Some pottery the kids and I found today at the farm. It's a great time to search the fields and firebreaks after these heavy rains. My very modest (and very possibly wrong) ID skills categorize the patterned piece as a Deptford Check Stamped, which would date to approximately 300 BC-600 AD. The small rim section I'm holding is also really neat. These came from a finger of high ground with creek drains on each side, and a high bluff above the main creek where we have a small field. We've found projectile points here dating back to the archaic period (up to 10,000 years old). Really cool to see blackened fire scars on some of the pottery, where I assume it lay among the wiregrass as fires burned through over the many centuries after it was discarded.

 

 

Close up of checking pattern



Pot rim

Daddy's girl

our young woodsman

who told me this week he wants to be a sea turtle biologist...

Sweetheart

Those tiny seeds of January are now promising seedlings of February.

homemade class valentines

A few minutes of thought to each recipient, and a picture they would like.

Homemade Bloody Mary mix makes the best.

Busy little garden gloves - I love finding these on the back step.

This is our 'pond garden' green patch gone to flower.
It will soon be the potato & bush bean patch.
Indigo spent time here today gathering & sharing mustard flowers.

Oh, sweet love of mine.

Happy 60th Mom

We traveled to Wildwood the first weekend in February to celebrate 

my Mom's 60th birthday (actually on 29Jan13).  

My sisters & I threw a party for her & had a great turn-out: lots of friends and family.  

Plus it snowed & the kids got to run wild in it!

Here are some random shots others took - I didn't even pick up a camera

I was too busy running around.  

Happy 6th Birthday Levi!

all our love

One day I will want to remember these words you told us when you

were just a little boy:

i have your heart in my heart

if i'm thinking of you & you're thinking of me

we're together

A guided tour in the hour before dinner

During a recent gray afternoon I suggest a change of scenery
(and activities)
in attempt to avoid the meltdown hour.

My companion agrees & brings her carrot along.

Our guide meets us
(with his gear in good order)
and agrees to show us around the place.

He suggests our first stop:
the down pine tree which always yields something interesting.

A quick dig under rotting bark produces a quartet of Tenebrionidae beetles

in a state similar to hibernation.

Indigo inspects the goods.

A dried grass of note.

Further down the hillside the pears are found
to be in bloom.

My guide temporarily abandons his duties (and gear) when he spies
a likely-looking climbing tree.

And promptly shimmies up it.

Next, some exploring below the pond.

A large find below the dam produces enough deer bones
to head back to the house for further inspection.
And we spy Daddy pulling in - time to eat.

Around the farm and at work

Papa and Indie at the farm.  She thinks he hung the moon.

 

Burning at work....finishing up at the end of the day.

 

At the farm

 

 I took the kids to a seed swap at a state park near Dothan, Al when Molly was out of town.  It also had a historical coastal plain homestead with animals, etc.  The kids are looking through the cracks at a calf.

New equipment for work.  We use it on the fireline, but will especially be using it to treat invasive species....especially Japanese climbing fern....throughout the lands we manage and are trying to restore.

 

Burning around some trees with new cavity inserts I put in this fall.  This is a longleaf stand that was too dense for RCWs but it was thinned this summer.  After the thin, when the basal area became suitable for woodpeckers, I put in a new recruitment cluster and had occupants within a few weeks.  Nice to see results from unsuitable habitat to woodpeckers and fire.