DAY 14
04.18.07
TREE 15Today’s tree I would rate as easy. The tree wasn’t too big, I didn’t get that high, but the branches I had to choose from were pretty little. The location of the tree is right off Route 150 near the entrance of Mount St. Francis. Right next to the tree is the steep slope to the busy road. Yet, as visible as I probably was, I’m pretty sure no one saw me, ‘cause no one ever looks up, especially when driving 50 mph.
I followed the deer path along the side of the road, and crazily enough, it led me to deer. I believe it’s the same 4 that I followed before. But I chose not to stalk them today. As I exited the woods I saw a squirrel jump from a tree to a smaller one. All he could grab was the end of a little branch. His little back legs kicked and struggled for about a minute before he decided to drop 5 feet to the forest floor. Funny thing to witness.
4-18-08: First I have to ask – did everyone feel that earthquake this morning? It woke me up by shaking me in my bed. Then I got up to watch the local news. It is the first time I have ever felt that. Very strange.
As for the entry above, I refer to stalking the four deer as if I had mentioned them before. I believe it was just a few days prior to this entry date that I stumbled onto four deer just illin’. They didn’t hear me (’cause I’m stealthy like that) so I slowly walked towards them until I was about 20 feet from them. They finally saw me and ran and I followed right behind for over 2 hours all over the sanctuary. I’d lose them for a while but the ground was soft and I’d find their hoof prints and find them again. So this picture is not from that day, but the 18th when I stumbled upon them again and just took a picture. The squirrel thing was hilarious and the catepillar caccoon was just something I thought was cool.
Yesterday was unbelievably beautiful and I went to Cherokee Park to walk around a climb a tree. I parked at Big Rock and walked along the edge of the creek. I came upon this tree that started at the edge of the water and grew at an extreme angle towards this massive old sycamore. I thought about climbing up and connecting to the sycamore but it didn’t look too safe. But then I saw that another branch connected to a small hackberry. So I cat-crawled up, transferred into the hackberry, climbed up and transferred into some branches of the sycamore. It was really a great climb. I strapped the camera to my belt and filmed my descent. It is double speed and maybe it shouldn’t have been, but I hope it doesn’t make you sick.
3 Replies to “DAY 14”
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tree id
I noticed in your comments that you named trees by their species. Were you able to id trees before this or was it something you learned over the year? That’s pretty cool if you learned it over the year. Our nanny suggested you write a children’s book about the experience. She said something along the lines of you growing as a tree grows, but it sounded a lot like The Giving Tree. Anyway, just a thought.
When I saw the headline about the earthquake in the midwest, I wondered if you guys had felt that, but I figured you hadn’t when it said it was in Illinois. Crazy.
Re: tree id
I went most of the year completely unconcerned with identifying trees. Then I got the job with the tree service and it was required training. So I picked it up there and I am glad I did. I still can’t identify most trees but I can name the common ones in this region. Plus I collected a lot of leaves, and I think I could go back and identify the trees by those leaves.
As for the earthquake, mom slept right through it! Dad felt it but he said mom was completely unshaken from her deep slumber. My whole bed shook me back and forth, i do not understand how people slept through it.
A children’s book, ay? That could be fun.