Happy St. John’s Day. Time for fires. In pagan religions, on the solstice fires would be lit and objects burned. Often times piles of bones. These became called bone fires, from which the tern bonfire is derived. Instead of fighting the tradition, the Catholic Church co-opted it and decide June 24 was the birthdate of St. John the Baptist. The celebrations include burning things.
We are now three days past the solstice now and I for one am not happy about it. I don’t mind the changing of the seasons and all that, but I really like the longer photoperiod of the non-winter months. So now we’re incrementally getting a shorter and shorter photoperiod. Not too much I can do about it except maybe spend half the year n the Northern Hemisphere and half in the Southern Hemisphere.
We have been staying busy. I had to rebuild our deck because some boards were rotting out. Not a fun job. I had to remove over a thousand screws and then reinstall that many too. It took me over a week to get the job done. Not a piece of work that will go on my resume. The deck wasn’t built right in the first place. I got it to where it is useable and safe, but completely replacing it was beyond my current capabilities. It should last a good ten years or so. If we’re still here when it needs to be redone it’s going to completely torn our and replaced with a cement patio.
Last week Lise and I did an overnight trip for a business meeting down to Bloomington. While Lise was in her meeting, I drove out to the Hickory Ridge fire tower in the Deam Wilderness. From there I walked the couple miles out to Terrill Cemetery and the large wildlife pond by it. I led many hikes and backpacking trips in the Deam. It’s been 23 years since I’ve been there, but it was still familiar territory.
As wilderness areas go, the Deam isn’t much of one. It’s a small eastern wilderness, around 12,00 acres. At one time there were around 80 homesites in the area. It was hardscrabble living. Steep narrow ridges with almost no topsoil. Some places just shouldn’t be farmed but they tried. They cut down the trees that held the soil in place and the soil quickly eroded away. During the depression many went broke and either sold out to the government or just walked away from the land. Eventually the land became the Hoosier National Forest and in 1982 12,000 acres was designated as wilderness.
The view from the Hickory Ridge fire tower.
The stones of Terrill Cemetery give some indication of the hard living in that area. Many are just siltstone markers, some with the inscriptions worn off. A number are children’s stones.
Terrill Cemetery.
Headstones in Terrill Cemetery.
On a cheerier note, while in Bloomington we visited a Sycamore Land Trust (SLT) preserve called Beanblossom Bottoms. Lise and I were involved with SLT in its infancy. We helped with the initial land acquisitions in in the Beanblossom Bottoms. Fast forward 25 years and SLT has put together a remarkable preserve. What was failed cornfields is now a major wetland complex. A few weeks ago, I was talking to someone here in West Lafayette. They mentioned that Beanblossom Bottoms was one of their three favorite birding places in Indiana. Makes one feel good to know you were part of something that 25 years later someone is enjoying.
Lise on the boardwalk at BBB.
Watersnake at BBB.
We have been getting out some around here.I haven’t been getting much photography done because of some equipment issues but here are a couple.
Vesper sparrow in the fields near here.
A native orchid, the name of which I can’t remember, at Prophetstown State Park.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 