"A Walk in the Forest", Two Meanings

A tract of timber at McCollum ready to be harvested.  Next week the cutting is to start. 

I remarked the SMZ'z (streamside management zones) on the tract.  I don't allow any cutting in these areas for the protection of the water and wildlife corridors.  The harvest is better when no trees are harvested from these sites. 

This was a wonderful walk on the property all by myself.  It was cool and I made some pictures of interesting places on the property before the harvest.  There are probably 30 to 50 of these rock piles on the hillside.  These rock were not stacked from clearing a field, but I have no clue of their purpose?

Another Walk That Week

A doe and her fawn early Wednesday morning after we had stayed at the lodge was watching Felicia and I as we got everything ready for the Women's "Walk in The Forest". 

It was a most beautiful day for the women to have their walk.  The walk was on the railroad track bed which was built over 100 years ago. 

This was a project of Felicia's.  She knows the blessings we have and wants to share with others.  She wrote and was awarded a grant from Alabama Forest Forever Foundation to have this "Walk in The Forest" promoted by the American Forestry Foundation and Society of American Foresters".  A van was rented and the transportation was easy for the tour to the site.  Felicia gave a short talk before the walk which included a section on tree identification.

Nick Jordan with the Alabama Forestry Commission spoke briefly on what the commission does.  The Clay County Forestry Planning Committee also helped with the event.

There were 22 at the meeting with Mattie, our granddaughter, being the youngest. She had a great time as always when she is outside and offered thanks at the luncheon in the lodge. 

Sherri Rollins, District Director with Congressman Rogers office, spoke during lunch after the walk about her work in the Congressman's office.  Everyone seemed to have a great day.  We are still having wonderful comments  from participants about the day.  It was well worth the time and effort in putting on the event.

Oh! Mrs. Wilma Miller won the Tree ID contest.  She was my fifth grade teacher.  She had a great influence on me and that is one of the reasons I am who I am today.

Other Happenings 

The saw-toothed acorns are dropping and the wildlife are enjoying them.

Deer tracks and acorn hulls, that is all that is left on the ground under these trees.  They love these acorns and so do the turkeys.

Family and Friends

First, I have added six new wildflower pictures.....

It has been nice having my son back home.  He has been so much help: bush hogging, plowing, planting fall food plots, filling feeders, tearing out beaver dams that are backing up water on roads (see picture below). We are always looking for different types of wildflowers to document  on our property and Nathan knows the names of most. 

He waded through the snakes and who knows what else in that swamp to break the dam.  The beavers will build it back faster than we break it.  We are going to have to declare war on them before they get much worse. 

Nathan's son, my grandson is really growing up fast.  The other day when we were bush hogging and clearing roads James did a great job driving the gator.  Here he is moving the vehicle to the next stop.  He is beginning to be big enough  to help.

Alabama Treasure Forest 

This past weekend we attended the annual meeting in Ozark, Alabama.  I was elected Sec/Tres. of the association which I hope will be a good thing.  We got to see many good friends and people that have a love of the land as we do.  Mr. Bill Moody received special recognition at the meeting where Treasure Forest was forty years old.  Mr. Moody started the program.

We got to see some nice property: Billy Blackwell's, past president and person responsible for this good conference, and the tour on Saturday was on the Strickland's property. Felicia and I always enjoy seeing how others have been blessed.

We saw a demonstration about controlling wild hogs and a demonstration on baling pine straw.  The person in the green shirt helped out in tying the bale is Wayne Ford, a Clay County boy that I grew up spending a lot of time with.  We see each other quite often at these types of meetings.  I always tell people that know both of us that we grew up in the woods and this is all we know.

F

Summer Ends, Fall Is Here

It is time to get green fields planted and the remainder of the bush hogging completed.  Fall is such a busy time. 

All four of the grand children getting a lesson in rattle snake anatomy.  They were very observant to me pointing out the fangs.  We skinned the snake out and are going to use the hide in the exhibits at the lodge.

OTHER HAPPENINGS 

Congressman Rogers,  his Agriculture person from Washington DC, and Sherri Rollins his District Director were all at the lodge for a meeting with his local Agricultural Advisory Committee from East Alabama,  The main discussion was the new Farm Bill and hopes of getting it passed.

This picture, made in our backyard last fall, has been named the runner-up in The American Tree Farm Photography Contest 2013.  The winner was from Michigan, it was a great picture.  Go to the American Tree Farm Facebook page to see the winners.  This was the email wordage.

Lamar,

Congratulations!!!  Your photo, Steam in Forest, was selected as the Category 1 runner-up of the 2013 Tree Farm Photo Contest, Sponsored by STIHL, Inc.

Be on the look-out for your photo on our website, our Facebook page, and in future ATFS publications.  Also, keep your eyes on your mailbox for a $250 STIHL product certificate, which should arrive in the next 4-6 weeks.

Thank you again for participating in this year’s photo contest, and congratulations!

Best,

Sara E. Anrrich

Operations Manager, American Tree Farm System

1111 Nineteenth Street NW, Suite 780

Washington, DC 20036 

Road Kill:(

We lost one of our young bucks last night to Highway 48.  He was in good shape but he was wasted to some vehicle.  I always hate to see this.  His rack was still in full velvet and he was going to be a 6 pointer.

Heritage of the Land

Last week my grandson James helped me place grave markers on James Dewberry and Jane Graben Dewberry's graves.  They are my grandsons' great, great, great, great grandfather and grandmothers. James is a family name that goes way back.  They worked and took care of the land and now we get our turn in this  thing called time. 

James and his little sister Eden had a fun time learning about where they came from.  It was a rainy day but we got it done and had fun doing it. They have many other ancestors in this resting place. 

Nathan helped me with bush hogging roads and firelanes.  It takes several days to complete but it was good to have him helping me.  He is young and can do much more than I.

Taking care of the land.  Here engineers are laying out a stream crossing in our forest to help keep the water clean for the drinking water.  We hope to complete this project in the near future. I warned the workers to watch for our many rattlers on the property. 

This one got in the way while we were bush hogging.  We skinned it out and plan on adding its skin to our exhibits in the lodge.

Not Seen Very Often

Last week James was catching and observing cicadas.  He was letting this one crawl on him.  

There were several shells on the pine that they were observing.

Wow an eagle in the City Limits of Lineville!  We were traveling to our lodge a week ago when at a crossroads I saw something down one road that looked like an eagle on the ground.  I quickly turned around and turned into the other road when an eagle flew up from the road into a tree.  It was beautiful sitting in the pine tree.  A car came up behind us and it flew down the hollow away from the road.  This eagle was only a short distance from our property and what made it more special was watching a video on youtube just this day of a black bear not far from our property also.  That is how I came up with the title for this post.

You can go to youtube and search "black bear in Talladega National Forest" and see this video.

Trees and Flowers

I have add several pictures of wildflowers and trees to the Blog.  I have other information I am going add soon when time permits.