Hunting Bears

 Over the last several years I've read quite a bit about numerous wild animal species making comebacks in population or starting to appear in areas that they previously were though to be gone from.  Not necessarily extinct but just far removed from those original areas.  This is all good news to me.  I'm happy to see many wild animals growing in population.  I know when I was a kid we never saw deer around the area I grew up.  That was something that existed far, far away in other parts of Alabama.  Now, when I go down in the pastures when I visit Mama, deer trails and tracks are a dime a dozen.  Unfortunately, coyotes have come with them, but so far they tend to stay far away from houses.  Fox are common now, as are ground hogs and various hawks and other wild fowl.
Knowing all this did not prepare me for what I recently found in my driveway though.  A couple of weeks ago, on my daily trek to the mailbox, I spied some very large and very deep claw marks right in the drive, which is hard-packed chert and gravel.  I came back and took several photos, as you see below.  At first I thought, it must just be a very large dog.  But after measuring them....I thought, that'd have to be one big ass dog.  There were four claw marks with the outer ones being a good 4 inches apart and about 1 1/2" between each claw.  That's just the claws, you see.  The paw would be even larger.

 There were actually several marks but this was the one most clearly defined.  The scratch was over 2 feet in length also and, as I mentioned, in some very hard gravel and dirt.. We had not had much rain in a while when this was done and the ground was just baked.  In fact, we have had several very heavy rains since I took these photos and some of the marks are still slightly visible, they were so deep.

 I suspected it was a black bear but figured everyone would think I was nutty.  I mean, Alabama does have black bears.  They travel quite frequently through our state on their way to and from the Smokies and Florida.  But they normally stay over on the east side of the state because they can make a great deal of the trip within the confines of the Talledega National Forest.  It's a little unusual to see them over this way.

 Then, I found this tuft of hair not far from the claw marks a few days later.  It's very matted and coarse.  I suppose it could very well be dog hair but it just didn't seem like it.  So.  I got all my stuff together and paid a visit to our local county extension officer.  He's real nice and likes to chat so we dropped in his office and I showed him all my evidence.  To be honest, I expected him to laugh at me.  But...he looked over everything and said, 'Yep, looks like you have a bear!'  I wanted to not be thought a nut but I also didn't want to know I had a bear on my land!  Mainly it scared me for my chickens and for Chigger.  I don't think she's courageous enough to go after a bear, by any means, but I encouraged her to stay up by the house as much as possible and made sure the girls were locked up way before dark.  The county guy said he figured the bear had well moved on by now; that it was probably just passing through, but I wasn't so sure.  I haven't seen any signs of anything lately though, so hopefully he's right! 

In other rare sightings, I actually won 2 prizes at the art show that I was recently accepted into!  I got 2nd for the metal sculpture I showed ya'll a few posts back and got an Honorable Mention for another small sculpture.  I won a little money with that too, so that was nice!  I was very happy and grateful to finally have some success.  At the end of the reception, the judge (a professor from the U of A in Huntsville) made a point to stop me to talk and compliment me on all my work.  He claimed to be very impressed with the welding, which I thought was kinda humorous.  However, he did understand that it's a bit tricky to weld cast iron to mild steel and he appreciated my efforts.  Of course, I told him who my professor was that taught me how to weld and he understood then.  Where I went to school, craftsmanship was of great importance, as it should be.  Didn't matter how great of an artistic concept, if it looked like shit then it was shit in their eyes.  "The craftsmanship should always be appropriate to the piece".  I might as well as had that tattooed on my forehead as often as we were told in school! They weren't kidding either.  If you couldn't muster the craft of building things (or painting etc), there was none of this, "oh, it's the concept of the piece blah, blah, blah." They would tell you to get your shit and get out of their class.
At any rate, from this show I was also offered two other opportunities to exhibit my art and I am very excited about that.  I'll tell ya'll about that in a later post.

Another Sunday In The South

We celebrated an early Independence Day on Thursday of last week, so that left the weekend open. Well, we just mainly worked around the house and in the garden to be honest.  But by Sunday I was getting a bit of cabin fever, so we decided to have a day on the town for a change.
Our first stop was this little Vietnamese restaurant in a suburb of  Birmingham.  We hardly ever go to that particular area because of the horrendous traffic but it wasn't too bad on a Sunday and we had a great lunch!  These spring rolls are absolutely to die for!  I could just eat that until I was a big balloon ready to pop!

These are actually photos from another time we ate there but what we had was similar, so it's close enough! ha!  To me, Vietnamese is very different from other Asian food; I guess kinda how Thai is different flavors and such.  Very distinct.  I enjoy it though.

 So, we stuffed ourselves good (or at least I did) and then went a few doors down to do a wee bit of shopping.  Which means I bought a bar of fancy soap and some popcorn.  Yes, I know...we live right on the edge.
We did go to Whole Foods and do some real grocery shopping though and they had some of their chicken on sale, which meant we could actually afford to buy a little.  ha!  I don't shop there much but do get some stuff I can't buy anywhere else, like non-gmo canola oil and decent coconut oil and a few other things.

Then we went by the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.  I have posted about them before and I always recommend out of town folks to stop by there if they are looking to see the sights.  It was a cloudy day and the lighting was just not right for many photos but I did get a few.

These were some of the most exotic water lilies I had ever seen.

I know I look horrible but it was a very warm and very humid day.  You trudge your way through a July day in Alabama after a week of heavy rains and see how you look at the end! And besides, the rabbit was the main focus anyway!

We were excited to see that the Gardens have added a good size bee colony to the grounds.  These were right near the extensive vegetable gardens they grow there.

This is on the path to the Japanese Gardens on one end of the property.  Those gardens are my favorite as you all probably know.

Not a lot going on down there though; didn't even see many koi in the pond, which is unusual.  We did see quite a lot of  turtles though....which may explain the lack of fish....

So, we had a very nice day but I was hurting rather extensivly by the time we got home.  I really was a bad girl this past weekend.  I went on a bender the likes I've not done in a while, eating sweets and bread, corn and fries and all kinds of starches.  Something I rarely do, especially the sweets; I don't know what got into me really.  Even finished off a small bottle of Knob Creek and had some wine, later of course!  And let me tell you....I am paying for it now.  I hurt so bad.  I hurt so bad I finally broke down and took some Diclofinac for the inflammation.  I don't like that stuff because it really affects my kidneys but I was desperate. I was doing okay this morning, and even worked out yesterday, but by this afternoon I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand and laying down even hurt.  So, I learned my lesson on that one.  I had read a little while back where a number of people advocate a starch-free diet for the treatment of AS, and I really didn't put much stock in it to tell the truth.  Well.....I changed my mind today when I realized just how much starchy stuff I stuffed the past few days!  I know it's going to be hard but I'm going to give the starch-free thing a whirl.  The sweets are no problems really (cakes, cookies, breads) but I love popcorn, potatoes in all forms and stuff like that.  I've got to get off my ass and make that big jar of kimchi tomorrow too.

So, I may not post much in the next few days or I might come here and tear us all a new one as I go through the DTs!  I've also started a new herbal regiment for inflammation that my herbalist friend is guiding me through.  I'll keep ya'll posted on how it's all working.

In The City

The weather decided to be kind to us these past 3 days to make up for all the crap of the past 2 weeks, I guess.  So, I decided that a day out on the town was in order and there were a number of errands I needed to run that could only be done in the "big city".
I started my journey by stopping off at my favorite sushi place to get fueled up for the day.  This is a seafood roll and very, very yummy.  I made a couple other stops in the general area and then headed to downtown Birmingham.

Birmingham is actually a very nice little town.  Lots and lots of great restaurants, a new baseball stadium, parks and other attractions.  My stop here was the downtown recycling center to drop off some old computer parts, batteries, plastic and shoes.  They recycle practically anything there and are very nice and helpful.  The center is also right off the interstate and in between two of the places I sell my pottery so it's pretty convenient for me when I come into town.
I stopped off next at a really cool coffee house that sells my mugs and was pleased to see they owed me a check!

From there I went to the larger store (pictures above) that sells the majority of my pottery and dropped off a few new pieces.  This store is actually in a suburb of Birmingham and it's a very nice, kinda upscale area.  My pottery is on some shelves underneath the "Alabama Made Pottery" sign but you can't see it very well in this shot.  If I can build my inventory up quite a bit the owner wants to put me back out on one of the center table displays.
I did a little window shopping in the area at some other stores and just generally enjoyed being outside.  Then I headed over to the real pricey side of town to pick up a few things at Whole Foods.  (I only buy anything if it is on sale!) Coming out of there I realized I locked my keys in my truck!  Dang it!  Luckily, I learned years ago to keep a magnetic key holder with an extra stuck to the underside of the chassis, so I was back in my truck in a couple of minutes.
Things went better after that and I went on back in the direction of home but stopped at several places on the way.  I got a new tank top and socks for the gym and perused the big book store for quite a while.
So, overall it was a real nice day.  I probably should have been working in the garden but I needed a day out something fierce.  I'll explain more about that in a later post.

One other thing I wanted to post was a question that a longtime reader had and hoped that another one of you might have an idea of how to solve his dilemma.  Here is the comment he left for me:

I am hoping to tap into your knowledge (or the brains of all the people reading your blog), to see if I can find a humane cat deterrent for our yard. 
This winter in Toronto has been very harsh, and we have had many feral (and local outdoor cats) getting into our very well fenced yard. We have lost chickens and seen many several wild birds that visit our feeders fall prey to cats.
Yesterday our beautiful mixed lab rescue dog Midnight, killed a local cat in our yard.
I had the unfortunate task of calling up the person (many blocks away I might add) that their cat, wearing a nameplate "Zach de Cat" with phone number (no bell on his neck) was gone. As we have had many coyotes in the area this frigid winter, I admit I did not reveal that I was pretty sure I well knew who was responsible for "de Cat"s demise. I wish no bad things on any animals, but cannot understand why people let their house cats roam freely. Sorry for the long comment, but I want to do what's best, and don't care to make Midnight's 2nd life one of a full time enforcer.

Now, I gave the suggestion of the Haveahart trap and garden hose technique that Florida Cracker uses but couldn't really come up with any other ideas at the time.  Anybody else have any ideas??  We also keep a lower pressure BB rifle and pistol handy for strays of all kinds.  A pop or two on dat ass will usually discourage any dog or cat from coming back.  Of course, you have to be present and actually see the varmit for this to work.  They do make very high pressure BB guns such as the .22 types but we avoid using that on anything but the most aggressive and large dogs, as you can actually kill a small animal with one.
So, anybody else have anything??

Snow Days

I managed to get a few photos of the recent snow but didn't really put a lot of effort into it, to be honest.  I went out a few times to tend the chickens or stoke the wood stove in the basement, but every time I went out and came back inside I would be dripping sweat for half an hour or so from the effort.

It was very pretty though and we got a fair amount.  Some reports said the NE side of our town got 8 inches and our side got about 5-6 inches.  Some parts of Alabama just northwest of here got slightly over a foot, which is rather extraordinary for this part of the South.

It has remained fairly cold here the last couple of days so we still have a fair amount left on the ground but the roads are pretty much okay.

Chigger just loves, loves the snow and colder weather.  She does not have very long hair so it always seems to me she would be cold but she doesn't seem to mind.  In fact, when it starts to get warm here she just becomes slug-like.  I was able to play with her a little yesterday and she was going wild, racing through the snow like crazy.

The chickens were less than enthused.  When we let them out Wednesday morning it was a typical, cool winter day and they gathered up at the house to scavenge the bird feeder drops and graze in the yard.  As the snow began to fall though, they huddled closer to the house or under the trucks.  They will run around in the rain all day but oh no!...we are not getting our feet in that snow!  They steadfastly stuck to any bare ground protected from the falling snow but a few had sense enough to go on down to the coop.   As it eased on towards evening the snow had accumulated to about 4 inches and the rest of the girls were getting nervous.  It was time to go to the coop for bed but they were going to have to trudge across all that frozen stuff!  I finally went out and got a feed bucket to lure them out.  It was snowing rather hard at this point and I could only entice the older girls to hike home.  Zuzu was the only one unafraid and easily followed me down to the coop.  She just wanted her food!  The others clung to one another in a group but they eventually made it with my encouragement.  Big T was a disappointment in this one.  He would not help round them up at all and stayed up at the house by himself.  I think when he finally realized he was alone he got up the courage to run through the snow to the coop.  And my "northern bred" Ameracaunas that are supposed to be made for cold climates??  They were camped out under the trucks and steadfastly refused to come out.  No amount of bribing or threatening was going to get them to step in that snow.  I finally had to catch each one by hand and carry them down to the coop.

I was finally able to get a few decent shots of the feeder and we have been trying to keep it filled for the little birds.  I have been seeing what looks to me to be 2 goldfinches but have yet to be able to photograph them.  I wouldn't think they would be here this early in the year but what do I know?  The other day I went to Mama's and saw a huge group of robins, which I also thought was a bit early, but that's fine by me.  I'm ready for warm weather.

At The Zoo

Tonight I am very tired and achy so there won't be a lot of script with the post but I thought you all might enjoy the photos I took during a recent trip to the zoo with my Mom.  She had been wanting to go for some time, as she had never been to a large city zoo, and I was determined to take her once the weather cooled off some.  Turns out we had a beautiful day; just warm enough and not too many folks there since it was a Tuesday.  If you are in the area, the Birmingham Zoo is pretty nice.  Not huge but they still have some nice exhibits, many of which have recently been remodeled to give the animals much more room.  The elephants were one such exhibit.  The keepers were feeding them apples at the time we were there and the elephants apparently really like apples!  They were scooping them up quickly.

Birmingham was once also home to a very famous lowland gorilla, like the one pictured here.  That famous gorilla was Babec, in whom UAB cardiologists implanted a pacemaker after it was discovered he had heart disease.  It was the first surgery of that type in a gorilla and made him something of a celebrity in the zoo world.  He lived for many years with the pacemaker but finally passed away in his 30s, I think.

Mama especially enjoyed the birds and you could walk right up to these flamingos.

One thing that was pretty cool was that many of the animals would come right up to the fence or glass when Mama approached them.  My luck has never been that good!  I guess they know she loves animals.

Wildlife authorities have been spotting increased numbers of black bears in north Alabama in recent months.  This does not make me happy.  I mean, I'm happy the bears are doing well but ya'll know those things scare the living hell out of me.  NOT what I would want to run into one night while I'm locking the chickens up!

The big cats were a bit lethargic the day we were there.

It was good napping weather though, I have to admit.

The animals were all enjoying their food but I would not recommend the humans to eat at the cafe.  The ingredients were good and fresh but they somehow still managed to make the sandwiches cold, hard and completely void of condiments.  I actually had to ask for mayo and some dressing.

Even hunched over this African vulture was huge!

At least one flock of these guineas just ran around free, as they pleased.  They were taking a little breather over by the sea lions' pool.

These guys were quite funny.  They really liked having their picture made.  I was focusing on the two on the right and when this other one on the left saw that, he scooted down the limb real quick so he could get in the shot too!  That was cool though!  I thought it came out well.

River Low Mountain High

This past week was unseasonably mild with low humidity and since we had been working hard on the garden, art and various things, which I will show ya'll soon, we thought a fun day out was in order.  I was also waiting rather impatiently on the kiln to cool so I could see some new experiments, so a road trip was a good way to keep me from opening the kiln too soon.  We had talked often about going back to Little River Canyon and some of ya'll may remember our trip there a couple of years ago.  That trip was in the winter though and I wanted to experience it in warm weather.
The water levels were down quite a bit but it was still very pretty and actually safer to do a little swimming.
This is the main falls up near the entrance to the park.  Since the weather was SO nice I expected the place to be overran but it wasn't terribly crowded.

I love the rock formations at this place.  I'm not sure what type of rock that is; have to do a little more studying on the subject.  Northern Alabama has a lot of limestone and that may be what it is but I'm not sure.  At the entrance to the park, which is a National Preserve, they have a really nice, large visitor's center, which has also won various awards for it's "green" building components.  You can watch films there about the history of the area etc. and I believe they also hold various conferences and classes there that are somehow affiliated with JSU.

These people were enjoying a not too deep swimming hole set back from the falls a bit.  After we took a few photos here we decided to go all the way to the other end of the park and drive the length of it, back up to this point.

We were about a third of the way up from the "bottom" of the park when we noticed a sign for Orbix hot glass studio.  It said welcome to the public so we decided to go in and see what was going on.  Turns out it was a real high class studio and these fellers really knew their business.  They had an area where you could sit and watch them work but were close enough to talk to them, so we watched them make 2 or 3 of these pitchers.

Excuse the crappy photos.  I'm still learning this camera and some of the settings were not correct.  Anyhoo, this was very interesting and it was amazing to watch them.  They had recently been featured in one of the fancy Birmingham style magazines, so they were working on production in anticipation of orders from the coverage.  I hope they do well.  Of course they had a showroom there so you could buy directly from them also after you watched them at work.  Well, we might could if we win the lottery but somebody could buy the stuff.

It was fun and a nice extra to the trip.

There are various falls throughout Little River with varying degrees of difficulty to get to them.  Some of them are right by the road and some of them require a fairly strenuous hike down to them.  And then a real strenuous hike back up.  Maybe one day.

Little River is the deepest canyon east of the Mississippi and is unique because it flows for most of its length atop Lookout Mountain, which is kinda flat on top.

Over the years I've read or heard people, who had to travel through Alabama to get to the beach or other destinations say, 'well, we drove through as fast as we could to get out of Alabama!'.  Ya, and miss some of the most beautiful sites around and wonderful places to visit.

'Course, if people have that ugly an attitude about us, we don't want them to stop here noways.  Keep our beautiful treasures to ourselves.

As we approached the north end of the park again we stopped off at one of the more popular falls because it wasn't too far a hike down to the water and I was determined to do some swimming.  When the water is higher some of these areas can be quite dangerous but right now the water was wonderful.  Deep, languid pools that were like your own little spa.  Well, you and the little fishies, which were abundant.  The water was wonderfully only slightly cool.  The perfect temperature to me.
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This feller was trying his hand at some fly fishing.  I imagine this area would be great for that.  There are a fair number of camping places available here also, as well as cabins to rent etc.

Just down from where I was swimming in a kinda shallow pool was a much larger, deeper pool that was very popular.  These little redneck kids ain't skeered of no high jumps.  Yes, I know that is horrible grammar etc. in case anybody is thinking of my last post!  It was good to see most of the kids jumping were wearing floaties though.

This is the side opposite from where they were jumping from so high but it had some good launching points too.  When I was a kid, and where, you were high-falutin' if you got to go to a real pool to swim.  The creek and railroad trestle was were I learned to swim and also got over my fear of jumping from high places.  Places like this are the best swimming holes in my opinion.  Beautiful clean water in a wonderful area.  Oh, the park is free also, so it's a great place to come frequently, as I imagine many locals do.  Bring you a picnic lunch down here and spend all day.

On our hike back out I even spotted some native flora I'd never seen before.  I'll have to see if I can find this species in my new Alabama fern book.  I also spied a plant near this that looked very much like a native wild orchid but I could have been mistaken.

So, we had a great day and I was wore out by the time we got home but we really enjoyed it.  If you've never been to Little River Canyon I highly recommend it.

Long Way Home

We've had some really beautiful weather lately and I've felt pretty good, so I got a wild hair and went to visit Rickwood Caverns.  I'm not sure if Rickwood is in the county we live in but it's only about 40 minutes away.

We were not really impressed with the cave, especially at $15 a person to tour it, but the area is very pretty and they have some nice hiking trails.

This loop trail was only about 1 1/4 miles but it was very nice.

I have never seen these type fern grow so prolifically anywhere else.  All the rocks look like they have these big bushy afros. lol!  It's pretty cool.

So, we had a nice time and got some good exercise.  Something I am sorely in need of.

I'm not sure what species of fern this is....resurrection fern maybe??  If you know please feel free to say.