June a month of Festivals

Mountain Laurel getting ready to bloom. 

Orange Salamander crossing road.

So June is the month for festivals; the Rattlesnake festival this coming weekend and the Mountain Laurel festival the weekend of the 25th. I took a 2 mile walk today up the mountain to the pipeline and noticed the Mountain Laurel will be opening soon and should be in full bloom for the festival. The temperature took a bit of a dive from the 80's to the 50's making the walk up hill a lot more enjoyable.

During the hike, the dogs and I saw one of the colorful, orange salamander's crossing the road. I saw several deer with fawns over the last couple days and turkey now that the hunting is done all the animals seem to know and show up a bit more.

I spent a few days at camp cutting willows down in the creek, which seem to grow as fast as I cut them. I also got to replace my water heater. A job thanks to its location in the basement which is made harder by the fact that I had to maneuver a 148 lb heater through a closet and down a trap door. The new ones have a plastic control valve that you have to make sure not to bang against anything or you will have a broken water heater. When it was all said and done I decided someone else will lift then next one down the hole in 10 to 14 years, cause if I try this in my 70's the water heater will probably be my headstone. 

Even with all the work, I dreaded coming back to Wellsboro tonight and returning to work tomorrow. The woods always calls my name. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Mountain Laurel time

Speck near some Mountain Laurel

Mountain Laurel Festival Wellsboro

The Mountain Laurel is a bit disappointing this year. It is seems slow to blossom and a lot scarcer than last year. I got Speck to pose a bit unwillingly next to some blossoms this morning which are just opening. Last year at this time everything was blooming a week earlier. I think the late cold weather combined with the on and off hot spells must have had some effect on the blooms.

I noticed the oak trees are being attacked by caterpillars and many half eaten leaves were littering my morning walk. The oak trees also took a hit with the late hard frost and now as they try to recover are being chewed up. I guess life for a plant isn't always easy.

Wellsboro had its annual Mountain Laurel Festival and it seemed to have a good turnout. People put their chairs out along the road for the parade up to 3 days ahead. I have to admit I have never seen the parade, but it must be popular to risk losing a lawn chair over. Lee and I tend to stay away from events that draw crowds and traffic. Guess living in the woods has lowered our resistance to noise and crowding.

We have had a lot of rain pushing Pine Creek up near 3 feet a few days ago and keeping it at a nice kayak and tubing level of 2.5 today. Once the creek drops below 2 feet you have to carry a canoe through some spots and lift your rear to keep from being bumped by rocks when tubing.  Low water gives a new meaning to having your "Hiney in the Piney". 

I have a couple requests from readers who come up: If you have seen "Snaggle Nose," this year let me know. If you have a current picture of him I will post it. Also our feral cat got neutered and shots this week. He doesn't stay with us for more than half the week and we are curious about where he goes. If you see him at your camp let us know. He has gotten quite friendly with us and is letting us pet him, hence why he got shots. I didn't want to risk him getting rabies or anything that would spread to us or our dogs. He didn't seem too upset about the operation and was coming up to us shortly after looking for food and attention. Since it takes about a month for his hormone levels to drop I am not expecting it to stop his wandering for a while. Hopefully, nothing will eat him now that we made a small investment in his health. I put links to pictures of both animals and the Pine Creek levels for your information. Enjoy your week where ever you are. We will continue our journey, lost in Leetonia. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Antlers,bear and Laurel Fest

A couple days ago Thor ran after a rabbit by our van. I didn't think much about it until he reappeared carrying a nice antler shed. There was four points on this side of the shed. The tips had been chewed up by mice a little and Thor had it in his mind to finish the chewing job for them. He seemed a bit disappointed when I retrieved his Pit Bull toothpick as a souvenir for me. I am sure he will find another one. He has quite a good nose.

W went to the Laurel Festival in Wellsboro yesterday. As I walked down the street a man stopped me saying he had been reading all the blogs with great fascination. He has a camp up on West Rim and I wish I could remember his name, but alas I have lost it. So you know who you are and it was great to meet you. It is nice to know that people appreciate this little connection to the back woods.
The Laurel Fest was a wet muddy affair, many people were there, but it didn't seem as many as in past years. I made one purchase to add to my Native American flute collection. I bought a higher pitched flute tuned to an A. Now Lee and I both have a flute and we are anxious to play them together on the mountain for the entertainment of the animals.
We returned around 8pm to the cabin and the dogs immediately found a bear close to the house. I should know better then to let them out the front this time of day. They chased it out onto the road; it didn't seem to be running away and was turned towards the dogs as they approached. I yelled at them to stop and come and thank goodness they listened. Perhaps it was the fact the bear was not running that slowed them. The bear was a good 300 lbs and was about 200 yds down the road from the house.
After I got the dogs inside I listened to my phone messages and was glad the dogs had come back. The next cabin up from me(Hookes) had left an urgent message for help with an injured bear. It appears the bear had most of its nose torn off and was near their feeder. I realized this might be the same bear the dogs just chased, since I couldn't see the details of its face from the distance and the amount of light it was standing in.
In talking to them more it sounds like a horrific injury, probably from fighting with another bear. They said the bear isn't moving very fast and just licked up the food with its nose hanging to the side. Brenda from the Hooke Cabin said she was horrified to see the bear get it nose caught on a branch as it moved around. She said the nasal cavity was exposed and it was still pink inside the gash. They contacted the game commission who told them they would try to tranquilize the animal and have it treated if possible. I am not sure how they will get here in time to do this as any call to them is a minimum of an hour or more to respond. This leaves us with a large hurt bear roaming around.
A injured bear is a dangerous bear and the dogs are now in lockdown until the situation can be resolved. If any of you see this bear call the game commission immediately. I will post further updates if there are any. I hate to see an injured animal suffer and it will be difficult not to want to shoot the bear if I see it has a fatal, suffering wound. However, I have been warned by Lee not to intervene so I am also stuck calling the Game Commission. Nature's way is often not pretty or easy and living here in the woods we see the hard tough things as well as the magnificent beautiful things. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off, and looking out for the bear.

Laurel festival and flora

I am embarrassed to see that it has been twelve days since I posted anything to my blog. Things have been busy and hot. The mountain laurel festival was last weekend and I went into town for the first time to see it. It is pretty much a craft, carnival, parade thing and I didn't see any mountain laurel. So I went to the top of our mountain and took some pictures for you.

The mountain laurel took a big hit from a late cold frost in the 20's during May, so it is very sparse. But as you can see from the first two pictures the plants that made it through to bloom are beautiful.

The Mountain Laurel is a fairly ugly plant when it isn't blooming and you would never guess it could get dressed up so well. There is one disturbing note. The bush that is blooming the best now and is much more noticeable than the Mountain Laurel is in my last
picture and it is Multiflora Rose.

This plant was introduced to us courtesy of the State back in the 60's. My grandfather was told to plant it as great game cover. It is
wonderful game cover, but it is very aggressive and dominates the native plants. It is difficult to control and has climbed my apple trees and literally pulled them down. It seems the more you cut multiflora the faster it grows. Attacking it with a weed whacker is like flinging a wet noodle at a tiger. It claws back! It leaves nasty slashes in any flesh it manages to snag.

The first year we moved up here my dog, Jack chased rabbits right into the multiflora. He would come out bleeding and covered in thorns. He must be a slow learner because it took him two years to learn to stop at the edge of the multiflora. Well he figured out no amount of pain got him a rabbit. Now he hunts by hiding and trying the sneak fast attack. He has been much more successful with this approach and the rabbits that stray too far from the multiflora haven do not fair well. Leo the bigger of the two dogs never went into the multiflora. He is not as determined to catch a rabbit and only makes half-hearted attempts. I think he just likes to see them run.

Speaking of Jack and the things he attacks. No, not another porcupine. I had a Red Squirrel get into my storage van where I keep my sunflower seeds for the birds. It ate right through my plastic containers( I now have metal ones) in a night. I opened the van door and there the little devil was staring me in the face. Jack leaped in knocking over everything determined to catch the pest. The squirrel bounced from one side of the van to another then headed out toward me it jumped to the ground, Jack in close pursuit and then ran up my leg. I remember thinking, "don't let either one of these critters bite me." Jack circled my leg a couple times and fortunately before he took a bite at the squirrel it jumped off and ran. Nothing like a squirrel being chased up your leg by a Pit Bull to kick start your day. After all of that the squirrel got away to chew another day.

Post Script: The bear with the broken leg has managed to heal on its own without the aid of human intervention. It will probably always walk with a limp. Sort of like I would have if the squirrel had tarried on my leg too long. That is all for now. I promise not to be so delinquent with new stories. Mountain girl, Paula , Logging Out!