Momma skink protecing her eggs
7/1/02 Good grief, I slept in until almost DAYLIGHT this morning! I got to lie in bed and listen to all the sounds of the morning with my eyes closed. It was difficult to remain there long though, and soon I was up and splashing into the hot tub.
Today would be the last day that contractors would be working on the big project here. I was free to work with them, or at least to provide support. That support was in the form of rocks, "we need MORE rocks!" They were using the tractor, so I fired up the trusty old truck and went off with one of the trailers attached in search of rocks.
Let me tell ya you have no idea just how THICK the underbrush is around here until you head out into it on foot searching the ground for rocks. Man, there were places so thick that a person literally could not penetrate. All of the rains we have had this spring and early summer have produced a bumper crop of underbrush.
I have spent a great deal of time over the past 40 years busting brush in the summertime, but now with my recent snake bite foremost in my mind, I take off into the deep woods with an entirely different attitude, and technique. Today I made darn sure that I could see every single place where I put my foot down, and that meant the going was a lot slower than my normal pace. Funny how a little old snake can change things. And I am happy to report that I did not see a single snake, even though I was on the lookout for them. I did count 13 salamanders, and no telling how many lizards.
It was overcast all day, but hot and humid, yet it felt great to be out in the woods and not typing away at this computer. And I must say that when I get out this time of the year and do manual labor - like hauling heavy rocks 100 yards through the woods and hoisting them up onto the trailer - I get very dirty. So dirty in fact today that I had to change shirts every time that I came back to the cabin. It was all clean dirt though, so I didn't mind it too much.
At one point today I was clearing some old logs out from the edge of the circle drive in front of the cabin. When I picked up this one log there were THREE lizard nests under there - each one had a momma lizard all curled up around a dozen or more eggs. I had never seen such a thing before. Pam was standing right next to me when I pulled up the log, and we both gasped at the same time. I must tell you that both Aspen and the Trail Cat spend a good part of their day chasing and often times eating lizards. Aspen is obsessed with them, and will spend an hour chasing after a single lizard. Well, guess what, both dogs and both cats were standing by also. I immediately put the log right back down in place, partly to thwart any advances by the livestock, but also so that I could run into the cabin and get a picture to post here on the journal.
I got the digital camera turned on and all set up for a macro picture of one of the lizards and her eggs - I could already see the exact picture in my mind. I carefully lifted up the log, and then a part of the log broke off and came crashing down right on top of one of the nests. All three mommas scattered. The eggs were not hurt at all, and all three of the mommas remained in the near vicinity - one of them even came running right through the middle of her eggs, then just kept right on trucking!
Once again I carefully placed the log back on top of the nests. I will wait for another day to see about taking a proper picture. Several minutes later one of the contractors ran over the log with the tractor, but I think the lizards will be OK. We'll see tomorrow.
The crew worked their tails off today - getting here just after daylight, and staying until long after dark. But they finally got the project completed. At some point this week I will try to take a few photos of the completed project and post them here. Although you will need to keep in mind that this project is by no means really finished - it will be an ongoing project for us, and will get better and more beautiful as time goes on.
It is rather late now, and I am physically exhausted, and perhaps a little bit mentally so as well from the breakneck pace I've been keeping up this past few months. Of course, today was one of my days "off!" Tomorrow will be much of the same - I have a TON of work to do around here, plus lots more paperwork. And then the big show is tomorrow night on DATELINE NBC. It took them until the middle of the day today, but NBC FINALLY did actually list the Haley story on their schedule for Tuesday night. Funny though - they never mentioned her name. I knew the program was going to play through all of the events of the ordeal with the outcome not revealed until the last segment (there should be three segments - the first one all about her getting lost, the second about the search mission, and the third about the rescue and aftermath.. At least that is my take on how they shot the program. It will be fun to see how they actually do it, what parts they do and don't air.
The DATELINE producer Carol Gable called me this afternoon. She is supposed to be on vacation in the mountains all week with her son, so I knew something was up. She said that it looked like the show was actually going to air on Tuesday because the writers in New York were busy and had some questions for me. They mostly wanted to know the details of the new monument that the county had made up and erected on the square in Jasper. I need to get over there and take a few photos of it to post here. It is quite a monument to the "Newton County Heroes" that found Haley, and includes a beautiful outdoor scene carved in granite, complete with Lytle and William Jeff on their mules in the foreground, plus a story about the rescue carved into the back. Unfortunately they made a couple of mistakes in the text (like saying we have 2,000' tall bluffs here - they are actually about 100 feet). Something is ringing in my ears and telling me that I have already posted these comments here before, and if so, sorry about you having to read them all over again. Once I get around to posting the photos, you'll have to read them again.
I will try to post some pictures of flowers, and lizard nests, and whatever else I run across tomorrow. If I can make it up into the loft, I plan to shut down the computer and get to bed...
7/2/02 We had a nice, slow and soaking rain the last few hours of the night. It was cool and the windows were open - perfect sleeping weather. By daylight we had clouds drifting up from below and engulfing the cabin and surrounding forest. The rain had stopped, and I put on my boots and took off for a short hike before getting started on my rock-hauling duties for the day.
The forest was damp and smelled earthy, and really, REALLY quiet. There were no birds out singing at all - perhaps they too had been lulled to sleep and were having trouble getting up and chasing the worms that no doubt would be out in full force in all this dampness.
The fog rolled in and it got nearly dark again. Just then a coyote let out a loud howl that broke the silence and echoed through the wilderness. I was startled at first, but then began to enjoy his music. It sounded like he was across the way over on Beagle Point. The air was such that the sound traveled far and clear - I could hear every expression in his voice. While I have actually snuck up on a coyote out here a couple of years ago, I would rather hear them from a distance then get really up close and personal with them, especially in the thick, dark fog. It was nice to have this guy as a hiking companion this morning - Aspen was still curled up tight in the loft with Pam.
My main job today was to go out and find more moss and lichen covered rocks to place around in the circle drive. More specifically to line a new trail that I also had to build today. The trail would wind from the front of the cabin up to Amber's fort, and pass over two stone bridges of our new stream that had been built - that is the project that we've been working on here for the past several weeks.
The stream begins as a waterfall several feet tall, then tumbles down a set of rocks, winds around for 60 feet through the open forest, and finally empties into a nice new pond at the edge of the front drive. It was all built by Scott Woods and the folks at KNEE DEEP , Inc., a company in Springdale and builds these things. I have always wanted a "water feature" out here, and it turns out that Pam had the same idea, so after speaking with Scott about it, we decided to go ahead and get one built.
One of the great things that I love about the ponds/streams/waterfalls that Scott builds is the fact that he is really concerned about everything looking natural. That is one reason why I have been doing so much rock hunting of late - to make the stream and pond blend into the natural surroundings around here.
At some point I will take a few photos of the falls and creek and pond - once more of the plants are put in and they bloom (Pam has a HUGE job ahead of her). For now Scott planted quite a few plants in the pond, and we have already been enjoying them immensely.
By the way, it didn't take Aspen long to discover this pond makes the perfect swimming hole for him! The cats have been enjoying it too. And we can hardly keep Amber out of it. Wildlife will get a great deal out of the water too, especially birds and other critters that need a drink. There isn't a single drop of water in all of Cloudland, so this will be a welcome sight to many.
The sound the waterfalls and stream make are magical, and I suspect it will quickly become a focal point for visitors. I think it will balance the view at the other side of the cabin nicely. We have already been slowly moving more of our activities into the circle drive area around Amber's fort, and now we'll spend even more time there.
Another great thing about Scott's Knee Deep, Inc. company is that they will be having a "Parade Of Ponds" tour this summer, the first of many more to come. It will be on July 20th and 21st, and will include a dozen or so natural water features that he has built in northwest Arkansas, including this new one here at Cloudland. For those of you who have never been on such a thing, it is just like a garden tour or home tour - you but a ticket, get a map, and drive around and tour some of all of the places that interest you. And the best part is that all of the proceeds will go to the Ozark Highlands Trail Association, and will be earmarked for new trail construction that we are doing to extend the OHT eventually to the Missouri border. If any of you are the least bit interested in a creating a natural water feature at your home, I strongly recommend that you go on this pond tour, and at the very least contact Scott Woods at Knee Deep to see what he can do for you. His web page is www.Kneedeepponds.com.
I got to spend a great deal of the day in the woods, hunting for rocks, and then wrestling them down the hillside and into the bucket of the tractor. We have this very steep hillside here just below the cabin that goes on forever, and it is covered with really interesting rocks of all sizes, and most covered with moss or lichen, or both. I discovered that while out in the woods looking around, I would try to match a rock up with a spot along the trail or stream where it would fit just perfectly. I had only planned on getting a couple of bucket loads of rocks, but each time I emptied out a load I jumped right back up onto the tractor and sped off before I quit. I do believe it became rather addictive. By the end of the day I was sore, beat up, scratched, and filthy, but we had a good trail in place with lots of neat-looking rocks.
One last bit of business for the day was to try to photograph those lizards once again (actually, they are skinks). This morning we looked under the log and found that one of the three momma skinks had moved every single one of her eggs. There were still two nests left, but the skinks took off as soon as we took a peak. But this evening, just before dark, I took one more look. Well, a second skink had packed up all of her eggs and took them elsewhere, but the third skink was still there, and was kind enough to pose for a few pictures. After I got the pics downloaded to the computer I noticed that there were at least FIVE more eggs in this nest today then there was yesterday! That means she is still giving birth. Very interesting. I will look in on her from time to time to see what is going on - I would love to see some of them hatching!
Now for the DATELINE program. It did finally air tonight, and I think they did a great job of telling the story without getting overly dramatic, and especially not playing up the hillbilly factor. Lytle and William Jeff came off as really nice guys who knew what they were doing (she did the state of Arkansas well, as did Mark Clippinger, the state park ranger that helped run the search and rescue mission). I was really surprised to see that they used SO MUCH of the amateur video that I had shot for Dateline back in July - most of the low shots moving through the brush and going over to the side of the bluff were shot by me with their little digital video camera. My first national network credit with video! And heck, they even listed me as providing photograph, with was a real treat. And I don't know how many of you saw it or not, but early on they did show a great aerial view of Cloudland - with the gazebo, Mom's meadow, and the log cabin all in the scene. I was a bit disappointed that they never mentioned Cloudland once, not even in relation to it being the safe haven for the Zegas and all of their friends. Overall I was quite pleased though, and they thankfully did not show the part where I broke down in front of the camera - I was sweating that one! From what I could tell, they showed perhaps 10% of what they had shot overall - that is probably about normal. Heck, I use much less when I shoot stuff. Oh yea, they also used quite a bit of the material in my SEARCH FOR HALEY book, although they never said anything about it, nor about the Cloudland Journal. But there is a link to my main web page on their web page, so folks could find that stuff if they really wanted to. They also used the bit about me naming the waterfall Haley Zega Falls, and used the picture from my waterfall calendar to show it (we never could get any video of the falls running while I had the video camera).
It is cool and humid outside tonight, and it feels like a bit more rain. I will be working a couple more days here at the cabin, then will try to fire up the book machine once again and get to work on the waterfall guidebook. I hope to work in a hike or two along the way!
7/3/02 It was a total white-out at first light this morning - lots of thick fog everywhere. A very odd thing happened as it lifted though. Sunshine was able to make it down below the fog, and lit up the valley floor, while the rest of the wilderness remained in the clouds. This cloud had a silver FLOOR!
I took a stroll into the nearby woods to enjoy the morning. The fog created a dreamy world out there, and it was a delightful hike. The was no wind at all, and not much moving other than a small bird or two hunting breakfast. The rich greens and brows of the forest really stood out with all the moisture in the air. A bright spot of yellow caught my eye - it was way up on the hillside, perhaps 100 yards or more away. When I walked up to it I found this family of mushrooms, all living in close proximity together. I must say that this digital snapshot did not even begin to capture the bright and pure color of the mushrooms. I can't stand to eat mushrooms - in fact they give me a headache - but I always love to see them growing - they always seem to have a smile on their little faces!
I went on down into Mom's meadow to check on the produce. The first tomatoes of the season were ripe and ready to eat. We only have a couple of plants, and they are still in the pots. Later on we will develop some raised beds down there and have a more formal garden. Four ripe tomatoes today, and one of them never made it more than three feet from the vine. I SWEAR this thing was as SWEET as any Fuji apple - I was tempted to cut one up and put it on my cereal! I also gathered a couple of strawberries - we have about a dozen plants next to where the tomatoes are. We have been really surprised that the strawberries have continued to produce, even now. I snatched up a couple of ripe ones, and there are many more white ones that will be ready to eat in a few days.
The meadow continues to produce a ton of new blooms each day. No telling how many thousands of flowers we have now. And the wild sunflowers are just now beginning to pop open. There will be tens of thousands of them soon, and quite a sea of yellow to follow. Here are a couple of flower shots I thought you might enjoy:
Pam looked up some info on the skink eggs. Some of these species do indeed lay up to 15 eggs. It will take a couple of months for them to incubate, so I won't be looking in on them as often as I had first thought. We'll start keeping track of them again come August. We do plan to leave the old log right where it is, at least until all of the eggs hatch out. Pam says the skinks eat spiders and even small mice! And they give Aspen and the cats many hours of play time every day. This highbrow, expensive, championship bloodline hunting dog of mine is certainly showing his stuff - of course, he is SUPPOSED to be a BIRD dog, and not a LIZARD dog!
Speaking of Pam, I have to tell you about one project she just completed here at the cabin. I have always wanted a wall of books - even though I don't really read much. When we put in our wall of cabinets in the "library" at the cabin, the actual bookshelves were reduced to only about 1/3 the space in the cabinets to leave room for other items, like the kitchen pantry. Now that we have so many new cabinets down in the basement, Pam decided to move a lot of the stored stuff down there and make room for more books. All she had to do was remove the cabinet doors and we had instant bookshelves! Of course, she had to spend several days moving all of the stored stuff, and then adding all of the books. Amber devours a book or two a day sometimes - she will get a great deal of encouragement from us to continue this - and Pam reads a lot too. Once I get my projects list under control, I plan to spend a bit of time doing that myself. So now there are at least twice as many books looking over my shoulder while I am typing this.
Today was the very first time in a long while that I got to spend a good part of the day out in the woods just wandering around. I went on a ramble this afternoon, actually a couple of them, actually THREE of them! It remained cloudy all day, and sprinkled a bit, but no rain. The sky was rather black at times though, with a heavy bass drum playing on and on up there - the booms from the thunder bounced off of the walls of the little bluff I spent a lot of time next to. I was expecting for the sky to open up and dump on me at any moment - I kept my eyes peeled for every possible nook and cranny to crawl into just in case.
At one point while I was hiking along one of our trails that runs along the outside edge of a bench looking down onto a bench below, I spotted some rock outcrops that I had not paid much attention to before. The hillside in between the two benches is VERY steep - nearly hand-over-fist in places, and this rock formation was located right in the middle of the hillside.
When I reached the outcrop I realized that I had never set foot there before, even though it was on our land. I must have hiked past it - both above and below - hundreds of times, perhaps even more. Up against the hillside there was a short bluff - really more of a near-vertical hillside covered with rock. Then there was a line of square-topped boulders - five of them all in a row. They were all once connected to a bluff, but must have slide down the hill just a bit. No real gap in between them, just cracks to indicate the individual boulders. They were mostly covered with moss - very dark moss - and the stone itself had a rough texture. They were perhaps 10 or 12 feet tall, and about the same width. The wall of rocks were about 20 feet from the hillside, which created a little valley in between.
At one end of the stone wall there was a HUGE red oak, standing tall and towering over everything around. At the opposite end, a large white oak, tall but not nearly as big around. All the other trees were maples, and I imagine this is one spectacular place come October. It was pretty nice today too. It always surprises me when I stumble upon a spot right under my nose that I had not explored before. Many thousands of those left for sure!
On the way back to the cabin I began to see mushrooms. Not all that many of them, but each one was a different color. I did not have my camera with me, but once I got back to the cabin I grabbed it, put on a pair of long pants, and headed back out again in search of mushroom pictures. This being the fourth of July week and the celebration of our nation's birthday and all that, I figured I might as well post a little bit of RED, WHITE & BLUE in the form of momma nature. So I retraced my steps and found all three colors (and them some).
One thing I have noticed while on my little hikes of late is that I look at the rock formations around me a little differently than I did just a couple of weeks ago. Now not only do I see an interesting formation of stone with living critters growing on it, but also a vision of how that stone might look in our front yard! Good grief, I'm becoming a rock gardener! No problem there - we have no shortage of rocks at Cloudland!
Later in the day, just as the evening light was beginning to fade, I took off on another hike around the loop. This hike was much greener than the first ones today - not nearly as many rocks on the other side of the ridge where I was hiking.
I have noticed that we are beginning to get a number of nuts and berries not only forming on the trees, but also dropping off down to the ground. I've seen a carpet of little tiny hickory nuts, and quite a few acorns too. Looks like it will be a good year for both.
Speaking of berries, can you tell what the following two sets of berries are? One of them is easy, but the second one I never had really seen before, even though they came from one of my favorite trees - in fact even now after knowing exactly what it is I can't for the life of me picture these berries on the tree. Obviously I have simply missed them all these years. If you don't know, the answer is in the next sentence.
The first set of berries are dogwood berries, and they are REALLY coming on strong! The second set is from a sassafras tree, and they were growing straight UP instead of hanging down like many berries do. Come to think of it, the dogwood berries point out or up as well. Sassafras, hum, that was a new one on me.
Brother you should have seen all of the sumac in "bloom" or whatever! And not only were there tons of individual bushes blooming, but there were at least FIVE different shades of them (OK, one of these shades is from last year and all dried out, but it looked neat anyway). Yep, it's going to be a great year for berries, and for all of the feathered friends that feed on them.
Speaking of feathered friends, the Trail Cat was playing with one today. Hum.
7/4/02 We had a quiet holiday at Cloudland, except for the fireworks in the sky - provided by the large thunderheads that were floating around all day. Pam's parents from Missouri, her uncle Ted from Wisconsin, and cousins Rick and Kim and their kids from Oregon stopped in for a visit (and they brought lunch!).
We spent a good bit of time out on the back deck, watching the soaring birds play in the air above the wilderness. Every now and then one of the buzzards would fly across right in front of us - these guys have huge wingspans, perhaps as much as six feet. The red-tailed hawks were out in great numbers too, and when the sun broke through the clouds it would lit up their unmistakable RED tails.
It was hot and humid, and every now and then one of the thunderheads would push a bit of cool air our way, which felt really great. We watched lots of lightning and listened to the thunder-boomers, but it never rained more than a drop or two - all of it went around us for some reason.
By mid afternoon we were ready for a hike, and so we headed out for a short loop through the woods past the Crag. I was surprised to see many tiny toads along the trail (and a used tampon applicator too - some people are just idiots, and have to show off their IQ in public). These toads were all about the same size - you could put four or five of them on your thumbnail. I wonder if they were just baby toads, or if that is as big as they get. I saw something on TV a while ago about a town in the northeast being overrun with similar-sized toads. The conclusion was that the toads would do no harm, and the townspeople were happy just trying to not squish them.
Nighttime brought more fireworks from the sky, but no rain at all.
7/5/02 We spent most of our day in town running errands, and eating at my favorite restaurant - the Pesto Cafe in Fayetteville. It's where I took my lovely bride on our first "public" date (we went down to the skinny-dipping hole out here for our first real date - no, nothing happened, but SPOT sure did get an eye full!). The pasta at this place is SO good - each and every bite is a delightful experience that I did not want to end.
(Speaking of good food, we have a critter at Cloudland that loves watermelon, and is very neat about eating it. There was a box filled with melon rinds on the front porch left over from yesterday. Overnight a critter got into them and laid every single piece neatly out on the bench to munch on. It was like a person lined them all up for a formal dinner! Very odd. And in the middle of it all was a fresh tomato I had picked from Mom's meadow - it was on the same bench, untouched, surrounded by all of the melon rinds. The same thing happened the next morning too, only the critter had to rip into a garbage bag to get to them. I have no idea what it is, but now have a live trap that I am going to bait with watermelon, and perhaps we will see what it is - could be the same critter that has been stealing gloves and my wallet and piling it all up under the porch!)
Later we went to a nursery that specializes in water gardening and selected a number of fish to put in our new pond. The expensive ones are koi (we could only afford the little ones - regular-sized ones cost $250 each!), and we got several of them, but we also got a couple of other kinds of colorful fish. These guys will work together along with the four different types of filters in the water garden here, the plants, and the rocks and gravel to keep the water clean and biologically balanced (at least that is the plan). It was a lot of fun picking out the fish, and I supposed some of them will eventually have names. Well, I must modify that just a bit - a couple of them already DO have names! We won't get into that.
Once we got home and released the fish they had a big time exploring every little nook and cranny of their new home - much nicer digs than they had at the nursery!
Later in the evening the lightning bugs came out, and oh brother did they come out! We've been seeing perhaps a dozen or two of them around the cabin of late, but tonight, all of a sudden, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of them! They filled the air above and around us, and way out into the forest as far as we could see - tons of lightning bugs. No doubt one could go on a hike tonight and their would be enough light from the bugs to illuminate the path for easy travel. While I had many a jar filled with lightning bugs to carry around as a kid, I wonder if you could actually raise enough of them in a container to provide light indoors at night? I guess their glow is just to small an output to really do all that much.
7/6/02 Last night it was lightning, this morning the air and trees were FILLED with small birds - they were EVERYWHERE! Lots of bugs one night, and tons of birds the next morning. Hum, I wonder if there is a connection?
While hiking up to the office I came across that same batch of mushrooms that I had photographed a few days ago. The darn things had completely changed shape, which sent me running back to the cabin for the camera. I have posted the photo of their new shape next to the original photo (see July 3rd). Man, what a transformation! I never realized that mushrooms go through that changed - I had always figured those flat mushrooms were simply different types. I guess they are a lot like people - with firm, shapely bodies in the younger years, but eventually changing into a shape that is hardly recognizable from the original.
Lots of computer work for me this morning, and then it was a lazy sort of day, which found me on the couch more than once. But then all of a sudden I jumped up and headed out the door, heading for the tractor. It was the hottest part of the day, but working on the tractor just seemed like the right thing to do. So I fired it up and spent the next several hours moving dirt, rock and gravel, and fine-tuning our water garden area out in front. Our new water feature is going to be part of the 1st annual "Parade of Ponds" in a couple of weeks, and it still required a bit of work to get it looking just right.
Speaking of the pond tour, it is a really neat event where you buy a ticket and then get to tour a number of different private water gardens in the northwest Arkansas area, including Cloudland. Each one will have a waterfall and pond, and others will have streams connecting the two, with lots of plants and even a few of the brightly-colored koi (actually they are just fancy carp, but colorful none the less). All of the proceeds for this tour will go directly to the Ozark Highlands Trail Association to help with our efforts to build and maintain the new sections of the Ozark Highlands Trail that we are working on . Once completed (most of it is with volunteer labor - we've put in well over 300,000 hours so far), it will link with the Ozark Trail being built across Missouri, and create a trail system nearly 1000 miles long. Visitors to Cloudland on the tour will get some extra treats - we will be serving sassafras tea and homemade Cloudland cookies, plus everyone will get to see the view and tour the cabin as well. Many of your readers have asked about coming out for a visit - this would be the perfect opportunity for you to do so, and you would be contributing to a very worthwhile cause at the same time (and even tax-deductible!). The dates are July 20-21. There is no set schedule - you simply visit as many of the locations when you want to and stay as long as you like (we'll have to shut down the tour of Cloudland at 6pm on Sunday!). For more info, go to the Knee Deep web page. These are the folks who built our water garden out here, and I highly recommend them if you are considering creating such a paradise at your place. Very nice folks to work with, and I especially like that fact that they go to great lengths to make each part of the water feature look as natural as possible, and fit in with the surroundings. Come take the tour and I think you will agree!
As the afternoon drew on I parked the tractor and put on a fanny pack and headed for the river below. It had been quite a while since I had hiked down the ladder trail to the river, and today just seemed like the time. The forest below was quite dark - the thick canopy overhead shut out much of the sunlight, which there was a great deal of today. Yet there were still a number of wildflowers blooming, even in the dim light. There is one species with blue star-shaped blossoms that is the dominate flower along this trail in the summertime - I always forget the name, but they were really beautiful today. These jewels grow up to six or even eight feet tall, with flowers all the way. I was unable to get a good photo of the flowers by just hand-holding the camera - I'll have to come back with my tripod when I can get a good picture to post.
I found my old friends the golden seal plants growing in exactly the same spot where I find them every year. Each plant produces a single red berry, and the berry is at the base of the leaf - very easy to identify. There don't seem to be too many of these guys around, and they always being a smile to my face the first time I come across them each summer. I got down on my knees and put my elbow on a nearby rock to try and steady the camera for the long exposure that was required in the dim light. This time it turned out OK.
There were other wildflowers in bloom in the deep woods - most notably patch of black-eyed Susan. They would sprout up in a spot near where a tree had fallen and opened up the canopy to let light in. Looking out across the deep, dark forest these patches of bright yellow were little beacons, calling me to come have a closer look. But I was on a mission - I had a swimming hole to jump into!
But before I made it down to the river, I came across another old friend of sorts. Several years ago a mighty storm swept through this area, and knocked down quite a few trees, including five big one up on the hill at Cloudland (the wind was 53mph, and I had just installed the weather station that very day). A large hickory tumbled down and came to rest right across the trail. At first the main trunk of the tree was up there above my head, and it was no problem to hike underneath it. As time has gone on, the upper branches of this tree that hold it up that high have broken down, and gradually the trunk has gotten lower and lower. Last summer I had to bend over to get underneath the trunk. Today the tree was so low that I was able to crawl up and over it. Eventually, the main trunk will end up right on the ground, and it will be a simply thing to step over. As I spend more and more time in the wilderness around here, I enjoy seeing how the forest changes from year to year.
I was surprised to see that Whitaker Creek was still flowing. We have not had much rain here in a good long while, but I guess there are still enough little springs and seeps to keep the water going.
The brush was VERY thick as I entered the main Buffalo River bottoms, but I knew I was getting close to the river when I heard the splash, SPLASH of Aspen hitting the water ahead of me. Good grief, the river banks were REALLY grown up too - more so that I had ever seen. An example is the gravel bar where I enter the river from - in years past it has been covered with small sycamore saplings - hundreds of them, all only about a foot tall. But today, those same little saplings had grown up to several feet tall and were all leafed out! It was like a jungle getting through them!
Finally I made it to the river itself. The heavy rains of this past spring had changed the actual route of the river and Whitaker Creek too, as it normally does each year. They both had spread out more - shallow channels instead of deeper ones. I was able to walk across both streams without ever getting my feet wet.
As I sat down on my usual smooth boulder to undress, I got to looking around at the streambed that surrounded me. I'm sure it has always been like this before, but I noticed for the first time I think batches of wildflowers that were growing right in the streambed. After having studies the various plants that make up the balanced ecosystem of our little water garden up at the cabin, I know realize that these plants that grow in the streambed down here not only provide beauty with their little flowers, but also act as living filters to eat up excess nutrients in the water, helping to keep this much larger ecosystem balanced and clean. Looking around I could see thousands of other plants doing the very same thing - it is a big ecosystem that needs a lot of cleaning up!
Ahhhhhh the swimming hole - one of the finest in the land. The water was deep and cool and blue-green, and teaming with little fish, and a number of larger ones too. I did not bring my mask so only was able to view the fish from the surface. I just wanted to take a quick dip, and then get back to my bride up at the cabin.
Aspen enjoyed himself a great deal. While he always LOVES the river, I guess he did even more so today because since we now have fish in the pond up at the cabin (which he has taken a great interest in), we discourage him from jumping in as much as I know he wants to. He has also been taking a toll on our water lilies - seems he likes the blooms!
This hole of water in the middle of nowhere is about as quiet and peaceful as you can get. The banks are lined with lush foliage, and several patches of bright yellow black-eyed Susans reflected in the still waters. And now there are two spots where the river enters the pool - recent flooding changed the course of the river just a little bit to allow a second entry point. The waters coming into the pool at the main entry point were warm today, and I laid down right in the middle and soaked it all up. Then a little fishy decided to nibble a bit, which sent me into the deeper water. It was a delightful swim.
The trip back up the steep hillside was a quick one. I actually prefer the hike back UP to the one going down - the trail is just so steep that it is easy to lose your footing on the way down, and I often feel out of control. Coming back up I get to lean into the hillside and exercise quite a few muscles, as well as improve my wind. I always try to make the 700 foot climb to the top without stopping, and I was successful today.
When I arrived back at the cabin I found Pam sitting out on a rock in our pond, trying to get the fish to eat some fish food. So far they have been rather shy when people are around, and have not wanted any commercial food. But she was quite patient with them, and was finally able to get several of the fish to eat. These guys will eventually come right on up to you and even eat out of your hand. It was so funny watching Pam on that rock - at one point she had BOTH cats out on the rock with her, plus Aspen and Lucy on the banks, all gazing down into the water at the fish. With all of that hungry wildlife staring down at them it's no wonder the fish have been keeping to themselves! I don't know if you can see it or not, but if you look close, you can see Aspen's tongue all the way out in this photo.
7/7/02 The sunrise was very slow and calm this morning, and not too colorful. There was a blanket of fog laying low on the wilderness. The edges of the blanket were quite soft. And instead of the fog bank and clouds breaking up and rising into the air, the white mass just sort of slowly disappeared. Eventually there was nothing left but a thick haze, and now just a thin blue haze covers the forests below. There is a lot of bird activity in the trees and above Mom's meadow. And the bright orange Kubota tractor is sitting right outside the cabin, calling my name...
7/8/02 Amber was back home today after being gone for a week. That meant there were now two kids at the cabin to play! Poor Pam - she is normally the only adult around. As the temp rose and the sun beat down we all decided it was time to visit one of the local swimming holes, so we loaded up the truck with swim masks and livestock, and headed out, down into Boxley Valley.
After crossing a wide hay field, we got to the gravel bar and hole of water in the Buffalo River at the upper end of Boxley Valley. About half of this pool is very shallow - less than two feet - but much of it is also "over your head" and great for swimming. There are three large boulders just sitting there in the middle of the deep water, and one of them provides easy access and is perfect for jumping off of into the deep water.
There are three things that I love to do at a swimming hole like this: Look around the bottom with my mask on; swim laps; or float around on top of a raft. Today was not a good one for swimming laps. And while I did spend some time under water looking at fish nests and gravel, the mask and snorkel went back up onto the bank after just a few minutes. Today was one for floating.
We had a pair of these new sort of "rafts" that are mostly made of mesh fabric framed with air tubes and a nice pillow at one end. Once you climb up onto one you sink down into the water, supported by the mesh cloth. This make for a more stable sleeping platform. I climbed into mine, rolled over on my back, and sent myself adrift into the slight current. Man oh man it was one relaxing ride!
On the far side of this hole of water there is a bluff - perhaps 30 or 40 feet tall - and the base of the bluff has been undercut by the river, a frozen wave of stone arching high overhead. The surface of the stone is covered with a carpet of ferns in many places - even on up the bluff where it hangs out over the water. The water is very shallow there - less than two feet - but plenty to float a raft with an aging outdoorsman in it.
As I drifted back underneath this little oasis of fern and stone and water, my mind grew completely blank - something that rarely happens with me despite the often blank stare on my face! Nothing could have been more serene, and it was beautiful at the same time. AAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeeeesssssssssss.
Downstream just a bit, Amber had climbed up on top of the largest boulder and was busy finding the best spot to jump off from. I eventually made my way down to her and acted as a life raft every time she popped up from the depths below. Pam had been paddling around on her raft too, and the three of us tried as best we could to keep from laughing out loud at what a great time we were having. There were other folks at this swimming hole too, but no seemed to care.
Aspen and Lucy were having the time of their lives - especially Aspen. He has webbed feet you know. I've never seen a dog of any breed who loved the water as much as this guy dues. We were at this swimming hole for nearly three hours, and I never saw him sitting still a single time - he was in the water and in motion every single second, with that big grin on his face the entire time. He even climbed up onto the jumping rock once or twice and went right on over the edge with Amber and me. I don't know how in the world he kept it up so long.
SPEAKING OF SWIMMING HOLES, I must tell you about a new project that we are working on. Folks ask me all the time about good places to go swimming around here - there really are quite a few of them, but not many are cataloged and the directions often get confusing, and the result is that people end up going back to the same holes over and over again. We are going to fix the problem, and open up the doors to a great deal of fun and adventure! We are going to collaborate with our good friend Glenn Wheeler of Harrison and produce a GUIDEBOOK TO THE BEST SWIMMING HOLES IN THE OZARKS. It will include locations in both Arkansas and Missouri. These will not be the ones where you have to hike ten miles through the bush to get to - all of them will be easily accessible for most folks (less than a two mile hike, and a majority of them just a short walk from vehicle access). We will include "official" swimming holes at state and national parks, and a few locations at small lakes - like Shores Lake or Lake Leatherwood for instance. We won't include any swimming areas at the big Corps lakes like on Bull Shoals or Beaver. Many of them will be "unofficial" spots that only the locals know about on rivers and streams, including, of course, a number of them on the Buffalo River. We've already got a long list of places to visit and photograph, but are looking for more, especially the ones that few people know about. IF YOU know of a good spot that you think should be included in this book, drop me an e-mail with the details, including as much info as you can. The only criteria is that it must be on public land, located in the Ozarks in either Arkansas or Missouri, and be accessible by a hike of two miles or less (we ESPECIALLY need more locations in Missouri). There will be a map and photo of each location included in the book, plus a bit of text talking about the spot, including any particular things that make it interesting. Glenn will be doing most of the writing on this project, visiting each swimming hole and taking the photos; Pam will draw the maps; and I will put it all together in book form and publish and distribute it. Glenn will be trying to get all of the field work done this summer and fall - which would put the publication date sometime next spring. But it is possible that it will be next year before he can get all of the "necessary swimming" completed, which would put the publication date in early 2004. I'll keep you updated on the progress of this book. And for those of you who ask, the WATERFALL GUIDEBOOK is still in production, and we are still hopeful of getting it finished and available later this year - by the time water returns to the mountains!
7/10/02 It is a smoky, hazy scene at first light this morning, and very quiet outside. Quiet that is if you can ignore the hundreds of birds out playing and singing and making all sorts of chatter! The birds seem to blend right on into the soothing sounds of the little waterfall out in front though, and it is all rather peaceful out here. It is very WARM out - I don't think the temp dropped much during the night. It has been actually COOL the past several mornings, and I have had to run around and open the windows in the cabin when we went to bed to help cool down the place. But all of the windows remained closed last night, and I believe it is actually warmer outside than in this morning. Hum, I believe it is going to be a bit toasty outside this afternoon!
One of Pam's main jobs of late has been fish management. We have ten colorful fish in the pond, but they are all rather small and quite shy right now. We are supposed to feed them some food, but not enough to keep them from doing their duty and keeping the water clean. But these guys have been so shy they seldom will come to the surface to eat the food that Pam gives them. She has been "forced" to sit there by the pond for an hour or more at a time, working with the little guys to get them to eat. She has been somewhat successful of late, and always comes away with a broad grin on her face. These fish will eventually grow up and become a brilliant showcase in the pond, and eager to eat right out of our hands. But for the time being we may try to add a couple of larger fish, ones already trained to put on a show, and hopefully they will help train the little ones. Problem is that we have been having difficulty finding koi dealers in northwest Arkansas - actually there is only one place that stocks them that we have been able to find, and they really didn't have what we were looking for. We did find a good place up in Springfield, so will probably get our next fish from there. I suspect you will hear and learn much more about water gardening and koi in the future than you ever wanted to!
Speaking of the water garden, we have this one type of floating plant that has an incredible bloom (water hyacinth). We have four plants floating at the top of the waterfall, in a 3 x 3 foot area where the water surfaces after being pumped up from the pond underground. The main purpose of these plants is to hide the bags of lava rocks underneath, and to eat up excess nutrients in the water (they are natural filters). But they also produce what will prove to be one of the most beautiful blooms in the entire water garden. The only problem with the plant and the bloom is that the bloom only lasts for ONE DAY! So you have to admire it while you can. No telling if we are going to get any to bloom on the weekend of the Parade Of Ponds tour or not, but we will try. One of the great joys of owning a water garden like this one is that you end up paying a great deal of attention to your plants, and getting to know their life cycles and what they like.
The high for today was 86, with a humidity to match. After several hours of working outside - gathering more rocks (I know, I know, by now you must think that I have piled up every rock in the country in our front yard, but really, I need MANY more rocks to make it look JUST right!), we decided it was time to try out another swimming hole that we had heard about. Don't worry - we probably won't be going to different swimming holes every day and bore you with all the details and photos like I did with the waterfalls. This one happened to be nearby, and none of us had ever been to it before, and we REALLY needed some deep, cool water.
Turns out you can drive right to this swimming hole, and park on the gravel bar of the Buffalo River. The main hole was long and quite deep - I never even got to the bottom. One side of the river bank was gravel, which turned into rocks and finally small bluffs upstream, while the opposite side was all dirt, and actually a cow pasture. The water was pretty clear, the sun bright, and we spent a wonderful couple of hours there playing and sometimes doing absolutely nothing.
Aspen did his usual swim, swim, swim once again. He is in the dog house so to speak right now. This morning I caught him actually UNDERWATER in our little pond in front of the cabin - trying to catch one of the koi fish. I've never seen this dog with his head under the water before, but there he was, bobbing up and down and reaching under the large rock that sits off to one side of the pond where the fish like to hang out to get away from Aspen. It was really funny seeing him under there, but Pam did not think it was too funny when she found out (I had chased Aspen out of the water and around the side of the cabin with a stick). He will never actually catch any of these fish, but he sure does mess up the plant life in the pond.
As the evening light began to fade, we finally got a little bit of relief from the hot temps - a cool wind blew in from the east, and dark clouds began to swirl. Pam and I took a seat in the swing on the back deck and watched approaching thunderstorms. And then it began to lightning. I ran into the cabin and grabbed the digital camera, put it on the tripod and set it for a series of 4 second exposures, and started clicking the shutter. I have a 12 foot long remote control for this camera, so I was able to sit in the swing with one arm around Pam, and hold a glass of grape juice and the remote control in the other hand. Out of about 65 or 70 photos, I got one with lightning bolts in it. (Had nothing to do with the grape juice - just good or bad timing depending on how you look at it - getting one good photo no matter how many I shot is a good average to me.)
As soon as it got really dark and we went inside to work on other chores, the sky really lit up, with bolts of lightning shooting off in all directions. This has been going on now for nearly two hours, and we STILL have not had any rain! It would be nice if we got an hour or two of the wet stuff.
Oh yea, I almost forgot. We already have a ton of frog eggs in the pond! I guess the little tree frogs will take any opportunity they get when they find a bit of water, especially this high up on the hill, so we will have lots of tadpoles before too long. I wonder what Aspen will think of them? And one sad note - the momma skink has taken all of her eggs away to another location - I peeked under the rotten log this morning and there were no eggs or mommas to be found. I guess they just can't tolerate much disturbance at all, and it is their natural instinct to move the nest once they are disturbed. I can't believe that she actually moved every one of those eggs though!
7/11/02 No sunrise this morning - just a grey sky that got lighter and lighter. We never did get any rain during the night, although it feels like rain today (still none by noon).
Everything was very quiet this morning, inside and out. I spent some time downstairs previewing a new video tape about hiking the Ozark Highlands Trail that we have been working on for a while (a LONG while, and there is still a lot of work to do on it!). Pam was upstairs in the loft reading a book to Amber. Aspen and Lucy were asleep, a favorite pastime of theirs, especially in the heat of the summer.
I ventured outside a time or two, once to take a few pictures. Some of the Virginia creeper are beginning to turn vibrant red - they will be doing this for the next two or three months, along with poison ivy.
We had a couple of water hyacinths in bloom at the top of the little falls, so I got a snapshot or two, along with several others of the pond, waterfall and stream. I have created a separate page where I will post a number of the water garden pics - click here to go to that page.
Early this morning I spotted the cats playing with something out in the driveway. I could see a tiny creature running back and forth, and the cats were using it like a tennis ball. It was a little mole. Neither cat would eat or even kill it, but they sure did like the sport of tossing him back and forth. Later I took the Trail Cat up to the office to try her hand at a mouse that I had caught in the warehouse. Same thing - she would play with it, but not kill it. I do believe we have been feeding them too much!
The other cat has lost a great deal of weight, so much so that we can hardly tell the two cats apart. But he also normally has a full stomach, so I have no idea what is going on there. We have decided to change his name from "The Fat Cat" to "The Box Cat" since he spends most of his day sleeping in whatever box happens to be around. These cats have expensive and plush beds, but they prefer a box, or one of the swings, which does have a nice soft cushion on it. Sometimes we will find them both curled up in a ball on one of the swings in the middle of the day. Aspen and Lucy pretty much ignore them these days.
7/12/02 When I returned to the cabin from an awful morning in town, my head was about to split wide open. One of the items that caused my pain, no doubt, was the fact that Jones Motor Cars in Fayetteville charged me $150 TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB in my truck!!! No kidding. I had the truck in for servicing, and one of the numerous things that had to be fixed was one of three lights in the dash. The bulb itself cost $2.40, but the labor charge just to CHANGE THE LIGHT BULB was $150. Now I realize that car dealers have a code book that they go by and charge whatever the book says, but that is absolutely insane, and quite frankly, insulting, and a rather cheap shot at a good customer who has spent more than 100 grand at their dealership in the past three years. The book said that it would take the mechanic 2 hours to change the light bulb, and at $75 an hour for labor that adds up. What does NOT add up is that there were many other things on my ticket that they also used the code book for, and according to all of that, it took the mechanic many hours to service my truck - of course, they only had the truck for a total of two hours, so obviously the code book is a crock (only one guy worked on the truck). Sorry if I am ranting and raving in the wrong place here, but it just irks me that these guys grab you by the short hairs and pull as hard as they can, and they know they can get away with it over and over again. I wish just once one of these people who rip off the public would come to me to have some work done!
Anyway, after being screwed by Jones Motor Cars it was a welcome relief to arrive back in the wilderness where you are treated fairly. And I was just in time for a terrific show. About ten minutes after I got back the sky grew dark, which woke me up from a quick nap I had taken to try to get rid of the light bulb memory. I went out onto the back deck and saw an approaching wall of water - and I do mean a WALL! Before I had a chance to take a good look, the wall hit me square in the face. Man, that was terrific! I stepped back into the cabin and watched the temp drop 21 degrees in about five minutes, and more than an inch of rain come down in less than TEN minutes! Holy tug boat it was RAINING HARD!
I love storms, and goodness we sure did need the rain, but I got a little bit concerned about our new pond out in front - too much water would cause it to overflow, which would not be good for the fish or plants. So I put on my rain jacket and wide-brimmed hat and went out the front door.
I was surprised to find the rain rather warm and soothing, causing me to tilt my head back and allowing the wet stuff to soak my face, which, of course, also ran right down inside my rain jacket! The pond was holding up OK, and most of the water that was sheeting on the ground was running around the pond and not into it. Still, the water level rose quickly, but it never got high enough to cause any problems - the pond has a built-in overflow valve, although it could not quite keep up with the fast-moving water.
The rain slacked off and it took almost another 30 minutes to get a second inch of rain, then it all stopped. Within minutes the ground had been transformed from a solid hillside river, to just a normal hillside, with no water in sight - the earth soaked up the water rapidly - it really needed the moisture.
Just before Pam and Amber got back to the cabin from a quick trip into another town, the sky grew really dark - it was 4pm and impossible to read without the lights being on! And while there was a bit of thunder and lightning, it never did rain a drop. But goodness it was DARK!
Later on the fog banks that had settled down on top of us began to lift - we don't normally have cloud or fog banks around here in the afternoon, especially up this high. But it was a near-whiteout for a little while. But then the setting sun broke through the fog, creating a fairy tale scene looking to the west through the trees from the cabin. Very odd to see the sun beams in the fog that direction.
Pam had crawled up into the back porch swing with her sketch pad and was trying to capture the look and feel of the storm breaking up in the valley. I heard her mumble one time that the light and clouds were changing so fast that she could not get it right! Yep, I told her, that is Cloudland for ya! There was something so heart-warming about seeing my lovely wife in the swing, completely engulfed in the wilderness before her, with Aspen keeping a close eye on her progress.
The sun has set now, and the sky has turned several shades of pink and blue and gray, now mostly just gray, dimming down to rest towards black. There are still a few new clouds in the valley that were formed as a result of the quickly-moving thunderstorms. I just took a look at the river below, and it shows no ill effects from the heavy rains - the water is still low and clear with that blue-green hue. In a moment or two yet another building fog bank will cover it up until the sunshine of tomorrow burns it away. It is still and quiet outside, with only the hushed sound of the waterfall pushing sound waves around.
Here is Pam's very first freehand
sketch (a far sight better than the first couple hundred thousand photos
of mine!):
View from the back deck at Cloudland, © Pam Ernst
I must tell you about my dear wife Pam. Before she moved out to Cloudland she would always ask me "what are you doing today?", and it would sometimes irritate her when the reply would often be "I've have no idea." There is a small plaque on the wall of the cabin here that reads "In The Mountains You Forget To Count The Days." That saying is certainly true, and I think Pam came to that realization today. While standing in line at the bank in Jasper, and listening to all of the conversations going on between other customers, she realized that she had no clue what day of the week or month it was - she was pretty sure it was July, but that was about it. Yep, my lovely wife is beginning to get the hang of this place!
7/15/02 Today was a very weird day, from start to finish. Actually, it began last night. While Pam and I were downstairs watching this great made-for-TV movie on the tube, Aspen was out in the pond, eating expensive plants and chasing expensive fish around (no chance he would ever catch any, unless it was a really dumb fish). A little while later I noticed the lightning bugs were in plentiful supply, although none of them would venture out of the woods into the open meadow air, or up in the sky at all. The woods were FULL of them, but the glow stopped at the forest edge it's as if they were afraid to come out from under the forest canopy. Very odd.
No sunrise again this morning - haven't had one in a while due to the foggy and/or cloudy conditions. This morning Beagle Point began to poke its head up above the white world surrounding it while all of the other ridges kept hidden. It looked really strange to have this long dark sliver of a ridgetop and nothing else out there but white, and the trees in the foreground. The fog and mist hung around all day and kept things sort of spooky.
I worked out in the yard while Pam and Amber made a quick trip into town. As soon as they disappeared up the lane Aspen trotted off and jumped right back into the pond. I had spent about 30 minutes at first light cleaning out the skimmer and replacing as much of the plants that he had pulled up as I could. And now he was right back in there. Needless to say he did not stay in there too long - you should have seen me tear off across the yard - I wanted to sneak up behind him so that he would still be in the water when the blow to his backside hit, helping him to understand the reason behind it. Yet I also needed to get there as fast as I could to save further damage to the pond. I only had my house slippers on, and they weren't much help, and I ended up kicking them off and charging forward in my bare feet, silently, and biting my tongue to keep from yelling out from the pain!
Aspen knows better than to do this, and I had had enough of it. After we both collected our thoughts I put a collar on him and he spent the next several hours tied up on the front porch. He knew good and well why he was there, and did not put up a fuss. Poor guy, he missed a couple of short hikes and I took with Lucy - and I made sure he knew it too. By mid-afternoon I felt like he had paid his dues and I let him go. He didn't even look at the pond the rest of the afternoon!
It was otherwise a lazy day for animals, and I caught the Box Cat lounging around in the front porch swing (I always have to specify which swing because we have four of them out here). This is another one of his favorite spots to sleep during the day - a far sight nicer than his old box.
As the day wore on and I got comfortable with Aspen being out working next to me near the pond without having to watch him every second, I looked over and saw LUCY in the pond!!! Now I don't mind either dog taking a dip, but she was following Aspen's lead and actually had her head under the water chasing the fish. Not a good sign. And this happened not once, but TWICE with Lucy! That is really out of character for her. All the while Aspen didn't say a word, nor venture anywhere near the pond.
Once Pam got home we spent some time sitting in the new swing that I installed right next to the pond - she is able to toss fish food and still sit back in the swing! Aspen had gotten braver and had taken up residence at her feet, and was intently focused on a frog that was hiding under one edge of the big rock in the middle of the pond. I was not around to see this, but Pam said the frog would come out of an underwater hole just far enough to be seen by Aspen, then he would sit there and carry on a conversation with him. Every time the frog appeared Aspen would quiver and shake and barely contain himself, but never lunged forward a single time - good dog.
Anyway, while I was sitting there in the swing with my bride on my left, my dog at my feet, frogs and fishes and cats all over the place, the sky got dark, a thunderous BOOM landed nearby, then the clouds opened up and it began to pour. Both Pam and I sat there and looked at each other with a big grin - for just a few seconds - then we ran for cover! It was a very loud storm, but delightful, and I sure did enjoy it.
After dinner and as the light of day was beginning to fade, I took off with Aspen for a hike around the loop. About 100 yards into the hike the Trail Cat came zooming by - she just couldn't be left behind. I was on a mission this evening - to find a neat, old weathered and mossy log to place next to our new little stream. We've already got one there, plus a small stump, but I'm always searching for perfection, which often takes me off the trail like it did this evening. And not five minutes into the hike I found just the right log. But it was so large that I will have to come back with the tractor - and perhaps another person - in order to get it up in the air and transported safely to the stream site.
While I was out there in the bush, the Trail Cat jumped up onto a nearby log and surveyed her territory. She really is unlike any other cat I have ever seen.
We came out of the dark forest and into the bright East meadow, where I found a couple of nice groups of wildflowers growing all by themselves. Most of the other flowers in this meadow had faded away by now, so these beauties were a delight to see. This was a new flower for me, and after looking them up in Don Kurz's OZARK WILDFLOWERS book (it only took about 30 seconds to make the ID - I LOVE the way this book is set up!), I found them to be Rose gentian flowers - never heard of them.
It was a wonderful hike through the meadow and orchard, and along the lane. Then I cut across the hillside and headed towards Aspen's meadow - the sky had mostly cleared but there were a few clouds smeared across the west that were beginning to light up - pink and orange and red. I hiked just inside the forest, but close enough to the open meadows that I could still see out into them. I rather enjoy walking along the edges of things like this - seems to be so many interesting views both directions. But that sky brought me out into the open once I reached the top of the hill.
Oh yea, somewhere along the way the Trail Cat decided she had hiked far enough and would follow no longer. That was somewhere near the tractor shed. On my way back down from the meadow I saw her again - she was guarding the tractor - or waiting for a ride back down to the cabin!
It was completely dark when I arrived back at the cabin - only the glow from Pam's little reading light up in the loft to light my way. She is reading a book that I recommended - one that my brother Terry gave to me a couple of years ago called CACHE LAKE COUNTRY. This book has been around a long time - it is a wonderful read if you are interested in wilderness and backcountry living. It is the type of book that you can read over and over again.
Gosh, it seems like ages since I have been able to sit down and read a book. I can't believe that I just said that - I still have written more books that I have ever read from cover to cover in my life! That is a sad comment. But I do enjoy reading, I just don't find all that much time to do it, nor material that fits my limited interests. And I guess I feel guilty about sitting down and spending hours reading a book when I have so many unfinished projects on my list. But one of these days I do plan to get to the point where I will be able to take the time each day to read - if only for the time spent NOT working.
After I put the journal to bed I slipped out into the hot tub to soak for a while. Man, it was FOGGY out! I laid back and let the hot bubbles massage my backside while the cool soggy white mist hit me in the face - it was quite nice. And then a couple of things happened at about the same time. First, a crack opened up in the fog and a sliver of a moon shone through - that was an interesting sight, but just a bit eerie. Then some critter decided to come have a close-up look at me. I had locked the dog door to keep BOTH dogs from getting out and taking a swim in the pond, so I was out there all alone without my protectors to guard me. Don't know what sort of critter it was, but it made a lot of racket just over there in the brush. I sat back and enjoyed the moonbeams and hoped I didn't get eaten.
7/16/02 Still quite foggy at first light. In fact, I couldn't even see to the far side of the first tree next to the cabin! Looks like the sun is trying to burn it all off though, and it "feels" like blue skies and hot temps above all of this, although they are calling for rain so no telling. I love the look of green trees in the heavy fog - not only does the fog outline many of the trees' individual features like limbs and such, but it also softens the color of the leaves, often blending the very edge of the leaves into the fog.
I took a little hike up to the office before my official work day began, and found the first of what will be many thousands of wild sunflowers blooming along the route. Seems like it takes a great deal of heat before these guys will pop out, but once they get started, there is no stopping them. I've always been amazed that while these flowers thrive in sunny areas (they will take over Mom's meadow soon), they also do quite well in the deep woods. This lone flower was growing in the middle of a large stand of maple trees.
There were a ton of spider webs visible this morning - all of the moisture in the air really brings them out - or at least allows us to SEE them because moisture clings to the delicate web material. We've had a ton of what I call "hole" spider webs of late (I am too lazy to look up the official name for these guys). I say "hole" because their web is built around a hole or entrance - often the entire web seems to be designed to lure prey down into this hole, using the rest of the web to guide them right into it. If you look close as you hike by, you'll often see the spider himself sitting right at the outer edge of this hole, waiting, and he will pop back inside just as you get near. One of these days I will set up the camera on a tripod and see if I can get a portrait of one. Wildlife phlebography normally takes much more patience than I am willing to sit still for, but since it is summertime, I am allowed to bring along a lawn chair and glass of gin & tonic. I would need to pre-focus the camera though before I start on that drink!
Aspen is still being a good dog and has not jumped into the pond for almost a full day now! But you can tell from this photo that I snapped a few minutes ago that he is thinking about it...
Terry Tractor came out today and we spent the better part of the day working - mostly he worked and I sat around and watched. One of the things we did was to collect a number of larger rocks that I had not been able to get on my own. Terry is a tractor guru (hence the name that Amber gave him), and we were able to muscle around some boulders that I never thought we could get off the ground. Pam rolled her eyes every time that we brought a new rock or two in, but by the end of the day I think we added some nice touches to the little stream and waterfall area out in front of the cabin.
Later in the evening, just before dark, several tree frogs began to yell out. One of them happened to be sitting on a limb right above where Pam and I were sitting admiring the view. This was the very first time I had been close enough to actually see the little tree frog's throat bellow out when he called out - it was just like on TV! Amber got to see him too, and in fact she was able to mimic his calls and even got the frog to answer her. It was a wonderful experience, and one that I probably would never have gotten to be a part of if not for my lovely ladies being here.
7/17/01 For the first time in quite a while, there was no fog at first light this morning - in fact it stayed away all day. Nice to actually be able to look out and see the wilderness all around us without the haze. I love all the haze and fog, but every now and then it is nice to see just GREEN! The sky was dark and cloudy all day, and it opened up once and rained pretty good in the afternoon. I spent much of the day working back outside again, and also answering e-mails. I would like to announce that I am FINALLY caught up with ALL of my e-mails! First time in a long while for that one. I went through 168 of them today, and either answered, filed, or trashed every single one.
Just before dark I was out hiking up to Aspen's meadow and got to witness one incredible sunset. The sky broke up just in time to let the golden rays of sunshine come streaming through.
While I was hiking back down to the cabin - nearly pitch black, with a half moon up high to light things up just a bit - I passed through a magical forest that nearly took my breath away. The woods were really open - lots of towering trees but absolutely NO underbrush whatsoever. There was a mist rising up from the moist forest floor. Some of the moonlight was beaming down into the mist. The sky was streaked pink and gold and flaming red. And out there in the forest, there were a thousand yellow lights going on and off, on and off, on and off. It was one of the top ten scenes that I have ever witnessed in the wilderness - really. I just stood there for a few moments, lost in time, and wishing like heck I could paint - NO WAY this scene could ever be photographed with film, digital media, or video - too many subtle hues and so much dark grays and greens and BLACK. Yes, this could only be captured in a painting, and goodness it would take a master to get the magic of the scene on canvas. Oh how those lightning bugs carried me way back to my childhood nights, running free in the woods and fields near our home, with not a care in the world. Hum, I don't think I have come too far from those good old days!
An update of sorts on those spider webs that I posted pictures of yesterday. I tried to look them up in my spider ID book. Seems they are actually called "Funnel Web" spiders, and there are at least 400 different species of them (there was only one photo in the book to use as an example). I was wrong about the web being fashioned so as to lure the prey into the little cave. They build that "funnel" as a hiding place for themselves, and when prey lands/crawls on the main web, the spider runs out and grabs it, then drags the prey back into the funnel where the spider has a fine meal. Funnel Web spiders - wouldn't that make a great horror movie!
ASPEN stayed out of the pond all day today. So far. Aspen, where are you anyway?
7/18/02 I was in town most of the day, and left my dear wife to slave away at the cabin alone. When I got home the sky was alive with activity, and we had been dumped on a time or two with heavy rain. You should have seen how FAST some of the individual clouds were moving through the valley. There for a few minutes clouds would appear at the top of Beagle Point and then scream across the half-mile canyon towards the cabin and we had to duck to keep from getting hit!
As it got darker the lightning show intensified. Pam set up the digital camera out on the back deck and spent about 30 minutes shooting a series of minute-long exposures of the thunderstorms just to the south. I tried my luck at it too, but never got any good images. Most of the time the lightning strikes happened in between shots when the camera shutter was closed - one of the laws of nature! But Pam got several good ones, including this one:
I took this photo of the cats this morning, and though some of you cat people might like to see the two of them together. They do make quite a pair!
By the way, the "Parade of Ponds" tour of water gardens this weekend will be the first official time that Cloudland has ever been open to the public. A number of folks will be coming out just to visit the cabin and the new stream, and not going to the other dozen or so locations that are on the tour - and that is perfectly fine. All of the money goes to charity anyway, and folks will have a good excuse to head out into the woods for a day. We will be serving sassafras tea and homemade Cloudland cookies to all visitors, and while we don't expect a crowd, it will be nice to visit with the folks who do show up. And heck, there are still a few boulders, ah, I mean rocks that need to be moved, so the more muscle we have on hand the better! (just kidding about that - we'll only ask you to pull weeds, not move rocks)
7/19/02 Today is Aspen's 3rd birthday. I found him on the internet, and drove up to Kansas to get him. There were a dozen pups all running around like crazy yelling "pick me, pick me!" I selected Aspen using a tip I had just read about in a book. Once I narrowed the selection down to three or four pups, I put each one on my lap, and laid them on their back (one at a time). Aspen is the only one who just laid there, looking up at me with longing eyes. All of the others flipped right over immediately and ran off. Yep, that's my dog! (He still does that, although now mostly only on the floor or the bed.)
Our good friend and long-time Journal reader from Canada sent Aspen a birthday card, complete with his favorite koi fish treat - make note of the fact that she drew this card just for him (she has contributed a number of terrific drawings to the Journal over the years - a couple of them hang on the walls here at Cloudland). Thanks Jeanette!
Amber came running into the cabin this afternoon yelling "Someone is in trouble - they are blowing a whistle three times!" (we have trained her that three of anything often means an emergency) We all rushed out the door to see what was going on. A GIANT hawk was flying very low, even making swoops down into Mom's meadow and very near the cabin, and screaming out three times in a row. Then he would stop for a few moments, and yell out three times once again. It definitely sounded like an alarm call, but we had no idea what he was up to.
At one point this hawk was out just past the bluffline here and had caught an updraft. He just hung there in mid air for a long time, perhaps a full minute, hardly moving at all - looked just like a hang glider. I got out the binocs and took a close look at him. Certainly NOT a red-tailed hawk, and he had marking that I'd never seen before, including a lot of black and white stripes on his back and tail feathers. But it was his wings that looked really odd - at the very tips there were long feathers that bent up, just like some of the wing tips on jets that you see.
After a few minutes of this wonderful air show, the hawk began to move on, and he flew back and forth right out there in front of us, only this time, he has company. There was a red-tailed hawk with him, much smaller. The big hawk continued to scream out a series of three screams - the smaller hawk said nothing. Eventually the pair drifted on up the valley and we lost contact with them. It was quite a show, but we still had no idea what was going on, unless the big guy was courting the little one.
Speaking of jets, the pilot of the Lear jet that gave us quite a show last summer at our wedding party came out to spend the night. He is an old photo buddy of mine, Greg Heinze, and his wife Sharon. They both have been pilots for a long time, and had seen Cloudland many times from the air, but this was their first trip to see it from the ground.
7/20/02 We were expecting perhaps a dozen folks here this weekend for the Parade of Ponds tour - we really are located so far out of town we thought not many folks would show up. By 8:45am today we already had that dozen people here, and a line of cars was beginning to show up. We had promised everyone sassafras tea and homemade Cloudland cookies, and thank goodness I brought the first batch of cookies out of the oven just as the first car load of folks was driving up. The oven would remain busy all day, as would our front yard!
By the end of the day we probably had 100 visitors or more. Heck there were times we had 15 or 16 people here at the same time. Pam and I both were busy talking with folks and showing them around, and Amber was making the rounds offering the cookies and tea. Poor Greg and Sharon - they were pressed into service in the kitchen, and kept the goodies coming all day.
We were pleasantly surprised at how many Journal readers showed up - it was great to meet so many of you! Lots of folks drove many long hours to get here (from as far away as Memphis, Tennessee), only to turn around and go home and not visit any of the other gardens. It was all for a great cause, and all of the proceeds will go towards supporting the volunteers that are building a new section of the Ozark Highlands Trail (to buy base camp equipment and tools mostly). All in all it was a great weekend, and we hope lots of folks enjoyed visiting Cloudland.
WE also had a great time, and even learned a lot about other people's water gardens. And Pam found out a secret way of keeping snakes out of the area from a gentleman who said it worked perfectly - all we had to do was spread out this stuff on the ground - only problem is that Pam can not remember what substance the man said to spread! (must be the altitude up here is beginning to erode her memory)
We were also quite surprised that many of our visitors brought gifts for us, for the cabin, and even for the livestock (home-made bandannas for the dogs and cats!). How thoughtful all of you were! We didn't think about this until Sunday afternoon, but we gave out waterfall calendars to everyone (2002 - we still had a few left over).
Oh yea, one other funny thing that Pam got a kick out of. There were many people here who had known me as a child - some I hadn't seen since then (I'm talking about when I was a young child, not the child that I am today). Pam just knew she was going to get great stories from them about how bad I was as a kid, but she came up empty handed! With the exception of a stray BB every now and then that found its way to a nearby window, I was a pretty good kid, never got into trouble, and spent most of my time running around alone in the woods near our house. Sort of what I still do today.
7/21/02 By the end of the afternoon Pam and Amber had to go into town, and I was left as sole tour guide. We'd had crowds again today, but not quite as many as yesterday. Still, it was a steady stream of vehicles coming and going. And with all the traffic of "Decoration Day" up at nearby Cave Mountain Church, the main dirt road got a lot of use.
Since Pam was not here at dusky dark, I got to feed the fish. We've not had much luck with our fish - they remain very shy and never show themselves during the day. But as night approaches they will come out from their hiding places and up to the surface for a few minutes - after Pam has coaxed them out with a bit of food. I got to spend an entire hour sitting next to the pond feeding the fish tonight. Most of that time was spend just waiting for the fish to get active and come to the surface, but it was fun to watch the individual fish roaming around. We do have some nicely-marked fish, including 7 koi (fancy Japanese carp). And they all seem to be growing too, even though we hardly give them much fish food at all. Of course, the idea of having the fish in the pond is not just for show, but they are an important part of the ecosystem balance, and are supposed to eat up a lot of the "stuff" that falls to the bottom of the pond and help keep it all clean - just like they do in natural streams.
The three large koi (12") that we just got recently had all been named now - a striking gold and black one is called Tiger; the largest one that is mostly white is called Moby Dick; and a really neat Butterfly koi that is yellow, white and black is called Marilyn (after Marilyn Monroe) - she may turn out to be the most beautiful of all the fish. I never thought I would name a carp, much less talk to them!
By the way, while Aspen has been doing a lot better about NOT getting into the pond, he managed to sneak off on his birthday while we were all pre-occupied with the screaming hawk and took a good long dip in the pond - no telling how many fish he chased around that day!
7/24/02 I don't know if it is the herbs I'm taking to help me sleep, the fact that I closed the blinds next to my bed that faces the sunrise, or simply that I am finally beginning to catch up a bit from the exhausting pace I've been keeping these past few months, but I have been dead to the world until long after first light this week. No doubt that when you sleep until 8am you miss a very large part of the day, often the best part of the day, especially in the summer.
My days have been filled with computer work this week, trying to get my act together for the big push to complete the waterfall guidebook. Pam has been working on one of the upstairs computers, and I have been trying to get her crazy Windows machine down in the basement to work. I simply cannot stand windows machines - Macs area SOOOOOO much easier to operate! Anyway, I haven't been outside much, but did sneak off for a short hike around the loop this morning.
We had heavy fog that the sun burned off in a hurry. It was cool and still a little bit foggy when I headed out into one of the big maple groves near the cabin. My mind was at total peace with the world, and I floated through the forest like I was a bit of that fog, wrapping myself around a tree, then a rock, then gently gliding down the slope, riding a carpet of Virginia creeper. Or was that poison ivy? This was the first hike in a long while where my mind was free to wander and not worry about hunting for rocks. (I already have several large boulders spotted in this grove, and I will get them at some other time - no need to mess with them now.)
The forest was cool and refreshing,, and smelled of mint and vegetables and earth and trees. There was a slight breeze, and it was blowing what was left of the fog around. Sunlight beamed through the fog and danced to the tune of a hundred birds singing. Why do I ever go indoors?
When I entered the East meadow sunshine had been heating it up for several hours, and it was hot and bright. Benny had just brushhogged it, so the walking was easy - the brush had gotten nearly head high. There were a few wildflower growing around the edges of the meadow that had not been mowed down - I wondered if they understood how lucky they were?
As I entered the lane between the East meadow and the orchard I came upon a bear track. This is the first bear sign I have seen out here this year - and that is quite unusual. Of course, I have been spending most of my time at the computer this summer, and always hike with at least two dogs and often a cat, so bears are well alerted to my approach. This was not a fresh track - at least a day old - it had rained yesterday afternoon, and this was before the rain. Probably a young male, out looking for an easy meal and a new place to call home.
Before I returned to the cabin I stopped by the office and picked up a fax machine to take down to the cabin. I felt a little silly hiking through the woods carrying a fax machine - good thing I didn't happen upon any hikers! I later returned to the office and brought down a big copy machine too. The squirrels must think I am moving out!
I have been spending more time out at the pond with the fish. They are getting much less shy these days, and in need of more food. And the water in the pond is finally beginning to clear up - that takes several weeks with this system (never add any chemicals - everything is done naturally, and an ecosystem is started and maintained by the fish, gravel, plants, and filters, plus some bacteria that is added from time to time). The fish still won't come right up to me yet, but after a few minutes of coaxing, they will make the surface of the pond boil as they suck up the little pellets of floating fish food that I throw out to them. And when the sun is shining it is quite a show of color - bright yellows, oranges, pinks, whites, blacks, and several other colors, all mixed together and thrashing around in quick movements. The fish are of such different sizes - from 4" to 12" and growing, it all makes for an interesting mix.
Aspen has not been a good dog this week. He KNOWS it is wrong to get into the pond, and whenever he gets caught it is some serious jail time for him, plus a number of swats on the behind. He knows that he is welcome to cool off in the stream - which he does after every hike. We have no problem with that. But now he will stay away from the pond most of time, until we get pre-occupied with something, and then he will slink off and jump right on in. Today it was when Glenn and Stacey Wheeler were out here and we were all looking at some of Glenn's swimming hole photos on the computer screen. None of us saw him slink off, but a few minutes later their daughter Beth came running in "Aspen is in the pond!" Sure enough, we was neck deep and diving underwater after the fish. The fish are in no danger, but he always tears up the plants. Bad dog. We are going to try one last thing to deter him - a can of special dog repellant crystals. If that doesn't work, I don't know. I'm not going to lock him up all the time - if I was forced to do that I would give him away first. This dog's sprite would be broken if he were locked up all the time.
Just before dark the dogs started barking wildly. Aspen was tied up and nearly tore down a post. I ran out to the back deck and heard quite a bit of crashing down below. I figured a bear had been in Mom's meadow when Aspen smelled him, then the bear took off and bounded out into the woods when the dogs started barking. Amber and I went down into the meadow to see what we could find, and while there were a number of places where the flowers and tall weeds had been laid down, we really didn't see much of anything.
We gathered a few tomatoes, picked a large bouquet of wildflowers for Pam, and then sat down in the swing at the far end of the gazebo. An owl was hooting across the valley, and Amber tried out her own hoot owl voice. Son of a gun, the owl answered her! This went on for several minutes, and you should have seen the joyful expression on this young girl's face each time the owl answered back - priceless.
Tonight was the full moon, but it rose behind a clouded sky. I remember my carefree days when I used to wander around freely in the forest at night, without any sort of flashlight. Since I got snakebit I am much more careful and avoid such things, although it sure has taken away many delightful strolls in the moonlight. I can't wait for colder temps when the snakes will go to sleep and I will be once again free to wander.
7/25/02 I spent most of today in town. Good grief, it was hot. As I approached the mountains the temp dropped more than ten degrees. By the time I had reached the cabin it was a cool 82 with a nice breeze blowing. Pam said the temp had only been a few degrees above that during the hottest part of the day. It was in the upper 90's in town. Just getting away from all of that concrete, blacktop and brick makes a big difference.
One of my favorite places to sit these days is in one of the benches that Pam built that sits at the upper end of the creek in the front yard. There is a lichen-covered rock just right for propping my feet up on while I kick back and enjoy the view. A nice cool breeze swept through, and the sound of the moving leaves and branches mingled with the stream sounds and created a mellow, relaxing, joyous melody that nearly put me to sleep. Then I had to move on over to the swing that is right next to the pond while Pam fed the fish. The water has finally cleared up in our pond, and you can see every detail in the stones in the deepest part of the pond, and all of the colorful fish that were having a ball today. I had to move a second flat rock into place this morning to give the fish a bit more shade during the heat of the day (as it were). I think they are beginning to like this place.
It was a funny scene, with all of those fish circling the pond and churning up the surface - they were surrounded by three people, two dogs, and two cats, all staring down at them. Once all of the floating fish food was consumed, the fish went back to their day jobs - digging through the gravel at the bottom of the pond. This is how they earn their keep, and help keep the pond water and gravel and rocks clean. We have 13 little vacuum cleaners in the pond! Aspen got a hair cut today, which hopefully will help with the burr season that is now upon us (he picked up at least 100 on our little hike yesterday). The poor fellow was forced to sit at poolside this evening while the water boiled with fish just a foot away from him - he was shaking and drooling, but he stayed put. Good dog.
Just before sunset many dark clouds gathered overhead, and with a big wind coming from the southwest it really felt like rain. We sure have had a good deal of that this summer, which has produced many tens of millions of wildflowers across the Ozarks.
It is now quite dark out, and I just stepped out on the deck to see what was going on. The sky has cleared and the stars are out. No moon yet, but it will be very bright when it rises here in a few minutes. The trees were filled with thousands of tree frogs and summer bugs - it is rather LOUD tonight!
One last note about the pond tour of last weekend. The final tally shows that we raised more than $1800 to support the volunteers that are building a new section of the Ozark Highlands Trail over near Blanchard Springs. THANKS to all of you who participated in one way or another! The folks at Knee Deep who put together and sponsored the entire deal, as well as all of the ticket outlets, and especially all of the individual pond owners, all did a great job and everyone who hikes this new trail will appreciate what you have done. Next year this tour will be even larger, and we are hoping for twice as many folks. I know the water garden here at Cloudland will be even nicer (it already is - seems to be progressing each day), and there will be new ponds to explore too. AND, we will have more homemade cookies and sassafras tea ready for you!
Our next few weeks and months will be spent tightly focused on getting the maps created for the waterfall book. We are still in the setup and learning stage and Pam already has taken off in a dead run. While she probably would never admit it, I think she secretly likes computer gadgets just like I do. I bought her a 6 x 9 inch writing tablet to help her draw the maps - she was a bit sky about it at first, but now I can't hardly get it out of her hands! She absolutely loves it, and as I was leaving the cabin this morning, she had Amber up on her lap and the two of them were drawing away like crazy. It is now getting rather late at night here - normally Pam's reading time - and she just sat down next to me with a big grin on her face, and that tablet in front of her, with pen in hand, poised to produce the map to White Rock Falls. Yep, I sure did pick a good one!
We had planned to take a few days off in August just before Amber goes back to school and actually take a family vacation. We had the route and stops all planned out, and had even secured house sitters. But none of the three of us really wanted to leave right now, and so we just cancelled the entire trip tonight. Actually from Amber's point of view she will end up getting to do more fun stuff right around here anyway - we will take off a few days here and there to go explore caves, get in a bit of fishing and swimming, go to Branson for a show or two, and, oh yea, feed the fish! All the while Pam and I will be able to continue creating the maps, so while we will be having fun too, we will also be getting some real work done. I guess the bottom line is that we all love it here, even in the heat of summertime. When I built this place, I wanted it to be my vacation retreat. Not that I don't ever want to go elsewhere, but that I would be perfectly happy just staying home. That plan has worked out quite well.
7/27/02 You can often tell what sort of sunrise it is simply by looking at a leaf or spot of sunshine in the forest - if the color of the light is white, you won't have much of a sunrise to look at. If the light is pink or red, then it may be worth while to go find an open spot to have a look see. I was out wandering around in the woods this morning when the first spots of light began to penetrate the forest - they were yellow, which meant the sunrise probably would not be too exciting. Since I couldn't see much of the eastern horizon anyway, I didn't bother to go seek out a view point But the forest looked mighty nice, and it was cool, with a breeze blowing. Come to think of it, the air was actually really cool, and I had to keep up a good pace in order to stay warm. Sounds kind of odd in late July in Arkansas.
By the time I reached the East meadow the first rays of sun were hitting some of the taller bushes. I've been watching a wall of sumac for several weeks, and today the seeds had hit a high point in their run of color - they were bright red now, and shining in the morning sun against the deep green of their own leaves (which would turn blood red in a few weeks too).
Right next to the sumac are several dogwoods, and I've been watching their berries too. One of these days they will become bright red as well, but today they were still plump and green. There must be flocks of birds keeping their eyes on these berries too.
Later on I came across two wildflower blooms at the top of a seven-foot-tall stalk. Looking around, I didn't see any color other than green as far as I could see - this was the only flower in bloom in this area. As soon as I got around the next bend in the trail, I saw a sea of yellow - dozens of these tall flowers, all on stalks six or more feet tall, waving in the wind. Just another brand of wildflowers that we had not seen out here before this summer, and growing in large quantities. Far and away the best wildflower season here in a very long time.
As evening set in we all loaded up and went to Huntsville for the Madison County Rodeo. Neither Pam nor Amber had ever been to a real one before, so it was a real treat for them. I was quite surprised at how nice it was myself - not only did they have LOTS of cowboys and cowgirls there, but quite a few world champions that put on quite a show. We were all duly impressed.
And then the best part of the day happened just after we got home at midnight - Pam and I both rushed downstairs to see what was up with the coal miners, and we got to see the incredible news about their impending rescue. Both of us sat up and remained glued to the tube until the very last miner was hauled out, nearly 2am here. What a story - sort of like Haley times nine!
7/28/02 Those darn waterfall maps keep bugging me, and I have rolled on over back into no-sleep mode. I was up early, after just a few hours sleep, and downstairs in the basement working on the awful windows computer. I have managed to tweak the system enough so that I can actually stand to work on the darn thing for a little while a time, and it is producing the first part of the maps that the Macs can't do because no one will write software for them to do it.
Outside it was another splendid day, with the wind blowing, and clouds, and cool temps. But it FELT a bit muggy, and I figured hot temps were on the way. We spent most of the day inside working on the maps, with a few trips out to the pond and stream to feed the fish and just sit around in the cool breeze (it never got above 81 today). The water in our pond has cleared up nicely, as you can see from this photo of a lily boom - the bloom is actually UNDERWATER. We are able to see and enjoy our fish a lot more because of the clear water, plus they are getting more at ease with their new home.
I sat down and made up a new master list for the waterfall book - 124 waterfalls that have been photographed. I'm still not sure at this point if we're going to put them all in this first book, and then update it down the road a couple of years later with more waterfalls that are already on my new to-do list. Or only put 100 of these waterfalls in the first volume, and publish a second volume a couple of years down the road. Either way, we have a lot of map work to do. By the end of today we had 16 new maps drawn, with ab out 54 left to do, plus a dozen or more maps that I already have that will have to be tweaked a bit for the new book. Pam is being a trooper about it all, and is turning into quite a drawer with that new computer tablet. And when she is not working on the maps, Amber will sneak in next to me and take control of the drawing tablet - she has already produced some interesting artwork with it!
I also figured out that I needed to visit 16 waterfalls this next month to get some statistics for the book - mostly height measurements and GPS info (I already have the photos of them). This is not the best time of the year to be out there bushwhacking, but what the heck, it beats flipping burgers. So after dinner I loaded up the truck and headed out to go hike into the falls at the top of the list - Neil Compton's Double Falls (it is pictured on the cover of the 2002 Arkansas Waterfall calendar).
The woods were cool and dark, and filled with spider webs. There was no trail - only thick brush and trees as far as I could see (which wasn't very far). I managed to follow a dry streambed part of the way, but got into some pretty steep terrain off to the side of it. After about 20 minutes of bushwhacking, I realized that this was the first real hike that I had taken into thick country since my snakebite. I was a little skittish at first because I could not see where I was stepping a lot of the time - poison ivy covered the forest floor and my feet disappeared into it before touching the ground. I eventually just decided to hike on and not worry too much about old Mr. snake, and that seemed to work out just fine.
Before I had reached the main creek I came upon a waterfall that I hadn't seen before. It measured 25 feet, and would be a nice falls when it was running. I won't name it or put a photo in the guidebook, but will certainly note it as one to go look at while you are in the neighborhood. In fact I came across two others nearby too, one of them even larger at 28 feet - this one I had been to before, and it is on the main Whitaker Creek branch.
Poor Aspen. He spent his time running at full speed wherever he went, which was all over the place two or three times, and then back again. Most all of the streambeds were bone dry, but he did manage to find this one tiny hole of water, and he made sure that he made the most of it.
The main streambed was 25-30 feet wide, and covered with mossy flat rocks, some of them really large boulders. I felt rather small as I meandered along, gazing up at the towering trees above me. The forest was so thick here that I could hardly see any sky above me at all. I doubt direct sunlight reaches this streambed much in the summertime.
This particular stretch of the stream is a little odd because while it is surrounded by very rough country, the actual stream course through this area is nearly straight - very few twists and turns. It was easy walking.
Before too long the actual stream itself appeared out of no where, much to Aspen's delight. The solid rock floor changed from flat layers of rock to wavy ones, and finally to a spot where the waters had eroded ditches into the solid rock just before going right on over the edge of the big waterfall. This ditch is what creates the second or "double" waterfall, but it takes really high water before this split can happen.
Man, it was one magical place. I hadn't really taken the time to look around much while hiking to this spot, but the beauty and paradise quality of the surroundings kind of forced me to stop and take notice. Lush, LUSH! There were giant sycamore trees, umbrella magnolias that had wingspans of five or six feet on some of their individual leaf groups. One such group was laid right down on the ground, inviting me to lay down on it and be carried away. But I had work to do. I took the GPS reading and measured the height (42 feet tall), then started to work my way around to the bottom.
Seemed like every step I took I found a new scene to admire or photograph, or both. It was just wonderful all around.
As I reached down in one place to grab the base of a tree to help pull myself up a steep slope, my eyes saw RED. The ground was sprinkled with these cucumber magnolia fruits - hundreds of them. I picked up a handful and place them on a nearby rock to the photo. Looking up into the heavy canopy above I could see perhaps a hundred more still clinging to the high branches. This was a tall tree, and she was producing a great deal of fruit.
And then I came across this seed pod. I've marveled at the plant for many years, but never had seen one go to seed. Do you know what it is? (answer at the end of the hike) One of the most interesting of all plants on the forest floor for sure.
Before I could get to the bottom of the falls I had to find a way down. I made my way on over to where I knew there was another waterfall that I had photographed a year or two ago. It took me a few minutes, and I finally and to rely on Aspen's expertise to show me the way down - lots of bluffs around here! It only took a couple of minutes to reach the base of the big falls once I got down through the bluffline.
I did not expect to see such a beautiful pool of water at the base of this falls - not in late July! The emerald pool was lined with ferns and umbrella magnolias - looked more like Hawaii than the Ozarks. And son of a gun, there was even a small trickle going over the falls. Aspen tried out the pool while I stood back and took pictures. What a place!
The thick canopy made it really dark down in there, but the sun was dropping as well making things really dim in a hurry, so I decided not to linger any longer and bid farewell to the falls and headed UP the hillside, going out a different route. There are several ways out of this canyon, and all of them require a lot of elevation gain. I choose one that was straight up the hill for a while, and then leveled out for the last half mile.
As soon as I started up the climb I spotted a perfect mushroom, right there at eye level on the ground in front of me. I had to get a photo, so I quickly dug out the digital camera, braced myself against the ground, and fired off a few snapshots. The light was fading fast and it required long exposures. The color, the shape, everything about this mushroom was just perfect. OK, I got a good pic. Only then did I realize that not two feet away from me and the mushroom was a bee hive in the ground - freshly dug out by a bear. There were bees swarming all over the place, but none of them seemed to mind me being there, or they would have stung me long ago. I slowly backed off, then gave them a wide path. I don't like bees.
A little further up the hillside I saw more evidence of a hungry bear - all of the rocks as far as I could see had been turned over. And I'm not just talking about regular bear-turning-over size either (a couple of feet across). Some of these were really LARGE, but also many of them were quite SMALL. This bear was really hungry to bother with such small rocks. But what the heck, I guess those ant and lizard and their eggs are just like ice cream to him! I had to laugh as I thought back to my childhood summer days in the woods - I used to spend hours doing the very same thing - turning over every rock that I could find, looking for whatever was under them. I don't recall finding too much to eat though.
I'm really getting fat and out of shape, but that climb out was not all that bad. I was soaked to the bone by the time I reached the truck, but not even breathing hard. Aspen was huffing and puffing big time, but then he probably RAN ten or more miles too. All in all it was one delightful hike, and another waterfall in the bag. Hey, I never saw a snake or even a tick either! And the seed pod - that was a Jack-In-The-Pulpit!
7/29/02 Aspen woke us up just after midnight. He wasn't barking, but was really excited and said that he just had to go outside. Ever since we got the cats we've had to close the dog door at night to keep them out, so I had to get up and go downstairs to let Aspen out. The wind was blowing really hard - there were several large objects on the deck that had been blown (or knocked) over - and there were some strange sounds in the air. I stood out on the lower deck for several minutes trying to make out what the wind was saying, or what critter was making the sounds, but was unsuccessful. The moon was just rising, there were many stars out, and there was an eerie feeling about it all. Aspen did not tear off like he often does, but rather stayed close to the cabin, running around like crazy sniffing the ground and the air. He heard the sounds too. They were high-pitched, and that is probably what got him all riled up in the first place. Since neither one of us could figure out what was going on, we finally both gave up and went back up in the loft to bed.
When I let Aspen out first thing this morning he did the very same thing - ran all over the place, sniffing the ground and the air, but remained close to the cabin. Whatever critter was making those sounds spent some time wandering around the outside of the cabin leaving a scent trail.
Pam and Amber went into town to look for hiking boots for her, and I loaded up and headed out for another bushwhack trip into a waterfall. This one was Paradise Falls, one of my favorite waterfalls in the wilderness. I wanted to see if there was a more direct way to get to it than the route I had taken when I first discovered it. I knew I could get in this new way, but wanted to hike it before putting it into the guidebook.
I had no trouble finding the spot along the highway to park that I had plotted on my computer map, but the old road that I had planned to follow part of the way was not cooperating - it split into many old roads instead of the one that was indicated on the computer map. This hillside had been logged perhaps 20 years ago, and the many other roads were plowed out to accommodate the timber sale. The old road had been closed off, and now everything was growing up. I knew which direction to take to get to the waterfall, but I could not find the correct road that went that way, so I simply headed out into the thick brush.
The hillside dropped off pretty quickly, and the little streambed that I was following provided a nice corridor for me to follow. I was surprised to find several seeps and a lot of moss in the stream this high up. I eventually came across the correct road once again, but it was right at the point where I had planned to leave it, so I could only make note of it and continue on my way down the streambed.
Before too long I had dropped down into the main Boen Gulf creekbed, and was nearing the waterfall. This creek was quite different from the upper reaches of Whitaker Creek that I had traversed yesterday. This one was much more rugged, clogged with large boulders, and had a lot more drop to it. The sides of the little canyon were steep and thick with brush and loose rock, so I remained in the creekbed.
There were many giant sycamore and umbrella magnolia trees
in this canyon too, and they towered high above and kept out most of the
daylight. It was cloudy, windy and cool today, and I loved the temperature.
I hiked under many large trees that had fallen across the creek over the
years - some of them were 10-15 feet above the creekbed, supported on both
sides by the steep banks of the canyon. It was a wild, lush wilderness
I was hiking through.
Aspen enjoys one of the pools