your heart is a piece of meat

Cook meat slow and low for fork tenderness. To prevent a tough heart, one must slow down and lower the temperature instead of reacting hot and fast. This is the way.

Firsthhh sighting of a common bird.

vegan protein shake on the back porch and got out my binoculars to notice about 30 strange birds rummaging about in the branches and on the ground on the edge of our little woods. I had never seen this type before. They were kind of big and rounded, brownish, speckled on their chests, with stripes over their eyes. I googled these features, found a candidate picture, and clicked on 12 Birds Every Texan Should Know.

When I saw

Red Wing Blackbird I thought they had the wrong picture! Till I read the description.

CD

Wikipedia explains why there were 30 females and no males in my woods.

“Females typically migrate longer distances than males. These female populations located near the Great Lakes migrate nearly 230 km farther. Red-winged blackbirds migrate primarily during daytime. In general, males’ migration flocks arrive prior to females in the spring and after females in the fall.”

Clear and inviting explanation of Palo Pinto Mountain geology

http://www.beg.utexas.edu/texas-through-time/palo-pinto.html

Best of first batch of wildlife cam pics

So that’s who’s been stealing the birdseed.

There he goes

Finally a female cardinal sighting, but alas, just her wing at the bottom.

Wait, here she comes!

we have achieved a landing visitation! With a finchy friend.

Here’s her lovely mate, for another rare appearance.

 

Robins and Finches

The binocular cam is difficult to manage. If the wildlife cam doesn’t work I may have to get a real zoom camera.

Bird Journal

My son’s abandoned stealthy, night-camouflaged, clawed cat drove the birds extinct in our yard. It used to team with many species that could be seen on our branches at any given time. I never appreciated their (largely non-migratory) company until one night last fall I awoke in the middle of the night with a sense of dread that I hadn’t heard any birds for a while. At that moment they became the most important things to me in the world. Absence, especially of our cardinal families, does make the heart grow fonder.

I promptly told my son he needed to come get his cat or else. But lo, his new landlord is highly allergic and will not allow it. Move in with your brother then! Silence means no. So we decided to give Sonic a chance to be domesticated indoors. So far he’s only gotten out once and only seems mildly annoyed at having to make do with our two other cats for entertainment.

I now have three almost squirrel-proof feeders, a heat sensitive wildlife cam, and a set of binoculars that came with a phone attachment I hope to figure out.

Four white winged doves, a few chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and juncos seem to have moved back in over the past month or so. I think the four yellow finches were just passing through. The cardinals, including one female, have made a few appearances, but seem to live next door. Their proportions make them awkward on most feeders, though I’ve seen them balance on the one with a small tray a couple of times. I throw food on the ground for them, but the squirrels get most of it.

Birds don’t have much body heat so I’ve only got one pic of a titmouse. We moved the camera closer but haven’t rechecked it yet, so stay tuned.

Robins must be migrating right now because this morning I awoke to hundreds of them chirping loudly outside my window. Here’s a video for sound with a few flying overhead. They’re no longer on the ground in front of me.

nobody’s gay

This was my response to a fb post on speculation that Jim Henson and Frank Oz were gay.

The problem is with the term, gay. Nowadays it’s a definition of who a person is. This is not so, and the misidentification is leading people into sinful relationships. There is homosexual attraction, which is an intermittent activity, as are all attractions, that has different levels of engagement described by the fathers as a glance that if entertained, can lead to coupling thoughts, and then to activities. There is also same sex friendships that can be all over the place in levels of like and love. In our quick diagnosis of gay, as well as homophobic society, Jonathan and David’s Old Testament love is quickly gayified nowadays. Same with St. John leaning on Jesus’ breast. This quick simplistic diagnosis not only leads people to a fatalistic lifestyle view of themselves and others, it also keeps men especially from showing affection to or being intimate with each other. It’s a shame. Who knows if Oz and Henson endulged in the lifestyle? If they did, maybe they mistook and mishandled their feelings for each other. But since it’s speculation, I think it’s better to assume a misdiagnosis from an inaccurate identity politics pov.

Ouachita pics

The map below shows the eastern end of the Ouachita Mountains. McGee Creek Reservoir is the V-shaped lake just east of Atoka. The Talimena Scenic Drive starts on the green edge just east of Talihina.

The end of the trail at McGee Creek National Recreation Area

Back at camp

After the fog rolled in the next morning. Wish I had my kayaks.

Beginning of the Old Military Trail that connects to the Ouachita Nationsl Recreation Trail.

Talimena Scenic Drive

Dirt Road down the mountain that connects to the Oachita Trail.

Talimena Drive and the Ouachita Trail

Saturday morning we watched the mist roll into the lake from the far side as we ate previously hard boiled eggs, grape fruit, and sauteed chicken with homemade bread on the side. This shored us up for our Ouachita hike and drive. The mountains got steeper and higher as we ventured northeast. It was still cloudy but not foggy when we stopped at Talimena State Park, a mile ahead of the Talimena Scenic Drive to check out the google-indicated trailhead to the Ouachita National Recreation Trail. The park lady said it doesn’t start there and gave George a couple of 8×11″ maps indicating a couple of short recommended loop trails off the scenic hwy as alternatives to through hiking. We spent all day reconciling the loop hiking map with the Scenic hwy map with Google maps location of the OT. There was only one landmark they all had in common, the Winding Stair Campground.

My objective for the day was to view the trailhead, hike for about an hour on our sore feet from the day before, assess other OT access sites and check out future camping options. Regarding the last point, the two above mentioned campgrounds were way too claustrophobic for our situation. McGee Creek is much more secluded and spacious, despite the one pad that was too close to us. No one was on our other side overlooking the lake, and there were plenty of other options, including cabins if I want to bring the kayaks instead of the camper.

After the beginning of the Talimena Scenic Hwy we finally located the Old Military Trail access. It was constructed in the early 1800’s and went from Ft. Smith to the Red River. If you take it south it joins the OT after about a mile, which does indeed start at the Talimena State Park. It wasn’t a good place for us to hike anyway, but why did she say that? There’s a pretty long loop you can take there. After taking a picture of the entrance to the Old Military Road we drove on. After a while we stopped at what we guessed was the “overlook” indicated on the paper map for the nice loop trail she recommended. There are about 20 overlooks with names on the other paper map, and they didn’t bother to say which one. This overlook, in addition to all the other ones, was very crowded with Indians from India and black-leathered motorcyclists. I hadn’t counted on the peak fall foliage Saturday crowds. Mercy can’t handle them in close quarters. While George used the facilities, I noticed a middle aged biker with a handle-bar mustache and a bandana. Mercy had barked at him, but she calmed down after he sat there waiting for his wife who was in front of George in line at the bathroom. More on that later. When George returned I looked at my google map for what may be a more remote entrance. There was a small road that went north off the hwy that didn’t have a parking area and intersected the OT. We turned on this, turns out, dirt, single lane, cliff lined road and shortly saw some hot pink tape hanging around what looked like a trail. There was indeed nowhere to park without blocking the one lane. So we drove down to an intersection with another dirt road to turn around. It was pretty, but not an access point unless you were being dropped off.

Winding Stair Campground was at the end of the suggested 2 mile loop that was recommended, and a few miles before that we finally saw some pedestrian crossing marks on the road, and went on to the campground. This place was also pretty crowded, again with Indians and bikers and there were big dogs off leash, belonging to a rare unmotorcycled white guy, that Mercy barked at till we passed them. We found a campsite near the trail head that was out of the way, and parked our car there. The sun was beginning to peak out pretty often and we were shortly in the woods. We did the 2 mile suggested hike across the highway, along the Mountain Top trail west, running parallel but far enough in the woods, along the downward slope of the mountainridge to not see or hear the highway. This was very nice, and clearly marked where to cross again for the short loop which took us briefly up the mountain and back east on the Ouachital Trail (finally!), back to the car. It was just right. It was 4:45 by then, and we still had to cook dinner, pack up the camper, and make it home that night in order to take our daughter to Church on Sunday. So we head back west on the same road while the sun was setting.

Just before we get to the beginning of the Talimena Scenic Highway, theres a man at the top of the hill waving people to slow down. After we go over the hill we see a short line of cars not moving. We stop and a man comes to our car, setting Mercy off, but George could hear him over Mercy’s barking. He says there’s been a motorcycle accident. I can see reflections of emergency vehicle lights reflecting from around the bend on a car about 10 cars in front of us. Here we go again, waiting on a closed road for an accident to be cleared. Two Indian kids had gotten out of their car just ahead of us and were taking pictures of the guard rail beside us. Oh, that’s what Indians do, I thought, and occupied myself with my no reception phone and such. After about an hour George says he’s going to go see what’s going on. When he finally comes back he said he saw the large touring bike on its side, 2 ambulances, a guy with a bandage around his head and his arm with another guy sitting next to him. There’s also a crowd of witnesses close by that a policeman approaches and asks what happened. I forgot to mention earlier that there were ladybugs, the yellow biting kind, swarming wherever we went, except in the woods. They were all around our campsite and at the stops along the hwy. George said they were particularly thick among that group of people and he had to keep swatting them away. The witnesses said the bike went off the road, attempted to go back on, but hit the lip and flipped twice. “You mean he was run off the road?”, someone asked. George couldn’t hear the answer. The woman riding in back was in critical condition, and George said a prayer for her. Oh dear. We couldn’t roll the windows down while we waited because of the lady bugs. George said, “you know what those kids in front of us are looking at?” No. “Walking sticks.” What? Sure enough, I looked and there were tens of walking sticks along that guard rail that I could see from my window. I wonder if they eat lady bugs. Later we saw a Careflight helicopter approaching and saw a policeman with his orange spray paint marking the middle of the road. Must be bad. I bet Careflight landed at the visitor center at the entrance to the highway and they were going to drive her down there in the ambulance. I knew there would be no capable hospitals for a very long way. After about an hour and a half we were let through and we could see that the orange paint marked the beginning and end of skid marks that started on the inside, oncoming lane. Then we saw the dirt divots on the right side where the bike had gone off and on again. Then in the oncoming lane the bike and one of the ambulances.

In the Visitor’s Center we saw the helicopter turned off and the ambulance with not much activity outside it. Just a couple of people talking. That didn’t look good to me. After a few miles down the road I got a strong impression that the lady wanted people to appreciate the scenery, despite her death, and know that she died experiencing her favorite thing – a gorgeous day. She died quickly and with no pain.

George then told me that he thought he recognized the guy sitting bandaged on the curb as the guy waiting for his wife at that bathroom. She had been in front of him and had advised George to “use the bathroom on the right”. She seemed very nice. The man had been letting some Indians sit on his bike to have pictures taken.

I asked if he had a handlebar mustache, was older than us, and had a soft, round, weathered face and a bandana. He said yes, and that the bandana must have covered his bald head. Wow.

Then I looked up at the sky and there was the most perfectly formed profile angel wing connected to a body that had a cloud coming out the back of its head. I said, that’s her being taken to heaven by her angel, and she must have died of a head injury.

Later I found the article about it. She must have been on life support till that night because it said she died at the hospital in Fayetteville, Ark. She was from Farmersville, Tx, east of McKinney. Lord have mercy.

We made it home at 2am Saturday night. I napped in the car on the way home. George slept in the next morning and cleaned the car of dog hair and slobber while I took our daughter to Church.

 

McGee Creek Park’s National Scenic Recreation Area

Friday morning after breakfast we packed our Silk Soy Peach yogurt and Nature Valley dark chocolate almond protein bar to share, water bottle with a stevia sweetened flavor squirt, Keen hiking sandals, and the three dogs into the Jeep Grand Cherokee and headed around the country block with occasional abandoned little stores to the National Scenic Recreation Area that has over 25 miles of hiking trails, upland from the McGee Creek Reservoir. To hike you have to obtain a permit at the “closed” ranger station. In the dog run that included a very nice open bathroom, you fill out your information and where you plan to start hiking. There is also description of a first timer’s hike through the prettiest part, which we found compelling enough to try. As we were letting the dogs out of the Jeep, the Ranger and his wife rode up to the building on two horses and were letting them take a drink from the trough close to the building while their large, but old, brown dog sniffed about. This set Mercy off, so we put her back to them and continued to the trail.

You take the South rim trail north from the Ranger Station, take a left at the Little Bugaboo Creek trail, then another left onto the West Branch trail. This is a nice twisty turny up and downy forested shady trail with beautiful fall color in the deciduous trees mixed among the piney evergreens, and with large dark boulders randomly littered about. Then when you hit the West Boundary Trail you take the borderline back to the ranger station. But there is an option to keep going on down to the lake, which we did, and increased our hiking time at least an hour, making it 4 hours of beautiful, motivating exercise. Mercy loved being let off leash to take a couple of swims in the lake.

We didn’t see anyone else on the trails until we came up on the Ranger’s camper where his horses were tied up and his dog came around their tall chain linked fence to greet my dogs, which set Mercy and now Cassie off again. George and I tightened the leashes to no slack and tried to block the view with our bodies while the Ranger thankfully closed his gate with his dog inside. Good dog for listening. Schwew. Then we proceeded across the road to our car.

It was 5ish by the time we got back and it was cooling off. George made a lovely fire with our jointly gathered firewood, thanks, Oklahoma, and we were quite cozy through sunset with the dogs napping by the fire in between Mercy being put in time out in the camper when she barked at the arriving RVers. She eventually calmed down enough to join us again even though she growled briefly, until we hushed her, at people passing our camper on the way to the “Comfort Station” bathrooms. I cooked fish and canned seasoned squash on our propane range in the camper, which we had with a sunflower salad kit that I mixed. Quite filling and fortifying after our day. We ended it with some refreshing sparkly hard apple cider that George ferments in his closet. All five of us slept well that night. The dogs are pretty comfy on the overturned mattress on the bottom bunk in their dog beds over spread out garbage bags.

TBC