BABY LLAMA MIRACLE - OZARK STYLE!

June 22, 2008 and a beautiful baby llama is born; a girl, and the Gods have smiled on me again. A sunny Sunday morning was her day by the edge of North Bridges Creek. She rose on feeble newborn legs, unsure and determined like a angelic, slender, dark fawn. Then she nursed from her mom (TRUDY) and all was well and nature had worked its magic once again as it always tends to do. The sky was blue and the warm southern breezes wafted. We decided to name her 'ABBEY'. She is a bronze, auburn, red-ish girl all about like her mother and she shows two white socks on her front hooves and legs. She has a white face as well and her look could not be more adorable.


Now, 16 days later or so she has grown and is racing across the feilds and stretches of the creeks on this farm called 'BLUE CAT FARM'. Missouri Moon is her website and her dad 'LITTLE BOY' and mom 'TRUDY' stand proud alongside her. I am so happy and thankful. A baby llama comes to the wonder of these Ozarks. The birds sing a salutation most days. She hums her tiny hum of a voice in answer to her mother. I stand by the wooden fence posts and smile. All is good. Life is good. And 'THIS' is really what it is all about! Indeed.
-RSC. July 8, 2008. 5pm. Elijah, Missouri.


'STOP THE WAR!'

BULLDOZING, LAWN MOWERS AND VOTE FOR HILLARY

The soil is torn and pushed and rolled. The roots of felled trees are ripped and driven away as the large 'Cat' dozer scraps the Missouri earth. I mow the lawn and the Cape Cod rosebud is blooming in the Ozark sunshine. Tomorrow is the Indiana primary. Hey, Democrates, VOTE FOR HILLARY! She is proven and can save this sorry state of affairs that America has become because of the Nazi leadership of Bush and and his White House mis-guided power. It is a short blog here but the day is warm and the work must be done. -RSC 2008

CARDINALS, LLAMAS, AND MISSOURI MOONLIGHT

I climb over the near metal gate of the front corral. The night is a balmy one and the moon is dressed in a hazy cloak. April has been a soggy one and the fields have grown fast and tall. One carries packets of mud beneath their boots between the treads while walking and it seems as if the ground will never become dry again. I have come to the barnyard very late in the evening. It is my fourth or fifth trip looking and calling for one of my cats. She is safe and well but searching for mice and toads beneath the vapor light of the barn loft and not responding to my request to hurry forward and return with me to the house. Earlier, I'd heard a coyote coming up the eastern end of North Bridges Creek a little too near for my liking. He (or she) had howled a half-dozen times or so coming along. It bothered me that my female long-haired cat was still outdoors. The llamas were on guard. The cattle were roaming and grazing out in the south pasture. All was as it should be, however, I still worried for the fact and the combination that my cat (Daisy) was out playing in the shadows of the barnyard while a springtime coyote or two hunted beneath the glow of the late April moonlight. The chances of her getting in trouble were slim but I'd decided to bring the large Coleman lantern-style flashlight and my shotgun along on this particular visit anyway.

Suddenly a large barred-owl lofted above me in the night sky and I heard the sound of the wings as I took notice of it moving across the open air until it had found its way to a network of branches across the corral from me. I stared into the blackness and saw the winged hunter perched and looking down at me. It was unafraid and it continued to stare down at me. I wished I had thought to bring my digital camera along in my pocket. Next I moved slowly and quietly until I stood nearly beneath the brown, wide-eyed fellow. I looked up and its head circled a bit back and forth and then out of nowhere it spread its wings and flew away off across the wide pasture towards the waters of the creek. It was a marvel! I next saw my cat in the barn chasing after a mouse or two and knew that all was well but I wondered at that moment if that owl had not decided to see if a twelve pound cat could not be had while she played in the dim light of the yard.

I returned to the house that night a little later with lantern and rifle. My cat (Daisy) remained in the barn that evening. The following morning I took notice of her fast asleep on one of the piled square bales of the barn's interior. I was happy for her safety as well as a little miffed at her refusal to come to my beckoning commands from the night before. I walked by her slumber and went about my chores, -feeding the goats, the steers and bringing in the llamas for their breakfast. As I stepped out into the front wood fencing of the corral I took notice of a male and female Cardinal bird. They were mates not doubt. This time I had brought along my camera and so pulled it from my pocket and took a couple of quick snaps. It was spring in the Ozarks of Missouri. The sky was blue and fresh. All about the birds sang and spoke their wonderful language. The leaves were growing on the elm and sycamore and cottonwood. The wind puffed in a balmy sunny fashion. My llamas looked at me as they ate their grain and alfalfa roughage. It was nice. It was very nice. Things are so much better in the light of the day. This was for certain. -RSC, Elijah, Missouri.

AFTER THE GREAT FLOODING OF SPRING 2008

Well there is more than enough to speak of in the aftermath of these mid-west rains and flooding. The deluge and the road 'wash-outs', the low-water bridges covered in muddy water, the incredible currents of the spring waters and creeks and rivers, the places along the network of gravel and black top roads impassible! All of the mid-west and other states adjoining, but I write specifically of south-central Missouri and the Ozarks. The North fork of the White River, the flooding of campgrounds and boat launches, the rolling churning streaming waters night and day of Bryant Creek and this nearby North Bridges Creek, to name only a select few. The barn filled with three feet of water, the grounds saturated so much with water it becomes nearly quick-sand and mucky mire, boots are sucked in, the livestock cannot find a place to find a dry bed and it goes on! But, now these last few days, ah, the sun and blue sky has returned and the land begins to return to a more normal condition. The pools and puddles are nearly gone, the grasses are green and the sun is glistening off all of the colors of these surroundings. The Ozarks smile again and the breezes return with a southerly warming. Late March lives and breathes like a lamb once again and all is well. The rains have been welcome but not at such a rate. Some areas have received nearly 10 inches of rain in a 36 hour period! Here in Ozark County we received about 8 inches of it in that same duration of time. Now, the goats and llamas settle in the grasses of sun and hay and dried ground. The creek has become its regular self again and Aprils awaits its turn to arrive. The daffodils are blooming and wild flowers are preparing their colorful presence. It is Springtime in the rolling Ozarks! The earth turns. The season arrives. Of birth and sun and flowers and warm southern air. Major league baseball begins soon. Canoe outings, float trips, fishing season, eagles in the blue sky above, deer at creek side stare, the moon is full on the 20th of March gleaming across the surface of Norfolk lake streams and creeks, laughter can be heard, pine trees shade one at the river's hillside, chipmunks scurry and the bobcat screams in the distance of a dark black forest. All is well again. The spinning gem of this life! And for now the great flooding of this spring of 2008 is passed. All is well. -RSC, Elijah, Missouri. /Saturday 1pm