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Exhausted tonight, the good kind. Spent the day on the mountain, taking photos of plants. I saw things I didn’t know happened in nature. Acres of medicines… Both Blue and Black Cohosh, Soloman’s Seal and dozens more. Even went to a couple secret spots full of ginseng, it hasn’t leafed out yet.

That was the problem all day, I was there too early. Spring is late this year, still cold on the mountain. First pic, I could see the spring line on the mountain side, below the forest floor was covered with green, above the line… nothing but brown. Didn’t see a single morel mushroom either, bummer. I was hoping to bring home a bag of it. I did see a couple dozen species I’ve never seen before like Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica), tastes like lemons.

The biggest disappointment was no Ramps! We were in a 4-wheel drive truck, when the truck couldn’t go further we walked just over a mile. A raging creek stopped us, we couldn’t get across to the ramps! This is the same creek further down mountain… Pics 2&3 Black Creek, Noccalula Falls.

Anyway, had a wonderful day, to tired to think tonight.

Spring line on the mountain..
Mountain   3a .JPG



Noccalula Falls... Black Creek, a raging torrent today after 4 inches of rain.

Noccalula Falls  9a .JPG
Noccalula Falls  9b .JPG
 
Just one plant I’ve never seen before today… Cynoglossum virginianum aka Blue Dog Tongue aka Wild Comfrey… Next, this was funny, I’m holding my coat wide trying to make a big shadow so my friend could take photo’s of a yellow swamp lily. Any day on the mountain is good!

Comfrey wild  1a .JPG
Cohosh 01  3a .JPG
 
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@hashbrown Yep, lots of May Apples. They haven't bloomed yet which means mine should be blooming right now. If my legs aren't jello tomorrow I believe I'll walk down and see.:)

Oh! and Ticks, ticks were everywhere. Probably got a dozen off me, before they bit, thankfully.

You are at least a couple of weeks ahead of us here, the woods are still pretty brown right now.
 
I got up early, walked the puppies, cleaned up their crap, fed them, fed kitties, got my friend over to trim up the block that the float lever is on to stop it from snagging. Hopefully it did the trick. I need to re-organize my tools again. Was too lazy to put stuff back in proper slots in toolbox.

My cat, Itsy, was ecstatic to see my friend. She walked up behind him, got on a dogfood bin, and headbutted him right in the balls. Then she kept cooing at him (the way a mother cat talks to kittens) to demand petting. The puppies came up to play with him when we were outside. Cow came over to see us but he's afraid of her so I stepped in between and petted her.

Took my friend to the dentist to get an estimate for teeth pulling. MUCH cheaper than the last place. Went to Panda to eat and then back to his house to hang out for a bit.

He told me that he hit his head really hard at work the other day and it dislodged the blood clot that was making him blind in his left eye. His vision is mostly restored but I'm worried about where that clot went. He has an appointment with a neurologist soon to find out.

I posted the puppies on Rescueme.org but thus far no hits. Thinking of getting them vaccinated to prevent parvo and to see if that improves chances of adoption.

Peanut, I hate ticks! I used to get them on me as a kid a lot bc I was always playing in the woods.
 
We all know that keeping our pets/animals on our property is the right thing to do but I understand until now the neighbors enjoyed their company. If he complains, he can do that, but obviously he is a problem. But, as far as the threats, you should contact the housing management and let them know he is making threats. You can explain the past situation and the opinions of all the other residents there, but let them know you will now keeps your chickens home. If it is government subsidized they would/should want to know if threats are being made. Let the others there know to complain if he is bothering them.
Good luck.
NO, CONTAIN YOUR ANIMALS! THEY ARE NOT EVERYONE ELSE'S PROBLEM!!
 
@hashbrown Yep, lots of May Apples. They haven't bloomed yet which means mine should be blooming right now. If my legs aren't jello tomorrow I believe I'll walk down and see.:)

Oh! and Ticks, ticks were everywhere. Probably got a dozen off me, before they bit, thankfully.
Stop it Peanut!!!! You just love creepin me out 😜
 
I can't really complain too much about people letting chickens loose since I haven't been able to contain my two cows since my fence/front gate got wrecked by the hurricane and I haven't been able to find anyone willing to come out and repair it (not something I could do myself with my lack of strength and skills). I had some hunters get mad that my cows destroyed their deer feeding stations (which are illegal and so is hunting in the wildlife management area). I really need to get it fixed bc from what I understand, it's illegal to let livestock roam out of your yard, even in my neck of the woods (used to be legal to let them roam when we first moved here).
I can understand both points of view on the chickens. If people have gardens, chickens will destroy them. My late elderly friend had a problem with the people across the street illegally having chickens in town and letting them run loose. The chickens would tear up his tomato plants. He would gripe about it to us, but he liked hearing the rooster crow in the morning and never wanted any harm to come to the chickens. He was mad at the owners. It didn't help that because he had the largest yard on the street & chickens were drawn to his garden that other people thought they were his chickens and called the city on him to complain. He had to tell them he didn't know who owned the chickens (he did know, but he didn't want to stir the pot).
So, I can understand the neighbor being upset about chickens running around but he shouldn't be making threats or harming the chickens. I think it would probably be best to fence them in and let the neighbors who like them come over. Could be like a mini petting zoo for kids.
 
Thanks, she is still alive. Our goats are such GOOD moms, especially when compared to the sheep. The mom of this one never walked more than 100 feet from this little one and would keep coming back to feed it. I watched for a while. I will give her another shot of vitamin B and Bo Se tomorrow, maybe she needs a little more. I gave her a slightly smaller dosage because she is so small but will try again.
If this was a sheep, the mom would headbutt it into the next county and be done with it....

Hope everyone in tornado zone stays safe!! We are getting the weather tomorrow

I've had a few that needed 2 doses.
 
NO, CONTAIN YOUR ANIMALS! THEY ARE NOT EVERYONE ELSE'S PROBLEM!!
I agree with this for the most part. Dogs, cats, most other type of critters. But she was explaining that all the neighbors prior to this new guy enjoyed the visit of the chickens. So, no problem there. New guy doesn't like them (or is just a jerk) so now it is time to keep them contained.
Around here most dogs that get out and wander the neighborhood are just curious, we had a problem with one a few years back that got into our run and lucky for him he stopped attacking our birds just before the shovel arrived to smack his knoggin. I was at work but came home early to put down and dress out the birds that were badly hurt but the sheriff took the dog since it had no tags and we could not locate an owner. The owner later contacted us to apologize. I said it was a lousy situation but no hard feelings. Although we did lose a 50 pound broad breasted turkey that we had planned on selling to another neighbor for Thanksgiving, that was a loss of close to $300.00 for an organic free range bird. Yup, some people will pay $6 a pound for free range birds.
The stray cats that wander into our run get relocated. Only once did a cat have a collar and tag and the owner contained the cat after that because I explained the next time it would be relocated far away.
But, we do have a few neighbors with various pets that are more than welcome to come visit. They are enjoyed and entertained a bit then sent back home. No problem.
 
Today is a day off so I am running errands early, followed by work on the solar array and in the garden. Got word to plan on visitors so I have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do indoors and out. Spring is always a very busy time if you have a garden and many of the chores just will not wait.... Well my alarm is going off, so I guess I'll turn it off and pretend to get up.....
 
Slow day today.

Hauling and unloading the wife's product at a local show.

Weather isn't cooperating for outside work.

Might take a morning nap or wait until this afternoon to take both naps together?

I got a post pulled on a different forum. A remote FaceBook friend posted she found her "soul mate" and can't wait to see what their future together brings. I did a screen capture of her post and posted the screen shot on the other forum. Someone commented what happen to the new "soul mate" current wife? Forum moderator pulled my post. Well maybe I got fooled by a fake FaceBook post? Nope. She still has her announcement on her FaceBook account. I've had pass dealings with the "Soul mate". Smells like fish...
 
Husband was up about 3, too, having leg cramps and yelling. I went back to sleep after that.
It must be a 3_:00 thing.
Urban never sleeps.

I sleep, just not very long. I am blessed, usually when I fall asleep I am dead to the world, but 4 hours later......

Well the errands are run, the groceries are put away, and the sun is up. I guess it's time to go outside and work.
 
@Peanut that is great you were able to go out to the mountains and woods with your friend. I want to try to get out in the woods too to find stuff. The mushroom group I follow says that the lower temperatures here are keeping the 'shrooms from coming up as early as usual. Global warming hah.
The global warmers are quieter lately! Of course they still try to pull it off as climate change!
 
Beena at work since noon yesterday. We'll, I've been getting paid since then. Haven't really done anything yet. Shouldn't be too much longer though. Luckily I've been able to catch a couple good naps in my cab. The ballast train woke me up when it went by a little while ago, and usually that's the last step before it's my turn.

It's be 7 or 8 years since I worked a shift like this one. If memory serves, I should have gone on double time and a half, 3 hours ago. Uncle Sam will be really happy with that..
 
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