July 4, 2008
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God bless America!
Happy Fourth of July, friends....
*************What are my American friends doing to celebrate the Fourth today?
Doyle and his mom have gone to Little Rock (about two and a half hours from here) to pick up his granddaughter, Morgan, 12, who will spend the weekend with us. She lives all the way in south Florida, so this is a special treat for all of us.
We're hoping the rain that poured down this morning will go away so we can all go to Harrison's really spectacular fireworks on the lake in the middle of town tonight.
And meanwhile, we'll make some spaghetti and brownies for an easy supper, and hopefully Morgan will enjoy the saxophone her granddaddy found for her birthday present! She played sax in her junior high band this year - LOVED it and did very well - and doesn't have one of her own, so we're hoping this will really make her happy.
I'm feeling just a little bit sad because all four of my siblings are together in Sarasota this weekend...Holly and Marie live there, and Cissy flew in from Alexandria, Va., for 10 days with them (Cissy is a school librarian, so has a break), and our brother Jay, who moved to Chicago after Mama died, is also there for the weekend.
I'm saving my vacation for our trip to Boulder the first week in August to see my older son, Alex, whom I haven't seen in just over a year now. I'm getting very excited about our trip. We're going to drive our little Prius, and stay near Boulder and do daytrips out from there. Alex, who's a grill chef at the Mediterranean Cafe' in Boulder, is hoping to get some days off so he can spend some time with us.
By the way, I mentioned in my newspaper column this week about seeing the unusual tracks last weekend near the Buffalo River, and we printed the same photo I posted on my last blog. I asked for readers' opinions about whether or not there are mountain lions in these hills - (the official stance of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is "there is no evidence that there is a breeding population of mountain lions in Arkansas.") I've been flooded with emails and phone calls from people who assure me there ARE mountain lions in these hills. They've given eyewitness reports.
One man, a retired game warden of 40 years, said he had seen mountain lions three different times with his own eyes. He also said the tracks in my photo WERE mountain lion tracks!
Are there mountain lions (panthers, puma, catamounts are other names they go by) in your part of the world?
Comments (5)
Game officials also say that there are no panthers east of the Mississippi outside of Florida, but we have them here in Noxubee County, Mississippi. I first heard one when I was 15, at night, in the Noxubee River bottom. The only time I've seen one was when I was 19 or 20 close to a slough that feeds into the River. Richard Barge has seen them (he even saw a mother with kittens once) on his property out in the Mashulaville area. Lots of people have seen them here.
Recently, a Mennonite farmer lost a Shetland pony. When they found it, it had been killed and partially eaten. It would take something reasonably big to kill and drag a Shetland pony.
On your first subject: we spent the day at the Lake in Brooksville at the Bells Cabin with Mike and Edie, Mike Banks, Ray and Pooh, Charlotte (who had slipped in from B'ham), and of course, Taco and Betty. And lots of kids (even though we don't have any little kids anymore). We had a great peaceful fun day with friends.
You've touched on one of my pet subjects, the great debate about whether mountain lions live in the Ozarks. We do have them here. I have not seen one with my own eyes, but I heard one, two nights in a row, in October when we were sleeping with the windows open. Each night, after the "scream", which sounds so frightening, an owl immediately hooted! It was eerie and almost like a dream, except that STan and I were both awake and heard it distinctly and knew immediately what it was. Our neighbors have all seen lions in the last 3-4 years. My dad saw a black one when I was a kid, and my grandmother saw a light brown one not many years ago. One neighbor and his wife drove up into our pasture last summer, on one of the more remote and rugged parts of the ranch, and watched one eating on the remains of a dead cow. They sat in their truck for 15 minutes watching it. Others have caught glimpses and others have seen them close up. And many have seen their tracks. When you described your track as being 4 inches across, I thought it must have been a "painter," as the old-timers here called them (a corrupted form of panther.) Bobcats' prints would be smaller. We do see bobcats regularly, and this spring Stan saw a mama with kittens....said they were playful like tame kittens. I keep collecting peoples' cat stories in our area, hoping to prove the conservation people wrong!
Hope your visit with Morgan is lots of fun! I still have the alto sax I played from 5th grade through high school and wished one of my kids had wanted to play. That's such a cute picture of her playing! Brings back so many good memories for me. I loved band.
And hope your fireworks display was spectacular! We went to a neighborhood pig roast and then had a small fireworks display. Lucy and Wyatt "ran wild" and were so tired...as was I!!!!!!
Morgan looks having pleasure to play saxophone alto . She is tall , she is only 12 ! When I was 12 I was also playing saxo but as I played well the director of the band told me "you will play ....flute !!!
" because at this old times flutists were not frequent .( in 1946 after the war in France ). 
I understand you feel a bit sad to know your siblings away .
About the tracks . I watched at it before reading what you wrote above . I thought it was a feline track .
Love
Michel
Two more things about panthers here in Noxubee County. Some people have see black ones. The one I saw years ago was tan and reminded me of the same general color as a deer. Also, when you hear one scream (as mentioned above), it sounds like a cross between a woman screaming and a baby crying. If you ever hear one, you just know - it couldn't really be anything else.
Connecting with family is wonderful. Thanks for sharing. My older daughter also plays alto sax.