First Ozark Winter Storm...

For us, anyway. It rained for eighteen hours straight, then sleeted for about three hours, then snowed for a few more. In all, not sure how much rain we got, but the ground had one inch of sleet under one inch of snow. We even had thunder during the sleet and snow.

We got to enjoy our woodstove, keeping it going all day for the past two days. Nice and toasty warm!

Backyard Party!

We tried to capture a photo of the mountain lion last night, but instead caught photos of this wild party going on in our back yard.

Mountain Lions Redux

September 26, 2006

Just tonight I saw, outside my dining room window, what I thought was a mountain lion (maybe a young one). It did not have the tufts I've seen in pictures of bobcats. I looked up cougars and mountain lions and they seem to use the terms interchangably.

It was about two feet high and three feet or more long (our windows, three in a row, are three feet each and its length was all of one window and part of another), from nose to butt. I didn't see how long the tail was. It was no more than two feet from the window. The face was like what I've seen in pictures of cougars and mountain lions. It was orange colored with a smooth short-haired coat.

I wish I had had my camera with me so I could show the picture to someone. It saw me, looked me in the face, and then took off into the woods. When I first saw it out of the corner of my eye, I thought a cat was walking past the window, but, then, when I got a good look at it, the size and weight and bulk was definitely not that of a cat.

October 3, 2006

We saw the mountain lion again this morning, around 6am. My wife and her daughter exercise in the studio apartment of our house every morning. As her daughter was leaving, the mountain lion came from behind the house and crossed her path.

We are going to get a wildlife camera (the kind that hunters use that is motion sensitive) and set it up so we can try to get the picture of the creature.

October 3, 2006

Living this close to nature is FUN!

As a result of this morning's sighting of the mountain lion in our front yard (this is the second sighting on our property in the past week), we called the Arkansas wildlife commission.

Outcome of the conversation:

Officially, mountain lions do not exist in NW Arkansas.

Yes, what we saw was probably a mountain lion, but not an adult. Adults weigh in at around 160-170 pounds and can be 7 feet long, including their tails.

Yes, there are people who breed mountain lions (an endangered species that does not exist in NW Arkansas) to sell as pets.

Yes, it is legal to own a pet mountain lion, but you must have a permit. As a matter of fact one of our "neighbors" - who lives off the road that is the main drag through town, but further west than town owns one of the pet mountain lions.

Usually, the pet mountain lions are declawed (so how is it that our neighbor's horse was killed by some as-yet-unidentified CLAWED animal?).

Yes, when the pet mountain lion gets too big to take care of, the owners release them into the "wild" (which I interpret as they take them to country road where we live and let them go).

The range of mountain lions is 50 square miles.

No, they probably won't bother an adult human, even if the human is alone.

Yes, they have been known to attack small (ages 8 and under) children who are alone in the woods and do occasionally attack small animals.

While not strictly nocturnal, mountain lions are usually out and about after dark and in the early hours of the morning before sunrise.

There are plenty of deer in the woods to keep them fed and they will eat rabbits (we've noticed fewer rabbits of late).

No, it does not seem likely that the mountain lion would have attacked and killed your neighbor's horse. They don't usually go for something that large.

No, the wildlife department will not come out and trap the mountain lion and take it further away from civilization.

Yes, you are allowed to shoot and kill the mountain lion.

They will have a biologist call us to help us figure out if there is a way to discourage the mountain lion from roaming our property.

Mating Season for Walking Sticks?

This week we found these two bugs on the siding of our house enjoying a few hours of romance in the fall. They are walking sticks. There are apparently several different kinds of walking sticks.

We also, during a walk this week, heard a pack of coyotes howling and yipping in the distance. Creepy!

Deerly Beloved

This past week, one misty morning, we saw deer out out back window, close enough to take pictures of. They were breakfasting on the greenery in our forest. When they finally ran away, we heard what sounded like them snorting or maybe stamping their feet, or maybe both. Not being wildlife experts, we have no real idea.

Mountain Lions and Scorpions

Colleen's daughter is in a string quartet which practices in our studio almost every Sunday. The father of a girl who is part of the quartet told us he set out a trap for what he thought were bobcats (as if that is any safer an animal than a mountain lion, and what kind of trap does one set up for a bobcat?). All he caught was some hair from the beast, which he then had analyzed, and was told that the hair was probably from a mountain lion.

A lady, whose horse and dog were attacked (by what she thought was a mountain lion, and the wildlife dept said "they ain't no such thing in these here parts"), had to go out and get a permit to be allowed to shoot the mountain lion that doesn't exist if her animals are again attacked.

Since the mountain lions that don't exist are a protected species, you can kill them only if you are attacked and only if you have a permit, and, then, you have to take the body to the wildlife department so it can be recorded. Never thought country life could be so complicated. Isn't country philosophy all about "if I see it I get to kill it".

As for Arkansas scorpions - out two grandkids were stung the other night, while in bed, by two scropions. Now, in Atlanta we were used to the scorpions that crawled into our house and were, maybe, a inch long, but not any longer than that.

These two Arkansas scorpions had tails that were longer than the entire length of an Atlanta scorpion. The Arkansas scorpions appeared to be over two inches long. And they were UGLY things.

Apparently, this is a bad year for scorpions (although, technically, it is a bad year for HUMANS who are around where the scorpions are and are likely to get stung).

On the other hand, a few days ago, there was an Indigo Bunting outside our bedroom window. Oddly enough, the "indigo" bunting is not actually blue - it is black, but the light passing through the feather structure makes it appear blue. It was a cute little critter. Here is a picture of the bird, as well as picture of the ugliest cicada you ever saw.

More Critters

The other morning, we found a rabbit munching on the greens outside the back door. Here is a picture of the breakfasting critter. Here, you will also find a picture of our resident walking stick.

New Furniture

We purchased a dining room table with two benches. They are all made from parts of old barns and log cabins. It is a very rustic look. We plan on having the same company make some bookcases for us, out of the same type of wood. The company is named Timbercut. This is what they do. Their workshop and property are filled with wood from a large number of sources like the old barns and log cabins.

Our alarm clock

Here is a picture, taken today, of our Cardinal Alarm Clock launching himself at our window. It is kind of fuzzy, but he is a fast little bird.

Road Runner Family

Today, a road runner came exploring our front yard. He(she?) took about an hour to check out everything, even coming on our front porch. Later, he(she?) ran down the driveway when I came outside, and I saw another one fly in the opposite direction. Maybe a family, maybe not. This road runner made funny/odd gargling sounds as it strutted around the yard.

Oh, and we have a 6am natural alarm clock. Seems some macho cardinal likes to fight his reflection in our windows (did we mention we have LOTS of windows?). He starts at 6am and goes until around noon, as the sun moves through the sky until there is not so much of a reflection.

Any way here is a picture of the road runner (the best picture out of about 50). The other road runner picture posted earlier was not my picture. There is also a 2 minute video of the road runner walking back and forth in the front yard. However, the movie is 35mb, so won't go here.

Creatures!

In the past week or so, we've seen quite a number of creatures: deer, a fox (although it could have been a healthy coyote), hawks, an armadillo on our property, another snake, and lots of spiders. Some of the spiders (although, technically, they are not spiders) are the harvestman or daddy-long-legs.... a bazillion of them... it is apparently mating season for harvestmen, and, according to what is on the internet, they love mating.

Here are some pictures of the harvestmen family on our eaves.

Moving In

We moved into the new house on Monday, the 26th. We have things all over the place and are far from organized. We still have to get all of our boxes from storage (seems like most of the stuff has been in storage for almost two years).

We spent our first afternoon walking our property and picking wild huckleberries and blackberries. We used half of them to make cobbler and will use the other half to make muffins later on.

Our house has a lot of windows on the south for passive solar heating during the winter. Turned out the lights to go to bed and watched the lightning bugs sparkle in the woods. It is so quiet out here, so far from other neighbors houses. Very peaceful.

Roadrunners

Found some interesting facts about roadrunners.

Roadrunners are quick enough to catch and eat rattlesnakes. (this is good for us since we have snakes in the area)

Roadrunners prefer walking or running and attain speeds up to 17 mph. hour

The Roadrunner is also called the Chaparral Cock.

The Roadrunner reabsorbs water from its feces before excretion. (gross!)

The Roadrunner’s nasal gland eliminates excess salt, instead of using the urinary tract like most birds. (gross!)

Getting Closer to moving in

Yesterday, the appliances were delivered (Stove, Freezer, Refrigerator, Dishwasher), the well was gotten into working order and hooked to the house (but plumbers have work to do before we actually have water in the house). The AC company came in and installed the two units (one for the main house and one for the studio). Internet and satellite TV are hooked up and working.

Oh, and yesterday, while driving to and from the new house, I saw a roadrunner (didn't look much like the cartoon character - not as colorful), but did not see Wile E Coyote (although we have seen coyotes in the fields when out and about on the road).

Cabinets

Here are some pictures of the cabinets from a few days ago. The electricity will be hooked up to the house on Thursday, then we can have the well/pump work finished. Once we have electricity to the house we can also get the phone company out.

Floors!

The floors have been completely installed. Here are some pictures. The wood flooring is in the studio. The tile is in the main house.

May Update

It has been almost a month since the last update, but there isn't much change on the outside (although a lot of post-building trash has been cleaned up).

However, this week saw the completion of the painting of the inside of the house and the start of the installation of the flooring. Next week should include hookup of electricity to the house, installation of cabinets, hookup of the well to the house, and delivery of appliances.

It's a rainy weekend in Arkansas

There are around four ways to get to our property in the Ozarks. Two of them involve crossing "bridges" over a creek. The bridge is nothing more than a concrete structure that spans the creek. It has been raining at a steady clip for a couple of days. Below, you will see a picture of the bridge that we have to cross when coming in from one of the directions. We were going out from our property when we saw this. We had to turn around and go out another way.

The siding and trim have been painted

Thought it would be nice to see pictures from another perspective. These are views of the house from the south side... The studio, dining room, living room, master bedroom, and a long view down the side of the house. They will do insulation and sheetrock this week.



Studio


Dining Room

Living Room

Master Bedroom



Side View from Master Bedroom to Dining Room

Varmints

We've had a close encounter with a varmint near our property. This picture is of what we think was the snake crossing the road. The snake appeared to be 4 to 6 feet in length. This is a plain-bellied water snake.

Also, here is another picture of our house. The internal wiring is done and the plumbing is close to complete. We are wired for the 21st century with internet access in every room and "cable" tv (of course, living in the boonies, everything is availble only via satellite).

They've put the railing on the porch

Which is where we will spend our dwindling years in our rocking chairs! :-)

Stained Glass Windows

Here are the three stained glass windows in the dining room.

Spring has sprung, along with DST

Spring is here. Things are greening up.

The siding is almost totally on and framing of the inside walls is being done.

Windows in and siding being put on

Today, we traveled to Ponca, Arkansas to try to see Elk in their natural habitat. Unfortunately, we got there too late in the day. They are out in the cool of the morning and the early afternoon.

Coming back, we went through Berryville to see how our house is progressing. About one-fourth of the siding is installed. All of the windows are installed. We are adding three stained-glass windows to one side of the dining room. The stained-glass windows come from a Salvation Army in San Antonio. They are 150 years old.

Shingled Roof

After spending a week visiting family in Texas, we came back to our house covered and shingled. They even started putting up siding on one side of the house.

Big week

Here are two pictures from this week. The first, taken the middle of the week, shows a lot of work done. You can see the vaulted ceilings for the living room and the master bedroom.

The second, taken this weekend, shows the main house almost totally under cover. Can we expect to move in next week? Probably not, but we are terribly excited.

Roof is going up!

Here is a picture, from today, of our house. You'll see more of a skeleton of the house and the start of the roof going up. We can finally see more clearly how the finished house will look.

Winter - at last!

Thursday saw a high of 75 degrees. Later in the day we had severe thunderstorms, a tornado watch, horizontal rain, a tornado siren, followed by cold weather. Friday night began with sleet, followed by snow. Saturday was nice, but bitterly cold, with highs in the upper 20's to lower 30's. Saturday night was in the single digits, with wind chills even lower. Today (Sunday) is snow and sleet.

So, we had to get to almost the end of February before we got a real winter snowfall. Crazy, isn't it?

Finally! The walls are going up!

This is the result of the last couple of weeks. Their framing crew was actually able to get to our house this past week. The house does look much bigger with walls to outline the house. Next, more outer walls, trusses, inside walls, then appointments with electrician, gas company, and satellite TV and Internet company.

Slab is in place

Here we are in front of the slab on which our retirement home will rest. It sure looked small before the slab was in place. Now we have a better idea of what it will finally look like. Next week - the walls go up!

The Building has Begun

Here we are standing in the middle of what will be our kitchen. The house is layed out. Most of the footings have been dug and a large load of lumber has arrived.

Colorful Characters

On a gorgeous piece of propery near Piney Creek, Kari Ann (on the right) has single-handedly built a home for herself. She is a transplant from California and supports herself by sewing custom draperies, raising a beautiful herd of goats and singing in Eureka Springs. Her home has been through 2 floods. The bottom floor of her house is the barn where the goats, horse, dogs live.

When we visited, she had just rescued a deer that had been attacked by coyotes. Her future plans are to build a new house on the ridge of a hill at the top of her property. She is a close friend of Deborah (on the left) my son-in-law's mom.

Meeting the Locals

The owner of this home down in Brushy Hollow is affectionately known as A-frame Dave. We hear that his family has lived in this area for several generations. There is quite a "do-it-yourself" attitude around here. In the summer of 2004, Brushy creek flooded leaving much of Dave's "salvage business" along the banks of the creek.

Christmas Greetings from Brushy Creek Road

Everyone seems to be in a holiday mood, down in Brushy Hollow.