Wild Turkeys In The Rain

This morning I went out on my bike (the 'cajun knuckle') to check out the super saturated area - 2 days of non stop rain dumping down into the creeks and darkening the landscape made everything look like a new world. As soon as I got down the gravel road and landed on Willow Creek, I saw a gaggle of turkeys milling around the field where the corn crops had been harvested. Yay! I love the wild turkeys here, they look like underworld vultures on flamingo legs - not like overly domesticated bred to be overweight Thanksgiving turkeys.
In the spring and summer these gobblers were very shy and stayed far away from me - but today they did not seem to care much as I rode my bike closer towards their flock. I have experienced them before in the winter a few years ago, they would let my cats sit amongst their group while they ate on a hill off Robinson Cove Road. Maybe in the winter they don't care as much? Breeding time might be more important.
When I got fairly close, a big white truck started flying down the cury road behind me and the turkeys started to get spooked enough to cross the street towards the woods I always walk in.
They don't fly very far, but in big spurts... their wings are huge and make alot of startling noise.
They all made it to the hill and filed away into the woods, perfectly camouflaged into the fall colored background.
XoXo

Rural Entertainment: Visiting The Wells Organic Farm

Guess what Ya'll!? I got to go for an adventure about 5 miles down the road from my house to see the Wells Organic Farm in Big Sandy Mush. :) For me this is a huge deal because I have seizures and can't drive in a car hardly at all, and the road down Early's Mountain is one so windy they have those dreaded squiggly warning signs (like in Pee Wee's Big Adventure when he eventually drives off the cliff!) About 2 miles into it, I almost went back home because I thought I couldn't make the car ride (swooning nausea and approaching seizure)... in fact I wanted to be left on the side of the road to walk home. As fate would have it, I persevered and made it to my not so far away destination! (If I look a bit war-torn in the pics, it's because I went through my own personal battle field to get there.)
The Wells Organic Farm mainly does organic eggs and at one time did organic chicken, but the labor that went into producing organic chicken meat (slaughter, feed, etc...) did not come equal enough with the profit. The funny thing is I wanted to show ya'll all about their eggs and chickens, but once I arrived I sat on the ground, tied my water, knife and snacks into a bundle so I could explore the old buildings, barns and hills instead. (The look on my face is post car ride horror and figuring out whether the huge dog was going to eat me up.)
I had caught a ride with Bort there, who was helping Mr. Wells chop firewood for the winter - so while they chopped I went off to discover tiny bits of their world. A world that has been passed down for a few generations and more acres of inherited land then I could possibly fathom.
Behind Bort in the pic below is the giant chicken coop (looks to have once been a tobacco drying shed), some solar hot water contraption on the roof, and where they were splitting wood (with a self made splitting machine!).
I left to go across the road, crossing over a reallllly old bridge that was totally falling apart. I walked across the huge beams that held it up rather then the boards caving in.
There was another HUGE long tobacco shed on top the hill, holding hay and a mish mash of everything many generations of farmers can end up collecting and storing for 'future' projects and for projects that never quite worked out.
Once i walked past this building I walked towards a smaller house down a dirt road. The house intrigued me till I got close enough that a big black dog came out the door , with a man trailing behind it, staring at me with complete 'what the hell are you doing' body language. I kindly waved with a smile but that seemed to not change his expression, feelings or his dogs urge to take me by storm. I told him I was visiting the Wells Farm, and all the scary melted away... i turned around and looked for a better place to explore where i wouldn't disturb anyone. I found a quaint hill that must have been farmed because there were turnips growing randomly in the grass - I picked a turnip green off the plant and chewed on it for the next 30 minutes...it was mmmmm good. In fact, it was the best I ever tasted.
Half of the hill was covered in stinging nettles! I never saw such huge patches of nettles before, and even though i know they sting really bad i thought my boots and jeans would protect me so i began charging through them trying to get to some woods to play in on the other side. But shit, i got stung right through my jeans, and anyone who's touched stinging nettles before knows it's no joke when it gets you! I carefully back tracked out the patch and headed for the next barn i could see.
Being at an old barn is alot like getting to talk with an old man. You can see his personality in the construction, because each barn I have ever explored has it's own thumb print, it's own face wrinkles, it's own long wild story.
Inside the barn were rows of rusted metal holding bars for cattle, random chains and equipment on the walls, a tractor and...
A Circle Jerks cassette tape!?!!! YAY!
After a while i came back to the big farm house and made some friends! That big dog's name is Zoom and the kitty came up and got right in my warm lap. There was also a german shepard and another tiny kitty who were too shy for the picture, but I was trying to whistle and call them in. :)
Our friend Cody happened to be at the Wells Farm too! He showed me around the greenhouse (which was very warm and humid inside), and told me about an underground food cellar built into the barn where hundreds of potatoes are being stored.
MmMmM, Ya'll... look at dat Bok Choy! I want me some.
Mr. Wells is a 'live and learn' expert on wood stoves also! Buckstove being lowest on his list and his Bakers Choice cooking & heating stove close to the top. He showed me how in this Bakers Choice wood stove with just a few hot embers burning he piled the split wood on top and it ignited instantly! He put a teapot on, and the heat was flowing out. I am sold. :)
It was time to go when the sun was going down, the cold was getting real crisp and Bort was piling some logs into the car. The ride home was slow and much easier then the ride there. :)
It's been real!
It's been fun!
It's been real fun!
XoXOooo

Organic Fall Garden

This is the first time I have ever got to plant a fall/winter garden! I was not sure what to expect, but here is what I have learned so far...
1. Animals preparing to not have food for winter may be extra tempted to venture into your garden! Something ate the tops off of all my kale and dug up my beets in just one night.
2. Stuff doesn't grow with the gusto of spring and summer, it is a slower smaller process - but still well worth the time.
3. Planting stuff at the end of August is probably best to get a head start on the growth.
Here is a list of what seems to be growing well enough that I will replant them again next year:

• Red Russian Kale
• Purple Mustard Greens
• Radishes
• Beets (if something doesn't dig them up and eat them)

A few things are iffy, and I can not tell if it's the climate, pests or critters- and that would be the cauliflower and broccoli having issues of disappearing. I am still watching the carrots, which seem to be growing well but V-e-r-Y sloooooow. The green onion seeds I planted never came up at all.
As ya can see in the pic below radishes get first prize for fall garden producers!!!
XoXo

Animal Tracking: Tiny Mystery and Co.

I don't look like much of a tracker, but I like to pretend! That is me in the apple orchard this morning (eating an apple, giving dirty looks) - the mud up there was perfect for looking at animal tracks. The thing is, I found some that are familiar to me and some that are a total mystery... maybe ya'll can help me figure it out!? :)
This first track above looks like a kitty cat paw, and was about that size. The cats that live here never seem to go up that way... but the tracks right next to there (seen below) may have been the who knows what that tempted them to go into the unknown.
This print in the mud is not only new to me, but has me pretty baffled. Ultra tiny, about the size of a penny including toes and pad - perfectly shaped little circle for each spot it imprinted into the ground. But no real visible claws, which made me think this might not be a squirrel (my first guess) and started thinking possibly it could be a giant frog, or other baby critter?
Next to the single print above was a little scurry of the same creature's tracks, where they stepped in the same place more then once- and even looked as though it slipped, skidded, or could have been dragged. Any guesses on this one?
Below is a large print of a coyote or medium size dog. This was further up the muddy trail by about 30 feet from the tiny mystery prints. In a way, I can see an entire food chain forming as I move upward...
This last track is a classic deer imprint, which there are tons of! I love thinking about how the deers are out-smarting me, always one step ahead, silently getting away.
Past all the apple trees, and into a small man made hut I finally found something that was there right then and not just it's tracks... a wittle brave forest mouse! Look at his sculpted ears and clean multi-toned coat, I love him! He was running fast as he could away from me... :)
XoXo

The Fog

Having grown up in the regular morning fog in New Orleans, that would roll off the Mississippi River like a wet smokey blanket - I love now living in the Smokey Mountains for the fact that the foggy clouds can roll past my face, blotting out all the colors, making morning a monochromatic wonder just like always. Peaceful. Easy on the eyes. There is one huge difference between the fog of the crisp Blue Ridge and the fog of the dirty Mississippi, and that is in the mountains it does not roll in smelling like rotten peanuts, grain on barges, pollution, mosquito sprays and landfill. Each swampy morning I went out to the car dressed in my catholic school uniform I had to put my St.Rita sweater over my face to blot out the terrible smell. But, oh how some days I wish New Orleans could be clean, 3,000 feet high in the air clean - maybe I would want to go back for a visit.
In the pic above that is the old corn Silo, with bamboo leaning in the left corner. Below is the fog just beginning to clear off the trees... it's nice how it turns everything gray and blue and silver.
XoXo