Warm Rain

Intermittent rain had us packed up on the porch much of the afternoon. Athena had a fine time playing "fill-em-up, plastic cup" games, with the gutter downspout trickle.

Note to self: Clean the gutters.

Bee Sting

Athena got her first bee sting yesterday. It was a wasp. She was so alarmed, brought her arm to me crying and pointing with her other arm, and I had to shew the wee beast away. She got over the pain pretty quickly. So far, no sign of allergic reaction.

I saw a hummingbird yesterday. Deep, sheeny blue. I had only heard them, days previous.

The wild strawberries are fruiting.

Athena is picking clover and buttercups.

Fur

I washed the cat blanket the other day. Before tossing it in the machine, I first picked the major tufts of fur off, outside the back door. Later, a wren (I think) stopped by to pick up some tufts. Funny, to think of feathering your nest with the fur of your arch enemy.

Turtle in the Road

I am so happy to be back home. The weather the weeks since we've been back has been so beautiful. The whole place just seems absolutely idyllic.

I took Athena for a "num-num walk" this evening. I fed her grapes, as we walked along the gravel road. There was gentle, late-day sunlight in the long grass tops and a background chorus of birdsong. No human sounds at all, not even any neighbor mowing grass. Just perfect. Athena stopped to kiss or smell (I'm not sure) various wildflowers and toss gravel in the puddles we passed. Our tabby cat, Ekati, followed along, weaving in and out of the brush along the road.

On the way back, we saw a large turtle, whose shell was covered with algae, in the road. Athena made to run at it, but I told her to "make room," and she listened and held up. In an act of unusual bravery, Ekati approached it, cautiously, head-on, to about two feet away, then sniffed. The turtle was bigger than she. After a short time, I told her, "OK, let's go," and she backed slowly away and then gave the turtle a wide berth.

Odie and the Neighbor Dogs

Yesterday evening, during our after-dinner walk, Athena met half our neighbors' dogs, for the first time as a toddler. Marley the golden retriever, Mo the chocolate lab, a small dark pitbull, Odie the basset hound, a small gray terrier. They all came racing down toward us as we started past the yard. Marley is a sweet, submissive dog, and Odie was especially adorable with Athena. He sat himself down in front of her to greet her, wagging his tail and pointing his nose gently toward her face. Not rough and fast, like the rest.

Though we told them to "Go home!" several of the dogs followed us all on our walk and all the way home to our house. Our cat spent half the night up a tree, because Odie laid himself across our front doorway, and wouldn't budge, even after we'd gone to bed.

Little Shoes

So, baby shoes are not cheap, apparently. Was I silly to think they might be a fraction of adult shoe prices? But no, still starting at about $40 for any decent, sturdy shoe.

 ... Well, maybe decent, durable adult shoes start at around $80 these days. Maybe I'm caught back in 1997 pricing.

They Gotta Be Edjucated

If they not edjucated, then I don' wanna talk to 'em. Cause then I gotta listen to all that, uh, that gangsta stuff.

—Man on cell phone, wearing track suit and gold chain, descending from shiny twin cab pick-up truck, at the end of the day, in Italian section of Astoria, New York

'intavention'

Another of my honey's words, when insisting it was just my 'invention' that brunch was my 'invitation'.

Honey Vocabulary

I regret not having recorded all my honey's wonderful word conflations, these nigh six years past.

Today's word: fruffles
Context: "Athenula says, 'But my overalls have fruffles, Mama.'"
Etymology: possible combination of frills + ruffles

Strangers are so nice to each other sometimes.

"You f---in' jackass bitch! Get off the phone!"

- Driver crossing Ditmars Boulevard, to pedestrian walking along it

Poison!

We were strolling back up the block early in the morning, baby Athenula in my front-pack and my brown-bag, deli breakfast swinging in hand. We passed Saint Markella's Greek Orthodox Church, and, just after, a priest greeted us from across the street, "How are you!"

"Good morning! I'm well, thank you! How are you?"

"Good, good--" He stepped quickly across the street, black robes a-sashay.

I turned so he could get a good view of the baby.

But he passed Athenula over quickly. Instead, he turned me with his one hand at my shoulder and pointed with his other hand toward the sky. "Poison!"

He looked at me carefully, with his full beard of tight, gray curls. "Today is not a good day for a walk."

I looked where he was pointing.

He continued, "Those are NOT God's clouds. God's clouds are round and fluffy." He shaped round and fluffy clouds in the air with his hands.

I looked back at the sky. The clouds were long and wispy ('cirriform', it seems). "Oh," I said, processing. The corners of my mouth snuck up in a smile. "Always?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied, in earnest.

Then he abruptly made the sign of the cross over us. "God bless you."

"God bless you," I replied.

And he was gone.

Glen Alton 6/29/2013

Glen Alton 6/29/2013, a set on Flickr.

Our Ghoulish Babycare

These are phrases commonly heard around our house since Athena was born.

Let's put her to sleep.

I put her down. (For a nap)

Did you gas her? (Burp her, so she doesn't get gas)

Give her the chair. (Her bouncy papasan chair)

It's amazing that Athena is still alive.

Summer Noms

I think it could be pretty hard to starve around here, as your neighbors feed you up from their gardens. Special thanks to V+DP and C+GF for recent bounties!

House Arrest

Cat trotting through the house,
trailing dust bunnies from her whiskers

Ekati has been under house arrest the last two days, after we narrowly saved a chirping sparrow nest from her plunder. Petros has gone to buy sheet metal to make a baffle. You fix a few feet of sheet metal around the tree trunk, and Ekati supposedly should not be able to scale it.

... Like and old man fording a breeze

Bunny in the Road

It might have been our first fun family outing. A quick drive after dinner, through the valley, past the bison, to the general and only store, for ice cream. Athena started crying right from the start. But at the store, on her back on her changing pad on the lawn, she cooed adorably, the fluffy clouds reflecting in her glossy dark eyes.

But then, on the twelve-mile drive home, came the day I'd been dreading since I started driving again after leaving the city in my late twenties.  A tiny bunny hopped into the road.  I swerved, I slowed.  But the tiny bunny was unpredictable.  And, at some speed still: Clunkety!

I drew to a stop and looked, with dread, in the rear view mirror.  Some thirty feet back, a big fluff flailing in the road.  I rued all the days I wondered what to keep in the car - an air gun? a Rambo knife? - for just this situation.  I whined my regret to my honey in the back seat with Athena.  Then braced myself and got out of the car to assess the spilling guts.

It was flailing wildly, half on its back, trying with one back leg to push itself off the road.  But there were no spilling guts.  Back and forth, I went to the car, twice, maybe three times, consternating.  The first bird landed by the bunny.  And I determined at least to help it die in peace.

I took the laundry basket from the trunk, which we use these days to corral groceries, and a couple big, black plastic bags, left from our last drop-off of recyclables.  I shooed the bird away and scooped the now docile, limp bunny into the basket with the bags, turning the bags round into bedding as I did so.  On the front seat, home by twilight, and into the secure red shed for peace into the long night.

Late the next morning, I steeled myself with a Milky Way candy bar, before walking out to fetch the bunny for burial.  I opened one door, then the other, and there was the sweet, sweet bunny, sitting up and alert in the box I'd arranged.  It had pooped on the clean rags.  Peed, or spilled the water.  And eaten all the shredded carrots.

A little later, we took a walk down to the culvert.  Petros frontpacking Athena.  And me carrying the bunny in the box.  We stopped alongside the mowed path and tipped the box slowly away from us, into the long grass.  Over the top edge, we saw the bunny muzzle twitching.  And not long later, it hopped out, with a measured urgency, into the long grass, then the brush, and away.  It hopped always with both back legs at once.  But I think all its legs were working.

Love Beneath the Silver Maple

"Oh shit!" I heard, through the open window, a hushed whisper from my baby-toting honey outside.  And here they were, beneath the silver maple at the corner of the house.

Two black racer snakes, I'm wildly guessing, in dapple-lit love.

 Undulating bodies and twined tails.

A little love bite.  This is how you do it, too, right?

First Bear

Our road here makes a loop, and we walked it for the first time this afternoon, 3.4 miles.  Along which we saw our first bear in the wild!  A black bear, I suppose, but a big un!  Foraging a distance off in one of our neighbors' fields, which borders the national forest.  It saw us, but was not particularly interested.

Eve of May

Just saw my first bat in Appalachia, off our front porch. A little un. Doodling around in the sky. On this gorgeous, gently warm 'n' gently breezy eve of May, around 8:23 PM.

It's mostly dark now.  I hear Petros is pickaxing, down the driveway.  And lots of froggers per usual.

Little One is going to be a May baby.  :)

Ladybug Spring

The snow has melted, and the ladybugs are coming out by the half-dozens. Plus a couple wasps and a housefly or two.

Ekati finds houseflies make good eatin'. Ladybugs do not. Not sure yet about wasps.

Snow Bright

The few inches of snow melted off the driveway finally today. I enjoyed, in last days, though, how bright the blanket of snow outside made the house inside. Also, being able to see where critters had scurried from and to.

Yesterday evening, there was a skunk in the area.  Maybe even under the house.

Li'l Junco

9:58 AM. Snow on the ground. An inch maybe. Large raptor on a branch over the gully streamlet. Maybe fifteen inches, head to tail? Puffy, possible junco landed on pump handle outside window, but Kitten swiftly jumped on sill and scared it away.

10:31. Kitten sitting calmly alert on windowsill. Junco, definitely, returns to pump handle and tilts head this way and that, several seconds, then flies away to well cap, and further.

LO's Season

Second day of Spring 2013. LO will be born this season. So they tell me.  :)

HughesNet

We have HughesNet internet service around here. Their technical support bureaucracy is astounding. 

To send a technician, HughesNet representatives, located in Texas and India, the ones I spoke to, must schedule with a company named Perfect 10, whose job is to dispatch service visits to small contractor companies covering various geographical areas. These small contractor companies include Advanced Wireless and Appalachian Mountain Satellite. Then these small contractors must schedule with actual technicians, who seem to be stringers of sorts and may work for several of the small contracting companies.

Thus HughesNet requires 24 to 48 hours just to schedule the service visit - never mind to visit.

Local Techs

Met Frank, the internet technician and one of our new neighbors, today.  He comes to the area from decades in Guyana and India, most recently as a professor of intercultural studies taught in a Christian environment.

The technician who originally installed our internet service hardware was an interesting fellow as well. Muted, profoundly, somehow. Chain-smoking. With some of the hardest-used hands I've ever seen. And either with an extra finger or missing one finger - I can't remember which. He asked permission, with a dead desperation, between puffs, digging a post hole under the sun, to take his shirt off. He seemed to be struggling with life.

Belly Better

Kitten now decidedly prefers my belly to my lap. Whenever she finds me sitting still long enough, she will approach the wonky beach ball that is now my belly, knead it to her liking, and curl up happily upon it.

Small Mammals

Have driven the long, country roads each of the last three evenings. First evening, I saw a possum.  Second evening, a raccoon, then a skunk. Last night, raining, three separate bunnies.

Birding from the Kitchen Table

Around 10:50 AM. Tea and banana bread. Outside, cold, damp, overcast.

In the far, craggy tree, a big, handsome, red squirrel and a nuthatch. Then two blue jays. Then, in the near, svelte tree, a red-bellied woodpecker, looking into the hole, and a blue jay, closer, on the ground. 

Oo, next, on the kneecap of the svelte tree, a bluebird.

11:04 AM. On the ground, between the svelte tree and the house, a robin.

The woodpecker again, looking into the hole, now tossing scraps out.

Bluebird again, ground, then kneecap.

Wood Pellet Stove

Went to Tom, the general contractor's, to drop off his final check. He showed me his family's new house under construction and their corn/wood pellet stove.

First Day Home

Gorgeous first day to be really home, with all my belongings in our first home of our own, for the first time. Mid March, but mostly sunny, up to mid 70s (!), with frequent breeze. Left the house doors open, and Ekati was ecstatic, running in and out of the house, scrambling up and down tree trunks.

So happy to discover little streamlet does indeed run in our gully this time of year. Only about a foot wide, maybe seven inches deep, but brisk!

Flattened grasses surrounding suggest five feet wide at times. Streamlet mostly above ground, but lacing above and below. Percolating prettily from bare rock near culvert.

And, at the top of the property, where streamlet is last visible above ground - a secret pool! Heart-shaped! About sixteen feet right now, at its widest.

Second streamlet also running strong, about two feet wide by one foot deep. This one seems to be year-round and run mostly on our neighbor's property, but crossing into our bit of bottom land where a pond basin has been bermed. Looks like, if we dammed the outflow, the pond could fill nicely, to forty or fifty feet across, maybe four feet deep.

Emptied nursery of leftover tools and materials. Cleaned thoroughly. Cleared fallen branches, from yard, to east fence line. Cleaned tub and shower of work boot prints, iron, and sawdust.

Stayed up late combing through hair for hours. First time in weeks for the left side, first time since the first of the year for the right side!

Iron Toenails

These are my toes, after about seven weeks of high-iron bathing.

Face Blindness

I think I may have some mild form of 'prosopagnosia', or 'face blindness'.  That is, a difficulty or inability to recognize and distinguish faces.

Over the years in New York City, particularly as a contract and freelance worker, I met a lot of new people, in groups.  I'd go onsite with a new client and start interacting regularly with twenty or thirty new people, all at once.  This never posed much of a problem for me.  Partially because of physical spaces - I would tend to encounter the same people in specific departments, offices, at the same work stations or in the same meeting rooms.  And, in retrospect, I have always relied heavily on space, geography.  But most of all, in New York, there was almost always an enormous diversity of people, particularly in my work environments.  By ethnicity, age, expressiveness, size, gender, dress, hair, everything.  I can easily recognize and differentiate people whose appearances span the human spectrum.

However, here in Appalachia, I have met maybe a hundred (?) new people by name over the last six months.  And I often have trouble recognizing them next time I see them.  I have no idea I met them before.  Especially if I am meeting them in a different physical space.  And unfortunately, I have seemed rude several times, I know, or at least puzzlingly suddenly less friendly.  It's no coincidence that most of these people are medium-build, white, middle-aged to older folks, with generally similar dress, expressiveness, and traditional/conservative hair.  If they tell me their name or remind me of something we previously mentioned in conversation, I can place them.  It's here that I first realized the extent to which I have always relied on physical spaces to suggest who a person is.  For instance, when I met the bank manager, who I very well knew, in a store, I looked right past him and fell silent through several minutes of a conversation in which I more naturally should have joined.

I'm not completely insensible to recognizing any given person in future.  I can eventually suss out anyone's relatively distinguishing features and recognize them forever after.  But if they are very similar demographically and in style to most folks around, I need a lot of time to look at them, and be comfortable looking at them. 

The first time I really encountered my face blindness was in college.  I had attended an all-girl's school the previous six years.  And when I got to college, I could not tell most boys apart.  If the kid had an unusual hairstyle or build or something like that, then I could recognize him.  Or if he always sat in approximately the same seat in a classroom.  But otherwise, or if I passed him walking across campus, I was lost.  It didn't help that there seemed to be so many kids named Dan or, ugh, Dave.

Woody Woodpecker

Lovely neighbors, the F——s, who fed this ragtag girl again last night, tell me the lunatic laughing bird we hear at the back of our property is surely a pileated woodpecker. Petros is excited!

Habitat for Animalia

We spent most of the day taking down the rest of the interior wall of part of our kitchen-to-be. We discovered evidence of multiple animals rooming between our studs. Multiple kinds of bees and wasps - paper and mud nests/hives. The expected mice, with their dirty, cottony bedding. Chipmunks with literally hundreds of black walnut shells! A messy straw bird's nest. And a couple snake skins, unclear whether left there by their original owners or drawn in by other animals as bedding material.

There are one- or two-inch gaps in our exterior beside every rafter tail, and that looks to be where most of the animals entered. How fantastic that they have all lived peacefully together in such close proximity! I suppose our wall is like the habitat a big, dead tree provides.

Just after sundown, I heard a flapping in the kitchen. A little starling, gorgeous in its iridescent speckled black coat, returning after a long, hard bird day's work, no doubt had been quite surprised to find its nest half blown out. Hekate, too, was immediately intrigued and moving in fast to investigate. I opened the kitchen door wide and herded the pretty bird out. Smart bird, it did not attempt reentry.

What I would give to watch all these creatures snuggling in their nests. Especially the chipmunks! I am seriously tempted to leave the rafter tail gaps and fasten up glass interior walls!

Light Demo in Progress

The interior of the exterior wall of our kitchen-to-be is pretty patchy with different board-like materials, ranging from a thick sort of cardboard to various vinyl floorings to various wood panelings. Covered with a few different wallpapers and plastic contact paper.

4PM Today

I was content to just paint it over and leave it for now. But (among many other deficiencies!) it really bothered my honey. So I decided to cover it over with a new layer of wallboard or paneling, TBD.

Tom, the contractor, convinced me we may as well remove the old patchwork first. And, as long as we're doing that, insulate between the studs. And also, he will be able to add the new plumbing and electric in-wall.  So that's what we now are looking at doing.

However, I think neither of us expected the solid wood interior boards. From the holes we investigated, there appeared to be nothing between the cardboard/vinyl/paneling patchwork and the studs. The wood boards are old and cool, but I'm not sure how they affect our insulation plan. I'll see what Tom thinks tomorrow.

8PM Today

Kitten Mittens

'Ekati' doesn't exactly roll off an English-speaking tongue (eh-KAH-tee). So little Ekati has acquired a few monikers. Sugar Plum. Sugar Puss. L'il Sugar. Big Sugar. Sug'-sug'. Have you detected a sugar theme, perchance?

Petros calls her Girl, usually in context of, "Hey, girl." Which reminds me of the Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" meme every time.

When Ekati is being repeatedly naughty, I tell her we are just fattening her up for her fur and that I am looking forward to my kitten mittens.

First Harvest

OK, so we don't have any fireplaces to kindle just yet. But surely someone will be able to use these, even if we don't. These are all from one tree, an Eastern white pine, I believe. Plenty of other and different cones on the property.

A few choice specimens set aside for some as yet unknown destiny.

Curiously Smokey

Sunny, warm day today. But the air was smokey throughout the valley and smelled of wood smoke all day. Couldn't find any news of any forest fires though.

Brown Hot Water

So, hot water's brown here, it seems. This is not a matter of running the water after the plumbing's been out of use a while. The pipes are PVC anyway, so no corrosion there. Nor is it the hot water heater, as I originally thought. How many hot baths would I have to run before the hot water ran clear! I wondered.

Then I noticed something, cooking. Or thought I did. So ran this especial experiment, just to make sure I wasn't going crazy.

I ran two glasses of cold water. Both were clear.

Then one glass, I boiled in a clean pot on our hot plate and then returned to its glass. First glass cold water, unboiled, still clear. Second glass cold water, boiled to hot, now dimly brown. A tub full of hot water looks much more opaque brown.

I have yet to consult my little-seen neighbors about this. But from what I read online, our brown hot water could be the result of higher iron content. Which is harmless, apparently. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself so far. Hey, they're always saying women need more iron, right??

That said, the white bathroom porcelain doesn't care for the high iron brown. And I suspect our clothes won't either, after our laundry is installed. Apparently it can be "ironed out" (hee) with a water softener.

Shed Organization

Besides the falling-down barn, there are four tiny outbuildings on this place. Shirley left two of them pretty full of stuff. Motley troves to which I added, with careless convenience our first days here. So I wanted to go through everything, and get straight what we have.

The weathered wood shed, Larry told me, one of his and Shirley's other brothers (fourteen kids in their family!) once operated as a lemonade stand. Complete with flip-down serving counter, still there with hinges. I organized it as a garden shed, with garden tools and furniture.

The other shed I worked on, designed to look like a miniature red gambrel barn, is a common type in the area, made by the local Mennonites. I organized it for general utility and household storage, for now.

In the back corner of that shed, I found an old, cast-iron stove. I don't know if it literally weighs a ton, but I couldn't budge it! I suspect it's from the mid-to-late twentieth century, when one of the H. brothers or Papa H. still lived in the cabin.

I like its streamlined, modern shape and would like to learn more about it. But haven't been able to find any pictures or info about stoves like it yet. It's stamped "U S," which Karl suggests signifies Army surplus. I found also, there is an long-running stove maker called US Stove Company.

The stove has a coat of possibly decorative paint on it, and I'm not sure if that's safe to fire up. But otherwise, it looks in possibly ready working condition, no cracks. There are two old chimneys in the cabin. Perhaps one could be re-opened, and we could have stove heat as a main heat source. I don't actually know what fuel the stove takes though - wood, coal?

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Vocabulary and Idioms Heard, Updated

You eat all your vegetables.
You're tall.

Dinner
Lunch

To put up
To can or preserve

Tags
License plates

"He don't own him."
He doesn't acknowledge they are related.

Home place
House where a person grew up.

"He's like a li'l banny rooster."
That is, a bantam rooster. Regarding a little, old ladies' man. I believe the same speaker called the same man a catbird also. But I'm not sure I caught that correctly.

"Now, I was gettin' a little hot under the collar."
During a tale of protracted frustration with the Division of Motor Vehicles

Hot cakes
Pancakes

Camp
Little vacation home, probably not insulated or intended for year-round occupancy

Parka and Snow Boots

Ordered the parka and the snow boots I've been putting off the last ten years.

Hoosier Cabinet

I am happy an apparent 'Hoosier cabinet' classic came with this ol' place. It's a free-standing kitchen cabinet, with a slide-out work surface and various specialty storage compartments. Kind of a housewife's all-in-one, from 1900-1920 or so, before kitchens had built-in cabinetry.

Tiny Massacre

Ekati, the kitten, and I are still working out our sleeping arrangements. She thinks it's great fun when I've wound down and, finally, slip into bed for some peaceful Zs. Perfect time to play-hunt all around and upon the horizontal human, pouncing on every rustle of the blanket, real and imagined, and upon her person's very face. She can entertain herself in this fashion for at least 40 minutes straight and return to the game repeatedly throughout the night.

I shut her in the bathroom last night. As it's the only room with a door so far! And I keep it a little heated for the pipes. And suspected it may be an entry point for our adorable little gray mice friends seeking warmth in this premature cold snap.

I woke this morning to a dead little gray mouse on the bathroom floor. Good kitten, I told Ekati. Took me a minute or two to see all the scuffs around the floor I'd washed by hand just yesterday were not just the usual debris of this ol' place - but the bloody smears of a tiny massacre.

My forensic analysis suggests the mice are entering through the basin drain, popping up beneath the pop-up stopper.

Dressed Up As Winter

It's just nineteen miles from our little old cabin to the county seat, but a striking season's change in elevation. From our autumnal valley, you have to climb 1600 feet high over a ridge, today still dressed every inch in snow.  Autumn, dressed as winter wonderland, for Halloween.

Gift

First overnight in the new cabin and with the new kitten. Temp outside down to 32 degrees Farenheit, wind and light snow. Power out several hours. Which means, here, in addition to no hot water, no well water at all, and no electronics - also no heat. Had prepped, piling all the blankets I own onto the bed, and was warm enough.

By mid-morning, the electricity and heat had been restored, and we were toasty. I petted the kitten a while, then sat up and slid out of bed. Turned around to arrange the blankets, and found a little gray mouse smushed in my pillow, where my head and neck had lain.

Gutter Snake

Our gutters were so neglected that, on the south side, beneath leaves and needles, they were a third full with actual soil and forming tightly netted, grassy turf in parts. I found two long snake skins along their length. One about thirty inches and one about 42. The shorter one slightly grown through with grass. As if the same snake had been so well pleased with the safety and amenities of our gutter that it returned for a subsequent molt.

Green Heron

Saw my first green heron tonight, as we were walking over the Frenchtown bridge after dinner.  It was fishing in the Delaware at twilight, off one of the bridge's cutwaters.

Trout, Veggies, and Zinnias

Rainbow trout from Wilson Mill Farms, vegetables mostly and zinnias from generous neighbor VP. I love how each zinnia flower wears a little crown of tiny gold flowers.

Check out my whole Local Produce photo set.

Okra

Cooking my first okra ever, from the garden of my my generous neighbor VP.

Somewhat Protected Habitat of Monroe County

From the Gap Analysis Program of the USGS. The program's mission is to keep common species common.

Very Pretty Geological Maps

For which, unfortunately, I have neither a key nor an original source. However, I'm guessing they're from U.S. the Geological Survey's Geologic Map of the United States, 1974, by Philip King and Helen Beikman

Recycling in Monroe County

Monroe County does not pick up recycling with trash. However, we have a 'mobile recycling' program. Residents can deposit recyclables in a collection trailer that stops in different towns on different days.

Maps of the Coal Seams in West Virginia

Bedrock of Monroe County

Most of Monroe County is limestone and other rocks from the 'Mississippian' subperiod of the 'Paleozoic' era of geological history. Peter's Mountain, though, is about another hundred million years older.

Adapted from WVGES Map 25A (.pdf)

Air Quality in Monroe County in 2001

Maps summarizing air quality in Monroe County and across the United States in 2001. Based on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) measures of selected 1) ambient air pollutants and 2) pollutant emissions. The ambient pollutants measured were: carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM), and sulphur dioxide (SO2). Monroe County is not specifically included in the West Virginia data. The maps were created by Creative Methods, whoever they are.

Hanging Rocks Observatory

We hiked a tiny snippet of the Allegheny Trail today. Atop Peter's Mountain, a long Allegheny ridge line in southeastern West Virginia. Our destination was the "hanging rocks," a jagged tippy top of the ridge. Where there also is an old fire tower, now used as a raptor observatory. Particularly during the fall, when the parallel ridge lines of the Alleghenies form many raptors' migration flight path.

From our Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory Photo Set (30)