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9/1/01 Dark clouds at first light today, and for the first time in a couple of weeks, I got to sleep in until 5am or so. It was cool out, and felt like rain. No rain fell, but it did remain cool all morning—in fact downright pleasant outside. I hiked up to the office in the dark and continued with my writing. Nope the book is not complete yet, but I have written many thousands of words since my last post in the journal.

Pam got up and headed out towards Pettigrew to meet with a Fed-X Ground truck to pick up some packages. This is one of the most miserable companies to do business with, and I highly recommend that you avoid them at all costs.

OK, here is a quick wrap-up of what has been going on here the last several weeks. We have been having some terrific weather for August! Some days have been downright cool. Although the past week or two it has been warmer, but still quite tolerable. The forest is still green and healthy, and the main Buffalo River is running, although I have not been down to it lately.

The flowers in Fox meadow have been going crazy—more and more every day—they just don't know when to quit! And along with all the wildflowers come butterflies—hundreds of them all day long. Besides the bright yellow tiger swallowtails and blue and black spicebush swallowtails, there have been many monarchs and cloudless sulphurs, plus several other varieties. Walking through this meadow is a delight to the eye.

The other critters that have been around have not been quite so pleasant though. We have had five large rattlesnakes within a stones throw of the cabin, including two just yesterday (pictured at the top of this page). I got Pam a little .22 pistol and loaded it with birdshot. We hope this will deter the varmits from moving in and setting up household. And by the way, I know that some of you will be quick to criticize the killing of a poisonous snake. If you are one of these, please stop by anytime and I will be happy to send them home with you. I'm sorry, but poisonous snakes are not welcome here, and they will be taken care of in a reasonable manner. When I come across a snake in the wild, that is a different story - that is their home, and I leave well enough alone.

Speaking of snakes, we had a very serious incident here a couple of days ago. Billy and Landon Woods went out for a long hike and were deep in the wilderness when Landon got bit TWICE by a copperhead. It took Billy six hours to get his brother out of the woods and headed towards the hospital. I normally don't think of a snake bite as life-threatening, but Billy says he thought he was going to lose his brother a time or two. Thankfully Landon is out of the hospital today and is going to be OK.

Amber's first day of school was two weeks ago. Man, there was a great deal of crying, many tense moments and long faces. But by the end of the day PAM was OK, and realized that the first day of school was not all that bad after all. AMBER did great, and absolutely loves her teacher, the school, and her classmates. She even enjoys the bus ride. Pam and I have been with Amber to her school several times (open house, meet the teacher, etc.), and I am quite comfortable being a dad. She has not even complained about getting up at 5:45! I have no idea how I stumbled into this pair, but I have simply the best child and wife.

We also went to the local county fair the other night. Amber entered a couple of her crayon drawings in it and won two blue ribbons! My daughter is an award winning artist already!!!

OK, now about the BOOK. Most days I have been up and typing away by 3 or 4am. Sometimes it's been midnight before my work day ended. It seems the more I write, the more I find to write about. This is really going to be a great book, if I do say so myself. Not because of my writing, but because of the subject matter, and of the prose I have been able to get others to write. Haley's grandmother Joyce wrote a great chapter about her ordeal through it all. And I used her first-person account of the last few minutes of their hike with Haley in the main chapter about Haley's Hike (9,000 words in that chapter so far). I've received several heart-warming stories from volunteers, several poems that will make you cry, and this wonderful chapter written by Colleen Nick. There will be a chapter in this book that ALL parents and kids should read about what to do if you get lost in the woods, including a checklist of items that every kid should have on every hike. And oh my goodness, wait until you hear about Alecia, the little girl that Haley invented to keep her company on her hike. We have uncovered some new information about this imaginary friend (and are still researching the details) that will send a chill down your spine! I also hope to have some thoughts to include from Steve and Kelly.

There will be a few black and white photos in the book, plus one drawing that Haley did of Alecia.

The book is not finished yet. I still have a couple of shorter chapters to write, plus fine-tuning all that I have written so far, and a number of interviews to do and stories to collect from the main search and rescue folks (getting their stories has been the most difficult of all). So there will be many more early days for me at the office, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Once I get everything down on paper, the text will go through at least a couple of different levels of editing, beginning with Pam, who has been doing the initial edit as soon as the paper gets out of the printer. I am not looking for a literary masterpiece here, but do hope to get rid of most of the typos. If all goes well, the book should be available sometime in November.

We received the advance copies of the 2002 Waterfall Calendar and were blow away—the quality of printing is even better than I ever expected! The shipment of them should arrive in about two weeks.

Dave and Barb came out one weekend with Pam's parents. Dave set up his giant telescope up in Aspen's meadow and we spent a delightful evening searching deep space for all sorts of things.

We've been seeing this group of four whitetail deer bucks around lately. All of them are still in velvet, but one of them is a real monster.

There is a bit of fall color here and there - mostly just a few black gum trees here and there turning that deep red. The poison ivy and Virginia creeper has been really nice - brilliant reds and yellows carpet the forest floor. And I saw my first acorn on the ground yesterday - it was perfect in every way, with a smooth green body and bright brown cap. Hickory nuts are coming on strong. In fact, I just sent my dear wife up the road to collect a bucket full of them. Today is Carolyn Crooks' birthday, and not having anything to get her, we will present her with five gallons of fresh hickory nuts for her pet flying squirrels! (sometimes you have to do things differently out here in the wilderness!)

There were many more wonderful things that happened out here during August, and I will probably recall some of them as time goes on. But for now, I have been typing away today for nine hours without a break (it took me most of that to write Chapter Five), I think I will mosey on down to the cabin and post this, then lay down and take a nap. I will resume regular journal updates, although I have no idea what that means!

9/2/01 Heavy cloud cover again this morning, although the full moon is out there right now trying to send moonbeams down through any little crack that it can. It is 5-something am, and the moon is low in the western sky. I must say that the sunrises have been quite spectacular here lately, at least what I could see of them. We don't really have a clear shot to the east because of all the big trees on that side of the cabin, but we are able to see through them enough to tell when the color is very good. Winter sunrises are easier to see. That is actually a problem all over the Buffalo River region - there are very few open places in wilderness settings where you can get an open view of the sunrise or sunset with any interesting land features included - the valleys are very deep, but since they twist and turn if you do have an open view, it is often of just a big hillside, which is not always too interesting.

The other morning I was out in the hot tub around 3:30 or 4, just finished my mocha and then got up on the deck to dry off. The sky was black with thousands of stars out. A bright object directly overhead caught my attention - it was glowing far brighter than anything else in the sky. Then it dimmed and continued on a regular path across the sky to the south. It looked to me to be a normal satellite, but good grief it had glowed BRIGHT! A moment later a second one up high did the very same thing - glowed really bright for a few seconds as it streaked across the sky, then dimmed down and just became a normal satellite. There turned out to be five of them up there within a minute, all heading in the same direction. They were about as bright as a quarter moon. I guess that had to be just the sun shining off of them for a few seconds at just the right angle, but man I have never seen anything like it before, especially to have five of them.

While all of this was going on I got the feeling that someone or thing was watching me - you know, sometimes you just get that creepy feeling. As I turned to go back into the cabin I figured out what was watching me - there were THREE bright planets all rising in the eastern sky that I could see through the trees. I guess they were watching the satellite show too!

Since I know a lot of you who read this journal were involved in some way with the Haley search, I need to see if any of you can help me with a nagging question that no one has been able to answer. There was a young lady who arrived at the cabin on that Tuesday. She set up a massage table in Steve and Kelly's room and gave them massages. She was here most of that day. She simply appeared, then left after her work was done. NO one has been able to tell us her name. We think that she graduated from Rogers high school, and she obviously is a professional masseuse somewhere in the area. She was tall and slender and young. If anyone knows who this lady is, please let me know so that I can get her name in the book.

For those of you in the Fayetteville area who have not seen it yet, you might want to take a look at the new Pack Rat building that is going up on Gregg Ave. just around the corner from their current location. It is being built of logs - the same type and style as those that the Cloudland Cabin is built out of.  They already have 13 rows of the logs up, and Scott tells me that there are 8 or 9 more semi-truck loads of logs remaining to arrive and be put up. I have seen the pictures of the finished structure (when it was originally built by the Amish in Montana before being disassembled and shipped down here), and it is going to be one incredible structure! The post and beams inside will be huge. That log construction will be going on for the next several weeks. You can see pictures of it all at their web site (www.packratoc.com).

We are back to window temperature control at the cabin these days - it is so nice and cool at night that we go around and open all of the windows, then close them in the morning as the temp rises above the inside temperature. There is just a hint of fall in the air, and it FEELS terrific. Its the sort of air that you can take deep into your lungs and feel refreshed.

There is beginning to get a bit of color in the eastern sky now, and enough light for me to hike up to the office and get to work. (I have been avoiding hiking around in the dark lately because of all the snake activity.) I hear that there is a holiday this weekend - Labor Day? I guess that fits because I will be laboring 14-16 hours per day!

Of course, sometimes "labor" is relative out here. Pam has taken on the duties of selling all 3,000 of the new 2002 Arkansas Waterfall Calendars (want to buy several? - they are scheduled to arrive in a couple of weeks), and so she has been putting in long hours herself trying to find new dealers to stock them. Her "office" is often the swing on the back deck, where she can be found making phone calls. It is a tough place to work for sure,  with butterflies and hummingbirds always distracting you.  (THANKS Sarah for the wonderful cushions!)

I spent most of the day up at the office, typing away on the book project. Pam's mom Judy arrived in the afternoon for an extended stay. Her and Pam made a trip into Jasper to pick up Amber's award-winning artwork from the fair, then Pam gave her mom a tour of the big city.

After an extra large serving of lasagna for dinner (or did I have two?), I felt it necessary to attempt to work some of it off, so I spent a bit of time down in Fox meadow pulling weeds. I guess the "weeds" that are beginning to take over the meadow are really my fault. I had gone to the farmer's coop in Fayetteville last spring to get some sort of grass that would come up in the meadow after the winter rye grass had died out in June. They gave me three different types of PEAS to plant. Being the idiot that I am, I went ahead and planted them. Not the beautiful wildflower meadow below is filled with these broad-leaf plants that are spreading rapidly.

One good thing about the pea plants though is that each individual plant covers a large area - sometime five or six feet in diameter. And so when I pull one up, there is a great deal of personal satisfaction since I have just taken care of such a large space - and the plants pull up quite easily, roots and all.

It was actually a delightful hour down in the meadow, with all of those bright wildflowers all over the place, and butterflies of many different colors filling the air. It was cool too - at least for a summer day. The temp remained in the 70's all day.

Later in the evening, Pam was at the computer laying out her very first book - it will be a children's book, with a butterfly as the main character. She has always been a windows computer user, and I think was a bit shocked to discover that she was able to figure out how use a serious page design and layout program without any help from me or any manual - that is the beauty of using a Macintosh computer - they are often so easy to use that you can simply "figure" out how to do things.

I was on the couch doing a bit of research into some video equipment that I am getting later this month (reading magazines). We had not heard from Judy in a while, but the last time we saw her she was out on the back deck. It was very dark outside. A little while later we heard her cry out "You gotta come look at the moon!"

The full moon had just risen into the eastern sky, and it was giant and incredible. It was a little difficult to see though because of the wall of tall trees across that end of the cabin. I have always threatened to cut one or two down so that we could have an unobstructed view of the sun/moon rise, but I have never been able to get anyone else to agree with me. Actually the entire row of trees should come down because of the danger of fire, but I rather like having them there so I expect them to remain.

9/3/01 It was very bright outside as I had my early morning soak in the hot tub. Seemed like the moonlight was brighter and casting sharper shadows than normal. Not too long ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to wander through the nighttime or early morning woods during a full moon, drifting through the forest without a care in the world and soaking up all of that moonlight. With the recent snake activity I have mostly curtailed my activities - and using a flashlight sort of takes away a great deal of the reason that I wander around in the moonlight in the first place - to be able to wander around in the MOONLIGHT! While I do enjoy each and every season here, I am looking forward to cold temps so that the snakes will head into the ground for winter and leave us alone.

I did hike up the road to the cabin well before first light, but I had to pay a lot more attention to where I was walking and what shapes were on the ground in front of me. After several hours of typing away at the computer, I returned to the cabin and found Pam and Judy suiting up for a hike out into the cool morning air.

That air is rather hazy this morning, but the wilderness looks great in the soft light. Just plain old bright sunshine is never too interesting to me, but the many different types of light that happen during the year create a variety of personalities in the scene that is visible from the cabin.

Tons of small birds flying around this morning - mostly goldfinches, with their brilliant contrasting yellow and black bodies flashing across the view. They spend a lot of time hanging upside down on the tall wild sunflower stalks (some of the flowers are six or more feet tall!). The sea of yellow below is spreading now as goldenrod turns pure yellow - goldenrod and goldfinches and wild sunflowers - it is blinding!

9/4/01 A very bright moon again this morning as I made my way up to the office just after 3am. The shadows were not as distinct though as the day before  - there was a thin layer of haze above, softening up the moonlight even further. My mind was playing tricks on me, and I felt sure I had come up on giant rattlesnakes three or four times.

After working on the book for a couple of hours, I returned to the cabin and got Amber up and ready for school. Pam had come down with something and did not feel too good. Hum, ME loading up a kid's backpack for school? Needless to say she would not run out of snacks during the day! Pam's instructions that drifted down from the loft helped keep me on track, and soon we were on our way out to the main road to wait for the school bus.

Judy had joined us, and her and Amber played while we drove through the twilight. Once we got to our parking spot, it would be nearly a half hour before the bus arrived (sometimes it runs a bit late, although I also wanted to make sure we were there on time, so we arrived a few minutes early). In the meantime the sky all around us was turning wonderful shades of pink and red and orange, streaked with blue. The moon was there right in the middle of it all, shining through the pink and red and orange clouds, backed with streaks of blue. It was quite a scene, one that even Amber had to stop and admire.

I returned to the office and kept on working on the book most of the morning, sending out faxes and e-mails and making phone calls. While the bulk of the book has been written, I am still trying to tie up loose ends, and get just a few more stories out of people who played important roles in the search effort.

One such person was one of two incident commanders, George Stowe-Rains. I was finally able to track him down and get him lined up for an interview later in the day. I had to make a quick trip into town to get a slowly-leaking tire fixed anyway.

I have known George for many years, and he is a very passionate individual, especially when it comes to search and rescue activities. When we sat down at his home and turned on the tape recorder, I had no idea it would be three hours before we finished. I only had one hour of tape. George took me through the entire ordeal, beginning with his arrival on the scene late Sunday. I sat there stunned and amazed at what great detail and organization was required to put together such a large-scale operation. The public simply has no idea what was involved. George was the first to admit that there were many problems with it all, mostly stemming from the fact that they were overwhelmed so quickly with hoards of volunteers. Yet through it all, the nuts and bolts of the SAR operation went off pretty much as planned, and they did what they were supposed to do. I think once the book is published everyone will have a much better understanding of why things did or did not happen.

It was great for me to finally be able to hear some of the inside scoop from the top about things that had happened during the operation - especially some of things that took place right here in our cabin that I was not privy to. I appreciated his willingness to go through it all with me, especially knowing that I would be putting some of it in print for the world to see. Of course, only a small fraction of what we discussed will ever see the light of day, but I think the book will bring things into much better focus.

It was nearly 11pm before I got back to the cabin, and then I had to digest a number of  e-mailed stories that had been sent in. It would be another 20+ hour day for me, which is typical when I am working on a project like this one, especially when I am so far behind and trying to meet a deadline (my new deadline - the old one passed already!).

9/5/01 It was after 4am when I got out of bed and slipped into the hot tub this morning. Very quiet outside - no wind or critters stirring. But there was on whip-poor-whill yelling as loud as he could. Oops, I mean singing a delightful tune...

We had another great moon and pink clouds and blue sky show this morning while we were waiting for the bus - more subtle colors this morning. It was very hazy. In fact, after I got back and sat down at the computer, I realized that the haze was so nice that I was forced to grab my camera and hike down to Hawksbill Crag to attempt to shoot a cover shot for the new book.

I arrived at the Crag about ten minutes too late, but shot a couple of rolls of film anyway. I've got thousands of images of the Crag that I could use on the cover, but I always want to go take just one more. It was a pleasant hike both ways, although the hike out proved to be a wet on - I was soaked from head to toe when I arrived back at the truck.

Made a quick trip into town to interview one of the guys who was in charge of Haley's search and rescue mission. One thing about this book - I want to make sure that I have the facts correct, and have been going to great lengths to get it all straight from the horses', uh, er, mouth. George Stowe-Rains is a terrific guy - very passionate about search and rescue. What started as a quick few minutes interview turned into three hours. Very interesting stuff to me.

9/6/01 Today was another get-up-well-before-dawn-and-hike-to-the-office-in-the-dark-to-work-on-the-book day. It is getting to be crunch time now, and I am way behind and still have a long way to go. I spent most of the day typing away, doing more research, and going through tons of paperwork that has been piling up.

One very bright spot to the day was in the evening, just as it was getting dark. Amber and I were in the hot tub, and she came over and crawled up into my lap. We were looking up at all of the stars that were coming out, and I was telling her about all of the shooting stars that I have been seeing early in the morning. "Have you been wishing on them?" she asked. "What did you wish for?" I told her that one of my wishes was that she was happy her in her new home. And remember, that Amber has been plucked right out of her only home and placed out here in the middle of no where, where she has no playmates, knows not a single soul in school, and has to get up very early - in short, her world has been turned upside down by this move. And worst of all, there are no Taco Bells in sight! She turned and looked deep into my eyes and said "Tim, I will be happy here forever."

9/7/01 After a couple hours of typing away on the book, I sped off to Beaver Lake State Park to interview my old friend Mark Clippinger, who was another one of the guys in charge of Haley's search. Just like with George, I spent hours doing the interview. When I arrived at Mark's office he was surrounded by stacks of papers - all of them original documents that were generated on-site during the search. It was amazing to look through some of them and read the paper trail of what went on. There was more than a thousand sheets of paper there on his deck, plus many more that had already ended up somewhere else. I had no idea the search mission was so involved or complicated - but that is why you do the research when you are writing a book!

I also spent some time in town talking with Kelly Zega. Her and her husband Steve have written some incredible things about the search for the book. In fact, I had gone by to visit with her to beg for them to write more. What an interesting perspective - to experience the horror through their minds. Good grief, I amy even go out and buy a copy of this book! Oh yea, I guess I'm going to be buying 5,000 copies of the book.

That night we had a mighty fine thunderstorm, and about an inch of rain - the first in a long while. The wind blew and thunder crashed much of the night. We kept the windows open.

9/8/01 Today was another long day up at the office, beginning just after 3am. My poor wife has not seen too much of me lately. That must be a good thing though, because she finally sat down and wrote a few of her thoughts down - I have been encouraging her to do so, but she has been busy with other chores.

 There is a beautiful spider outside my bathroom window. That is, if you can say spider and beautiful in the same sentence. Since I have moved here to Cloudland, I have come to learn to hate spiders. Not fear them, just hate them. Everywhere you turn and everything you touch, there is a spider involved. I have taken it upon myself to destroy the buggers. However, this spider is different. There is something so fascinating about watching her through the pane of glass. Her not knowing that I am there peering into her world, and me knowing that she won’t appear in my nightshirt that night.
 I have no idea what kind of spider she is. Just that she has intrigued me. This particular bathroom window has been a gathering place for spiders and I have destroyed them many times. However, with her around no other spiders will appear. It has become a bit of a morning ritual for me to go in and say a good morning to my spider friend.
 She has built a web that is so intricate and strong with somewhat of a cave in the corner for her to rest and to hide. The bathroom light draws bugs directly into her grasp and it seemed for awhile that she was getting fat from all of her catches. I have even attempted to leave the light on to attract more bugs into her dinner plate, but to no avail, my husband always turns the light off.
 Yesterday a violent storm whipped up and I knew it would destroy her home. After the rain, lightning, and thunder were gone, I ran upstairs to see how she was. Right there, safe and sound, no harm done, in her small cave.
 In the evening I noticed a great deal of activity on her part and decided to set down on the counter and watch for awhile. I am thinking that my beautiful spider has laid a hatch of eggs. Okay, a HUGE hatch of eggs. She spent the better part of an hour wrapping her offspring in an eggshell white sac of silk and then proceeded to gather bugs and attach them to the outside of the sac. I am assuming so the little munchkins will have a snack when they emerge from their  silk world.
 My heart is saddened somewhat that she has decided to lay her eggs outside my little window. While I am drawn to her and her daily activities, thousands of offspring just won’t due. Soon I will have to find my spray can of spider killer and just hope that she doesn’t get in the way or worse yet, that she might  appear in my nightshirt.

I think Pam is getting the hang of this place!

As the day went on clouds gathered once again, and by dark we had another great thunderstorm underway. This one lasted long into the night. I think it may have been the longest sustained period of lightning I have ever witnessed. And we ended up with nearly four inches of rain! Boy, that was exactly what we needed. Some of the trees were beginning to look rather dry.

9/9/01 I hate to sound like a broken record, but here it is again. I was up very early and hike to the office in the dark. I spent all day yesterday working on the "Search and Rescue Mission" chapter, and was back at it again this morning. As daylight crept into the forest, I ran down to the cabin and got Amber up out of bed, and her and Pam and I hiked out to the Crag to take a few pictures. I wanted to get Amber out there on the Crag, with clouds behind her. There were a few clouds being born in the Buffalo valley, and though we did have to wait a little while for them to move into just the right spot, they finally did and I got a few good pictures. Amber is turning into one mighty fine model.

The rest of my day was spent at the computer, and then a quick trip into town for the Ozark Highlands Trail Association meeting. When I returned late at night, I brought the truck to a quick stop up in the Faddis meadow, and stepped out into an amazing night scene. The sky had been swept clean by all of the rain and thunderstorms and a cold front, and was black as could be. And filled with a million tiny jewles. All I could do was stand there in awe.

Here is a bit more from Pam:

 It seems that this beautiful wilderness has decided to gently embrace and welcome my little dog Lucy into its arms, slowly. Lucy has wholeheartedly given up her ‘citiness’ but is still somewhat cautious of her surroundings. She looks to Aspen for guidance and reassurance often.
 This morning however, mother nature decided enough was enough. The days of barking at falling leaves and chasing butterflies were over. No more lizards to chase, no more squirrels to stumble after. Mother nature decided to hand Lucy a skunk.
 I wasn’t there to see the battle but it became extremely clear once Lucy peeked her tiny head in the doorway what had taken place. Her head was hung low as if she were embarrassed, humiliated perhaps, or just plain miserable because she stunk. Who knows what a dog is thinking? She just looked so pitiful. It was obvious that the skunk had won.
 Aspen has not been much help. He refuses to go near her and has a look of laughter in his eyes. I wish I could remind him that it wasn’t that long ago when he was in the same predicament. Tomorrow we will try the same recipe used on Aspen, but for now, we just have to love Lucy from afar.

9/10/01 I am sitting here at the computer in the cabin looking out over the most incredible scene. There is a sea of clouds packed tight down in the valleys below. Above them a rim of black - hills silhouetted. The horizon all around is turning pink and red and orange, and even the main sky above is colored. The sun is approaching. Not a wisp of wind anywhere. Now sunshine is just barely touching the very tip tops of the far off hills. It is nippy outside - feels TERRIFIC! And that little bit of warm sunshine is making the clouds dance and move all about. In a few minutes it will all lift and we will be engulfed in a giant cloud - a total whiteout. Then the clouds will rise up farther, and begin to break up and go elsewhere, revealing the silent wilderness below.

A couple of hours ago when I first got up and went out into the hot tub, Aspen and Lucy chased a bear out of the meadow and into the woods. I witnessed the entire thing from up on the deck - could just barely make out the main characters in the dim moonlight. Well, actually I could only see Aspen and Lucy, the bear was in my mind. The way that the dogs acted, and the crashing sounds in the woods, it mostly likely was a bear. In fact, I believe the bear stopped, turned around and held his ground - you should have heard Aspen's voice when that happened! Since I could not see exactly what was going on down in the woods just below the deck, and I knew that it probably was a bear, I screamed and yelled for the dogs, and they came a running. Thank goodness. I want that "I will be happy here forever" feeling to last a very long time, and somehow bringing Amber's dog back to her in a bag would alter that thought just a bit...

9/14/01 It has been a very long week, spent mostly at the computer up at the office, or on the trail from there down to the cabin. I've not taken a single hike. Come to think of it, the week has actually gone by very fast - it always tends to do that when you are trying to get something finished and don't have enough time to do it!

After working a couple of hours this morning I hiked back down to the cabin in the dark. I stopped to water the flowers, and to listen. At first, it was very quiet out there in the night. Then a chorus of coyotes struck up over on the other side of the Buffalo River. A hoot owl joined them - actually two of them. A screech owl over near the cabin rang out. And finally a whip-poor-will began to scream. All of a sudden the forest was alive and quite loud! That whip-poor-will seemed out of place now that it was 50 degrees and nearly fall.

The sky has been a bit hazy this week, and while there have been many stars out, most have been faint. It has been sort of odd not seeing airplane traffic, although there were quite a few of them up there this morning.

The other morning as we were driving Amber out to catch the bus, we looked straight up and saw the crescent moon, and one planet just inches away from it. I don't recall ever seeing one so close before.

The flowers down in Fox meadow continue to thrive and provide not only a great deal of beautiful color, but also a feeding grounds for hundreds of butterflies. The butterflies are flying slower now, perhaps due to the cooler temps.

The forest is in a holding pattern right now - not really summer, but not fall yet either. A few black gum trees have turned scarlet, but not very many. In fact there seemed to be more of them turning back in July than there are now. The overall scene has just a hint of yellow here and there. I think many of the trees are prepped to turn once just the right conditions arrive (and so far, none of the experts have been able to determine just exactly what those conditions are). The five inches of rain that we got last weekend has vanished, although I'm sure the vegetation sucked most of it up and is holding on for dear life - a most welcome treat!

The Haley book is moving right along, and I only have one short bit of prose left to write (my "final thoughts" chapter). Steve and Kelly just sent along the final version of their chapter - 17 normal pages in length, which will probably end up being 30 some odd pages in the book (I'm not cutting any of it - the finished size of the book will be much smaller than standard pages). Everything else is finished and has been sent to the editor for proofing. Once I get the edited text back, then I will begin the long process of formatting the actual book, adding the pictures, etc. This should take two-three days. And then it will be off to the printers! My wife and daughter (and me) will be really happy once that day arrives. Looks like the book will be 256 pages long - nearly twice the thickness of most of my guidebooks.

One sort of unexpected treat (although one that will add a great deal to my work load!) is the addition of art work to the book. I was going to use a drawing that Haley did to begin one of the chapters. Then her mom commented about how Haley just loves to draw. A light bulb went off in my head - why not have Haley illustrate the book? So if all goes well, there will be a small bit of her art at the beginning of each chapter. Most of them will be things that she encountered along the hike - like a butterfly, flower, etc. Plus one will be of Alecia, the imaginary friend that she had along with her - a very interesting story in itself.

The calendars are supposed to arrive in town today, and I will be there to collect them with my trailer.

On Saturday we will be at the Arkansas Canoe Club annual Rendezvous at Lake Catherine giving a slide program (ARKANSAS SPRING show) - this will be the debut of the new calendars! Any of you that placed orders should receive them sometime next week (it will take us a few days to get them all packaged up and shipped out).

It is getting light outside now, and haze has once again collected in the valley. It is absolutely STILL outside - no wind at all. Oops, I take that back - there are about a dozen goldfinches flying around and stirring the flowers up!

There is something in the air out there that always shows up this time of the year. No doctor has been able to tell me what it is, but I come down with a terrible cough that lasts for several weeks. I am allergic to something, but the cough is the only symptom. I usually go through several dozen bags of Halls cherry cough drops - which I love. They don't help the cough at all (so far nothing has ever helped), but I like the taste and have an excuse to be eating them.

9-14-01  (from Pam) The streaks have returned. I have had many revelations this week and some I was quite amazed by. How can something that you once thought have been so annoying turn out to be of so much comfort. It is true that here at Cloudland you can frequently forget that the rest of the world exists. In fact, that is one of its cherished charms. You can sit on the deck, look out into the wilderness and a peace like no other comes over you. The world is okay and good. I asked Tim one time, “How do you know if the world still exists or if it has suddenly
disappeared.”  He looked into my eyes and simply said, “You don’t”. I personally like knowing that the rest of the world is puttering along just like it is supposed to and hence my white and sometimes pink streaks. It seems that Cloudland sits in the crossways of air traffic flying from one end of the country to the other. Looking up into the blue sky and seeing those ugly white streaks crossing way up there and marking up the sky used to bug me, but at least I knew things were still puttering. Why couldn’t they go somewhere else and leave me to my dreaming of deep blue skies and oceans to match? However, this week, I found myself on the swing praying for my streaks to come back. Wanting so bad to see the fluffy white turn into a brilliant pink as the sun set over the horizon. Wanting so bad for something to return to normal, even though I know it never will.
 Last night I was lying in bed looking at the stars over the mountainside when one moved. I sAt up and looked. Yes, it was a plane and this morning........my white streaks are back.

9-19-01  (from Pam) It rained last night. A Lot! It was a soft and gentle rain. The kind that lulls you into a deep sleep. There was some lightning, not much though. I found out the other day that lightning actually helps plants grow. The bolt of energy sends off a wave of some chemical that plants thrive on. I never knew that lightning was actually good for something other than scaring the pee out of my daughter. I guess everything has a purpose. But what in the world are ticks good for?
 This morning I stepped out into the clean forest. The greens were deep and lush and the air smelled clean and fresh. As my stride began to lengthen and my heart began to beat  faster, the air that entered my throat and lungs had a cleansing effect.  Every breath that I took, the cleaner I felt. That was, until Aspen jumped on me with the nice clean mud that he had found. It is the price that you pay for living at Cloudland....a price that I will gladly pay over and over.
 The squirrels and rabbits have been at a high activity rate this past week. Gathering nuts, “playing” in Doc’s garden, and of course most importantly tormenting Aspen and Lucy beyond comprehension. I know that these squirrels know exactly what they are doing, I can see it in the way they twitch their tails and the shine in their eyes. You would think that someday our precious little puppies would get the hint and not fall for such things. Then again, maybe that is just the way life is supposed to be.

9/21/01 It happened sometime around 6:05pm this evening - summer left us and fall arrived. I have come to enjoy summertime here at Cloudland (used to always run for the mountains and spend several months in Wyoming until it cooled down here). Although few things in life are as wonderful as the coming of fall! And this fall was something extra special, for not only did I have my family with me, but the monarchs were beginning to move through. We sat on the back deck and watched as dozens of the orange gems floated down from the sky. Only this year, for some reason, they were all flying west instead of to the south. Perhaps it was the incredible pink sky that lured them off of their route. Man, that sky was something to behold for sure! Patterns of pink and blue as far as you could see. And the pink turned to burnt orange and deep red within minutes. And then to grey.

Along with the butterflies the sky was filled with bats, dozens and dozens of bats. As the color was leaving the clouds, so were the butterflies. The night sky belongs to the bats anyway. They move with much more enthusiasm than do the butterflies. After all, they have to capture a thousand or more bugs before sunrise. Just imagine that - having to go through the drive-thru window that many times every day! I guess in the bat’s case the window is moving too, and so are the hamburgers.

We spent a little while in Fox meadow, pulling up pea plants and deadheading flowers. My goodness the explosion of flowers continues down there - more and more of them all the time!

It was great to get a 30 minute break from the exhausting schedule we have put in this past couple of weeks. The Search For Haley book is FINALLY almost finished. We are in the last editing phases now, and I am doing the final layout, which I tweak over and over and over again. Poor Pam. The text has been edited FOUR times by as many people, yet she wanted to go through it just once more. So I handed her a stack of paper yesterday - 107,000 words! And she is reading it word-for-word again, only this time BACKWARDS! It amazes me how many typos can slip past even the most talented editor.

The book is 240 pages, with about a dozen black and white photos, 20 illustrations, plus three maps. All of the illustrations were drawn by Haley - this was a most unexpected addition to the book that I think will add a great deal to it. It took me the better part of two days and long nights to get all of her images set up, scanned, tweaked, and placed into the computer file. Right now my eyes are so warped from staring into the monitor that I can hardly see the monitor. My new goal is to have everything finished, the CD burned and sent off to the printer on Monday. Then I will be able to get back to the wilderness, take a hike or two, and resume my normal Cloudland Journal posts.

Oh yea, one early fall color report to report. Smaller blackgums are really coming on strong now, and with some really brilliant color. So are sumac and dogwoods. And man the dogwood berries are bright RED and lots of them!  Good crops of rose hips, acorns, and hickory nuts too. And while Amber and I were taking a detour back from her bus, we found the main pawpaw grove covered with very large fruit. Heck it looked like banana trees in there - many clumps of three or four pawpaws, and you hardly ever see that. Some pawpaws bore fruit several weeks ago, but these are still green. They will ripen just in time for me to stop and have a snack on my daily loop hikes next week.

HAPPY AUTUMN TO YOU ALL!!!

9/23/01 Very warm this morning - up in the 70's at first light. I got rained on while hiking to work a couple of hours before dawn - a very fine mist. That was a prelude of things to come. Later in the day the thunder rumbled on and on and on and on and on. Some very loud CRACKS! And pure silver lightning bolts. That silver looked rather odd against a sky of green. Hum, anytime that you see a green sky chances are you will see ice soon. And before long the tin roof at the cabin was singing loudly. We got marble-sized hailstones for 20 minutes.

My book chores were winding down so I decided to take a break and the five of us got in a good long nap in the loft (Pam, Amber, Lucy, Aspen, and I). Boy, I really did need that time off. And the inch of rain that we got was wonderful. I swear the rain washed away some of the green in the trees. There was hardly a bit of fall color in the distant hillsides before the rain, and as soon as it began to clear you could see many trees with hints of reds, oranges, and yellows.

With all that hail came cooler temps too. Now it was feeling like a fall day!

The moon was nearly half full, and it set right behind the Buffalo Fire Tower, which is south of where it normally comes down - that silly moon pretty much does whatever it wants to!

9/24/01 Cool and drizzly at 5 this morning - temp about 52. Just about the same time the sun broke through the clouds at mid-morning, I burned the CD of the files for THE SEARCH FOR HALEY book and packaged them up to ship off to the printers in Michigan. That is the final step in the book publishing process. Well, actually I guess the real final step is selling the book! But this was a step that I have been looking forward to for many moons.  We are still planning for the completed books to arrive in mid-November, even though I am 24 days late getting finished with it. You will, of course, be bugged to death here on the journal to buy a copy once it is available. This will be a great book for us to promote because part of the money from every sale will be donated to the Morgan Nick Foundation to help find missing kids.

The cabin is quiet now - Pam is off to pick up Amber at the bus - and the day outside has turned into one spectacular fall days! Crystal clear, blue skies, temps in the low 60's. The wind is blowing just a bit, and acorns and hickory nuts cover the forest floor. My severe cough that has been on a bit of hold these past few days has returned now with a vengeance. And while I am in very good spirits after having completed the book project, I am not very good company to be around right now. I don't know whether to hide away in the cabin, away from any possible ragweed or other things that are bugging me, or go out for a good long hike. I will most likely do the latter, as soon as I can stop coughing long enough to lace up my hiking shoes...

9/27/01 Never got to take that hike. In fact, I spent the next 24 hours flat on my back in bed, trying to cope with this terrible cough. Seems that lying flat is the only position that keeps me from hacking constantly. Only problem is that there is so much work to do I am not able stay in bed all the time. Plus the cough is only getting worse, not better.

Once during the evening hours Pam called up at me to look out the window. The sun was setting and lighting up the wilderness with this golden hue - that was great, but not what she wanted me to look at. The air was filled with monarchs, floating along and lit up with that same golden glow. There was no sound at all - it was a visual delight. The butterflies were still heading west instead of south - I wonder if they are going to winter in New Mexico or southern California?

There was an incident that happened a couple of days ago that I must tell you about. It was very early - still pitch black out with a heavy cloud cover. I crawled into the hot tub and laid back to soak for a minute or two before heading up to the office. Aspen was out making his usual rounds. Then the Superdog let out one of the most blood-curdling barks that I have ever heard out of him. He was down below in the meadow, and it sounded like he had come face to face there in the darkness with a bear. Since I could not see five feet I was not privy to what happened next, but I can tell you it did not sound pretty. A few moments later Aspen came running up the trail just wailing away, headed for me. I stood up and braced myself for something - I'm not really sure what, nor what I could do, standing there in the middle of the hot tub with water dripping off. Aspen came up onto the deck still wailing - I did not see him until he was just a few feet away - even though he has white fur, it was just so dark. He stopped and turned around and continued to bark, but nothing else ever happened. I'm not sure if I was shaking from freight, or from the cold hitting my wet skin. Once I looked Aspen over I could tell that he had not been injured, so he was OK.

Later in the day, after a few hours of hacking away up at the office, I returned to the cabin and went down into the meadow to see if I could spot any bear sign. It was a bear for sure, and he had slapped at the table in the gazebo, knocking it over and leaving claw marks behind. This was the very first damage that a bear had done to the cabin here, and not a good sign. What he was really after were the many dozens of fresh poke weeds with their juicy berries that are in the meadow - he had trampled just about every one of them before Aspen chased him off. The bear had a mighty fine feast for sure.

Later that same day I got an e-mail from a guy who had hiked past the cabin and down to the river, where he saw a momma bear and two cubs out on that gravel bar where I had been finding a lot of bear scat - he got within 100 feet of them. Certainly not the same bear that Aspen had argued with, but it does show that bear activity is up right now, and we have plenty of bears in the area.

As I made my way through Fox meadow I was engulfed with butterflies - there were quite literally hundreds of them there, feeding on the tons of bright flowers still blooming like crazy. Only a few monarchs today, most of them were cloudless sulphurs and other species. It was magical walking through all of that color and movement!

The air has been very still these past several days. And the river below has been calling out to us. Normally we can't hear the river at all after early summer, but for some reason the flow is just right for it to make enough sound to send up our way. It has never even gotten close to going dry this summer.

The forest looks quite healthy right now, and the tad bit of fall color that was coming on last weekend has stopped. The overall color is green, with only a small bit or two of color here and there. The air has been especially clear, and the mountains appear closer than they normal do. Seems like you can simply reach out and touch Beagle Point, even though it is a half mile away.

It has been on the chilly side lately, even during the days. I got to spend the evening with Amber on Tuesday when Pam was on the road (trying to sell calendars). We played in the fort (she played, I laid in the swing and hacked away), then built a fire in the fireplace - the first fire of the season. We sat in front of the fire and ate dinner, then talked long into the night as the cabin grew dark and the flames danced on the cabin walls. This is really a good kid that I have latched onto - could not have asked for a better one. She is adapting to wilderness life quite well, and she REALLY likes fires!

OK, now to this morning. I was up early and soaking in the hot tub, my hacking echoing throughout the wilderness. I sat beneath a coal black sky that was filled with a million shining stars. Orion was straight up. Morning is the best time to view the heavens, and it is great to watch the progression as the year goes on. The moon sets before I get up, and with the clear air the viewing is terrific. In a few days the moon will still be up though, and many of the stars will be washed out. No problem - I absolutely love moonlight too!

I have been up for several hours now and the sun is just touching the very tip tops of the ridges out in the wilderness. There is on small cloud in the valley - at the mouth of Boen Gulf. Something down there always produces the first little cloud in the valley - I wonder what it is?

Many of you have been writing complaining about no posts to the journal - sorry about that. I will try to do better in the future. Before too long there will probably be so many posts that you will tire of reading them. Most of what I have been doing lately is working and hacking - I will usually put in a full day of work no matter what, but plan to be doing less of the hacking (I'm going into town to a "Doc in a Box" today and hope to get some relief, although they have never been able to do anything much for me in the past). Several of you have asked if I am on vacation now that the Haley book is finished - yea, right. That only means one project is in the can. If I stopped taking on new projects TODAY it would take me years to catch up. There is never a single day here where I have finished everything that I need to do - the list is always much longer than I have time for, which is fine with me because I like having many projects to work on.

Early fall is one of my most favorite times of the year, and I plan to be out there in the woods to experience as much as I can. And THIS YEAR, I have a child and a partner to show it all to...

Aghhhhh! Rush hour traffic! The road rage was HORRENDOUS! (from Pam)
 There was nothing that I could do to get Lucy and Aspen to just calm down. Traffic was moving entirely to slow for them. Why wouldn’t they go faster or move over to the side to let us pass? Right down the middle of the road for more than a mile!  I just had to sit and laugh. Normally, I would be the one venting frustrations at having to stop at every red light, people driving to slow, driving in the turn lane or not using their blinkers. Instead, it was my two adorable puppies trying to persuade a pack of 11 wild turkeys to get out of the way or better yet, hop into their mouths. Oh, the troubles of life. Bless their hearts.

9/28/01 A spectacular fall day today at Cloudland! I've been sleeping in until 5:45am when we get up to wake Amber for the drive out to catch the bus. Then I went down to Boxley Valley to get a tank of water from the spring. The temperature was a full 11 degrees cooler down in the valley that it was up on top (42 down in the valley). I love temps in the 40's and 50's. Pam stayed behind to continue a major cleanup of the cabin, including waxing all of the floors.

Looks like I am going to live after all, and I do feel a bit better after a shot in the butt and $200 worth of drugs. Although I nearly passed out several times while in Wal-Mart after my visit to the doctor - lack of food I believe. I am still coughing about as much as before, but physically I am getting better. I have a severe case of bronchitis, which is what my wife diagnosed a week ago. Pam as never cooked much, but she has been coming up with some terrific meals this week, although I could not enjoy them until last night. This is a trend that I hope continues.

I have seen at least 14 different kinds of mushrooms today.

Here is the first official FALL COLOR report for this year. The woods around Cloudland are beginning to turn - a few of them. I would say about 2-3% have color in them. There are a number of individual trees turning at all elevations - top of the ridges as well as down in the river bottoms, plus a few groups of trees here and there. The overall scene is still green. Don't know what any of this means as far as the peak of fall color goes, but I suspect it will be sometime in October for this area. In the past the Buffalo River area has turned early, with the western parts of the Ozarks coming on later. As always, the last couple weeks of October are usually your best bet.

The beautiful hushed sounds of the river early this morning were accompanied by the mooing of a new herd of cattle somewhere over on the Mossville ridge. It is odd to hear cows mooing out here in the wilderness, but it is part of the big plan. My wilderness-away-from wilderness - the Popo Agie Wilderness in the Wind River Mountains of the Rockies in Wyoming also has a fair number of cattle - even up towards 11,000 feet. It is really odd to see them up there with the snow-capped peaks!

Pam just came running in from outside and had me come look at this butterfly. The darn thing looked exactly like an oak leaf in early fall color - a dull shade of orange.

SPEAKING OF CALENDARS. Several dealers are beginning to stock them now, although many of them that normally carry all of my books are hesitant to stock the calendars, and I have no idea why. If you would like to do something to help out this poor starving artist and his family, and keep this Journal flowing smoothly, you might ask about the calendars anytime that you are in a book or outdoor store in the region that does not stock them. So far the major stores that have them are: in Fayetteville, BARNES & NOBLE, THE PACK RAT, HASTINGS, B-DALTON, & COLLIERS PHOTO; HASTINGS in Russellville and Conway, and in Springfield, MO; BARNES & NOBLE in Little Rock; CORNER BOOKSTORE in Bentonville; GAZEBO BOOKS in Eureka Springs. I'll try to add others as they order them. You can order them direct from us via the web, or by phone anytime (800-838-HIKE). Every time you buy a calendar, Pam gets a big kiss!

9/29/01 Another sleep-in late day for me, and by the time I had hit the hot tub the eastern horizon had begun to glow pink. By the time I headed up to the office there were spots of orange all over the forest - bit of sunshine peering through the leaves. A short while later Pam and I headed out for a quick hike around the loop trail. What a wonderful walk we had!!!

The morning woods were so quiet and still, the only movement being that of our two crazed dogs flying in and our of the scene. Then we came across a few walnuts on the ground and spent some time gathering them up for our friends' Scott and Carolyn's kids (six flying squirrels). Those walnut trees seemed a bit out of place there in the middle of the maple and hickory forest.

The East meadow was lit up and warming by the time we reached it, but the upper edges where we walk were still in shade, and full of color. I am coming to love and respect these "edges" of openings in the forest all the time. There is just so much that grows, and goes on there. It is wonderful to have areas of undisturbed deep forest, with mature trees as far as you can see. But it is also important for the forest ecology, wildlife, and general visual appeal to have openings here and there. And they are extremely important for wildlife. At first when Bob Chester reclaimed this old East meadow, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea (and the Faddis and North meadows as well). But he clearly knew what he was doing, and I am glad to have followed suit with Aspen's and Fox meadows, and the orchard. They all provide much needed and very nice open spaces in the forest.

This morning the edges of East meadow were ablaze with color. Goldenrod, still brilliant yellow; dogwood leaves and especially their RED BERRIES; many different kinds of mushrooms; sumac bushes with their bright red leaves mixed with the rich green ones, and their rusty-colored fruit; and on and on with a myriad of different-colored leaves of this or that plant or bush or shrub or grass.

Dogwood berries

Pam began to gather a few samples to make a centerpiece out of for the fall bushwhacker party later today. Within a few minutes she had her hands quite full, and mine too.

But I had to lay it all down when I got down on my hands and knees and carefully parted the weeds to look at a trio of tiny mushrooms. Then I realized that they were surrounded by wild plums that had fallen on the ground. I gathered up a few of them that were close by, along with several dogwood berries that were there too, and spent ten minutes taking their picture. There are so many wonderful things out there if you will just take the time to look around. I could have taken a hundred pictures along the ground right there within just a few feet of these mushrooms. Everything is SOOOO lush and beautiful.

Wild Plums, mushrooms, and dogwood berries

And the walk with my lovely wife was about as nice as it could be. We could not hold hands (since they were filled with centerpiece makings!), but at least could share the delightful morning together. Pure blue sky above, cool temps - I love walking around in jeans and long-sleeved shirt.

On the other side of the orchard we stopped to take a look at the pawpaw patch. It took me a few minutes to fight my way through the briars, but when I got inside to where the pawpaws were, I found a fairyland filled with pawpaws all over the place! Pawpaws on the ground, pawpaws up in the trees, pawpaws in mid-air falling on my head! I had wanted to gather up several and bring back to use for the party, but since there were so many, we decided to wait until a few of the guest arrive and have an official hike on out to the pawpaw patch so that we can pick them up and put them in our pockets!

We passed many more mushrooms and brightly-colored plants as we strolled along the lane towards the Faddis meadow. And we found that meadow covered with a fine layer of dew. Even ordinary leaves take on some great beauty when covered with a million tiny sparkles created by the sunshine. I could have spent hours on my belly taking pictures. We settled for a few minutes of ohhhhs and awes, then picked a few more weeds for the centerpiece and moved on.

As we got back to the cabin I took this snapshot of some Virginia creeper on a tree next to the cabin. The creeper and a lot of poison ivy are creating quite a colorful canvas floor in the forest. While there certainly is not all that much great fall color viewing in the forest in general right now, this is a perfect weekend to get out and enjoy you own little hike through all that is going on. In fact, I would say that just about every day from now on for a while will be excellent for getting away from the city and enjoying some time out in the woods. Hum, come to think of it I can't really think of ANY day when that isn't true!

Virginia creeper

Later in the day our bushwhacker guests arrived and we sent them right on out on a bushwhack, back to the pawpaw patch. Man, there were at least a HUNDRED pawpaws on the ground, and dozens more up in the trees. So here is the deal with pawpaws. In a grove like this one (which is really THICK with ground cover like briars and stuff), when there are so many pawpaws all over the ground, if you are able to walk through the grove without stepping on any of them, that will bring you good luck (ripe pawpaws make a big mess when you step on them). Taking that one step further, if you can CATCH one that falls out of the tree then you are really going to have good luck. And if you can both shake the tree AND catch a falling pawpaw, well, then you are in for some really fine times. Our  little group did all of these things while at the pawpaw patch, and had a wonderful time.

More than 100 pawpaws! (largest ones are about six inches long)

And a pair of pawpaws lodged in the fork of a tree (look close and you can see a nose and pair of eyes in the upper one)

The rest of the evening was not too shabby either, and the crowd enjoyed a feast of all sorts of things brought by everyone, plus grilled tuna, steak and chicken. I must say though, our parties are getting a bit milder these days. In fact, we haven't had a real wild one out here in a long time. We had a great time though, despite no naked dancing girls...

9/30/01 The cabin slowly came to life, and eventually there were two coffee pots brewing, and folks gathered all around waiting for Judy to do her magic - ABSOLUTELY THE BEST biscuits and gravy you have ever tasted! Mighty fine indeed.

After breakfast, most of the crowd ventured down into Fox meadow to wander through the spectacular flower display. The sun was still low, and backlighting the flowers, and the oranges, reds, yellows, and all sorts of other colors were blazing. Isn't there something about flowers DYING off in the fall? There are more and more flowers blooming in this meadow every day.

It wasn't just a social visit though, as I made everyone pick pea plants while they were down there. And within a half hour we had the meadow cleared of those awful pea plants that the co-op in Fayetteville convinced me to plant.

All in all it was another delightful bushwhacker party. Oh yea, we got to do quite a bit of celebrating too. Let's see, it was Norma's birthday and Glenn's birthday, Scott & Carolyn's 25th wedding anniversary, Bob and Dawna's 10th wedding anniversary, plus we celebrated the wedding of Roy & Norma (a week ago), and the wedding of Luke and Mary last month.

It has been a very long September, but one that has brought great beauty and fine times to the wilderness. We are now all prepped and ready for the most incredible season of all, and I for one am looking forward to autumn in the Ozarks!

October 2001 Journal

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