A Whomping Birch?

It has been a bit breezy the last few days. Not bad, but enough to stir the leaves. Plus a bit more! I was downstairs last night about 745 pm and heard a whomp. Mom yelled at me to see what it was. I ran upstairs, looked out the door, and was greeted with this! Now I know a bit of how Ron and Harry felt when the Ford hit the Willow in that infamous incident in the second Potter book. YIKES!!!!! 

I am very fortunate I had driven the car earlier and parked it about 2 to 3 feet from where I normally park. It most definitely would have gotten brushed by branches! I texted our neighbor's and they drove over to check things out. They'll bring over tools later in the week. I'm just really glad their youngest mowed for us before the tree fell! 

The funniest thing. These trees below are the ones we keep an eye on. They list and bend and are dead from beetle kill. But, they stand season after season. The one that fell, it had some issues, but I never would have expected it to be rotten inside! 

 There was some beautiful lichen on it. I loved the shades in the different leaves.

 It really was rather close to the car and the house. We were fortunate. I remember once at Christmas when the guys brought home a GIANT Christmas tree. Jon said, 'it looked smaller in the woods.' I sort of have to agree. I have taken photos of this tree several times and had no idea it was as big as it was!

 Mom's little 4H mountain ash seems to be ok. I'll have to make sure the neighbors don't smush it while they are cleaning up the birch!

 I'm thankful our friend, Jim, took down most of the dubious looking trees last fall. I can't imagine the debris if those had been left! 

Last weekend of summer vacation-mom's photos

Jon has wanted for ages to camp up on the ranch, so for the last weekend of summer vacation, we did! We only stayed up there one night, but with all the dust blowing around making us sneeze, it was long enough. Next time, I'll bring more tissue or take allergy meds and we can stay longer!

Jon, never a child to travel the beaten track, took the road less traveled to get to the pond..needless to say, it was very adventurous! The first photo does not do justice to the ruts, rocks, and washouts we encountered! I am not even sure what trees we started between. The second photo was the path we should have taken!


We got up to the area a little late in the day for much activity, but Jon unloaded the wee boat and took it out on the pond. Yes, that is a pond. We forgot the rake to use on the rather aggressive weeds choking it! Next time! Steve and I took a walk and found a couple of the willow trees he planted. The deer had eaten them, so we collected the wire holders and will plant some more next spring.
Speaking of deer, this was one of 4 or 5 bucks we saw. It is a grainy picture as they were about 100 yards away or so. At one time we saw in a row points of 4, 3, 2, and spike buck! So, we know they are there, just gotta wait for hunting season. We are hoping they stick around!!!

The next morning we were awakened very early by a cow alarm! In a city you have car alarms..in the woods, cow! They had finally gotten out of the grass where they spent the night to come down to the pond for a drink. On the good side, because they broke the fence we were able to go for a night walk in the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program-for farming areas that are not able to be farmed anymore). The Toyota is where Jon spent his night. Tents are not a good idea here due to the cows. The ground is really torn up and there are 'pies' all over the place!

One of the things we did on Saturday was go to the 'upper place'. It is totally amazing up there and I learned that this is where the guys sight in their rifles. And after a bit of a hike, that is what Jon did.

We got back to camp for a spot of relaxation and some lunch. Jon had with him approved camp out reading, especially nice for use in a kit bashed together hammock! (rope over 20 years old is not good hammock rope!) Lunch was hobo veggies and pork steaks. I had forgotten the salt and pepper, but BBQ sauce worked very well along with the Ranch dressing. Steve added a side of Mtn Dew to his.

We were planning on doing another longer hike, but I was very sneezy by this time and since the cows were out of the CRP, they decided to fix the fence (note, they are not our cows. the owner rents the land for them). It was a lot more work than they had thought it might be!

On the way back home, Jon had to take a 'vista' shot of the world below us. It is pretty incredible what you can see and my next blog will be the same weekend, only from Jon's point of view!

I did bring a book-NEVER go anywhere without one! And was able to read one of Tamora Pierce's books about Tortall (Protector of the Small-Squire).