As Brood X rapidly wanes to the north and east, this loner emerged on westernmost outskirts of Brood IV range way off schedule here this morning. A member of species Neotibicen superbus (Fitch, 1855) aka Superb Dog-Day Cicada, its brood isn't due to appear en masse again until 2032. If it's a male and doesn't fly too far from the tractor tire I'll get to hear it sing before it dies. If it's a female and she hears no singing males then she'll die without producing any offspri

Last night, lightning and lightning bugs combined output to produce an impressive show.

Finding a nice bit of fatwood in the forest is always a pleasure and this one is an especially fine one. It's so infused with resin it weights almost 50 lbs and will yield a full season's supply of high-quality kindling for getting fires started quickly on these very cold winter mornings. A few pieces of this tossed on still glowing coals from the night before allows me to ignore the stove to make breakfast, and by the time I sit down with coffee the fire is roaring away.

I found this terrapin shell on the south bank of the creek on my parent's property a few days after they bought rights to it. Walking along the dry creek bed looking for nothing and everything it was easy to find, gleaming bright yellow against dark brown in midday sunlight. An exquisite specimen in every respect, it has been inside out of weather since it was found. Considering its size, it's an appropriate symbol of the current pair of landowners' longevity. Both now on the

Looking out the window facing west this afternoon as a deep cold front rolled in, I was rewarded with a pleasant wildlife sighting. It's not the first one of these I've ever seen in life but it's the first time I've been able to watch one doing its thing undisturbed here at home. This bobcat has been prowling around the meadow throughout autumn hunting on an abundance of gophers there. Not the greatest photo or video (taken with phone camera) but it's nice to have finally cap

Shortly after purchasing rights to this property my father and I did on-the-ground orienteering using a compass to find all of the surveyed corners demarcating it. Heavily forested and steeply sloped, it wasn’t easy but we finally found all ten corner markers set by the surveyor in their expected locations based on the survey description and associated property plat which had been produced prior to purchase of the property rights package, filed at the county courthouse and th

About a decade ago a shrew moved into the house and started to work doing what shrews do best: finding and stashing food anywhere and everywhere I would not normally expect. I had seen the little powerhouse skittering here and there at all hours of the night while working on whatever and thought I was seeing a mouse. Then one night during a raging blizzard while sitting beside a roaring fire it appeared on the couch sitting right beside me happily gnawing away on a piece of d

After an excellent night hiking beneath a blue moon, dream-rich sleep came quickly and persisted well after sunrise. Giving way to an aging bladder's insistence, faint detection of motion outside from a quick, passing glance through upstairs bathroom window brought me back to it for a longer look. A few moments later they grazed into view at very relaxed pace. Always welcome here, I stayed quiet so the small herd of bucks could graze in deserved peaceful silence. Press of wil

Last night's blue moon made for nice nighttime hiking. Pleasant prelude for election night. Rising silvery white instead of the expected yellowy-orange tinge so favored by a soon-to-be ousted fraud of a leader, it thoroughly illuminated a favorite trail up to and along canyon rim. It's going to be fun watching the election unfold, especially if the orange-coated creep tries to cling to the ass-protecting office after his re-election bid fails. Laughs a plenty coming up!