Here's my typical spring teaser photo for y'all up north--some crocus flowers in bloom in our front yard. Daffodils are blooming, and a few trees are flowering--we're well on our way towards spring. That also includes, unfortunately, spring storms--some severe weather is forecast for tomorrow :( . Fortunately, there are nice days, too, and we've taken advantage of some of this nice weather to enjoy local attractions, including the kids posing on a crazy tree at Cane Creek State Park:
We've featured Cane Creek State Park in blog posts of the past--it is relatively close to Monticello, and has some nice hiking trails. And lots of armadillos, like the character below:
The day we went, there was some breeze, but clear skies and pleasant temperatures. Cane Creek State Park surrounds part of a reservoir on Cane Creek, which drown a fair amount of timber, including the large cypress in the picture below:
(Even cypress can't take too much water). The dead timber was a deliberate outcome of the forming of this lake--it was left to create habitat for fish and birds, and help build a fishery. The lake has been low most of the last year due to the dry conditions we've had, thus exposing a sand bar covered by small mussel shells:
Last week I flew to Charleston, South Carolina, for a forestry meeting. The meeting was very good, and included a field trip to some intensively managed pine plantations. How old would you say the loblolly pines in the picture below are?
If you guessed twenty years old, you're WAY off--these pines are about 6 (yes, SIX) years old! They are a specially improved clonal version of loblolly pine (the most common pine we have around here) and have been well tended over the years. This kind of intensive forestry is becoming more common in the South, for obvious reasons. The loblolly pine plantation below is also surprisingly young--14 years old, I think:
We can grow pines pretty fast here in Arkansas, but probably not quite that fast! Charleston is a beautiful town that dates back to the colonial period. Downtown Charleston is filled with historic homes, churches, and businesses:
Unlike many large US cities, downtown Charleston has retained a lot of its original charm. Charleston, you will remember, was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Fort Sumter is in the harbor, although several miles from the downtown (so I didn't get any really good pictures of it). I did take a number of pictures of the historic cannons, though--the big mortar-style cannon below was built in 1861 in Pennsylvania, and was probably captured by the Confederacy at some point (I don't know if it was taken when Sumter fell):
The cannonballs near the mortar are the size of bowling balls, to help give you some scale. Here is one of the many neat churches found in the downtown area:
I took the previous pictures at dusk, but then ran out of light (at least for my camera). The next morning I took a walk around town again, before I had to leave for the airport. Below is a picture of the US Custom House (Charleston is a major east coast port):
As such, it gets its fair share of cargo container ships, and cruise liners:
This cruise ship arrived at some point during the night, and was unloading passengers as I walked by. Each of the old churches had cemetaries associated with them, now long since very crowded with old gravestones:
I was gone to Charleston until Friday, when I returned by supper to Monticello. Early the next morning, we drove up to Petit Jean Mountain for a camping adventure. You may remember Petit Jean--we frequently go camping and hiking at the state park there, and I often go to the archeological station there for meetings and training programs. We did both things this weekend--the kids hiked to rock shelters:
looking for Indian pictographs:
(those red squiggles are some of them), and checked out a natural bridge:
There are lots of neat rock formations here:
And a pretty nice waterfall:
There is only a little water going over the falls this year because of the drought, but it is still dramatic--you're about 400 feet above the creek at this overlook! I only had a limited amount of time for hiking--I was there to learn how to put broken pottery back together. It is a pretty simple process, involving Elmer's glue and some tape:
The pots I worked on were about 700 year old Caddo Indian artifacts. The process works well, even for a rookie like me, as the picture below shows:
Unfortunately, the pots I had were incomplete, so we couldn't see the whole end product--but the process was neat! We returned to Monticello by Sunday evening. Kenny and Beth had originally had the following Monday off for Presidents' Day, but with all the snow days, the school district decided to make them up by having school on some of these holidays. I (as a federal employee) still had the day off, so I went and helped on a small archeological dig. That evening we took Hope's Cub Scout den out to a local natural area, and I helped give them a nature program:
You may not be able to see what we're looking at in this picture, but I'm pointing to a small prickly pear cactus which grows naturally in this area. That's Stephen in the bright blue shirt in the foreground, and Kenny's wearing the green striped shirt (Beth was playing at a friend's house). Also note that this is one of the last pictures of me with a beard--I shaved it off later that night so when I got pictures taken the next day for a visa application, I would look similar to my passport photos. Good bye, beard, and good riddance! I had had enough of that (at least for a while)!
Here's my typical spring teaser photo for y'all up north--some crocus flowers in bloom in our front yard. Daffodils are blooming, and a few trees are flowering--we're well on our way towards spring. That also includes, unfortunately, spring storms--some severe weather is forecast for tomorrow :( . Fortunately, there are nice days, too, and we've taken advantage of some of this nice weather to enjoy local attractions, including the kids posing on a crazy tree at Cane Creek State Park:
We've featured Cane Creek State Park in blog posts of the past--it is relatively close to Monticello, and has some nice hiking trails. And lots of armadillos, like the character below:
The day we went, there was some breeze, but clear skies and pleasant temperatures. Cane Creek State Park surrounds part of a reservoir on Cane Creek, which drown a fair amount of timber, including the large cypress in the picture below:
(Even cypress can't take too much water). The dead timber was a deliberate outcome of the forming of this lake--it was left to create habitat for fish and birds, and help build a fishery. The lake has been low most of the last year due to the dry conditions we've had, thus exposing a sand bar covered by small mussel shells:
Last week I flew to Charleston, South Carolina, for a forestry meeting. The meeting was very good, and included a field trip to some intensively managed pine plantations. How old would you say the loblolly pines in the picture below are?
If you guessed twenty years old, you're WAY off--these pines are about 6 (yes, SIX) years old! They are a specially improved clonal version of loblolly pine (the most common pine we have around here) and have been well tended over the years. This kind of intensive forestry is becoming more common in the South, for obvious reasons. The loblolly pine plantation below is also surprisingly young--14 years old, I think:
We can grow pines pretty fast here in Arkansas, but probably not quite that fast! Charleston is a beautiful town that dates back to the colonial period. Downtown Charleston is filled with historic homes, churches, and businesses:
Unlike many large US cities, downtown Charleston has retained a lot of its original charm. Charleston, you will remember, was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Fort Sumter is in the harbor, although several miles from the downtown (so I didn't get any really good pictures of it). I did take a number of pictures of the historic cannons, though--the big mortar-style cannon below was built in 1861 in Pennsylvania, and was probably captured by the Confederacy at some point (I don't know if it was taken when Sumter fell):
The cannonballs near the mortar are the size of bowling balls, to help give you some scale. Here is one of the many neat churches found in the downtown area:
I took the previous pictures at dusk, but then ran out of light (at least for my camera). The next morning I took a walk around town again, before I had to leave for the airport. Below is a picture of the US Custom House (Charleston is a major east coast port):
As such, it gets its fair share of cargo container ships, and cruise liners:
This cruise ship arrived at some point during the night, and was unloading passengers as I walked by. Each of the old churches had cemetaries associated with them, now long since very crowded with old gravestones:
I was gone to Charleston until Friday, when I returned by supper to Monticello. Early the next morning, we drove up to Petit Jean Mountain for a camping adventure. You may remember Petit Jean--we frequently go camping and hiking at the state park there, and I often go to the archeological station there for meetings and training programs. We did both things this weekend--the kids hiked to rock shelters:
looking for Indian pictographs:
(those red squiggles are some of them), and checked out a natural bridge:
There are lots of neat rock formations here:
And a pretty nice waterfall:
There is only a little water going over the falls this year because of the drought, but it is still dramatic--you're about 400 feet above the creek at this overlook! I only had a limited amount of time for hiking--I was there to learn how to put broken pottery back together. It is a pretty simple process, involving Elmer's glue and some tape:
The pots I worked on were about 700 year old Caddo Indian artifacts. The process works well, even for a rookie like me, as the picture below shows:
Unfortunately, the pots I had were incomplete, so we couldn't see the whole end product--but the process was neat! We returned to Monticello by Sunday evening. Kenny and Beth had originally had the following Monday off for Presidents' Day, but with all the snow days, the school district decided to make them up by having school on some of these holidays. I (as a federal employee) still had the day off, so I went and helped on a small archeological dig. That evening we took Hope's Cub Scout den out to a local natural area, and I helped give them a nature program:
You may not be able to see what we're looking at in this picture, but I'm pointing to a small prickly pear cactus which grows naturally in this area. That's Stephen in the bright blue shirt in the foreground, and Kenny's wearing the green striped shirt (Beth was playing at a friend's house). Also note that this is one of the last pictures of me with a beard--I shaved it off later that night so when I got pictures taken the next day for a visa application, I would look similar to my passport photos. Good bye, beard, and good riddance! I had had enough of that (at least for a while)!
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Jojo