Boat in the woods

Sure, lots of people have boats on the river, or boats at the lake.

If you want to be really trendy, try a boat in the woods. It doesn't go very fast, but there's no danger of drowning.

I really thought this boat would have fallen totally apart by now, but she's still hanging in there. (Here it is in 2006.)



It used to say, "Jazz Feeds". I've no idea why anyone would paint an ad on the side of their boat.

This one makes me feel like a sort of tumbledown Walker Evans, only 1000% less likely to take a good photograph.)



Maybe I really should plant something in it.

Country life

Evidence of beavers upstream.


Evidence of people upstream.

Milk container

Another in the series of Fun Farm Finds, a.k.a. "What the heck is that doing here?!"

My husband found this while clearing some limbs near the driveway. It was filled with largish rocks. He had an idea it might be an old milk can, and he was right. According to that site, "Until the adoption of farm bulk tanks and tanker trucks in the 1940's and 50's milk was stored, cooled and transported in cans."

Interesting, but we still have no idea how it came to be squished, lying in a low area, and filled with rocks.

Just another farm mystery...

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I've been forgetful, and neglected (among other things) to mention the latest installments of Festival of the Trees and Circus of the Spineless. And of course there's always the Friday Ark.

Booty

We found this in the woods. I wonder if it has anything to do with Dave's unsafe socks.

The thing

We found this... thing... on a walk.



Hubby says it is "obviously" the remains of a bug - one of those hairy caterpillars - and it does look like that, from this angle especially.



I tried looking up various combinations of the words dried hairy/spiky alien caterpillar exoskeleton on Google Images but didn't find anything that matched it.

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Update:

I did think it was a plant pod of some sort at first. But it was the only one around. It was fairly glued to the tree.

Also, I just remembered a dream I had last night.

In the dream, I discovered that we had a basement that I hadn't previously realized was there. There was even a retractable clothesline that I thought would be perfect for drying quilts. I was ecstatic! I could finally wash the quilts!

(Yes I have a yard as big as all outdoors but I also have a dog who'd make mincemeat out of an heirloom quilt in very short order.)

(Yes I have the most boring dreams known to man.)

Uh-oh

Hubby thinks the neighbors might be trying to tell us something...

Our boat

I wondered if I was seeing things.



It was several months after we bought the land. We were driving on one of the paths, when I thought I spied something a bit odd. "Stop! Back up!"

Yep, it really was a boat. In the middle of the woods.



World's biggest planter?

Many country people don't see the point in paying to take things to the county landfill, when they've got so much perfectly good land of their own on which to dump stuff. So we're continually finding surprises in the woods.

Old boundaries

On one part of our property, there are three types of boundary markers: surveyor's tape, a barbed wire fence, and these tree blazes. They don't always precisely agree, but are usually within 10 or 20 feet of each other.



I don't know how old the painted markers are. The fence is rusty and has trees over it in a few places. I wonder if previous owners kept cows here... otherwise why bother to put up a fence in such hilly terrain? Nowdays it's not going to keep much of anything in or out, but it does a fairly good job of following the property line.

The ground in this area is extremely rocky, so the trees may be older than they appear.



I know it sounds corny, but - I wish the trees could talk! I'd love to hear their stories.

The debate is over

I found this in the creek. A lively debate ensued concerning the origin.

Me: "It's an ancient Indian artifact!"

Hubby: "It's a rock."



Last weekend a chicken farmer/archaeologist gave a talk at the local museum. (Yes, in Alabama you can be a chicken farmer and an archaeologist at the same time.)

The newspaper had promised that after the presentation, he'd identify any local artifacts that people brought.

Most people had arrowheads. Except that we learned most were actually spear tips instead, and older than true arrowheads (which in this area apparently tend to be quite small). One kid had a particularly fine Clovis point. A man showed everyone a hematite atlatl weight (bannerstone) that his father had found.

There was a large crowd. I waited impatiently at the end of the line. And finally discovered that my curious artifact was... a rock.



A piece of chert. He told me the scientific name of the phenomenon that caused the groove. But in my crushing disappointment I've forgotten it.

Woodsy idyll

The kind of thing you think you'd be geting away from out in the woods

Steadfast Plastic Articulated Man

One of Jasmine's favorite games is to find ways to get outside the fence. We repair the fence, then she finds (or creates) another place to get out. We fix the fence again, and so on.

She loves getting into the neighbors' garbage, which they conveniently leave lying all over the ground.

I figure that they are going with the old rural concept of a burn barrel, only without all the fuss of an actual barrel.

The neighbors' kids must have too many toys, because they leave a lot of them outside. If it rains, they get washed into the ditch and float down towards our place. Finders keepers, says Jasmine.

The man was already this far gone by the time I found him in the yard. It reminded me of the Hans Christian Andersen story about The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

I couldn't help but wonder if there had been a Weeble out there who loved him, who sang "Farewell, farewell, O warrior brave, Nobody can from Death thee save" as he was being washed away to sharp dog teeth.

A Visitation of Cows

The grass is always greener over the neighbor’s septic tank.




There are two places where we are separated from a neighbor’s land by water.

Several times a year it rains hard enough or long enough to make the creeks rise more than just a few feet, and the force of the water knocks the fences down.

Cows are a lot more observant than you might think.

More observant about fences than the neighbor's workmen, most times.

They view it as an invitation to visit us.




Jasmine the wonder homestead dog chases them back where they belong.

But they get spooked, and run fast enough to tear up the soggy ground. They also leave us smelly presents.

This month it happened often enough for me to start thinking about free BBQ.