Spring Wildflowers 2012

                                                      Spring Wildflowers 2012

     A walk around today looking for the spring wildflowers!  It's been a strange year...a very warm winter and early spring, but it seems as though the wildflowers aren't enjoying the warmer temperatures! Early spring wildflowers, like Hepatica, began blooming in February, but they were nipped by a cold spell.  Very few are blooming now.  Bloodroot and Trillium seem stunted and fewer than usual. I'll keep watching.  The treasure hunt is just beginning!

                                            ....and an early flying wildflower!

Preparing for the Storm

There is an unsettled feeling this morning.  Storms are suppose to move in overnight.  One of the jobs here at The Cabin Path is to make sure that the spillway (overflow creek) of the lake is open and flowing.  In the last few years, this has not been a problem because of the drought. Also, a neighbor thinned the beaver population ( not my idea!...), so I did not have to constantly undo his handy work before every rain. Well, we've had rain, and we have a new beaver, so I noticed on my walk yesterday that he had once again stopped up the spillway!

Not that bad, just some sticks and packed mud, but it was enough to stop the flow of the water, and we are  in for a night of heavy rain! I removed the sticks first, and the mud can then be dug out.

(My pile of sticks..notice the chewed ends)

Of course I had my helpers, Jessie, Dahli, Maddie, and Jack!!

Jack is the supervisor...he doesn't really like to get his feet wet!

After some digging, the water is once again flowing!!!

Meanwhile, the dogs have found one of the beaver's escape holes just down from the beaver dam....and they are digging.  One day, maybe I can channel their efforts to help me!!

It feels stormy, and the wind is blowing, but I love to watch the water....

one more task checked off.... with a little help from my friends!

Sculptures in the Woods

   

                                                                                                                       

                                                          Sculptures in the Woods

     An old rotted pine tree full of woodpecker holes caught my eye for this picture. It looked as though it was adorned with a steeple of sorts…a design touch with a rustic twist! A closer look revealed that it was the backbone of the old pine, or heartwood, but it seemed to set this nesting spot apart from all the other ones. My own picture made me wonder....what was that part of the pine tree called and how was it formed?

                                      

     There are many of these sculptures around in the woods...a pine tree will die and rot away, and the center will remain standing with twists and knots and gnarls...I always called it "wood art" without much thought.  I found that they are the results of the pine resin in the tree. If a tree receives a wound, the resin will rush to that spot to protect the scar. Resin also collects in the heart, or center of the pine tree, and it resists decay.

     Some folks call it fatwood, stump candy, lighterd, lightern, lighter knot...many old time names. I remember my Grandfather having a bucket of "lightern."  He used it to start his fires, and it would light with a match.  I remember finding stumps that he would chop up and save. Most chunks of lightern are sticky and smell like crushed pine needles. They will light even when wet, and it has been a valued firestarter as early as prehistoric times. I also read that too many pieces in a wood stove can cause damage because of its extreme heat (something I’m glad to know for the cabin!)

     I always look for lightern on my walks. It usually resembles stalagmites or little gnome hats! Most are found in stumps, but evidently sometimes it will stretch up the tree, and I have found many that are as tall as six feet.

                                                                             

     In my readings about fatwood or lightern, not every fallen pine tree will make lightern. Pine resin will become more of a solid, and if the tree falls or is cut at a certain time of the year, or if the ground soil is a certain acidity, and if the tree is just the right condition and had the right amount of sap when it was living, it will leave lightern. In other words, it doesn’t happen all the time!

      Search fatwood. There are many very interesting forums and stories about it out there.  I do know, it is wonderful kindling... better than those store bought wax logs, but I think I love their art work in the woods even more!

                                                                 

I promised an update on Nanna's Leaf!!  I have had other requests to come and remember loved ones and pets.  I always envisioned a Remembrance Tree on the hill overlooking the cabin.  I would love to have copper stamped leaves, but somehow, the simple Beech leaves do seem more appropriate for The Cabin Path!

I am hoping to start my workshops back in the spring!! Oh, the trail work that needs to be done!! Be watching for my announcement for Earth Day!!

Happy Halloween!!

An updated version of last year's Photoshow....Happy Halloween!

Simple Gifts

   
                                                                      Simple Gifts

                                                                       
      It's been almost a year since my last children's workshop.  I have missed them.  Fall was always my favorite time with the Pioneer Workshops at the log cabin.  We'd have a cabin dinner...either pot luck or veggie soup and cornbread on the old wood stove.  We'd do "chores" and even have a one room school lesson, and then we would eat our lunch outside on straw bales and makeshift board tables.

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                                                         Previous Pioneer Workshops

       I'd usually have my Tree Workshop in the fall, too. Everyone soon learned that one of my favorite trees here at TCP was the Beech.  Beech tree leaves will stay on the trees through the winter. As the frosts and freezes come, their green leaves change to brown paper bag looking leaves. On windy winter days, they will dance and play their crackling songs.  I always imagined that the Quaking Aspens have nothing on the Georgia Beech trees! Only the new spring growth will push off the brown bag leaves to make way for the new ones.  The old leaves will then  drop to the ground and help make new soil for all the living things in the woods.
                                         

                                                                      Beech Tree in Winter
 
  Yesterday, I received a phone call from one of the workshop family Moms.  She asked if they could come by for a short visit.  She knew that I no longer had my workshops, but she simply asked if they could come for a short visit.  I gladly agreed.  Frankly, I was not sure which family it was...they had attended several of the workshops, but they had not been one of the regular groups. I recognized them as their car drove up to the Gathering Room.  The little boy, about 7 or 8, excitedly got out of the car and gave me a big hug.  He then said, Ms. Sarah, my Nanna died!!"  His Mom nodded, "Yes, last week, and it's been hard to explain it all to him."

                                                               
     I felt honored that they thought of TCP as a place to visit, a place to heal.  I asked if they wanted to take a walk, and they both agreed, but not before they got their sacks to collect things along the trails.  I also noticed that he went by the marker jar, but I assumed that he might be going to journal some, too. As we walked, they remarked about the changes.  The bright blue sky and the autumn fireworks...it was a perfect day for a walk. As we walked the path above the cabin, he stopped and took out his marker.  "Ms. Sarah," he said, "I want to write Nanna's name on one of the Beech leaves."  His Mom smiled and said that it was all he had talked about since his Grandmother's death.  He wanted to put her name on a Beech leaf so it would dance in the wind and stay until spring, and then it would help other things to live.  I felt a huge lump in my throat, and I know my teared up eyes were obvious!  He had remembered.  Every fall, we would write our names with black permanent markers on the green Beech leaves.  We'd watch them all winter as we walked the trails, and then we'd see them turn brown.  The names would remain on the faded brown leaves.  I was always amazed that each child  remembered where their leaf was. Sometimes they would take their brown leaves back to press them in a book, but most wanted them to fall naturally and help the forest to grow.

                                                             
"What a wonderful gift for Nanna!" I told him.

 "I told Nanna about writing my name on the leaves," he said.  "She wanted to write her name on one, too...and now there's her name!"
                                                 
                                                                   
     We continued our walk on the trails.  We stopped off at the labyrinth cove and sat in the sunshine while he threw rocks and sticks and looked for bugs and dragonflies. I did not take my camera on our walk, but I returned to take a picture of Nanna's legacy.  Such a simple gesture, a simple gift, but it will forever touch me...and Nanna.