CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - JANUARY 2005
Part C, Jan 25th - Present
Click here to go to Part A, Jan 1st - 7th

Click here to go to Part B, Jan 13th - 24th
 

Cloudland Cabin Cam, 1/31/05, 7:50am, froggy, drizzle, 34 degrees, but of snow here and there (see gazebo)

CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL, updated 1/31/05 The last ramble of the month

The January Print of the Month

1/25/05 I was up and on my feet soon after 3am today, but I must have not been quite all awake because my bride called me a couple of hours later to say that I had dropped one of my lenses in the driveway and ran over it as I left the cabin - ouch! Actually I just nipped the case it was in and the lens was fine. It was a long trip down to Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge just south of Russellville, but it was worth the trip. This is a funny place, where the entrance gate automatically opens at a little different time each day - pop it is open and the place is open for business. I met up with Larry Roberts and we spend the first hour before sunrise driving around and getting the lay of the land - at least I did - Larry lives nearby and has been there a lot lately, so he showed me around.

We stopped and shot some pre-dawn scenes near one of the ponds, then stopped and shot the moon hovering over Mt. Nebo. That setting full moon figured in my plans and was the main reason I wanted to be there this morning. I had told Larry exactly what I wanted to photograph - a flock of geese against this setting full moon. No problem he said! So our next stop was right next to a big field that had a flock of some ten thousand snow geese (give or take a few thousand). The moon was setting, but it was fading fast as the sun was rising behind us. Bang, bang, bang, we fired off quite a few rounds as the geese fly by, settled, then got up and flew around us again. Within minutes I had shot nearly 300 images and was almost out of breath from the excitement. At last the geese settled in on the ground and the unique color of the early sunshine washed out, whew, I was tired. On the way back home we stopped and looked at some pelicans that were basking in that bright sunshine.

Later in the afternoon, actually late in the afternoon, I went out in the front yard of the cabin to assemble a new piece of camera gear I had just received. As I was setting the new rig up on the tripod, I heard a scream - gosh darn it if it wasn't not one but a PAIR of red-tailed hawks, and they were soaring just above the gazebo in the back - all lit up by the setting sun against the shadow of Beagle Point. Just a perfect photo. Man, you should have seen their bright RED tails! While my camera was actually set up exactly for this shot and sitting right on the tripod, by the time I made it to the back of the cabin with the camera the hawks had floated on across the canyon and were in shadow and a good long ways off. If only I had set up my new gear to test on the back deck instead of in the front yard! Live and learn. I spent the next hour sitting out on the back deck waiting for them to return. Amber joined me as she sipped on something and I on my Mocha. It was about 70 degrees and that sunshine was really warm. Speaking of warm, when I left the cabin early this morning it was 50 degrees here - but when I opened the door at Holla Bend the temp was 32 and the ground was frozen! So much for living up in the chilly mountains!

1/26/05 Once again I was up at 3-something this morning and out the door headed down south to the wildlife refuge. It was 52 degrees here, but in the 30's when I arrived. I met up with Larry once again and we found a nice spot to shoot the delicate color of pre-dawn in the Arkansas River Valley.

We spent the next hour after sunrise looking for eagles, and trying to line one up with the still-full moon in the background. The moon was still up in the sky today after sunrise instead of being really low to the ground like it was yesterday, so we had more time to mess with it, and there was more detail in the moon. We found several individual eagles, plus one pair of them together in a single tree. Larry has this GIANT new 500mm f4 lens that is just about as tall as he is - he can take some photos with it that I could never touch with my tiny 400mm lens. It takes a real man to haul that big lens around, and a big truck!

At one point this morning I was standing out in the middle of a soybean field that had recently been harvested. The big flock of snow geese was flying all around me, with thousands of them landing nearby, only to get up and circle once again. I did not get a great shot of the entire flock in the air at the same time like I did yesterday, but I got a few nice ones of smaller parts of the flock flying overhead and out in front of me. I wish I had been wearing my wide-brimmed hat because the goose poop was really falling out of the sky! I guess photographers make pretty good targets for them, especially if you have one of those GIANT 500mm lenses...

OH YES, I almost forgot. When we first saw the flock of snow geese way off over there, and started driving towards them, two things happened. First, just as the sun was breaking over the top of Petit Jean Mountain and spilling onto the broad plain that is the wildlife refuge, several thousand snow geese started flying right at us, then veered off to the right a little bit, then passed directly in between us and the rising sun - we both jumped out of the truck and fired away, but it was no use - there is really no way to capture the delicate blue of the sky and white feathers of the snow geese and that BRILLIANT ball of sun! We really needed the sun to be a big red ball, but we take what we get, and we had a great time just being there in the midst of it all. And then the flock circled and flew directly over our truck - it all happened in slow motion. Next we moved on over to another field where the flock had headed for, and as the entire flock bolted from one position in the sky to another, we realized that a bald eagle was attacking the flock, or rather one unlucky goose. We watched the frantic flock for several minutes before the eagle got his fill and moved on, as did the flock. At one point the flock flew directly in front of the moon - yup, we were right there snapping photos of it all. OK, back to the soybean field...

Once the big flock of geese left the area the sunlight got really bright and harsh so we finished up for the day. I took care of some business at the Hastings in Russellville (they now have all the books back in stock again folks, so time to stop on by!), then headed back up into the mountains.

After getting a good start at the mound of paperwork and a few e-mails answered, I had a choice to make - either take a nice long nap in the warm afternoon sunshine, or go on a hike. I was tired, and my eyes were weary, but I decided the best thing for me would be to head into the woods. Pam was out blazing trail all day with the dogs, so it was just me.

I guess I was in sort of a zombie state because I don't really recall much of the first 30 minutes of my hike, but all of a sudden I looked up and there I was, out in the middle of a beautiful forest, with sunshine beaming through the trees and down on my head. It felt GREAT, but what really woke me up was the incredible landscape before me. It wasn't anything all that special I supposed, but the moment overtook me and I was overcome with the beauty of the place. I was standing in the middle of a big stand of maple trees, with hardly any underbrush underneath. The ground was carpeted with a thick layer of leaves - seemed like these leaves had just fallen off the trees, but I know that happened months ago! For some reason I had not even noticed the carpet of leaves in the forest for a good long while now, but I'm they have been there all along. Something seemed different about this carpet today though, don't have a clue what it was. But it looked so smooth, as far in all directions as I could see. And it was QUIET in that forest - not a sound or a movement anywhere. I had to just stop, hold my breath, and take it all in as much as I could before breathing again.

Later on I was able to move on, which I did slowly, making each step carefully so as not to mess up the fine carpet beneath my feet. It was SO quiet out there, no birds chattering, or chipmunks stirring up the leaves, no squirrels, nothing, not even a whistle of wind. I seemed to be elevated by it all and just floated right on through it as though I was part of the air. So frantic this morning with the eagle chasing the geese, and us chasing the eagles and the moon, yet so absolutely still and quiet this afternoon. We really do live in a wonderful place here in Arkansas!

It is also quiet in the cabin late tonight as the girls have already gone to bed and the dogs are fast asleep in their little beds on the floor. But I can see through the drawing room window that the moon has risen and is high in the sky - think I'll go jump in the hot tub and soak up a few rays.

one of my favorite eagle photos

1/28/05 The tables were turned last night - it was my bride who came crawling in at 2am after a ten-hour drive. She had been out partying with the girls up in Kansas City. The breast cancer girls that is (they had a big meeting about their 600 mile + training schedule). She reported a number of big bull elk were hogging the road down in Boxley as she made her last miles up to the cabin. And then she was up at 5:30am when the alarm went off - time to get Amber ready for school. I got to sleep in until 5:30 for the second day in a row!

After we had taken care of the immediate pile of chores at the cabin, my bride and I headed out for a short trip down into a little scenic area in the upper Boxley area. It had just started to mist a little bit, and the temp was around freezing. I wanted to take a look at this giant-boulder area on the creek when the water level was low to see what it looked like from ground level - my only other trip to this location had very high water, and I could only walk around high above and look down into it. We met up with Eddy Silcott along the way and he went in with us.

It was a little bit nipper outside but not too bad. We slipped and slid around and explored this gorgeous little gorge and found several good photo scenes, then I set up the tripod and umbrella and took a few shots. Some of these will be used in a slide program that I am creating for the Nature Conservancy to help out with their fund-raising efforts to help pay for this property (they are trying to come up with 400 grand!). At one spot there were at least six or seven boulders that were something like 20 feet square sitting right in the bottom of the creek, all lined up in a row. They were lichen and moss covered, and had a great deal of personality. I felt sort of small standing there being dwarfed by them all, and honored to get the opportunity to take their picture.

We didn't get too much time to look around, but I will tell you that my lovely bride pulled another one of my favorite acts - she slipped and slid and fell right on her behind in a pool of COLD water! I just had to laugh a little bit, but certainly not out loud.

Tonight the temp remains about 32 degrees, and we are getting some freezing drizzle, or should I say drizzle that is freezing to the ground. Both of us are schedule to drive out of here early in the morning to different locations, and I'm not sure if either one of us will make it or not. If I make it out I will try to snap a few photos to post here. In the meantime, here are a couple from today. Hope you have a GRAND weekend!

Here is the same view shot from above (above) and below (below) today

BY THE WAY, we have had a terrific response from folks placing orders for the "Photo of the Month" - only problem now is that I have to pick one for February! (for those who still want to order the January photo, you only have a few more days to get the special price - click here for more info)

1/29/05 When I crawled out of bed in the wee hours before dawn this morning I was surprised and delighted to find a snow-covered landscape outside. We were supposed to get some ice, but not really any snow. It wasn't all that much - perhaps only a half inch or so - but it was really wet and clung to the sides of the trees and on branches and looked just great. I loaded up the truck and drove down into Boxley Valley where I met up with a couple of photo folks I was going to spend the day with. The temp down in the valley was a couple of degrees warmer than up on the hill, and most of the snow had melted already by daylight. We stopped a took a few photos of the elk, then moved on.

big trees in the meadows of Boxley Valley

As we passed the old mill pond along the highway we pulled over and spend about 30 minutes taking pictures of the nearly-perfect reflections in the pond - the wind is almost always blowing at this point (which means the reflections are not too good most of the time), and I bet I have driven past this spot a thousand times and it is the very first time I have actually stopped to take some serious photos. This is one of the many places I have been meaning to get to early in the morning well before daylight to get some pre-dawn sky reflections - one of these days I will get to that. In the meantime I think we got some nice images this morning, even if there wasn't any snow.

the Mill Pond in Boxley

A little later on we drove back up into the snow on top of Cave Mountain and spent some time at the edge of a tall bluff shooting scenes of the snow-covered cedars and other trees up there. We could see the river valley far below, and all of the snow had melted off of it.

Our next stop was a quick trip down to Hawksbill Crag. We were probably about two hours too late, as most of the snow had already melted from it. But we all got some good shots anyway. One of my favorites of the day was shot from looking off of the Crag down into the Whitaker Creek Drainage - of the snowy branches with beech trees in the background. The image of this scene that is posted here really won't do it justice - I shot a version of it with my "super-high-resolution" technique, and one of these days I will make a wall-sized print of this that will blow you away with the detail you will see. But downsized for the web it won't look like much.

One thing that was funny as we stomped around in the snowy woods this morning was the fact that as the snow began to melt high above us in the treetops, it began to rain down on us, and it was some really COLD rain to boot! I made good use of the umbrella that I attach to my tripod to protect the camera gear while shooting.We finally made it to the cabin and arrived just in time to sit down and enjoy a bit steaming pot of homemade chili thanks to my bride. Then we got to work on some of the images we had just shot - processing them and making prints. It was a good day, we all got some great images, and now I am hoping for a LOT more snow so they can be even better!

Later in the day I took a quick hike out to the mailbox and back - all the snow from the landscape had long since disappeared, but it was nice to see everything so wet. Lucy and Aspen had their usual fun time chasing squirrels - or at least the scent of them. Only problem was that by the time we all arrived back at the cabin Aspen was pretty much covered with mud and his momma was not a happy camper! Oops, sorry mom - Aspen, let's go for a swim!

1/31/05 It was the middle of the afternoon before I was able to see anything but white outside - really heavy fog most of the day. Pam left early to go blaze trail, while I worked away at the computer. I had planned to take a long hike out deep into the wilderness, but by the time I got enough chores out of the way to free me up to leave the cabin it was after 2:30 in the afternoon, and since I had to go pick up Amber at the bus at 4-something, I set my sights on a shorter hike.

The fog began to move on just about the same time I headed out the door, and the forest all around me opened up and I could see forever. I wandered on along a level bench for a little while, then ventured on over to inspect a small and broken bluffline that had a great deal of color in it - from moss and lichen-covered slabs of rock. Everything was quite damp from the fog, so the colors were very rich. Funny how something as dull and simply as an old leaf on the ground will take on such richness on days like this, and actually glow as if they were still full of life.

As I wandered around I noticed that while there was not a single critter stirring, I could see where all sorts of critters had been recently. The first of these was when I came upon a neat oval depression in the wet leaves - a dry depression where the leaves had all been padded down. I took off my 88 cent cotton glove from Wal Mart (it was 35 degrees and I often wear these tiny gloves to keep my hands warm) and put my hand on the leaves - they were still warm. Hum, must have been a deer bedded down right here just a few moments ago. Then I saw another deer "bed" nearby, and another, and another, until I counted seven in all - that's a pretty good sized heard of deer for around here. We will often see a group of does up in the Faddis meadow - in fact Pam has named the head doe "Darla" and we always worry about Darla and her buddies during the various deer seasons. I bet this was Darla and her crew today.

I got to looking around, and there were fresh acorn bits scattered up on top of a rock - the remains of lunch for a nice fat grey squirrel; more acorn bits - this time in a small pile - tucked neatly in the back of a small ledge in the bluffline - probably a stash of a rodent of some sort; a pile of multi-colored feathers on the ground - the dreadful end of a small bird's life that had no doubt been eaten by a hawk or something; and a small cedar three that had been scraped clean by a young buck deer a couple of months ago. There were really signs of wildlife everywhere in the forest if you just looked around a little bit. I stood there and wondered what the scene would look like if you could put every single critter in place that had been there in the past year - wouldn't that be something! Man, it would be crowded.

On the way back towards the cabin I came upon an amazing discovery, one of those things that would bore most folks to death, and would not normally be a big deal to anyone, but it was to me today, and brought a huge smile to my face and uplifted my heart. I found a young beech tree right out there in the middle of a deep forest of oaks, hickories and maples - we don't have many beeches on our land, and none that I know of on this section of it. But there he was, standing about 12 feet tall, with many spindly branches shooting out in all directions, each branch COVERED with golden leaves. While this was certainly one of the smallest trees in the forest, it was one of the most beautiful today, and I could tell it was a proud beech tree. I seldom visit this part of the forest, but now that I have found this little beech I will plan many more walks to visit and see how the little fellow is getting along. There is no great view from this part of the forest, no towering bluffs (but there is that little broken and colorful bluff) or cascading waterfalls, but yet it is a spot worthy of spending time in, and I think I will place a small picnic table or bench there some day and point my boots towards it as often as I can.

The day and month are growing long tonight, and it is time to put this Journal to rest for January. Like most all months out here at Cloudland it has been a terrific month, full of wonder and excitement and exploration, and I even got to take a few pictures. I hope you enjoyed some of this little journey, and will continue down the path with me tomorrow and in the weeks and months and years to come...

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