August 13, 2010 It is Getting To Look Like Fall Allready

August 13, 2010

Dick Standing In The Colts Foot

Down By The Creek 

Remember in the Spring blog the Colts foot was only a foot tall?  I asked Dick to go down into the middle of it to show how high it got.  The bridge is in front of picture which goes over the creek. That creek is still running fast and strong.  So much rain this summer has brought it up and over its banks a few times.  The woods and creek area is down on the lower part of hill so it is no threat.  We just avoid it during the wet season which seems to have run all summer.  The mosquitoes all but carry you away this year.  The stores are all out of Off  Deep Woods spray so finely ordered it over the Internet.  hopefully it comes soon!  Meanwhile we will use Avon Skin So Soft which keeps the bugs somewhat at bay, but it has to be replenished often.  The Horses have to be sprayed often too.  We put them in at 7:00 p.m. because they are invaded by mosquitoes if left out any longer.  I have been using Bronco fly spray for them.  It has some chemicals in it but is not quite so strong.  I hate anything that is not natural but nothing I tried worked on the invasion of all these bugs this year.
We had a very unusual invasion of Dragonflies a couple nights ago.  thousands of them were dive bombing, zipping up and down like helicopters, and filling the evening dusk sky.  It took my breath away because I have been overtaken by mosquitoes lately.  The Reporter had an article about it and said they were migrating through our area.  What a blessing that was.   I have not been in my gardens all week because of the intense heat and humidity.  With this ashma I am always fighting, I cannot breath if it gets around 83 degrees.   I am ready for winter!

When walking down to the creek to take pictures I discovered our 200 year old Indian Marker Tree had a huge branch missing and it layed across the land with leaves limp and dying.  The  main tree is still up but the part that fell was what the Indians had bent to mark where water was.  The picture shows kids sitting on it going straight out and then up, pointing towards creek and also Millet Lake a few miles away.  It is a Red Oak.  We had a forester come and give us some information on what to do with our woods and creek area and he told us about the tree.  He also told us to keep the area under it open so that it would propagate because it evidently had excellent genes to have lived this long. The other pictures shows Jon's dad climbing the branch that circles the marker and both are held down by smaller branches the Indians planted right into the ground to hold the larger ones in place.  You can see how huge these branches were.  Wide as a tree themselves!  The pictures are dark because if was a cloudy day.

August 2010 Old Oak tree broken no longer able to hold my grandchildren, no longer able to be a Indian Marker showing where the water is.  Huge hole is left below branch that use to circle it to the right.  The pictures below show the gaping hole and also the black rot inside that came out with the branch.  Oaks will rot through the center, looking healthy until a branch falls off showing that the whole inside is dead except for a living area on the edge of the branch.  

I feel like I lost a beautiful treasure.   

You can see the black part is the branch that the kids use to sit on
the whole shows on the edge of the huge oak.

   

One picture above shows the black rotten part to the left that came out of the huge hole above.

This all brings back memories of when we lived on lake Winnebago.  We had a huge storm and it ripped out another ancient tree a Cottonwood.  Pictures below show the roots house high and it stretched down the beech to cover two lots but not breaking one window.  It split two trees as it fell.  I am including a poem I wrote the morning after

 

Below is our house on the lake that  we use to live in

before we found this land out here in the country.
Notice the roots of the tree are as high as the roof.

As with all things in life we have to accept nature as it happens.  We have no control over our world around us. Trees are so important to our world of the living.  We breath the oxygen they make with their leaves, we sit in their shade and catch our breath, the history they have witnessed will forever be held secret like the Nevada add that pops up on our tv's "What happens here will forever stay here". 

 It will take days to cut up the branches and clean up the mess of our big Indian Marker Tree . 

The woods will be a lot brighter and there will be surprises to behold because wild flowers will pop up with all the added sunshine that will greet us next spring. 

We will have to quietly turn the page of today which will bring us into tomorrow.  A new day for new things.  Just like we did back in 1983 after the cottonwood tree went down. 

This is an embroidered picture I have on an old Singer sewing Machine base

which my husband put a wood top on.  My eyes catch the verse each time I turn to the right to go down stairs.

Now On The Bright Side...........

Worth waiting all summer for it's grand display

The Hibiscus are in bloom!  Gorgeous flowers! 

Size of a dessert plate.  Pink Ornamental lily on right.

Not to be outshined the balloon flower shouts "Look at Me!"
Grandkids love popping the buds with a BANG!

There are more pictures of flowers blooming to the left of this blog.....

May the rest of the season of summer be good to you!

Kate