Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White....

Spring has arrived up here on the Ridge....  and also in town...

The cherry trees that were planted along the Hocking River...  and the Hock-Hocking Bike Path 25 years or so ago are in bloom....

These trees are kind of special to me.  Bill worked in the Physical Plant of Ohio University back then and after the trees were planted he spent a lot of time hauling water out keep them alive.  We can see where it looks like some have since been replaced as there is a short section where the trees aren't as mature.  That big white building on the right is the hospital where I worked for 20 years.  

Last week there were lights situated along this path, focusing on how beautiful they are at night as well as during the day.  I took these photos Sunday afternoon...  good thing, because the rains and wind came Monday and by today I'd be surprised if any blossoms are left at all.

I thought the rains might have brought out some mushrooms, so yesterday Bill & I took a hike across the road from us, which is part of Strouds Run State Park.

The terrain can be pretty rough at times...  I think the highest elevation is only around 900', but some of the hills are steep and rocky.  Spring is still emerging here...  most of the trees are leafless, and while there were some mayapples and other things growing on the forest floor, last years leaves could be quite slippery to walk on.

There were a few wildflowers blooming...

Some cranebills, spring beauties and pussy toes...

Saw some violets and various other plants, but not much of anything.  We heard the call of ovenbirds as well as the usual bluejays, titmice and such, but for the most part, it was quiet out there.

One interesting thing...  we'd walked about an hour and found a path that wasn't there the last time we walked on it.  But...  that has to be at least 15 years ago, and a lot happens in that time.  It was obviously a mountain bicycle path, but well kept up and easy to walk on.  We'd followed it a while and saw a couple of men walking towards us from the opposite direction.  As we got closer, we realized that they were grooming the path (on foot).  And what do you know?  One of them was Bill's old bicycling friend Jim Schulz.  I have no idea how many thousands of miles these guys biked together.... how many century runs...  how many Sunday rides.  So it took us a while to catch up on each other's lives.  What fun!

Bill and I never did find any morels...

These fungi are about all we found..

Maybe when it warms up a bit the sun will bring out the morels.  If so, we might head back and look again as those sure are tasty eatin'.

As we were walking down the road towards our place I couldn't help but look at the pine trees along the property line...

Bill planted all those trees on the left.

When he first planted them they were "babies".  At that time he put in a row of fast-growing poplars among the pines.  The poplars provided a buffer from the road traffic (yes, it's a township road, but the traffic noise and dust can be annoying) and when the pines got big enough to do the job he cut down the poplars.  It takes a lot of patience - and a long-term plan - to achieve the end results.

Just past those pines is the old farmhouse.  This is where Bill lived when I met him nearly 35 years ago.  We lived there about 10 years before we built our own place out back.  It's been rented all these years and now a young couple live there who treat it like their own.  They put in extensive gardens and live somewhat the way we did way back then.

Between the pines and that farmhouse is the driveway that leads back to the house we built, and also where Bill put in an RV pad before we started RVing in 2001.  The fruit trees he planted are in bloom...  The couple that rent the farmhouse will no doubt reap whatever harvest they produce.

That's just a wild plum tree in bloom, but it used to provide us with enough fruit to make lots of jelly which we sold at the farmer's market.  You can see just a tiny bit of the old chicken house on the right.  It hasn't housed chickens in 15 years, but is still a handy place to store mowers or other equipment.

We're parked in our usual spot...  two sides of us look out over the woods...

Out the back window of our rig..

The right side has a patio and the shed where we made maple syrup.  There's another apple tree there.  I hung a hummingbird feeder out but haven't had any takers yet.

To the front of us, maybe 100' or so is the house that we built and lived in for 10 years or so.

All the windows face the back as that's where the view is, so here in our RV site we (and those renters) have plenty of privacy.

This is the earliest we've been back in Ohio since we left in March, 2001, so we are really enjoying everything "spring".  

I just keep humming that song....  I'm not exactly Perez Prado and I can't play a horn like Eddie Calvert, but I sure do enjoy all the trees in bloom and springtime up here on the Ridge.

That's All For Today!

Our Amazing Daughter....

I know, everyone thinks their own kid is the best.  Well, I know mine are.  So today I'm gonna brag a bit about my daughter.

Not only is she a very kind, thoughtful woman, (who just happens to be beautiful as well), she takes her good health very seriously.  About a year and a half ago she decided she was going to run a half marathon.  Yep!  That's a whole 13 miles.  She started running, and set herself up on a training program.  During that time she ran a few 5Ks, but yesterday was the big day...

She lives about 90 miles north of New York City...

When I talked with her this evening she told me that she'd been running on the high school track and a "rails to trails" path in her area.  While it's very hilly where she lives the streets aren't safe to run on, so she'd been running on fairly level surfaces.  The route of the marathon had some hills...  but she did just fine.

Here she is...  at the finish...

I wish I'd been there to give her a big hug of congratulations!

Now,, seriously...

Does she look like a Grandmother to you?

She finished the race in 2 hours and 10 minutes...  (she'd set a goal of 2.5 hours).

Way to go, Donna!

Congratulations, I'm one proud Mama of my amazing daughter.

That's All For Today!

The Natchez Trace

Bill & I both are a bit adventuresome about traveling....  we like seeing different things and usually take a different route even if we're just going to town and back.  Sometimes though, a road beckons us back time and again.  The Natchez Trace is a road that we never seem to tire of.

Beginning of the Parkway

From Wikapedia....

The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly 440 miles (710 km) from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers. It was created and used for centuries by Native Americans, and was later used by early European and American explorers, traders, and emigrants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Today, the trail is commemorated by the 444-mile (715 km) Natchez Trace Parkway, which follows the approximate path of the Trace,^[1] as well as the related Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail. Parts of the original trail are still accessible and some segments are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We're usually somewhere in the southwest during at least part of the winter months.  Most years we try to get back to Ohio for a week or so in the spring...  often we've been on our way to a volunteer job in Maine.  A few years ago we "discovered" the trace....  444 miles of 2-lane, 50 mph speed limit, no commercial traffic driving all the way from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.  It's a long, narrow National Park...  no billboards, no gas stations...  just beautiful scenery with wildlife.  

This year was our 4th time to drive up the Trace.  We headed north a little earlier than usual, but the trees were all leafed out....  the redbud had already bloomed in the southern areas, but the dogwoods were still in their glory.

There are 2 campgrounds right on the Trace.  The Jeff Busby campground is 200 miles north of the south entrance.  The Meriweather Lewis campground is 200 miles north of that.  Just perfect for folks like us who feel 200 miles a day is just about right for a day's travel.  And...  while neither have electric or other hook-ups, they are both free....  and located in beautiful wooded areas.

Occasionally you'll see farms, fields and other signs of "humans".  The split-rail fences just add to the ambiance of the area.  These horses were grazing in a rather lush pasture.  You can see from the water puddle between the horses that they've had a lot of rain here lately.

There are many, many pull-overs...  places you can actually walk in the "Old Trace"...  maybe if you listen closely you can hear the sound of thousands of footsteps making their way on their journey.  There are some very scenic views of waterfalls...

And if you want to take the time, you can walk to old mine shafts, historic buildings and other relics of the past.

Dogwood, bluets, fire pinks and violets....  some of the spring flowers we saw along the way.

We were on the Trace three full days...  the first day we saw 2 turkeys and a deer; the second day we saw 3 turkeys, and as we drove north we saw more redbud in bloom as well as some beautiful azaleas and lots of dogwood.  The third day was a bonanza for wildlife...  over 20 turkeys over a 50 mile area, as well as 5 deer and even a bobcat.

We saw a few birds...

Lots of robins, (but not a good photo)....  Notice, too, the tiny leaves starting to grow on this tree.  Spring is such a great season and this drive showed it in all it's glory!

The further north, the more redbud...

Actually, we were in Kentucky (along the Bluegrass Parkway) when I took these photos.  I don't think we ever saw a guardrail on the Trace...  except for a few stone walls that served that purpose.  After we got off the Trace onto the Interstates and then State Routes, the scenery was still bursting with "spring"!

Oh yes...  I forgot to mention that we picked up a hitchhiker...  well, two that we know of...

When we were still at Cameron Prairie NWR in Louisiana we'd hear frogs all evening long.  They sure sounded close, but if I went outside to look, they'd immediately clam up.  The night we stopped at the M. Lewis campground, Bill saw this guy clinging to the door of the rig.  He was between the outside door and the screen door.  We found a second one up on the ceiling fan... where the vent opens up to the outside.  As they were hopping off into the woods, I bet they're still wondering how they got from Louisiana to Tennessee!

If you want to make time and get there in a hurry, the Trace is not for you.  But if you have the time to take a trip back in history and feel some of the past, the Natchez Trace is just the place.

That's All For Today!

Hundreds of Egrets....

As I wrote in my last post, we finished our service at Cameron Prairie NWR and it was time to move on.  Of course I have some photos of the great folks we worked with there, but I'll save them for a later post.

Today I want to write about Avery Island, Louisiana.  If you know about it at all you'll be thinking "Tabasco Sauce".  And yes, that is exactly where they make those wonderful hot sauces.  Of course we took the tour, but because we're now dry-camped at a Walmart in Natchez, Mississippi and I'm relying on either batteries or generator for electric source, again... the tour post will be later.

This time (okay, we've been here a time or so before) we took the tour of Jungle Gardens.  One of the sons of the original McElhinney family was a naturalist who wanted to help preserve the habitat for the herons and other birds and wildlife.

I can't tell you how many times I've spoken to school groups, telling them some of the history of the National Wildlife System, which was established in 1903 by Teddy Roosevelt.  At that time ladies wore fancy hats...  and often those hats had lots of beautiful feathers adorning them.  So many feathers were harvested that the birds who were killed to provide these feathers were becoming endangered.

Look at the beauty...  the exquisite loveliness of those feathers!
Yeah, they look great on ladies hats, but don't they look so much better on their original owner?

On Jungle Island there is a huge rookery...

Just in these roosting platforms, Bill estimated well over 500 egrets.  And around the corner from this were many more birds.

We were even fortunate enough to be able to spot several chicks...

Fuzzy, awkward little critters...  almost prehistoric in their being.

There was a lot to see on the drive...

We stopped and walked some of the trails.  One trail led to this pagoda where a budda was residing.  This little temple was overlooking a lake. 

The grounds of the area were meticulously landscaped....  

showing  off many of the live oaks whose branches were bending over the ground.

Of course everyone wants to see the roseate spoonbills....

Guess this could be a good "the end" shot....  darned thing flew away just as I was about to snap its picture.

I started this post when we got back from our tour of the rookery, but since we didn't have internet I'm very far behind on both posting and reading other blogs.

I'll catch up soon...  but for now...
That's All For Today!

Not much but it's all I got....

We're on our last days here....  actually we finished working on Friday...

Bill started March 25th and by April 10th worked 94 hours  I sort of started March 26th and my last day was April 10th... I worked 77 hours.  Not bad for just over a 2 week non-scheduled stop over.

But let me tell you....  this place is great.  If you happen to be a volunteer it just might be the place for you.  Okay...  sometimes the mosquitoes are bad, but.... oh my... the birds!  And this year we weren't even here for the warbler migration.  And the folks are great to work for.

And the food....  what can I say?  We went into Lake Charles yesterday to buy some boudin.  Don't know what boudin is?  Well...  think of a sausage with rice, pork and the most savory seasonings you can imagine.

This is kind of the "Before" and "After"

If, by chance, my friend Juan is reading this... yes, I do occasionally use that in house grill thingy that we bought at the RV show in the Valley in Texas.

And... darn!  grilled boudin and fried okra is outstanding!

We were here for 3 months in 2005....  yeah, 10 years ago...  but, you know what?  It was like coming back the next day....  old friends are still good friends.  Glenn and Dianne are  as if we just left for the weekend.

I knew my main job would be working the Visitor Center for a week or so.  Now, I'm an outdoor person, so after raising the flag, turning on the exhibits and such, I wondered what I could do for the rest of the day.  Dealing with the 100-150 visitors a day isn't hard at all....  even the buses of tourists and the groups of school kids on a field trip are a piece of cake...

But I found out from the previous volunteers that the screen saver on the Visitor Center computer was of "Birds of Louisiana"......  but didn't show the ID of the bird shown...

So I used one of my own programs to add each bird's ID to the photo...

The photo above shows the results...

That way, even if a person isn't familiar with the bird, they can easily see what it is.

That didn't take me long, so I'll admit I spent quite a few other hours just checking out the volunteer duties, cleaning doors and stuff like that.

No problem....  

Bill & I are both quite flexible when it comes to volunteer duties....  he even drove to Lafayette one day to run some refuge errands.  

The refuge manager invited us to his house for a cook-out yesterday.  What's so interesting to me is that he and his wife are doing so many of the same things Bill & I did before we hit the road.... things like making wine, and beer....  and gardening.....  and he wants to make cheese.  Boy...  did we ever hit it off!

On our way home we came across this field that's being flooded...  not sure if they'll be planting rice or what....  but the shorebirds were loving it...

Yellow-legs

Greater?  Lesser?

I don't know, but Man....  do those yellow legs stand out!

Tomorrow we'll be starting our travel east... then north....

We're not in a big hurry, but plant to travel along the Gulf for a while... eventually wind our way up to the Natchez Trace (maybe a bit of back-tracking here)....  and make it back to Ohio...  then after a bit... on to Maine.

But it's such a great time being here again....  

Thank you, Cameron Prairie NWR, for taking us in for a couple of weeks...

We hope we did y'all good here.

That's All For Today!

Some Days are Gold.... Some Aren't......

Monday was a bad day for Bill....  I think it started out okay, but after lunch it went downhill fast.

Actually, his string of bad luck started last Friday.  He thought he had a hair or something in his eye.  Even after flushing it several times it was still there.  So a trip to the optometrist was in order.  Turned out the problem was PVD (Posterior Viscuous Detachment)  More annoying than serious, but another trip to the doctor is scheduled for this Friday.

Monday, after lunch, Bill was mowing down along the fishing road.  Doing just fine until he ran over top of a bees nest that was underground.  A swarm of very angry bees came streaming out of the ground after Bill.  The riding mower wasn't fast enough to outrun them so he headed for the truck, bailing off when close.  Still trying to outrun them on foot he slid and slammed into the side of the truck. 

He was still swatting bees and trying to get them off him after he got into the truck...  even managed to kill a few.  I know...  we're a wildlife and protective of critters...  but there are limits you know.

After things calmed down a bit he got back on the mower and eventually headed back to the refuge maintenance building.  He got stung on his face, arms and back.   He didn't know how many times he'd been stung, but as he was washing vehicles he knew his vision was blurry in his right eye.  Naturally it was the "good" eye.. not the one with PVD.

I got home from the visitor center just after 3:30pm.  Bill came into the house and told me about his adventure.  I took one look at him - Oh My!  His face was swollen up big-time.  He said he still had some stingers stuck in his skin.  I found one and pulled it out with tweezers.  Then I walked back over to the VC and got some sting stuff...  probably with benadryll or something to ease the pain.  Went back home and daubed it on his stings...  counted at least a dozen sting... probably closer to 20... some were so close together the swelling had merged them.

Bills was getting concerned about his blurred vision and we're thinking a trip to the ER or if possible find an opthamologist available.  We're sitting in chairs a few feet apart...  I look at Bill and he gets this really odd look on his face.  He says...  "my lens is gone". 

At first I thought he was talking about his eye (hey, I've had cataract surgery so I'm thinking lens...)  Anyway...  I catch on.  Of course I started laughing like crazy.  All afternoon he'd been wearing his glasses and didn't realize when he'd been smacking at the bees he'd knocked the lens out.

So...  we drove right back to the fishing road hoping to find that lens.  Can you believe that even after both the truck and mower driving on the road, Bill spotted that lens in the gravel.  It's a wonder I didn't drive right over it. 

Back to the rig.  A phone call to Vision Center in Lake Charles to find out if they could put it back in place...  yes...  and what time they closed .... 9pm.

Off to Lake Charles we went.  When we got to the mall, Bill's hip was really stoved up...  he could barely hobble out of the car into the stores. 

The young lady did put his glasses back together. They are scratched up a bit and he'll have to order a new lens when we are somewhere longer than a few days.

The good news is that his vision is just fine again...  the swelling has pretty much left and even his face isn't so puffy now...  and maybe by next week the strained  hip will ease up so that walking and driving won't be so difficult.

Maybe that viscous problem in his left eye will have floated away as well.

That's All For Today!

What Am I Doing Here?

When we stopped by Cameron Prairie NWR last week to visit we weren't in a big hurry to head north as there's still cold weather up that way.  So we asked if they could use a couple of volunteers for a couple of weeks.  As it happened, the volunteers who had been living and working here since January were all scheduled to leave at the end of March.  A lot of refuges ask volunteers to stay 3 months - this helps personnel to schedule work and helps volunteers to plan their own itinerary.  I'm sure a big factor in our staying was that we'd volunteered here for 3 months in 2005 and were already familiar with things here.

So...  what do I do here?  Well, I walk the short distance from where our motorhome is parked beside the Maintenance Dept garage (they have a place for RV hook-ups here, but until Thursday, it was already being used) over to the Visitor Center.  That's where I'll be spending my volunteer hours while here.

There is a large parking lot in front of the building, but when you enter from the front, you have to walk past the informational kiosk and across a boardwalk that spans a rather large pond...

This is the headquarters and offices of the SW Louisiana Refuge Complex.  The complex consists of Lacassine, Cameron Prairie and Sabine NWRs.  Prior to Hurricane Rita, each refuge housed their own manager and personnel.  Since that devastating event, Lacassine and Sabine still have their own maintenance shops and some personnel, but Cameron Prairie rebuilt a much larger building that is now offices to most of the personnel of all 3 refuges.

You can see the pond in the photo above.  A fair amount of birds... mostly coots, moorhens, egrets and herons can be seen, and in the rear is a rookery where Roseate Spoonbills hang out and are very popular with visitors.  

Nearly everyday alligators sun themselves on the banks.  Right now the flags (iris) are blooming.   It's just a great welcome to the many visitors that stop by.

The refuge is right on the route of the Creole Nature Trail and the Lake Charles Convention Center makes sure that it's on the list for busloads of folks from all over the USA make this a stop.

Although there is an active "Friend's Group" here, there is no gift shop...  so what's a person to do while they're here?

As you enter, you'll see displays explaining the habitat here.  We're close to the edge of the Gulf, so while most of the water on this refuge is fresh water, Sabine is mostly salt water...  Plants and animals all have their specific needs.  

I sit in that chair you can see on the left...  but I'm up talking about the refuge or showing what we have here whenever visitors come in.

This room is everyone's favorite.  

Can you see T. Maurice on the left?  He's an animated full-size character who talks about the area...  

And on the right.... the 3rd panel that's out of sight here is...

 Tante Marie...

She comes paddling out in her pirogue (boat)...  talks in the Cajun dialect with the lively Cajun music in the background.  

These are truly the stars of the refuge!

Those displays each last about 10 minutes...  then folks usually head into the next room...

Lots of self-guided exhibits...  about birds, about water, about the environment....  all things that these refuges are concerned with.

Another view of the exhibits...

And there is an auditorium where you can watch a refuge movie...

More about the refuge system and this refuge in particular.

Do you see the alligator in the corner to the left of the movie screen?  He was part of the Lake Charles "Alligators on the Geaux".   Many organizations or businesses had these guys in their shops or along the streets...  each dressed in a theme.  This guy here has Federal Duck Stamps plastered all over him.  If you're a duck hunter you know all about these...  each year there is a contest where artists submit their work...  and the chosen one is portrayed on the Duck Stamp that year.

I worked 3 days last week and will work all this coming week...  Mon - Friday - 7 AM to 3:30 PM.  I'm not required to work 5 days a week, but we'll be here just a short time.  Bill is out in the field doing his thing,  and this is where they need the help.  

One day we had 3 busloads of tourists...  one from Wisconsin, one from Iowa, and the third from all-over.. this group was attending a Travel Writers Convention in Baton Rouge.  This week we had a busload of 36 kindergarteners...  but they had lots of parents along to help.  People come from everywhere and for all reasons...  everything from seeing the birds and alligators to asking where the places are to fish or where the boat ramps are.

Where I work is just the visitor center...  the refuge land is comprised of many thousands of acres of various habitats and uses. 

I'm sure glad we stopped by...  it's great to be volunteering at this refuge again.

That's All For Today!