Thursday, October 23, 2014

Site Prep Burn

Yesterday, We did a site prep burn to get ready for tree planting this winter.  This can be on of the most difficult burns to complete and get good results.

Here you can see the results we got.  This is what you try to accomplish, moonscape.  This makes planting so much easier.
Go to the link at the bottom of this page (private forest landowner) for information.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Children's Website

Below is the address to a great site for children to play and learn about Agriculture.  There are several games that they will enjoy.
http://www.myamericanfarm.org/

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Busy Past Week

The past few days have been really busy.  We were are the Alabama Treasure Forest Association annual meeting at the end of last week and then on Monday we traveled to Moultrie, Georgia, for the Ag Expo and Southeastern Farmer of the Year 25th anniversary.  On Thursday night, a board meeting.  Friday, we had educational seminars an one of the most interesting was about eagles.  Auburn University had the football game eagles for us to see and they shared information with us about eagles.
This foot with its talons were impressive! 

This eagle was Nova.  I know you have seen him on TV before, flying over the football field or at the Olympics. The eagle care giver told about at the LSU game this year where the eagle was
about to fly, the eagle was looking skyward.  The handlers looked up and they saw a Bald Eagle fly over the stadium.  They waited for it to leave then released Nova down to the field.

On Saturday, we had an outside tour of part of Auburn University's forest research property.  The tour was about forest management.
On Monday we drove to Valdosta, Georgia, to the Southeastern Farmer of the Year 25th Anniversary gathering. We stayed there over night and then the next day drove to Moultrie, for the Ag Expo.  That was a mess.  It rained bucket fulls so we left early to get back home.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Fawns Brought Out

Our outdoor neighbor brought her twins out for the first time this morning. She has been staying close around our house every day for the past month.  One day she was about three feet from our garage doors on the concrete drive.  She has twins just like she did last year.  Last year one was a buck and one was a doe.  The buck was hit by a car a few months ago near our front yard.  The young doe is staying as close as possible to the older doe and the fawns.
You might ask, how do you know this is the same doe you saw last year?  Well it is easy, the doe has about a four inch spot on top of her loin. 
As they left they followed the older doe, crossing the road and then the field headed to the pond.




Friday, October 3, 2014

Ekun Duts ke Proof!

EKUN DUTS KE
I set out to prove the location of the Native American village of Ekundutske. This is how I proved the location of the village.
There are records that claim Ekundutske was a village in what is now Montgomery County located in Alabama.  It was said that this was a theory and the exact location of the village was unknown.  This publication was in 1920.
How did I get started with this task of locating the village here it being 2014 nearly 100 years after the last known claim to where the village was located?  I was looking at an old Alabama Geological map of Clay County in 1926 and saw that a ridge ran through our property that I had never seen named before called Sandutskee Ridge.  To me this sounded like a Native American name.  I asked a man that I knew who claimed to know the Creek Indian language about this word and he responded that it meant “boundary line” or “dividing line”.  He said it should be spelled differently.  Immediately, I knew why it was called Ekundutske because I had recently mapped out the watershed on our property dividing the Coosa River and the Tallapoosa River.  This was the dividing line the Native Americans had referred to.  They used the waterways for travel and this line was important to them.  I then started doing research on this village.  This is how I found the article about the thought that the village was in Montgomery County. 
Ekun was the native language and to the Europeans it sounded in their language like San. That is how it ended up Sandutskee Ridge.
I was visiting with a friend and told him about my findings and he owned property near the railroad track and at this point on the railroad it was called Dutskee.  This point is at the highest elevation on the track between Birmingham, Alabama and Manchester, Georgia. My friend responded that he had always wondered why this place was called Dutske.
In 1831, the removal of the Native Americans was taking place ”The Trail of Tears”.  There were Congressional Records being recorded about this removal.  They listed all the villages with the Heads of Households and how many was in each family as they were rounded up to make this horrible journey to Oklahoma.  These records showed that after the village of Ekundutske was recorded that the next village recorded was Hillabee.  These people at Ekundutske were probably part of the Hillabee Clan.  Many of the recorded names are similar.  Because these two villages were recorded back to back made me know the village was here and that a village in Montgomery County would not just get inserted at this point because other villages recorded were also in this area.
I knew where the village of Ekundutske was and now I had to try to prove it.  I used the internet that was not available in 1920 but was now at my fingertips.  My proof came in the way of a newspaper printed in 1839 and 1840 in Washington D.C.  The newspaper was the Washington Globe.  The paper had listed the property being given to the people to make this a part of the new America as the Old World was passing away.  The paper listed the village name and it gave the section, township and range of this property.  And now you guessed it, it was all in Clay County Alabama on the dividing line of the Coosa River and the Tallapoosa River Watershed.  The Native American Village of Ekun duts ke has been found!
These people probably fought in Talladega against Andrew Jackson alongside the other Hillabees in 1813 as General Jackson headed to Horseshoe Bend.  They were trying to make peace with General Jackson after the Battle of Talladega but General White coming down from Tennessee to meet General Jackson did not get the communication and this village was probably part of the Hillabee Massacre that General White was responsible for.  This was a sad day because the Native Americans came out in peace and the soldiers started shooting them down.
Old-timers here in Clay County tell of a place that they used to find cannon balls and this place is located on the dividing line.

Lamar Dewberry

August, 2014