This is a picture of an old can sitting on an old stump (in case you couldn’t figure it out). This photo is from the same washed out series of photos I took when Libby and I had gone down to Fallen Timbers a month ago. I boosted the contrast a bit, but the photo still lacks the crispness the camera seems to give when the battery has a full charge. I’m assured that battery life is not the issue though.

Each winter we find a weekend when we can hike the perimeter of our woods. We do this just to have a look for ourselves at the property lines. Our fear is that at the far-flung corners of our woods our neighbors may be up to no good, so it is important to have a look. We do this in the winter since the leaves on the trees and shrubs are gone so the passage is easier and the line of sight is more open.

When we were last at Fallen Timbers (that other little bit of forest on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks we have), we didn’t hike the full perimeter, but we did manage to wander to the farthest point — our northern fence line.

An old forest road runs along our northern fence line. The neighbor must use is occasionally since it stays open through the seasons. Because of this road, I’m guessing most of my interloper incursions come from the north. It was near here some years ago that we found a well-used hunting station. (I left a note there just before deer season one year, simply reminding the interloper that he was on private land without permission, and the station seems to have been abandoned ever since.) We also find some trash in the woods along this fence. Occasionally we find a fresh beer can, but most of the trash seems to be pretty old. That we keep finding trash is likely a factor of the varying paths we take in this part of the forest and the relative leaf litter on the ground.

The can you see above is a bit of that old trash. I happened to be carrying my metal detector that day — having swept the burial mounds without a peep from the detector — and saw the can on the far side of a tree. So I turned on the metal detector and set off a series of dings and peeps, which amazed Libby, until I picked up the can and showed her my find.

Fallen Timbers is only forty acres in a square. The relative distance from our northern boundary to where we park the TOYOTA is not that great, but the terrain and the scrub is. Some day maybe we’ll carry a trash bag to this part of our woods and collect all of the old trash, but getting it back to the truck without having the bag shredded will be a challenge.

Over at Roundrock I’ve put a round rock atop a stump, and every time I visit the spot, the rock has been knocked off. I wonder now, if an old can on an old stump will offend the equilibrium gods in the forest of Fallen Timbers in the same way.

Missouri calendar:

• Collect pecans as they drop from trees.

Today in Missouri history:

• Tom Horn, a Missourian, legendary scout, Pinkerton agent, military man, and general rabble rouser, was hanged for murder on this date in 1903.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal    Source

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