Little Bluff cabin cam July 29 - more mushrooms are poppnig up throughout the forest. (Don't eat them unless you know exactly what you are eating...) HAPPY MONDAY!

MY new ARKANSAS 2025 SCENIIC WALL CALENDAR IS NOW AVAILABBLE! Mail order direct from our distributer here - 2025 ARKANSAS CALENDAR - or check with your local store where our guidebooks and pictures boks are sold (it may take them a while to stock them, BUT we know that BUBBA'S BUFFALO RIVER STORE on the square in Jasper already has a sthem!

Our Canvas Gallery WILL NOT BE OPIN again for a while - appointments may be available - Click here for more info and directions.

07/01/24 NOOOOOOOOO - don't eat my BASIL! It has taken me six weeks to find a living basil plant here in Colorado, and now that I finally found one (at City Mart in Alamosa - all the rest I've found this summer have been DEAD at the stores - weird), and it has been quite happy at this altitude and climate, but now one of the local deer was trying to eat it. Luckily my lovely bride stepped out of the camper to take this photo and swooshed the deer away (I don't think he liked it anyway - they've not touched it since). This is the ONLY plant I'm able to grow here, and I use it every day in my smoothie, and at least once a week when we make pizza in our little outdoor pizza oven.

JUNE KETCHUP, our new camper van. We’ve been planning, saving, wishing, hoping to be able to build a summer cabin on our Colorado property now for the past nine years (and for me, since I was a child), but after finally getting all of our ducks in a row, and within two weeks of breaking ground, the local neighborhood association here pulled the rug out from under us and literally behind closed doors in secret made up a new rule that resulted in us not being able to build our dream Colorado cabin. Our only way forward was through the court system, and we didn’t want to have anything to do with that so we simply rolled over and let them crush us. It was a difficult pill to swallow, along with our pride.

BUT we love this property so much that we decided to stay and not sell out, buy a camper, and get on with life. This turnaround - from beginning a life-long-dream project to getting stopped cold in our tracks - to finding a PERFECT camper for us took literally less than two weeks. And JUST LIKE THAT, our new camper van was delivered and set up and ready to live in. Neither of us ever imagined such a thing - we’ve been living out of our camper van (small motorhome - a sprinter) here for the past eight summers, and it’s been GREAT for so many things. But staying in one place for weeks or months at a time there’s just not enough room in our camper van (which we still LOVE and will keep for many more years). Bottom line is that the turds who forced us out will wash away with the summer storms and we will enjoy our new camper for many years to come.

Just a few details. Our camper is a “destination” camper, designed to be completely self-contained, yet mobile, and perfect for setting up in one location for the summer, then moved to a winter storage spot while waiting for the next summer. We bought ours from an RV store at the bottom of the hill at the edge of town - they delivered it, will come pick it up at the end of the summer, store it all winter, then bring it back to our property next summer. And repeat each year as needed. It's a perfect summer home for us!

WILDLIFE REPORT. We continue to have many deer hanging around that we love to watch (as long as they keep away from my basil plant!). But here are a few extra things we’ve seen here. I saw a small WEASEL dragging a chipmunk almost twice its size across the road one day - weasels are strong and mighty fighters.

The pups got a little too close to some baby robins while we were out hiking - the momma robin literally dive-bombed the pups and chased us for a couple hundred yards before she let us go!

We sat and watched an adult marmot checking out the ever-growing prairie dog town holes in our meadow. And then at the far end of the meadow a prairie dog appeared, RACED all the way across the meadow and jumped right on top of that marmot, then chased the marmot all the way back across the meadow up into the big granite rock mountain. We are NOT fond of prairie dogs here - there are hundreds and hundreds of them now on the ranch - last year cost the rancher a prized bull that stepped in one of the dens and broke its leg.

Same meadow, different day, my bride and I sat and watched a large and BEAUTIFUL coyote slowly cross the meadow seemingly minding his own business until several red-winged blackbirds appeared and started dive-bombing him - he obviously was getting too close to a nest. The coyote just kept on walking, taking multiple hits to his head and rump. Then suddenly he dove for cover into a very large rose bush. (I got all of this on video but don’t know how to post it for you to see it.) He emerged several minutes later and then ran off into the woods.

And just yesterday, Pam was completing a loop hike with the pups when they came to a giant momma marmot alongside the road (a normal marmot hangout). The momma stood up and chirped (they call them “whistle pigs” here but it’s really more of a loud CHIRP), and just like magic an entire herd of baby marmots appeared and lined up on the same rock as momma. Another chirp and all of them STOOD UP, in a row, like standing at attention! Would have made a great photo op!

And finally, this was reported by a neighbor not too far away from us (and where I take nighttime photos), of what her husband found a couple of mornings ago (they live in the same area of the ranch were three previous cougar sightings have happened this past month).

“Good morning Willow Park Ranch! Just wanted to give everyone a heads up about at least one active mountain lion here. Mark headed out this morning about 6:30 and saw this fresh activity on Willow Park Drive. This kill is a young buck. Mark had forgotten something and came back to the house...when he went back the mountain lion was there! Mountain lions typically kill and then drag their kill and bury it in a cache and return to it. DO NOT APPROACH THEIR CACHE! This is right off the road. We actually found a recent kill on our property of a young elk. My point being...we do live on their turf but we still can be cautious.”

07/17/24 it's ASTER season at camp! These little wildflowers are prolific and wiill bloom on into early October. We had three hail storms here yesterday - 47 degrees this morning - another rainy week in the mountains = even MORE wildflowers.

07/18/24 Here's a snapshot from a hike I took yesterday along the Contential Divide Trail from Wolf Creek Pass on up to Albert Peak. LOTS of wildflowers along the way but this was the only batch of colubines I saw. Clear and cool in camp this morning, rain coming this afternoon - a typical July day in the mountains.

TWO updates:

WE FINISHED THE 2025 ARKANSAS SCENIC WALL CALENDAR!!! (this was due to be done in MAY - I'm only two months behind - it's being printed in Montana). I'll post the details here once they are available - probably in about two weeks.

AND I FOUND MY HAT! (lost in May)

07/19/24 As I was down on my knees trying to get some photos of this flock of mountain lupiines near our camp yesterday evening, I got photo-bomed by a rainbow. AND this morning, when we went into town to find some goodies at the local Farmer's Market (produce day) - which was CLOSED - we ended up on a journey to find fresh bread and ended up at the Worth The Drive Amish bakery in Monte Vista - and OH GOODNESS it WAS worth the drive! Here's just a sample of the breads we brought back to camp (they have FREE donuts on Friday - BEST I've ever had!). We have homemeade Amish shrimp alfredo heating up in the oven for lunch... (cheaper than a cheeseburger at the malt shop)

AMISH BAKERY UPDATE a couple days later - I GAINED three pounds, yikes!

07/21/24 One last hike around this evening as light rain fell and the sky lit up with beautifuul light. We are headed home to Arkansas tomorrow morning - it's been a GRAND visit to the high country this month - we'll be back for more next month.

07/2424 After a long trip across New Mexico and the dust bowl we arrived back home yesterday evening - it was rainy and COOL! And this morning we awoke to thick fog surrounding - GREAT TO BE HOME!

 

07/25/24 Clear and cool this morning with a sea of clouds down there above the Little Buffalo River. For those who saw the announcement about the once-famous Diamuund Cave reopening (longest cave in Arkansas) - the entrance to this amazing cave system is just below our property - where the red dot is. In fact the county road we live on is called the Diamond Cave Road on many maps.

07/26/24 While crawling around this morning testing* an old (from the 1970's) macro lens, I accidently knocked over this mushroom. Some of us look much better and are more interesting when we are upside down! *I really need (i.e. want) a macro lens, and the only modern macro lens that will fit my camera costs $3,000! So I'm going to use this old one instead - it seems to work pretty well - you may be seeing more macro photos from me this year...