A memorable spring

 

Nothing says spring like some of the first fruits of this year--in this case, some beautiful strawberries we bought from some friends near town!  These berries were perfectly ripe for eating that day we got them...and, of course, we had to buy too many to eat in one sitting!  So we froze some and then Hope and Kenny made a quick strawberry jam for the remainder.  Delicious!!

What also made it memorable was it was the spring of our covid vaccinations; this coming week, Stephen will get his second shot, and all of Bragg Family South will be fully vaccinated before the summer of 2021!  We are looking and feeling so much more hopeful than we did a year ago, not sure what the year would bring us...

Fortunately, much of our spring was pretty normal (for us), such as decorating Easter eggs...

We found the time to help a young man from our church finish his Eagle Scout project (a walking rosary)...It is amazing to me how much time some of these Eagle projects can take, and what is involved...even though this is relatively simple, it took a lot of planning and coordination--especially in the midst of a pandemic--and much of the Scout's work involves this planning, coordination, and supervising the installment of their project.  Job well done!!

I was able to get in the woods some for work--here's a neat twisted shortleaf pine in one of the areas I'm studying.  Not as much field time as I'd like to have had, as we are still under maximum telework directions from my agency, with only mission critical work to be done in the field or lab.  Yet, I did really appreciate the times I got out, because it was a real pretty spring...as you can see from the picture below of an old concrete weir on one of the streams in the old Irons Fork Experimental Forest (in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas):

So things were not completely normal...we didn't have our son Kenny with us most of the spring, as he was off to his freshman year of college.  In April I drove up to pick him up, which gave me a little more than a week to visit with my parents in Rhinelander.  As you can see from the picture below, it was still cool and spring was only just beginning to start there:

While on this trip I had porcupines on my mind because I had a "porkie" in one of my trees:

The picture below is of a different tree (a larch on a neighboring parcel of land) that shows why forest owners often don't like to see porcupines--as large rodents, they need to chew (and eat a lot), and they can do both at the expense of the trees!:

While the tree pictured above is not on our land, we have had them chew on our trees, too, including some of the majestic pines near those Kenny's standing by:

Of course, porcupines aren't the only ravenous beasts in the Northwoods...Kenny was looking forward to tearing into these tasty kringles:

We still have to deal with some of the pandemic precautions, such as the socially distant and masked National Honor Society induction ceremony that Beth participated in:

By now, most of the pandemic precautions have been lifted for those of us who are vaccinated, so this past weekend we got to our first minor league baseball game in a couple year:

We also took a quick family outing this weekend, driving to eastern Oklahoma to visit the Spiro Mounds site (a prehistoric Indian ceremonial and village site)...only to find that they were closed for the Memorial Day weekend.  Since we were pretty close to it, we went to another nearby park--the "Heavener Runes" park.  (More on the runes shortly...).  This site, also in eastern Oklahoma, is located in a narrow little cove with some steep steps to climb down:

In addition to being steep, these steps were uneven and slippery, and real ankle-busters, for sure (just ask Kenny!).  There was a large bluff shelter to see:

The winding path soon led to a small but pretty shelter:

which housed several exhibits, including the large sandstone slab that held the "runes":

If you don't already know, runes are symbolic ancient writings...these runes are purported to be carved by Vikings over 1000 years ago--my theory is they were carved by some local in the late 1800s to fool friends, neighbors, and even fellow citizens in a very similar fashion to the "hodag" of my hometown!  

While the runes aren't what they pretend to be, the little park is still pretty, and after our recent rains has a lot of nice flowing water, including the following waterfall:

Here's a different view of this waterfall, with Hope and Kenny on the bridge overlook:

Stephen seemed to enjoy his hike, too:

And park played their role with a wink and a nod:

While we were unable to visit Spiro, it was a gorgeous, pleasant day, and we had a chance to swing by what may be my next archeological adventure--a 1930s-vintage Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp not far from the Irons Fork Experimental Forest.  I didn't take any pictures, as it did not lend itself to doing so, but we did find some of the concrete foundations that remain.

Given that this was Memorial Day weekend, I also can't help but to reflect that a number--perhaps many or even most--of the young men who worked at this CCC camp would have eventually found themselves in the military, serving during World War II.  I have no idea how many may have died in that service, but I appreciate their sacrifices and service, and hope to help honor them by making this historical camp site better known and appreciated!