December 26-28, 2013

Temperatures ranged from the low 50s to 60 during the days and upper 20s at night -- extremely pleasant for winter.

Bird Feeder

Something had been into the bird feeder (again). I re-aligned the second coon guard and secured it to the post with 4 screws this time, which I hope will prove to be sturdy enough to keep the little furry critters out. Lots of birds quickly returned once I had filled the feeders.

Lopping

I cut about 500 cedars in the area below and west of the spring. Lots of other scrub trees (and briars) need to be cleared out from this area as well -- some day.

Firewood

We were taking firewood to Amanda and John. Their new place has a fire place insert that won't take anything over 18 inches. Sally helped me take a tape measure and sort out the shorter pieces. I also split a big bundle of pine for starter sticks for them.

Walk to Pond

We slipped out early one morning to walk to the pond, leaving Tender snoozing. Down at the bottom of the hill under the big twin Sycamores the road is very close to Gum creek. I noticed a new and pronounced drop off by the road next to the creek, and finally deduced that Carroll Electric must have been out and run off the road here. After some 20-30 feet, it looked like they realized their mistake and backed up. I am guessing this was during the snow and ice of early December that kept Eureka Springs schools closed for 7 days.

Just a bit further up the road we scared up 4 deer the other side of the creek and below the pond. Three took off up the hill above the pond, but the fourth lingered keeping a close eye on us. I got this picture with my phone where you can barely make him out in the center.

As we begin to climb up to the pond we were in an area shaded by one of the cedar groves and I noticed patches of white. There were several low frost flowers growing around the clumps of some of the weeds/grasses. Not very attractive, but interesting seeing them so late in the year.

Next, as we approached the dam a sole duck took flight from right in front of the culverts. I thought it a bit odd that she was all by her lonesome. (I kept looking for eagles the whole time out, but my only sighting was one on the drive home off Hwy 23.)

Walnuts

I wanted to take John and Amanda some cracked but unpicked walnuts to demonstrate the picking process. I only cracked a small bag full of this year's crop, which I found to be very flavorful.