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.

Hummingbird Heartbeat

I always keep one hummingbird feeder out during the warm months even though the most of 'em I've ever seen around here was maybe two.  But for some reason, this year has been a boom for us.  We were getting six, seven or eight....so I fished out another rarely used feeder and filled it up.

This one I hung from the end of the rafter tails right in front of the kitchen windows so we enjoy a show every day now. 

These are not great but they are somewhat passable anyway.  I'm still learning this fancy camera too.  Maybe I can get it all figured out one day.

So, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Batdance

Hopefully, the bat saga has now come to an end.  It finally got hot enough this year that the attic louver became too uncomfortable for the clan and they moved out to cooler sleeping quarters.  We set the BIG ladder up so I could reach the louver from the outside and I gritted my teeth to the heat and began the process of screening them out.  First I had to clean the louver because they had pooped all over it and down the side of the house even.  I washed all that, touched up the paint and redid a little of the caulking.  Of course, in the process I managed to poke a hole in the screen that is secured on the inside face of the louver so I had to go in there and patch that good.  I needed to clean up some in the attic anyway, under the louver so it was as good excuse as any to get it all done at once.  It was pretty freaking hot but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Regardless, I was soaked by the time I was finished. 

Today was kinda cloudy and I finally had all my materials together and ready so I checked to make sure there were no stragglers up there and started to screen off the front.  Well, of course, there were two bats that had come back so I had to go back into the attic and scare them out.  Wasn't too bad...I just blew on them and tapped the screen until they got mad and left.  So, back outside and up the ladder.  I stapled 1/2" hardware clothe over the face of the louver so nothing (but bugs) can now get into the slats.  Of course, you can't see anything from this crappy photo but it doesn't look bad.  I was afraid the hardware clothe would stick out like a sore thumb but you really don't notice it.  Now, I did spray paint it with a reddish primer so that helps greatly.

The photo above was taken a couple of months ago and I wanted to show ya'll because....if you click on it to enlarge it, you may be able to see the bat on the far right is in the process of having a baby!!    The others (there were more) all had babies under their wings.  Some of them had two!  One under each wing.  I know they were making a mess but this was SO cool!  So, we let the babies grow up and everybody get out before I put the screen up.

The bats are not so easily deterred however.  Of course, they can't get back into the louver but they apparently really like my house, so they just went to the other end.  Now, it's cooler on that end too, so I suspect that's why they went down there, and there is no attic on that end, but they still managed to find a nook to cram into.  I was walking up to the door today and heard all this screeching and such and knew they were up to something.  Bats have a very distinct sound so I recognized it right away.  I looked up just in time to see a dozen bats or more come billowing out of the crack between the regular roof and where the clerestory roof joins it.  I have a (maybe) 16 inch soffit on the sides of the clerestory roof and where it joins the normal roof it makes a large bird's mouth.  They were stuffed in there and maybe even under the metal ridge cap (only about 16 inches of that too).  That side faces the rising sun and I think the metal roof had finally heated up enough to start burning their little furry buns so they came hauling ass out of there.  I kept hearing some others though and climbed up on the roof to see there were still three or four hanging on to the spot.  I don't know if they ever did leave.  That area is not so bad though.  They can't really get into anything there and their poop will just get washed off when it rains.  Besides, that being a pretty much open area, I don't know anyway I could stop them from roosting there anyway.  I am going to put up a large bat house, in a tree, and just hope they find that a more desirable place to sleep.  I really like having the bats around as they are great for pest control and of course, I'm a softie for them because they are often misunderstood.  But I don't want them messing up my house!  I'll build them two houses, or more!, of their own if they'll use them.

And the bats are not the only critters that really like my house!  The phoebes just love the outriggers that hold the verge rafters up.  Of course, I love the phoebes too.  They are really great pest control also, so I don't want to run them off.  I do want to remove their nests as they abandon them though and lay some copper flashing down on the tops of the outriggers so that future nests don't rot the wood.  I don't know that they would now but better safe than sorry.  A lot of people fuss about the looks and think it's nasty to have bird's nest around but I just love them.  I'm glad my house can provide a safe place for the babies and I hope many generations (of bats and birds) will call this valley their home.

Grow Your Own

 Not the best of photos I know, but maybe you can make out what I'm so excited about.  The asparagus has started to come up!  Hopefully, it will soon be coming up in a bit more quantity, so that it doesn't take me a week to get one batch.  This is the main reason I added another row this year.  The shoots that do come up are doing well and fat but there is just not enough at one time.  Ahhh, patience weedhopper...

 Since our cold frame is currently disassembled (meaning non-existent), I decided to just sow some lettuce in the one available, clear area that I knew would not get messed with.  It could sort of act like mulch for the asparagus also.  I will sow the rest of this row in about a week so I can stagger my lettuce harvest a bit.  It is about worthless in my opinion to buy loose leaf lettuce at the grocery.  It's expensive, it always goes bad before I can eat it all, plus, it's incredibly easy to grow yourself (and cheap), even with a teeny bit of space and it just sits there until you are ready to harvest a salad amount at a time.  Of course, it will eventually bolt but in cooler weather that takes awhile and you can get many servings before that happens.

Here is a few examples of the shrub starts that I did from prunings.  You can see in front, with the teeny yellow buds, is one forsythia shrub and to the right and behind is 2 blueberry bushes.  Just prune them off and stick 'em in the ground.  Of course, not all take but many do and it's free.  And yes, they are very small at first, just kinda like sticks, but they grow pretty fast, especially if you keep them in rich soil.  Since I know these are rooted well now I'll transfer them soon.

And one of the most wonderful surprises of this week!!!  The morels are starting!!!  I am officially hooked on these things now.

I found enough for a nice supper and we pigged out.  We celebrated their annual return again with a bit of steak and wine but I stuffed myself so on these that I honestly didn't end up eating much steak.  Oh well.  It makes a good breakfast.  Hopefully, I caught these at the beginning of the season here, so I'm hoping to find more in the next couple of weeks.  The Earth has a bounty if you know where to look!

Oh, and I meant to show ya'll these in the last post and forgot!  When we were up at my Mom's for Easter and were outside taking those photos, I noticed a small flock of birds that settled in a great big oak tree right by us.  My brother did not appear to notice but I knew immediately that there was something different about these birds.

Their soft, muted colors and just the way they landed all around us seemed foreign somehow.  Upon closer inspection with my telephoto lens I then knew that I had never seen these before!  Unfortunately, I did not have my most powerful lens (I figured I wouldn't need it! ha!) and so I could not get real close or detailed shots but these are enough that I'm pretty certain that these are Cedar Waxwings.  I was just mesmerized by them.  I would guess there were about 20-25 in this group.

They sat around preening and just enjoying the sun.  Didn't seem bothered by us at all.  Which made me happy.  It was fantastic to get to observe them so such a long time.

I wish a group would come by the house so I could get a better shot (maybe) but I'm ecstatic to have seen them and gotten these.  I really had no idea that Waxwings ever came down here, so it was a real surprise for me.

Going Up The Country

 I have honestly been trying to get back here to make a post way before now but life kept getting in the way.  Well, that and the posts that I wanted to make were going to require a bit of effort (meaning thought and planning) and I just haven't felt like going to that much trouble.  Ha!  Been having a few headaches this week and the ol' noggin just wasn't much on deep reflection.  Anyway, my Mom has been under the weather for several weeks now also and I went up to spend the day with her this week and then I have been trying to get caught back up on my pottery after being out of clay for so long.  And no, I have not gotten any garden started yet either.
  I did, as you can see, and we had a very nice hike on a beautiful day.

The hiking trail we chose was pretty moderate and easy until right at the end as you start to descend to the falls.  But if you can make it down it was just gorgeous there.  This is Peavine Falls and they are about 30-40 feet maybe.  Not huge but certainly pretty.

This is one view of the trail going down.  Only for the very ambulatory.  I was very glad we had brought walking sticks.  They came in very handy to brace yourself.  The trails are very well marked and maintained though.

Another view of the falls.  I was mesmerized by the clarity of the water.  We rested for a while and had a little snack while we were there.  After a while some other folks came down with one of the guys smelling like he had bathed in cologne so we had to leave before I started throwing up.  (I could smell him before he even crossed the creek) Why do people do that to themselves?  Can they not understand that they stink to high heaven?  It is not attractive in any way.

Oak Mountain is a wonderful park with tons of activities for everyone.  I believe they have over 50 miles of hiking trails in addition to many miles of bike and horseback trails.  Also, a nice 18-hole golf course, several lakes and many camping areas.

For the most part everything was very clean also.  This one tree did catch my eye though.  It had been so repeatedly carved with people's names and initials that the bark had taken on a very abstract quality.  Almost like some ancient hieroglyph pattern.

I think this is red buckeye but I may be very wrong.  It grew here quite prolifically. 

This is the entrance to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center inside the park.  Mainly they rehab birds.  I once brought an injured cormorant here many years ago.  I don't believe I ever told ya'll that story.  I'll have to see if I can find the photos and tell you about it.  Kinda interesting and quirky tale.

They also have this Treetop Nature Trail where you can view some of the permanent residents of the Rehab Center.  Oak Mountain makes every effort to release all it's patients back into the wild but some are just too damaged and would not live without help.  So they live here to educate the public.

 They had owls, hawks and buzzards, although they called them vultures. lol!

This beautiful Red-Tailed Hawk had built herself a fine nest and even stood up to show us her one egg!  Unfortunately, we later found out that her egg is not fertile, so she's gonna be a bit disappointed.

These photos are a bit out of order but I don't feel like moving them.  Blah!

One view on our way to the parking area for our hike.  You are looking back towards Birmingham. 

By a nice turn of luck we also got to meet this little Mississippi kite.  Oak Mountain is his forever home too because some humans messed his hips up.  They tried to raise him from a baby but did not provide a proper roost, so his hips joints did not grow right and he can't feed himself correctly.  Apparently they feed while in flight a lot of times and he can't get his foot up to his mouth.

He was such a sweet little guy though and got several grub treats for letting us take photos of him.

Oak Mountain has tons of water activities with 3 lakes to choose from.  You can rent various types of boats, canoes etc. or just enjoy the water from the beach.

I always laugh when I hear people say there is no money in Alabama.  These houses overlooking the lake were several million $$ easily, and they are not uncommon.  I also laughed when I thought how that the people in the most distant house were probably so mad they could bite nails when these others built that big monstrosity right in front of them!  Ha ha!!  So much for the view!

It had been many years since I had been to Oak Mountain, so we had a great time.  Although, I admit, I'm a bit sore from that climbing hike!  If you've never been here I highly recommend it and if you are ever passing through Alabama it's a great place to stop!

Mystery To Me

I have a little bit of a different post for all you dear readers today.  A bit of a Pabloesque mystery to help me solve.  Now, in my daydream world, if I were to decide not to be a counterfeiter, my next choice would be a detective or private investigator.  In fact, if it were not for the fact that you have to go all through police academy and actually work for a time on patrol, I might have seriously considered being a detective in real life.  I'm not much on reading most fiction, preferring technical or how-to books, but I love whodunits and any sort of unexplained phenomena.
So, here is my little mystery....Nothing earth-shattering for sure but a bit curious, to me anyway.  At the road end of my drive, near my mailbox, is one of the largest sycamore trees I have ever seen.  It towers well above the surrounding trees in the canopy and the circumference of it's trunk must be 10-12 feet.  A smaller red maple grows under it and both are a favorite of the local squirrels.  Chigger and I were out for our daily stroll to get the mail and as we approached the gate near the mailbox I noticed something seemed amiss.  Looking over underneath the giant sycamore I saw this:  (you may need to enlarge the photo to really see)

The bright green maple leaves from a newly broken limb caught my eye first.  We had not had any recent winds strong enough to blow that down and the leaves were quite crisp and fresh.  It had to have been very recent.  Patches of a blackish, powdery substances were splattered all about and blending into the gravel just a bit was the fresh body a young squirrel.  It looked as though he had fallen from a considerable height.

My first thought when I saw the blackish stuff was that some passing redneck had spit out his dip but as I looked around I realized it was a very, very large amount.  I seriously doubt that even the big-mouthed knuckle-draggers I know could hold that much Skoal.  Plus, there was no Skoal odor.  Perhaps some type of tree rust or mold?

Upon inspecting the small limb it appeared that the broken end had actually been gnawed.  The marking were very similar to the large teeth marks that beavers make when cutting trees.  It was like that but in miniature.  So, gnawed branch, flat squirrel, black junk.  My brain tumbled it all around for a few minutes while Chigger proceeded to sniff everything but she was careful not to disturb the evidence.
I returned to the house to get my camera. I concluded it had to be one of a couple of scenarios.  A. the little squirrel was being pursued by one of the local hawks and had broken a weak limb in it's scrambling to get away, falling to it's doom anyway.  But that didn't really explain why the end looked chewed or gnawed....And wouldn't a hawk have returned for it's prize?  Surely it would have seen the little squirrel laying there.  B. the little squirrel, lacking worldly wisdom, was simply on the wrong side of the limb it was chewing and essentially sawed itself into freefall.  But why would a squirrel gnaw on a tree limb?  Nuts I can see... and what about the black stuff?  I looked all around the large sycamore for any other sign of this black grunge but could not find any.  No other old decaying limbs anywhere that it might could have fallen out of.  After collecting my photos and evidence, and not wanting to see the hapless squirrel become anymore "messy" shall we say, I conveyed it's small body to a peaceful area of the forest to let nature finish it's process.
So, what do you think?  What was that black stuff and why was it splattered everywhere?

Double brownie points to any who can also tell me, off the top of your head, the band that the post title refers to.  One hint; this title is an album and not a specific song.

Bat Country

 I can't recall if I have ever mentioned my bat critters on the blog before but the whole deal has turned into a bit of a saga this summer.  Now, I love bats.  I think they are wonderful, beneficial creatures that have been wrongly maligned for centuries.  Can't say that I would want to snuggle with one but I would certainly never do one harm.  In fact, I want to help them if I can and I had hoped my place would be a refuge for bats and bees and any other creatures that are so helpful but hardly seen.
Well, a year or so after moving in down here I had noticed one bat living in the west end attic louver.  I have always had screen wire tacked to the inside of the vent so critters could not actually enter the attic but he (she?) seemed to like the louver part just fine.  Unfortunately, I had not tacked the wire down on the bottom such that the bat could not get on a flat area, which it did immediately and began, well,...pooping.  Apparently, bats like to lay flat as much as anything, rather than hanging upside down because this one was always laying flat out on it's stomach whenever I went up there.  Well, I didn't think much about it; it didn't seem to be doing any harm really, so I just let it be.
  Previous to this I rarely went up there, because I just didn't need to, and didn't think about the bat too much.  Well, after we were up there on and off I noticed there were now 3 bats living in the louver.  Hhmm.  I don't know if these were children grown up or other adults recruited or what but it seemed that the extras just kinda showed up rather suddenly and then one day there were 4!
I also began to notice about this time that there was a slight odor in the attic.  Okay, let's rephrase that.  There was a strong odor in the attic and a slight odor in the pantry, which is as you may remember the location of the attic access.   They were pooping so much on that flat part of the louver that the smell was becoming very unpleasant.  Bat guano may be a wonderful fertilizer but it is some hideous shit (literally) to be around.They could now only get into the slanted boards and their poop would, theoretically, just roll out into the yard below.  We also dusted the flat board and inside of the attic well with baking soda to help absorb the smell, which I think it did eventually.
Bats, however, must have a very sensitive smeller though, because the next day this little guy (gal?) came to visit me.  Apparently they were rather unhappy with the baking soda remodel and spent the day outside.

I was walking down to my studio in the basement and noticed some quick movement near the door but I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing.  As I went to open the door I found myself face to face with this!  It would open one eye just enough to peer at me, daring me to squawk at it's presence.  I felt kinda bad but I had no idea that they would find baking soda that upsetting.  It wasn't even on the areas they rested on.  But, I was also delighted at the opportunity to observe this one so closely and it stayed there all day.  I mean, look at that hair!!  It's the Elvis of bats!
We were also very careful not to disturb it, not to touch it and not to let any of the animals around it.
Now, there are several species of bats native to Alabama and naturally I concluded that this is one of the rarest and I am doing my part to help the struggling creatures.  Actually, I don't have a clue what type this is.  All the photos look the same to me.  But, rare or not, I want to help them and provide them a safe home.  I found THIS  interesting link on the benefits of having bats around.  The fact that just one Little Brown Bat can catch up to 600 mosquitoes in one hour is especially cool!

So, the bats eventually got over their distaste of the baking soda and a few days later we noticed Baxter and crew were back in their usual place.  Since they could no longer get on the flat board most of their poo actually seemed to be falling outside, the smell disappeared and we went about our business.  And they did also it seems.

I now have TEN bats living in the louver.  Maybe it's the red paint, I don't know, but they love this thing.  Well, a friend of mine gave me an official, never-before used bat house in a attempt to lure them into finer accommodations.  We hung it on the same end of the house at a similar height and then placed 2 bags of moth balls right on the inside of the louver as they are really supposed to not like that odor.  Ya right.  They left for 2 days I think and now are right back.  I really don't mind them being there; the vast majority of the poo is going outside and there's no smell, so far.  I guess a large enough group of them could possibly block the flow of air out of the attic, and they seem bent on becoming as large a tribe as possible, but I don't know if that would actually happen.

So, for now I'm not really sure what to do.  Except enjoy the fact that there are not very many deer fly or mosquitoes around.  lol!

Shaking The Tree

 When I first started building the house I was very selective, reluctant even, to take out any more trees than just absolutely necessary.   That's good in one respect because you have time to think about which ones you want to cut and don't end up with a giant bare lot.  However, it helps to make the decision within a reasonable amount of time because it sure is easier the smaller the tree.  Thinning out large trees can be a pain and they grow much faster than I think we realize.  So, I decided that this winter would be a good time to finally get rid of a few of these trees closest the house, before they got any more awkward to fell.  Now, I know some people are gonna squeak and fuss about cutting trees but sometimes you just have to.  Two of these are damaged anyway and one of those leans slightly towards the house.  The other two are sweet gums, which, if you are not familiar, are what we call "trash trees".  The wood is not good for much, they crowd out nice trees because they grow much faster and they put off these hard, spiny balls that are a pain, literally, if you step on one.  And lastly, having these trees removed will make backing a concrete truck up in that area much easier.  I still have those planter walls to pour in front of that concrete block you see.  I know it's taking forever but I will get to that one day!

I know the photo is really crappy but i was shooting through a window with a screen on it.  You can see (maybe) one little woodpecker up on the suet block and several little sparrows (?) on the feeder.  Other regulars are cardinals, nuthatches, tufted titmouse and possibly a couple of goldfinch. 

And of course, the opportunistic, greedy chickens are never far behind.  They patrol under the tree like hungry sharks, just waiting for the occasional seeds the birds drop.  Anybody coming up would think we never feed these girls. 

I also forgot to close my cold frame the other day when I let the girls into the garden for winter clean up.  They quickly discovered my mistake and proceeded to dig to China.  I think they might have found a few bugs but mainly they thought it was the best place to dust bathe ever!  At one point, there were so many of them crammed in there they really couldn't even move around very well.  There was only a few remaining dregs of lettuce still planted, so it didn't really matter.  I let them have their fun for a few days but ran them out yesterday so I could plant a new batch of loose leaf.

So, our tree cutting is on hold for now.  The wind has really been horrendous these past couple of days and would make something like that potentially very dangerous.