The Road Not Taken

We own a mountain - at least part of one.  Pine Mountain is beautiful countryside, wooded mostly with oak and pine, and also has a lake at the bottom.  Limestone bluffs are full of fossils from an ocean that covered this land eons ago. Also, many arrowheads and spear points and even a carved stone button from Caddoan Indians that lived here for centuries.  We have two old log cabins, mostly down except for the stone foundations.  We've dug up pottery and flower bulbs from the settlers of long ago. 

I humored my husband and went with him to his "Cabinette" on the mountain this weekend.  He is in preparation for the coming black powder deer hunting season which begins next weekend.  He and his pals all come for a ten day hunt, one of two in the fall.  It is his favorite place in the world.  He would rather go here than go to Paris or Rome.

Me, I avoid it at all costs.  We definitely go down different roads.

Here is what they call the shitter.  It is a nightmarish place with cobwebs, rodent droppings, you can imagine.  And, guess who had to go there?  The toilet seat was full of mosquitos, but I didn't see any rats or snakes.  OMG!

The 'cabinette' is basically a shanty with an old school bus at the end.  That is where the snorers sleep. They have a kitchen and all the modernities of home including satellite tv and internet hookup. It is awful and you couldn't pay me to ever sleep there.

Would you believe these guys are all professionals; doctors, bankers, etc.?

This part of the state is hillbilly country - real Deliverance kind of place. This little gem was on the road a few miles away.  Now you know why I like the city.  I'm not showing the confederate flags, etc.  Though I'll go fishing, or used to, I only go to ride the ATV's around the mountainside.

We stopped by the feed store on the way home.  All the baby fowl are back.  These baby turkeys, my favorite fowl, are sleeping.  We have no more fowl at the farm.

It was 90 degrees this day.  This box (land) turtle has been scanning the patio for caterpillars and such.  He'll go dig a hole and hibernate soon.

And this last little something at the farm, before I head back to the city.  This was the only day that wasn't filled with errands; MRI's, x-rays and a sick cat to the vet.  I'll have to take him back to the city with me to keep an eye on him.  It is very hard going back and forth, my truck filled coming and going.

PS ~ Since Boo, who is white, is going back to my all white city house, I decided to try and give him a bath last night as the outdoor cats like to roll in dust and dirt.  First and last time, with a few puncture wounds to boot.  Ever try and give a cat a bath?

The first picture reminded me of my favorite poem by Robert Frost.  I memorized it many years ago and couldn't remember it verbatim, which was unsettling.  So here it is in toto.  I hope I don't forget it again.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and sorry I could not travel both

and be one traveler, long I stood

and looked down one as far as I could

to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair, 

and having perhaps the better claim,

because it was grassy and wanted wear;

though as for that the passing there 

had worn them both about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

in leaves no steps had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

somewhere ages and ages hence:

two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference.