A LITTLE FEAR IS O.K.

Today is the first day I've been able to journal outside in weeks.  The temperature is 30 degrees and it's sunny with strong winds blowing.  My ink pen keeps skipping but I don't feel like writing with a pencil.


As I walked to the knoll here today I saw many fresh wolf tracks along Tom's Creek.  I actually felt a tiny twinge of fear so I picked up a walking stick and carried it across the creek with me on my hike.  Sometimes it's o.k. to admit you have a little bit of fear.  I had hoped to get my chest port removed this week, but my number was up a little yesterday, so my doctor said "no".  There is just a little bit of fear with that too.                        

  Look at the size of these tracks!

Today I'm focusing on the wind and how it blows the tree tops all around.  I see the tiny white pine trees dance back and forth and tall popple tree tops sway around almost in half circles, first in one direction and then back in the other.  Their light colored bark is beautiful against the blue sky lit up by the sun light.  The oak trees don't seem to sway much at all.  Perhaps an oak tree is the kind to be when there is a little fear, a little danger in your heart.

The noisy wind is keeping the birds and critters in hiding because it doesn't let them hear very well.  They need to stop and listen when they are out and about, so they feel safe.  It looks like it's just the trees and me today on the knoll... and the wind.  I'm o.k. with that.  We'll take one day at a time and see where it leads us.

NOTE: When strong winds blow in the forest, watch out for widow makers.   
Or...   Watch out for falling branches that can hurt you.

Here's a special "hello" to Mrs. Stone's 2nd grade class.   Next week I'm going to share a story about my brother's encounter with a black bear in wintertime - just for you.  Thank you for following my blog!      Kay

PORCUPINES

Two days ago I was walking home on the trail east of our cabin when I spotted something out of place in a pine tree.  I have a habit of looking up at the tree tops in wintertime hoping to see something unexpected but seldom do.  Years ago, my son and I were hiking across the creek about this time of year and looked up into a large white pine to see a great gray owl staring back at us.  We'll never forget that rare owl's visit to our woods.

The other day I didn't see an owl but a large gray ball up in the white pine tree that looked out of place, way up near the top.  I inched my way through the snow close to the base of the tree and took a few photos.

What I'd spotted was a large porcupine clinging to a branch near the tree's top.  I've seen porkies sit up high in trees before and I'm not sure why they do this in the middle of winter.  Sometimes they get carried away with their voracious appetite, stripping off enough bark to kill the tree. 

The porcupine was in this white pine, near the top, on the left.

Porcupines are strange animals.  I remember the havoc they caused when my brother's hound dogs got into a tangle with them.  The dogs ended up with noses filled with sharp quills from the porky.  The quills are of various sizes and have very sharp tips.  A porcupine cannot throw a quill at something; he has to come in direct contact before the quills will stick. 


A beautiful form of artwork called "quilling" has interested me for many years.  Porcupine quills are used like thread to stitch designs into birch bark, creating animals, flowers, and other beautiful designs.   The holes in the bark are predrilled making it easier to weave the quills back and forth through the bark.  The quills are sometimes dyed different colors too. Often quill work is stitched on birch bark trinket boxes.  I bought one as a keepsake and mine has a beaver on the lid of the box.

I gathered the quills in the photo above from a road kill porcupine, and poked my fingers a few times in the process!

Old folks used to say the best thing about a porcupine in the bush was that it could provide an easy meal for a hungry hunter, as the animal never moves far or fast and makes an easy target.   I don't think I'd enjoy eating a porcupine but then, I'm not starving!

NOTHING WASTED - TRAIL CAMERA TELLS ALL

I'm reflecting tonight on a story that our trail camera told us in the winter of 2013.  Although these
graphic pictures show death, they also show reality and the way of nature and my husband and I both think they are worth sharing.

One crisp day while on a short hike in our woods, we encountered a deer carcass not far from Tom's Creek.  A small dead doe was curled up in the snow, hair scattered all about, most likely the victim of a wolf attack.  Young deer, and of course unhealthy deer, are most vulnerable in wintertime.  Sometimes they starve to death in harsh winters, so to see one perish at the paws or jaws of a wolf is not necessarily upsetting, but simply nature's way.  At least this appeared to be the case in this situation.

Upon finding the young deer carcass, my hubby decided to set up a trail camera nearby to see who might come calling.   We were surprised to see what unfolded.  The trail cam photos below are in succession.  We were amazed at how many critters benefited from one young deer's tragedy.

Our first photo brought in a beautiful red fox.

Crows gathered around the carcass the following morning.  This was one of many photos triggered by the hungry black birds.

A raccoon came to call late in the evening on day two.

Our largest late night visitor may have been the culprit in the first place, a medium sized timber wolf.

Just typing the words "timber wolf" in a sentence and thinking it was right out in our woods still fascinates me.






Wolves today are the subject of so much controversy but they do exist among us today and their presence, which in my younger years was unheard of, simply amazes me.

Lastly, Mr. Bobcat, came to call later the same night as the timber wolf.  It didn't take very long for the entire carcass to disappear.










It was simply amazing how little went to waste and how many participated in the meal.  I'm sure there may have been smaller critters looking for a meal that we didn't capture, such as mice, voles, or weasels.  Nature has a way of cleaning up it's unsightliness.

One day this past fall, before the snow covered the ground, I noticed a few bones from what remained of the little doe in that same spot in our woods.  I took the skull, shiny and white from the sun, and placed it on a tree branch nearby.  I always do that and don't ask me why, because I don't know.  I guess it's just my way of showing respect and hoping the little deer's soul went back to the spirit world where it came from.

TRACKS IN THE SNOW - A SHORT WINTER WALK

I took a short walk late this afternoon in our woods heading behind the barn on the game trail toward Tom's Creek.   I hiked up the tractor trail to the dike and then down the Northwest Passage back to our home.  It felt good to breathe in some fresh air even though the temps were chilly.

It's amazing how many critter tracks fill up the woods in a very short time.  Here's what I saw on my stroll today...

Whitetail deer tracks follow in the footsteps of yesterdays people tracks back of the barn.  They're starting to make a real cow path of sorts as winter drags on.  I'm sure winter is more of a challenge for hungry deer than it is for us.

Snow was falling at a fast pace on my walk today so the tracks I photographed were freshly made.  I was not too far behind the wildlife I didn't see.

There were several sets of rabbit tracks near a brush pile along the deer trail.  Rabbits seem to come and go in cycles and this appears to be a good year for them. 

The next tracks I encountered were very fresh.  Although not a cause for concern in my mind, I did check the horizon from time to time to see if I was alone in the woods.

Not far down the trail from where I took the above photo, near the creek, I spotted fresh wolf scat. Hmmmm...  A couple of wolves had been zigzagging around following fresh deer tracks right here.  And they turned around like I did, instead of crossing the creek to head south.

Wolves don't scare me, nope they don't.  Not since cancer came my way.  Nope, they don't scare me a bit, although unfortunately a hunting dog was killed by a wolf just seven miles southwest of my home yesterday.

On my way back to the cabin I spotted this cool little trail in the snow.

Perhaps this was a fresh mouse trail...  I'm not sure.  But it wasn't nearly as exciting as the wolf tracks!

If we open up our eyes in the woods it is amazing how we can see what was there before us, all around us, and how we can step in the very same tracks others made not very long ago... if there is snow cover on the ground!