer tonight just as the bright moon is rising above the far hillside, and will slip into the tub to converse with the stars and the moonlight and the night creatures.

5/3/99 One thing that I have noticed about this hot tub - it get me up and out of bed early! I have met the sunrise, or beat it, every day since the tub arrived. Today was no different. The sun rose quickly into a band of clouds and disappeared. There were lots of birds out, but they seemed to be staying put instead of flying around.

I spent most of the morning working on getting the April journal finished up. Man, that was quite a month - 63 full pages of text in the journal! That's about twice as much as any other month. Of course, I was out here every single day of the month, which I had never been before.

Soon I will have to sit down and begin the long process of editing over 350 pages of the journal - I will have to cut it at least in half, since those 350 pages are about equal to 700 book pages. Yikes! It will be fun. I'm sure I will take out a lot of the personal stuff, and that should cut a lot.

I cleaned up the cabin a bit and packed my stuff and headed back to town around noon - had to get some film to the processor so that I could include some of the images in the final April journal post that I plan to make tonight.

For those of you who send e-mail, please note that I will be out in the woods for the next couple of days and will not have any e-mail access. It is OK to send all you want, just know that I won't be able to answer until Thursday night or Friday.

And speaking of Thursday, for those of you in NW Arkansas, be sure to tune in to TV 5 on the 10pm news on Thursday for the Ozark Spirit piece - three minutes of Cloudland on TV!

From now on, I will try to make at least a weekly post to the journal here, and will do so on Monday of each week. The posts may be more frequent, but you can almost always count on Monday.

5/4/99 It got dark in a hurry, very dark. Really DARK! And it was 3 in the afternoon. Not a good time to be where I was. But then again, it was a great time to be where I was! I was out in the middle of the wilderness, wandering around like I have been known to do lately, with no real destination in mind. It had rained about an inch overnight, and so all of the creek and waterfalls were running pretty good. I was just out to see all that I could see.

The wind hadn't been much of a problem, and it was warm, in the upper 60's. I was down in this little drainage where I had seen some nice waterfalls before, a mile or more from the cabin. As I made my way down the steep hillside, black clouds were gathering overhead. I felt like I should have brought along a flashlight. And then a bright flash and a tremendous crash - it shook the ground and reverberated on for a few seconds. And then the sky opened up and it began to pour, really big drops, and a LOT of them.

It was my good fortunate to not only have actually brought a rain coat along in my pack, but more importantly to be within a few hundred yards of this great bluff overhang that I knew about. I managed to put on my rain gear before getting drenched, then slid down the hillside until I reached the overhang. It didn't take me too long to get there.

It was great to be out of the deluge and in the dry. And this particular overhang was not only a welcome shelter, but it was also quite scenic. The far end began at a solid part of the bluff, and was maybe four or five feet tall, and several feet deep. As the bluff continued on, the sweeping overhang grew both in height and depth. By the middle of the hundred yard length, it was fully fifteen feet tall and perhaps twenty feet deep. The floor consisted with a series of rock slabs that had fallen out of the ceiling, some of them jagged and irregular, others squared off and smooth.

At the other end, the stream tumbled on by just beyond, in the form of several waterfall cascades that dropped into a couple of emerald pools. There were five or six umbrella magnolia trees, in full bloom today, surrounding the pools and at the edge of the bluff. And scattered along the back wall of the bluff shelter were lots of ferns and tiny wildflowers and other green things growing there.

As the rain intensified, the waterfalls picked up, and soon they were running full tilt. The creek remained clean and clear. I stayed under cover as the rain continued, and it got louder and louder. There were many more flashes and cracks of thunder too. I was expecting to see another one of those rock slabs get jarred loose and come crashing down at any minute - I was careful not to stand under any suspicious looking spots. The trees were thrashing around back and forth. Even down in this deep little canyon, the wind was high.

I sat down and began to think about the early people who lived in these hills, and wondered how many Native Americans had dodged raindrops under this very same overhang. Come to think of it, I'll bet it had been used as a shelter a lot. I looked around for any grindstones, but never found any. There had been some diggings in the past though, pot hunters no doubt, so any important artifacts had long since been stolen.

After an hour of heavy rain, the creek was swollen and beginning to get a little muddy, and the waterfalls were simply spectacular! I had never seen them like that before. And I was getting a little chilled. I was either going to have to build a fire and wait it out, or take the plunge and head out into the downpour and go back to the cabin. It was getting late in the day, so I decided to get wet. My little scenic refuge was very nice, and I hated to leave, but the thought of those dry and warm logs was just too inviting.

As I made my way up the hillside, the rain seemed to come down harder and harder. At times it was so heavy that I could barely see. I knew the way though - straight up the hill! By the time I reached the top of the ridge, the rain began to let up, and it got a lot lighter out. Every tiny drainage was running full blast. Boy, I'll bet some of the larger waterfalls were something to see!

I really enjoy walking in the rain. Don't know why. Especially when I am not in a hurry, and have easy trail, or am just wandering through the woods like I did on my last part of the hike today. There is something about being out there in nature. You seem to be more a part of it, more connected somehow, when it is raining and you are getting wet, just like the trees and the rocks and the critters. Well, maybe not the critters - most of them are snug in a hole somewhere, like most smart things are. Give me a warm spring shower to hike in anytime!

Back to the cabin, and it was warm and dry. I stripped off everything on the front porch and went inside to check the vitals of the storm. Two inches of rain in about two hours! That was a lot. Three inches for the day so far. And the wind had topped out at 41mph. Only one chair on the back deck had been blown over. The rain stopped.

I could hear the river below, even from inside the cabin. Holy smokes, it was running wild down there! All of the boulders in the river were completely covered, and the river was out of its banks - never seen it so high before in my two years here. And there were haystacks of muddy water five or six feet tall. It was a raging torrent, and swallowing up a few trees along the way I bet. The spot where Whitaker Creek and the Buffalo came together was just one large spot of water - no longer two distinct streams.

This was the kind of water levels that the pros like to have when they run the Hailstone. I guess that is all fine and good, but when the water is that fast and muddy, you don't really get the chance to see the beauty of the river and the pools and the rocks. It is a trade off, because I'm sure it is one heck of an exciting float!

I warmed up a bit with a cup of Cloudland cocoa, then fixed a big dinner of Greek pasta. My job for the evening was to print out the entire journal - May '98 through April '99. It took about an hour to print out - 350 pages is a BIG stack of paper. I sat down and read a few days here and there as they came out of the printer. Gosh, did I really do that last year?

Lots of fat to trim out of the journal, but there are also a number of essays that I had written but never included in the journal that will have to be added to the mix. I will sit down and do a first edit myself, then will turn the entire pile over to my editor, Beth Motherwell. She will cut and slash and give advice about what to leave in or out, and help with the grammar and tense and stuff like that. I don't want it to be too polished.

Bob had come out to work in the garden, but was unable to get anything done. He said it was cold and damp in his little cabin, so he built a fire in the wood stove - after he fixed the door of it that had been broken. You don't expect to have to build many fires in May in Arkansas.

By the time I made my way up to the loft to bed, stars began to appear.

5/5/99 The sun rose into a clear blue sky. The wind was calm, and the wilderness had been scrubbed clean. The river was still a boiling muddy mess, but there was one boulder sticking up through it all, so the water had crested during the night and it was falling. Still very noisy though, as was Whitaker Creek. Lots of birds out. A few cloud banks down hugging the river, which began to move as the sun warmed them up.

I had wanted to get out and take a few waterfall pictures this morning, but the sunshine messed all of that up - I need cloudy skies for waterfall pictures. That may not make any sense, but it is true. When the sun is out, the lighting is just too harsh, and a lot of the rich colors and textures are lost. My next picture book project will titled ARKANSAS SPRING, so I need lots of great spring shots. I am really just getting started on this project, and have some good material from the past couple of weeks, but the bulk of it will be shot next spring - March, April and May, all over the state, with a publication date of October 2001. And that picture of Neil Compton Falls that I took last week will probably be on the cover.

I spent some time out on the lower deck enjoying the morning. The storm had blown in a number of the bright blue Indigo Buntings, and they were having a ball chasing each other back and forth across the meadow. They kept very low to the ground. I believe this is the first that I have seen of them this year. They are always good to have around. I wonder how they will react to the bluebirds, and vice versa? We try to keep from clashing out here at Cloudland - scarlet and blue go together fine, but blue and blue? I'm sure we will work it out.

No hummingbirds this morning - the storm must have blown them away somewhere.

The cabin was filled with the sounds of Beatles nature music. The folks from the TV station swiped my CD when they were here a couple of weeks ago, and so I have been without it since. They used some of it as the soundtrack to the story that they did out here. I can't wait to see it tomorrow night.

All too soon I had to pack up and leave. I do have a real job this month, and it is down in southwest Arkansas, laying out a new hiking trail along the Cossatot River. I was supposed to be down there all week, but couldn't resist just a few more days of spring at Cloudland. I will be back in a couple of days.

This drawing was sent to me from a faithful journal reader up in Canada. Isn't it GREAT! She also sent along the following details:

• a gun is propped up against the 'tub' complete with a box on which is printed 'rubber bullets'
• on the trunk of the tree, is a black and white warbler bird (below the three birds) which I helped you identify.
• of course you noticed the lizard near the water barrel that you and Chally had observed.
• of course I had to include the 'friendly bear' - he's hard to miss!
• you can just see the tail end of a skunk on the bottom right hand of the drawing (above my initials) that's the one you saw when climbing a ledge once.
• the rabbit on the left hand side is the rabbit that appeared on Easter morning just as Chally was leaving.
• The two foxes on the right of the tub are the ones observed playing from your deck
• did you notice the water moccasin snake coiled around the post (left of the gun)
• the fire lit under the tub
• you're holding a bottle of Arkansas ale with your left hand and a pair of binoculars with your right hand.
• the contraption of pipes held by wire and wooden props are what came to mind when you said your first setup of the cistern looked 'hillbilly'.
• the hawks on the horizon are self explanatory.
• of course the drawing isn't complete with lots of butterflies flying around.

5/7/99 The wind was blowing hard when I stopped by to visit with Bob, who with hoe in hand was working in his big garden. He showed me his plans to build a very large basement next to the Faddis Cabin, and then eventually to put a big room with loft on top of that. All of this will be right next to the garden He wants to dig in. Most of the potatoes that we had planted there a few weeks ago got drowned, so he has big plans to put in an elevated bed for most of the garden to keep his plants and stuff well drained. Since he has no way to water his garden, the bigger problem will be a lack of water during the summer.

The wind was clam at the cabin, and the birds were out in full force. It was one of those blue sky, puffy white clouds kind of a day - just spectacular, and relaxing at the same time. A wave of gold finches were working down low in the meadow. There were Indigo buntings higher up, mostly hanging out in the dogwoods. And my bluebird family was busy as usual.

As the sun got low, and the quality of light took on this golden hue, I got a pair of loppers from the shed and headed out to trip up the trail to the East Meadow. I cut out small trees and branches and stuff for about an hour, finishing up at the East Meadow. This was the second phase of construction. It was very nice working there in the forest. Everything was quiet and still and serene. The stands of large mayapples were still holding on, although their flowers were pretty much gone - apples soon now. The trail goes through the stand of maples, and so most of the understory is clear, and you can see way on out into the forest. The next part of the construction will be a lot tougher - sidehilling.

When I returned to the cabin I put on some dough mix for a Cloudland pizza. After all, it was Friday night, and that is the standard fare. Danny Woods and a couple of his friends came driving up on four-wheelers. They spent the next few minutes out on the lower deck talking ninety to nothing. They had names for every single point, ridge, hollow, and spot that we could see. And they were all people names. Many of which I had never heard before, but must have been folks who lived here or there. They all grew up stomping around the wilderness, and so knew it quite well. "We killed four bears over on that point one day" one of them said. Hum. I guess they've had bear problems here for a long time.

Later, Bob came by with their wives to see the place, but it had already turned dark and they could only guess at the view. The late sun beaming across the wilderness was pretty darn nice.

Ken Eastin drove up. His wife and daughter were coming out later, and they were all going to spend the weekend. He and I tore into the pizza, drank a few beers, listened to the Blues on KUAF, and conversed long into the night. The stars were just spectacular! All of the storms during the week had scrubbed the air clean, and the sky was coal black. Terry and Jessie didn't show up until about 2am.

5/8/99 I missed the sunrise, but did crawl out of bed soon after, and spent some time in the tub enjoying the early day. Birds, birds, birds! And lots of singing going on. Flashes of color everywhere. Besides the goldfinches, bluebirds and Indigo buntings, there were a couple of scarlet tanagers flying around too.

The tanagers seemed to rule the roost. At least this one guy did. I could hear a loud song, but couldn't quite find the singer. There were many different levels of song this morning, and I'm sure a real naturalist could just sit back, close her eyes, and name off a dozen different birds. But I'm still a junior naturalist in training, and so do know many songs. Anyway, I kept looking for this loud singer, and finally found him, not twenty feet away, in the top of the oak that is growing up through the lower deck - a scarlet tanager, a big guy, and he was singing at the top of his lungs. He stayed there for over an hour.

At one point there was a hummingbird in a dogwood tree, his brilliant green feathers shining in the sunlight, and a Indigo Bunting sitting on the same branch - it was odd to see them together, but they were getting along just fine. The hummer was waiting for me to put out a new batch of sugar water in the feeder. It was cooling on the post. I am going to time how long it takes for one to return to the feeder once I put it back out.

Clear blue skies, and no wind. The rivers were running clear and loud down below. No one else in the cabin got up until after 9am. Cloudland is not a very good place to sleep late - the early morning is just so darn nice out here! However, those that do manage to sleep in late get the third degree when they do rise.

An Eastern Kingbird landed in the top of the big pine tree - never seen one before out here I don't think. It reminded me that I needed to get the life list of birds that have been seen at the cabin put together. Then it can be updated as new species are seen.

We all spent the afternoon working on food preparation, sitting and looking around, and just general Saturday afternoon cabin stuff. A young lady from Fayetteville stopped by while on a hike and left a wonderful bag of chocolates. Good stuff.

Ken and Jessie and I located a spot in the woods near the cabin to put up the big hammock. The stand that it is normally on is just too big, and takes up nearly the entire lower deck. Plus, not very many people used it there. I wanted the hammock out in the woods, away from all the cabin traffic, somewhat of a private spot, where one can go and lay back and nap or read in the forest. But still close enough to the cabin. We had to haul away a bunch of brush from the area, and had to drill into two trees and install eye bolts, but soon had the hammock in place and well tested. I suspect this will be a favorite spot for cabin visitors, and the owner. The horseshoe pit will be located nearby, so it might get a little noisy though.

Jessie went off four-wheeling with the Woods folks, and we didn't see her for a while. Terry slaved away in the kitchen. Ken and I laid out a new trail that runs from the cabin on up to the Faddis Meadow. It follows along the lower edge of a wide bench, and looks down on the trail to the Crag, and out through the great maple forest there. This will be a very nice route, once I get it built that is.

Just as the setting sun began to lite up the wilderness, Dan and Deborah Coody from Fayetteville showed up. They had not been to the cabin before, and arrived at the peak of the light show for the day. They have a very nice spot of land over near Sweden Creek Falls, and a cabin there. I had never spent any time with them, and was looking forward to getting to know them.

And one of the best ways to get to know someone is over dinner. And we put on quite a spread this night. Grilled beef filets and salmon and potatoes, baked carrots, this incredible fruit salad creation, wonderful rolls, and for desert, chocolate-covered strawberries and homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It was all very good indeed.

A pest of sorts showed up during the evening - no-see-ums. And they weren't just outside, but had found a way into the cabin. Somewhat of a pain, but we survived.

After dinner, Dan brought out some very fine Scotch. I'm not a Scotch drinker, but this stuff was very good. Now I am a Scotch drinker.

It was a wonderful evening filled with good food, great friends and lots of stars. Before long it was midnight, and we shut down the cabin and went to bed.

5/9/99 Dan and Deborah were up early and out enjoying the first rays. I made coffee and blueberry biscuits. We spent the morning watching all of the flashes of color playing in the trees, down in the meadow and flying back and forth. Lots of bird activity. And one spectacular red and black scarlet tanager sole the show. Several summer tanagers too.

It was a typical spring day - blue skies, a nice breeze, and just an overall relaxing atmosphere in the air.

All too soon Dan and Deborah packed up and headed back to town. After a little walk and a bit of time in the hammock for Terry and Jessie (I heard a lot of giggling coming from over their direction), they too packed up and left. Ken had to drive over to Richland Creek to meet with some folks. I hung around for a while, enjoying the afternoon, doing a little writing, and testing out the hammock to make sure it was safe to lay in. It took me an hour to do the testing. A slight breeze, a little sunshine filtering down through the trees, birds and wind chimes singing - what a delightful, relaxing time. The entire weekend was a lot like that, filled with great food and genuine people.

AND, for a birthday present, Ken/Terry/Jessie brought me this neat checkers set. It is actually a thick piece of cloth with large squares and checkers about three inches in diameter. It found a home in the center of the dining table. Looks pretty darn good there, with a bouquet of wildflowers.

A note left by a Cloudland visitor:

"Though Cloudland is appropriately name, I have my own theory about time spent here. This is sanctuary - a breath of relief from the struggles and battles of daily life. Here, visitors are encouraged to drop all pretense, to drink of the natural flavor of realism, and to renew the soul with great gobs of simple freedom. In our struggles for fame and fortune, in our battles to assuage the evil."

5/10/99 Eat desert first. That is one of my mottos. Today was a rainy day and a Monday - one of my favorite Carpenter's songs, and I just happen to love both Mondays and rainy days! The wind blew a lot, and was swirling. As I am sitting here in my office writing this, the trees outside are blowing in all directions. And there are clouds of all shapes and sizes blowing around down in the valley as well. It has rained about .7 inches so far today, and while the upper clouds are beginning to break up a little just before sunset, it is expected to rain for most of the week.

It also feels chilly outside, although it is in the lower 60's. But inside the cabin it is toasty and warm. I just ate three large homemade chocolate oatmeal cookies, then put on a batch of red beans and rice to cook for dinner (standard fare on Mondays in Louisiana). Eat desert first, because a tree may fall on you and you may never get to desert otherwise.- i.e. do the good things in life while you can just in case you never get to them.

Looks like sitting in the hammock to enjoy the storm is out of the question, so I will have to settle for hanging out inside the cabin - good thing there is a great view out of every window! Cloudland is a great place to watch a storm from.

Right in the middle of all the thrashing trees and leaves and branches blowing by, I can see hummingbirds just outside my window, trying to land on the feeder - they must be hungry! Poor guys, they are having a tough time coming in for a landing. It is an odd sight, with all of the clouds swirling around and the rain and the wind. The baro pressure is dropping rapidly, so I guess they are filling up before the next storm moves in. The wind is coming out of the east, which is usually a sign of bad weather. And it is raining again already.

As the veil of darkness thickens, the wind has calmed down somewhat, the rain let up, and the hummers went to bed. The western sky is pink, the east dark, and there are banks of fog forming in the valleys far below.

5/11/99 I slept in a little today, mainly because there was no sunrise. Lots of clouds, but not many down in the valleys. It looked like a great day to photograph waterfalls, so I packed up all my gear and headed out to drive over to the Boen Gulf area. About half way there, the sky began to clear off and the sun came out - not good for taking pictures - so I turned around and went back to the cabin.

Since everything was so wet from the rain, I decided to burn a big pile of brush that has been bugging me for two years. We cleared some of it out in order to put up the hammock, so I had that to burn, plus there was a lot more in the same area near the cabin. I borrowed some diesel fuel from Bob and set the pile ablaze.

The fire took most of the day. I alternated between hauling brush and burning and spending time in the hammock and blowing out the tread for the new trail between the cabin and the Faddis Meadow with the backpack blower. The sun didn't stay out too long, and it remained cloudy and breezy most of the day. It would have been perfect for pictures, but I'm glad that I came back and worked on the brush pile.

The sun did reappear some just before dark, and there was one terrific light show in the west after sunset.

OK, I had put in a long day and got a lot done, now it was time for me to get cleaned up and celebrate my 44th birthday. It was a small party - just me. I grilled a little salmon, stir fried some veggies, and sipped my way down towards the bottom of that good bottle of Scotch that Dan had left for me over the weekend. Another year had come and gone - I had a lot to be thankful for. Tomorrow a new year would begin, and I will head down to the Cossatot River for another day of trail work.

5/12/99 But first, there was another storm. I was rattled out of my bed at about 1am by bright flashes, crashing thunder and strong winds. And then the sky opened up and it poured for about an hour - 7/10's of an inch of rain.

I got a little sleep after things quieted down (actually I just closed the windows), and got up very early and drove down to the Cossatot. The river was flooded, but I did manage to make my way along it and get some of the trail work done. I didn't see a single snake during the day, unlike the dozens that I had seen on my last visit.

Then I drove back to town and went out to dinner with an old flame of mine, Leslie. It was kind of a celebration of the end of the journal. Leslie was the one who gave me the original journal for my birthday last year and made me write in it every day. So we both got dressed up and I took her to the best restaurant in town in my new Mercedes (well, it is still mostly new).

It was after 11pm when I returned to the cabin - one long day. I slipped into the hot tub and gazed up at a million stars twinkling in a freshly-scrubbed sky that was coal black. More stars than I had seen in a long time. The forest was mostly quiet, although I did hear something rather large walking around in the leaves nearby. Since it was so dark, I could never see what it was - I turned on the bubbles to take my mind off of whatever it was.

Then this huge shooting star STREAKED across the sky. It had one long tail of cosmic dust. After several more lesser ones appeared, I called it a night.

5/13/99 I got up early and spent thirty minutes enjoying the sunrise and the wilderness awakening - nothing as wonderful asthe first hour of daylight at Cloudland.

Time for some Cloudland trail work. I spent most of the morning blowing the remainder of the new trail - making a clear path through the woods. Well, kind of clear. There was still a great deal of ground cover growing in the treadway. But I would get rid of that later. Then I spent a few hours cutting out the corridor. This job took a lot longer than I had planned on, since much of the trail goes through some really thick forest.

On one of my trips back to the cabin, I came across a hognose or puff adder snake, a pretty large one. He looked so funny, and really spread out his neck muscle and stood up like a cobra. I played with him for a minute, then let him continue his day in the woods.

I quickly discovered a problem with the hammock - it makes one terrific place to take a nap! And I took several today. Not just the five minute variety that I normally take, but longer ones, where I actually went into deep sleep. The view was wonderful, cool breezes all day, and when I wasn't sleeping, lots and lots of birds flying around.

And I made one interesting discovery while laying in the hammock. I saw another phoebe, which is a bird that normally hangs around under bluff overhangs. I had seen this one or another one a couple of times lately, and was puzzled by them. Then saw this one fly up right next to the top log in the cabin - a NEST! Son of a gun, a phoebe nest on my cabin. It was as high up as you could get, right under the four-foot roof overhang. Their nests are usually made of moss and mud, and this one appeared to be just that. She would sit on it for a while, so I suppose she has eggs.

Once while I was just waking up from a nap, I heard the leaves moving nearby. It was a constant noise, but not too loud. I quietly rolled over and saw him right past the edge of the hammock - another puff adder snake! And he was cruising right on past the hammock, not noticing me at all. This one was a little smaller than the first one, and more copper colored instead of nearly black. It took him (could have been a her) about three minutes to move on out of my eyesight. These snakes look bad, but they really are good guys.

This new trail section is going to be a good one, and I am anxious to get it finished and tied into the other one that isn't finished either. By the end of the day, it was hikable though, although the tread was not level. A BIG improvement over just walking through the woods though.

As it got near sunset, I took off and made the first official hike of the two trails. I started on the East Meadow Trail, and followed it up to the East Meadow - no critters there yet, but there were lots of wildflowers, dew berries and other things beginning to bloom there. Once the big garden there starts growing, the critters will come.

The connecting lane between the East Meadow and the Faddis Meadow was lined with blackberry bushes, all in full bloom - going to be one fine cobbler season I can tell! And the two little peach trees were just full of tiny peaches, each now covered with peach fuzz.

The Faddis Meadow is beginning to bloom pretty good now too - lots of daisies and clover and these tiny yellow cinquefoil flowers everywhere. I am going to have to mow a narrow path through the meadow there to connect the lane with the new trail - it will go right past the garden, just in case one need to stop and gather something for dinner.

Then the trail plunges into the deep and dark woods. Lots of big trees there. And the wonderful view down to the bench below. Many maples. Hundreds of maples.

Back at the cabin, I spent some time on the phone, and staring at the terrific light show that was provided by mamma nature - pink clouds against a blue sky above the deep green lush forest below. The wind was calm. A whippoorwill called out to anyone who would listen. I did.

5/14/99 Spectacular morning today! Just the usual though. Clear skies, lots of bright yellow sunshine, upper 50's, calm winds, lots of birds.

It was a town day today, so I left the wilderness behind and headed for the TV studio. Did another live noon show with Kelly Kemp, and she showed the Ozark Spirit story that was aired last week - lots of footage of Cloudland. I never commented about it when it ran, but I will say now that it was one wonderful piece - lots of great photography around the cabin and the wilderness. The only problem was they guy in the show - they should have gotten someone else to play me! I've never looked very good in front of a camera, which is one reason why I became a photographer, so that I would usually be on the other side!

Today Kelly showed a lot of interior shots of the cabin, and we talked about the logs, who built it, etc. Plus some hiking stuff.

The light show had begun outside when I returned to the cabin around 7pm. The end of the day is just as terrific as the beginning here - warm, low angle light illuminating parts of the ridgetops and valleys, and lots of shadows. I ate a quick dinner then left the light show behind and went for a hike.

The East Meadow Trail goes through this stand of maple trees, and the forest is quite open, and tonight it was still and quiet too. I decided that it was such a peaceful place that I needed to put in a picnic table somewhere along the trail in the maple forest - just a spot to go with a picnic lunch or bottle of wind and sit and enjoy.

The East Meadow was all lit up with the setting sun. And there were a couple of buzzards overhead, riding the wind currents, or what little there was. They seemed to be paying a lot of attention to me. Hum.

The fragrance of the berry bushes along the connecting lane was nearly overwhelming. I had always thought that the fragrance of witch hazel was about the most wonderful scent in the world. Then I discovered paw paw's, umbrella magnolias, wild azaleas, wild plum, and now these berry bushes. My gosh, there are soooo many great smells in the woods! This was a very delicate fragrance, to go along with the white flowers.

And then I spotted this old tree, or what was left of it, right next to the lane. I had passed this spot literally hundreds of times all year long, but I had never noticed this guy before. It had been an old and mighty oak, several feet thick. It hadn't been cut down, but rather died of natural causes - the trunk was ten or twelve feet tall. This tree had a great deal of personality. There were Virginia creeper vines covering some of it, along with a little poison ivy. And way up high, there was some sort of vine that was blooming - looked like the same blooms as the berry vines to me. Down low there was one chop mark, like someone had started to cut him down, but gave up. I like old trees like this, sort of a natural history of this particular spot. I'll be this dude has seen some interesting things pass his way over the years.

The Faddis Meadow was aglow with wildflower blooms, soaking up the last rays of the sun. This meadow is getting grown up in a hurry, and I need to create a path through it so that I can continue to wear shorts.

The deep woods looked dark and forbidding. I guess one reason why they look so dark these days is the fact that since the trees are all leafed out, there is very little sunlight that gets through, if any. When the sun is low, it is really dark, as it was today.

I began to feel like there was something lurking about. I hadn't seen a bear, or any signs, since the end of April. It was time for them to be around. I began to search the trail for footprints, and sure enough, I soon found footprints - or should I say HOOF prints! Deer had already been using the trail. It looked like four or five had walked right down the middle of the trail, and followed it for quite a while.

Deer have a good route through the woods, and I often will follow their trails when I am bushwhacking, and build trail along theirs. They seem to not only take the easy route, but often times go past a scenic spot as well. When I was first building hiking trails back in 1981, I worried that our man-made trails would disrupt the deer. Then I quickly discovered that not only do the deer not mind our trails, but they like to walk on them! I don't know if it is the soft earth beneath their hooves, or what, but they do like them, and use them often.

No bears tonight, but I did get to thinking about snakes. There do seem to be a lot of them this year, although I think that will be good. I used to spend a lot of time looking for and playing with snakes when I was a kid, and perhaps now is the time for me to go back and revive that spirit and sense of adventure. Somehow I knew more about the woods when I was involved so closely with one of its critters. One way that I looked for snakes was to go around turning over large rocks. I have to laugh when I realize that is exactly what bears do, only they are looking for ants and grubs and stuff like that.

This trail looks down into another great open maple forest. Another picnic table is in order. I'm going to have so many picnic tables and hammocks and rest spots on this property, and will be forced to have a lot of picnics and naps, that I will have to hire a personal trainer to come in and keep me fit.

The sun had gone down by the time I returned to the cabin, and the light show was over. I missed most of it, but did get to experience twilight in the forest - an equal trade.

Wine and dark chocolate. Especially Merlot. I brought out a case of Merlot that my sister and her husband sent down for my birthday. I will see to it that it all gets put to good use. My wine cabinet is getting a little low - less than 50 bottles before the Merlot. I need to settle on a couple of house wines and buy them by the case, if nothing else to help fill up my 126 bottle wine rack. I'm working on it, but need some help.

After an hour of journal writing, I opted instead of soaking in the tub, to crawl into the hammock. Wow, what a great spot at night! I had no idea. There isn't a clear shot up at the sky, but I could see stars coming out and shining through the trees. Mars was especially bright tonight. And way off in the distance, a group of coyotes were howling back and forth. And then - the very first bugs of summer sang out!

A breeze came up and more stars appeared. Soon the silhouette of the cabin was surrounded by stars in the black sky. This will be a wonderful place to come and to think and to relax and to dream and to let nature take over. I just can't believe that I waited so long to create this spot. And holy cow, how about when the moon is out? I doubt there will be many spots on earth more romantic. I was asked about the name "Cloudland" on live TV today. It has many meanings, some of them are on the back of the official t-shirt. But I would have to add "romantic" to that list. One of my goals is to have as many romantic spots here as possible. I'll keep working on that.

5/15/99 A storm blew in around 5am, complete with thunder, lightening, high winds, and a little rain. I got up and ran around closing every window in the cabin. When storms hit here, they usually blow pretty good, and no open window is safe. Even the ones across the back of the cabin - which are facing South. There is a twelve foot roof overhang there, and the rain still blows in if the windows are open.

Since there was no sunrise, I slept in and enjoyed the rain.

One of the first jobs today was to put up a second hummingbird feeder. I had the feeder new in a box at home for many years and just never put it up, and only remembered it recently. I swear, as I was walking away from hanging it this morning, I turned around and there was already a hummer using it! They must be getting hungry.

The hummers that have been here this year are mostly mature ones, and only a few young ones, which was about all we had last summer. And they seem to be much more tolerant of each other this year - hardly any fighting at all, at least not yet. In fact, I have sat and watched one hummer sit quietly on a nearby branch while another one was at the feeder, and wait until he was finished before taking his turn. And I have seen them sitting on the log rails a number of times. One time though, a hummer did chase another one around for ten minutes. The poor tired fellow finally landed on the side of the cabin and hung on tight while the pursuer buzzed him.

The wind continued all morning, but no more rain, and it remained cloudy.

There was trail work to do. I borrowed Bob's lawn mower and cleared out a path across the Faddis Meadow - the flowers and grasses there were over knee high. This would be the connecting route between my two personal trails.

Next I got out the weed eater, and weed ate the trail up to the East Meadow, and the trail out to the Faddis Meadow. It took a lot longer than I had expected, but I had the jobs completed by 5pm. Wow, what a difference! Now I actually had a visible trail through the woods. And now the really hard part came - digging out the tread across the hillsides to make it comfortable to walk on. Not a lot of fun. I would get started on that another day.

At about the time that I finished up the weed eating, my friend Leslie drove up (the Leslie who gave me the original journal last year for my birthday). With the exception of dinner the other night, we hadn't seen each other since last summer, and she hadn't seen the cabin since then. Besides the journal, she also bought the quilts for the cabin, set up the kitchen for me, and arranged a lot of the furniture in the cabin - nice to have around!

Leslie went for a quick trail run while I got some prep work done on dinner. Then we took off and visited some friends of hers over on a neighboring mountain - Tony and Susan, who live in a log cabin over near Swain. Their place is very nice, an older and different style of log cabin than mine, and a really neat home.

Once we got back, it took us about an hour to fix dinner, and it was another classic Cloudland feast - grilled salmon (hey, I'm getting pretty good at this), Greek pasta, Caesar salad, fresh bread, a little wine, and a new treat - ICE CREAM! (Had to settle for Ben and Jerrys, as I have not found anyplace to buy Starbucks.)

We stuffed ourselves, then floundered on the couch and talked long into the night. I had made her room up with a few little touches like daisies on the table, chocolate mints on the pillow, and stuff like that. Nothing romantic going on here - she is leaving in a few days to spend the summer with her steady boyfriend - but I just enjoy doing such things for attractive young women who come to visit Cloudland - and its good practice for me! I will always be a hopeless romantic.

I didn't realize until later that today was the actual one year end to the journal - Leslie gave me the journal last year, and I began writing in it on May 16th. So it was fitting that I got to spend the last part of the year with her.

5/16/99 Strong winds at daylight, mostly blue skies, with a line or two of clouds. Warm temps.

As I laid there in the hot tub just after sunrise, I got so relaxed that I almost fell back asleep. Then I herd something, something powerful coming towards me. I opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of black out of the corner of my eye, and it was moving fast. And the next thing that I knew, I was being licked by a 100 pound black lab - Leslie's dog. For an instant, I knew a bear was after me!

I fixed coffee, my special asparagus eggs, hash browns and little smokies, and blueberry biscuits. What girl could resist such an offering? We stuffed ourselves once again, then spent a little while out on the back deck, soaking up the new day, which continued to blow in very hard.

Soon Leslie had to pack up and leave to go rock climbing somewhere over near Richland Creek. It was a good visit, and I was really glad to see her again.

OK, now for that trail. I didn't really have enough equipment to do the sidehilling that I had wanted to do (mainly I didn't have any shin guards, which I need to keep rocks from bouncing off of my shins), but I got after it anyway. First, I dig a trench along the uphill side of the trail tread segment with a thing called a cutter mattock. This is the toughest part of trail construction, and it really takes a lot out of you. Since I had been eating rather well lately, there was a lot in me to take out.

Next I go down the trail with a McLoed, and dig out the trench and level everything up. Sometimes this takes two or three passes, but it usually is not as tough to do as the trenching. And the, TRAIL! It is a slow process, but you get to see your results pretty quickly. Before long I had fifty feet of new trail completed.

It was warm, and the sun was breaking through the trees, but the wind continued strong, and it really felt great. I got into a rhythm of working for about thirty seconds, then standing up and facing the wind for about a minute, then working another thirty seconds. Sounds like a pretty good deal huh?

I was also keeping a look out for some visitors, and was working within sight of the road into the cabin. A black jeep pulled in, and it was Chuck Haralson and his wife Ellen from Pine Bluff. Chuck is the photographer for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, and was in the area and wanted to show his wife the cabin. I gladly took a break and gave my usual tour.

Then it was back to the digging, and the resting. Before long my visitors arrived. It was my friend Chally, and her mom and husband, who were up from deep down in Texas land. They had been floating the Kings River, and stopped by the cabin for a visit and short hike. Chally has this curly hair that is just barely red. But her mom has REALLY red hair!

We soon set off for a hike to the Crag. Still lots of wind, but it felt great. Then we climbed up to the Faddis Cabin and looked around Bob's garden. Bobby found several bits of history in the dirt, including an ancient iron drawer pull, and an old medicine bottle. Then we took the new trail of mine back to the cabin. Bobby said something about wanting to go down to the river, so he and Chally and I took the ladder trail down the hillside (her mom stayed behind to guard the cabin - probably the only smart one).

The river was up and running pretty good - it was great to see it so high this late in the spring - that is a good sign. And we found a ton of these GIANT umbrella magnolia trees (blooms all gone) - some of the leaf batches were four feet across!

Bobby wandered up and down the river bank while Chally and I spent some quality time together skipping rocks. When was the last time that you spent thirty minutes with a good friend skipping rocks? You should go right on out and try it soon.

Bobby came by with a tiny water snake. Chally loves spiders, but won't go near a snake. I'm just the opposite.

LOTS of ticks out today - more than I have seen in the past few years put together.

On the way back up the hill, Bobby and I stopped and looked around one of the old homesites while Chally trudged on up. This Bobby is quite a guy. He is from deep south Texas, and nearly a Cajun. He is in his 50's but acted more like a ten year old kid, full of wide-eyed wonder at everything in the forest. And he especially loved exploring the old stuff for relics. We found parts of an old saw mill, a stove, pots and pans, and a pewter pot that was kind of strange. He had on long pants, and no shirt, and I had on shorts, and there we were, busting through this god-awful thick brush - it was really thick down in there!

I was finally able to lead him away from the thick brush and we started up the steep hillside, without the aid of the trail. It wasn't too bad, and Bobby took to it like, well, you know, a duck on a June bug. It didn't take us long to make it to the top, and I could tell that he really wasn't ready to finish the hike just yet. So I took him on over to the real Whitaker Point - the best view in the entire wilderness. We stood there for a few minutes and took it all in. An awesome sight. As we started to leave, he turned to me and asked "I wonder how many Indians had stood in this very spot and enjoyed the same view?" I had wondered the very same thing many times. The girls we waiting for us up on the back deck, and taking it easy.

We found a lot of different wildflowers during our hikes, and other interesting natural and man-made things too. We enjoyed the sunshine and the wind and the birds and the views. But what I enjoyed the most, was getting to spend time talking and laughing and exploring with these wonderful people. I took an instant liking to Joyce and her husband Bobby, and invited them back for a longer visit. And they left a bottle of good wine for the wine rack!

It was a weekend filled with great food and quality time with friends, both old and new. Just what Cloudland was made for.

I spent the last hour of daylight in the hammock, swaying in the wind, and looking up into the trees. Then I crawled into the hot tub for a good long soak, just as the stars were peeking out through the clouds.

One wildflower note: We found two new varieties of wildflowers growing in my own little meadow. One was a volunteer species with nice purple blooms. The other was this brilliant blue variety growing low and covering a great deal of the meadow. This was certainly one of the types that I had planted. We could not ID either species at the time, but I will report soon. I have this feeling that the meadow down below is about to explode with color. The wild sunflowers are EVERYWHERE!

5/17/99 The wind was so loud that I had to get up and close all of the windows in the loft just so that I could go to sleep. The wind was really thrashing around. And at about 4:30am, the sky lit up and came crashing down - more heavy rain. Although it didn't last too long. Top wind was 31mph.

Both the sun and I slept in a little. It was mostly cloudy, but there was a spot or two for the sun to peek through. The storm swept through and took all of the winds with it - very calm this morning, and lots of birds out. They are calling for a lot of rain later today. The cistern is already full, so it won't help me any, but I am always glad to see rain. May is supposed to be the wettest month of the year, and we have already had over four inches this month.

There are a few clouds hanging down low in the Whitaker Creek valley - first that I have seen there in a while. And none at all on the Buffalo. I have this spot all picked out way over on yonder bluff, and am waiting for a morning when Whitaker Creek is socked in with a heavy fog bank down low. There is a great view of the sunrise from that blufftop (it catches the very first rays of the rising sun), and I want to photograph the sun rising up over the fog bank. It is the same spot where I went to see the moonrise at the end of April. It takes about an hour to hike there, so it will be an early morning hike, but I bet it will be worth it. Now, if I can just get a good cloud bank and clear skies for a brilliant sunrise.

5/18/99 I arrived at the cabin about midday with a trailer load of fresh Aspen boards for the basement. It took me a couple of hours just to unload all of them. I love this wood - it is very nice to work with, and looks SO good on the wall. Wish we could grow them here - I would plant them all around instead of having them on the wall.

It was sunny and bright out, with just a little wind. In fact, it got kind of warm. During one of my many rests up on the upper deck to cool down, I spotted my little bluebird pair flying around frantically, back and forth, swooping down on their nest site at the old snag. When I got out the binocs and looked closer, I saw a SNAKE climbing up the side of the trunk to their nest hole! He was after the little ones for sure. I didn't know exactly what to do at first. Should I simply let nature take its course and snake get a meal? Or should I take action to save the little birds?

I hesitated for a moment, then jumped up and ran down through the meadow. Heck, I had saved the eggs from a bear, why not a snake. But I was too late. It was a long black snake, and he had his head stuffed inside the hole, but was backing out. He gave me one funny look, then snapped his body around and fled the tree. I have seen snakes like this one way up in big trees before, raiding squirrel and other bird's nest before - they are very good climbers. And the two bluebird boxes have snake baffles on them, but my little blue birds decided to go the natural route, which was unprotected. Too bad - I was really looking forward to seeing the little ones learn how to fly.

That sort of put a damper on the rest of the afternoon, but I did get the remainder of the wood unloaded. Mother Nature is nothing but one large food chain. Man is about the only one exempt most of the time - until we go hiking in grizzly country!

5/20/99 This was a work day. It was clear and calm outside. I drug out all of my power tools onto the lower deck and got started early. First, I had to build a wall across one end of the basement, covering up the last part of the concrete wall (still concrete walls in the tool and utility rooms though). Then it was time for Aspen!

I measured and cut and nailed and beat on the wood for hours and hours. At first, it was very frustrating. Many of the boards that I had were bent and no good, and I often had to go through many to find one that would work. (I bought out the entire stock of Aspen at the local lumber yard at a discount, and knew that there would be many bad boards.) And it was such a big job - six big walls and five smaller ones to do - that it took me a while before I felt like I was making any progress. But by the end of the day, I had two three big walls and two little ones completed! These were all the easy walls, where I didn't have to do any special cutting. All of the rest would be much tougher to do, but it looked GREAT! And felt wonderful to finally get some Aspen on those bare walls - we have all been staring at studs and insulation for a long time.

After a short nap in the hammock, the light was getting nice, and it was time for a hike. I had put some good music on the stereo, and all of the windows in the cabin were open, so I could hear it a long way up the trail. At one point, the music blended in perfectly with the sounds of the forest.

When I passed through the Faddis Meadow, the low light really lit up the daisies there. They were growing in bunches, and there were lots and lots of them.

As I entered the dark forest, I heard a strange sound - a VERY STRANGE sound! I walked on, slower, and listened, trying to make out what it was. At first, it sounded like the noise air makes when escaping from a balloon. Then it sounded kind of like an elk bugling. But they don't bugle in the summer. Then it sounded more like a kid screaming. And then, like a whale. Lordy, it was a balloon-elk-baby-whale! I've got to tell ya, it was the strangest sound that I had ever heard in the wild.

As I inched on, the sound got louder and more clear. I expected to see some weird creature on the bench below at any moment. But I never did see anything. And the sound quit before I reached the cabin. If it had been dark, I probably would have been just a little bit concerned. And bears don't bother me at night at all.

I spent some time putting up all of my tools and getting the wood out on the deck covered in case of rain. Several times I had to run out of the cabin to listen to the sound - it was coming from down in the woods now, perhaps even across the river. It went on for most of an hour, at varying volume levels, until just after dark, then it quit for good. The only thing that I can figure is that it was an elk, lost for sure, and making a half-bugling half-moaning sound for some reason. Perhaps it was a young bull that was just learning how to bugle. I know it was one weird sound for sure.

Just before the sun went down, a red tailed hawk came floating by. The sunlight was really orange, and his wing tips and tail looked like they were on fire. He seemed to be enjoying the Ozark Glow as much as I always do.

A million stars came out later, and so did part of the moon.

5/21/99 There was lots of thunder at daylight. Well, I guess there wasn't too much daylight really because there were all of these dark clouds. And then it began to rain pretty hard. I had to get into town, so I left my Aspen wood behind, hoping the tarps would protect it.

About an inch of rain, and the traps held up fine. It was a tiring day in town, and I fell asleep in the hammock as darkness crept in. But before I retired to the hammock, I set up the horseshoe pit. I was unable to find a good set of them at any store, but I remembered that I had set aside an old set many years ago, and found them at my house in town. They were rusty, but would work just fine. The only real problem with my set up is that the entire spot that I had picked out was covered with wild sunflowers and daisies - the only daisies blooming on my place. So it is the only horseshoe game on the mountain where you have to walk around wildflowers to get to the other end! I tossed the first horseshoe at 8:20pm. I missed.

Later in the evening, Roy and Norma arrived to spend the night.

5/22/99 The entire cabin was engulfed in fog at daylight. It was moving around though, and there were patches of blue sky here and there. Just as Roy and Norma left to go floating, the cloud bank retreated and settled down on the river some. It was one magnificent sight! But it didn't last long, as the sun popped through and burned it all off within an hour.

I got to work on the Aspen again, and spent the entire day putting up boards. I got two of the largest walls completed, and that was quite a relief. They look great. These longer walls are more trouble because the ends of each board has to be cut at an angle, and it just takes more time and measuring. Towards the end of the day, my measuring tape broke, and I had to use a backup one, which wasn't very good.

Roy and Norma came staggering in late in the afternoon, sunburned and quite tipsy. They told stories of HUNDREDS of canoes on the river, and having to wait in line just to run a rapid. Oh boy. Sounds like my kind of floating. I know everyone had a good time, but give me a quiet river without any people and I will be happy.

I grilled some salmon and boiled fresh corn. Roy and Norma had pasta and chicken. I forgot to bake any bread. As they were leaving, the sky lit up, and I got to watch an hour or two of wonderful lightening storms pass by. Later in the night, it thundered and rained some. I went to bed without soaking.

5/23/99 It sounded like a tornado for sure - it was 4am and still very dark. I had all of the windows closed to keep rain from getting in. I got out of bed and checked on the wind speed on the weather station, expecting to see a record mph for sure. Two MPH. What! I must have been dreaming - there was a LOT of noise outside. I opened the door and found the source of the noise - it was raining hard, VERY hard! The cabin is so tight that I can't really hear the wind much, but I could hear the road of the downpour on the roof. It didn't rain very long - one half inch in twenty minutes. Then it stopped, and everything got quiet. I went back to sleep.

A black cover of clouds extended almost all the way to the eastern horizon at daylight. There was just enough break at the end for the sun to peek through, then it disappeared up into the darkness. The wind was blowing, but no more rain. It sure did look bad though. I went back to sleep.

It was ten o'clock before things dried out enough for me to uncover the wood and get back to work. Only two more big walls and a couple of little ones to do. One of the walls was behind the staircase, and it would be tricky trying to fit the boards behind the steps. Although it turned out not to be so tough after all. But it just took a lot of time.

I never made it to the second big wall. It turns out that I will have to feed a cable through the outside wall and run it along the baseboard, so I couldn't do that wall today, even if I had the time. I spent a lot of time sitting in the futon in that room and staring at the wall and trying to figure everything out. Plus I had to lay in the hammock a time or two. While I did get a lot accomplished, it was more of a laid back day that the day before. Sunday, a day of rest. Almost.

Just before dark I took a stroll around my trail system. Once the bears and the deer and the coyotes and the foxes arrive for the summer, this will be one terrific wildlife watching trail. But today there only wildflowers and birds and trees. As I approached the cabin, I spooked a big owl from a nearby tree. He was probably waiting for me to come out and talk to him. After a dinner of rice and cheese, I soaked in the tub a while. There were birds out singing everywhere - more that I had heard in a while. And as it got darker, the half moon shone brightly and lit up the wilderness. The half moon is the perfect time to sit in the hot tub - the moon is high overhead, and beaming down square on the tub through a break in the trees. Nice, very nice. No shooting stars though.

5/24/99 Sunrise found me back in the tub, and there was a classic fog bank down along the Buffalo. Clear blue skies, and no wind. The fog bank just sat there for a while, but when the sunshine hit it, everything came to life, and the clouds began to dance and move around, and disappear. Within twenty minutes of the first sun hitting it, the fog bank was completely gone. All that was left was the wilderness and the river and me, plus a few birds here and there. I love Mondays, and this one was starting out spectacular!

Monday Night: SHE is just so full of life! And she is the first one who always comes by to give you a hug or shake your hand and make you fell welcome. Bonnie LaGrone was in a bad car accident yesterday while returning from her Buffalo River property near Cloudland, and she is clinging to life tonight. It appears that she may have had a stroke and lost control of her car. As I am writing this, they have just rushed her in for emergency surgery to try and save her life. That is actually good news - an hour ago it sounded like all hope had been lost.

Bonnie is one of those people who lights up a room when she walks into it, although she is not loud or flashy in any way. And she always wants to know how you are doing, what you have been up to, and stuff like that - she is a "you first" kind of a person. The best sort of a human being.

On the very first day of this journal a year ago, I went to a party at Bonnie and her husband Dean's property, which overlooks Boxley Valley at the edge of the Buffalo River. They just had that same party this past weekend, and she was on her way down to Russellville to pick up her two kids, which had been with their dad (her ex) over the weekend.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but if you are the praying sort, please include Bonnie in yours tonight. She is certainly one of the crowning jewels of the human race, and the world would be a much sadder place without her. She is a wonderful mother to her two kids, a loving and exceptional wife to Dean, and pure joy to have as a friend. She is part of the Cloudland family, and so I thought that you might want to know. I will post an update as soon as anything changes.

TUESDAY, 4:PM. (Carolyn Crook went by to see Bonnie, talked with Dean, and called in the following info.) Bonnie came through her surgery last night OK, and they were able to get some of the bad stuff removed. She was awake some today, and was able to recognize a few people and had some limited upper body motor skills - this is all very good news. Although the doctors are still giving her only a 50/50 chance of pulling through. She was very, very grave last night, so I will take that percentage for sure. They will need to get her stabilized a little more before they go into the brain stem and attack the main problem. She is a fighter, and I know really appreciates all of the prayers and good thoughts coming from the many journal readers - I can't believe how many of you have contacted me about this - I thank you a great deal too. Please continue to pray for Bonnie, and lets get her through this!

LATE report Tuesday was that the doctors were more at ease with Bonnie's condition, but said she had to make it through the next 48 hours before they would know much...I will try to post another report late Wednesday...

WEDNESDAY 4PM: The following report is from one of Bonnie's brothers-in-law, Andy:

"Initial prognosis was collapsed lungs and broken ribs.

After transfer to UAMS in Little Rock it was determined that she had suffered one or more strokes and that they may have attributed to the accident rather than the other way around.

Critical issues are a blood clot in an artery going to the brain and swelling from the brain hemorrhage.

They operated on her Monday night for 2 1/2 hours, with the outcome meeting their expectations. They removed some dead brain tissue, etc. in order to allow for additional swelling (need to protect the brain stem from swelling). The blood clot remains stable, but as I understand, it may pose the greatest threat at this time. They will be able to better address the clot after getting the hemorrhage better under control.

The entire LaGrone family is in Little Rock, Bonnie's mother arrived Monday afternoon, and her father and one sister arrived Tuesday morning. Bonnie's mother indicated that, aside from scratches and bruises, you would not know that anything was wrong with her. The doctors have indicated that, so far, the only damage from the stroke may be some minor vision complications and some weakness in her right side (that can be rehabilitated).

I believe that Dean is holding up okay. Certainly after 40 plus hours of no sleep and the possibilities that existed Monday afternoon, he has been tested.

Tues, Wed, and Thurs should be primarily for observation with maybe some efforts to increase hydration in an attempt to address the blood clot issue." ---Andy LaGrone

WAY TO GO BONNIE! It would appear that she has been fighting hard to beat all of this, and I know that all of your prayers and good wishes have helped a great deal. THANK YOU ALL! I will continue to make posts when I have something to report...Ernst

FRIDAY 11AM: I just got a report from Bob Chester who went down and saw Bonnie on Thursday. She is much better, she spoke to him, and was even sitting up in bed and eating dinner. Her eyesight is not good though, and the doctors say it will clear up some, but will remain a problem. She is still not out of the woods yet, is in the intensive care unit, but each hour brings new hope. Considering that only four days ago she had very little chance to live, she has made a remarkable turnaround! I think that we can all breathe a little easier now, and thank the powers that be for listening...

AND THIS from Dean's sister Friday afternoon: "Bonnie continues to show improvements every time we get to see her. She is eating "real" food and is getting stronger and more talkative. She is very apologetic for inconveniencing everyone and beginning to complain about the neck brace and tubes -- which we are taking as a very good sign! More tests are being run this morning to check her progress, and we are hoping that the doctors will be able to begin low-dosage blood thinners for the clot today. She will stay in ICU over the weekend, but hopefully moved to a room next week.

Dean is hanging in there. He hasn't slept in a real bed in a week, but he has gotten some sleep here and there."

BONNIE continues to improve, and the last that I heard, she was going to be moved out of ICU and into a regular room on Monday, May 31st. She is at the University of Arkansas Medical Center (UAMS) in Little Rock, just in case you want to send a card or something her way. No telling how long she will be there, but I know she is anxious to get back up to NW Arkansas and home. It is indeed somewhat of a miracle that she not only has survived, but now looks like she will be in pretty good shape, after much rehab. Her eyesight is still in question though, and you continued good thoughts are most appreciated!

BACK to regular journal entries. I will post anything new about Bonnie as I get it.

5/25/99 I returned to the cabin late in the evening, after dark. It had been a very dark couple of days in town, since our good friend Bonnie LaGrone was fighting for her life in a Little Rock hospital after a car accident. There was a lot of rain at Cloudland today, and there were many clouds down in the valleys. It was as if they knew about Bonnie, and were all hanging around waiting to find out any new news.

I worked a little down in the basement on the Aspen, then lingered in the hot tub with the clouds and a few stars long into the night.

5/26/99 It was an early day, and the sun was out, but only for a little while. There were lots of clouds all over the place - above the cabin, below the cabin, and right outside the cabin doors. After an hour or two of Aspen work, Scott Crook showed up from town with a van full of power tools. The main one was a large table saw, which barely fit into the back of his van. After a bit of struggling, we managed to get it out and carried down and set up onto the lower deck.

And Scott saw a BEAR on the way out - the first that he had ever seen in Arkansas! It was a young one, probably a yearling male that had just been booted out of the nest. I suspect that we will be seeing a lot of these this summer. The bear was up on the gravel road, and crossed in front of his van.

Scott's main job was to cut up and shape enough of the Aspen boards to make trim to fit all of the doors and windows in the basement. It ended up taking him most of the day to get the job done (each board had to be cut many times, including four beveled edges on each one). And it took me most of the day to get the last big wall of the basement finished. I also got lots of wires run inside that last wall that would be connected someday to a TV and stereo system for the basement.

We managed to take a few breaks during the day, and were kept busy watching a constant parade of birds of all kinds flying by and playing in the trees. One thing that I noted was that pretty much everything in the wilderness was the same color right now - green. The trees, large and small, grasses, plants of all sizes, and even most of the wildflowers were all green. There were only a few species of flowers blooming right now, some bright red ones and some blue ones. And most of the birds that were about were either bright red or blue as well - matching the wildflowers (summer and scarlet tanagers, blue birds and indigo buntings).

By the end of the day we were both exhausted from all of the work, as well as from all of the mental energy expended trying to figure out all of the wood trim. Scott hurried back to town to close down his business (Pack Rat Outdoor Center), while I spent over an hour cleaning up our mess - I carted off over ten gallons of saw dust from the table saw! After a short soak in the tub, I went to bed early.

5/27/99 It was another work day at Cloudland, and I resumed my position down in the basement. Scott showed up soon after, and we spent another very long day, mostly putting up the trim and the finishing touches on the Aspen. We also took a lot of breaks again, and had the same bird show. Only today there were lots of soaring birds out, which provided even more entertainment.

We managed to get the big saw loaded up in the van somehow, and Scott headed back to town again - I wouldn't need the table saw anymore. It took me another hour to clean up all of the mess, and I finished with the backpack blower to clean off the deck of all sawdust (it puts out a 225 mph blast of air). Man, I was one worn out puppy after two long days of labor. And I was mentally drained as well, as I spent much of those two days on the phone and the computer, checking up on Bonnie, and keeping folks up to date on her condition. On Monday, we were all wondering what day her funeral was going to be, so a couple of hundred phone calls and e-mails didn't really seem like much compared to that. Thank goodness her condition kept improving so that I had something to report!

Once again, I hit the hay early. Although I did soak a bit longer - the nearly full moon was a nice companion.

5/28/99 Rain, rain, rain. I needed some rain, and it felt great. I had business in town, and so left Cloudland early in the day, and didn't return until nearly dark. There was a great light show this night - puffy clouds lit up all pink and red and orange. Then it all went grey, and the bright moon came out and lit up the wilderness.

5/29/99 I got up early and worked a little more down in the basement, putting up the final trim in the corners. Then I spent most of the rest of the day laying around in the hammock, up on the main deck, on the couch, and well, you get the idea. Later in the day, Bob and Dawna Robinson from Ft. Smith showed up, fresh from a visit with Bonnie in the hospital, and a great condition report from her. We feasted just a little (typical Cloudland fare - grilled salmon, fresh veggies, salad, bread, wine).

And Bob brought out a brand new Cloudland tradition - CLOUDLAND BEER! He made up a batch and we printed special labels. And the darn stuff was/is pretty darn good. Twenty four bottles to start, but I have a feeling this will continue.

A friend from Little Rock was coming up to join us, but she, well, she got lost. Lost on the back roads of Newton County. I won't go into any details, but let's just say that she never made it to the cabin, and doesn't want the story told in public!

Dawna spotted a Luna moth near the front porch light. We all went out and played with it for a while, and were amazed at the dozens and dozens of different species of moths there - all sizes, shapes and colors.

5/30/99 Bob and Dawna were up very early - 5:45am, enjoying the clouds and the birds and the start of the new day. I got up and fixed blueberry biscuits and coffee. They went on a hike while I soaked in the tub. We all got rained on a bit, but it felt great, both to the hikers and the bather.

We spent most of the morning on the deck, watching the birds, which continue to be a great deal of entertainment. Roy Senyard and his daughter and her boyfriend came by a little later. With no further business to conduct, I shut down the cabin and headed into town to attend to family business.

It was very late when I returned, but I did find a body wandering around outside the cabin in the dark. It was my friend from Little Rock, 27 hours late! She brought a bottle of birthday wine, and we sipped on it and enjoyed the full moon playing tag with us. There were lots of clouds, and the moon was trying its best to burn them off, but it mostly stayed hid behind the cloud banks. There were a few cicadas out making a little music, and a number of bats out munching on bugs. Summer is here!

5/31/99 Memorial Day. The sun didn't show up very early, but lots of clouds did. We wandered around down in the meadow, trying to identify the wildflowers that were out. There are a few really nice species out, but there will be an explosion of color down there soon. I will keep a running list of them as soon as I can identify them! The sky opened up and it rained a little - lots of thunder and black clouds.

Before long, my friend Jenny had to leave and I had to get to work. The sky cleared up a little, and by the end of the day, there was lots of blue sky and puffy clouds. I've got a couple of folks coming out tonight for a photo clinic. We are going to go out and visit several nice places around the area tomorrow. We might even take a few pictures!

May has been one terrific month, as they all are. LOTS of rain, and birds, and snakes, and flowers. I look forward to June, and to July, and on and on and ON!