CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - July 2009
Cloudland Journal Archives, Cloudland Cabin Info Page
Cloudland Cabin Cam, July 3, 6:33am - cool with dark clouds at first light
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07/01/09 It is delightful outside late tonight (actually early morning), with a bright half moon shining down on the landscape, lightning bugs adding to the glow, and a chorus of frogs and night bugs making some beautiful music.
Yesterday afternoon I got to take the dogs out for a "snake" ramble. I took my trusty log-and-rock turner and we worked our way on up the hillside to Aspen's meadow and back down again. Things were pretty dry and I didn't find a single snake, lizard, or salamander - only a few ants. There were lots and lots of mouse holes under the rocks. And many hickory nuts and acorns under there too. These had been stored by flying squirrels I guess - most of the nuts had holes eaten in them.
I found a single hickory nut under one rock that had been split neatly in two - exactly in half. Both side were next to each other and facing up. They looked like they have been placed there for safe keeping, although there was no meat left in either one. No chew marks, or holes, or any sort of damage - just a very clean cut all the way through. Now how in the world did a critter split this tough hickory nut right in tow, and then why did he drag it under this heavy rock and store the halves next to each other? I would love to have seen that one. Speaking of hickory nuts, the last time I saw my pair of bronze hickory nuts that I picked up last fall they still had that brilliant warm glow to them like when I first found them. I suspect my lovely bride grew tired of me fondling my nuts and hid them from me.
Speaking of turning rocks over - a bear had beat me to many of the rocks today, and they had been turned over recently - easy to spot since the "raw" side of the rock is up and there is fresh dirt with no leaves covering it up where the rock used to be. That got me to thinking - I wonder how many times some of these rocks get rolled over and over and over during their lifetime by bears, snake hunters, big trees growing up and moving them, or weather conditions? And for that matter, how long is a lifetime for a rock? I figure that at first most rocks are really blufflines, then they eventually break down into giant boulders, which in turn get cracked apart into smaller boulders by the weather, then more weather and more and more until eventually the boulder is small enough for a large bear to flip it over. At some point in history the rock would erode down and crack into such smaller stones as to not be able to hide much in the way of bear snacks, and then become pretty useless to bears and snake hunters. Oh how my mind drifts as I wander the hillsides in the wilderness...
One funny snake note - while I've been skunked on all of my snake hunts so far this summer, I did find a beautiful little snake yesterday who was hiding under my jacket in the carport!
07/03/09 These days when I wake up my view of the world is quite blurry and it takes a little while for things to come into sharp focus. I sat out on the back deck early this morning in my blurry bliss, and as a hint of pink daylight crept into the landscape, so did the focus in my eyes. At first I could hear a lot of birds out and about playing and working on collecting breakfast. I strained to see even a single bit of movement anywhere, but there was none. Then I realized that there might be movement out there right in front of me but I could not see it due to my blurry eyes!
The air was cool and sweet and it was just wonderful outside. Some soft rumbling far off in the distance confirmed what the dark clouds overhead suggested - there might be some rain on the way, yippie! Lucy was out with me and she was not in hyper mode so the rumble was not from a serious storm - she is much better than any weather person.
As my eyes started to focus there was more pink and green in the landscape, and finally some movement! A single TINY bird was working the air just above Mom's meadow below. His perch was at the end of a long branch that reached high into the air. He would sit there, motionless and silent, and then all of a sudden dash out off to intercept some unknown and unseen bug, then just as quickly reverse course and return to base. It all happened in the span of a second or two.
We had some really nice, soft light yesterday evening just before sunset too. The "Ozarkglow" that creeped up the far hillside across the Buffalo Canyon was so soft that I could not detect a shadow line from our mountain, at least by the brightness of the light - only by the color of the trees. And as the color faded and nighttime arrived with a more-than-half moon shining brightly, I was stuck by the total absence of sound - not a single word from any frog, toad, bug, or bird. The soundscape was at absolute zero. There was a hint of coolness in the air, but nothing so drastic to have shut everyone down - I wonder why the ever-present tree frogs were not singing? Had everyone found a mate? There were a few fireflies out and about, but they never make a sound. It was almost eerie, like sometimes happens when a bear is upon us. But I hung around outside for a good long while and there was no bear that I could detect. In fact I never heard a peep out of anyone all night, not until the first break of faint daylight this morning started up the chorus of birds that I could not see.
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