What a healthy friend!

Check this guy out! He has been hanging around for the past few days - showing up in the craziest places. It's a little eery, but we know what a good job he does for the farm. Black snakes are mostly harmless to humans. Still, though, we've been trying to keep the kids away from him - just for good measure! We figure him to be about 5 1/2 feet long. That's a lot of mice!

Blugrass On-Demand

I listen to a five-hour bluegrass music show every Sunday called D-28+5. I just found their website today. They offer lots of music to stream over the web and I think it is relatively high-quality sound. Check it out - they know bluegrass!

Nearby Places of Worship

These two churches are fairly close to us. I could not help but share them with the world, as they show some of the, well, unique characteristics of our county. By the way, I fired off a knee mail to the Old Gal this morning. I thanked Her for the fillup!

Beaver Dam - New Neighbors

We've got some new neighbors down the street. Beavers, which we had not seen in the area previously, have made a lodge on our creek. It showed up in the late fall and they appear to like our neighborhood.

This is the main beaver dam. The stream flows in from the right. There has been a lot of sediment buildup in just the few months they have lived at this spot and slowed flow through the area. Below is the secondary dam which showed up only in the last few months.

Between the primary and secondary dam, there is now prime fish habitat. We're hoping some big ones grow up this year (to feed our furry neighbors!). The secondary dam is interesting in that it apparently keeps the head of water flowing off of the first dam relatively modest. So, if beavers truly do not like the sound of flowing water (research has backed this up somewhat), then the purpose of the secondary dam is to keep their little pond of water upstream even quieter!

No one around the neighborhood has seen an actual beaver yet...

Deer in Winter

 

 

November salad

Thanks to our friends Erin and Dan, we have fresh salad greens this week. Erin and Dan (aka Lefty and Ancho of The Owingsville Outlook) gave out lettuce seeds at their wedding this summer. Ella planted them this fall and we covered the whole bed with tobacco cloth. Kale and spinach will be ready after Thanksgiving (if it's still alive!).

What a nice, fresh treat to beat off all of this cold we've been having!

Falling Water

This happens to be one of my favorite places right now. It's about a five minute walk from the house. I spend a lot of time these days listening to this water falling in a trickle. After a good rain, however, there is a nice splash, as was the case on the day I took this picture.


This is a nice place where two small streams converge on a wide, flat rock. The newly-formed stream flows down and out the holler and past the house.