Digging in... and meeting an old friend

After having sat in front of the computer for most of the day yesterday, and after our evening meal (we eat very early) I felt like I had to get outside for a while, and so the cat and I meandered through the cedars and the pine trees in our back field.

There is no real path, and I had clippers in the tote bag just in case with the camera, and also the mobile phone. Seems sort of silly to me to be tethered like that with this electronic device, but he worries about me falling when I am out roaming around and wants to make sure I can all for help if I need.

So, I happened across two big old pine trees that had died, but not before dropping quite a few pine cones from which had sprung up a bunch of baby pine trees, and then I noticed this fellow.

Not sure if he or she had just found a place to spend the night or if this is the beginning of an excavation for a winter place to hibernate.


And then today the town had its annual fall festival and so we walked around and stopped at various vendors to look at their wares. I bought a beautiful.... well.... it will be part of the presents I am collecting for my niece who has just announced her engagement and a June wedding, so I guess I will not say what it was I bought.

One of the venue at the street fair were various contests involving cutting up wood -- forestry stuff. Willow Springs used to be the home of the National Forest Service District Ranger Office for the Mark Twain Forest, and I was the janitor that cleaned the offices. One of my favorite people who worked at this office was this guy.

It was impossible to dust his desk because he had the most amazing collection of animal skulls of all kinds all over the place. About all I could do was go in and wave my hand over it all. A few years ago, budget cuts axed my job. Then the Ranger's Office was shut down and moved someplace else, so I hadn't seen him in a long time.