7-31-03, 7:23am Another TEXTBOOK morning at Cloudland today! |
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7-31-03, 7:23am Another TEXTBOOK morning at Cloudland today! |
7/1/03 Well, I have been to the mountain top and met with Moses (well, actually it was the valley - Silicon Valley to be exact). I spent the last four days learning how to create the very best fine art prints in the world from the master - two masters actually. It was a very exhilarating experience - long days filled with oceans of high-powered, fast-paced information. We were in a small room with only 12 students, located at one of the top photo printing labs in the country (so we could print out what we were doing and see the results right there). And when I say that our instructors were masters, I really mean that - not only masters of fine art prints, but of the computer as well - especially the computer and printer (same exact printer that I now have here at Cloudland). To give you an example, one of the instructors literally is responsible for the mouse ever being included with a computer in the first place - he worked at Apple Computer when they were first getting started, and insisted that the mouse be packaged with the very first product - the Lisa Computer (this computer led to the Macintosh, which changed the world - EVEN all of you PC/windows benefited from Mac technology, whether you will admit that or not - do you remember DOS??? Can you imagine working without a mouse or other input device?). This guy (Bill Atkinson) has been on the cutting edge of computer design ever since (you should hear his idea to eliminate the keyboard!), and now has turned his talents on creating the best fine art prints. The other instructor, Charles Cramer, has been producing incredible fine art prints for a long time (he used to hang out with Ansel Adams), and is one of the best landscape photographers of the past 20 years. The images that both of these guys produce are the Rembrandts of the photography world, and it was quite an honor to spend a few days with them. By the way, we are not talking about "manipulation" here - but rather creating pure prints of the original scene. You would be surprise at how difficult that is to do, and the results are much better than any darkroom print possible. (the Photoshop program contains 8400 different tools you can use to accomplish this) Ansel Adams would be a Mac head and computer geek if he were alive today!
While being in the middle of a town of more than 1,000,000 people was not my cup of tea, my mile hike back to my motel late each night (after 12-14 hour days in the computer lab) was quite delightful - seems like all of the city was in bloom, and not only with blooming trees, flowers, and bushes - there were fruit trees dropping fruit all over the sidewalk, and I had to be careful to avoid limes, peaches, and nectarines that came from trees in front yards!
OK, back to the real world.
I got home just in time last night to spend a lovely half hour on the back deck with my own lovely blossom Pam. It had rained all afternoon, and was cool and moist, with clouds forming all over the place. The clouds in the west began to take on some nice color just as the sun was about to drop out of sight back behind the trees somewhere. The birds were playing in the wind and singing their hearts out, and frogs were talking back and forth to each other. Aspen and Lucy were down in the sea of flowers in Mom's meadow - Lucy has turned into a "springer" too, and it is great to watch her jump straight up into the air and hover over the flowers for an instant while she tracks the progress of some rabbit she is chasing through the tall flowers. It was great to be home!
After the color drained from the sky, the Trail Cat jumped up onto one of the wooden bears to have a look.
7/2/03 No more rain during the night, but we did wake up to a great cloud show all around us. I've been at the computer now for a couple of hours, and the clouds are still swirling around, changing the scene in the wilderness each few minutes. What we really need here on days like this is a Cloudland Video Cam - of course, none of you would be able to get any work done if that scene was up on your computer screen all the time. It is really tough for us to work sometimes, but then that is why we have so many sitting spots out on the back deck - it is always OK to simply go have a look here and do NOTHING else!
7/3/03 Hot and sticky here this afternoon - the temp getting up into the low 80's, with a humidity even greater. We have gotten into a rhythm of doing outside work in the morning when it is cooler, inside work during the day, then back outside again in the evening hours.
It is really GREAT hiking in the early morning, just before and after sunrise. The air is cool and sweet and damp, and the wilderness just seems A OK. There have been lots of clouds being born down in the valley of late, and the ever-changing panorama keeps your eyes busy.
The other evening I came across a bright yellow mushroom that had just pushed up out of the earth. The fellow did quite a bit of growing overnight, as you can see in these two photos taken just 12 hours apart.
Aspen has been having a grand time on our hikes - we have had three good rains since I have been home this week, which create plenty of mud puddles for him to play in.
I hiked down to the river this morning and found it to be up and running and actually muddy. The rains we've had have not been all that large - an inch or less - but it seems like the water table must be up a bit and the ground saturated in order to have this much runoff even the day after a rain. That is great to see because I know we are headed for the dry season - we can take all the rain we can get now!
I don't know if it has been the hard rains or just that time of the year, but the ground has been covered with hickory nuts, cowcumber fruit, and acorns. You can hardly walk across the lower deck here without stepping on a dozen acorns. The hickory nuts started out quite small just last week, but this week they are already quite large, and it looks like it's going to be another terrific mast crop this fall - the squirrels, deer, bears, and other critters who rely on nuts for fall and winter feasting will love it!
Speaking of bears, Bob and Benny report there has been a very large black bear working the garden in the East meadow - twice in one day! Benny has some unusual corn growing there (Indian and Pop corn), and the bear seems to really like it. Looks like he will have the entire crop torn down and eaten in the next day or two. So far he has not surfaced anyplace else to cause damage - I'm wondering what he is going to do when the corn runs out though? I suspect this may be the same bear that has been circling around the cabin of late - you can tell when the dogs get a scent of bear or other large critter in the way they growl and bark - drives them nuts.
A couple items of note that I would like to pass on:
First, I am happy to announce that a brand new book entitled TREES OF MISSOURI has now been published and is available for sale. It was written by long-time Cloudland Journal reader and famous author Don Kurz. You may know that name from his frequent contributions to the Journal when I need a flower identified - his OZARK WILDFLOWERS guidebook is far and away the best guide available for wildflowers in the Arkansas & Missouri region, not only because of the way it is arranged (by COLOR) but also because he is perhaps the very best photographer that ever penned a flower guidebook - each photo is a work of art in itself! Anyway, this trees book is a different format - much larger book, filled with illustrations and not color photos - but it is already proving an invaluable resource for tree identification. I have not had the time to dig through it yet, but I have already heard several reports from folks who have, and they say it is a delight to use - that doesn't surprise me a bit. Here is a scan of the cover of my own personal copy of the book. You can get your own at regional bookstores, on the web at www.mdcnatureshop.com, or by calling 877-521-8632. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Speaking of newspaper articles, another Journal Reader and Cloudland friend Glenn Wheeler has an article in the same paper about him today - about his quest to locate swimming holes in Missouri (we will be publishing that guidebook this fall). While the article did not specifically state it, one of the photos was taken by his nine-year-old daughter Beth - way to go Wheelers!
Another note is about the annual Parade Of Ponds tour (includes Cloudland!) that was supposed to have been held on July 12-13. For some reason the folks who put the tour together have had to cancel the tour at the last minute, so it will not be held this year. Proceeds were to go to the Ozark Highlands Trail Association. I'll let you know if it is rescheduled.
We are going to have a quiet Fourth of July here at the cabin, that is if the bear behaves himself. The only fireworks will be at sunrise and sunset - the best kind!
7/10/03 We did have a quiet holiday - spent mostly working at the cabin, or out in the yard. So much work to do around here, we could work for months and hardly make a dent. Guess that is the same at everyone's house. We did get to slip away on Sunday for a couple of days with my brother and sister and their families at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We swam, ate great food, played tennis, ate more food, went boating, still more food, and generally kicked back and relaxed a bit. Oh yea, I did manage to slip in a couple of Photoshop books and got in some good reading. Did I mention that we got to eat plenty of gourmet food? Thank goodness I have been hiking down to the river and back up every day!
When we returned to the cabin we sat out on the back deck and watched a beautiful cloud formation set against a bright blue sky. The colors - both the background sky and clouds - kept changing minute by minute. And there was a pretty good wind blowing them around, so the colored shapes twisted and bent and mingled with each other. Quite a sight to come home to.
We've been hard at work both inside and outside the cabin these past few days. And getting to hike around a little bit. Lots and LOTS of bear sign all over the place, including in Bob's main garden at the Faddis cabin - many rows of sweet corn that the bear seems to be taking a liking to. Also green beans, onions, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, and goodness knows what else. So far the bear has only been eating the sweet corn.
I took off yesterday morning for an early hike down to the river. It was almost chilly out, with a nice breeze - the air was sweet and cool and crisp, just like a fall afternoon. I know so many folks don't like to hike in the Ozarks in the summertime, but really, if you pick the right time of day (early and late), it can be some of the very best hiking you can do all year.
It was just a delightful morning to be out hiking. But there was a bit of a, well, I'm not really sure how to describe it, but just something in the air that was a bit odd. Even the dogs sensed it right away - as soon as we all got to the base of the bluff and started down the steep hill, both dogs froze up, sniffed the air, then proceeded very slowly and carefully. These guys don't get spooked too often, but that is exactly what it seemed like. Then I figured out what it must have been - a bear or two. There were at least four piles of fresh bear scat right in the middle of the trail. Funny how bears love to poop either in the middle of the trail or a road - mostly folks like to get behind something when doing their business, but bears prefer open country.
At this time of the year you can't see too far out into the forest since the underbrush is so darn thick. Did I say thick? I meant JUNGLE-Like! Normally I don't get too much chance to look around as I hike down this steep hillside anyway since I am so focused on placing each step in front of me. But today I took a cue from the dogs and really slowed down, pausing after each step to look into the forest, straining to see if there was any movement or large patches of black out in there. We three inched our way down the hillside. Easy does it.
I found that there isn't nearly as much underbrush growing in the really STEEP hillside between the level benches - mostly just larger trees hanging on for dear life. It is easy to see far into the forest there. Of course, most of the time I am hanging on too, and seldom look around. It is a beautiful forest for sure, with the towering trees reaching far up and out of sight high above. I could hear songs of oven birds and thrushes nearby, and woodpeckers drumming far off. That breeze was soooooo nice. Man oh man was a wonderful time to be in the woods. Then I realized that I was all alone. The dogs were no where in sight or sound.
And then I heard a very strange sound off to my left, followed by Lucy's yelp. Just one yelp. She normally doesn't sing out unless something is amiss. Aspen normally follows, but he remained silent. As did Lucy. But that weird noise continued. At first it sounded like a dry, heavy wind blowing. Then a moan. Something buzzing. I don't know, it was a combination of things, and just odd. I strained to see any movement of the dogs to find their location, but the forest was still. Moving down the trail I finally caught a glimpse of black moving through the brush, heading right towards me. It was Lucy. Whatever it was that got her attention had been left behind, and the two dogs returned to the trail. I heard that weird noise a couple more times as I continued on down the hillside. The dogs stopped every few steps and looked back over their shoulders into the deep, dark woods behind them. Hum, I wonder what it was?
The river was wonderful, as always, and running well, although dropping quickly to more normal summer levels. It is still higher than mid-summer, but I suspect it will drop into the slow-moving mode soon and remain there until a great hurricane blows up from the Gulf and brings us several days of heavy rains.
On the way back up the hillside later I could still hear that odd noise. It sounded more like buzzing bees this time, and I wondered if there was not a hive up in a tree nearby, although neither of the dogs seemed to have gotten stung when they went to investigate. No telling what it was, and will remain just another one of the mysteries of the wilderness.
This evening I vowed to spend a couple of hours and sit down and write in the Journal, something I have simply not had the time or inkling to do in a week. Just as I began to type, the southern horizon began to light up with yet another incredible cloud display. One, two, three, four, FIVE big thunderheads all lined up in a row (actually there were two more just out of sight to the left). The setting sun really lit them up, and the color grew more and more intense with each passing minute. I shot a few images, then raced back to the computer to see what I had gotten. While I was looking at them the color got better, so I had to run back down to the lower deck and shoot a few more shots. This was repeated several times, until I finally said enough was enough, and I watched the rest of the light show from inside the cabin. A very nice show indeed.
It is dark now, and a 3/4 moon is lighting up the dark wilderness below. The trees at this time of the year appear coal black, even under the moonlight. Heck, in the bight sunshine of mid day they are very dark too, about as dark green as you can get. That contrasts well with the BRILLIANT yellow sea of flowers in Mom's meadow just below the cabin. Scores of male GOLDfinches and INDIGO buntings streak back and forth across the meadow, in and out of the trees, and up into the air. Some day I would like to get a canvas and paint bright yellow and blue streaks across the scene each time one of them moves - could you imagine the "timed exposure" that would produce from several hours?
Some summer evenings get quite loud with all of the critters and bugs making noise, but it hasn't been too bad lately. I bet it has something to do with the cool temps at night. Come to think of it the days have been nice and cool too - only getting up into the low 80's for highs.
It is time to shut down the computer and wander out into the moonlight and see what the wilderness is up to...
7/13/03 Hickory nut-sized hail was pounding the cabin around 3am the night before last. Well, actually it was not real hail, but rather actual hickory nuts, and man oh man they were loud! We were in the middle of one of the most powerful storms ever to hit Cloudland. Huge explosions and giant fireballs were happening right outside the window - I think the lightning bolts were simply blowing up in mid air and not even bothering to hit the ground. The cabin shook, the dogs cowered, and the three of us humans huddled together under heavy blankets, covering our ears to protect from the next blast. High winds thrashed the trees all over the place, sending waves of hickory nuts sailing towards the cabin. Needless to say, we didn't get too much sleep. We did get an inch or more of much-need rain - yippie! The aftermath of the storm was strewn all over the forest and across roads - more limbs down than I have seen since the last ice storm. No major damage though that we could find.
As I am sitting down to write this at 10am today, I have been out on the tractor for more than 4 hours mowing. When I got back to the cabin it was so dark inside that I had to turn on lights to see where I was going. We've been getting tremendous thunder and lightning here since before daylight, but not a single drop of rain yet. The dark clouds overhead are very strange, and did I say "dark?" I mean BLACK clouds! Looking up from the tractor seat I could see this wicked layer of clouds - the sort that look like cotton balls all crammed together, only ones that had had charcoal power spread on them - and bolts of lightning would streak across underneath the clouds. A scene I would love to be able to sketch or paint, but one I could never photograph accurately.
Besides the light show going on all around me, I enjoyed my time on the tractor, as I always do. The girls are out of town this weekend working in southwest Arkansas on trails for the kids guidebook, and I have been on the tractor, all day yesterday, and so far this morning. Today, as I plowed through tall weeds and brush around the orchard, there were blackberry bushes so tall that I could actually reach our and pluck off some sweet berries as they went by. It only took me two or three times to learn that it was a lot better on my hands to STOP the tractor before I reached out for the berries that are guarded with lots of stickers!
Speaking of the orchard, I have an observation to share with you. While this is purely unscientific, the conclusion seems pretty clear. We bought half of our fruit trees from the major nursery in Harrison, and the other half of the trees from Blooms & Moore nursery at Hindsville. All basically the same types of fruit trees, same sizes, planted in the same area, planted and cared for using the same techniques. Almost all of the trees from the Harrison nursery have died. All of the trees from Blooms & More are thriving. Note to self - buy future items from the nursery in Hindsville and forget about the others!
It was nearly midnight last night when I slipped into the hot tub to easy my weary bones (sorry to keep skipping around, but that is the way this post is going to be). The nearly-full moon was lighting up the wilderness and the black ridges were more gray than black. While the sky above was clear and full of stars (well, as many stars as you can see with a bright moon in the sky anyway), the far valleys to the south were filled with clouds - actually there was a wall of clouds down low. It was so odd to see them in the moonlight. The cloud banks stretched up into Boen Gulf, Terrapin Branch, and Bowers Hollow, but no further downstream. There were not clouds anyplace else that I could see. Why those canyons? How about Whitaker Creek? Or the main Buffalo River Valley? Very strange. They moved around a bit, hovering higher, then settling back down on the ground, then blowing away completely, only to sneak back in again. It was almost as if those particular canyons were sending out smoke signals.
By the way, I have often wondered about something that I heard an explanation of somewhere yesterday - the difference between clouds and fog. I always have the problem of what to call the things out here - fog or clouds. Apparently the definition is that if it touches the ground, it is fog, if it does not, it is a clouds. But what about an obvious cloud that races across the sky and engulfs a mountaintop - does the cloud become fog until it leaves the mountain? Or does it have to originate on the ground? What about when "fog" settles? Or when a cloud is born on the ground, rises up and joins all of the other clouds in the sky, like happens here all the time? Perhaps the explanation is not as clearcut as I thought.
Speaking of moonlight, the other night after I photographed those five big thunderheads on the horizon (which I found out were part of a storm system that was over 100 miles away!), my lovely wife joined me in the hot tub. Those five thunderheads began to light up from within as soon as the sun went down - with incredible bursts of lightning that would alternate between the thunderheads. With a bright moon shining down on everything else, it was really neat looking. Anyway, you all are probably aware that I absolutely adore my bride, and have been madly in love with her ever since first laying eyes on her three years ago. As lovely as she is in daylight - and this goes for every other woman in the world as well - she looks even better in moonlight. I think that is one of the rules of the universe - women become goddesses in the moonlight! I highly recommend that if you are a guy, take that special lady of yours out into the moonlight soon. I suspect the opposite might be true - guys sometimes turn into warewolves!
Speaking of critters, I stopped by Bob's garden the other day while on my way back from hiking out to get the mail. Bob was there with a can of tuna, baiting an electric fence around his garden. He has planted five different groups of corn in the garden, timed so that there will be ripe corn from about now until September. Some of the field corn is more than 12 feet tall, but the tallest sweet corn is only six feet. The first two batches of sweet corn have been getting ripe this past week, and the bear has been into the garden several times, always picking the corn that is just ripe. The bear has been going right on through an electric fence that Bob had up around the garden to keep deer and bears out. Of course, the bear really doesn't feel the mild shot through his thick fur coat. But Bob's idea is to put a slab of tuna in a pouch attached to the electric wire, then when the bear comes over to sniff the tuna, he will get a good shock to his nose - a rather vulnerable spot on a big bear. The first problem with all of this is that Bob forgot all about his opened can of tuna sitting on the ground when he went to harvest a few ears of corn to give me for dinner - Aspen (or Lucy, we actually didn't see which one) ate the entire can of tuna! I'll be keeping an eye on the corn in the days to come to see if the bear takes the bait or not (Bob found another can of tuna to use).
Right now the rumbling outside is getting louder, and the bass notes that are echoing across the wilderness are meeting up with new notes being formed on the way back, and it sounds like one continuous baritone party out there. There are a lot of high notes too - birds of all sorts playing in the trees and in the air. They are the tweeters of the wilderness speaker system, and the thunder the sub-woofer.
Heck, I can see a little patch of blue sky way off yonder - I think I'll go jump back up on the tractor and go see if I can find a few more blackberries!
As luck would have it the minute I jumped up onto the tractor, the sky opened up and it began to rain. No matter - nothing better than a summer shower! I got nearly all of my mowing done, and came home clean.
Later in the afternoon, I decided to head out for a hike. Most of my ventures into the woods of late have been fitness trips down to the river or out to the mailbox, but none to simply go out and wander around. I felt like a bit of wandering around this afternoon. It was still raining softly, but I didn't mind - I would be getting soaked again from the wet brush anyway.
Before I even got out of sight of the cabin I came across this neon red and yellow mushroom. Out came the camera, and I spent about five minutes down on my knees taking pictures. That's a hickory nut that fell and landed in the small pool of water at the top of the mushroom. What I really needed was one of those colorful patterned tree frogs there, but the nut was just fine.
Once I left the mushroom I began to see dozens and dozens of other mushrooms - all colors of them, but mostly bright white and red and yellow. I believe they were popping up right before my very eyes. It is funny to get down and inspect some of the mushrooms that push up other items on the forest floor - branches, leaves, even rocks. This white one below (which I call a "golf ball" mushroom because of the color and bumps all around it) emerged in a sea of poison ivy. Hum, I wonder if mushrooms get rashes?
The forest was beautiful, quiet, and lush. The rain stopped, and the only sounds were of those last raindrops finally making it down to earth. I was wearing shorts, but bushwhacking was easy because I made my way along a bench that was mostly maple trees - not much underbrush grows under these maples, so the forest is really open. Off to the sides and away from the maples the jungle takes over, and it is pretty tough to get through in the summertime.
Mixed in with the maples were a few really tall black gum trees. Some of their leaves had turned brilliant crimson and yellow, and a few had fallen to earth. I picked up some of them and took their picture. It is always odd to see such bright fall colors in the middle of all the summer green.
I stepped out onto Hawksbill Crag and watched a number of new clouds being born just down in the bottom of Whitaker Creek, then they drifted up and up and away until they merged with the sea of clouds above. So light and peaceful. The wilderness has been enjoying the recent showers, and has been smiling a lot.
Just as I came out of the woods above the Faddis cabin, I found a lone hiker on the gravel road there - it was my very own little girl! Her and were just getting back from their road trip, and Amber wanted to hike the last 1/2 mile down to the cabin with her old man. She is really taking to this hiking business, and especially helping out with the kids trails guidebook. She told me all about their hikes on trails in Clarksville, at Lake Ouachita, on the top of Rich Mountain, around a lake way down south, and at several other locations. Her job these days is to push the measuring wheel along the trail so that we can get accurate measurements, but Pam tells me Amber know is adding more and more commentary to the tape recordings as they go along. I think it is going to be a great guidebook!
We made a small detour over to the garden to get a few goodies for dinner, and to inspect the recent bear damage. Some of the corn stalks there are really tall! The rain was over for the day, but I bet the corn grown another two feet because of it.
On the way back to the cabin a milestone happened. We stopped to pick a batch of blackberries, which were getting really large, black, and juicy. Amber had helped pick them before, but she had never eaten any! WHAT, no true wilderness woman could go through life without eating wild blackberries! So Amber got her first taste of blackberries. Unfortunately none of the berries survived the trip back home. Some time this week or next we will have to collect enough for a cobbler - hum, fresh blackberry cobbler and homemade ice cream...What diet!
7/20/03 Another long but wonderful summer week in the wilderness. It has been a long time since I have written here, but there seems to be less and less time for that these days. We've been putting in some long hours at both work and play this week. Lots of work around the cabin - both inside and out. Pam has been putting in many long hours at the computer transcribing tapes of trails she has hiked for the new guidebook and typing them into the computer. I've been online a lot, doing research into digital cameras and print matting and mounting materials - I'll be offering special museum-quality mounted and matted prints on the web site soon, AND many will also be available for viewing and for sale at some galleries around the region. Also we've been setting up a number of slide program for later this fall - including stops in northwest Arkansas, central Arkansas, the Ft. Smith area, down in Louisiana, and up in Springfield (at the Springfield Nature Center - YEA!!!). All of these will be open to the public, and I'll post a schedule of them as the time gets nearer. One week in November we have 8 programs in 9 days in three states!
As I type this on Sunday morning we are in the middle of wave after wave of visitors - one wave that spent the night just left (after fixing a wonderful breakfast of blueberry pancakes), another about to arrive with a custom-built butterfly bench for the edge of our pond, yet another expected later this afternoon. The week ahead will be filled with a ton more work, inside and out, and Pam and Amber will be making another long trek around the state to do more trails. In the meantime I'll be trying out some new digital photography equipment. Just a few minutes ago I added yet another book project to my long list - this one will involve my travel all over the state to photograph many neat places to include in a new photography-related guidebook. And, of course, I will need a new camera outfit!
It has been rather hot and sultry much of this past week, although still a LOT cooler than in town - the temp has topped out at 87 degrees here this week. Most of the days have had highs in the low 80's. One evening it remained at 84 degrees until nearly midnight, then a cold front pushed through and brought a batch of noisy and colorful thunderstorms, but not a single drop of rain. Nice cool temps though.
I've been hiking down to the river and out to the mailbox for exercise quite a bit. One of my knees has been giving me trouble though, so I have been wearing a brace for some of the tough hiking. I think I made the mistake of RUNNING out to the mailbox a couple of times - the pounding that my knees took may be the cause of the problem. While I have always loved to run through the woods, I have never been a "runner" because it has always bothered my knees. I did spend a few months running every day back in the 1980's while I was in training for a couple of triathalons that I did then. Loved the swimming part, hated the running and biking. But I FINISHED both races!
Part of my week has been spent getting some new software loaded and the computer configured. I use a page design program for about 75% of my work here, but the one I have been using for 20 years really isn't going to be supported by Adobe in the future (PageMaker), and won't run in the new Mac operating systems. So I have been forced to switch to a new one (InDesign), which is 100 times more powerful and complicated. I got along great with PageMaker. (For those of you in the business, I can't stand QUARK!) Anyway, in the computer software catalog where they raved about this new program, they said it "only" took them FIVE weeks to make the switch to InDesign - good grief, that is not a very good recommendation! I've been able to not master it, but be able to USE it within a few minutes - most Mac programs are like that. I'll spend the next 10 years trying to learn all about it. I figured the best way for me to really get to know the program will be to start from scratch with Pam's new guidebook - that will force me to figure most of what I need to know out in a hurry!
I finally went swimming the other day, and man what a DELIGHT it was! The river is flowing at about normal levels for June right now - still plenty of water going into the swimming hole. In fact there are two different place where water is flowing in - normally only one in the summer. The water was quite warm and refreshing. The sun was high overhead, sending beams deep into the water. The pool is about 7-8 feet deep through the middle. One side is more shallow, while the far side is mostly deep, ending in a wall of solid rock - that is where the caves and ledges are, and where the big fish hang out.
I put on my mask and snorkel and worked my way around the shallow side of the pool, just creeping along in three or four feet of water. The visibility was about 15 feet or so, and the water quite clean. I almost immediately came up to a batch of fish nests - five of them I believe. Only a couple of these were active. By that I mean the rocks had been scrubbed clean with recent fish activity, and there was a momma fish hovering a couple inches above the middle of the "nest" and chasing any trespassers away. The nests themselves are shallow craters in the gravel, about 12-14 inches in diameter. The eggs are deposited in and around and under the smooth pebbles that make up the nest. Other fishes try to come around and suck up as many eggs as they can. The eggs are tiny and almost clear, perhaps the size of very small BB's. These first nests were sunfish nests, and the mommas that were guarding them were brilliantly colored - especially their mouth and face area - FLAMING blues and oranges, pained on like you might see on dragsters. After a few moments of enjoying the show, I moved on.
Soon I came to a second little "flat" in the gravel bottom that had fish nests. This is where I normally find four or five nests, year after year. And they were there once again this summer, only there were many more of them - one after another after another, in two staggered columns. They looked like the impressions you might leave behind when walking through very loose and dry sand, only larger in diameter. There were more than a dozen nests in all, and most of them were active. And goodness gracious the momma perch guarding these were HUGE! I mean the size of your opened hand, every one of them! That is really pretty large for a little Buffalo River sunfish. The nests were in about three feet of water, and were getting plenty of sunshine.
I stood/hovered there in the water and watched the show for a good long while - both perch and bass would gather around a certain nest, then all at once they would penetrate the "airspace" and dart down trying to snatch an egg or two. All the while the momma perch would be chasing one fish after another out of her space - it was a FULLTIME job for momma! After a minute or two of intense activity, the fish group seemed to move on to the next nest right next door, gather around the next, then move in for the kill, only to be repelled by another large momma sunfish.
There were a couple of pretty good sized smallmouth bass at the scene, plus several very dark, almost black smallmouth bass. I kept an eye peeled for my old friend SPOT, but he was not a part of this group. I swam on.
As I crossed over a really shallow area in the pool I was treated to a wonderful show of light and motion and color that was happening across the "screen" on the bottom of the pool. The small waves on the surface of the water - or should I say the sunshine beaming down through those waves - created golden waves on the bottom of the pool. And those waves moved across the bottom as the water moved around. The entire place seemed to be in motion. Add to that dozens of colorful fish darting around here and there, and it was a great show. I floated there on the surface with my face just barely under the water, my snorkel pointed up into the air, mesmerized - I had been swimming/floating along for a half hour or more since first getting into the water without having to come up for air.
Oh yea, Aspen and Lucy were having a ball during all of this. Lucy spent most of her time on shore, running back and forth and in and out of the forest - she prefers to explore the dray parts of the area. And, of course, Aspen is a waterdog with webbed feet, so he always spends every second he can in the water, swimming back and forth, in search of any fish that would slide into his mouth (to my knowledge, he has never, and will never, catch a fish, but he enjoys the hunt so much!). Aspen looks so funny from under water when he swims - those big pink pads on his back feet are magnified in the water.
At the far end of the pool I found another fish nest area, this time with four or five nests, but only one really active one. There were more fish at this nest than at any of the others. In fact, I could not detect a momma fish - just hoards of sunfish and bass having a feast.
I turned back upstream and made my way along the other shoreline. This one is not shallow, but rather is made up of large boulders that had tumbled down into the edge of the creek eons ago. Now they are mostly submerged in the 7-8 feet deep water, and the bottom of the creek is a solid, smooth rock slab. This is where the big fish hang out - under the little caves and ledges formed by the big rocks. And nearly every rock has a gap at the very bottom of the pool where fish of all shapes, sizes and colors hide out, waiting for their next meal to float by.
I love to dive deep and hang out at the bottom of those boulders - blowing out all of the air in my lungs helps keep me down there with no problem (otherwise I float back up to the top). With the water so clear it was easy to see up and down the boulders, and a long ways along the base of them. In order for me to see into that gap at the bottom of the boulders, I have to turn myself upside down so that my head is on the very bottom of the pool and my feet straight up in the air. That gap is often only a few inches tall, so I have to get on the very bottom to be able to see in. It is really a treat to peer into the darkness under the boulders - the closer I get my head in there the more I can see. It is easy to come face-to-face with a very large fish, or like I did on this trip, a GIANT crawdad! This one guy had pinchers as long as my own fingers - YIKES, a miniature lobster! And can you imagine how all of this played out in my head while I was upside down?
Thank goodness the giant crawdad was also quite shy, and he slowly retreated back into the black recesses under the boulder.
As I came around the corner of one boulder and headed into a canyon between two boulders, I looked off to my left and there he was - my good old friend Spot. He is a smallmouth bass that I have seen in this swimming hole for two or three years now. He is really easy to identify because of a particular pattern of spots on the very top of his head. His entire body it seems is covered with patterns, and the always seem to be more contrasty than other fish of his size. Speaking of his size, he is not a full-grown, mature bass, quite at home and probably one of the dominate fish in the river. He was as friendly as ever, and seemed to recognize me as well - he swam right on up to the front of my mask, then opened him mouth wide like he always does, as if to blow me a fish kiss. Good old Spot!
At the far end of this little canyon there is a cave that goes down under one of the big boulders, and it is possible to swim down under there and come up on the other side, a feat I always do without warning to amaze (and worry) any friends that I bring down to swim. It has become a right of summer for me I guess, because I always swim down through that cave and out the other side the first time I swim each summer - partly just to prove to myself that I can still do it I guess. I was really surprised when I came out the other side to find that Spot had followed me. Good fish.
I left the canyon area and headed back to the very upper end of the pool, where the main creek empties into it. The water there is really warm, having been warmed by the sun upstream where the river is wide and the pool shallow, less than a foot deep. There are always lots of little fish there, where this new water brings in fresh nutrients.
The water depth is only about a foot deep there, and so I sort of half laid on the bottom/floated at the surface, and crawled my way up into the current. The sun was out, sending yellow shafts of sunshine through the churning water to the pebbles that line the bottom of the river. Those pebbles are always bright and colorful because the water coming in keeps them scrubbed clean.
While I was looking up into the current one of those precious Cloudland Moments happened. The water was filled with TINY fish fry - little bity minnows about the diameter of angel hair pasta, and only about a half inch long. Each was translucent - especially in the beaming sunshine that filled the water - and they had a blue color to them. There were probably 50-100 of them right out within reach of me, darting and dancing all over the place, dodging silver bubbles of oxygen that were being produced by the churning water. Those smooth pebbled added more color. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, came a brilliant YELLOW leaf, tumbling and twisting in the current towards me. Those blue angle hair pasta fish dodged the leaf, but I know had to have glanced as it went by. And the leaf was not only pure yellow, but the back side of it was pure SILVER. I think the one side of the leaf was coated with oxygen, which appears silver in the water. It was so delicate and smooth as the water rolled it over and over, seemingly in slow motion. It was a beautiful scene.
I went back down and swam again the next day, visiting the nesting fish, and swimming a few laps for additional exercise. On this second day the surface of the water was nearly smooth (no wind at all), and was covered with thousands of tiny water striders. They really put the surface of the water in motion!
There is one large rock up at the head of the pool in the flowing stream part where I always store my stuff and dry off after a swim. Seems like critters like that spot too - this year the very top of the boulder has a number of scat piles on it - bear and raccoon - and includes a number of crawdad bones. I have seen bear scat on top of boulders in the middle of the river before, but somehow just can't picture a big old bear up on top of one of them doing his business - why do they pick these spots?
Later in the week Pam decided that she could work better if Amber and I were not there, so I packed Amber up and we headed down to the swimming hole for a couple hours of play. We had such a marvelous time that the couple of hours turned into over six hours of swimming! That girl is part fish I'm sure, and absolutely loved the river. We spent a lot of time with mask/snorkel gear just making our way around the edges of the pool and looking at all the fish. Pam really was hard at work back up at the cabin transcribing tapes, but she would take a break now and then and step out onto the back deck and listen - she could hear a lot of giggling and splashing drifting up from the river! The only problem with this good old swimming hole of our is the fact that it is a pretty difficult hike back up to the cabin, especially in the heat of a hot summer day. Amber was able to forget about that climb out and enjoy her time in the water, but she began to fell a little sick when we started back up. I think it was mostly in her head (I know adults who have the same reaction!). We took our time, made a lot of rest stops, and she made it all the way to the top just fine. She may not be ready to hike back down to this pool with me every day, but I do believe she will grace the river there many more times in her life.
As I was writing this up we had a steady stream of visitors to the cabin. It was "decoration" day at the Cave Mtn. Cemetery, which always draws former residents of the area and family and friends for a big day of celebrating, fixing up the cemetery, and remembering those who reside there. One of the visitors to the cabin was Andy Friend (and his daughter and granddaughter). Andy spent his early childhood living at the base of the mountain just below our cabin - we pass by his old homesite every time we go to the river. He is in his 70's now, and a bright twinkle in his eyes remains every time he speaks of his time down on the river here. We made plans to return to the old home site later this winter, and hike out the old mule trail that he had told me about a couple of years ago that I have been locating the route of through the wilderness. I love talking with these folks - you just know they had a really difficult life back then, yet their character is great and they are the very best sort of people.
7/21/03 We awoke early this morning to rolling thunder and lightning, and even a little bit of rain. Several storms passed us by yesterday, but we got hit by this one, finally. Not too much rain - less than 1/4 inch - but we'll take everything we can get! It was kind of odd to hear that thunder echo up and down the main canyon below, and see all of the lightning, all the while the eastern horizon was open and glowing red and orange from the sunrise that was about to happen.
The temp did get up to 90 degrees yesterday, but by the time I headed down to the river in the late afternoon it was quite delightful out in the woods. This morning it is about 70, with a good breeze blowing, and it is really nice outside. We sat on the back deck and watched another storm or two roll through, and could see the curtains of rainfall happening all around us (again, not much rain on top of us). Many clouds were born down in the valley, then rose slowly up into the sky to join the rest of their clan. It is always great to watch this new life and movement happening all around us.
The girls are off hiking yet another trail this morning. I will head out soon to scout out a location to photograph the cover for the new kids guidebook. Sometime this week I will get my new toy (um, I mean TOOL) - a Canon 10D digital camera. I have decided that my ultimate camera system won't be available until early 2004, so I will be getting this little brother of that camera to use in the meantime. It is also the type of digital camera that many of my digital photo workshop students will be using, so it will be good for me to have one on hand. By the way, if any of you are interested in learning how to take better photos, work on the computer, and spend part of a day at Cloudland, you might go to my main web page and take a look at the new digital photo workshops I'm doing. They already seem to be popular, and so I will probably be adding a few more of them during the year.
It is getting darker by the minute here this morning, and the power has already flickered off once. I had better end this thing and get it posted while I still can. I will TRY to make a few more posts this week and next, although I must warn you that they may be few and far between in August - it is going to be one heck of a busy month for us.
7/23/03 It was a textbook scene here at Cloudland today. A solid bank of those wondrous white clouds/fog all gathered down in the valley like a sea of cotton candy. Around the edges of the scene were the hills and ridges of the wilderness, poking up through that sea into a sky of pure blue. The temp was cool - about 60 - and no wind at all. The sun rose and illuminated the entire scene. That sun is a two-faced visitor. On the one hand, it produces some wonderful light shows, but on the other, it spells the death to the clouds in the valley. This morning, it only took about 20 minutes to go from total sea of clouds to NONE in the valley at all!
Night before last we had one powerful storm blow through in the middle of the night that lasted for four or five hours. The cabin shook, fireballs exploded all around, and as Amber put it, the cabin was lit up like daylight by the lightning. The three of us were up most of the time. The power kept going off, then coming back on again. We were really in tune with that power thing because the temp outside was still quite warm, and we needed the overhead fans to keep up cool (we prefer fans to AC for that last five degrees of comfort). Anyway, when the power was off so were the fans, and it was not too comfortable, so we opened all of the windows, which brought in all of the loud noises from the storm. Then, just as we would get used to the situation, the power would come back on again, and the wind inside the cabin was just too much, so we would have to get up and close all the windows again. Twenty minutes later the power would go off again. The power did eventually go off for good, and we did not get it back on again until well after daylight.
This storm produced about two inches of rain, but it looked like the wilderness was so parched that it soaked every bit of it up as fast as it hit the ground - the Buffalo River didn't even turn color, nor run any higher, after TWO INCHES! No doubt all of the trees and other vegetation really enjoyed the storm.
Funny, but during the storm none of the tree of us remembered that we had a guest sleeping in the spare bedroom in the basement. When he emerged later in the morning, he reported not having known a storm had blown through at all - he slept through the entire thing! That is one well-inslulated basement.
I must admit that while yesterday would have been one of the very best days of the entire summer to hike, I never set foot in the woods. We all packed up and headed into town for the day, and did not return until late. And when we did get back, I spent the next four or five hours at the computer, and with my nose in a text book of sorts. I had five big color prints to print (four for a single lawyer's office in Ft. Smith). While each one was printing, I had about 30 minutes of time when I could not use the computer, so I spent that time reading every word in the camera manual from the new camera I brought home from town. Here is a tip for ANYone who wants to learn how to take better pictures - READ YOU CAMERA MANUAL - TWICE! This is especially important with today's all-electronic cameras. I spent several hours with this new camera before I ever shot a single frame. By the time I slipped into the steaming bubbles of the hot tub I had five beautiful color prints on the rack, and knew enough to be able to take a good picture once the sun came up.
(By the way, you won't see any difference in the photos in the Journal - most of them will still be from my old point and shoot Minolta camera, but even if I do include some from the new camera, the resolution of web photos is so low that you would not be able to tell the difference between a $500 camera and a $5,000 one.)
Speaking of the hot tub, man oh man the sky was incredible last night! The big storm and cold front that blew through really scrubbed the air clean - squeaky clean. There were a zillion bright stars out, set against a coal black sky, and the Milky Way was as bright as I had seen it in a good long while. It looked and felt like a cool and clear October evening instead of a hot and sultry July one.
7/26/03 We had several very nice days in the wilderness, with nighttime temps down in the 50's, and highs in the 70's and low 80's. It did get up into the low 90's one day though, and now is creeping back up again. Hum, must be summer in Arkansas!
I wanted to post the following photo that was taken in the afternoon after the big thunderstorms. This place is all about clouds, and we certainly had our share of them that day. White and puffy against a brilliant blue sky. And the best part is knowing that they were born right down there in the wilderness, recycled raindrops really. Eventually they all joined together and formed another thunderhead someplace, and produced wind and thunder and lightning and more lovely rainfall. I wonder where the raindrops fell to earth next, and if anyone was watching as they formed back into clouds again and rose up to fill a blue sky with shapes in the imaginations of lovers, dreamers, and children?
We are waterless at the cabin today. Once again the automatic shut-off valve on our water garden in front failed, and we lost every drop of water in our drinking water system during the night (more than 1,000 gallons). It will take a week or longer to replenish this water. Our well is a great one quality-wise, but very slow, which is why we have a holding tank. So for now we all are on an "ice and poop only" water ration - it is OK to get ice from the ice maker, and to use the toilets when you really have to, but otherwise no water consumption allowed. I will eventually make a trip down to the spring in Boxley and bring back up 500 gallons, but I will wait until early in the morning when the spring is not busy with other locals getting water. That will give our well/holding tank a head start, and allow us a little bit of water until it catches up. Considering the water garden is causing such problems with our water system, and the fact that it is taking a great deal of our time to maintain each day, we are beginning to regret ever getting the thing in the first place.
Our little volunteer hiking club is looking for a new place to have monthly meetings - the Fayetteville hospital continues to shake things up, and the meeting place they kindly provided to us is no longer available. Many of you may remember that when the city of Fayetteville was trying to sell the good people of Fayetteville on the "Town Center" concept a few years ago, one of the main selling points was the fact that they would make a room available for non-profit community organizations for meetings. That was a great thing, and something that has been sorely needed in Fayetteville for a long time. Well, guess what - they do indeed have that room available, but it cost $300 for non-profits to use! Not $300 a year, but for even ONE HOUR OF USE! $300! The people of Fayetteville have been shafted once again, and man I am glad to have moved away from that place, which is becoming a very poor place to live indeed. Shame on the city for trying to extort money out of volunteer comunity organizations that are the very backbone of a community. $300? Can you believe that? If you know of a place that is available on Sunday nights in the Fayetteville/Springdale area, please let me know. (The Jones Center is not open on Sunday nights, which is when we meet.)
7/27/03 A delightful hike down to the river early this morning. It was cool, and quiet, and still, and by the time I got back to the top of the bluff, I was nothing but a ball of sweat - and it felt great! I have gotten into a rhythm of skipping down the hillside at a pretty good clip - not too many loose rocks on the trail now, but I still have to be very careful where I place each step. I don't get to see much of the surrounding terrain this way, but I do get a good bit of exercise on the way down (you can actually work up a sweat going down really steep places just holding yourself back). Then once we get to the river, I have this little sycamore tree that has been bent over by recent floods - it is right at chest level to me, and next to the water. I use it as a prop where I can rest for a minute of two while the dogs splash around in the river. Then is it one whistle and we are back on our way up the steep hillside. No matter how hot and humid, it seems to always feel great these days, especially knowing that I am working off that batch of chocolate chip cookies from the night before!
This morning as I reached the cabin, Pam was out on the back deck to greet me. While not unusual, it was today, because Pam and Amber left just after daylight to spend a couple of days on the road doing trail research for the book. Turns out that about half way to the pavement Amber got sick, so they returned to make another attempt later. Nothing worse then hiking all day in 100 degree plus heat when you are sick (they were headed down to southeast Arkansas, where it would be really miserable!).
It heated up in a hurry around here today - I guess. I spent the day at the computer and under the fan doing research on the web. Just before dark the three of us (and the dogs and cats) headed out for a hike around the loop (Amber fully recovered). We were actually on bear patrol, but didn't really expect to see anything because of all the livestock that was with us. The bear has been tearing up Bob's garden pretty good, still hitting the sweet corn the very day it gets ripe - he hit another row yesterday and today.
The forest was dark and quiet as we made our way through the big stand of maple trees to the East meadow. While the sun was low and already gone from the forest, it lit up the edges of the meadow. Lots of sumac and dogwood trees lining the meadow, so I stopped and took a snap or two of the berries that would soon feed a mob of noisy birds.
The fruit on the wild plum trees nearby is beginning to ripen a little bit, or at least turn color. This fruit never gets very large here, and I don't know if that is typical, or if ours are stunted. I have never eaten a wild plum, but every year I plan to partake, only to forget all about it when the extreme heat of August roll in (when the fruit is ripe).
Looks like the pawpaws are going to large and luscious this year. We spotted many of them high in the pawpaw patch near the orchard. The best way to tell when they get ripe is to sniff the air as you pass by - they will fill the air with sweetness when they are ready to eat!
And goodness, gracious, is it a terrific year for HICKORY NUTS!!! Here is one of the big trees that surrounds the Faddis cabin. The branches are loaded, and no doubt some of them will come crashing down soon due to the weight. Every since I was a kid I could not resist reaching out and grabbing a hickory nut or two in the late summer like this, and chunking them at whatever happened to strike my fancy. I do believe I have passed on that trait to Amber, as she took a liking to doing that as well. Turns out she is a pretty good shot. Her mom just laughed and ducked at the both of us.
The sun is gone now, but there are lingering pink clouds just outside. The breeze is blowing and there are a few soaring birds still out roaming the skyline. Our water system is still low, but coming back slowly (I have not gone to the spring yet, so we are still on "poop and ice" rations).
7/29/03 A couple of Cloudland moments this past 24 hours of note. First, while on my way back up from the river yesterday evening, I continued on past the cabin on up the hill to check on our water holding tank. It was after sunset, but the western sky had begun to light up a little bit, so I made my way on up to Aspen's meadow for a clear view. The dogs detoured on over to the cabin and were not with me. Just as I reached the edge of the meadow and stepped out into it, I caught a bit of movement and color out of the corner of my eye. It was a doe deer, in her gorgeous summer coat. She had seen me, but did not seem too concerned - she simply glanced my direction, and then turned away. I have often wondered if wild animals pay much attention to the beauty of their surroundings, or if they simply go through each day trying to survive and never give it a thought. No doubt in my mind that this particular deer was looking DIRECTLY at the incredible light show that was just beginning overhead - the clouds were in streaks across the sky, and they were blood red. That deer ignored the potential threat of a human just 45 yards away, and remained glued to the spectacle in the sky. Yes, my lovely dear/deer, I know exactly what you are talking about - it is gorgeous, a remarkable show of the great beauty of the natural world. And sometimes life is worth stopping in your tracks to admire it. We stood there in the field - not really together - but certainly connected and sharing this bit of glory. Normally in a situation like this both man and deer would remain completely motionless - not even blinking an eye - in a stare-off to see who would move first. But on this evening, we both knew somehow that all was OK, and we could relax and just enjoy. The deer seemed very calm, and turned to me several times, as if to make sure I was still watching. I think she trusted me as a fellow traveler in the universe. As the color began to fade, she flicked her tail up a time or two as if to say goodbye, and quietly bounded off into the woods. Just like that she was gone.
Pam left the cabin very early this morning - before first light - to make a long drive and then hike several new trails for the kids guidebook. Amber and I spent the day at the cabin - she worked at sorting out years of collected stuff - while I did a bit of carpentry work to fit a new piece of furniture I brought home yesterday around a cold air return duct in her bedroom. It was quite hot and humid outside, and neither of us went out much. Oops, I take that back. I did get to take a nice long and leisurely hike early this morning through the East meadow and over to Bob's cabin to check on things. When there is so much bear activity going on we always try to keep up. The bear had pretty much destroyed everything in the East meadow garden that Benny and Mildred had planted - everything that is except for a number of very large yellow squash. Seems the bear does not like squash. The temp was cool - at least cooler than it was yesterday when I was in town - and there was a nice breeze blowing.
Amber and I finally finished all of our chores, then she went out onto the back deck to do a rain dance. By the time she had finished, it was raining buckets! Man, that little girl sure can whip up a storm in a hurry. Just then Pam drove up - exhausted, but beaming with the excitement of discovery and the self-satisfaction of personal accomplishment. She had found several great trails down south, and was grinning from ear to ear. This, I think, and if I may say so, is what makes the guidebooks that we produce so good - we are not simply out there recording facts and printing books to sell - we absolutely LOVE what we do, and take particular pleasure in finding a great new trail or waterfall that we will be able to share with others. I think that jubilance makes it onto the pages of our guidebooks, and is transferred to the reader, who can then go out and make their own discoveries and create lifetime memories. One of the trails she hiked today I had been on many times, but I never really SAW it the same way that she did today - and as she was telling me about it, mental images from my previous hikes there began to come alive. Heck, I got a kick out of hiking that trail today and I never even set foot on it!
Soon after the rain started we began to get phone calls from concerned relatives and friends - it seems there were reports of a tornado heading our way. First at Pettigrew, then Boston, then Red Star - TAKE COVER! I must tell you that while we certainly do appreciate any advance notice (since we don't really have any other way to find out), and while we quickly made the cabin and ourselves ready for the worst, what we did most was to gather out on the back deck and watch the show!
And what a grand show it was! While we never really did see any tornado-like formations or even the "baseball-sized" hail they were predicting (in fact we never even saw a single green cloud), there was a lot of turbulence and weird stuff going on here. The rain let up (after only a half inch), and was followed by waves and waves of rising clouds from the canyons below. One thing that was odd was that one set of clouds would be blowing from east to west, while another layer just behind them would be moving west to east, and a third layer moving from south to north! We sat there for 30 minutes mesmerized by all the movement. Every now and then a cloud bank would engulf the cabin and it was a complete white out for a minute or two. That would normally happen just as I was running to grab a camera and set up to take a shot of a really dramatic cloud/lighting formation - of course the clouds that hit us usually prevented me from getting anything. But I did get a few shots that were OK. And at one point, the sun came out of nowhere and created a rainbow across the way.
One funny thing that we noticed is that every now and then the birds and tree frogs would sing out like crazy, and go for two or three minutes, then they would all shut down at the same time. They did this several times - an abrupt change in the pressure perhaps?
OK, ok, enough was enough. I just had to get out INTO all of this, so I put on my boots and headed out into the woods and down to the river. The thick black clouds overhead and the lush forest all around - not to mention that the sun was just about to go down over there somewhere behind all those clouds - made the trail sort of dark. I had to concentrate even more to keep myself from slipping and falling head first. As I made my way down the mountain I passed through three of four of those rising cloud banks. The forest would get really blurry and a lot cooler (the air temp was still quite warm otherwise), and of course, lighter, then all of a sudden, boom, the cloud was gone, and it was pretty dark again.
I took up a position leaning over my little sycamore tree next to the river while Aspen and Lucy played in the water. There were a lot of clouds down there and I could not see very far up or downstream. But I could hear two distinct sets of splashes so I knew where the dogs were. Otherwise it was very quiet and still. And then all of a sudden, the clouds parted and the sky opened up. A BRILLIANT shaft of sunshine spilled into the valley, lighting up the trees on the far river bank. And then a small rainbow appeared in the sunlight - deep, rich, colors. The bottom of it burst forth from the water, but the top seemed to melt into the clouds above. It was, well, and inspiring sight, and I felt darn lucky to be alive, and to be witness to such a wondrous sight.
I do not even remember the hike back up to the cabin, other than to note that it was getting darker and darker with each step (the sunshine was short-lived, and the black clouds ruled). We never did get any more rain, which we really need. Although, heck, this IS July in Arkansas, and we are not supposed to get much rain. But we'll take a lot more if we can get it! Amber, where are you?
Oh, yea, I had to post the following snapshot that I took this afternoon while playing with my new camera at my desk - all sorts of critters hanging around these days..
7/30/03 Pam and Amber took off for Missouri early this morning, so it was just me and the livestock at the cabin all day. It was cool this morning, but heated up rapidly into the low 80's. Then the clouds gathered and opened up for a few minutes of heavy rain. I had been down in Mom's meadow making some test shots with the new camera just before the thunder started. Only got one good photo before I had to take cover.
This evening after dinner while I was out on one of my physical fitness hikes (hey, don't laugh - I'm down a full ten pounds in the past three weeks!), I began to notice a large number of frogs and toads around. Small dark toads, and LARGE bronze frogs. One batch of bronze frogs in particular caught my attention because they were at the base of the bluff where I go down to the river. In fact there were five or six of them, each one trying to scale the bluff - a couple had already made it part way up. Anyway, when they saw me they froze solid, and sat there clinging to wherever they happened to be, eyes tightly focused straight forward, stone, cold frozen in place. Even while we (me and the two dogs) made out way down the bluff right past them, they did not move a bit. I was eye-to-eye with one of them - just a few inches away.
These frogs were really odd-looking - I mean like a bronze statue of a frog instead of the real thing. And they had a pure gold highlight in their eyes. I seldom carry my camera with me on these fitness hikes anymore, but I sure did want one today. I thought about climbing back up the bluff and getting the camera, but decided since the dogs were already down below the bluff, I would just wait until we came back up from the river and hoped the frogs would still be there.
Sure enough, there were still two frogs on the bluff when we climbed back up. I hurried to the cabin and grabbed the camera, then returned to the base of the bluff. In the time it took me to hike down to the river and back up again, then go to the cabin to get the camera and return, these bronze gods had turned into simple frogs (one of them now on the ladder instead of the bluff). Funny how sometimes life is that way - things seem one way, but when you point a camera at it to document, they have a way of becoming something less. This dude is still a handsome frog if I do say so, just not the really neat guy that I saw on the way down.
It was funny to watch Aspen during all of this. Since our "Aspen over the bluff" episode last winter when we had to drive back from Colorado to rescue him, I have trained him to NOT go over the bluff unless I am there, and only after I tell him OK. Today was a big test for him, because I went on down the bluff and he had to remain up on top, looking down on my frog photo session. He REALLY wanted to jump down, and could have easily, but he remained sitting at the top of the bluff, shaking with anticipation that I would yell out OK at any moment.
When I got back to the cabin I remembered that I had to feed the fish, so wandered on out to the pond and gave them a cup full of fish food. Then I spent the next 30 minutes working in the stream, removing miles and miles of slimy green string algae that had completely covered over the stream course this week. At first I had thought this chore would be kind of, well slimy. But this stuff is really just a plant, and feels like one, and it comes out really easy. There is just so much of it. I was really getting into it when I heard a vehicle coming down the drive. Only then did I realize that I was buck naked, having stripped off my soaked clothes on the back deck once I got back from the frog photo session. Fortunately, it was my lovely wife and not some stranger just out "driving the roads."
I am looking out the window now over the wilderness below and can see a dozen or more new clouds being formed. The hills are nearly black, but the clouds in the valleys are pure white. Up above there are banks of black clouds swirling around, with a bright orange or pink cloud now and then where the setting sun has broken through. Looks like some might tall thunderheads out there way up high. One of these days I will come back as an eagle and soar among them all, then swoop down and see if I can find a bronze frog for a snack.
7/31/03 This is the last day of what has been a wonderful July here in the Ozarks. Unfortunately I spent most of it in town and came back with a splitting headache - that seems to happen nearly every time I go into town of late.
Before I left for town I got to spend an hour watching another incredible show from the back deck - classic Cloudland. The day began with a bright orange ball rising up out of the sea of clouds. I never get a direct shot of this scene in the summertime here - even though it is the very first thing that I see when I open my eyes. There is a wall of trees just outside the cabin on the East side and so the view is only through the leaves and branches. But that cloud bank stretched way upstream and into the side canyons of the Buffalo. A wondrous sight that I never tire of.
One thing that I did in town today was secure a meeting place for our Ozark Highlands Trail Association - we will meet at the Jones Center For Families in Springdale on the first Wednesday evening of the month beginning in September. This is a big change for us, but one that was necessary. We'll meet there this fall and winter and see how it goes, and if we like it, we can stay if we want. Members will get the details in the next newsletter, but for now, mark September 3rd on your calendar!
Just one note before I sign off for the month. Even though I have stopped putting ID#'s on the photos that are posted here, all of them are available as color prints (beginning with the March 1st, 2003 photos) - all you need to do is click on the image and someplace you will find a # for it - if not, just note which day it was posted on, and what the subject is. Then go to the prints section in the online store and place an order - use the photo # or date/description as the ID. Since you should list your e-mail address, I can get in touch with you if there are any questions. Any of these prints from the journal would look great as an 11/14 print, even up to 16/20. Let me know if you have any questions. Soon I will be offering matted and mounted prints too, but they will cost quite a bit more because we will be using museum-quality archival mats and mounting boards and mounting techniques - and oh, brother do they charge a lot for those materials! But any photo you purchase from me is guaranteed for life, and the color of the print nor the mat will never fade or become discolored. All in all they are some of the least expensive fine art prints available. And just to wet your appetite, the new 2004 calendars will be available in early September - I'll post a gallery of all the images here in the coming weeks. And we got a copy of the new color edition of the waterfall guidebook today - very nice indeed! It will be September before they are available as well, and I will let you know. This is exactly the same book as the original printing, with only a couple of changes, and, of course, most of the photos are in color!
August is now in sight, and I look forward to it as I do each and every month out here on the mountain. I hope your summer is going well too, and that you will stop back by here now and then and see what is going on. And oh yea, one last note - I had to cancel a major trip that I had planned in August, which means I will be making regular posts to the Journal, whatever that means!
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