10/1/99 October signals the beginning of fall to me. I got up at 3am, not to celebrate my most favorite month of the year (actually tied with April), but because I had a very long day ahead, with a lot of driving to do. It was a wee bit chilly as I motored away from the cabin. It was going to be a very exciting day.

A few hours later I was up in Kansas, getting close to my destination. I pulled into a tree-lined driveway and stopped at a house that was set way back from the rest of the neighborhood, off to itself really. The nice lady owner, Dianna, met me at the front door. We walked around the house, through a yard filled with fresh walnuts, and down a small hill along a nice graveled trail. As we approached the barn and out buildings, there was a lot of commotion.

Dianna opened the gates to the pens, and I was immediately engulfed with more than a dozen bouncing black/white and liver/white English Springer Spaniel puppies and parents. They hovered in a large circle around us, darted over and jumped up on us, and ran and ran and played and sprung all over the place. It was easy to see that this was a very happy place, and these dogs were well cared for and having a ball.

I had been looking for a new puppy for a while now, and was unable to find anything that I wanted in my area. So I turned to the internet, and found Winterwood Kennels listed and gave Dianna a call. I wanted a liver/white male, and she had four of them.

One by one she put the dogs back into their pens, until I was left with only the four males running around. Each one of them jumped up into my lap, looked at me with those big brown eyes, and said "take me, I'll be your best bud!" They kept circling, then roaming around playing with this and that, and jumping up in my lap doing their politicing.

Lordy, it was going to be a very tough decision. I narrowed it down to two of them. Or was it three? One had three spots on his back - I'm partial to the number three you know. Yea, that would be the one. I picked him up and laid him on his back to see what he would do, and he became a little squirming pile of fur. I had just read in a book that this was a good way to tell a lot about their personality.

One of the other pups kept coming over and getting into my lap. Just for fun I turned him over too, and he laid there, mesmerized, staring deep into my eyes. OK, this guy had to be the one.

It had been sixteen years since I brought Yukon home as a pup (also a liver and white male), and one of his litter mates was with him. As I drove away with my lone pup, I wondered if it would be OK for him to be alone, and hoped that I wasn't messing up his life. Would I be able to cope with the long hours and days of him wailing and crying for his littermates? It was going to be a long drive home. I stepped on the gas.

My little pup was snug and secure in the back seat in his new bed. I had purchased the largest bed available, knowing that he would grow into it. Good thing, as he used every bit of space as he flopped around from end to end, constantly readjusting his position. He slept most of the way home. Except for one time when we stopped at a little park and I let him out. I was concerned that he would take off running and I would have a hard time catching him. Much to my surprise, he stayed right next to me as I walked around, and even when I ran a little.

I had never bought a dog with a long pedigree before, but wanted to give it a try this time. There are many champions in his pedigree, including a number of national champions. He is a "field" springer as opposed to a "show" springer. Field springers are some of the best bird dogs in the world. And while I don't plan to hunt with him, I wanted a dog with an natural instinct for the outdoors, and one that required a lot of exercise.

This pup already showed me that my money was well spent, as it was obvious that he was smart and eager to learn. And twice while I had to leave the car and go inside on the trip home, he stayed put, and didn't cry out a single time. In fact, he never got out of the bed at all (the bed is a little nest with six inch side walls that he could have easily crawled over). Good boy.

It was nearly dark when we finally arrived back at Cloudland. I was eager to see what my new pup would do in the woods and on the trail, especially after he had been sitting around all day in the car. We took off towards the east meadow, with my new dog "Aspen" in the lead (he has a lot of white in his coat, just like the bark of an aspen tree, and lots of brown that matches much of the color in the aspen wood that is used all over the cabin).

He loved the trail, and the woods, and bounded around and explored everywhere. We went out for another hike later in the evening, well after dark. It was very dark out in fact, with only starlight to illuminate our way (the stars in the coal-black sky were INCREDIBLE!). Aspen stayed close by, although all that I could see of him was the white part of his body.

At ten weeks old, and after knowing me less than half a day, Aspen would come when I called him. I was a little surprised at this. He is certainly a little bundle of joy, that will grow and mature into a handsome wilderness dog.

OK, now the real test. The first night away from his family. I hadn't really worried about this too much, but knew it would be a long night. I decided to go ahead and put his be up in the loft, and get him used to the normal routine right away. But I wanted to make things as comfortable as possible, so after thirty minutes of playing on the floor, I laid down next to his bed and hoped for the best.

The little guy went right to sleep, and stayed there all night - not a single whimper or cry. I was pleasantly surprised.

10/2/99 We got up well before sunrise, and I hauled Aspen outside and down the steps and across the road to pee. Aspen did too. It was chilly, but not cold. I put on a sweatshirt, and the two of us went on our first ramble.

We headed up to towards the east meadow once again, with Aspen in the lead. He likes the trail, but also enjoys getting off of it and exploring far and wide, just like his master.

We checked on the banana peel that I am testing - it has been there for three weeks, or something like that. It is now about one third its original size, completely black, and getting hard. I suspect it will be there for a very long time.

I sat down against a hickory tree to wait for the sun to come up, as Aspen covered the nearby hillside, sniffing every leaf, investigating all the nooks and crannys along the small bluffline. I broke off a stick and tossed it at him. He brought it right to me. I threw it a few feet away, and he retrieved it first time. Springers are born retrievers, and Aspen was no exception, as long as the stick wasn't too far away.

The sun peeked over the far ridge and lit up the forest. Time to move on, and soon we were in the middle of the east meadow, both of us running zig-zags. We went down the connecting lane, across the Faddis meadow, and back into the woods, Aspen keeping up just fine, and often running out ahead.

I stopped a couple of times along the trail and sat down. Everything was new and exciting, and Aspen got to sample it all. He seemed to have a smile on his little face as he bounded from rock to stick to leaf to my lap. I believe he will like it here.

We are back at the cabin now, and Aspen is sitting in the chair with me as I am typing this. He stuck his paw out and typed a word for you - "bhhhh n." Don't know for sure what it means, but I suspect it is something good. There are two happy dogs at the cabin this morning.

I know there will be many "accidents" and much chewed stuff that shouldn't be, but I think Aspen is a great puppy, and I'm glad that I took the time and effort to seek out the right dog.

Aspen got a chew attack that lasted about an hour. While I was working at the computer, he would go over to the bookshelf nearby and pull of something and begin to chew it up. The bottom shelves are filled with games and maps and stuff like that, not books. He would take one item off the shelf and begin to chew it up, and I would take it away from him. He would get right up and go get the next item on the shelf, and on and on. Most items survived, although one copy of the Ozark Highlands Trail map got shredded before I could get it away from him.

And Aspen has taken a liking to the three pairs of animal slippers that live below the bench in the living room. He can tell that they are real critters, and enjoys chewing their little bottoms up. They all now reside on top of the bench.

The trees are beginning to turn, and I would say that we have about 10% coverage now. There are a number of individual maples, sweet gums, black gums, and hickories that have turned. In fact, there is a blaze orange maple and a bright red maple right outside the cabin. And a pure yellow hickory. Out in the forest, there are many maples turning, including one that had a red branch, a yellow one, an orange one, and a green one, all on the same tree. Lots of underbrush turning too, like sumac. Most of the dogwoods shriveled up last month though, and while they will have some good red berries, I don't expect much color from their dried up leaves.

We spent most of the morning laying out the route for the telephone line and trail from the cabin up to the new office site. Aspen even helped clear out the path a little, carrying off little sticks and twigs. Yukon used to help me a lot too when I was building trail, only he would carry sticks and logs back ONTO the trail once I had removed them. I suspect that Aspen will grow in to the job.

We also went around the loop trail twice more during the day. The early afternoon hike was very hot and dusty, but the wind was blowing and so it wasn't too bad. There were a number of large sycamore leaves blowing across the Faddis meadow, and Aspen tried to run down and catch every one of them. He must have got twenty or thirty of them before we hiked on into the woods. Aspen was a wee bit tired when we got back to the cabin.

The evening hike was very nice, with the low sun really lighting up the colorful maples. We ran into Tom Triplett and a dog that he was taking care of over in the east meadow. Aspen was a little shy, but not afraid of the larger dog.

After a movie and a short hike in the darkness, and an hour of chewing rage, we went to bed. This time, I put Aspen's bed up on mine. I had put the official Cloudland flannel sheets on the bed for the first time once October arrived. Once again, Aspen went to sleep without a whimper.

10/3/99 A nice, quiet night, and we woke up with the sun and headed out for a hike. It was clear and cool and a little breezy. We came across Tom and his dog up in the east meadow again. Aspen warmed up to the big dog just fine today.

I had never actually measured the loop trail, and today was pushing the measuring wheel to find out the exact length. It has always seemed about a mile to me, but I wanted to know for sure.

The apples at the Faddis cabin are ripe, and I had one for breakfast. Aspen had a persimmon - one tree is completely loaded with them, and the weight is almost breaking branches.

On our first hike yesterday we stopped at three different locations along the trail and spent some time exploring (well, Aspen did - I was sitting up against a tree napping). Today as we passed each spot, Aspen remembered them, and ran off the trail to explore some more. I suspect these might become standard resting spots.

1.1 miles - that is the official length of the loop trail. That means that counting a couple of side trips, Aspen hiked about four miles his first full day at Cloudland. Pretty good for a tiny puppy!

While I think that the really good color is still a couple of weeks away, it seems that there is more color every day, especially in individual trees. A little bit of rain would help, though if we got a lot of rain, the color would stop, and might even become dull or retreat like it did last year.

It was cool and windy all day, and the pressure dropped steadily. No rain though. Not a single drop. Last week they predicted rain three or four days, including some heavy stuff. We only got a trace out of all of it. It has become very dusty here, and parts of the earth are cracking and opening up again. This is the worst dry spell that I have seen in a long while.

We spent several hours opening up the telephone line corridor. Aspen discovered the big dirt pile from the office spot. He would climb up the side, dig a little, then slide all the way down. His fur was no longer pure white. We spent some time in the afternoon watching a football game, then headed out for a good long walk just before dark. The color seems to be advancing every hour.

There was a genuine feeling of fall in the air. Perhaps it was the moisture, or the cool breeze. It felt terrific to get out and ramble around. Another four mile day for Aspen.

10/4/99 It woke us both up. No mistaking that sound. A wolf. The guy only seems to come around once a year, and this is later than usual. He howled four times. The forest was still and quiet and he echoed across the wilderness. I laid back and smiled. Aspen had a worried look on his face.

Later, we both got up and went outside. A fog had blown in and everything was damp - a welcome change from the crunch, crunch of the past two months. It chilly - 44 degrees.

There was no sunrise, so we slept in a bit. When we did get out, the wind was blowing pretty good, and it was actually cold. No more fog, but overcast, and the trees were more colorful than ever. We had a splendid walk, and got to go through some very thick brush. The only problem that I have with springer spaniels is their long hair. It is great in the winter and in the open woods or fields, but tends to pick up every kind of sticker and burr. Once his fur grows out, I am going to make it a point to brush Aspen after nearly every walk.

The forest floor was covered in places with dozens of colors of leaves - shades of red and orange and yellow everywhere. I know many people who will never see any color this fall, but all they need to do is look at their feet. Each day will bring new levels of color and excitement.

The overcast burned off and a deep blue sky showed up. As I was sitting out on the back deck having breakfast (Aspen was busy chasing acorns), a large flock of bluejays swooped down over the cabin and flew across the valley to Beagle Point. I've never seen SO MANY bluejays in one bunch before - there must have been more than hundred of them! And their bright blue provided a great contrast to the yellow-orange backdrop of Beagle Point.

It is a fabulous fall day in the Ozarks. And many more will follow I'm sure. Aspen and I have to head into town to do a little shopping, but will return tonight and see if the wolf calls again.

As we rolled up late into the Faddis meadow, I stopped the truck and got out to soak up the incredible night sky. Could it be possible for there to be a zillion stars in the sky? It sure looked like it. I walked across the dark field, and turned back to look to see if I could see Aspen anywhere. Just then the field lit up and I could see him plainly. What? I turned around and saw an explosion high up in the sky. It burned bright blue, then orange as it streaked to the south. Then it burned out, leaving behind a wide trail of glowing stardust or ??? I guess it could have been a giant meteor, or perhaps a satellite burning up in the atmosphere. It is the brightest thing that I have ever seen in the night sky.

10/5/99 We were up and out hiking early, before daylight. The sun rose as we crossed the east meadow, warming up the air. It was clear and still out. We dropped down and walked along the lane between the east meadow and Bob's cabin. This is the route that is covered with wild iris in the spring.

Aspen must have walked a little too close to an underground bee hive, because he came shooting past me and was covered with bees. I caught up with him and managed to knock off all of the bees. I never knew if he got stung or not - not a whimper or bark out of him. Bees and skunks are too of the things that I fear most in the woods.

Our main chore for the day was to install a dog door in the wall down in the basement. I brought an old one from home, and while it was not complete, I did manage to get the hole cut into the wall and the door installed. Had to get the chainsaw out and cut through the log siding on the outside of the wall.

Aspen was not too sure at first about being around power tools, but he soon warmed up and stayed close by. Funny though, but the chainsaw never bothered him at all. That is good, because I have a lot of cutting to do this fall.

It took Aspen all of ten seconds to learn to use the new door. This will allow him to come and go as he chooses. And much to my delight, he also learned to come down the long staircase that leads to the basement.

Someone gave me a pig's ear. I never knew there was such a thing that would keep a teething puppy busy for hours. These things really work! I bought a bag of them, and use them when Aspen is bugging me and I need to get some work done. When I gave him one of the ears today though, he ran right out the new dog door, into the woods, and buried it inside an old stump. I later retrieved it and he spent several hours chewing it up.

Late in the afternoon we set out on another hike. This time we dropped down below the bluffline to explore some. Aspen was leary of the edge of the bluff - which is good. He wouldn't come to me though when I needed to grab him and get down the face of the bluff. The more I tried, the further away he got. So I decided to try something that I saw Robert Redford do in the Horse Whisperer - I just sat there and ignored him. Son of a gun, before long Aspen was sitting by my side. Actually, he had chased an ant that just happened to come my way.

The bluff is one terrific place. We turned left and followed the base of it around the hillside. There are some 80-foot tall chunks of bluff here, multi-colored with lots of different shapes. Many overhangs too, large and small, and Aspen got to check out every one of them. At one point he literally disappeared down in a pile of leaves that had been blown in under the bluff.

He was pretty good at making his way around the big chunks of rock that lived at the base of the bluff. But there was a spot or two where I had to go back and show him an alternate route. It took me a while too to figure out that I needed to go a way that he could follow, instead of climbing all over the place. Before long he will be taking me places where I cannot follow!

Lot of giant trees down here too. Oaks mostly, old and stately. I noticed that from the bluff side their trunks were all very black. But the side of the trees that faces away from the bluff were covered with lichen and stuff and was difficult to tell from the bluff face. Now why would a big tree need to blend into the bluff?

Found one walnut tree. It was not a giant, although it was quite tall, and it produced huge walnuts that littered the ground.

We stopped at one spot and laid back against a boulder and gazed up into the big bluff face. This is one terrific spot, with great views out into the wilderness too. No shortage of neat places to explore. And there are literally miles and miles of this same bluff here in the wilderness, and hundreds of miles of them in the forest.

We turned around and headed back, with Aspen in the lead. This guy sure does know the way back - he was running at full speed along the base of the bluff, and there was this big smile on his face. It didn't take long to get back, but we did veer off and explore another spot or two.

As we got to the top of the bluff I heard a four-wheeler up at the cabin. The trail is very steep where we were, but I put it into high gear. Aspen not only kept up, he ran out in front! No problem with him climbing up steep slopes for sure.

But we didn't make it back in time, and the four-wheeler had left. Don't know who it was. A little odd to see someone here in the middle of the week. I will be installing an automatic gate soon which should illuminate some of this kind of traffic.

I put a Cloudland pizza in the oven, then we climbed into the swing out back to enjoy the light show. And it was a spectacular show indeed. The low sun lit up the hilltops in the wilderness with Ozarkglow. On my right was a frosted mug of Arkansas Ale, and on my left was Aspen, curled up with his head in my lap. It was a good day.

10/6/99 Aspen woke me up early again, and soon we were out rambling in the woods as the sun peeked over the far hillside. The forest continues to change color, especially individual trees. Overall most trees are still green though. But the forest floor is beginning to get carped with falling leaves.

Aspen found an old dead mole - the second one that he has found this week. He was quite proud of it. I wondered if it was better for him to take up with a dead mole or a pig's ear? I separated Aspen from the mole, and we continued on our hike. Lots of berries from black gum trees on the ground. And persimmons.

When we returned to the cabin, there were a pair of red-tailed hawks circling out over the meadow. It was another clear and calm and incredible fall day in the Ozarks. The color coverage seems to be moving along a little - about 15% now. Some areas more, others still all green. I can see hundreds of sweetgum trees down in the valley getting lighter in color - they will probably turn yellow. There is still water in the river, although I'm sure it is not much. The swimming hole will be mostly full though, because it is spring fed right now. I plan to take Aspen down there this weekend. Springers LIVE to swim!

10/9/99 My eyes were filled with pumpkins at daylight. There was a bright orange maple right outside my window. It was foggy, and damp, and a lot of moisture in the air. Today was a work day, and with all of the rain, I had to get a brush pile burning at the new office site. But first Aspen and I took off on our morning hike.

The forest was as colorful as I had seen in a long time. The maples were going nuts, and the trail was covered with bright splashes of color. As we made our way through the east meadow, Aspen took off running at top speed - he loved the cool damp too, and wanted to cover every inch of the meadow. He had gotten to where he would run zig-zag patters in front of me, like a good bird dog should.

Next was a bit of acorn gathering. The back deck was covered with huge acorns from the red oak growing right up through it. My friends Scott and Carolyn have six pet flying squirrels that need lots of acorns, and I am always happy to gather up a few for them. There was more than a gallon of acorns on the deck already.

Aspen enjoyed exploring around under the deck as I gathered more nuts from the meadow. At one point I turned around and was nearly knocked down by the view that had opened up in the fog - Beagle Point was spectacular! There was color everywhere, from the bottom of the valleys to the top of the hills. And the fog seemed to bring out the richness of the color even more.

After close examination, it appeared that there was about 50-60% color coverage here, which is quite a bit at the same time. Still logs of green, but tons of bright color - reds, yellows and oranges. I'm not sure what all the rain will do (last year a week worth of rain knocked back the color for nearly a month), but I would predict that the peak of color in this area will be later this week, or perhaps next weekend.

Two gallons of acorns. Then three. Lots of big, fat acorns. As we were taking a break up on the back deck, one of life's big questions was answered. It was still and quiet out. And way across the valley a large tree fell over - the noise echoed for several seconds. OK, so there was probably no one over there to hear it fall, but it DID make a noise - we heard it!

A little while later, during a brief rain shower, Aspen and I took a nap on the couch. Now there are two couch potatoes at Cloudland.

When the rain stopped, I put on my work clothes and went up to the new office site. I didn't have any diesel fuel, but did manage to get a good fire going using a combination of newspaper, fire starter and scraps of aspen (the wood, not the puppy). Before long there was a blaze going, and I was feeding it fresh cut limbs from the trees that I had to cut down and move out of the way for the new building.

This went on for several hours. Aspen was having a ball. Every time that I drug a new branch or tree over to the fire, he would hang on for dear life, chewing at the branch all the way. He somehow managed to stay out of the fire. He also spent a lot of time running at top speed across the open area, or through the woods, and then abruptly changing direction and darting off elsewhere.

By mid afternoon thunder clouds were moving in, so we returned to the cabin for another nap. It poured for an hour, adding another inch to the rain total. I was thankful for the rain, but was afraid that it had put out my fire.

It was quite a storm, and included a great deal of loud thunder and bright lighting, and there was no time delay between them, meaning they were right on top of us. I had worried about Aspen being afraid of storms, but he didn't seem to mind, although he did pay attention when it thundered.

At one point, during the loudest crashes, the sun broke through to the south. It was all a little strange.

Once the sun came out for good, I headed back up to the fire, which had sure enough been thoroughly drenched and put out. I dug around in it a while, and finally got a few sparks going. But when you are dealing with fresh-cut trees, you need a bit more than sparks. So I started all over again with newspaper and aspen, and got a good blaze.

This time I left Aspen asleep on the couch. He has never been alone before, and I wondered how he would take it. He is free to go outside at the cabin via the new dog door if he wished. After a couple of hours of burning, I got a little concerned about him, and returned to the cabin. There he was, sitting on the living room floor, waiting for his playmate.

It was after dark before I got ready to head back to the fire. And just as we started walking, it began to rain again. Most of the site was cleaned up and burned, but there was still a lot of brush around the edges of the fire that needed burning. It took another hour or so to get it all burning. It continued to rain, but not heavy, so the fire kept on going.

More than two inches of rain total. The forest really needed it!

10/10/99 The morning was filled with bright sunshine and blue skies. We got up and headed out the door for a hike. I had a bag with me just in case we came across a good acorn field. Sure enough, we hadn't gone very far before the trail was covered with acorns. I had to stop and gather.

About an hour later, my bag was filled. I know some of you must wonder why in the world I would spend an hour of a simply glorious fall day picking up acorns. But I rather enjoy it, and it give me a chance to get down close to the forest floor for a good look. There is something therapeutic about it all. And besides, those flying squirrels are hungry.

And then I realized that I was too, so we returned to the cabin, and I fixed a batch of blueberry biscuits. And then I got a wild hare, and made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too. They both were good. I decided that I would try to put out fresh cookies every Sunday by noon.

After breakfast, we went out for another ramble in the woods. The forest was spectacular, not only because of the fall color up in the trees, but because of the leaves falling gently to the ground. Maples, oaks, hickory, sweet gum, black gum, sassafras, persimmon. Lots and lots of color!

And lots more acorns. I spent another couple of hours gathering acorns, both in the woods and back at the cabin. By the time I had quit for the day, I had about ten gallons of juicy acorns. That should keep those squirrels happy for a long time.

The bright sunshine and warm temps brought out the soaring birds. I'll bet I counted over twenty hawks playing up in the wind currents. It was a great day to be outside, both on and above the earth.

10/11/99 The alarm went off at 6:30am down in the Dogwood guest room - Roy and Norma were here for a short night. Aspen and I got up and headed out for a hike in the pre-dawn darkness while Roy and Norma got their packs ready. They were heading out for a weeks hike on the Ozark Highlands Trail.

Our shorter hike around the Cloudland Loop was a quick one - I mainly just wanted to get Aspen a little exercise because he would be in the car most of the day. He stayed close most of the hike.

Towards the end of the loop, as the sky turned from pink to yellow and then to blue, we stopped along the trail for a few minutes. It was cool, and the dew was heavy. We could see down to the bench below. A miniature moving rainstorm began off to our right, then gradually moved across the scene to the left. A squirrel was high up on the oak trees, and as he jumped on a new branch, he would shake off the dew, causing a little rainstorm everywhere he went.

We all packed up and drove to the Hwy. 7 trailhead, where Roy and Norma met up with Bob Hostler from Texas. Aspen and I took another short hike, then bid them farewell. We drove back to town for a day full of activities, including Aspen's first visit to the vet (regular shots and stuff).

It was well after dark when we returned to the cabin, and after a quick hike in the dark, I jumped into the hot tub. The crescent moon was low in the western sky. That reminded me of something that I had heard on the radio over the weekend. You know how when there is a crescent moon you can sometimes see the rest of the moon, but just faintly? Well, it turns out that the only reason we can see the rest of the moon is because there is just enough sunlight bouncing off of the earth and reflecting onto the lunar surface to light it up just a little. Without this "earthlight" the backside of the moon would be completely dark and not visible.

There were a million stars out, including one very bright planet. And that flashing satellite showed up again. It has been a month of something since I have noticed it, but there it was tonight, in exactly the same place as before, due south, up high at about 60 or 70 degrees. It would flash once every ten seconds - I watched and timed it for several minutes. And it never moved an inch. I must speak to someone who knows and find out exactly what this thing is.

10/12/99 The bright sun woke us early, and soon we were out on our morning stroll. The colors in the trees were still very nice, but it was obvious that all the rain last week really knocked them back some. In fact, while the forest floor was covered with leaves, none had fallen in a few days, and all of them were dried out and had lost their color. You see, the dry conditions had caused the trees to shut down, creating the terrific fall colors, and leaf fall. When the rains came, the forest woke back up again, stopped producing the great colors, and quit dropping their leaves. If we get a lot of rain now, then there won't be too much more color. If it remains mostly dry, with rain every now and then, we should have wonderful colors. The scene outside the window towards Beagle Point is about 50-60% color.

There is a terrific fall scene out one of my windows. The closest tree is a dogwood, and its leaves are dark red. Right behind that tree is a maple, with bright yellow leaves. Then another maple, with blaze orange leaves. Then a hickory, with yellow leaves. And finally, a background of several oaks with mostly green leaves. All of them are backlighted by the rising sun.

At about noon Aspen and I headed out for a quick hike through one of the maple groves out to the Crag and back. It was sunny, blue skies, warm, with a terrific breeze blowing through the trees. And man those maples were really lit up! Spectacular yellows and oranges and golds against that pure blue sky. And the wind sent hoards of the leaves floating down to earth, covering the forest floor. We just had to sit back against a tree and take it all in. It was a magical autumn wonderland - as good as you would find in New England or anywhere else.

And it was tough to pass the hammock without stopping for a nap, which I did. Aspen found a good spot down below, and spent a half hour sunning himself on a moss and leaf covered boulder. It remains part of my job here to lay in the hammock as often as I can and let the breezes sway me to sleep.

OK, enough of this easy stuff, it was time for work. I packed up some power tools and drove up to the office site. Just as I arrived, a large barred owl landed on a high limb in a large hickory in front of the office site. I drove right under him, and looked right up about 40 feet to him. Beautiful grey, white and black markings. He didn't stick around long, but I had a feeling he would be back, and that he is one of the owls that has been talking a lot lately.

I spent an hour or two clearing out the right of way for the power line from the power pole to the office sit. I'm going it put it underground, but had to clear out a lot of brush and dead falls first. Aspen has a healthy respect for the noise of the chain saw, so he kept his distance, which is exactly what I want him to do.

On one of my trips back to the cabin for a cookie break, I got the backpack blower and spent another hour or two clearing away the leaves and other duff to expose the dirt. This weekend I plan to bring out a trenching machine and dig about 2,000 feet of trench for the phone line, power line and power line to the new automatic gate, which I plan to put up in the near future.

Aspen decided that he had had enough of loud tools, so he remained at the cabin for much of the afternoon.

Another critter that I found during the day was a little black and grey tree fog. He was hanging out on the railing next to the front steps. Each time I passed him during the day he had moved to a different location, finally coming to rest behind a pile of walking sticks that is accumulating (they are leaning up against one of the entrance bears, left by various hikers).

It remained sunny, breezy and warm. The light in the forest had a very warm glow to it - from the yellows and oranges of the trees. It is just about impossible to beat an October day in the Ozarks. The only close competitor is sitting beside an Ozark waterfall in April.

I was filthy from head to toe when I finally ended for the day. After a shower and a big bowl of pasta, it was nearly dark, but Aspen decided he wanted to hike, so I put my tennis shoes on and followed him into the fading light.

We stopped at one spot and sat for a few minutes, looking down into the maple grove on the bench below. There were many leaves drifting slowly back and forth on their journey from the tree tops to the forest floor. The woods were quiet, and you could hear the individual leaves landing with a soft crunch.

Aspen jumped up onto a lichen-covered boulder and watched the show with great interest. Off in the distance, an owl hooted, then a dog barked, and several other critters made noises. Aspen picked out each one and turned to listen.

Further down the trail we came across two hikers - a guy and a girl. We stopped and chatted a moment. They had a golden retriever, which was very friendly towards Aspen, but still a monster in his little eyes. The woman didn't say too much, but was smiling the whole time. In fact, she was almost giggling, and I wasn't sure what they were up to.

Aspen and I continued down the trail, and eventually made it across the Faddis and East meadows. It had been a while since I had seen a deer here, but try as we might, none were in sight.

We left the open meadows and plunged into the really dark woods, following an old road over towards the new office site. Then we hit the telephone line trail and headed back to the cabin. As I sat down to take off my shoes, I realized what the woman had been smiling at - I wasn't wearing any pants, just boxers. What the heck, I was just out for a stroll in the night air (mostly on my own property), so who needs pants?

10/13/99 A yellow sunrise got us up early. Actually, sunrise is after 7am now, so that isn't all that early. We quickly headed out for a hike. It was a beautiful stroll through the autumn woods. It was warm, with a good wind blowing, and you had to duck a time or two to avoid getting pelted with acorns - there are a TON of them out there right now, and they are raining down on unsuspecting hikers!

The day was hot. We went on a number of hikes, probably five or six in all. And I wore pants today. Wasps began to gather, and it looks like probably tomorrow or the next day will be the annual swarm here. There will be thousands of them, all trying to sneak into a tiny opening somewhere. They get inside the cabin somehow, and come out in the middle of winter when there is a big fire in the fireplace. I'm not looking forward to their return.

The longest hike was in the evening. We ended up over at the big flat and took a seat next to the giant leaning oak. There were a number of big trees in this flat, and a second one that is leaning over. I wondered how they got tipped over - the ground around them was not disturbed, and they are resting on a pretty level spot of land.

Great, spectacular, brilliant color up close, and looking skyward through the tall canopies. Especially the maples. But over near the flat, the hickories were blazing too. And we found this one huge black gum that was in full dress - simply gorgeous bright red leaves, and every one the same color - but the lowest branch was about 35 feet up on the trunk. Anyway, this guy was hollow, and had a large arching hole on one side at ground level - about six feet tall. I could stick my head into the hole and look up into the hollow darkness. There was a great grain pattern on the arch.

This day was also filled with phone calls, faxes and e-mails. I was happy to get them all finished, and after a bowl of ice cream, I ventured outside into the darkness. I was stunned at what I saw over on the southwest horizon. At first I thought that I was seeing things, then I ran to the telescope and swung it over for a good look. I've never seen this before, but I guess is must happen for two or three days every month. The crescent moon, firery orange tonight, was about half way down behind the trees - it looked like the tip of a giant spear that was on fire. It was one of those moments when you hold your breath - it was moving pretty fast through the telescope, and soon it disappeared without a whisper. I think it had set right next to the Buffalo Fire Tower, but I could not see it in the darkness.

10/15/99 After a long day in down we arrived back at the cabin towing the big digging machine. I was anxious to get started, and even though it was late in the day, I fired it up and began to dig the 1100' from the office site down the hill to the cabin.

I found out one thing very quickly - this monster machine wouldn't do all that much work. Small rocks and roots stopped it in its tracks. Heck, I could almost dig the trench faster myself by hand. But I had it rented, so I continued on. I worked on down the hillside until dark, after dark, until I could no longer see the ground - 700' completed!

Aspen wasn't too worried about the noisy machine, and he in fact ran around and played nearby by the entire time.

I was beat, and beat up from trying to keep the stupid machine in line. And there were two holes in the palms of my hands, which really stung when I wet them in the shower. Sitting in the hot water of the tub didn't feel too good either.

Oh, I almost forgot. As I was driving in I found Bob Hostler (Richardson, Texas) parked up at the Faddis Cabin. He had hiked some with Roy and Norma, then went on a couple of other hikes in the area. He and Bob and Benny drove into Harrison for dinner. As I stood and talked with Bob H. the wind just about blew us over - it was really streaming across the Faddis meadow. Very warm though.

10/16/99 Today was the first day of the muzzle-loader deer season. Lots of people are afraid to hike during the season, which is silly. You are far safer out in the deer woods than you are sitting at home.

It remained very warm during the night, and the wind continued. In fact, it blew hard all morning.

I got up and headed back to the digging machine, and had the trench finished to the cabin by 9am, then dug the trench from the power pole down to the office site by noon. The digging was going faster than I had planned on, but the machine still was not doing a very good job.

After lunch, I cleared out a corridor from the office site 800 feet over to the main gate area - I plan to put up a new gate (wider) that has an automatic opener on it. Then I won't have to stop and get out to open and close the gate every time.

This was going to be the easiest of all the trenches I thought - level terrain. Ya, right. It turned out to be the toughest of all, and by the time I had finished, I was about ready to run that darn machine right off of the cliff. But I did get finished, and crawled back down to the cabin and scrubbed myself off.

Then it was time for some serious napping. Aspen and I took our place in the hammock while the afternoon sun and breezes sent us off to never-never land in a hurry.

I awoke to the sound of someone, or something, moving through the woods behind us. Aspen woke up too. Good boy - I had a guard dog! Nope. He just sat up and stared at the three hikers approaching us, and never made a noise. Some guard dog.

It got cloudy, and the wind continued to blow, but no real rain, as was supposed to happen. After a big bowl of beans and rice, we retired to the TV room and watched a movie, then turned in. It did manage to squeeze out a drop or two of rain, but not much.

Sometime during the night, as the temp dropped, a couple of coyotes were across the river at the base of the big bluff there howling away - I could hear their voices bounce off the bluff and echo across the valley.

10/17/99 Aspen got me up very early, so we took off on a short hike. Since it was before daylight, I can't really tell you much about the forest. I need to train this puppy to sleep longer.

I spent some of the morning burying the power line up at the office site, then baked a batch of Cloudland cookies. And just as I was pulling the last pan full out of the oven, Scott and Carolyn drove up. They had come out to gather more acorns for their kids (six flying squirrels). Once we tested the new batch, we headed out with empty buckets.

There were lots of acorns on the ground, but they were all covered with a layer of leaves that had been blown down over the past couple of days. We had to double our movements to get the nuts - instead of just reaching out and picking up an acorn, we had to brush the leaves away first. My system was to sit down in an area, then clean out everything that I could reach all around.

Someone made the comment that nuts really did fall close to the tree. (In reference to families.)

All day Saturday and today there was a steady stream of folks out on the Crag. Some pretty large groups too.

While there are still some brilliant individual trees, the overall color is rather dull right now. That rain last weekend really knocked things back. And I say back because I swear that the forest is about 50-60% GREEN right now, at least from my viewpoint. Which means there is still a lot of color left. Once again this year as last, the rain changed some trees from color back to green.

As Scott and Carolyn were leaving, I followed them up to the Faddis cabin, where we found Bob, Tom Triplett, Eddy Silcott and his family. They were picking apples. We spent thirty minutes picking up hickory nuts. Only one tree there really had good nuts, and we soon had nearly a bucket full.

This was the very same tree that I was picking nuts under last year when I looked up and saw the bear doing the very same thing just one tree away - he didn't have a bucket though.

OK, company gone, chores done, time for a nap in the hammock. The sun was out, and it felt great, with a cool breeze. Aspen was a little run down - Carolyn likes to play. Then a car drove up. Terry Fredrick and his wife and a couple of friends had come out to look around.

The sun was getting low, and Beagle Mountain was really lit up - you could see all of those green trees really well. We finished off the cookies, then headed up to the office site, where I got some good advice about prepping the site before we pour the concrete pad later this week.

Aspen and I got in one last hike for the day. The leaves carpeting the forest floor are all dried out and crunchy now, and you make a lot of noise when you walk. It was after sunset as we made our way back to the cabin, and even though I though there wasn't much color left right now, the hickories and maples cast a nice yellow glow in the evening light.

I think there is enough green left in the trees that we will have a lot of spectacular color yet to come. But that will depend on what the rain does. If we get a lot, then the color might dull up again. If it remains dry, then the blazing color might return. It is supposed to be down near freezing tonight (predicted - I will believe it when I see it), and that may help the color too. I suspect next weekend will be very nice indeed. We sure do need some rain though!

10/18/99 We got up at 5am and drove off into the darkness to town. It was mid afternoon when we returned, and we spent the rest of the daylight hours attempting to unroll the 1100' of telephone cable that we got from the phone company office in Jasper. Not a lot of fun. In fact, there was one carzy moment when I could be heard cussing at the top of my lungs, and seen beating the large wood spool with a heavy metal pry bar. This was all taking place right in the middle of a gorgeous autumn forest with a multi-colored carpeted floor of crunchy leaves.

Aspen stayed close by, and got in a lot of play time with the cable. I won't know until I hook up the phones in the new office if any of his teeth broke through. It was dusty, really dusty.

Once I got the cable laid out and all the dust washed off, I settled in to a fine meal of special pasta and fine wine, with a roaring fireplace (first of the season), Joni Mitchel and Stevie Nicks on the stereo, and Aspen at my feet. It was a warm and happy and tasty scene. Now, where was that young lady with candle light sparkling in her eyes?

10/19/99 It got chilly during the night, and I kept the fire going, although it was quite warm up in the loft, and I had a couple of windows open. It was great to see the shadows created by the flames dancing on the ceiling.

We got up early and headed out for a hike. (Aspen gets up very early, and pretty much forces me to get up too, and out, which is a good thing for me. If left to my own devices, I would probably sleep until noon.)

It was a wonderful little hike around the loop, and we saw a young buck deer right off, over in the maple grove right were we were picking acorns a couple of days ago. He didn't stick around too long.

The trail was covered with a thick carpet of dry and crunchy leaves.

The sun was a welcome sight, as it broke through what leaves were left and lit up the forest. It doesn't take much to warm things up, especially when you are hiking. The temp was 42 degrees.

We spent the rest of the day working at burying the phone cable. This was a very dusty job - I don't like dust. I've never seen the soil like this before - power, dusty, not really soil.

Anyway, we never quite got finished, but did work in a couple of other chores while we were trying to avoid doing more of the dusty work. It remained sunny, got a bit warm, with a slight breeze.

We went on another hike just before sunset. Aspen will run out ahead, but not all that much. Until you turn around and head back - then he runs way off, like a little terror on the trail, then sits and waits for me to catch up. It was great to see him running full speed through the forest - his brown and white coat being such a contrast to the muted yellow and reds of the crunchy leaves.

As I sat out on the back chowing down on dinner, the sun was just slipping below the far ridge. Two things I noticed. First, this is the first sunset of the season that I could see - there have been enough leaves fall now that the view to the west through the bare limbs allows me a view of the setting sun. Before long the sun will be far enough south that I will have a direct view of the sunset.

And secondly, the bluff over on Beagle Point was visible for the first time this season. Once all of the leaves get off, that bluffline can be seen winding through the wilderness for miles.

Oh yea, a third thing is that most of the trees now are either green, or have no leaves. It looks to be about 50/50. Which means we are in for more color, but it won't be a complete turn, since half of the trees don't have any leaves to turn. In some other nearby drainages, most of the trees are still green, so the color will be better elsewhere I suspect.

By the way, two things about Aspen. First, yes, I do plan to post a picture or two of him, but I never seem to have the camer with me when a Kodak moment happens. And secondly, while I am filling this journal with accounts of his darlingness, you mush know I'm sure that he is a devil at least as much - perhaps more, as all puppys are prone to being. Hardly anything in the cabin remains unchewed at least a little, except for the leather couches - if he ever touches them, he will become an outdoor dog for a few months. And he has been kind enough to only pee on the wood floor lately, and not on any carpet. Most of the time he goes outside though, and I am working on that.

The sunset tonight was just spectacular - as good as I have seen in a long time. A thin layer of low clouds lit up bright orange and red and gold, all set against a deep blue sky. And the sun itself cast brilliant rays of yellow light.

10/20-25/99 Lots of work this past week, and not too much recreation. We got the concrete pad poured after a day or two of leveling (28' x 36'). A new gate was installed - wider than the current one, and a little further along the driveway. I will hookup an automatic opener to this new gate sometime this week. While the opener is available as a package, I discovered that it does not contain many items that are required in order to install it - not marked on the package. Very poor business in my opinion. And finally on Sunday, with the help of Scott and Carolyn and two friends of theirs from Houston, we got the last of the telephone cable buried. It has been SO dusty here that I had been putting that one off.

We did go on one great late night hike in the bright moonlight. Aspen took the lead, and I was amazed at how well he followed the trail all the way around the loop, never losing it a single time. He even stopped at a couple of spots where we normally stop.

At one point, something took off in the woods close by - made a lot of noise in the dry, crunchy leaves. But this creature did not flee but a few feet, then stopped. I strained to see what it was in the moonlight, but could not make anything out. I moved a little and it took off, but stopped again after only a few feet. Now I have become quite comfortable hiking around here in the darkness - even total darkness - without fear of any critter. I have danced with bears, snuck up on coyotes, been spooked by deer, yet have remained mostly unshaken. Well, that changed with this critter. A frigid chill shot down my spine, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. No animal that I was aware of would stick around like this dude was doing. Aspen was frozen in his tracks, looking up at me - lots of help there.

Was it a bear? A cougar? Bigfoot? Heck, I had no idea. It was large, and not afraid of me. I decided there was only one thing that I could do, and that was to charge into the brush and see what happened. And so I did. And then, after a long moment of terror as the creature took off for good, I realized that it was an armadillo. The dry leaves, piled six inches deep, made a LOT of noise as this critter plowed through it, creating the sound of a much larger animal. I was relieved.

Aspen has discovered bugs. He like to hunt down and chew up spiders, walking sticks, and all sorts of creepy crawly things. And his latest treat is dried-out toads. Yep, it seems all the dry weather has killed a lot of toads, and Aspen is great and finding their crispy bodies and bringing them along.

And Aspen got a taste of other dogs over the weekend. We had our annual fall hike-in up on Hare Mountain on the Ozark Highlands Trail. There were 71 hikers and about twenty dogs. Aspen was the smallest, but had a golden retriever the same age as he to play with. Some of the other dogs were quite large, including a 100 pound chocolate lab. Much to my surprise, there were not dog fights, or real problems of any kind. Aspen was the big hit, of course.

It has been clear, sunny, and often warm. The temp did get down to 35 degrees one morning. And one day the wind blew at 30mph all afternoon.

The color in the forest is dismal right now. Still lots of green, but many hillsides have simply turned brown. That darn rain that we had two weeks ago really messed things up. However, as I drove back out to the cabin today, I could see a tinge of color creeping in. If conditions happen just right this week (I have no idea what those conditions might be), we could still have some blazing color later in the week, through the weekend, and perhaps into next week. Or everything could just go brown. There is still lots of individual trees that have good color. And like I have told many folks who have e-mailed lately, looking frantically for the "peak" color in the Ozarks, the woods are simply terrific right now, color or not, and everyone should take the opportunity to get out and go hiking as often as possible.

Hey, that sounds like a great idea to me. Aspen and I are headed up the hill to the work site, by way of a long ramble in the autumn woods.

10/26/99 (NEW)It just felt weird this morning, which would prove to be the order of the day. First off, it was warm - 61 degrees at daylight - and it smelled like rain. No clouds within 2,000 miles.

We worked around the cabin most of the morning, drilling holes and putting in the phone cable that comes down from the office site, and also running a new power line through the same holes and outside pipe over to where I plan to build a storage building and workshop some day - all underground lines.

Then I hooked up a telephone at the office site, and son of a gun, it worked! So now I have this nice large concrete pad in the middle of the maple forest, with a telephone sitting on top of it.

While taking a break back at the cabin, the lady who reads the electric meter stopped by - she never does this. She told me that she had just seen two men running away from Bob's cabin. Oops, that didn't sound good - people running away through the woods.

Aspen and I hiked over to the cabin, armed with a 9mm noisemaker, and found that the door was open, a shotgun was out on the bed, but otherwise I could tell if anything had been disturbed. I didn't think too much more about it, although we did take the long route back to the cabin, and kept a sharp eye out for movement.

As we were approaching my cabin, I heard footsteps in the leaves, coming from down the hill close by. I scooted on over to the edge of the bench as fast as I could, and just saw a dark flash disappear way off in the distance. People walking in the woods sound a lot different than any animal, except for perhaps a bear. This was no bear, and I though was probably the two guys that the meter lady had seen. Nothing at my cabin had been disturbed. Hum. Now I was getting just a tad concerned.

It got hot, very hot on the sunny side of the cabin. While I was having lunch, I got this strange feeling that I was being watched. No it wasn't the people in the woods, it was ladybugs - thousands, no tens of thousands of them filled the air. The cabin was quickly engulfed with a swarm of ladybugs! They covered the railings, the windows and doors, and me - getting tangled in what little hair I had left. And that "bug" smell was overwhelming.

In the past the ladybugs had swarmed with the wasps, and there were a few of them around last week when the wasps got thick, but there were hardly any wasps included today. Just lots of ladybugs. Looking across the valley towards Beagle Point, the air was filled with the tiny flying critters. I was literally driven inside to finish my lunch. It felt a little like a scene from "The Birds," only the flying dudes were much smaller, and not pecking my eyes out.

Before long the swarm calmed down some, and the guys from the power company arrived. They connected my electric loop up at the new site, and I had power! Before I could tell them about the two guys in the woods, they had told me that they had seen something "large and dark" down by Bob's pond as they were driving in. It turned out to be a couple of deer they said. Hum, lots of moving going on out there today.

The rest of the afternoon was a dusty and hot one, and I spent most of it burying the power cord from the office site on out to the new gate to power the automatic gate opener. I worked until dark, and finally got the job finished. All the while I kept an eye out, looking towards the edge of the woods for any movement.

10/27/99 (10/26/99 just added today) We got up early and took a short hike around, then spent an hour working at the computer. Aspen finally got restless, and so we took off on another hike, and went on down to Bob's to check on things. Bob was there, and met us at the door.

It seems that the two guys did indeed steal a lot of stuff from Bob's cabin. They got a lot of weird stuff, including a single shoe lace from one of his boots, lots of food, a sleeping bag, and a plastic bucket. Bob was really shook up, and slept with a loaded shotgun at his side. That same shotgun had been hidden, and the burglars had found it but didn't take it with them. Perhaps the meter lady spooked them and they left before collecting all of their loot.

Bob said it looked like both the Faddis Cabin and the Woods boys cabin had been broken into, but he wasn't sure if anything had been taken.

And he also said that Eddy Silcott had seen the two guys. Eddy was over at his place picking up rocks in his field, when he saw them walking through the woods. He called out to them. They gave him this story about being lost for two days, and then leaving the others that had been hiking with them. They told him they had started from the Hawksbill Crag parking lot, and asked if he would give them a ride there, which he did. Eddy didn't know about any of the other sightings of these guys, and had no reason to doubt their story. Oh yea, they were carrying all of the stuff that they swiped from Bob's.

Bob said that Billy Woods had told him that he had seen a couple of guys up on the main road on Sunday, and that they were cowering down in the brush. Probably the same guys.

OK, so we had a couple of burglars running around, and it appeared that perhaps they were living nearby somewhere, hiding out maybe. We called the Sheriff, and they sent a deputy right out.

Bob had to go to town, so I talked to the officers when they arrived. I was a little surprised when they got here so fast - after all, it wasn't all that big of a deal, but it was nice they paid so much attention to it. I sent them up to an abandoned bus that is out of sight in the woods, and they also wanted to see the trailhead. I gave them a copy of the Buffalo River Hiking Trails guidebook to help find their way.

I had to go into town for the afternoon, and felt a little uneasy as I drove away. I found out later that the officers actually spotted the two guys, near the main road. They took off at the sight of the patrol car (actually a sport utility vehicle). The officers chased them through the woods, but had no luck. Yikes, we've really got a couple of criminals out here!

It was well after dark when we returned from town. I was careful to check all of the buildings, then drive up without lights, then do a room-to-room search of the cabin. Hey, I don't get to play cop very often, and it was fun. As I kid, I always used to run around in the woods with a gun (a BB gun) playing cowboys and Indians. Same thing now, only the BB's were a lot larger, and there were 17 of them in my clip.

No sign of entry anywhere. It felt strange though, like I was being watched.

I've been having lots of problems with my phone line - the main one doesn't ring most of the time, and since I have switched my main book ordering line out here now, I have been losing a lot of business. I spent a lot of time running tests, unplugging phones and stuff, and got the line to work every now and then, but not all the.

Aspen got a little restless, and since I wanted to go unplug the phone up at the office site anyway, we took off on a moonlight hike. The 3/4 moon had an eerie glow to it, but lit up the forest nicely. The hiking was great, but it was just, well, a little spooky. Not knowing if there were two sets of eyes following us, and if those eyes were armed or not. But we hiked on, enjoying the stroll in the moonlight. It was good to get back to the cabin though.

10/28/99 While I was sitting in the hot tub for my morning soak, one of the more incredible scenes happened. There was a high layer of broken, thin clouds, that had been grey. The rising sun, which was still twenty minutes below the far ridge, gradually lit up those clouds - first pink, then orange, then burnt red. And all that color was reflected down onto the forest below, which had come alive with color this past day - I nearly need sunglasses because the color was so intense. And remember, no sun yet. Behind those brilliant clouds was a deep blue sky, and over towards the west, that 3/4 moon, still shining. And right at the peak of the blazing color in the clouds, a flock of geese appeared, flying to the south in front of all that color, with the backdrop of the blue sky and the moon. It was pure magic, as was the music they were making. I guess you could paint this scene, but no way you could capture the magic of the moment.

The sun was just peeping up over the ridge when Aspen and I took our morning stroll. Good grief - the trees had turned color almost overnight, and were BLAZING!!! The overall color of the forest was bright orange, kind of pumpkin colored. In fact, the overall forest had turned as well, and I believe today and perhaps tomorrow is the peak of color in this area. And I think this color is spreading across the Ozarks in general - so if you are going to get out, do so this weekend. Although I hear it is supposed to rain, which would be fine, since we need it so. That rain means the color won't last long, but it will be intense, and wonderful.

No new breakins at Bob's. But my phone still wasn't working. Although it did ring once - it was the sheriff's office telling me about the chase yesterday.

Gosh, it is just amazing to sit here at my home and office and stare out at the incredible colored forest world outside. And to go walk through it, and reach out and touch those glorious leaves. And to feel and hear the crunch beneath your feet. More than once I have simply laid down in those leaves and rolled down the hillside. Aspen thinks that I am nuts, but I have seen him do the very same thing a dozen times. In fact, some of the leaves are so deep now that Aspen will be running along just fine and then all of a sudden disappear into the leaves. Fall is a fun time of year.

I worked some on the auto fence opener, and the phone guy came by. He got the phone working again - yea, complete phone service at last!

Kenny Woods came by, and was driving Bob's old truck (with a big water tank in back - he was going to go down to the spring in Boxley Valley and fill up the tank for Bob, who is having a big party at his cabin this weekend - his well has been dry since early August). He said that three of the tires were nearly flat - the two burglars must had let the air out of the tires, perhaps so that no one would use the truck to chase them. He also said that their little hunting cabin had definitely bit hit. Besides going through all of the cabinets, he said that all of the cushions in the sofas were pulled out and all over the floor. This had been done since Bob saw the place, which means these two had been to the Woods cabin at least twice.

Back to the gate. I've been planning this and doing one thing or another on it for the past couple of weeks. And now after a couple more hours of installation and measuring and drilling, I finally was ready to test the new gate opener. I turned all the power on, from the pole on down - nothing smoked - that was a good sign right away. Then I hit the transmitter button. And the gate closed, just like it was supposed to! My triumph was short lived, because when I tried to open the gate, the fuse blew. OK, now I was trapped in at Cloudland.

I robbed a fuse from my car, breaking a latch in the process, and returned to the gate. Aspen was beginning to wonder why all this running back and forth. But he usually managed to find a stick to play with. Except for that one time when he kept digging at the base of the post. Hum.

Anyway, now my new gate opener had a Mercedes fuse in it, so it had to work. Nope. Blew the fuse again right away. After a few minutes of forcible leaning on the gate, I got the tension loose enough for me to disassemble the arm and open the gate. Darn, now I lost my excuse about being trapped. Wait a minute, I don't need excuses any more.

It was getting late, the gate help line was closed for the day, and I was tired and dusty (and out of fuses), so Aspen and I headed back down the hill to the cabin one last time. In the process, Aspen got tangled up in my legs, and I stepped on his leg. He yelped, then sat down and hung out his dangling limb. Oh no, my 180 pounds had snapped his poor little leg (Aspen now weights eighteen pounds - up from twelve when he got here). He reached over and mouthed my arm as I accessed the damage.

A huge wave of relief came over me when I discovered that his leg was not broken and OK. In fact, Aspen soon jumped up and trotted off, not even limping. Good act Aspen. I'll bet it did hurt though.

Here comes another magical Cloudland moment. I brought my plate of pasta out to the back deck, hoisted Aspen up into the swing, then joined him myself, with my pasta and a glass of wine. The sun was setting, and had lit up the row of trees right out in front, at the lower side of the meadow. Oaks, hickories, and some maples, and they were all blazing away. And behind the fire, Beagle Point was in shadow, so the brilliant color really stuck out. Overhead, a blue sky, with scattered puffy white clouds. And to my right, the wind was blowing the limbs of a nearby maple so close that I could almost reach out and touch them. These leaves were bright red and orange and yellow, all burned around the edges from the drought. I thought how wonderful it was that these maples were still struggling to bring so much vibrant beauty to the world, after having been nearly starved to death of water. The entire scene was exhilarating, yet peaceful. The temp was just right, and Aspen opened his eyes long enough to agree with me.

10/29/99 Another early hike today. Lots of great color, the wind was blowing, and now it really felt like rain - a bank of clouds came creeping in too. Our best chance for rain in a while is upon us, and I hope to be reporting about all of the lush color in the rain over the weekend. Bob Chester is having a big music party at his cabin tomorrow (that is why the rains are coming - never fails). No new break-ins to report.

Although there was one strange happening during the night. The outside alarm went off at about 3am, which seems to be a typical time for that to happen. I got up and stared out the window, straining to see any movement in the muted moonlight. I thought that I saw something coming down the lane, but I wasn't quite sure. It was there, and then it moved, but did it move, or was it just my imagination? Then it was in a different spot. Not enough contrast out for me to really see what it was, if anything. But it was moving closer to the cabin.

Then my carport light came on - this was very strange, because it is equipped with a dawn-dusk switch, which was turned on, but the light had been off most of the night. But all of a sudden it came on, and it illuminated the spot where I thought I had seen something. OK, so once again, I could not really tell if there was something standing there or not - the contrast was still too low. Then I saw it - a shadow! There was something standing there, but I could not make out what it was. Then all of a sudden, it turned around and disappeared into the darkness. The alarm went off a few seconds later as it exited the area.

I never did figure out exactly what the critter was, but the way it was moving, I think it was a coyote.

The sun has just burst out now and is lighting up the entire wilderness. The leaves have all turned, and I await the day when the all turn loose and fall to the ground. That is always the most exciting day of the fall for me. I'll let you know when it happens.

As I was driving away, the wind was blowing lots of leaves to the ground. In fact, the air was filled with them.

When I returned well after dark (actually, it was about 1am - I had to give a program in Rogers and it ran very late), the wind was howling at 40mph, as it did all night. And it was coming from the east - another sure sign of rain.

10/30/99 It was a bit dark and gloomy at first light, the kind of day that I love. The first order of business was to go up and try to get the new gate opener working - had new fuses and a trick from the manufacturer to try. It worked right off, and within a few minutes, I had it adjusted just right. At last, an automatic gate at Cloudland!

The wind continued to blow hard, but it was in the 60's so not too cold. The color in the forest was at its peak today for sure, if you could only get the branches to hold still long enough to take a picture of them.

Bob's party was a big hit, with lots of people (over 80), a mountain of great food, and wonderful bluegrass music - must have been a dozen or so folks playing on the back deck of the old Woods cabin. Lots of people there that I knew, and plenty that I didn't. Aspen was the only dog there for most of the party, and he drew a great deal of attention, of course. Danny Hale from Russellville took a picture or two of Aspen with his digital camera, and has sent me one over the net, but I have not downloaded it yet (have to wait until I get back to town to do that). I will post it in a day or two if I can capture it.

The rain held off until the very end of the party, and then it did begin to rain just a little, then a little more. Aspen and I had a great little hike back to the cabin in the rain.

We built a big fire in the fireplace and sat around with Roy and Norma, Kathy and Terry Fredrick, and then Dean and Bonnie. Terry and Kathy had to leave, but the rest of us sipped a little wine and Wild Turkey Liquor until the late hour of 10pm before crashing.

10/31/99 The cabin came to life early, and before long we were all munching on blueberry biscuits and Cloudland coffee. Dean and Bonnie headed on over to work at their property. I took Roy and Norma over to a break in the bluffline, and they struck off on an all-day hike down across the river and up the other side and back.

Just as we left them, it began to rain, and Aspen and I took refuge under a small bluff overhang. It was dusty under there - kind of like it had been in the forest for the last month. Soon we left the bluff and went on a little ramble through the colorful, dripping forest.

The new auto gate was working great. It is not really meant to keep people out, but to cut down on the vehicle traffic a bit - too much of that messes up my road. There is a sign on the gate that welcomes hikers, but asks unauthorized vehicles to not enter. There is a built-in button in my Mercedes that will open the gate as I approach, and it closes automatically after you drive through. Pretty neat.

I spent much of the day drawing up the plans for the new office building - I have to put in the lumber order tomorrow morning, and had to figure out how many of each length and width of board to order. It is a simple design. I am getting all of the ducks in a row to get most of the building built by the end of next weekend, that is if the trusses arrive on time.

The sky opened up and it poured a time or two during the day. We were getting lots of much-needed rain. I guess it was the official end of the drought. You could tell that the forest loved every drop of it, and so did I.

Roy and Norma radioed in their position every now and then. They took refuge under an overhang too as they were making their way up Little Pine Hollow. I had sent them over there to explore that little hollow, and up to the bluff above, to the giant blocks of sandstone that I knew Norma would love to climb up onto. They made it to the blocks, and found a stunning view there.

After a short nap, and a visit from Jeff Montgomery (he took refuge at the cabin during a heavy downpour), Aspen and I went out for another hike. The forest was nothing short of wonderful, with a multitude of blazing color everywhere. This was the second peak of the color here - the first half being several weeks ago. Only half of the leaves left for this go-around, but that was plenty.

Funny though, as a couple of hikers that we met at the Crag commented about what a shame it was the color wasn't any good this year. Sometimes I think people just don't open their eyes - the color really was great. And during the short periods when the sun broke through the clouds, it looked like the forest was on fire!

Roy and Norma and Aspen and I all returned to the cabin at about the same time. We all had a great hike, and they reported that the Buffalo was actually flowing a little, and the water was clear. I suspect that will continue until next August now. There have always been several pools visible from the cabin, but the actual river hasn't flowed much in a couple of months. Hum, I still haven't taken Aspen down there yet - I must do that soon.

Darkness brought more rain and wind. The rain has been so nice, although it won't last too much longer. More than an inch total so far these past two days.

Tonight will probably be the night that the robbers seek out more shelter and break into another cabin somewhere. We found evidence that they had been back to the Woods boys cabin on Friday night - they cooked some microwave popcorn in the oven, and burned it badly. I probably should go out and make the rounds here in a bit and see if I can catch them inside somewhere, but I may just sit back and listen to the rain.

It has been one wonderful fall here in the Ozarks, full of blazing color and acorns and lots of dust. I do enjoy each new season here, and how the weather changes constantly. Winter is just around the corner, and with it will come many early morning hours of wood chopping, and lots of cold evenings spent curled up in front of the fireplace, with Aspen as my feet (OK, perhaps he will be up on the couch with me).

November 1999 Journal