New Life in the Woods

As predicted, it snowed the very next morning after that hail last Saturday. Of course, it was about 40 degrees outside, so it had all melted by afternoon. The last few days have been off-and-on rain. Monday and Tuesday were particularly heavy rain days. Today there were only sprinkles.

It did clear up a bit the last few days and I got out and swept the stove pipe of all the accumulated soot and cinders. Today I went up and patched up the roof around the stove pipe where there has been a persistent leak whenever it rains.

I also went out and ground up some of the charcoal left over from my fires this Winter. It is supposed to make great garden fertilizer. While digging in my compost pile for bits of charcoal, I found this interesting little creature. A quick search on the web turned up pictures that seem to match pretty closely: a Five-lined Skink. The Wikipedia page says they are native to the Eastern U.S., but perhaps it is a closely related species.

In other news, I didn’t get a second interview for that State job with Senior and Disability Services, so I’ll just have to keep looking! Something will turn up. You can find a bunch more snow and Spring pictures along with all my other recent photos, as usual, at my Flickr site here.

Last Monday we had a cold snap and some hail fell for about 20 minutes. Then it got warmer again, culminating in a very warm day on Thursday when it got up to about 65 degrees. Now, a couple days later, were back to hail again! Where have I heard this before? “If you ever don’t like the weather around here, just wait a bit and it will change.”

That was especially true today. It got cold again last night. Then, after about an hour of hail at noon (shown above), the sun came out and things warmed up to about 45 degrees. Around 4 p.m. the clouds rolled in again and hail started falling once more (shown in this picture, falling pretty heavy — look for the white streaks), finally becoming rain after a while. Lastly, about an hour ago, it started snowing! Of course, it is still above freezing outside so none of it stuck and the snow has since stopped.

But it is supposed to “rain” for the next several days, possibly through Thursday, so I was out this morning cutting more wood, just in case. At the very least, it will probably stay cold for most of this week and might get down to freezing. Makes me glad I haven’t actually planted a garden yet, but I plan to risk it later this week when things warm up.

I continue to work on the cabin here and there and other projects. No word yet from that interview I had with the State. I am betting I will hear something one way or the other this week though and I continue to look for other positions that I can apply for. I hope to have some good news to share before long.

The weather has been getting nicer and nicer. Today I didn’t start a fire until about 6 p.m. and had the sliding glass door to the deck open (and the screen door closed) most of the day. So it’s been great weather to go hiking!

I’ve noticed is that I have a couple wild Turkeys that seem to be regulars around the cabin. This morning I think they were poking around the front door. I heard a noise and saw one trotting away when I ran over to investigate. There are also a couple deer (possibly a mother and a yearling offspring) that seem to like to forage on the hill between the cabin and the main house.

I also found a bat sleeping the day away between a couple sheets of plywood up at the main house but the pictures didn’t turn out great because it was so dark where he was hiding. I did finally get a couple pictures of the lizards living under the rotten log in front of the cabin. Turns out there is a whole family of them, but most of them young and all of them are very small and very wary, so they are hard to get decent pictures of too. But I did get a couple as well as a bunch of other pictures, including some views of the country from up above the property, standing on the dirt road that curves around it. You can see them all on my Flickr site here.

Spring is here evidently… although we had more hail or freezing rain this morning. Leaves are coming out, however, and the flowers are starting to bloom. I have also been seeing more and more wildlife around the cabin.

I spent last week cutting wood and getting ready for my interview on Friday with Senior and Disability Services here in Grants Pass. The interview seemed to go well, but I won’t find out more for a couple weeks.

I was almost out of wood after Susan’s visit last weekend, and the chainsaw was giving me fits. I was having a really tough time cutting through the very hard Madrone wood that I prefer to burn when I find it. And I had found a big dead Madrone tree up the hill across the ravine, which was a great find. I cut it up into 4-5 foot sections and rolled them down the hill to the bottom of the ravine and then carried them over and up to the driveway. Some of the sections were almost 2 feet thick (although somewhat hollow) and the chainsaw was taking forever to cut through them. I put off cutting them into firewood lengths for a day or so but then I got a metal file to sharpen the chainsaw blade and after that it was easy! Who’d have thought?!?

So, the firewood problem well in hand, I have had a bit more time to look around and I have found a lot more wildlife around the cabin. I had been hearing bees just outside the porch of the cabin whenever it was sunny. I thought it was the daffodils which had just started to bloom across the drive, but it turns out there is a hollow in the tree there right where the driveway curves around in front and there is a beehive inside it. I tried to get a close-up of the bees zooming in and out but they move so fast they were all a blur. Could be a honey beehive, but it is very high up so they are in no danger from me. There is also a lizard that lives under a rotten log at the base of this tree, but I haven’t managed to get a picture of him yet. He comes out when it is sunny but is well camouflaged and very skittish.

Then today, walking around the driveway and through the woods, I saw one of the wild turkeys foraging on the ground. I followed him around but he was pretty wary and never let me get too close or get a better picture. A few days ago I saw a tree frog on the ground in the same area. And a little earlier today I caught a glimpse of the bobcat again! That’s what sent me back to get my camera. Supposedly bobcats are nocturnal and rarely seen by humans, but I am guessing that my bobcat is a female and probably out hunting for her young. She watched me closely and ran away as soon as I moved, which was the only reason I saw her at all. I heard her move and froze at first. Then, when I moved a few paces further down the drive she took off fast and I saw her flitting in and out of the trees about 50 feet away.

And, as I mentioned at the start, the wildflowers are starting to bloom. I think this an herb named “Birthroot” (also named: coughroot, ground lily, Indian balm, Indian shamrock, lamb’s quarter, milk ipecac, nodding wakerobin, pariswort, rattlesnake root, snakebite, three leaved nightshade, trillium, and wakerobin). This is the largest of the wildflowers I have seen so far and, I think, the prettiest. It is all over the shadier areas of the ravine on the North and West-facing sides. Supposedly it is good as a salve for insect bites or stings, useful as an antiseptic, good for coughs or bronchial problems, and for “female problems”, whatever those are. It is the first wild plant I have (tentatively) identified so far, aside from trees. I hope to identify many more as they grow and flower throughout the Spring and Summer.

You can see more of the wildflowers and other pictures I took recently on my Flickr site here.