CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - AUGUST 2004 8/1/04 Just a quick note to start the month. Aspen is doing MUCH better this morning after giving us all a big scare yesterday evening - he was bitten by a rattlesnake in the throat. At some point during the night he turned the corner and was actually able to lay his head down on the floor - something he had not been able to do because of the intense pain since about 5pm. By this morning the swelling around his neck had gone down some, but his throat was still about the size of a tennis ball - looked sort of like a very hairy pelican. His spirits are MUCH improved this morning, and he was actually able to go outside and pee - a very important thing in the life of a male dog (come to think of it, to ALL of us, male or female, dog or human!). We continue to watch him carefully, and while I think he is now out of the woods, I’m not going to let him BACK into the woods for a while. Oh yes, it is a spectacular summer morning here at the cabin, with a sea of clouds down in the canyon, and the sight of the setting full moon (actually one day past full now) was a sight to behold (I got to shoot the photo while Aspen was out, well, you know). The sun is up now and burning off the clouds in a hurry. I suspect it will be another warm day, but then it IS August, so that is what we expect here. There are goldfinches making a racket in the window feeder - I think they are looking in through the one-way mirror making sure Aspen is OK.
AFTERNOON UPDATE. Aspen has had a quiet day, and so far is doing a lot better. Still lots of swelling in his throat - some hours are worse than others. He has been up and wagging his tail, and has drank a little bit of water, but we can’t get him to eat anything. The worst is certainly past. At one point today he want out onto the upper deck in back, stuck his head through the railing bars, and glared down at the point in the meadow near the gazebo where the snake bit him. But he has mostly just been resting up. One of the problems that we had with him yesterday evening when we first noted his condition was getting any medication down him. For starters, he was bitten in the throat, which was already beginning to swell up pretty good. The actual bite location was marked with a few drops of blood. This dog doesn't like to take pills anyway, and there was no way I could have opened his jaws up and tried to get him to swallow anything. Early on his mouth and throat were getting swelled shut, and I knew it would be extremely painful to pry him open. So here is what we did. The girls got an eye dropper, some water, and had a box of quick-dissolving benadryl tablets that are supposed to dissolve right on your tongue. Problem was that Aspen's tongue was dry, even turning white, and there wasn't much saliva to dissolve a tablet. So what we did was put a couple eyedroppers of water into the front of his mouth, dropped a tablet in, then put another eyedropper of water in. A few minutes later, no tablet left! If we had not been able to figure that out so quickly, he might not have made it - the swelling in his throat was progressing in a hurry. Next time this happens - and I'm sure there will be a next time - we'll be ready with some liquid medication that will work even quicker. I had a great trip down to the river this morning - hot and sweaty as usual - and the nats just about drove me crazy, but I out-foxed them with my headnet. I’ve been glued to the computer the rest of the day, working on the new web design. I am slowly but surely making headway, but don’t expect to see anything new for a while yet. The sun is getting low in the west this evening, and I can see out into the wilderness that the shadows of the hills and ridges are stretching out across the canyon and up the other side. It has been very still all day, no wind at all. I suspect it has been rather warm outside as well, but I have not set foot outside since this morning. One last note about Aspen - THANKS to so many of you who wrote and even called to express concern for him. I'm sure your thoughts made their way through the airwaves to him, and helped keep a little glint in his eyes (although last night his eyes were pretty much glazed over, and he was really not here in spirit at all - could have easily lost him I think). 8/2/04 At some point today while hiking in the height of the heat of the afternoon, I lost it, my mind that is. I looked up and went totally blank - I had no idea where I was! Don't know if it was age creeping in, or just my mind being so tangled up in the current project that I was working hard on inside my head with every step, but it really went completely blank. I guess that is what it feels like to have Alzheimer's, only that happens much of the time to them. Not looking forward to that at all. It only took me a few seconds to realize where I was, and then I just had to laugh. PAY ATTENTION BOY! I was hiking right on down the middle of the trail, right were I was supposed to be, so everything was working just fine, my mind was just multi-tasking, only it got off one of the tracks. The temp was 86 degrees with 76% humidity when I left the cabin - about the peak of the heat so far this summer. I didn't mind a bit though - it felt pretty good to sweat, and the forest seemed almost cool, although there was no breeze at all. I felt so sorry for Aspen, having been locked up in the cabin for two days now. He has made a remarkable recovery, and appeared perfectly normal today - although he has had this look in his eye ever since he got bit - I can't quite put my finger on it, but he just has this different stare to him. Anyway, I figured, what the heck - which was more torture for him - getting out into the woods and running the risk of too much running, or the SUPREME torture of being left behind? I opted to take him along with me, and so we all went for a hike. Aspen remained pretty close to me the entire time, something he does not always do. A little while after my mind went blank, we came to a very nice little stream - so refreshing to see and feel and hear in the middle of a hot August day. The dogs plunged right on it, while I took up residence on a large smooth boulder, and leaned up against a second boulder so that I had a perfect view of the pool of water the dogs were playing in. Aspen, of course, was trying to catch every single minnow in the place, while Lucy took to the opposite bank and just sat there quietly, soaking it all in. Just about the time I sat down and got comfortable, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye - most of my right thigh was MOVING! Well, at least the top of my long pants were moving. Few times have I ever seen such a strange sight in the woods. There were perhaps two or three hundred TINY bits of pure white cotton moving about in all directions on my pants leg! What the heck? I had already lost my mind, and now I was going crazy! Turns out they were those little TINY bugs that have these big hats of pure white cotton attached to them - the cotton thing is much larger than their bodies, and I'm sure is actually part of the bug. I have seen them before. When I got up to head back to the cabin I looked around and found an entire colony of them covering a beech tree limb. In fact there were several colonies in the area. I did not have my camera with me, but plan to return to this spot tomorrow and see if I can find them again. When I got back up to the cabin (Aspen survived and did just fine - he really is the SuperDog), I was sitting in a tall chair in front of the fan cooling off, getting ready to jump into the swimming pool. A loud cry rang out from behind the trees. Soon a beautiful red-tailed hawk came soaring right on by in front of me. Just a magnificent creature, especially when he banked and veered over towards the sun, where he was backlit by the sun and those RED tail feathers really lit up. That reminded me of what happened a couple of days ago. Pam was talking on the phone to someone and I was working at the computer. She made an odd sound to get my attention, then pointed out the window. There was a GIANT hawk of some sort right outside the window! And I really mean RIGHT outside the window. I grabbed the binocs and stepped outside. This hawk was amazing, and nearly as large as an eagle, with very striking markings. At first he was soaring and playing right over Mom's meadow, inside the line of trees at the far edge. Just flying back and forth. I was getting a good look at him through the binocs when he turned and headed straight for me - I finally put the binocs down when he filled the frame completely and got really blurry. I looked up and he was actually over the lower deck - within 20 feet of me! Then he flipped his wing and did a 180, then just sort of floated on back out over the meadow again. He did this three times, right there in front of me. Of course, I did not have a camera - I was afraid to go inside for fear of scaring him away. What I really needed was a movie camera. Of course, what I have is a picture perfect vision of it all locked away inside my brain that I will carry with me forever. Now, if I can only remember where I put it! 08/03/04 It was kind of a buggy day today. First I started off returning to the place were I had found the white cotton bugs yesterday. It was still pretty early in the morning, and no sunshine had reached this area next to the stream yet. I found the beech tree where the limb had been covered with bugs, and much to my disappointment, I found no bugs - just some white stuff smashed up against the limb. I figured that the bugs had eaten all they wanted to of the limb - or whatever they were doing there - and moved on. Oh well, it had been a wonderful early-morning hike anyway, even if I didn't get to photograph my little cotton bugs. As I was leaving the area I happened to brush up against that same limb and son of gun, the limb came to LIFE! All of a sudden there were hundreds, no thousands of the little white cotton bugs all over the place! What had actually happened is that the bugs were asleep, and laid flat up against the limb, with the little cotton ball covering them up. When I hit the limb I woke them all up and they began to scurry around, that ball of cotton held high in the air and waving like mad! I spent the next hour taking pictures of these little guys. But I have a confession to make. They would run around like wild men for about a minute or two, then they would calm down and go back to rest again. Heck man, I couldn't get any good photos of them then! So every time I got ready to take another photo, I would grab the limb and shake it - that would wake them up and send the entire clan into a frenzy. Oops, should I have admitted that to a national audience? By the way, no matter how hard I shook the limb, I never once knocked a single bug off! They little buggers held on tight. Before I post the photos, I need to make two comments. First, we have been unable to identify these bugs, so if you are good at this, shoot me an e-mail with an identification. Pam looked through our bug ID book and found some that looked a lot like these guys, but the text said they only live in California, not on Arkansas beech trees. And the second thing is that just in case we are not able to ID them (and perhaps even if we are), I have decided to call the bugs "dancing Don King cotton squid beech bugs" - let me explain. No doubt the "head" of each bug looked just like a tiny bit of raw cotton. But it also reminded me of Don King's hairdo. And the darn things were always up and dancing around. And when you look REAL close, it looks like that cotton is attached to a miniature squid. And the, of course, they are on beech tree limbs. So there you have it. Let me know if you know otherwise. UPDATE: Thanks to many of our great readers, we now know what these guys are - at least we know a general species - WOOLLY APHID. There are woolly apple aphids, woolly elm aphids, and Asian woolly hackberry aphids - I guess our are woolly beech aphids (although I still prefer the Don King name).
I have been neck-deep in the redesign of all our web pages this past week or two as many of you know. Late last night I thought I had it cracked - at least wanted to run a test to see how I was doing - so I uploaded the new format web page. It was only up for about an hour, and any of you who logged on then know what I am talking about. There were some problems with it all, which is why I wanted to do the test in the first place, but at least the Journal displayed just fine. My goal in all of this is for you to be able to get to EVERY single one of my web pages from EVERY SINGLE one of my web pages. Nothing fancy at all, just very clean and simple and EASY to navigate from page to page. Well, at least that is my goal. After putting it all aside for most of today and working on other projects, I decided to get back and give it another crack. I made a test page once again, only this time posted it into a different folder, and tried one additional trick, and presto, EVERYTHING worked like it was supposed to! Hot dam. Now that I know it can work, and I think I know how I can do it, I have to go back into the real page area and create about 25 new pages, and add links to many more. I am running short on time this week because we have a big three-day OAK photo conference coming up in a couple of days, so you probably won't see the real thing for another week. However, if you do happen to log on and find things looking different, you will know that either I have run another test, or it is up for real! Keep your fingers crossed... Later this afternoon, when the temp had reached its high point of 87, I packed up and headed out on another hike. I found my want to the creek again, and when I took out my camera to get a photo of Aspen I discovered just how HUMID it really was outside - the lens of my camera fogged up instantly, and remained that way for 30 minutes! I kept trying to wipe the fog off and shoot a photo or two, but it took forever for the darn thing to clear up. I did manage one "soft-focus" photo that was not supposed to be that way, but sometimes folks like this sort of thing so here it is.
Finally the lens cleared up for good and I was able to get a snapshot or two of Aspen, fully recovered now and chasing fish and crawdads and frogs around the stream like there was no tomorrow. I do believe he knows he dodged a bullet and now is taking every chance he can get to enjoy life. Hum, that is something that all of us can take a lesson from!
Just as I was getting up to leave I looked down and saw this miniature pool area with rocks and water with the sky reflected in it, and two or three water striders playing around. It was so funny, because while when the water was calm they would stride around and skate from one end of their little pool to the other without a care in the world. But when Aspen would some stomping up or down the creek nearby, a tidal wave of ripples would come crashing in and destroy the reflections and the nice calm surface of the water, sending the striders skating for cover. I spent another ten or fifteen minutes watching all of this and taking photos, while Aspen rampaged in the creek. Then just when I thought I had what I wanted, I got up to leave, and turned around for one last look. At that moment a tiny yellow leaf came floating down out of nowhere and landed right at the edge of the little water strider pool! I unpacked once again and spent another ten minutes looking at the strider's reactions to this bright new object in their pool, and taking a few photos. Momma nature in miniature is always so fun to watch!
OK, it is back to work on the web pages.... 08/04/04 Just in case you hadn't noticed yet, the new web page design is up and running, at least about half of it is. All of the files for the Cloudland.net and Cloudland Journal pages are up, with links that will keep everything in the same window, and give you instant access to everything with just a single click (or at most, two clicks). The HikeArkansas.com and Ozark Highlands Trail Association pages are still the old style, but you can get to them from any page with just a single click - they will open in a new window (that will soon change). And the online store is also available with just a single click, including going to any of the specific areas of the store - the store will always open in a new window, but then you can navigate around in there in the same window. I am not done with the design yet, but I have been tweaking it all day, and will continue to do so as time goes on. If you ever see any glaring errors or major things that need to be changed in the site, be sure to click the "contact" link and send me an e-mail about it. The only other thing I did today besides work on the web pages (and other business on the computer), was to spend a couple of hours outside pulling/chooping/cutting weeds in the front of the cabin. Some of them had grown to heights or more than eight feet tall! With company coming tomorrow we needed to make sure our guests could at least get to the front door. While outside I happened to notice something very odd, and when I came inside to tell my bride about it, she had noticed the very same thing. The serviceberry (popcorn, or "sarvis") that is right outside the drawing room window is BLOOMING right now! It is normally the first species of tree that blooms in the spring, in MARCH, but what the heck is it doing blooming in AUGUST! Gosh, it would be quite spectacular if the entire tree popped out with all the leaves on it, but right now there are only about 20-25 blooms on it - they look as full and healthy as any I've seen in the springtime. Anyway, here is a snapshot of the blooms, just to remind you what spring looks like.
We didn't see much of the sun today - it was overcast and gray, but still hot and humid. And the wind blew for a little while, although right now as the last bit of light slowly fades from the landscape it is completely still out, save for the occasional flash of yellow that streaks across the view (goldfinch). Speaking of goldfinches, I saw one of the bright yellow and black males playing with a brilliant blue indigo bunting. They would fly in formation from one end of the meadow to the other, landing in a nearby tree, then hop from branch to branch, chasing each other, then fly off to another part of the meadow and a different tree. Not sure if they were after each other, or playing, but it sure was quite colorful! One final note before I put this to bed and get back to cleaning up the cabin. I am going to try to remember from now on to put an "anchor" on the text that announces a new update - all you will have to do is click on the update text and you'll be taken right on down the page to the newest post. Only problem with that is if you are one that only checks the Journal once every week or two or three or four, then you would skip way ahead that way, so you would need to scroll down the old fashioned way, which you will still be able to do. Adding the anchor will just get you down quicker and make life easier. Speaking of posts, I don't how much if any I will be able to make until Sunday, but if I get the time, I will add a little bit of text - and will keep up with the daily deck cam if I can. Oops, one other thought, or announcement that I need to make. We will be adding a number of different publications to our online store, including books and maps from the Ozark Society (by Neil Compton and Ken Smith, plus others), Trails Illustrated maps, and other outdoor publications. Today I posted two new ones - a brand new map of the Leatherwood Wilderness Area over at the lower end of the Buffalo River - this map includes a detailed topo of the new Sylamore Section of the Ozark Highlands Trail that we built over there the last few years. Plus a really neat book that has photos and maps and details of many different interesting and unique locations in the Buffalo River drainage. It was written several years ago by a guy and a lady who rode the entire length of the Buffalo River on horseback, and collect all of the info for this book (The Buffalo River and Surrounding Watershed by LR Alexander and Helen Elsner). Look for both new publications in the store now, and include them with your next order! More to come... 8/8/04 The cabin is quiet now after several days of intense activity. We spent long hours of photo discussions/learning sessions from early until late each day, only getting out and shooting for an hour one morning (it may be a surprise to many of you that being a pro nature photographer is about 90% office work and 10% or less of actual time spent in the field). Oh yea, and we also ATE a LOT of great food! I think everyone that came brought enough to feed the crew. One funny thing that happened is that Crystal - Pam's pet turtle - refused to come out from behind her big rock the entire time the folks were here, but within ten minutes of them departing this morning, she crawled up onto her rock and has remained there all day long! Hum, I wonder who in the group she did not like? After I got a few things put back into order, I put on my stinky long hiking pants and headed down to the river. Aspen, having endured three long days of getting constant attention, was free to roam about and SWIM, which he did a lot of once we reached the Buffalo River. I was surprised to find that Whitaker Creek was not running all that well, and not making a sound; while the Buffalo was running at higher than normal levels for August. The good old swimming hole was just about perfect - full of deep, clear water, with lots of little fishes swimming around.
One of the things that I do when trying to make some good photos is to hunt around and see view my subject from all angles. I wanted to take some pictures at the far end of the long pool, so began to hike along the edge looking for just the right spot, camera in hand. The river bank was lined with rocks and small boulders of all sizes, from tennis-ball to weekend-bag size, and everything in between. All of them are sitting on a bed of sand hidden underneath. None of it is flat or even even, and sometime walking along can be tricky. Such was the case today. I had only taken about a dozen steps when I landed on a smooth rock that rolled out from under my feet, sending parts of me flying up into the air, while at the same time my rear end headed for the rocks below. I was not too worried about hitting the ground because that end of me is well padded. However, I was carrying my new camera, and it too went flying, soon to come crashing down onto the same rocks. At just about the time my rump hit the rocks, I was able to somehow reach out and grab the camera as it was about to hit. GREAT CATCH old man!
At the moment the girls have arrived back at the cabin from Missouri, the sun is dipping low on the western horizon, and it is lighting up the tips of the hills outside my window. I normally have the blinds pulled on both of the windows right in front of my desk - this help me get a lot more work done. But for some reason one of the blinds was not all the way down, so I have been sitting here peeking out the window and keeping track of the light show going on outside. Not able to take it any more, I broke down and opened both shades all the way, so now I have a commanding view of the wilderness as the blanket of darkness is slowly pulled over it all. There are several thin layers of clouds, and I suspect some of them may turn nice colors once the sun goes down. I hope to have this Journal all wrapped up by then and posted so I can go outside and watch the show. GOODNESS, I was right! The sky began to turn pink, then red, and orange, then this weird combination of them all. It was very LOUD, even though there was not a sound in the air - just the music of the color. Enjoy...
08/10/04 The sun has been awake for several hours this morning and things are still and quiet outside, with lots of blue haze in the air. Did I say quiet? Hum, just as I typed that I noticed I could hear a constant buzz of tree critters through the cabin wall, so I guess it might not be too quiet out there. But it was quiet very early this morning, just before sunup. I was soaking in the hot tub, working on planning my day, and enjoying just a few distant birds singing. Everything was dead still. The sky was full of very light pink all around, and that pink-blue haze down in the canyon. Then all of a sudden a strange noise rang out and echoed across the wilderness - it was a ROOSTER crowing at the sunrise! So funny to hear that with all of the wild we have around here. I'm sure this guy crows every morning, but I almost never hear him. He is located at least a mile and half away, perhaps even two miles away, at a distant farm over on top of the ridge across the Buffalo River canyon at Mossville (sound travels a long way sometimes). We can see several buildings over there, including a big red barn in the middle of a large hay field, plus several houses and assorted cabins and buildings. These are the buildings that you can see from Hawksbill Crag (you can't see our cabin from the Crag). Anyway, it was kind of soothing to hear that old guy crowing, and I knew it was time to get up out of the water and get to work! When I went for a hike yesterday afternoon, I had all clean clothes. I have begun to wear long pants now whenever I hike around here - that way I don't have to stick to the trails and am free to bushwhack wherever I care to without worrying about stickers and such ripping up my lovely legs. I have a single pair of lightweight nylon pants - the darn things hardly weight anything, dry quickly, and are just about indestructible. Only problem is that I only have ONE pair of them. They tend to get dirty in a hurry, and they only get washed once or twice a season. When I come back from a hike and the pants are soaked, I drape them over the railing to dry so they are ready for my next hike. When I go out twice a day it does not make sense to have to wash them all the time. Anyway, I felt great wearing all these clean clothes, which included nice fluffy clean hiking socks (I often will let them dry and wear them on 5-6 hikes before washing them). As soon as I took my first step I knew there was a problem - a tiny sticker of some sort was poking the bottom of my foot inside my sock. Bummer. All I had to do was stop right then and there, take off my boot and sock, and remove the offending item. But no, I just kept on going, not wanting to bother. Twenty minutes and no telling how many painful steps later, I FINALLY had had enough and stopped to remove the sticker. Sure enough, it was just a TINY sliver that was inflicting all that pain. Why didn't I just stop in the beginning and remove it? Who knows - I do that all the time, knowing full well that I will eventually have to stop anyway. Same thing about needing to pee in the middle of the night when you are in a tent and it is cold or raining outside - you KNOW you are going to have to get up and go outside at some point, so why endure the pain any longer? Just DO IT! Oops, I guess someone else has already has that saying. A book dealer update. I'm headed out later this morning to stock the Hastings stores in both Conway and Russellville with Glenn's swimming hole book (plus all the others if you have been there lately and they were out of stock). Their store in Russellville has now officially become our LARGEST DEALER in the country - don't have a clue why they sell so many (THANKS Danny and the rest of TakAHike hiking club crew!), but I do know their current books department manager really knows how to DISPLAY them properly, which leads to many more sales. You can also now get Glenn's book in Ft. Smith at the Outer Layer outdoors shop. In Missouri, the new dealers for Glenn's book include:
and Heritage Bookstore and Ozark Adventures in Springfield (also Barnes & Noble) Speaking of books, I had better hit the road to Hastings... 8/11/04 Good grief it was HOT down in the river valley yesterday - 97 degrees! (the high at the cabin was 84) I got up early this morning to soak and sip (Starbucks mocha - I'm back addicted to them, but will get back to tea and cream soon). I was up because some HUGE raindrops began to fall on the tin roof and make a lot of noise. Or should I say MUSIC! Oh how delightful it was to hear raindrops - seems like forever since the last rain. But we only got a few drops, and then silence. Just as it began to get light all around, it got dark again. A thick, black cloudbank slowly began to creep over the cabin, coming from the north, which is very unusual here - we normally get our weather from the southwest. Soon the entire sky was closed off, and it was nighttime once again - just like someone pulled a huge blanket over everything. Once my eyes got adjusted to this new darkness, I could see some amazing patterns up in the clouds. The type of patterns that look EVIL! They were moving rapidly, and even swirling here and there. Soon thunder and lightning started, and then, RAIN!!! We got a good shower - about an inch - and more thunder. All is quiet now, but it is still very dark outside. It is after 8am but looks more like 6am, only gray. I'm going to step outside and shoot the CAM photo for you to see. When I went out just now I realized that it was still raining - a nice light, soothing, soaking rain shower. The temp is 63. Don't you just love these hot August days in Arkansas! I have a ton of computer work to do today, and a quick trip into town to pick up supplies. Hope the rain just keeps on coming down... Evening Update. Oh my goodness, what an incredible day we had out here in the wilderness - I'm sure it was the same where you were too. It continued to rain most of the day, finally quitting and clearing off somewhat in the late afternoon. The temp never touched 70. Total rainfall about two inches. I got to do a little bit of hiking this morning - a nice soft rain was falling, the kind that makes beautiful music as the raindrops land gently on earth. The same, very same soothing music in all directions - you can walk on for hours and it does not change. Just, well, wonderful. And once the rain moved on the humidity dropped and the air cleared - perhaps the cleanest air of the year today. I know it had to be October today, but it was really the middle of August. I found this little batch of mushrooms that had popped up right in the middle of the road - they are only a few inches tall now, but I bet get up to a foot tall before someone knocks them over with the underside of their vehicle.
A candidate for Newton County Judge dropped by this afternoon and introduced himself. (Tim Slape) We talked about how bad the road up here was - it has not been graded in a long, a very long time, since LAST year. Seems like the road maintenance has been getting worse instead of better of late. Hum, I wonder if a new judge would really get the road graded more often? I guess roads are the biggest thing that we see done with our tax dollars - that goes for state as well as counties. This evening, while I was sitting at the computer working on the new design for the HikeArkansas.com and OHTA web pages, I got to see the wilderness spread out before me light up with quite an afternoon show. I never tire of seeing this day after day after day - keep em coming, and I'll plan to be here to watch! Oops, but not for the next couple of days - we are heading up to Lake of the Ozarks to meet with my brother and sister and their families. Mostly we'll just be sitting around and eating (we're going to produce a standard Cloudland Dinner of grilled tuna and all the fixins on Friday night - I wonder if it will taste the same elsewhere?). Our cabin caretaker is all ready to move in as soon as we hit the road tomorrow - I only hope that Aspen and Lucy don't take advantage of her too much! Anyway, I'll make a quick post in the morning (Thursday) then will be offline until sometime this weekend. "Don't forget to pack the fleece and long pants!" Yes dear...
8/15/04 We had a wonderful trip up to the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, even though the traffic was terrible. Seems like the traffic is always bad no matter where we go these days - of course, I guess we are comparing it to seeing one car a day, sometimes none, out here!
I got up early this morning and started work in the HikeArkansas.com and Ozark Highlands Trail Association web pages - they are to be the same design as my other new ones, just with a different links package on the left side of the page. I am happy to report that after about 14 hours of serious work, I have uploaded all of the new pages, and they seem to work OK. I still have a couple of pages to format and place into the main window, and I'm sure there will be bugs. I am GLAD to have the bulk of that work out of the way. My poor family didn't see me for most of the day - well actually, the DID see me, but I was so glued to the computer that I hardly turned around to see what was going on in the cabin. I DID get to take a delightful hike this evening just before sunset. My goodness it was INCREDIBLE outside! The temp was in the 60's, low humidity, and the smell of the forest and meadows was just heavenly. The dogs and I hiked and explored all over the place, with hardly a care in the world. Up above, when I could see the sky, there were clouds of different shapes and patterns turning pink and red and orange. We visited the pawpaw patch, and found quite a few large green fruit that should be ripe here in a little while. When I stepped into the edge of a large meadow I immediately spotted a white spot sitting in the top of a small tree at the far side of the meadow. It was a large hawk, perched up there and staring right at me. I moved slowly into the meadow (the dogs had already run through, and were out the other side), not wanting to scare him away. After I had taken about 20 paces, the hawk seemed to find me OK and no harm, and went right on back to his business, which was using those keen eyes to scout for any movement that might mean a quick snack. He never did fly. Speaking of keen eyes and a quick snack, I have to tell you about Pam's little drama yesterday evening while she was spending some quiet time all curled up in the leather couch in her drawing room with a good book. SMACK! All of a sudden the serenity of the moment was shattered when one of the cats pounced onto a bright yellow goldfinch that was eating at the feeder inside the window. Scared both Pam and Lucy to death. Now come on, that window feeder is about 15 feet above the ground - how in the world did that cat ever get there? A few minutes later we saw the cat, sitting on the carpet at the front door, chowing down. The cats always bring their catch to this spot, as if they want us to know they caught something and were indeed earning their keep. Hum, little kiddy, you can leave the birds along and go fetch a fresh mouse for dinner! My eyes are about to roll right on out of my head, so I think I'll put this thing to bed and go for a soak in the tub. I hope the cat doesn't pounce on me.
8/16/04 Wow, what a day. One of the most bizarre days we've had here, especially in terms of wildlife. It began as another cool and delightful cool summer morning. (Oops, before I get to this, I must tell you that as I am typing this late tonight, Pam and I are hearing a very strange noise coming from somewhere nearby - we are both looking at each other from across the room wondering what in the world else could happen to us today! A chill just ran up my spine. It is spooky man, spooky.) OK, back to today. The tone of it all was set early on - just before daylight - by a howling coyote across the canyon. Don't know if this guy was injured, or love sick, or was just having a bad day, but goodness he was howling one of the most dreadful howls I'd ever heard. He kept the dogs all stirred up for more than an hour. Pam went into town and Amber and I spent much of the day doing laundry and working on book orders. Just as things began to heat up outside, I hiked out to the mailbox to deliver some book orders and prints and posters for the mailman. I left the dogs at home not wanting to run them to death knowing there would be no water for them. It was a great hike, and not too hot. The summer forest remains lush and dark green as far as you can see. A few wildflowers here and there - mostly yellow ones now. When I got back to the cabin I picked up the dogs and we headed down to the river. Bright sunshine and clear blue sky. It was cool in the deep forest, especially for August, and in the middle of the day. And when we reached Whitaker Creek we found it full of crystal clear waters. The creek was low enough so that the little waterfall that pours into our "spot" was not running - which made it really quiet there - but still there was water getting in somewhere because it was so clear and was moving slowly downstream. Aspen jumped right in and started to patrol the shallow waters - splashing upstream about as far as I could see, then back downstream again, past me, and on for another 100 feet before turning around and heading back upstream once again. I do think that dog would run himself to death in the waters if allowed to, but he would die with a big grin on his face. Lucy did her usual - jumped into the water and played for about ten seconds, then got out. The sun was shining down on us all, and with no pressing business back up at the cabin I decided to sit down on a big, smooth, sandstone boulder that jutted out from the creek bank and into the stream and have myself a nap. To make sure the nats didn't bother me, I put a light headnet over my face. Didn't take me too long to get comfortable. I was stretched out my full six-foot length, and my feet were down near the water. It was as peaceful, relaxing time and place as imaginable in the world. I bet I was sound asleep within two minutes of my head landing on that moss-covered sandstone. And then all hell broke loose. Not sure really how much time it took for all of this to happen - perhaps could have only been a few seconds. I was suddenly aware of heavy breathing, and could feel the heat on the side of my face. I opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of black fur near my head - coal black fur. A bear for sure, right there within inches of my face! Next thing I knew he grabbed my shirt and began to tug at me - I could feel my body moving against that very sandstone that was so soothing only moments before. What the hell do you DO in a situation like that? Struggle to get away, which would most certainly cause the bear to get a better grip - on your head perhaps? Just lay there and play dead and go with the flow? Good grief, what TERROR! Do I dare BREATHE? Next I could feel water all around me - the little monster had drug me into the creek! Now what? It must have been the cold shock of that water that brought me to my senses, and woke me up. I opened my eyes once again and got another look at that black fur - a really good look this time. It was Lucy, standing right there next to me on the rock, breathing down my neck, dripping wet. She had been there all along, and apparently her soaked body from swimming in the creek ran off her and down the boulder and all along my body - the sting of that cold water, combined with her hot breath, must have triggered the dream sequence inside my head. Holy smokes I about had a heart attack right then and there! I was breathing a LOT harder than Lucy was! And while it is all funny now, going through a dream like that and waking to the actual feel of the cold water and hot breath and black fur is kind of scary, at least it is for a big, tough wilderness man like me! Speaking of tough wilderness people, my wife just happens to be one too, and today she proved it yet again (she has forbidden me to call her "grizzled"). She had a run-in with a giant timber rattlesnake. I mean that sucker was as big around as your arm, and had TWELVE rattles! That wife of mine is one good egg I tell ya! I won't go into all of the details of the struggle, but I will say that at one point, when the snake was seemingly completely dead, it came back to life - YIKES! Have you ever been stared at up close and personal by a deadly snake? Creepy. When I got home from the hike and was cleaning up around the office I got jolted half out of my wits once again - the FAT cat leaped off the roof of the cabin and landed right smack in the middle of the bird feeder in the drawing room - pouncing on another goldfinch for sure. Good grief he made a lot of noise! How in the world are those darn cats able to do that? We never feed them a full-days supply of cat food because we want them to hunt - mice - but we don't want them to get these beautiful birds. In the past the only birds they have gotten have been ones that slam into windows and get knocked out, but nothing like the drama of this window-feeder stuff. It was SO surreal seeing that big cat cramed into the feeder in the window - there was a look of true EVIL on his face - and with those brilliant yellow feathers hanging out of his mouth. Right after all of that I sat down at my computer to look at an order that just came in - and I am not making this up - but it was an order from Stephen King. Hum, did he have something to do with our day I wonder? And then now tonight that spooky noise we just heard. Oh boy, I am really looking forward to sleep tonight! Oops, my bride just got up, turned all the lights off, and went up to the loft. I'm left here alone in the dark, and still have to venture outside for my evening soak in the hot tub. If you hear screams coming out of your computer you will know that one of Stephen's monsters got me! Oh yea, that really weird noise - it was the darn turtle, her back rubbing underneath one of the large rocks in her tank - after eight months she has decided she does not want that rock there, and so she is trying to move it out of the way (it's a pretty heavy rock, even underwater). She is making a really STRANGE noise. OK, I'm headed out into the darkness now... 8/18/04 Little did I realize when I headed out for a hike a little while ago that the sun had already set and it was getting dark in a hurry down in the canyon. And that was where I was going - down into the darkness. No problem though - as it was getting dark, my eyes were getting adjusted to it, so I could still see OK. When I reached the creek I noticed that an old friend was missing - someone that in my normal life I would hate, even go out of my way to step on if I had the chance. But when out in the wilderness, sometimes the rules change, and today I kind of missed this big hairy spider that filled the void between two small trees next to the creek where I sit. He has always been there, lurking at the edges of his beautiful web, just waiting for a fly or other small insect to come a bouncing right on in. Since he web was not there today either, I figured something passed through between these two trees and tore it down. I sat down on the big smooth boulder that angles down into the creek (the one where the bear drug me into the water), and started watching Aspen. When he came stomping on over to near where I was and stopped, I noticed a medium-sized and very lightly-colored crawdad reach out and try to grab at his foot. I don't know if he got him or not, but the crawdad backed off and so did Aspen. The happy dog splashed off, but then returned again a few moments later, and stood in exactly the same spot - and the crawdad appeared out of nowhere and reached out and took another swoop at Aspen's hairy foot. This event repeated itself a couple more times until the old man signaled it was time to go. I managed to make it back up to the top and to the cabin while I could still see. The wind was blowing and it was cooling down. Being soaked to the bone from the climb the breezes were really nice. Towards the end of a long hike yesterday I had another one of those senior moments, or perhaps I was just so engrossed in what I was doing that I lost track of it all. This time I was climbing up out of the canyon. Both dogs had passed me down near the bottom and headed for the top. The next time I looked up I was standing at the base of the big bluff and there were not dogs anywhere in sight or sound. I had lost track of myself and the dogs for about 15 minutes! I don't recall now what I was thinking about, but I do know I was deep into it - I often use these tough climbs or long hikes to run things through my head over and over and over. I guess sometimes my processor gets maxed out! But the really odd thing was about the dogs - they never go off like that on this climb, certainly not without making a great deal of noise. But I would have heard and noted that. But nothing, not a sound. I stood up and called out for a little while, but I was totally exhausted from the long hike, the climb, and the heat and humidity. So I sat down, trying to catch my breath, dripping with sweat, wearing this funny green headnet to keep the nats at bay. It was quite a while later - after I had returned to normal breathing - that I hear one "woof" from Aspen way down the hillside. That was a good sign, a good sign in deed. I had begun to think all sorts of things, and was about ready to go back to the cabin and get some water (for me), and then hike back down to the river looking for them. Another "woof," this time a little louder and closer to the trail below. Several minutes later here they came, like nothing had happened. To teach them a lesson (ya, right), I climbed on up the ladder and started to hike off when they came up - Lucy looked up at me like I was running off and leaving her and she nearly climbed on up the entire ladder herself. Aspen didn't seem to care one way or the other! For some reason, I was up before 4am this morning, typing away, and looking up stuff on the net. I tend to spend a lot of time searching through support boards at the various software companies, not so much looking for answers to problems, but rather looking for tips and secret things, and for ways to make my own computing better. At one point around 4:30 I looked up and saw this GIANT spider walking across the log wall just behind the computer monitor. SLAP! My new "Real World Camera RAW" text book landed right on the mark. I really don't like spiders, except, of course, for that one down by the creek that was not here today. Yesterday evening my bride and I spent a delightful hour out in the back porch swing. The temps were just about perfect, and a strong wind kept the bugs at bay. How nice it was to be able to just do, well, nothing, and do it with the one you love. Oh yeah, today was the LAST day of summer for Amber! She is SO excited to be going back to school she can hardly stand it. What a weird kid! I bet I remember nearly every single day, each hour, hundreds of individual excursions that I took during my all-to-short summer vacations as a kid. Where I grew up at the edge of Fayetteville, there really were no kid my age, so it was just me most of the time, and all the great things that I got to explore out in my own little wilderness. I treasured each and every day of summer vacation. And when I got older, I really DREADED August - not so much because it meant the end of summer (but that too), but also because of two-a-days - football practice, oh how I hated them! It was the heat I'm sure that really got to me, and back then we had to drink out of our helmets if we wanted any water breaks - not really all that sanitary. But later on I returned to my athletic roots - the swimming pool. I had been swimming competitively since I was five years old, and that is what I really liked the best. Besides, who wanted to go through high school with a bunch of sweaty guys all around you? I got to spend my time with high school girls in swim suits! So Amber is off to school tomorrow, and the entire cabin will be awake at 5:30am from then until the end of May. That is the best part of the day anyway. Speaking of getting up early in the morning, it is time for me to put this to bed and head out for a quick soak. Before I do I want to FINALLY answer a question that I have been asked hundreds of times by Journal readers. "How many people visit your site?" I have never had a clue, and to tell you the truth I have always been a little bit nervous about finding out - what if I put a counter on the site and I discovered that only ten or twelve people ever viewed it? So last night, while I was in one of my research modes, I decided to go ahead and put a counter on our web site. It is an invisible one, so you don't need to go looking for it because you won't find it. Goodness, now many people really do come read this site? I didn't have a clue. And now I only have a single day's worth of data, but it is a start. And by the way, even though you are "counted" when you view this site, there is no information collected about you - I only see the number of hits and type of browser and that is all. But I do get to see which pages get hit, and that has already been quite interesting. Anyway, it has been just about 24 hours since I activated the counter, so I am going to go look and see where we are at - please wait for a moment........ OK, after more than six years of writing this online Journal - the grand total for one day is - 876 visits! Good grief, I had no idea. (this doesn't count any of the store pages, just Cloudland) THANKS to ALL of your for logging in! I hope to produce enough good material here to keep you coming back for more. (This number, of course, just represents the total number of hits in one day, not the actual number of different visitors since many folks visit more than once during the day. But also very few of the total number of readers visit each day, so the real number of Cloudland Journal readers would be higher, a lot higher - many only log on once a week or even once a month. No way to ever know the actual number of readers for sure, but it certainly is way more than I ever expected.) 8/19/04 We had a busy day at the cabin today that included the phone ringing off the hook, a live television interview, and a bear sighting (well, almost one). AND we got some GREAT rain! The phone started to ring early - there was a really nice and long article in the Arkansas Demo-zette in Buddy Gough's regular outdoor column about the Arkansas Dayhikes For Kids & Families guidebook. And the phone never quit ringing. Lots of folks wanted to know where to get copies of the book. All women - not a singly guy called. (Read the article here) I did not realize our phone would be so busy when I gave our main number to a television personality in Mountain Home, Arkansas to call when it was time to do a "phone interview" during his show this afternoon. At precisely the time he said the studio would call for the live interview, the phone rang, and it was someone wanting to know info about the kids book. And it rang again, and again. I didn't have any way to let the television station know what was going on because, well, they were on the air live. But finally one of the calls was the studio - they were in commercial and I was on next. While they interview me there were photos from the Journal up on the screen, and also a number of photos that my dear friend Master Photographer Joe Ownbey took during our recent OAK convention. That is Joe in the middle of this mug shot taken that same weekend. That is Greg Heinze, the pilot who was in a bad airplane crash early this year, on the right, and my ugly mug on the left (under the hat).
Anyway, I don't have a clue what it all looked like on television, but it was a nice interview, and especially so because the guy had actually been hiking in this area and knew what he was talking about. Just after lunch I took a hike out to the mailbox and back - hot and dusty, but still a nice day in August for a hike (about 20 degrees cooler than normal!). On my way back I happened upon a set of fresh bear tracks. I knew they were REALLY fresh because one of them was on TOP of my own track from just minutes before. Hum, that old bear was around somewhere close. That is the first bear sign I have seen out here in a good long while. Later I hiked on down to the river and let the dogs go swimming. On the way back up they tried to run off again, but being the sly devil that I am I got them back on the trail and made them stay one step behind me the entire way back up the hill and we had no problems. Just about the time I got back to the cabin it began to rain. My oh my it was lovely. Oh yea, and when I crawled back up to the cabin after the big climb the phone was ringing. Pam was out in the front with some visitors that had stopped by to pick up some books (yes, you can always come by the cabin to pick up a box of books - we never mind folks who bring us money). As soon as the first drops hit the ground little wisps of baby clouds began to appear in the canyon below. They quickly rose up and swirled around and had all sorts of fun before being whisked away by the breezes. It was quite a show outside for a couple of hours - I only wish the television audience could have seen it. It rained some more this evening, and just before dark I put on my rain coat and headed out the door. My main objective was to go see if Mr. Bear had come back, but I also was looking forward to getting out and hiking in the rain. It was one of those soft and soaking rains, the kind that everyone - man, plant, and beast - just loves. I know it did a world of good for our parched wilderness. A wilderness whose skin had begun to crack. I guess it does that in hopes that some drop of water will hit the earth and quickly find the crevice to pour into. I didn't see any bear, but it was just wonderful out hiking in the rain, and the fog, and the sound and smell of the rain. On my way back to the cabin I hiked through a dense stand of tall timber - maple trees most of them. It was just before dark, and I could barely see the trail at my feet. And then all of a sudden the world lit up - I could see all around me, at least for probably 20 feet in all directions. The forest floor was a carpet of poison ivy and Virginia creeper vines that were turning blood red. They were all wet, soaked through and through, and shimmering in the newfound light. But where was that light coming from? The sun had long since set over there somewhere on the other side of the ridge behind all of those clouds. There no "lights" from above. And then I realized that it must just have been an opening in the forest canopy that was allowing every single last ray of dusky-darkness-light come on down through before it vanished, and that tiny bit of brightness was reflecting off all those wet leaves on the vines. A few steps later and I was plunged back into darkness. It was a fine hike, and another terrific day at Cloudland. I've been working on the web pages more this evening - I just checked the "hit counter" and found more than 1,000 new hits since this time yesterday. I added a new page today, one that shows nearly all of the retail dealers that we have in the region, listed by state and town. Goodness, do we really sell to all those places? No wonder things get busy around here once in a while. Anyway, you can go see that new page by using the "Retail Outlets" link on the left near the bottom of the menu bar. One thing that I added to that page as a test - and this is just an early test so don't get too excited if you don't like it - is a scroll bar of sorts (or rather scroll arrows). One of the problems with having a long page of text (like this one) or whatever on a relatively small web page is that your content disappears below the frame. No problem using the main scroll bars on the right edge of the page, but when you do that you also scroll that menu bar right on off the page and you have lost your navigational links. This new page allows you to scroll just the text content while the menu bar remains in place. It is a little awkward, but does work. I may test it out on the Journal page one of these days to see how you all like it. By the way, for those of you who are web page savvy, I know I can do the very thing by using a "frame" web site, but the problem with those sites is that all of your pages wind up having the exact same address, so folks can't bookmark anything other than your main page. Plus frames cause other problems, so for now I'll keep this site the was it is. But you can go try the new scroll arrows and see what you think. The cabin is dark and quiet this evening, and a mellow rain continues to float down from above. One thing odd about the rain today was that it did not ride in on a cold front - it actually remained warm during the rain - the air was warm, the rain still cool. Amber's first day of school was good, and her mom and I survived all day with her being gone. She woke US up at 5:30 this morning and was ready for school 30 minutes ahead of schedule. But she is all tucked away tonight, worn out from all the excitment. Crazy kid. OK, time for me to get a quick soak in the hot tub... 8/21/04 All of a sudden, for some reason, I have been sleeping soundly all through the night, not getting up until almost daylight. I can probably count the number of times I've done that on two hands. It must have been that glorious rain we had the other day. Or maybe it is because the alarm goes off at 5:30 now because of school, and since I have to get up, I don't want to! Today was a mixed bag of working long hours at the computer, working long hours outside, and spending a lot of quality time with my girls! It started out dark and gloomy this morning, still and cool, but eventually the sun popped out and it warmed up a bit, but just a bit. After wrestling with the tractor for a while - and making three attempts to get my bush-hog hooked up, I finally got everything to work, and mowed and mowed and mowed. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I had the weeds or they had me - some of them were 12-15 feet tall! And man you should have seen the "fairy" seeds blowing in the wind! I was often covered with them - lots of wild lettuce I believe. And while I know I mowed down scores of wildflowers, the meadows were also opened up to allow more flowers to spring up and flower. Out of the total acerage that I like to mow each year, I probably got about 25% done today. When I mowed mom's meadow down below the cabin, the sun was out, the air was still, and it was rather warm. And the sweat bees were out in full force. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and there were times I would look down and could see 30-40 of those tiny bees all over me. Each time I would panic and try to brush them all off as fast as I could - I don't like getting stung, even by a little sweat bee, which can really hurt and itch for a good long while. For some reason, the little guys never stung me - I think they were just drinking my sweat! Pam spent much of the day sanding and staining the outside of her drawing room, or at least one wall of it that had begun to turn gray. The Amish were supposed to have come back and stained everything, but the Amish have a way of putting things off until eternity, and since the beautiful honey-colored wood was beginning to turn gray, we decided to give up on them and do it ourselves by hand (they use a sprayer). Since we have so many goldfinch, other birds, and scores of butterflies around the cabin these days, I didn't want to mow down all of their food, so I left quite a bit for them to feast on. And in another week or two, the meadow will spring to life once again with the next round of flowers. One thing I did find which answered a nagging question of late - was not one, but three piles of bear scat, within a couple hundred feet of the cabin. The meadow had grown so tall that we could not have seen a bear down there even if it had stood up. The dogs have been getting all stirred up lately, and I suspect we have had a bear roaming around, and now I'm sure that is what has been going on. In fact, during our OAK photo weekend a couple of weeks ago the dogs got really concerned about something down at the edge of the meadow, and a couple folks saw something black moving in the woods - one of the piles of bear scat was right in that location, looked to be a couple of weeks old - so Greg and Joe and Gayla - you probably saw a bear! The forest floor is beginning to turn some nice colors already - bright reds and oranges, mostly the vines like poison ivy and Virginia creeper. And more of the black gum trees are turning that blood red that they are so famous for - the first tree around here to turn color, and they often do really early like now. And even some dogwood trees are beginning to turn red, along with their berries. I will be able to keep a close eye on the dogwoods this fall and next spring too - the outdoor shower has two of them right down inside it, just inches away from the spray. I have not showered inside here since I installed that outdoor shower (THANKS Ray for pushing me over the edge!), and I only wish I could continue them all winter long. But at some point this fall I will have to disconnect the water lines and drain them to keep it all from freezing. Oh man, how about taking a shower while being showered with falling leaves! I can't wait. Speaking of fall, I need to put in a little plug here. There will be three one-day digital photo workshops here this fall, and they are beginning to fill up. If you are interested, or know of someone who might be, take a look at the workshops page and then send me an e-mail if you are interested. We keep these classes small, and they normally fill up. With the digital classes we only spend an hour or two first thing in the morning out shooting, and then the rest of the day is spent in the "classroom" here at the cabin working on the images in the computer. We take a break now and then to enjoy the view, and to chow down on Penguin Eds BBQ and Pam's homemade cookies. I just came in from outside - coal black out there, but with a million stars out casing their soft, almost invisible light down on the wilderness. I had a brief conversation with a barred owl that must have been over on Beagle Point. Oh how that lovely sound echoes thorough the wilderness in the darkness! It is quite pleasant outside, and is supposed to drop down another good bit tomorrow night. I know we will have some beastly hot weather still to come this year, but isn't it nice to have so much wonderful weather? A lot of folks keep asking me what my next project is. Getting the web pages redesigned was a big one, and that will continue as I learn more about this new software and are able to tweak things to make them better. The next really big thing on my plate will be to develop a couple of digital slide programs. I've been working on that for quite some time now anyway, but there are deadlines looming and so I will have to get serious and get something done. Problem always been the software side of things, and I think I am getting close to finding the answer - unfortunately the software costs a great deal of money and has a very steep learning curve. But I am up to the task, I think, and am willing to spend the time necessary to produce something of value for your folks to watch. We've got a bunch of programs on the fall schedule all over the region, and I look forward to this new challenge, and then letting everyone else see them! I'm sure you will hear all about them once we get into the actual production here. First I have a new computer system to receive and install and then the new software - hopefully all of that will happen by the end of September. The dogs seem to be down for the night, and I don't hear the girls giggling any longer, I guess it is time I put this to bed and go soak under the stars a little bit. Tomorrow I have plans to, well heck, I don't have any plans for tomorrow - we'll just see what comes along...What day is it anyway? 8/22/04 We awoke today to solid fog - the thick, pea soup kind - couldn't see even out to the end of the deck. It was one of those fogs that if we had the windows in the cabin open it would have actually been foggy inside. I kept waiting for sunshine to begin to burn into it so I could get some of those great sunbeam-through-the-fog photos, but that never happened. I did eventually strap on the big camera and headed out to see what I could find. It wasn't really raining, but there was a very fine mist in the air, a noiseless one, the kind where you have to really look to see if it is there or not - and in the end, look up into the air, close your eyes, and see if you can feel the mist hitting your face. Or you can just look at the front of your camera lens and see if there are tiny water droplets forming there. I wondered around for a little while, just sort of roaming across one bench, down a hillside, and across the next bench, stopping to take a few photos when the mood struck me. The woods were very quiet and still. The entire time I was out I didn't see any critters, other than Aspen and Lucy, who were making the rounds looking for squirrels, chipmunks, or bears - they didn't find any either, and were also rather silent. Something about this foggy landscape that really appeals to me, and I can never get enough photos of it, or spend enough time just standing there or walking through it. The forest always looks kind of spooky, but also very lush today.
When I got back to the cabin and was in the kitchen making lunch, one of my favorite songs started to play - Dance by Lee Ann Womac. I was standing there cutting up a tomato. All of a sudden this rush of emotion came over me. I realized it was probably the very first time I had heard that song played at the cabin since that day several years ago, right after Haley Zega was found alive, when I sat in the middle of the great room floor, all alone, and blasted the wilderness with that tune, tears streaming down my face. They were tears of joy for sure. Anyway, I just barely held those same tears back today, and that same rush of joy came over me, I guess because of the great hope that song talks about. We really should all dance when given the opportunity, and not be afraid of the mountains in the distance, for they are our future. That is something we try to instill in our daughter, to not be afraid of life's scary moments up ahead, but rather to embrace them with open arms. It was so ironic that tune was playing when I got home this morning - I had just been down there in the deep woods where Haley had walked that first day when she got lost. And also because of the book I wrote about all of that - The Search For Haley - is now getting into the hands of hundreds and hundreds of our troops at war in Iraq. Last month we donated about $20,000 worth of them to be sent over in individual care packages that the A.G. Russell Knives company was putting together. A number of the great folks who helped look for Haley were national guard troops, as was/is Haley's dad. In fact her dad is in Iraq right now - wouldn't it be funny if he got one of the care packages with a book about his daughter in it! At any rate, if you have young people around you, take the time to give them a big hug, and reassure them that those mountains in the distance are something to be approached and explored with great joy and not feared. The same thing goes for adults too. The sun is burning off all that fog now, and the dark green wilderness has appeared out the windows once again. There is a cool breeze blowing, and I think I'm going to head out for a little hike before it gets too hot. OOPS, before I got out the door, a request was made for some homemade blackberry ice cream - perhaps the last of the season. I must comply. Looks like I'll have to take two hikes today to work it off! 8/23/04 Kind of weird outside this morning. There are clouds down low in the canyon, and also hugging the ridgetops. Up above that layer the sky is blue, or at least clear - it is a little while before sunup yet. The airwaves are filled with sounds - those of Indigo buntings and goldfinch that have returned to the meadow after I mowed it (they spent much of yesterday playing/eating there - still much remains for them); and also with a mixture of the friendly rooster over at Mossville, crowing at the first light of day; a barred owl calling out from somewhere over in the clouds; and a pack of coyotes howling at each other. Speaking of daylight, in case you missed it on the daily NASA photo site here is a shot of the country at night, showing how many lights there are on - it's no wonder large numbers of folks can't see the stars at night too well! You can easily go over this photo and pick out the major cities. Cloudland is located right in the middle of a black hole - we don't have outside lights here at all, and there are only a couple over at Mossville, plus the odd one scattered along the main dirt road here and there.
After making and consuming the fresh blackberry ice cream yesterday, I made a trip down to the river with the dogs to try to burn some of the newly-acquired fat off (is sure was GOOD!). The temp was not too bad, but the humidity was way up there - I was dripping from almost the first steps out the door. Lots and lots of spider webs across the trail now - I had to use a dead branch held out in front of me as I hiked to keep from eating a lot of them. Too bad Aspen is not six feet tall and could clear the way! The river was still running, although at a very low level, of course - it is the end of the summer and it should be low. Much of the river downstream is completely dry, but I have never seen this stretch completely stop running or dry up. The water was clear, cool, and teaming with little minnows, which kept Aspen busy the entire time we were down there. .
On one of the big boulders out in the middle of the river I found the remains of an old, granddaddy crawdad that must have fallen prey of a raccoon. His claws were more than THREE INCHES long! I wonder why the coon didn't eat the delicious meat from the claws? Hasn't he ever heard of that being the best part! The first photo shows the entire body as I found him, spread out and bleached white by the summer sun. The closeup shot shows the other side of the claws and some of the texture - the live critter probably had even more red color in them. Not too much color in the leaves down along the river yet, but I expect to see some movement there in the next few weeks, perhaps not until the end of September. We are headed into Harrison this morning to get several chores done. One of them is to get a new set of tires on my truck - the current ones have actually lasted me more than a YEAR! That has to be a record for any set of tires for me! I normally go through a couple sets a year. Looks like that high set of clouds has sunk down a little bit now, and the low ones have risen up - we are in the middle of another white-out at the cabin just before sunrise. The wind is blowing though so I suspect the clouds to move on out pretty soon. Oh yea, we had one INCREDIBLE sunset last night - at least we could see the color through the trees and up in the sky above the cabin. Just before sunset it got real hazy/smoky, almost like there was a forest fire over to the west someplace. The entire canyon filled with smoke. Then we got that brilliant color. One of the most wonderful sunset photos I ever took in my life was during a trip to California - we were out in the dessert approaching Los Angeles and the setting sun and surrounding sky were quite saturated with smog-induced color. I ran across the photo the other day while looking for something up at the office - I will go find it again and post it here. Dirty air makes for wonderful colors at sunset. 8/27/04 VERY warm and windy this morning, with a bit of haze. The temp never got below 75 overnight. The girls both saw | ||||||||
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