CLOUDLAND JOURNAL, DECEMBER 2002
Updated 12/31/02

Welcome to Cloudland!

12/1/02 The eastern horizon began to glow early today. Just enough clouds gathered around to pick up some bright color. I ran downstairs to get the camera, then went out onto the little deck next to our bed and snap a photo. A few minutes later the distant ridgetops started to turn yellow - the tall ones in the west first. The light gradually turned white, spilling into the valleys and flooding them with sunshine. Time to wake up wilderness - December is here! This is the first day of winter here, but the sky is mostly clear and blue and I think it will be a warm winter day. The air is still, except for the little bit of turbulence that a few birds out flying around produce. They say that a big storm can begin with a single flap of a butterfly's wing - I wonder what an eagle can produce?

It will be another Thanksgiving Day for us as we head back up to Missouri to have a feast at grandmas house. Grandma will be coming down here tomorrow to guard the fort while we are in Hot Springs doing a program. So very nice to have Pam's mom willing to cover for us!

12/3/02 We got back to the cabin around 1am this morning - lots of night birds out patrolling the roadways for our trip back up into the hills. We had a great program in Hot Springs, and there were a number of Journal readers in the audience. It was great to see and meet all of you, and I hope you enjoyed the show!

It was chilly and blustery around here all day today, with heavy clouds and moisture in the air. The temp hovered in the low 30's. By mid afternoon the air had turned to a heavy mist, and the ground was getting soaked. I was working at the computer when Pam called me over to the window - "Look at all that BLOOD on the deck!" There were indeed several pools of blood on the deck from an unknown source. We immediately took inventory of our livestock, and all cats and dogs were fine.

It appeared that something had been up on the deck and bleeding pretty heavily. I followed the blood trail down the steps and out into the woods. No way it could have been a bird or other critter that the cats could have gotten a hold of - way too much blood, and no feathers or bits of fur around. The instincts of my old hunting days took over and I went into tracker mode.

I spent the next 30 minutes carefully scouring the hillside below the cabin for drops of blood. At first it was easy to see the bright-red blood on the leaves, but soon I found myself looking at dozens of splotches of bright-red color that were not blood at all, but rather some sort of red grass that was growing in tight clumps close to the ground. When I would lose the trail I would walk circles out from the last blood, getting a little bit farther away each time until I found the next blood. It was sort of like connecting the dots, and it became obvious where the critter was headed - downhill, which is where most wounded animals are likely to go.

As I moved on down the hill both dogs AND both cats joined me in the search. None of them ever seemed to notice any scent, but they knew something was up and they wanted to be a part of it.

One of the problems that I had trying to solve this mystery was the fact that the mist had gotten heaver, and turned into light rain, which began to dilute and even wash away much of the blood. But this dude was bleeding heavy enough that there was plenty of red left behind for me to follow.

At one point I realized that I was out there in the rain and cold and wearing only my cabin slippers - my feet were getting numb. So I took a break and went back up to the cabin to put on a proper pair of footwear. Since the blood trail was heading down towards the top of the bluffline I put the dogs inside the cabin because I didn't want them to get too close to the bluff in the slippery conditions that were quickly forming outside.

I returned to the hunt, along with one of the cats - the Trail Cat followed me back up to the cabin and stayed there, but the Fat Cat remained down in the woods - that was very strange for him!

While it has been a good long while since I had tracked a wounded animal, I have had my share of doing it in my youth, when I used to hunt nearly every day of every deer season. I guess following a blood trail is more "trailing" than it is "tracking." A good tracker I am not - some guys can track a grasshopper across a parking lot. But I do OK with a blood trail. And I'm not talking about blood splattered all over the place. Often the only blood there is will be a tiny speck of red. I've spent many long hours down on my hands and knees looking for specks of blood - all it takes is one sometimes and you can figure out where your animal is headed. One thing I simply would not do is wound an animal and leave it to die - I would ALWAYS spend whatever time was necessary to either find the deer or make darn sure that it was not mortally wounded. Fortunately most of my kills were quick ones - dropped in their tracks.

This was a little bit different today - I really didn't need to find this animal. But I really WANTED to find whatever it was, and even help out if necessary. I never got down on my hands and knees, but my eyes were tightly focused as I studied each and ever leaf on the forest floor for evidence.

Just before the animal started to go down a really steep bank, it turned and began to go on the level through the woods. I followed. Then I entered an area where there were blood spots spread out in every direction - not a lot in any one place, but small spots here and there in an area perhaps 50 feet across. What the heck was going on here? There were so many of them, and they were so spread out, that I started thinking that there was some weird powder that had blown off of the trees that when wetted by the light rain turned into a blood-red liquid. Or that perhaps it was a large bird that had hopped from limb to limb in the trees above.

As I made my circles farther and farther out from this area with the many spots, I finally found the blood trail leading away from the area - BUT it was going in a most unusual direction - UPHILL! A wounded animal will almost never travel uphill. Was the forest playing tricks on me? Was I tracking this animal backwards?

That tracking backwards thought took me back nearly 40 years ago when I just a little kid at deer camp. I had toted a gun into the woods many times, but never strayed too far from the camp. But this one day would be different, and my life would change forever because of it. It had snowed during the night and the forest was covered with a thick blanket of snow, probably 6-8 inches. I had never been out in the woods in the snow before, and while the rest of the hunters in camp elected to remain in camp, I was jumping for joy at the thought of actually getting to go out into this stuff. I remember my dad cooking pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. He showed me how to make a fine snack out of the leftovers - add a layer of bacon to a single pancake, sprinkle powdered sugar over it all, then roll it all up and bind with twine. I made myself several of those, tucked them into my jacket, put on my boots, grabbed my gun (which was about as large as I was), and headed out the door of our big camp tent. There didn't really seem to be much discussion about me heading out on my own - it was just what I was going to do.

I stepped out into the most magical world I had ever seen. A world of pure white, and absolutely NO SOUND at all. The snow was so soft that even my boots didn't make a sound. Man, I had dreamed of this day, of going out and exploring the wilderness on my own in the winter woods. My day had come.

It didn't take me long to find a set of fresh deer tracks - easily spotted in the new-fallen snow. In fact there were three or four sets of tracks, all traveling together. My plan was to simply follow these tracks and they would lead me right to the deer, which I would shoot, then proudly drag back to camp. I must pause here for a moment to tell you that the real reason why I loved hunting so much was that it gave me an excuse to be out in the woods. But the thrill of the hunt was kind of fun too, especially in the SNOW!

Well, I followed and followed and followed those deer tracks all morning, and I learned a great deal about how deer move in the forest. About how they will walk along the top edge of a bench so that they can get a good view of what is below, as well as what is on their own level. I don't recall everything those tracks taught me, but I remember learning more and more as the day went on.

After what must have been several miles of hiking in the deep snow (deep to a ten-year old), I came across their beds, oval spots in the snow where there was no snow at all. I had seen deer beds before, had even jumped deer out of their beds, and one thing I always did was run up and lay my hand down in the bed to see how warm it was. These beds were stone cold. Darn, those deer must have been a long ways ahead of me still! But as I got to looking around and studying those beds I realized that there were only one set of tracks attached to each bed. What that meant is that the deer had laid down BEFORE it began to snow, and got up and walked off only after all of the snow had fallen. And then I realized - duh - that I had been following the deer BACKWARDS all day!!! I simply did not know which way a deer track pointed, and thought that the fat end was the front. Brother was I wrong. But no matter, I had a thoroughly enjoyable day in the woods, and got to cover a lot of ground and see a great deal of territory.

What this day did for more than anything was that there was a connection made out there somewhere, between me and the wilderness. A bond that remains to this day. I had never in my life seen anything as beautiful as that winter wonderland. It was the first time that I really got to go out and roam free and wild all day long by myself - and I never saw another person until I got back to camp. I was able to navigate through the hills and valleys of this forest, across creeks and up steep ravines, and find my way back to camp (of course, all I had to do was follow the deer tracks - this time going the right direction!). I had established myself, even if only in my own mind, as a first-rate woodsman, with the beginning confidence that I would need to carry me through to this day. And I owe it all to the sport of hunting. It really is much more than simply going out and shooting bambi.

OK, now back to today. When I found the multiple blood trails I got to thinking about trailing those deer backwards, and wondered if I had been doing the same thing here today. But then I stood back against a tree and tried to take in the entire landscape, and I drew out a map in the air of where the blood trails had gone, and a picture began to emerge of just what might be going on with all of it. ONE THING that could have happened that would explain all that I found on the ground was that there were actually at least two animals - probably coyotes - and they had gotten into a fight and drawn blood on each other. That would explain the area with all the blood spots, and the two trails going off in opposite directions. One of the coyotes came on up towards the cabin for some unknown reason, and actually came up on to the deck (this part of the story is a bit far-fetched, but I could not figure out any other way to explain it!).

That's it. That's all I could come up with after spending more than an hour out there in the freezing rain. An hour I might add that I really enjoyed. I finally came to a point where I had to make a decision - either continue to look for blood, or return to the cabin and build a roaring fire to greet my two ladies when they got back to the cabin (they dismissed school early because of the weather). I elected to go back inside and get the fire going and abandon my hunt. The rain had gotten heaver anyway and the evidence was washing away. It's a mystery that will remain on for a number of new moons.

We spent some time this evening getting ready for an ice storm that they are predicting (the forecast has changed just about hourly, from heavy snow to heavy ice now). We've got a full tank of gas for the generator, everyone is showed up and clean, flashlights and candles in place, and plenty of dry wood to keep us warm. Just before Pam went to bed they officially called off school tomorrow, so everyone can sleep in late. While I would much rather like to see snow or rain, I'll take ice since we are so dry here right now. ANY sort of moisture will be welcome! You may have to remind me of this if the ice is heavy and we are stuck without power for days.

It is very late at night. I can hear the wind howling outside and sleet hitting the windows.  A log cabin is a great place to wait out a winter storm. Especially when a guy like me has two lovely ladies to keep me warm!

12/4/02 The power went off around 2 this morning. Lots of ice in the trees, and it was blowing quite a bit, which means we were bombarded all night with ice explosions on the decks. I got up and fed the fire a couple of times. We have a great fireplace that really warms the cabin up (all except for the basement), but there is no way to turn it down during the night, so it is always burning full blast and goes through a load of wood in a hurry.

It was still dark outside and inside when I came down the third time to load up the fireplace. I stumbled right into a creature that was standing in the middle of the living room - it was Amber! She had gotten up and was wandering around the cabin, trying to be quiet and not wake us up. I had been awake most of the night, listening to the crashes and calculating where they had hit, and if they had hit anything important.

"Let's go out and play!" she said. Now, keep in mind that up until just a short while ago when Pam and Amber moved out here to Cloudland that she was a city girl. And now she wanted to go outside into the FREEZING weather, in the DARK, and PLAY!!! Yep, she is getting the hang of this place, and I think she may have some of my blood in her after all!

We bundled up and headed out the door. The ground was covered with about 1/2 inch of ice, but the top surface was a little rough from ice crystals so it was easy to walk across without slipping. The waterfall and creek were dry, and there was a thin layer of ice on the pond. Amber headed right on up to her fort, and climbed up the rope ladder.  When she went down the tube slide she hit her head on an icycle that was growing at the lower entrance - probably the first time that had ever happened to her!

Meanwhile I was working in the dim light getting the generator all set up. We have a pretty good sized on that we bought on day 4 of the 5-day power outage last year. I have it wired directly into our main circuit box so that all I have to do is fire the generator up, flip a few switches, and it will power most of the cabin. It won't power the big appliances like the oven, heat pump, hot water heater, but will power just about everything else at the same time. Whenever we need more hot water I just switch the rest of the stuff off and turn on the heater. The water system is gravity-feed, at least the first 800 gallons of water. After that we would have to turn on the pump.

So I fired up the generator, flipped those switches, and the cabin came to life. Amber asked if the TV was on, and when I said it was, she decided that she wanted to play pioneer woman all day so would not be needing the TV. I turned the computer on and tried to check e-mail and make a quick post to the journal, but while everything worked just fine out here, it seemed that our server in Fayetteville was down and we could not get through, nor could anyone else access the journal web page - it was a problem with the server and not us. I don't think they had much ice or snow in town so don't know what the problem was, but if you are reading this it obviously got fixed!

Our trees are covered with 1/2 inch or more of ice, and some of the limbs and smaller trees are leaning down low. We can hear limbs and entire trees ripping apart and crashing to the ground every couple of minutes. So far it is not nearly as bad as the ice was last year, but since the moisture continues to fall, no telling how bad it will get. Our road is solid ice, and I doubt we will be going anywhere for a while (although I do have chains for the truck so we could get out if needed, maybe). There isn't any snow at all, just ice.

But for now we are all snug and warm in the cabin. With a limited amount of fuel for the generator, I'm going to sign off with this now and shut down the cabin. We'll fire it up again later in the day and I will try to check e-mail and make another post. Or maybe not. I suspect Amber will get me back out into the woods here pretty soon, and Pam is talking about walking the road all the way out to the mailbox - that would be just to see how many limbs are down on the road - we aren't expecting any mail delivery today, nor UPS shipments either going or coming.

UPDATE at 3:30pm: Very gray skies all day long, with continued mist, and still no power, but at least the telephone worked. We had a wonderful time on our little hike. There were many limbs and small trees down across the road, but nothing really too large that we could not handle. We discovered early on that Amber just LOVES to charge ahead and get started moving the downed limb. We hiked on down to Bob's cabin to see if the power was off there too - it was. Long the way we found many interesting things to see and take pictures of. Amber and the Trail Cat were the most excited, each playing every chance they could. Actually I should amend that - Amber, Aspen, and especially LUCY had a blast! The Trail Cat got into the action once in a while, but mostly she just hiked along ahead of us, trying to avoid any mud puddles in the road that were just barely frozen over. We continue to be amazed at where this cat will go! I took a lot of photos, and present several of them here for you -  I tried to only post a few of the better ones so that your download time was not too long.

Amber, the Trail Cat, Lucy (in the background), and the old man

After we got back to the cabin and had a bit to eat and a nice, long nap, we fired up the truck and drove out to the mailbox. The road was in good shape - covered with ice but no problem with our truck. There were probably 20-25 large limbs and small trees down across the road that we had to get out and move. Amber was always anxious to jump out and run ahead to get the job done, but many of the limbs/trees were just too large for her to handle by herself, but she did a great job trying. I had to cut down about a dozen trees that were bent over the road so low that we could not pass.

The main Cave Mountain Road was OK to drive on too, although no one had been on it since last night. We drove a couple miles in either direction, stopping and hauling a number of limbs/trees out of the way, and having to cut out several of them. We met the phone guy that had come up from Boxley, so the road was open all the way to there in that direction, although he said it was still quite icy on the big hill.

We are back in the cabin now (obviously) and are running the generator long enough for me to make this post, then we will go back into "pioneer" mode as Amber likes to call it. We are snug and warm and doing quite well. Oh yea, Amber is outside playing in the ice - that girl is a delight to have as a daughter! I don't know when the power will come back on again, or when I will make another post. Right now I need to go haul some wood, although Pam has been keeping us pretty well stocked.

Speaking of my bride, I must tell you about the pair of pants she is wearing today. I have been searching for a long while for a good pair of pants that I can wear while x-country skiing. Most of them are way too bulky and expensive and are mainly for downhill skiing. And the official "Nordic" pants are always way to expensive. In a brief fit of catalog shopping the other day, I came across a pair from L.L. Bean that seemed to fit my needs just perfectly, so I ordered them. They arrived in the same box as a pair of snowshoes that I had ordered for Pam. Just on a lark I had her try the pants on - she has not taken them off since! I fear I will have to order another pair for me.

12/5/02 Bright sunshine and blue skies at first light today. I was standing out on the back deck when the sun began to rise, and there was a great sense of anticipation of how incredible the scene would be once all that sunshine arrived. I was not disappointed. We got about an inch of snow after dark yesterday, so the ice on the ground is covered with white, but the snow didn't stick too much in the trees, so they are still mostly ice-colored. The sunshine sure did light up the wilderness - with much more brilliance than any camera could ever record. Just one of those scenes that you have to stand and stare at (although I did take a couple of snapshots).

Views from Cloudland this morning at first light

I fired up the generator to wake up the cabin (built a big fire too), and have spent the last hour processing book orders and e-mails. We'll run out of gas soon today, so I plan to make a trip into town to get some more - no telling how long it will take them to get the power back on again for real.

Last night was one of those magical times at Cloudland that I cherish so. Amber has been after me for days now to decorate the big tree that is taking up half of the living room. We put it up last week but have never put anything on it - waiting for me to get up on the big ladder and string the lights first. Last night, with nothing more than candle and fireplace light, the three of us put on the tree lights, wooden cranberry strings, and decorations. It was great quality time with my girls, and just not the same as if the power had been on. I highly recommend that you turn out the lights and spend some time with your family this holiday season - no phone or computers or televisions to distract you from each other.

Amber just came over to me this morning with her pants down to her knees. She needed a little help getting them on. They were her THIRD layer! She was getting all dressed up to go out and play in the snow. The temp is about 20 degrees, but I have a feeling that after a few minutes of romping in the white stuff she will be rather warm.

Oops, I think I am needed outside, so I will post this and be off to be pounded by a few snowballs!

UPDATE: We did get in a number of snowball fights during the day, once the power-dry snow began to melt a little bit. The ladies continued to decorate the cabin while I worked on book orders and e-mails. At mid-afternoon the postman called to say that he was unable to get to our box, so no mail, and more importantly, no OUTGOING mail. The UPS guy was going to try to make it out, but his arrival was in doubt. I decided to attempt to drive into Harrison with the mail and the UPS boxes. I met the UPS guy before I got to the end of the drive, and was able to give him all of the packages. I decided to go ahead and get to Kingston so that the mail would go out today, and get another tank of gas for the generator (all book orders got out on time despite the ice storm!). The roads were in pretty good shape, but still lots of low-hanging limbs and trees in the way.

A spectacular view up Whitaker Creek this afternoon

After I returned to the cabin we grilled hamburgers and enjoyed an exceptionally wonderful sunset - the orange glow of the setting sun really lit up the ice on the trees around the cabin.

Sunset from the cabin

It is later at night now, and we are hoping the power will be restored sometime this evening. The utility crews have been working overtime to clear away fallen limbs and trees from powerlines. We are still on generator power tonight, but have enough juice to light the holiday lights that Pam has been putting up. If you can ignore the sound of the generator, it is calm and quiet in the cabin tonight, and quite nice. A big fire is keeping us all toasty. The temp is supposed to reach down to the mid-teens tonight, so if the power does not come back on soon I will be making a number of trips down the staircase in the dark to load up the fireplace. That's a chore I rather look forward to (although don't tell Pam!).

A serious game of Uno in progress.
If you look close, you can see Aspen in "his" leather chair, just below a blanket with a springer spaniel puppy pictured on it.

12/6/02 It was 21 degrees when I got up at 5:15 to stoke the fire, a lot warmer than was forecast. We usually seem to have it a bit milder here than at most other places - warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. I fired up the generator a few minutes later, while Pam got Amber ready for school. We motored off just after 6am to go meet the bus down in Boxley Valley. Her little bus was not running,, but the big bus was supposed to run - it never showed up. Since half of the kids would not be in school today I decided to skip the long drive into Jasper to take her to school (they normally just watch movies all day on a day like this). We headed back up the mountain. It looked like everyone else on Cave Mountain had power but we were still out. We live on a two-mile extension of the main power line, so I guess they ran out of steam before getting to our spur last night. We hope to have power sometime today, but if they don't get to us, we'll survive just fine - that's just part of wilderness living - doing without power sometimes, and making do.

We got to see the sunrise on the way back across an open field that was covered with brilliant white snow and ice - it was quite a treat to witness! Then we stopped and hiked down to Bob's cabin to see if his power had come back on again or not - nothing. It was a bit chilly hiking out there in the ice, but Amber was up to it and followed along, laughing all the way.

When we got back to the cabin there were a number of bluebirds playing in the trees in the ice, silhouetted by the rising sun. I got out my digital camera and spent a while trying to get a good photo of them. Looking one direction the ice was just spectacular, but there was no color to be seen in the birds. Looking the other direction the pure blue and orange of their feathers was really lit up, but the ice was dull. I decided to go with the silhouette and the ice - partly because the birds would not cooperate with me the other direction!

Bluebirds and ice

It is supposed to be bright sunshine and warmer temps all day today, so most of this ice will be gone. Actually it will melt into much-needed moisture on the ground. What we will need now is a couple days of good rain to add to it in order to get some of the waterfalls flowing. Come on rain. Come on more snow! I'll take either.

After the ladies went to bed last night I got a hankering to read a book - something I hardly ever do. The generator was off and all I had was firelight to read by, but that was enough. I got out my copy of Cache Lake Country and dove right in. My brother, Terry, gave me this book a couple of years ago, saying that he tries to read it every year, as he has done since high school. It is about a guy who builds a log cabin way back in the Canadian wilderness and lives there year-round. It's one of the most interesting books that I have ever read. I got about half way through it while the fire burned down behind me. It was some nice, peaceful, quiet time for me, and a chance to exercise my brain just a little bit. I highly recommend this book, and reading it by firelight!

12/7/02 Calm and cool and clear at first light today, temp 32 degrees. We've got a crazy weekend ahead, as is always the case.  A lot of folks think that we have weekends "off," but they are normally our most hectic days of the week, even when the holidays are not here. I've got a book signing at Barnes & Noble in Fayetteville today, then have to make a quick trip to Ft. Smith, plus get to about a dozen different places on my to-do list in town. Tomorrow I have another book signing at Barnes & Noble in Rogers, then a board meeting, then a club meeting, plus about five other places to go on my to-do list. Pam will be with me for some of this, plus has to make not one but two trips up to Missouri. Before we can get started on all of this we have a ton of catch-up work to do around the cabin as a result of the power being out for several days. Just another typical weekend at Cloudland!

Speaking of the power, we FINALLY got the power back on again just before dark yesterday. I guess I don't have much pull with the power company because it seems that they simply skipped us the day before when they were restoring power to the mountain - we were the LAST account on Cave Mountain to get power, even though some folks were much farther out the line than us. Bob Chester came out yesterday afternoon and was rather upset about that fact, but when you deal with an organization like the power company where the little people have no say there is nothing we can do about it. The problem in all of this is, of course, the fact that the power company refuses to maintain its own powerline right-of-ways in the first place - they grow up after 20 years of neglect and naturally frozen limbs and trees are going to fall onto the power lines and knock out service. I guess it is kind of ironic that the two people who actually maintain our own right-of-ways and keep all of the trees out and therefore never have any powerline damage (Bob Chester and us), are the ones that have to suffer! That's life in the big city.

We had a great day around here before the power came back on again. It was almost warm outside, with bright sunshine and hardly any wind. Amber and I had a number of snowball fights (she seemed to always get the best of me), and we went out and cleared a bunch more trees that had fallen down into the road. It was quite a challenge just driving or hiking down the roadway - the ice in the trees was melting in a hurry and often an entire limb full of ice would come crashing down without warning. If you were in the wrong place you got smashed! It was bad enough while on foot, but driving along it was really bad because all of that SOLID ice really made a loud sound as it smashed the truck, not to mention what it was doing to the finish. Amber counted nearly two dozen major downpours on our way out to the mailbox.

Bob called to let me know that there was a giant hickory tree blocking his driveway (along with a couple dozen other smaller trees). I hiked up and got the tractor and big chain saw and drove on over to help out. By the time I got there Bob had already cut through the monster, but needed some help to get it out of the way. I learned that the main reason Bob was out today was because some people were going to stay at his cabin this weekend. He drove all the way from Ft. Smith just to clear the road for them, build fires in both of his cabins, and cook them dinner! Then we was going back home. Bob has the biggest heart of all, and I think sometimes other folks take advantage of him and his generosity a little too often. Seems like Bob (and Benny and Mildred and sometimes Clyde and Eddy) are always out here fixing up the place so that others can use it. That's just the sort of people they are.

We had one of those Cloudland moments yesterday. Amber and Pam and I were laying around on the couches in the living room playing when we looked up through one of the tall windows on the western wall and saw a mature bald eagle floating past. We were up and out the door in an instant, and got to gaze up at this incredible bird for several minutes as he circled directly overhead - he was really low, and we could count each feather and look into his eyes. What an incredible sight of not only what this magnificent bird represents, but also of that stark black and white body against the pure blue sky of mid-day.

We did not take any regular hikes yesterday because we did not have enough hard hats! I spent part of the day splitting wood, and Pam hauled loads into the cabin to fill up the fire box. She is a real trooper, and has taken to this wood-hauling thing and seems to enjoy it. Funny, but when she was a child that was her job at home and she hated it - I think because she was told to do it and had no choice in the matter. Now she realizes that it is just another one of the chores that needs to be done and she does it happily. Funny how life changes you. (Just look at me!)

Now that the power is back on again it is oh so nice to be able to walk on over and flip a light switch. But you know, we really didn't miss it all that much, and the three of us got along just fine, at least for the short run. Dirty dishes and clothes had begun to pile up. And while the basement would never get cold enough to freeze, the temp was a bit on the cool side down there (the heat from the fireplace never gets down there since it is below and heat rises). But all in all we were snug and warm and well fed, and got to spend a great deal of quality time together as a family. Of course, we try to do that often out here anyway. Oh yea, I had drained all of my rechargeable batteries for the digital camera (I have four sets of them, but these digital cameras really eat a lot of batteries), so by the time the bald eagle flew over, I had no juice to take any pictures.

Now that the sun has peeked up over the eastern horizon and is lighting up the wilderness out in front, I can see that Beagle Point is still locked in winter and frozen solid. A great deal of ice and snow melted yesterday, but only on the south-facing slopes, and to some extent on the eastern and western-facing slopes as well. The north-facing slopes don't get much sunshine in the winter, and so need higher temps in order to melt off. It is supposed to be warmer today and tomorrow, with perhaps some RAIN, so that will take care of the ice, or at least most of it. All of the melting ice will add to the dry creeks and rivers, but we didn't get enough to get anything up and running - the Buffalo River up here is just a little bit higher than it was last week. We seemed to miss the multi-inches of rain that other parts of Arkansas got just before the ice storm hit. Come on rain!

12/11/02 It's late at night right now and I just got back from a delightful hike out through the forest. No need for a flashlight - it is cloudy, but there is enough of a moon up there somewhere that its diffused glow settles down through the trees and gives just enough illumination for me to keep from running into things - well, most of the time anyway. It is SO nice to be able to wander around without the worry of stepping on a snake. I love the cold, and the personality of the winter landscape, even at night. There is a stiff wind blowing in from the west, and it "feels" like something is about to happen out there. That wind cuts right to the bone, pulls the skin tight on my face, and smells great. The dogs took off after something just ahead of me in the woods, growling and snarling, but I paid them no mind and continued into the night. It was probably just them jumping for joy and laughing out loud at the weather.

It's been a quick several days, and I've spent most of it either behind the wheel driving somewhere or here at the cabin working on the pile of paperwork on my desk that just seems to keep growing. Being busy all the time is in my blood, but I have not been able to stop and take the time to go wander around like I want to - there will be plenty of time for that later.

A reporter from the Springfield News-Leader paper in Missouri came by this morning and spent a couple of hours tape recording my ramblings. Sometimes it is a pain to answer the very same questions over and over again, or questions that seem so silly. But often they are very good questions, require a great deal of thought on my part, and send me off into a five-minute monologue that could go on for an hour if I dared - the questions today were of the second kind, and the poor lady could hardly get me to shut up. I got to talk a lot about Pam and Amber and how much they have contributed to my way of life here, and to the business - goodness I don't know what I would do without Pam these days! Well, yes I do know, and yesterday was a perfect example of that.

I gave a slide program for the Rotary Club in Fayetteville - good chow and great folks. But I really only had two minutes to talk to folks afterward before the meeting was adjourned, and then all hell broke loose. I went back to my table where I had books for sale, turned around and saw about 20 guys standing there waving money at me - now that is the sort of crowd that I like! Only problem was that there was only one of me and many of them, and I knew that every one of them was in a hurry to get back to their jobs or whatever. It has been so wonderful having Pam with me for most of my programs of late to handle the crowds and the money. She was busy with her own work back here and in Jasper so could not make the trip. I survived, but only because the Rotary folks were patient and honest.

Back to the reporter (Ann Keyes) While we were doing the interview, right on cue, a mature bald eagle came soaring by, then turned and charged the cabin - headed right towards us, down low, at eye level. We thought he was going to fly right on under the roof of the back porch and join us! What an incredible sight he was. Later in the afternoon, he came by again, this time parallel to the back deck, once again at eye level. I ran out to get a better look but he was gone. But out in the air over Whitaker Creek there was an immature eagle circling and playing in the wind. It was a great day for eagles here with all of that wind. Sometimes I think this mature dude just swoops down close not only to look in and see what we are up to, but to see if he can get us to come running out! And we do every time.

The cabin is all lit up with Christmas lights tonight, inside and out, thanks to my bride, and the mood of the season is all around. Pam showed me the letter that Amber wrote to Santa in school last week. She asked for the normal things like a music CD, and "anything Mary-Kate and Ashley." But I was struck by the other things on her list - in fact this part of the list was longer than the material things on her list: "I would like for my friends to have a happy Christmas. I want Mr. D (her teacher) to have a great Christmas. I want all the kids and people who do not have money to by gifts to be able to get some presents." When the reporter asked me today  whose daughter Amber was, mine or Pam's, I told her MINE, but that Pam had her first. I will claim this child any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

And it is obvious that Amber did not fall far from the tree. You see, her mom has the very same great heart that Amber does, even much more so, and Amber is following in her footsteps. There was a time in their lives when money was tough to come by and the pickings were slim, yet Pam always found a way to provide for Amber. One Christmas there was no money left over for presents - other things like utilities and house payments and food got in the way. Pam received an anonymous gift that year from some wonderful soul that enabled them to have a merry Christmas though it all (she still has the note that came with that gift, and pins it to our tree each year). Every year since that one Pam has done the very same thing for someone else. That's what this season is all about - not receiving a pile of gifts, but GIVING to another, be it large or small.

I say that I will be able now to spend some time in the woods, but tomorrow and the next day are full once again. I am hoping for a giant snow fall tomorrow that will bring everything to a halt, or at least slow things down. Of course, if we get lots of snow I'll be out in the middle of it with camera in hand, but at least I'll have something to write about.

Lots of haze in the wilderness lately

Part of a cedar tree that Amber helped me cut out of the road during the ice storm - I love that color and smell of fresh cedar!

Pam headed into town to continue with her volunteer work at the school. Yesterday she passed out some presents from Cloudland to all of the nursing home residents in Jasper, plus worked at the school most of the day. Speaking of presents, Pam and I decided that we would devote almost our entire budget this holiday season to giving presents to others - we have limited ourselves to one present for each other and not to exceed $25. That lovely lady gives me a wonderful present every day of the year already, so what more could I ask for?

Amber woke up sick today, so it looks like it will be just her and I this morning. Pam just called and said that the snow at Compton was heavy with already three inches on the ground! Their hills are more open than ours and the ground is probably near freezing.

I have a book signing at Hastings in Springdale this evening, the last one of the season. You seldom sell many books at one of these, unless the event is well promoted, and even then selling 10-15 books is a good evening. When I did Barnes & Noble in Fayetteville last weekend the author the night before sold 60 copies of his new book! Of course, his book was about the greatest Razorback football game ever, the signing  was the night before our conference championship game, and three of the biggest Razorback stars of all time were there with him to sign the books. Still, selling 60 books is a HUGE deal for a local author. A couple days after that book signing of mine there at Barnes & Noble the store called and said that I had sold 78 books at my signing! That was a record for me for sure. Of course, the bookstores make the lion's share of profits from book signings - I only get a very small cut since the stores get such a huge discount from me first, but that is the way the business works. I'm happy to get any exposure that I can get.

The snow is still coming down here, and a little bit is sticking on the ground, but not too much. It is foggy out, and we can just barely see the closest ridges like Beagle Point, but all the others are lost in the fog and snow. The rain all night was most welcome, and the river below is rising. Right now the river is still in three parts - two shallow channels of the Buffalo River and one channel of Whitaker Creek, then  all three come together just downstream. As the water rises all three will merge into one, and then we will be back to normal water flow for this time of the year. AND WE WILL HAVE WATERFALLS! (they are not flowing as of yet) Amber helped me build a big fire in the fireplace, and it is nice and cozy inside. Come on snow, COME ON RAIN!

12/15/02 No more moisture. In fact, the skies and air have been absolutely  CRYSTAL CLEAR these past couple of days. The cold front that swept through with the snow and ice and rain really swept the air squeaky clean. That clear air, along with all the moisture, has put a huge smile back on the wilderness. Walking around yesterday you could see everything in much sharper detail, especially the bright green moss on the trees. Boy, the trees and most loved that rain! I stood on the trail between the cabin and office at one point and could see brilliant GREEN on more than 50 trees while looking in the same direction. And contrary to popular opinion, that moss grows on all sides of the tree, not just on the north side. I wondered about that, and spent some time yesterday looking around and inspecting a number of trees. The reason moss grows on the north side of trees is the fact that the north side doesn't get as much sun as the other three sides, especially in the winter time, and therefore any moisture that is available will linger on that shaded side of the tree longer than the rest. Moss likes moisture, so it tends to grow where the moisture is. But out here the moisture seems to be all around the tree. The moral of that story is that if you are trying to find your direction out here you can't rely on the moss!

We spent most of the day working in the Cloudland Santa Workshop - creating and assembling the various components of the Cloudland Christmas Package that we give to family and close friends on our list.  Then Pam and I went out for a hike to the mailbox. I brought along a hand saw to cut out a number of trees and large limbs still left over in the roadway from the ice storm. On the way back I detoured and took the trail to Hawksbill Crag and cut out more trees and  limbs that were blocking the way.

It was a marvelous afternoon to be out strolling in the woods. Many folks are simply afraid to go out hiking in the wintertime, but we have so many great warmer days like yesterday (and today) that there is no reason to stay indoors. In fact I think I have come to enjoy hiking in the winter more so than during any other season. AND there are no snakes or bugs!

One thing we did notice was the fact that there were hardly any birds out yesterday at all. We had lots of them around the cabin, but out in the forest there were none. Squirrels were absent too - I only saw one chipmunk and that was the only furry critter that could be seen.

Hawksbill Crag - it's pointing over to Beagle Point, which is in shadow

Some of the many boulders piled up along the top of the big bluff

The book signing at Hastings the other night was a total bust - only sold three books to the public, which just barely paid for the gas to get into town. I did get to talk with a number of folks about the outdoors and such, and got to see my name in bright lights on the store marquee. Very few stores ever draw a crowd anymore other than Barnes & Noble, but doing the signing at these other stores is just part of the job.

AND I discovered a stash of rare and exquisite French chocolates at another store while I was in town - they will be included with our special Cloudland Christmas Packages. I was forced to open and sample them just to make sure they made the grade - they DID! These are the sort of chocolates that literally will begin to melt almost immediately in your hand, so you have to eat them fast (really - the finest chocolate will melt at lower temps, even 98.6!).

Another bright, clear day today, and the temp was already 45 degrees at first light. I suspect it may hit 60 or higher by this afternoon. The Buffalo River didn't come up much more that from my last report - still three individual channels, and every creek we passed yesterday up here on the hillside was dry. That means the waterfalls are not running yet, but are primed and ready to go if we could get another good rain soon. There is no wind and still no birds out today - I wonder if they had so much fun with all of the weather that they are all simply exhausted and are resting up? Do wild animals get tired out in their daily lives and have to rest up? I don't recall ever seeing a wild critter out of breath.

12/16/02 Last night I had another one of those special Cloudland moments. It was a couple hours after sunset, just before bedtime for Amber. Pam was up in the loft working on a project for the school library (reading books and then creating tests for the kids to take on a computer for their Accelerated Reader program). Amber and I decided to go on a hike - the moon was about 3/4 full and quite bright and brilliant, it was a little bit chilly, but almost warm. No wind.

We headed out with no flashlights - there was plenty of moonlight to guide us. We headed up the road, carefully following the white-gravel lane uphill. Then we veered off into the woods. I showed Amber how to shield her face from the little bare branches that might poke her in the eyes. We moved slowly and silently through the nighttime forest that was lit up with the soft glow of moonlight. We examined the many shadows on the forest floor, gazed up at the bright stars that shone through the moonlight, and laughed at Aspen as he "sprang" straight up in the air.

Just as we headed down a small but steep slope, we both ended up on our rears, so decided to just sit there, leaning up against trees. There were several boulders just below and to our right. Hiding under one of those boulders must have been a little scared chipmunk, because Aspen, Lucy, and the Trail Cat were scratching and clawing at the base of the boulder trying to get at something. I say Trail Cat because one of the cats went with us into the night, as we assumed it was the Trail Cat. These days both cats are so fat that it is difficult to tell them apart unless they are right next to each other. We later found out that the Trail Cat had been locked up in the shed since morning - we did not find that out until the next morning, so she was in there almost 24 hours.

Anyway, while laying./lying (I never know which one to use) there in the leaves with Amber in my arms (she had crawled up into my lap to get warm) in the magic of the moonlight, I realized that this was the first time that I had ever really ventured into the night out here with anyone else. I had spent so much time wandering in the darkness and in the moonlight by myself, marveling at all there was to see. But now I was able to share it all with another person, a young person that I hoped would be able to cherish the moment as much as I did and take it along with her for the rest of her life. She seemed to really enjoy it all, and wasn't in any hurry to leave. I never wanted any kids of my own. But then I never thought about what passing on this sort of magic to a young person might mean to them, and to me. Certainly the magic of the moment was not all in the moonlight, but was in the life that was curled up in my arms too.

The sun never rose today - lots of cloud cover. I stayed up late last night to watch a football game so slept in late. Actually I got up at 5:30 this morning with Pam and Amber, worked for an hour or so, then crawled back into bed.

We have been battling the humidity inside the cabin for awhile now - when it is cold outside both the fireplace and the heat pump suck the moisture out of the air, leaving dryness inside. We have two humidifiers going all the time, and the put five or six gallons of water into the air each day. We try to keep the humidity in the low 30% range - without the humidifiers it drops to around 10 or 11%. This afternoon I ran around and opened all of the doors and windows in the cabin - the humidity was 80% outside. The temp was 56 degrees, so the temp inside the cabin dropped as the humidity rose, but I figured the trade-off was OK. After all, the air inside the cabin must be getting a little bit old since we have not aired it out for more than a month. The biggest problem was that we had a giant pot of homemade ham and bean soup on cooking, and a lot of the aroma went right out the windows!

Pam went out and officially began her work on the new kids hiking trail guidebook today - she hike the Round Top Mountain Trail just south of Jasper. She is just getting to know the GPS unit that she takes with her, and is figuring out what facts and figures to record on the tape recorder. She will eventually transcribe everything and type it up on the computer, then edit and make up the final text that will go with the map for each trail (she is going to do the maps too, just like she did for the waterfall guidebook). She has more than 125 trails on her list, all over the state, so she is going to be one busy momma this next year! We hope to have the book finished and ready for the bookstores sometime, well, we really don't have a clue right now, but I'll keep you posted!

Amber came home from school with a "family tree" assignment tonight, so we have been spending most of the evening either on the internet or the phone with other family members trying to go back as far as we could. Amber's interest was really peaked when Pam told her she was related to a Prince named Valentine! A phone call to Pam's aunt Bonnie and subsequent fax confirmed it all. My side of the family was not as well documented, but we did get into a web site that laid out my mom's mom's family history - they came to this country in the early 1600's, with details dating back into the early 1400's. My grandfather George Ernst was a talented sculptor in St. Louis in the early 1900's, and I have several of his pieces of art.

The cabin has quieted down now and it is just me and Aspen. There is a pile of paperwork waiting for me, but I think I will go crawl into bed with my bride and put off the paperwork until tomorrow.

We have been getting so many filthy e-mail SPAMs and simple junk mail of late that we deleted a couple of e-mail addresses today. I suspect we will delete more as time goes on, so if you try to send us something and it doesn't go through, that address might have been trashed. Congress really has to address this situation before it gets totally out of hand. It's too bad that the hucksters have taken over the internet. (We don't log e-mails nor produce any SPAM here!)

12/19/02 RAIN! Oh, so sweet the sound. So cool the touch. No visions of sugarplums in my head, only waterfalls! It has been raining all night here, although just light rain most of the time. We had a good storm pass through yesterday, so the ground is saturated. In fact we've been under a tornado watch a lot lately, and the wind has been howling and whipping the trees around, putting a number of limbs onto the roadway. One limb was so large the other day that Pam could hardly move it out of the way when she went out to the main road to get Amber. I went on a hunt for a battery-powered chainsaw that she could carry in her truck, but came up empty handed (found two that had 3" bars on them, but they are just too small - THANKS Randy Wilson for sending that info to me!). Someone used to make one, but it must have been a dud because they are no longer available. I'm working on getting an electric chain saw and seeing if it will work with a power converter plugged into the cigarette lighter. The problem with a gas-powered chain saw is that I don't want to carry the nasty thing INSIDE the truck (either of our trucks) - once you get gas inside, it smells like gas for a long time.

Man the wind has really been singing a lively tune these past couple of days. And it has been changing directions a lot, which produces many different pitches and volumes in the sound. I bet you could record all of them and with careful editing produce an actual musical tune with a good beat! Most of the time though the wind produces the standard mournful moaning, like there is someone out there caught in the storm, aching to get inside where the fire is bright and the room toasty.

I've been in town every single day this week, and will be headed there again today - my feet have not touched wilderness soil all week! Usually the week before Christmas is slow for us, but this one has been especially busy. Poor Pam - she really got into the holiday spirit yesterday. She was not feeling well but every time she tried to lay down and take a nap the phone rang with some frantic customer looking for a last-minute gift, or bookstore manager who had run out of calendars. For some reason just about every outlet in Fayetteville ran out yesterday, or at least that is when they waited to call - five stores in one day in the same town! I was able to play Santa Clause and get most of them stocked up, although I still have a couple to get to today.

Speaking of Santa, Pam just drove off into the cold, rainy blackness with Amber in tow and a couple of signed books that we are donating to the Butterball Turkey man. Pam works closely with the great folks who gather up food for those in Newton County that need a little cheer on Christmas and something in their stomachs. They had made a deal with the turkey guy to donate 300 pounds of turkey in exchange for a signed copy of the new picture book - I was more than happy to help out! Pam has to meet up with them down in Boxley Valley at 6:30 this morning to make the exchange (the turkeys are going to Jasper). I must tell you that my handwriting is simply dreadful most of the time, but every once in a while I can actually read what I have written. That was the case this morning as I was writing in this guy's book - even though my eyes were only partially open the words came out crisp and clear! I don't know if it was the fact that I was still half asleep and unable to fully function and scribble (which came out nice writing), or it was the pleasure of doing something nice for someone who is helping out so many folks in need. Anytime that Pam gets involved in a project like this her eyes really light up - that's what this season is all about.

After the rain stopped this morning - looking up the Buffalo River Valley

And then an hour later...

And then 30 minutes after that!

Just one note about a moment here yesterday morning before I get back to work. It was right after daylight and there were many BLACK clouds swirling all around us - some of them were as black as the nighttime we had just come out of. We were under a tornado watch, and the wind was howling, but it was dry, no rain at all. All of a sudden I saw a flash of red out there, or rather rust color. It was a red-tailed hawk, and a really big one. He was playing in the wind right over Mom's meadow, darting in between the gazebo, the tall pine tree, and the cabin. Right behind him in the sky above Beagle Point sat the darkest dark cloud of them all. And while I know the sun was still hidden well behind many banks of clouds, this bird was illuminated from somewhere, and the bright color of his tail really shone through and stood out against that black background. Was he hunting mice that might be scurrying around to hide form the storm? Or just wanting to put on a show and to let us know that he was out there and having a great time. Either way I was unable to get any work done for a few minutes while I watched his acrobatic moves - wilderness art in the sky.

Come to think of it, this magnificent hawk just might have had a little bit of the spirit of the greatest man I ever knew inside of him, and he wanted to let me know that he was still out there, watching over us. My dad passed away 23 years ago today, yet he continues to teach me in so many ways about life, how to do good, and to live right. I plan to go visit him and his bride at the National Cemetery later today. Hey dad, keep the rain coming!

12/20/02 Clear blue and bright sunshine at first light today. Things were calm and quiet out in the wilderness, although there was quite a bit of chatter coming from the trees - lots of birds out enjoying the morning. Pam and Amber headed out the door early for town chores and a trip to Missouri, so I was left to fend for myself. My plans were to spend most of the day outside, doing chores and hiking. But first I had a few office chores to do, and when I finally got to the end of the short pile of paperwork, I looked up and noted the time - 2pm!

My first outdoor chore for the day was to burn a pile of trash. We recycle all that we can, but there is always some stuff left over that just has to be burned. So I built a pit up in Aspen's meadow that is guarded with chicken wire to keep any flaming debris from escaping. I often use the tractor to deliver the goods, which I did today as well. Then I took it down to the pile of split firewood near the office, loaded up the bucket and took a load of firewood down to the cabin. For some reason I decided to only haul one load today, so I parked the tractor back in its shed, then hiked on back up to Aspen's meadow to check on the fire.

As I approached the top of the hill I was met with the most horrible sight imaginable out here - fire. There was fire everywhere - the entire top of Aspen's meadow was in flames. While the day had been calm and the fire danger was very low after all of the moisture, the wind must have kicked up after I lit the fire, and now it was blowing hard, really hard (I later checked the weather station and found that the wind had been gusting up above 40mph!).

The fire was at the edges of the meadow and heading for the woods rapidly - I had to do something, ANYTHING, and do it right away, to keep the fire out of the woods. Luckily there was a special fire-fighting tool nearby (a McLeod, which is also one of the main trail building tools that I use), so I grabbed it and got to work.

I have only been involved in four real fires in my life. The first one was in a vacant woodlot near my childhood home at the edge of Fayetteville - I was about 10 or 12 years old. I spent what seemed like an eternity working to put that fire out (I never did figure out how it got started). The second one was a genuine forest fire high in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. I went in to fight that one with a specially-trained crew of forest service guys. After we got it under control I was left in the backcountry alone to keep watch on the fire, and while on patrol one day discovered a new fire in the same drainage. I was the only one in the area, so had to battle that one myself. It took me a good long while to work it out, but I was able to do so - thank goodness there was a creek a couple hundred yards away. The fire that I discovered and put out on my own in the wilderness was named after me in the official forest service records. Now I had my fourth fire, and it was burning not only right at my feet, but all around me as well.

One of my first thoughts about the fire in Aspen's meadow today was that it was a good thing, and I thought for a moment or two about just letting it burn out - controlled burning is one way to help keep things natural since wildfire is just a part of Momma Nature's plan. But just then a huge gust of wind came racing across the meadow, fanning the far end of the fireline, and sending the flames reaching out for the nearby forest. I didn't mind the meadow burning, but I sure didn't want the forest on fire!

For the next 30-45 minutes I tried frantically to put this fire out, using the McLeod to chop and dig at the flames until I was down to bare dirt. I also found that simply stomping on the flames was effective - that is when the wind was not blowing. The natural inclination is to get out in the clean grass to work on the advancing flames, but I soon discovered that while the wind was blowing - which was most of the time - the flames would move too fast for me to do any good with them. Quite a few times I would look down and see nothing but fire at my feet and all around me - I was literally standing right in the middle of and on top of the fire, the flames reaching up at me.

 I was wearing a brand new pair of $15 slippers that I had just bought at Wal Mart, and I wondered if they were going to melt right off of my feet.

Another problem that I had was the fact that the smoke was so THICK I could hardly breathe. No time to run get anything to wrap around my face, I simply had to suck in whatever air I could find and keep on working. Putting out a fire at a frantic pace is really hard work, and I was huffing and puffing and gasping for air - smoke-filled air!

With a great deal of effort and a huge pile of luck, I was able, finally, to get all of the flames out before the fire got into the woods. Then I ran around and stomped/dug out any smoldering embers that were sending up plumes of smoke. It had burned right up to the deck, but it never caught on fire.

Almost the entire top of Aspen's meadow was blackened - nearly a full acre - but there was one circle of brown grass right in the middle of it all where the flames did not touch. It was the spot where the Native American Lodge used to stand, and also the spot where Billy McNamara and I had found the majority of the tools and other artifacts from four different Native American cultures that dated back 8,000 years. The grass right there was the same as the rest of the meadow, but for some very strange reason, it did not burn at all. Hum, very strange, very strange indeed.

Secure that the fire was out for now I began a systematic search of the area around the meadow to see if I could locate any more fire - I dropped down the hill and hiked around the top of the mountain, then dropped down another bench and hiked all the way around again. No sign of any more fire, but the woods were filled with smoke, and it was drifting down into the valleys.

By the time the fire was out and my search of the area was over, the wind was absolutely still. It was just dumb luck that the winds had whipped up right when the fire was going - or I guess it was just a dumb operator. It really was a foolish thing for me to leave the fire while it was still burning, although the wire fence enclosure should have kept everything inside. That was still no excuse - I should have been there. Live and learn. Oh yea, those $15 slippers did just fine!

Just to be on the safe side, I made one more hike around the area. It was getting late, and the sun was dropping low in the western sky. As I hiked though the open woods on the east side of the mountain the hills on the opposite side of the canyon were all lit up by that setting sun, and were actually beginning to glow just a little bit - Ozarkglow we call it around here. I love hiking at this time of the day, and on this side of the mountain. The sun on the distant ridges sort of forces you to look through and beyond the forest that is in close all around you, over to those other hills that are putting on a great light show. Most of the time you don't ever pay much attention to what is just out there at the edge of your sight.

Ozarkglow on the opposite hills - the shadows over there are from the mountain that I was standing on

Part of the burn area - that is the teepee site that remained untouched (about 30 feet around), yet the fire burned all around it.

On our way back down the hill to the cabin we looked through the trees and saw a bald eagle flying down low over the cabin - it was quite a sight to see, and he looked really HUGE! He was huge indeed. There seem to be a lot more eagles visiting Cloudland this winter - more so than ever before. They don't stay long, just come soaring by for a quick look, then continue on their appointed rounds. We always make a quick count of the livestock after an eagle has come by - both cats and dogs accounted for.

The view through the trees looking down at the cabin - the eagle had already flown by

Even though we had several days of good rains in the past week the creeks are still very low, and most of the side drainages (and waterfalls) are either dry or just a trickle. Even the Buffalo remains low, and up here that means three channels - two for the Buffalo and one for Whitaker Creek. They should all be running as one this time of the year.

The main Buffalo River (the two channels on the left), and Whitaker Creek (on the right).
COME ON RAIN!!!

An incredible sunset this evening from the back deck - the end of the shortest day of the year.
If you look close in the lower left of the bottom photo you can see the Buffalo Fire Tower

It's late at night now, and so far, we've only had an inch or two all day, with some drizzle and sleet on top of it. Amber and I had a good snowball fight soon after I got home. Right now the wind is whipping around in all directions like crazy, but there is no precip coming down, temp 31 degrees (with a wind chill below zero). The latest is calling for 4-8 inches tonight - that would be great, but I'm not holding my breath. Eight inches on top of this thin base would give me enough snow to cross-country ski on, that is after we all spend a few hours sledding, snowball fighting, and building a snowman or two. There was simply WAY TOO much hype for this storm for there to really be much hit the ground (I am intentionally trying to jinx myself so that it REALLY will snow!).

We are all snug and warm and toasty inside the cabin, with a big fire blazing away in the fireplace. Amber is putting together and painting a wooden box that she got for Christmas yesterday in Missouri. Pam just clobbered me at a game of chess and is a few feet away working at her computer. By the way, there is a new piece of furniture at the cabin of late - a table with a nice chess set on top, which is located in between our two computer desks. (The table is actually a small desk that I had in my room at home during high school - a great deal of my life ahead was planned on that desk - and a secret drawer once held the address & phone number of a French maiden that I was in love with, plus other items of great interest to a high school kid who was way too shy most of the time to ever socialize with folks.) The cabin is being lit with only Christmas lights, the flicker from the fireplace, and the computer screens.

Somehow I have to make it snow a LOT tonight or my daughter is going to difficult to get along with - I promised her plenty of snow ice cream for breakfast! I'm going to wander outside into the frigid night now and see if I can find a sled stashed up in the tracker shed. Wish me luck with both tasks.

12/24/02 Not a single flake of snow during the night. But soon after first light it did begin to snow, finally, and was coming down pretty good. We were all inside around the blazing fire, and outside, birds of all sorts flocked to the feeders just outside the window. There were nuthatches and woodpeckers up in the trees, juncos and finches and cardinals at the feeders and on the ground. The snow was blowing and none of them seemed to care.

The atmosphere seemed just right for it to be Christmas, and with all of those presents under the tree, Pam and I finally broke down and declared it CHRISTMAS, so we all gathered around and opened the presents. It could not have been a more wonderful scene, and was definitely one of those special Cloudland moments that I will treasure forever. And the one gift that I got for my beautiful bride - the most romantic item that I could think of, and that she wanted more than anything in the world - a leather tool belt! And you should have seen her dancing around the cabin to the holiday music wearing that belt!

Later we all went out into the snow to play. It quickly piled up to a total of three or four inches of new powder on the ground - not enough to ski or snowshoe, but certainly enough for ice cream and to play in. We all hiked up to Aspen's meadow and took turns going down the steep side on the sled. On the way back we rigged up a rope and pulled Amber along. When it was Pam's turn to pull she took off and headed on down the drive at a pretty good clip, with Amber holding on and laughing all the way. I could hardly keep up, but did manage to snap a photo or two. We all had a fabulous time - it was a perfect white Christmas at Cloudland!

12/25/02 The snow ended yesterday and the clouds cleared out and the bright sun rose into a brilliant blue sky this morning. Much of the snow on the trees had blown or melted off yesterday afternoon, leaving a glaze of ice to reflect the sunshine. It was quite a spectacular morning. And, oh yea, Santa did arrive during the night and filled our stockings that were hung over the fireplace, and left Amber a present under the tree. (Pam's stocking only had a single acorn in it, plus a note from Santa.)

There was still plenty of snow on the ground, and Pam and I and the dogs and the Trail Cat took off on a hike around the loop. That darn cat - have you ever known a CAT to want to go hiking in the SNOW? She plowed right on through like that's what she was meant to do.

The Trail Cat in the snow

It was great seeing all the critter tracks in the snow. There had been lots of squirrels and mice out. I like following the tiny mouse tracks as they explore all over the place. Sometimes you can even backtrack and see where they came right out of the snow from their winter hiding place. And there were a couple of places where birds had been walking along the ground, and then poof, they were gone, leaving behind marks in the snow where their wings had dug in for the takeoff.

Amber and I spent a lot of time outdoors today, and while the snow was not the best for snowman making, we did manage to construct the very FIRST snowman ever at Cloudland! He was complete with a Santa hat, acorn eyes and mouth, and stick arms. Someone got clobbered a time or two with snowballs (I got Amber a couple of times too!)

With the roads being solid ice under the snow, we decided to cancel our trips to Missouri and Fayetteville today, and remained at the cabin all day. That gave us a chance to enjoy each other, get some reading in, watch TV, and go out for more snowball fights! It was a delightful day. (All three of us LOVE the TV show Trading Spaces, and it just so happens that they had a marathon all day today, so we got to see a bunch of new episodes that we had not seen before.) Then we capped off the day with a Christmas dinner feast of grilled burgers and beans!

12/27/02 More blue skies and bright sunshine this morning. Although when the sun was first coming up the light was orange, which lit up the trees in the forest and made them glow the same color. The ground is still covered with snow, and while it will warm up today and melt a lot of it away, I suspect the north-facing slopes will retain their white cover for another couple of days. The sunshine is spilling down into the valleys as best it can, but there are many places that it won't reach again until springtime.

We have been getting a lot of e-mail about the newspaper article that was in the Springfield News-Leader yesterday. That was the one written by the reporter who came to Cloudland a couple of weeks ago. The article is available online at http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com/ozarksoutdoors/1226-Naturalist-16577.html.

For some reason, all the birds just up and left the other day, and stayed gone for nearly 24 hours. They came back yesterday, and are still out in full force this morning. I wonder where they went for a day? I think it would be great to install a miniature video camera on a bird with a wide-angle lens and see where all he went during the day. Man, what a great video that would be!

Today is cleanup day at Cloudland, and we three will be busy bees much of the day getting the cabin in shape after the week of playing around inside. Amber just cleaned out the fireplace and built a fire, almost all on her own! I feel a little bit sorry for her today - her trip back up to Missouri for Christmas with her bio-dad's family had to be cancelled because of the bad roads, and we had to cancel her birthday party up there today because half of her friends that were going to attend are sick! (Her birthday is this coming Monday, when she will turn the BIG 1-0!). Both her and her mom have really taken to this place and don't seem to mind staying at the cabin for an entire week at all (Pam has been sick all week, and now I am just beginning to get what she had!). They will get out tomorrow though and lead a hike on the Tanyard Creek Trail at Bella Vista. This hike is open to the public, so if you want to get out and hike an easy 1 to 2 mile trail, meet them at the trailhead at 11am.

As the day grew long I got a good case of cabin fever, grabbed Amber and the livestock, and headed out the door for a hike into the melting snow. The sun was bright and it was actually sort of warm out, and the hiking was really easy in the soft snow. In fact, much of the snow had already melted away, and we looked at and talked about why some sections of the hillside were completely melted and covered with only brown leaves while other slopes just a few feet away were still covered with bright white snow.

Both cats followed us as we hiked along a bench just down below the cabin. It was great to see the Fat Cat out enjoying himself, and getting a little bit of much-needed exercise. We really don't feed these cats all that much - basically half of what is recommended - yet both of them always have full bellies. We hope they are feasting on field mice and other small critters around the cabin.

The Trail Cat (left) and the Fat Cat (right)

Almost immediately Amber picked up the trail of some unknown hiker whose bootprints were easy to follow in the snow. At least they were easy to follow at first, but when this hiker went across parts of the bench where the snow had partially or fully melted, the tracking got tougher. But she was up to the task, and was intent on finding out what happened to this person. (I had nothing to do with this - she simply started up a game of tracking the person, and got real serious about it!). We saw where the hiker veered off of the trail several times to go look over the edge of the bench to the terrain below. Also where the hiker stepped off of the trail and reached down and grabbed a handful of snow. Then the tracks led us away from the trail and on up the hillside, eventually taking us to a cave of sorts at the very edge of our property.

I must say that I was merely a follower in all of this, which was kind of nice for me - I didn't have to make any decisions at all, just follow along at the leisurely pace that my inquisitive daughter was taking. That gave me a chance to look around and study the trees and the rocks and the melting snow as we progressed. It was interesting to note how some rocks had more snow melted around them than others - these rocks got warmer by the sun for some reason, and that warmth radiated out and melted the snow, often an inch or more around them.

The Trail Cat and Aspen disappeared into a crack in the cave (it was actually more of an overhang, but fun to go back into anyway). The Fat Cat climbed up on top of the cave opening and sat there guarding the entrance. Amber went into the back of the cave and closely examined the unusual rock formations on the ceiling, and posed for a photo or two.

Amber and Aspen in the cave

My little girl is growing up in the wilderness

Then we were off to continue the search, which would take us deeper into the wilderness. We were gone for perhaps an hour or more, maybe even two, as we followed the tracks, and then veered off from them and struck off on our own adventures. This was probably the very first hike where Amber felt comfortable out there bushwhacking for this sort of distance out in front - she was really getting into it, and I had to hustle at times to keep up with her. She is still too young to be able to do this on her own, but it is my hope that one of these years she will not only be able to go out with me on longer and more difficult "rambles" like this one, but also go out on her own to explore and discover what the wilderness has to offer. She will also begin to gain confidence in her own abilities, grow a little bit independent, and with that, more responsible for her own well being - the woods can teach a young person many things not directly related to the wilderness! Adults too.

By the time we wandered on back to the cabin it was nearly dark. I was pleased to find a concerned mom there, and not a hysterical one because we had not taken a radio with us! (we should have)

By the way, one note about Pam that I failed to mention about Christmas day was the fact that she baked up what I consider to be the finest piece of apple crisp that I ever put into my mouth! Now my mom used to bake the greatest apple pie in the universe, but back then I was only interested in the crust and not the apples, often eating the entire top crust off of the pie, leaving the apples untouched. The apples in Pam's creation are simply wonderful, even when she begins with not-so-sweet apples. Within ten minutes after she pulled it out of the oven on Christmas day, I had devoured fully 1/2 of it! The only reason I had not eaten the rest of it was because Pam and Amber beat me to it! It is no secret that my bride does not like to cook all that much, but when she does, it is first rate, and my mom would be proud of her!

It is late in the cabin now, the fireplace is creating dancing shadows high up on the log walls. Aspen is asleep in "his" leather chair in front of the fireplace, Pam and Amber are playing a card game. I think I'll put this computer to bed, go grab a good book, and join Aspen.

12/28/02 Sunshine and melting snow this morning - sounded like rain coming off of the tin roof. My brother, Terry, and his wife, Marsha, arrived late last night just as the power company was out here trying to get our power fixed. Ever since the ice storm a couple of weeks ago the power has been surging high and low, playing havoc with some of our electronic things at the cabin, and driving us nuts. In the middle of a rather long spell of this sort of activity last night I called the power company to see if they could figure out what was going on. They sent a crew out in the middle of the night and worked in the dark until they got it fixed!

Pam and Amber headed out this morning to lead a hike for our club on the nature trail in Bella Vista - it's a really neat little trail complete with a waterfall!

While they were gone Pam's dad arrived with lifelong family friend Ken and a truck load of stuff. They were here to install this incredible metal entrance sign that Ken had created out of a solid piece of thick metal. Pam and I have wanted something like this for a long while, and had looked into getting one custom made when we were in Colorado last fall, but had never gotten to the point of actually ordering it. Low and behold, and TOTALLY without us knowing anything about it, Pam's parents had this sign made just for us for Christmas. I don't think it was any secret that we had wanted an entrance sign, but we had never discussed the design with anyone. Somehow, Ron and Judy and Ken came up with the EXACT details that we would have wanted on the sign - it was really uncanny. There are clouds, trees, BEARS, and a cabin with smoke coming out of the chimney and a trail leading up to it - just like the official Cloudland logo (Ken came up with the arrangement all by himself, and he had never seen our logo, nor even knew one existed).

Anyway, the sign is simply gorgeous, and makes the perfect statement for those visiting Cloudland. One of these days we will complete our idea of putting three large lodgepole pine logs on either side of the gate, with an even larger log spanning between them (with the new sign also attached).

The new sign is 12' wide and about 14' tall

12/29/02 Another bright, sunny day today with more melting snow. Most all the snow is gone from all but the north-facing slopes, and even those slopes are losing most of their white blanket. The moisture is greatly needed, and it is soaking into the ground and not running off too much.

We hit the ground running this morning and attached the holiday decorations. Within two hours we had the place stripped and back to normal. Wow, the cabin looks really BARE now! We had a fabulous holiday season this year, the best ever, by far. A special THANKS to all of you that sent your good wishes in one way or another.

By early afternoon clouds had moved in and the sun went away. Tonight we are getting strong winds and light rain, but the temp is still rather warm - 54 degrees. Perhaps all of that wind will blow in a good bit of rain, if it doesn't blow us away first!

As the night drew on Amber and Pam watched "The Sound of Music" on the tube downstairs, and I took up residence in the big leather chair (Aspen allowed me to use it) and finished reading the book that I had been working on for a while now - Cache Lake Country.  It's a book that you can easily read in one long sitting, but I have not had the luxury of blank time of late, so have instead been going through it one chapter or month at a time. The cabin was absolutely quiet, other than the muted howl of the wind on the other side of my log walls.

Pam has had a head cold for awhile now, and it has invaded me for the past week - I can only stand so much of that before I go nuts. Just about the time I finished the book tonight my head cold literally drove me out in to the night.

Last night when my brother and I went outside to look over the stars it was crystal clear above (and the Big Dipper was standing straight up on its end). Tonight  it was dark and blustery and rather noisy outside, with a slight fog in the air and visibility quite low - nothing but black above. The wind was heavy with moisture, but hardly anything was actually coming to the ground - everything was quite damp.

A couple of things that I noted as I was standing there at the edge of the glow of light from the cabin watering the flowers: ALWAYS stand with your back to the wind when doing this sort of thing; and be on the lookout for furry critters that tend to dart across the ground in front of you within range - you don't want to water any of the pets!

For some reason my feet began to move, and before I knew it I was several hundreds away from the cabin, just wandering out there in the darkness. But it wasn't really completely dark, for there was the glow from the cabin filtering through the trees. That glow didn't help at all in my navigation though - I couldn't see an inch in front of my nose. I sort of felt my way along with my feet and my hands, and had a pretty easy time of it. Man it was really quite comfortable out there - still warm, and even the wind didn't cut into me much. With no fear of snakes to step on or bears to run into I was able to allow my mind to wander right on along with my feet. Sometimes I just have to get "outside" and do that once in a while to clear the cobwebs out. Every now and then I brushed up against some sort of furry critter, but I figured it was either one of the dogs or one of the cats - I really couldn't see a thing out there in the blackness, unless I turned around and looked towards the cabin, which was becoming nothing but a spot or two of glow way out there through the trees.

The cabin glowing in the night

I know that I have not been able to spend nearly enough time out in the woods of late as I should have, but family and business come first, and at this time of the year the book business can really take over. Under normal circumstances I would take off into the wilderness for several days to try to get rid of this head cold, but there is just too much to do around here right now for me to do that. What I have often done when faced with an ailment that I could not lick was to strike out with minimal provisions and put myself in a situation where my body must gear up and fight the elements in order to survive and be comfortable. In doing that my immune system gets a wakeup call and gears up to fight, and in the process normally takes on whatever is ailing me - I often come out of the wilderness in much better shape than when I went in. Hum, I guess I could always simply sleep out on the deck with only a sheet, but somehow knowing my warm bride was just a few feet away would probably send me running for the door in a hurry!

When I reached the point out in the forest tonight where I could no longer see any light from the cabin, I stopped and just stood there for a while in the total darkness, taking in the sounds and the smells and the feel of the night. No telling how long I stood there, leaning up against a big old tree. And that tree was talking, no singing in the wind. This afternoon Pam and I showed Amber all about talking trees, and had her put her arms around two trees that were leaning up against one another and moaning in the wind, and she could feel them moving. When you see the light within a child go on when you are trying to show or teach them something it is really nice - Pam is good at doing that. Amber has a lot of lights turning on these days.

By the time my little hike was over my head was a little bit clearer, and I could breathe again. Ah yes, another shot of medicine from the wilderness, and it was free with no side effects!

12/31/02 We've had a couple days of howling winds and rain. The winds have been up in the 40mph range, and have tossed our outdoor furniture around all over the place. It was a non-stop blow that brought with it some wonderful rain. By the time it was over, we had gotten more than two inches. The Buffalo was up and running very muddy this morning, and the two channels were flowing as one. Whitaker Creek was flowing too, and both were singing lively tunes that rose up and echoed throughout the wilderness.

I struck out for a little hike this afternoon to go visit some of the neighborhood waterfalls to see how well they were running. I was just a little bit surprised to discover that Haley Falls was just a trickle. Man, our fall drought must have been a lot worse than I thought! The woods sucked up most of the heavy rainfall, not leaving much to run off as waterfalls - at least that was the case up high in the hills. The water has been coming out of the ground and running off in the lower areas - down where the rivers and creeks are. That means that waterfalls in the bottom of drainages would be running well, but it looks like we're going to have to get another big rain or two or three before the rest of them can show their beauty this winter.

The rest of the forest was mighty fine today though. It was cloudy, and quite damp all over, which really brought out the bright greens of the moss and lichen on the rocks. It was a quiet hike, just Aspen and I, with hardly a sound since the leaves were wet and silent.

 I hiked along the top edge of the bluff for a long ways, looking out over Whitaker Creek to the western end of Beagle Point. I was a bit surprised to see so many fresh breaks in the trees out there - from the recent ice storm. Most of them were large limbs and not entire trees, but the damage was more severe than I had first thought. It's easy to spot fresh damage at this time of the year. All of the canopy is brown, but where limbs have broken off the color is a sort of yellow-white, and it really stands out. The hillside was dotted with this color. I guess that's just Momma Nature's way of pruning things a little bit!

My head is still a mess, and I have been miserable all week. But the entire time I was out in the woods I never noticed it much. I need to spend more time in the woods and less at the computer. Hum, that always seems to be the case. Must be time for a New Year's Resolution.

Speaking of the New Year, our celebration was a quiet one, thank goodness. I must be getting old, or perhaps a little bit smarter, for I am no longer interested in the wild life, and prefer simply spending quality time with my family.

We have had a tremendous year - the best one I ever had, both personally and professionally - and there is a great deal for us to be thankful for. And I want to thank YOU, the reader who has put up with all of my ramblings here in the Journal. Sometimes the job of writing in the journal is just that - a job that I don't look forward to and put off as long as I can. Other times my head is spinning while I am out hiking and filled with things that I want to say, and I can't wait to get back to the cabin so that I can write it all down and hit the "publish" button - most of the time it is like that. I hope that you have gotten a little bit out of my views of the wilderness this past year, and will continue to check in here once in a while to see what we are up to. I wish you the very best of luck in 2003, and hope that you will be able to get out and enjoy the great outdoors many times!

JANUARY 2003 JOURNAL