Springtime Notes

Negotiating the slide on Highway 103 near Mountain Springs Cabins

The above picture was taken this week. We have watched this slide since last summer when it was only a bump in the road. The recent rains have turned it into a major hole--one of the biggest potholes you will find anywhere. And you think you have potholes on your street!! So far there have been no accidents. The highway people are watching it daily, but say it will have to dry up quite a bit in order to make repairs. Many people believe this is the result of clearing the mountainside (the downhill side) of all trees. Several years ago it was woodlands.

The Trumpeter Swans have left the valley--hopefully for their summer home in the north. In the meantime, the tremendous rains of late have resulted in a beaver dam breaking, which made much of the pond water drain out. Again, it is what happens when man intervenes with nature. Several years ago someone trapped all the beavers from the pond, and now the dams they were keeping up have broken.

On a happy note: the little female bluebird is still watching me from the window. She sits on a chair and keeps me company while I do my Bible study each morning. (This is absolutely the truth!) Her suitor is trying very hard to convince her to move into the nearby house that we set up on the porch rail. It is only a few feet from her perch at the window. This morning I saw a sweet little bluebird moment. I actually watched him as he brought her a tasty? (in the bluebird world) tidbit. She was perched on the rail and he flew up and put the worm/bug in her beak. She accepted it gratefully, which probably encouraged him immensely. Jack says she will set up housekeeping when it is time. He also said the little fellow must be madly in love to put up with such a crazy female!! Of course, he was referring to birds only. (Not to any humans we might know!)

The storms and rains haven't slowed down springtime. It's here! We are taking a hike in the afternoons on those beautiful days in between the rains to look at wildflowers and check for morel mushrooms. We did a short hike up Leatherwood Creek starting at Beaver Jim's cabin across the low water bridge at Ponca. Beautiful! Have seen many flowers, few mushrooms!

We have not inherited the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children.

Native American Saying

A Day In the Mountains Is Like...

Curious Bluebird

The outdoors was calling---wind, the dogs, the birds, the warm temperatures all seemed to beckon me. There were patches of blue sky showing between puffy, billowing clouds--a sign rain may be moving in tonight. I was reading through a mind-boggling book on how to increase web traffic in one weekend. I am now into my second week and reading! I think I will pull Maags into this. HTML is to much for my mind to sort out!! Besides, my little bluebird friend is waiting at the window.

The curious little female bluebird has been a constant visitor at our windows for at least 3 weeks. We have given up trying to reason with her. No, little bird, you cannot make your nest in our house this year! Last year she took up housekeeping in a box beside the door. It was a birdhouse meant to be just a part of my outdoor decorations. She had other ideas and persuaded her beloved to join her in making her home as close to humans as possible. We startled her quite a few times when we opened the door just a few feet away from the nest. Nevertheless, despite dogs, humans, slamming doors, and other bothersome things that would have run most birds away, the bluebird couple managed to raise a couple of fine little ones.

We never knew exactly when the babies left the nest. We heard little chirps coming from the box when we walked by for a week or two. Then, one day while we weren't at home, our bluebird guests moved out. We think we saw the babies several times in nearby trees, flitting and fluttering, trying out their new wings. It is always interesting to see mom and dad devotedly bringing the independent little things their bug-meals just as they did when they were babes in the nest. We never stop being parents!

Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone.

The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come,

And the singing of doves fills the air.

Song of Solomon

A Time for Everything

We are so ready for Spring!! The picture above was taken by Ed last weekend when we had one of our biggest snows of the winter--7 inches! The snow soon melted, and patches of green are showing up everywhere. That is good for our wildlife, who have had a hard time this winter. The deer herd, which was numbering 20 or so last week, has dwindled to a few stragglers who are probably waiting around to see what we plant in the garden. We are discussing what we will have to do to save the garden (and flowers) this year. It is one thing to throw out a little corn for desperate wildlife in the winter, but quite another to offer them an "all you can eat" buffet all summer!

Bluebirds!! Everywhere I look, as walk around our 65 acres, I see bluebirds flitting around our bluebird boxes. We cleaned them out a week ago, and bluebird couples are already moving in. We have one bluebird female who flies up to the window on the porch, attaches herself to the screen, and looks in as if to say she really would like to make her nest in the living room. Maybe she sees the many bird figures and nests I have on display, and thinks she would like to join them!

Jack spotted the first martin scout on a unexpectedly warm day just before the snow hit last week. We quickly got the martin box up. Minutes later the sparrows were checking it out! We have discovered martins will usually run them away when the time comes to move in.

We are planning a wonderful week with cabin guests coming for Spring Break. Besides minding the cabins, we are planning a few hikes to see waterfalls and early spring flora-- maybe even look for morels; do a little garden prep, including planting potatoes--old timers up here say plant potatoes on St. Patrick's Day. And, of course, we will slip in a visit with the grandson and family on Easter.

Remember--There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Ecles. 3:1

Happy Spring!!

Bluebird Days

As I stepped outside early this morning, a cheery bluebird greeted me with his "good morning song." It is "trash day" and that means loading up garbage, plastics, aluminum cans, and paper to put down beside the highway for the Newton County Recycle truck to pick up. Frost was still on the truck windshield, but as I looked around the yard, there were bluebirds everywhere! A good sign! I told the dogs it would be another "bluebird day" here on the mountain. We have always marveled at the number of bluebirds who make our mountain their year round home (or maybe it is "their" mountain, since they were here first!) They don't seem to mind sharing, and we do our best to be good neighbors by providing extra houses and food.

The dogs were busy running around the yard picking up the fading scent of a wandering night animal who has been scavenging for a leftover scrap from the dogs' food bowls. Skunks, 'possums, and armadillos have been seen wandering through the yard during the night! None of these are really welcome. Deer and rabbits leave reminders that they, too, checked out the backyard in the night! One spring the deer ate all 24 buds off my "Aunt Marie's" rose bush during a late night visit! Bunnies regularly nibble the tulip leaves as they pop out of the ground in the spring.

When the late killing frost hit us on April 9 last year, Jack said it would effect the wildlife the entire year. We are seeing that prediction come true as an increasingly large herd of deer come running to feed each afternoon when Jack drives his 4-wheeler down in the hollow near the house with a bucket of corn. Even the 8 point buck has had to give up some of his wariness of humans in order to survive. We have counted up to 20 deer lately. We can only give them enough corn to keep a little fat on their bones. They are still dependent on whatever they can scrape up in the woods and pastures around the house.

We try to keep the bird feeders full of sunflowers and finch seed, but the squirrels often get their share first. I can't deny them a meal, so we just put out more seed. It's the same with the crows, blackbirds, and rowdy bluejays. All need nourishment during these cold winter days. The bright cardinals seem to slip in occasionally along with a covy of quail, doves, juncos, fieldlarks, woodpeckers, chickadees, goldfinches (though they have their own seed sacks, they steal a few sunflowers), and a few others I can't remember. I counted up to 26 different species feeding in the backyard at one time last year. Even a roadrunner makes an appearance now and then. Though I think he has other ideas about his meals!!

This is still early January, and we will have many more dreary, cold, foggy, and snowy days before real springtime, but always sprinkled in now and then, will be a day like today--a "bluebird day." And, the wildlife will bask in the sun, nibble on whatever food they can find, and wait for the next feeding from the "humans in the house." This verse comes to mind:

"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life...Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns. For your heavenly Father feeds them." Matt. 6:25a-26