March 19, 2011 #123 – East Texas the "Piney Woods"

It amazes me how life plunges on without us being aware. Then "Father Time" smacks you occasionally. I was out admiring the beautiful moon last night as it rose out of a tall east Texas pine and that was one of those reality checks. My mind was recalling the moon rises watched on our journey around America. The native Americans counted time by her monthly passage through the heavens. I find that in our travels I have forsaken the clock and calender and have returned to marking time this way. The days are too short and many pass without registering on our minds. There is trouble recalling what day it is. I remember that in my early youth I lived much like those early Americans with regards to time and now have returned to that place in my mind.

When I look at my blog I see that I have not written an entry in two and a half moons. In that interval we have traveled from "The Panhandle" down through central Texas as far south as San Antonio to live for a time in the "Hill Country", then east to the "Big Thicket". Each region is unique and fascinating to a boy from Indiana. Life is so short and there is so much to see and experience in the natural world we are journeying through. I sometimes feel a sadness at missing things but then an elation at what I have experienced and observed.

A week ago I saw Canopus above the southern horizon. Orion was high in the sky not like I'm accustomed to. As I looked at the star atlas I could see that the Magellanic Clouds were just bellow the horizon.  How I would love to see those misty apparitions!

The world news has been very sad for a while, but I still find things to lift my spirits. In our quest to understand the Universe we have discovered many new worlds revolving around far suns, we have entered orbit around Mercury, we have passed the orbit of  Uranus on our journey to explore Pluto, we continue to travel the surface of Mars, and stunning views return from the orbit of Saturn. Many new sights still remain to be seen in the future from probes traveling to far destinations and tonight another full moon will have passed. Our personal travels of discovery also continue.

Clear Sky - Rich

January 12, 2011 #122 – Deep in the Heart of Texas

The Ghost of Cactus Jack

Well, after many weeks of traveling down through the Texas Pan Handle and admiring this beautiful desert country we have found the Internet near Austin, TX.  I spent many a night under desert skies, listening to the coyotes sing their songs, as meteors, lunar eclipses, and the change from fall to winter constellations drew my eyes and ears.  I have found that I love the desert. There is something new to see every day. I feel like I did when I was a young lad.  Everything is strange to the senses. It’s like starting a new life, learning the plants, walking without the distractions that occur in the bustling areas of the US.  As a wildlife biologist in the mid-west for forty years I am experiencing living creatures that have only existed for me in books. It takes a while to get used to walking, as everything is guarded by spines, thorns, or needles, and does not have any pity on the awkward or careless. I am doing OK now, but had to remove my share and lose some blood for a while.

I have been reading a lot about the paleo-history as we travel. I have become fascinated by the early Native American Peoples of the region and their methods of living in this land. Each plant and animal seems to have been utilized in many ways and it is fun seeing what I have been reading about. I was only dimly aware that great wars were fought over hundreds and thousands of years. Native peoples moved from many places, some as far as Canada and displaced whole nations. It seems that no one was able to hold a particular region over long time spans. The people displaced and those new here then adapting to the new habitats. I just completed reading the book chronicling the journey across  this region by Cabez de Vaca in the 1540’s the first Europeans to see much of this land and live with the pre-horse native people. Another interesting book was Geronimo's Autobiography dictated at the end of the 1800's. (Both freely available on Google Books) He gives us a glimpse into growing up in the Apache Culture of the region. There is much more to see and learn. I will write as the opportunity's arise but this blog will probably be sparse for a while.

Clear Skies - Rich