TheBanyanTree: night visitors

[Bill]

Several Years ago we lived in a huge log house near a woods in southwest 
Little Rock. We had all kinds of birds and three colors of Squirrels. We had 
the gray, the red and a few black. We had a huge Pinoak tree in the front 
yard with the driveway making a circle around it. Sometimes we would have 
thirty or more squirrels feeding in it but none actually lived there. They 
all had their home in the woods. Once, while our son was being caretaker and 
we were off working for J C Penney Construction, a family of skunks found a 
hole in the rock foundation and made a home under the house. Steve went 
through a lot of trouble before he finally got rid of them. It was a joy to 
watch all the wildlife!

Still His Servant
Bro  Bill
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie Anna Teague" <jateague at indiana.edu>
To: "banyantree" <thebanyantree at remsset.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 9:28 AM
Subject: TheBanyanTree: night visitors


> As I lay awake in bed very early this morning, maybe 4am, with the
> windows open to the wonderfully cool sixty degree night, I heard a
> barred owl making it's screeching call.  Folklore claims he says, "I
> cook for me, who cooks for ya'll?"  I am thrilled by the sound echoing
> through the foggy dark.  I held by breath, straining to hear him a half 
> dozen more times before he was gone.
>
> My house sits on the edge of a woods and on the edge of what once was a 
> serene field of grasses which went green, gold, and brown with the 
> seasons.  Families of deer nibbled there.  Quail lived in the grasses and 
> we'd seen a red fox make his way through.  Now it is parceled off, with 
> sewer hook-ups at half mast here and there.  It is half full of 
> monstrously large houses, with their outdoor lighting and their contracts 
> with Chem-lawn for perfect fairway green lawns.  Sad but inevitable, I 
> suppose.  Yes, yes, I know.  Hypocritically, my own home sits on a corner 
> of that same woods and field.  At least it is small and compact, carving 
> out just enough space for the three of us and a garden with no chemicals. 
> We have left dead trees and thickets and brushpiles for wildlife.  We try 
> to give them space, try to leave smaller footprints as we tromp over the 
> earth.  It gives me some consolation.
>
> We still have animals around, mostly the vastly over-populated ones--deer 
> who take whatever they want from the garden, and raccoons who come up on 
> the porch looking for catfood or to see if we have any more chickens to 
> kill.  A mother deer left her newborn baby with us for one day, safely 
> tucked in amongst some old logs and tall grass in the yard.  Many 
> songbirds sing me awake in the morning from the pines and shrubs and the 
> wild olive thicket.  Bats circle around when I sit on the porch in the 
> evenings, and sometimes I hear the trill of a Red-Wing Blackbird.  Hawks 
> and wild geese visit occasionally.  But it is a surprise and a joy to hear 
> an owl calling through the night.  It is chilling and wonderful to hear a 
> coyote's piercing howl from the edges of the woods. I like to think that 
> these creatures are still comfortable enough to come around some.
>
> Julie
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>