Backbone Mountain, from my sister's back yard. 

Close-up of the view from my sister's back yard. The previous photo I posted of the Marshall valley was taken to the right of the big pylon.  

View south of Western Grove. 

Some hills south of Harrison. 

A better view of the hills south of Harrison. 

West view of the Buffalo River from the new & improved Hwy. 65 bridge. Sure it's safer than the old bridge (no more chicken trucks in the river) but it blocks your view something fierce. 

East view of the Buffalo River from the Hwy. 65 bridge. 

"Rock my baby Ma, In da tweetop" 

Cannot find server

Someone's having issues in a major way....can't get to my e-mail or my website. I can get to FoxNews though.

I think I'll just go mow the lawn instead. Heck, the heat index is only 98....positively artic.

Weird Plant

There's this strange vine that popped up out of nowhere in my flowerbed a couple of years ago. I have no idea what it is, and have yet to find anyone who can i.d. it. It's so bizarre-looking that it kinda creeps me out....I keep expecting alien pod people to hatch out of its weird fruit every fall.

Any ideas?

Here's the vines with a fruit still attached. The vines smell so bad when they're touched that I had to wear gloves to re-arrange the vines along the lattice as it grew to keep the smell off my hands. The smell is horrendous, as in gag-a-maggot bad. The flowers smell really bad too, and have no petals. Just yellow starburst-like thingies that surround the pistil. Very weird. 

Strange fruit, eh? Though not as stinky as the vines. 

My Little Slice of Heaven

Here's some photos of our place down home. We hope to retire there someday. Though we'll build up on one of the hillsides by the county road....to get to the main part of the farm where these photos are taken, you need at least a sturdy pickup or 4 wheeler. The road is shall we say, unimproved, and you have to ford the creek three times.

It's fairly inaccessible otherwise, which is just the way I like it.

This is one of the bigger 'washouts' on the farm....I was poking around this one once when I was a kid when I heard a bobcat snarling at me. I hightailed it out of there back to where my dad was checking on the cattle you betcha. A few days later, my mom killed it...she said it was stalking her while she was squirrel hunting. I'm sure the fox caller that sounded like an injured rabbit that she happened to have in her pocket at the time had nothing to do with it. ; ) 

Another hay field, this one's at the lower end of the property. The bluff with the cave entrance is back to the right. I made many additions to my swearing vocabulary here when my dad's hay mower would invariably hit a rock & break one of the cutting blades. 

This is looking down the creek from one of the upper fields. The old house place is behind that grove of trees on the left. There's several paw-paw trees to the right of where Mike was standing when he took this picture. I used to eat 'em by the bucketfuls, though I never understood why anyone would want to 'put 'em in your pocket and save 'em for a rainy day' like the song says...rather like putting a ripe papaya in your pocket. Squishy. 

One of the upper fields. We used to raise oats there in the level part. Baling those was dirty, exhausting work, believe me. 

The creek at the upper end of the property. This used to be my dad's favorite swimming hole when he was a kid. The water's so clear you can't really tell, but it's about 10-12 ft. deep there in that left bend. 

The old home place. There's a spring to the right of the photo, and the hillside on the right used to be a big orchard. There's a smokehouse and dogtrot attached behind the house of course, as well as a big garden spot. 

My all-time favorite wildflower--Sweet William. This is located in a little glade by the creek, where, when spring conditions are right, the ground is carpeted by thousands of these. My favorite place in whole wide world.  

A woodpecker hi-rise. 

Hidden at the base of this bluff is the entrance to a fairly extensive cave...a major headache because of all the vandalising trespassers it draws. But it's beautiful inside. 

Crazy White Cow

This is one of my dad's cows we called the 'crazy white cow.' (Our cows were usually referred to by some physical characteristic. As any farm kid can tell you, you don't name something that you may someday eat.) This cow was certifiably insane and wild as a buck. She hated everyone and everything, and would chase anyone who stepped foot in her pasture, except my dad. She especially disliked my mom....and me. Once, in a moment of temporary insanity, I agreed to help my parents castrate her calf. We couldn't get her up in the pen because she was too wild. My dad talked me into trying to castrate her calf in the field. That was an experience.

The calf was pretty young, so my dad was able to catch it & get it down without problem. I proceeded to use the castrator, naturally the calf started bawling. The crazy white cow charged. Notice her long horns. Those missed my ribs by maybe a quarter of an inch. It was only my mom's vigorous wielding of her sassafras walking stick that kept the crazy white cow from finishing what she started.

And people wonder why I went to law school instead of staying on the bucolic farm.

Alas, last year my parents decided that the cows were getting to be too much for them, and sold what was left of their herd. The crazy white cow was the last to go, mainly because my dad had trouble finding someone that would try to haul her to the sale barn. He finally found some brave soul and they managed to get the crazy white cow in the holding pen. The guy went into the pen to drive her up the loading chute. The crazy white cow took a good look at him, snorted and took off in pursuit. The guy ran across the pen, up the loading chute and into the cattle trailer...with the crazy white cow hot on his heels. He slipped out the side door of the cattle trailer and slammed the door behind her. Pretty smart, yes?

Now every time I bite into a hamburger I smile.

Crazy white cow & calf...deceptively calm. 

Are you threatening me? 

Fugly Bird

I've been seeing this weird-looking bird around for a couple of months. He looks like a cardinal/blackbird mutant experiment gone wrong. His top feathers on his body are red, like a normal cardinal; the under feathers are jet black. And his head is just freaky. It's jet black, with these weird ratty looking feathers instead of a normal cardinal's crest. Finally, this morning, I was able to prove that he really was a cardinal...albeit a really strange one. He has a mate, a perfectly normal female Cardinal, and they have a fledgling that's hopping all over our yard.

Since this freak of nature has successfully mated and reproduced, I've concluded that there's hope for us all.

Cuz God love him, this bird is fugly.

Run away! Fugly bird is on a rampage! 

Weird, isn't he? 

Mutant cardinal on the prowl 

Fugly bird in all his glory