Katy & Matt's wedding

Gopher broke!

Levi with one of the gopher tortoises from the farm.....a sign of good land management!  One of my favorite critters, and a keystone species.  They excavate underground burrows that are used by over 300 other kinds of animals and insects.  The gentle, long-lived tortoises have the life span of a human.

I stop for turtles

Joe at work today.  A male Eastern Box Turtle.

The Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) is one of two species of box turtles found in the United States. Box turtles are extremely long lived, slow to mature, and have relatively few offspring per year. These characteristics, along with a propensity to get hit by cars, make the box turtle a species particularly susceptible to human-induced problems.

Box Turtles are the most common terrestrial turtle in the eastern United States. They are small to medium sized turtles, attaining a maximum length of about 8 inches and having a highly domed carapace. A key characteristic of box turtles is their hinged plastron (bottom of the shell) that can be shut completely to exclude predators. Superficially, box turtles resemble tortoises but they are actually more closely related to many aquatic turtles and belong to the same family as spotted, bog, chicken, map, and painted turtles, as well as sliders, cooters, and diamondback terrapins. Box turtles in the United States are divided into two species, the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina), which ranges from Texas throughout the southeast and north to Michigan and southern Massachusetts, and the western box turtle (Terrapene ornata), which ranges west of the Mississippi to Colorado and New Mexico. 

Eastern box turtles are highly variable in shell shape, pattern, and coloration. Based on these differences, four subspecies of eastern box turtles have been designated. The most widespread subspecies is simply known as the eastern box turtle (T. carolina carolina). This turtle ranges along the entire east coast of the United States from Massachusetts to northern Florida, as far west as the Mississippi River, and north to the Great Lakes. Although this subspecies is highly variable in coloration, it is often more brightly colored than the other subspecies and almost always has four claws on the hind feet.

Levi's trip 'to-do'

Levi's written himself a 'to-do' list before our Colorado trip.  

He's very big on organizing his stuff before an outing (he's already packed his suitcase & backpack of books for this trip - NINE DAYS ahead of time).

"Hock the ring"

"Get crackers"

"Get fishing rods"

"Get tackle box"

He found a gold ring in the grass at the soccer fields & I told him he could pawn it for trip spending money.  Done.  He got 50 bucks.

He wants healthy snacks for the cars.

And his expressed focus once there appears to be trout fishing in mountain rivers.

Poking around in between rains

Levi and I have been doing a little walking around at the farm between rains.  Here are a few pieces we've found, and a bow I'm working on. The small corn field he is standing in is situated on a bluff over a creek with a small tributary immediately to the west.  Classic village site, and the pottery and points we've found put folks here from off and on from as far back as 8,000-6,000 BC to Historic Period/European contact.  Pretty cool stuff.

 

Levi with two points he found on his own, in between monsoons.

Sherd of Complicated Stamped pottery, in situ.

Atlatl projectile point

This is a broken blade Levi found, and is really neat.  After  checking with some folks, we think it is heat-treated Brier Creek chert, from Brier Creek (between Savannah and Augusta).  Chert was (and is) heat treated to change its structure and make it easier to work into tools and points.  In doing so, it often turns different colors.  No one knows of any of our local material doing this red and white coloration, while it is common with the Brier Creek.  Fascinating to think of how it made it may have made its way across the State. 

As it lay

A small hand blade (top), and two utilized flakes.  These were used as small knives or blades and discarded when done.  Quick to make, and very sharp when freshly broken.

Tillering the limbs and putting the finishing touches on a new self bow, made from a hickory I cut at the farm.

Cheese

random desktop pics

Ahhh, this is where we're headed -
Our favorite campspot on the Piedra.

Me & my Sweetheart

Fish wraps tonight.

2 weeks & counting...

...Until, Joe's sister Katy's wedding (July 13th, also my Dad's birthday).  Both Levi & Indigo are in the wedding so we'll be headed over a day early for the rehearsal.  

THEN, Monday July 15th we head west - Colorado.  We'll be back around August 2nd.  I'm getting excited & also getting into cleaning/packing mode.  Already thinking about highly efficient packing schemes and the spotless house I will be leaving.  Taking action on both fronts.

AND, in the meantime, Papa Bill will celebrate his 89th birthday next Friday.

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Her first fish

She hooked it all by herself, or rather in spite of herself.