2015 - January 9 - Down by the RiverSouthern edge of our property is a small, beautiful, and truly a
2015 - January 9 - Down by the RiverSouthern edge of our property is a small, beautiful, and truly ancient river. It starts in the nearby Pisgah National Forest and is part of the water system we rely upon for our well water. Recently we discovered that the national forest is very interested in opening itself up for logging again. I don’t understand. This area is still recovering from the last time it was logged! Our particular piece of land was logged fairly recently, in some places only 20 years ago. Word is that after loggers raped the South/Appalachia, they headed to the Pacific Northwest, and now that they’ve fucked everything up there, they’re coming back out here. I only heard about the local hearings too late to go, so I wrote my protest letter and hope for the best. It’s been very cold here, freezing pipes, limited hot water, no ability to do laundry, running heaters everywhere to keep the plants alive, fun stuff. Fortunately temps will soon resume their more normal range soon. Rumi is our smallest and most adventurous kitten. Fearless, really. He’s more than happy to accompany you down to the river that the other cats are too wary to approach. The leaves on the trees provide sound insulation, so the river is always the most dramatic in winter, as it crashes over rocks. Rumi doesn’t care! He’s Rumi! And he’ll climb every tree he sees!(Spartacus showed up after I was took these pictures, shot into the woods, started crying b/c he was freaked out / lost / couldn’t see me, and then came to me after we played another round of kitty Marco Polo. I love Spartacus dearly, but he’s pretty spastic)Plants: in the 2nd photo the tall grasses in the background behind Rumi are a horrible aggressive invasive thing from Asia called ‘Miscanthus grass’. It is crazy, dangerously flammable, which isn’t good out here in the woods. Someone in the Asheville area introduced it for ornamental use but it quickly escaped and now lines highways, outcompetes native plants, etc., and is generally a horrible thug. You have to dig deep into the ground to get it out. It spreads like crazy and we have it everywhere, from the north end of the property to the south.In the last photo, the reddish vining thing in front of Rumi is (I believe) an asian honeysuckle vine. We actually don’t have any native honeysuckle vine, something I do want to get, but first I’ve got to get rid of this aggressive invasive that will outcompete it in 2 seconds. I’ve been killing it since we arrived here, but there’s still so much left to deal with, ugh. -- source link
#crittercove#invasive species#logging