Hestia Homeschool for Young Wild Women

We went down to our River Camp, Big Toe, on Shelby's second birthday. Shelby is NOT a party animal at this stage of her life. She really brightens up and loves well known company, like The Perfect Uncle Dave or Rachael, but she is easily overwhelmed by having many adults in the house. Interestingly enough, she does not mind a lot of kids.                                              

I am falling more in love with Big Toe with every visit. Last night I was looking up more information about the Licking River and found that the Nature Conservancy has bought acreage just a few miles from our property in Fleming County.  There is an endangered species of goldenrod (the flower shown above) that is only found in Fleming County, Kentucky. I am eager to see if it blooms on our property.  Last time we were there we found the broken empty shell of Phil Mcrackin, our friend the Carolina Box turtle. He apparently did not survive the terrible injuries to his shell. Tabitha was quite disconsolate for much of our visit. Phil had been a bright spot in our visits down there, often being treated to a ride all over the land or something to eat. Our prior visit he had gorged himself on raw potatoes. Poor thing.  Shelby sat sadly by his broken shell, saying softly, "Hurt, turkey, hurt." (She calls turtles "turkeys."  She calls turkeys DooDoo, her word for bird.) The beautiful fields of white flowers were gone, as were the columbines, but the wild roses were blooming in amazing tumbled masses all over the hillside.  It is quite interesting to watch the succession of bloom. Ox eye daisies were also blooming and the fleabane was still blooming. We keep a running notebook of all the things we observe on the land--ever the homeschoolers.  The highlight was when I walked down the road to visit the neighbor's outhouse that she so generously offered to let use, a heavy "whup, whuff,whupp" of big wings flapped away, and I saw the jaunty head of a piliated woodpecker. It's presence on the hill was a good indication of the health of the forest.  I've not seen one in years.   From what I've read about them, they do not migrate or leave their homes unless their habitat is destroyed. They need old growth woods with lots of standing dead wood. We have that. We'll not be cutting down any dead trees except for the ones that get  by the road.

We also heard a gruff yowling, deeper than a housecat, that could only have been a wildcat. I do not think there are any cougars this far north.  Shelby was entranced, kept signing, "Listen!" 

http://www.passporttotexas.com/birds/apr00.html this is a nice site about woodpeckers... although they are focusing on Texas woodpeckers, the specie are about the same.

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