“Party on Mountain Two!” Deb said this morning, alerting me to activity in front of our trailcam near the summit. I launched the Stealth Cam app to find a pregnant doe aggressively defending the deer block from a couple of smaller whitetails.
Immediately apparent after Sunday’s tornado was the change in behavior of local wildlife. I can’t say if it was causation or mere correlation, but from birds to rabbits to deer, we’ve seen a lot more movement over the last four days.
I’ve even heard reports, anecdotal but firsthand, that the fishing is better on local lakes and the White.
As I was getting into the truck to leave for Yellville this morning, my presence flushed one whitetail from the lower level and another from The Amphitheater. Add to that two more does, sighted separately, on our road, then two on the subdivision road and one on the county road.
The first stop on my trip to town was the Marion County Transfer Station. We’d gone a record 28 days (inclusive) since our last visit, thanks to holding out recyclables (bottles and crushed aluminum cans). And we could’ve gone longer, too — the two bags I dropped off today were less than full.
Next was Miller Hardware for wasp spray. (Mud daubers, attracted by LP vapors, have infested the camper’s furnace exhaust.) I picked up a few packages at the post office. (Parked nearby was a pickup obviously equipped to draw water from Gray Spring.) I went to Harps for a few groceries.
With those errands done, I crossed the street to the bank where Deb works, handed over the flat of doughnuts I’d bought at Harps, and sat down with the branch manager to open an account. By the time we finished, Deb was ready for lunch.
Carolyn’s Razorback Ribs is right down the street. I had the Thursday special (a Southwest chicken wrap, delicious) with a side of slaw, and Deb ordered her regular cheeseburger and curly “sidewinder” fries.
On my way back to The Mountain I stopped at a yard sale on the county road, and once I got off pavement I spotted four more whitetails.
So that’s the chronology of my brief expedition. What made the trip to town memorable, however, were the conversations I had along the way.
The young man who unloaded my trash bags at the transfer station — he lives a hundred yards east of where the tornado lifted early Sunday morning. Jack at Miller Hardware, whose home suffered devastating damage, and Devin out in the yard, who emerged unscathed and caught a big mess of fish later that morning.
At Carolyn’s, Tad and his wife from Miller, and LouAnn and Paul from the pub. Two women minding the yard sale, one of whom has lived in that house for 54 years and knows every family affected by the storm.
I would’ve thought my sense of this place and its people would’ve settled long ago, but it hasn’t. Seems every encounter, every event, every new acquaintance reinforces what I know about this community. I get the distinct impression that I’ve only just begun to experience how tight, right and truly good it is.
I’ll keep telling you about that, of course, but you’d have to be here to understand.
In case you haven’t heard, Trump was convicted at trial today on 34 felony counts by a New York jury. He awaits sentencing.
Trump’s right about the charges, the trial, the DA, the judge and the ruling regime in DC that orchestrated this show. Clearly, it’s meant to send a message to you and me, and that message is intended to discourage us from voting on November 5th to re-elect Trump.
Fuck that. And fuck Joe Biden.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB