It was a TWO Owl Night!

Barred owls are a strong part of our home here in the country. These huge birds measure 20 to 24 inches top to bottom and have a wing span of 3 ½ feet. There’s a thick growth of tall dark pines that run around the south edge of our property, and it’s the favorite kind of nesting locale for them to raise their families.

All year long, we’re treated to their calls, and it’s fun to listen to their conversations and know what they’re doing in any season. The barred owl’s call is quite complex and drawn out, a two phrase set of notes, that sound something like, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-alllllllll?”

That long last southern drawl note is pulled out, and varies for different birds. That’s the standard call, and often we’ll hear it right out our door, and answered by another owl a quarter mile away. Sometimes they call back and forth all night long.

In early spring, in the urgency of the mating season, they’ll start with the standard call, and it’ll rise in speed until it degenerates into a rapid confused hoot-hooting. Sounds sort of like teenagers, getting all excited and noisy. Later, we’ll hear the owlets, practicing their calls, clumsily slipping in their syntax and slowly getting it together. We laugh when we hear a baby muffing his lines, and a prissy elder answering back in stern tones. Sounds like, “Get it right, you young punk!”

With all this activity, we seldom see the owls, and if we do, it’s usually just a huge shape as it glides across the open space and disappears into the dense pines. This week, we had a magical thing happen. Our 3 ½ year old granddaughter was with us, and we were sitting outside, close to dusk, just relaxing and talking. The owls were calling around us.

Suddenly one called really loud, and close to the house. It was so loud that it scared Anna and she cowered down with her hands over her ears, very afraid. We always want to teach her about the natural world, so we told her what it was and we decided to call back to it. So we did. All three of us made owl calls into the evening air—and it worked!

We fooled the owl, and it came gliding out of the pines, flew right over us and landed in a tree about 30 feet away, in plain sight! It was cold, so we wrapped a blanket around Anna, and went to sit on the ground a little closer to the owl sitting there to watch it. Soon it called again, and another answered from nearby. It called again, and here came the second owl, landed in a tree about 10 feet away from the first one.

They sat there sort of calling softly to each other and watching each other while we greedily soaked up the sight of these two magnificent birds, so intent on each other that they didn’t even notice us. We were able to talk to our Anna about these birds, and she was so excited about seeing them that she was trembling with excitement. What a night!

Just that quickly, she went from fear of the unknown mysterious spooky creature, to knowing what made it and appreciating how special it was. The next day, while we were outdoors working around the place and walking our path, she insisted we stop frequently to call the owls again. So we did-and I’m sure we’ll do it again!

We enjoy the natural world around us so very much, and it just triples our joy to be able to share it with one who will be responsible to protect these wild parts of tomorrow’s world. I think it’ll be in safe hands.

Bloom Time

Each year, when the exuberance of spring happens, I think-"How could I ever leave this place?" It's just so very beautiful, and it gets better each year. I've been on this land now for about 35 years, moving in when I was a young bride, and now retired, Jim joined me, with his hard work in clearing the brush and cleaning up things, and how the place has changed!

When we moved here, the previous owners had used a lawn service who came out regularly to spray poison all over. The grass was green, and weed free, but there wasn't a bird on the place, and the mosquitoes were terrible! I stopped the expensive lawn service, worked in more natural ways, and the lawn is now a combination of amazing variety, from grass, to creeping charlie, violets, and all kinds of wild and growing things. The birds provide a constant joyous dance of color and life, singing us awake in the morning, and the owls wake us in the night with their curious questioning calls. As I write this, I can hear the robin singing his night time call, and see the bright yellow finch at the feeder, along with the brilliant red cardinal and his more sedate colored, but still beautiful mate, the brown toned female cardinal. There are also, hairy and downy woodpeckers, chickadees, and many more, crowding around to share the life at this great place. I can hear the Canada geese now, encouraging each other with their noisy honks as they settle into the wetlands behind us for the night time rest.

The field out back that started as rye grass is now a wonderful woods, working through its transition from sumac and brush, into a tall, quiet maple, poplar and hazelnut woods.
We made a path that we walk frequently, reading the animal tracks in winter, and just enjoying the place, all year long. Oak trees are making a strong inroad and you can see the changes as you wander our path through the quiet growth. It's an amazing place, and the birds keep the mosquitoes in check most of the time. The little magnolia bush outside the front door that used to be shorter than my 5 foot 3 has grown taller than the house, into a magnificent exhuberance of pink glory, and just today it arrived at perfection, driving me outdoors with the camera to capture it yet again.

For Mother's Day last year, my children gave me a weeping cherry tree, something I've wanted for years. I had no idea what a success it would be! The bees are just mobbing it, and so intent on harvesting their pollen that I could get up close and take this picture of one of the little workers burrowing into a blossom.

The forsythia are just glorious, and the daffodils that Mom gave me years ago, have come up everywhere with their star shaped faces shouting Spring is here. Out in the back corner, the old weeping willow tree that I planted over 30 years ago from a pruning left by the roadside stretches its pale green switches 25 feet into the sky.




My heart always just leaps with joy each year when this process happens, and I hope it'll never change. The only thing that's not happened yet to make this a perfect spring is-MORELS! We haven't found any yet. But soon now! Maybe tomorrow.

A Two Fox Day!

Seeing a fox out in the wild is always a thrill. They're just the most wonderfully wild and free animals, and truly beautiful. I've never spotted one on our own property, but have seen the tracks through the winter snow, and see a fox a couple of times a year, in the area as we travel.

We had to make a quick trip to Terre Haute last week, and as Jim drove, I spotted a fox, just strolling along in a field. I saw it clearly, just walking along in no hurry, and could see it for a while as we passed the spot. I was amazed, because you never see a fox just walking, usually it's that rapid, energetic trot.

It made me happy to see that gorgeous wild animal, just at its ease, casually moving through its world, completely ignoring the traffic going by and at home in the woods.

Then to my amazement, as we were traveling back north toward home, I spotted another fox! This one was right at the edge of a field, watching some small mouse and getting ready to pounce. Every part of that fox was on complete alert and rigid and gorgeous.

Seeing one fox always makes my day, but this was a two fox day! What a lucky thing.

Spring's just the best time of year.

This was a long winter. Somehow, it just seemed to drag on and on, and never want to give up and release its hold on us. I think we're finally making it through though. Longer days, and warmer temperatures, force us outdoors to scratch in that ground once again.

Jim got bitten by the gardener bug bad this year, and planted about 30 tomato plants in the living room windows. He carefully carried them outside on warm days, and brought them back inside at night. Planted some out in the garden, only to lose them to frost. Thank goodness he had enough extra plants to start over again, and now they're growing well out there, hopefully giving us an early start on the season.I'm trying something new in my raised bed this year, dividing it off into foot square spaces and planting intensively in those squares. We'll see how it does. Makes sense to concentrate plantings in small spaces and just weed and feed in those areas. Using our good compost sparingly in those small spots should give us some terrific production. I've already planted about 16 of the squares, and can't wait to see how things come up.

We had Anna out and made a small fire to roast some marshmallows. Anna doesn't really want to eat the marshmallows, just set them on fire and blow them out. As long as she enjoys the fun.....

Maple Syrup

This is posted late, but better late than never. This was my year to make maple syrup. Now that I'm retired, I have the time to walk through our little woods, and tap the maple trees for syrup. Since we really only need a little bit, it doesn't have to be such a huge project as some people go through, but it does, as always, take 40 to 50 gallons of sap to cook down to one gallon of syrup. So you have to gather a lot, no matter how much you plan to make.

We keep changing the system each year, to make it easier for us to do the work. Jim carved sumac branches into spiles years ago, and we hung our rinsed out, recycled milk jugs on them to catch the sap as it came dripping out of the trees.

We can tap any maple tree that measures more than 6" in diameter, and there are a lot of those around here. This year, knowing that I didn't need a lot of syrup, and not feeling too ambitious, I just drilled 7 taps, and walked the trail twice a day to collect the yummy drippings. I bought plastic tubing, forced it onto the end of the spiles, tied a light nylon line around the tree, added an s hook to hang the jug from, and put the end of the tube into the jugs. That way, there were far fewer bugs in the sap than in previous years. Of course, we strain it before we put it on to cook, but it's nice to have it clean in the first place.I spent one day working with our outside stove to cook the sap down, and just about froze. It was a really cold day. Then I got smart. I put big shallow roasting pans on the top of the wood stove on the back porch and just kept them filled with sap. As it cooked down, I added more.

It was a lot more comfortable job on the back porch than running all the way outside all the time, and I could get lots more done in the house at the same time too. The house was dry and needed the humidity, and when it got too steamy on the back porch, I just opened the windows and let it vent for a while.

In the end, this year we got 6 cups of delicious, thick syrup, and it'll be delicious on pancakes and waffles when the family comes out for our annual family breakfast soon. Becky will make waffles, and we'll add sausages, and juice, and toppings made from our fresh blueberries and peaches last year, along with our precious maple syrup. It'll be great.

We've already used it to flavor a pot of baked beans and to sweeten a delicious dessert of peaches and crepes. How wonderful to have a place where we can create something so delicious with what we've got going right here in our own back yard.

Hurrah for Late Winter Sauerkraut!

There are so many old timey things that people just don't do anymore, and they're really terrific! Each fall, we harvest three or four big heavy solid heads of cabbage and cut them up into sauerkraut.

It's really easy, just slice it thin, and layer it in a sterilized heavy crock, or even a plastic bucket, with handfulls of kosher salt mixed in. We bought a clean plastic 5 gallon bucket and use it for nothing else but this project each year. When we've filled the bucket about 3/4 full of the cabbage and salt, we use our fist to pack it down solidly, put a clean china plate on top, and on top of that, a big flat rock, that we save and boil each year. The rock is to hold the plate down on the top of the cabbage.

Then we set it aside to work. After about two months, we lift out the rock, carefully lift off the mold and stuff that grows in the water above the plate, and only then, do we lift off the plate to see the clean white, wonderfully tart and crisp kraut underneath it.

We bag it up into 3 cup servings, and store those in the drawers in the bottom of the refrigerator for just the right day to savor that special treat. Today was one of those days, and we picked up a pound of the marvelous polish sausage that a local butcher makes and simmered it with some of our kraut for dinner.

With it, we boil some potatoes from our root cellars, and on the side, some crunchy fresh veggies. Cucumbers, radishes, and sausage were the only part we had to buy fresh, the rest we "laid by" during those productive warm days of summer and fall.

While enjoying this terrific meal, we took time to think about how many of the old timey things we enjoy doing that seem to be lost to most people these days. We really enjoy harvesting the food off of our own land and preserving it for later, storing it in our own buried root cellars, or otherwise preserving it to enjoy later.

Any day now, we'll head out into our woods to tap the maple trees for syrup. That's another thing that really isn't nearly as hard work as most people think, and sure does yield a delicious dividend. More about that later.

For now, it's cold and snowey outside, and I've got a full stomach of healthy food, and a good book. My only decision now is whether to recline on the comfy couch, or light a fire and sit in the rocker to read. What a life!

Winter Blues

Now, it's not that bad! These days, as usual for this time of year, I find myself wanting to slow down, stay inside where it's warm, and eat everything in sight! Happens every year, and I figure it's that prehistoric winter hibernator ancestor in me, fighting for dominance with the modern person who knows better.

So this morning, I dressed up warm, took the camera and went out to shake off the winter blues-and I found the blues! But a different kind than I expected. Even Jim's Owl's Haven totem pole, standing out in front of our garage was wearing a snowey cap this morning. It was a beautiful cold crisp, 21 degree, clean sunny winter morning out there, with the sun sparkling off that beautiful white snow, and blue shadows adding depth to everything. I tromped around out there for a while, feeding the cats, filling the birdfeeders, and making a start on pruning the blueberries-and there's another blue! Even the icicles hanging down from the eave of the house are blue with the siding behind them, and the smoke from the chimney looks blue against the sky.

So I filled my eyes and heart with the blues this morning, and came in, much cheered up.

Spring is on its way-and soon now. For the past two mornings, I've heard the owls in their mating calls. That fast, confused, hooting of two or three voices at once, in a flurry of noise. One of these days, we'll hear those wonderful baby owl tentive hoots. Wonderful music.

Home At Last!

On the way home, we stopped for a visit at the Artisan Center in Berea, Kentucky to see the works of the artists. These gorgeous glass sculptures looked like they were just temporarily stopped from their dance of joy. What beautiful things, and so very graceful. It always makes me just stare in wonder to see this kind of beautiful things. I feel sure these were created by someone who grew up looking at Dr. Seuss drawings, and recreated those mythical beings into this kind of joyful beauty.

We finally got home, to find that all the snow was melted, our shelter for the motorhome blown down, and water in the crawl space. Problematic, but not too awful, or expensive. It'll take some time to pump out and buy a new shelter to protect our marvelous traveling home.
This picture is how Jim felt about the water under our house. There's not quite this much, and we're slowly pumping it out, as it seeps in each day.

Lots of Family and Warm Weather

We headed south into Florida to visit some of Jim's family who travel there from Indiana each year for the winter. These snow birds live fairly close to each other in Indiana, then spend the winter within a few miles of each other all winter. What a life they live, so busy with volunteer work, friendly get-togethers and lots of good times. While those of us in Indiana are shoveling snow, they're mowing their small lawns and eating tangerines off a back yard tree. What a life!

Nila arrived for a month's stay while we were there, and Jim showed her the tangerine tree in Jean and Morris' backyard. We brought home a box of those golden goodies and savor one each day while we remember the sunshine.
What an amazing tree we camped under one night on the way home! It dwarfed our camper, and listening to the wind in this tree was like an all night lullaby.
Once back in Indiana, we stopped to see Tom and Susan and had such fun, we ended up staying the night. What a great couple they are!

Happy New Year 2008!

Here's the last sunset of 2007, as seen from the balcony of our condo. What a view! I'm a little late in posting this record of our travels, but we were on the road and didn't have fast internet access for a while. So this is a catchup of our travel story.

We saw the new year in in style this year in a terrific restaurant over a salmon dinner, dancing, and general hilarity near our hotel. As we walked back to our condo, people driving by were honking and yelling happy greetings. It was balmy and pleasant, and we got back just as Kim and Robert arrived from their own party. We poured champagne and went out onto the balcony to watch the beach fireworks and stretch the special night out for a while. How wonderful to spend this special time of year with great people.

New Year’s Day was spent relaxing, then we ate the traditional good luck lunch of Hog Jowls, Collard Greens and black eyed peas. Delicious! Jim took off for a long beach walk, Robert napped, hoping to make his cold feel better, and Kim and I went letterboxing. Kim has been at this hobby for a while with lots more enthusiasm than I have, and we went together to find her 300th letterbox, along the beachfront north of Myrtle Beach. It was fun to be with her to celebrate that special find.
When we got back, Jim watched, I took pictures, and Kim ceremoniously put the last piece in this year’s jigsaw puzzle. Each year we put a puzzle out and sit around it for hours, putting it together as we visit and catch up on each other's lives. This year’s puzzle was a beautiful one, a spread of all kinds of shore birds, salt and freshwater. The next morning we said a sad good bye for this year’s wonderful annual visit and headed south. What a cold day! It was only 36 degrees as we headed out of town and everyone on the streets looked stunned. We actually saw a few flakes of snow about 10 miles south of Myrtle Beach.
We planned to visit the Charleston Market, and walk around the town to see that gorgeous city, but it was too cold for the vendors to even be in the market, let alone us to stroll around viewing the stalls. We actually heard the buggy drivers joking about how miserable it was to ride around in buggies. We headed on south, looking for warmer weather. We crossed into Georgia and spent the night at the campground of Skidaway Island State Park. It was cold outside, but we were warm and cozy inside wrapped in our sleeping bags with the electric blanket on top. We took some time in the morning for a beautiful walk through the trails of this neat barrier island. The salt water areas are mingled with small fresh water ponds, and palms, Spanish moss and palmettos everywhere. Very cold though, and Karren wimped out and went back to the motorhome, while Jim walked on to the long trail to see the earthworks left over from the Revolutionary war, and the whiskey stills.

We thought about visiting Savannah while we were that close, but really didn’t feel like visiting urban areas and hit the road to go on south to see family. This country sure is different to drive through. Long, straight level roads, with as much wetland as dry, and beautiful little white egrets dotting the water everywhere. Thursday night we were tired, so pulled into a motel to stretch out and watch tv for the evening.

Seeing the Old Year Out in Style

Such fun! We always have old favorite things to do, and places to go, and there are new ones to experience too. One of the first necessary visits was to our favorite Irish tavern in Myrtle Beach, Flynn's. We had an excellent corned beef dinner and a couple of pints. In this picture, Jim demonstrates the best position to be in after an evening at Flynn's.

In the afternoon, a fog, or low flying cloud, moved in off the beach and gave us this interesting view off our balcony. Looking straight out to the ocean from our balcony you could see nothing but fog, not even the beach below. Then down the beach, you could actually see it moving between the buildings. It came and went several times during the day, but the temps were mostly in the mid 60's and just beautiful.
We found a local winery, "La Belle Amis", that was hosting a bonfire event for the day, with these terrific Jazz musicians. They were just great, and one guy was making s'mores with Gheridelli chocolates and handing them out. What a marvelous taste! The wine was pretty good too, and what a great afternoon, to nibble on cheese and fruit, sip wine and visit with the people around us.
The winery had two dogs that worked the crowd and added to the fun. One was a border collie, Belle, who would herd any small child who came close, and the other Amis, just strolled among the relaxing guests, mooching snacks.One of our favorite stops is at a local seafood market, where we buy a whole bunch of fresh, never frozen shrimp. So delicious! Jim buys a half dozen oysters, and ceremoniously shucks them out, then sits down to eat them raw, accompanied by a bottle of dark beer. This year he had a special bottle of dark beer from Vermont, a birthday present from our favorite Vermonters. It's a treat he alone loves, and the rest of us just watch. This year he bought a couple extra dozen and we enjoyed them together in oyster stew, with scrambled eggs, and a couple in a brand new way, cooked in the half shell, with just a dash of hot sauce. Yummy. The shrimp gets parboiled and peeled, then we've enjoyed it in kabobs with the best fresh pineapple we ever tasted and other goodies, then just garlic and buttered, and with eggs. We have enough for one more shrimp meal, and it'll be great. There's something so very special about fresh shrimp. So sweet and delicious.

This shot is from this morning's sunrise, right off our balcony. So pretty and peaceful.

Happy New Year everyone.

At the Beach!

Once a year, we escape the snowey Northern Indiana weather for a week at the beach. My daughter and her husband meet us at a condo where we share the off-season wonderful rates to rent a multi-room suite high above the beach and spend a week soaking in the hot tub and walking the beach.

We left early Christmas Morning and drove the motorhome south. It was great to see the mountains again, even though they were cold and snowey. We spend Christmas night in a motel in Tennessee, where I used the microwave to warm a pre-packed dinner for my favorite birthday guy. A cornish hen roasted with rosemary and garlic butter, baked potatoes and a delicious salad made up our dinner, served with a nice bottle of chardonney. Cakes are out for me, and he's kind enough to go along with the wheat-free lifestyle too, so his birthday cake was a warmed dish of rice pudding, topped with coffee creamer and birthday candles. There was a change of hotels from our original plan, when they closed our original hotel for repairs, so Kim talked the management into finding us another, newer, nicer hotel, where we had a set of rooms so new they still smelled of fresh paint. We're on the 19th floor and the view is just beautiful. We keep seeing flocks of pelicans flying along the beach, BELOW our balcony. What a view!
Just a couple hours after we checked in, we saw two dolphins cruising by off the beach. They looked like they were just slowly rolling along, out for a stroll in the evening. Just gorgeous. We had a great seafood dinner last night at the restaurant next door.

So today, we drove up to the nearby State Park to walk the beach to see what had washed up onto the beach. It was fun to watch the shore birds running through the surf. We found lots of broken shells, one shark's tooth, and a sea anemone. Jim got stuck on a pier support when a big wave came in. Funny picture.

What a Difference One Breezy Night Can Make!

A few days ago there were 10 inches of snow and ice outside, and accidents everywhere as we slowly crept about the slickery roads. Then it got warmer and it was excellent snowman weather as things started to soften and pack down.

Last night it sounded like a spring wind booming around the house all night, snapping the cover on the motorhome shelter and keeping me awake. This morning we woke up to what these pictures show. A small leftover hump is all that’s left of Frosty today, and the green grass is showing all around. There’s a skim of ice in the plastic toboggan, where the snowmelt off the roof first filled the sled, then it froze over. It seems to be getting a little colder as the morning progresses.
The ivy is showing under the birdfeeders, and the birds are all off scavenging whatever’s been exposed by the melted snow today. There’s not one single bird feeding off what we put out.
And…the cable’s out! Not just the internet, but the tv and the phone, since we use the internet for our phone service too. Somewhere around here, the wind has taken our wires down and we’ll be out of touch with the world today, until they get it fixed. The wonderful thing is that we still have electricity. In the past, that was the first to go, but since they buried so many lines, we seldom lose that anymore. So life is good, we can’t call out, except by cell phone, and nobody can call us, but we’re warm and cozy. This note will have to wait until service is restored before posting. No rush, we’ll get it back soon.