We had a couple houses above us on the hill that contained our cabin! One Home was another log home built by another Uncle, but leased to a family of MANY children. I don't even know which children were his and which were hers. Some were the Children of a Daughter who started having children way to young then mass produced them!!!! I was allowed to enjoy the novelty of playing with children who were not related to me. To do this I had to walk the obligatory quarter to half mile up a steep hill....
This is actually a Mountain in Idaho. There was very little of what we think of as flat ground! It was all UP or Down! There was no amble over the flats for us! We were a thousand feet from the prairie floor in the forest! From the top of our mountain we could see from Coeur d' Alene to Spokane on a clear night.....All Nine farm houses stood out clear on the prairie floor!...Where there is now a city of houses.....That is another story! For another Day....
This is remembered as a beautiful spring day! I recall the spring flowers blooming in wild profusion on our hillside....I remember the red clay mud on the roadside. Red Clay that caused the road to be slick as winter's ice when ever it rained! This is the kind of red clay that was prized for brick works and built many homes in North Idaho. There was a brick works in our hills. The Catholic church in one town was built of the red clay from our hill!
The squirrels chattered their warning as I walked along paying no heed to the dust motes kicked up by my worn out school shoes. The breezes blew through the trees. I was brought to a standing stop watching a Doe and he fawn cross the road in front of me! I could smell the pine pitch in the trees, the flowers everything smelled like spring! There was very little novelty in seeing wild game on our hill. It was nothing new to see a doe and fawn race across the road. I stopped to watch their progress up the game trail running toward our orchard high in a mountain meadow! They seemed more hurried than usual. I attributed it to way the wind was blowing and perhaps their catching my scent on the breeze.
Spring is a time of awakening in Idaho's hills. Every flower that has waited for springs warmth to waken it from winters slumber added it's perfume and it's pollen to the thin air of our mountain.Winds spoke to me, each small animal left it's signature track in the deep dust of the roadway! There was much to study and hold my attention written in the dust along the road. Some of the animals who left their track were not so small. I espied bear, deer, elk ,porcupine,cougar, Bob cat and skunk tracks in the same dust where I left my track as I walked along!
I knew from the size of the track the approximate size of each animal.There were black bears just awakening from their winter slumbers to find they were mothers! When they waken these aggressive animals are very protective of their young! They don't care for humans on foot any time! We are at the top of the food chain in many ways in the Idaho Mountains.
The Mother bear mostly craves privacy and safety to raise her babies. Our forest was the perfect cover for her! We were taught early NOT to leave any garbage outside to draw the bears to our house. The many children of the leased house were city kids! They had no idea that a hot dog could feed more than a small child in the middle of the night! They had wiener roasts and left the buns and food lying around till morning!
This was one of the things that was strictly forbidden at our house! One never left food out to draw the bears and small animals close to the house!
We had a Mama squirrel who lived in our attic with her babies...she would run down the logs to tease the cats. She could be so quiet that she could sneak past the ever vigilant cats to get pine nuts and other foods for she and her babies in broad daylight! She drove our cats wild! I watched her by the hour. This was about the limit of wild things Dad liked in the yard. The squirrels, chip monks and Mom's wild cat ;she hand fed occasionally were on the edge of our world and his patience! The rest were considered food! He was raised in those hills and knew how to feed his family without the local grocery! Cougars were Not welcome! Mom's Lynx was tolerated because they were rarely seen and he rather liked it. It was big enough to keep the larger pests like raccoons, skunk,and Porcupine away from the house and barns!
We actually lived off Mom's big garden,the orchard, wild craft berries, home raised meats and wild game from our fields and meadows. There were some rules Dad lived by....one of which was, you never took a game animal with young to small to survive without it's Mama.
You did not feed the animals to chum animals to you. That was not fair game! If an animal became a danger to your family or your farm beasts it was on it's way OUT....We had many cougars on our mountain! In most cases cougars and bears did not come around our house much.They were wise enough to stay away from the farm steads!
This was an "open herd" area and they had ample choice of farm animals that were not kept up by farmers who cared nothing about other peoples Gardens! I think in Dad's mind some of these cattle WERE fair game! I know the cougar and bear took them often and violently!
Once it got to the table, I was to young to tell what was beef and what was NOT! I also know that Dad rarely butchered his own beef or hogs! Our table was always laden with a variety of foods. We grew potato, and other vegetables,we picked wild mushroom, grape and elderberries. We flourished in our cabin in the hills.
As I walked I could hear the songs of wild birds....the wind whistle through the leaves and trees of our hill and the trains whistle from many many miles away. A trick of sound waves made it sound as though it was coming down the track near by. From the top of our hill it made a mournful whistle, a ghost train way below us.
This is actually a Mountain in Idaho. There was very little of what we think of as flat ground! It was all UP or Down! There was no amble over the flats for us! We were a thousand feet from the prairie floor in the forest! From the top of our mountain we could see from Coeur d' Alene to Spokane on a clear night.....All Nine farm houses stood out clear on the prairie floor!...Where there is now a city of houses.....That is another story! For another Day....
This is remembered as a beautiful spring day! I recall the spring flowers blooming in wild profusion on our hillside....I remember the red clay mud on the roadside. Red Clay that caused the road to be slick as winter's ice when ever it rained! This is the kind of red clay that was prized for brick works and built many homes in North Idaho. There was a brick works in our hills. The Catholic church in one town was built of the red clay from our hill!
The squirrels chattered their warning as I walked along paying no heed to the dust motes kicked up by my worn out school shoes. The breezes blew through the trees. I was brought to a standing stop watching a Doe and he fawn cross the road in front of me! I could smell the pine pitch in the trees, the flowers everything smelled like spring! There was very little novelty in seeing wild game on our hill. It was nothing new to see a doe and fawn race across the road. I stopped to watch their progress up the game trail running toward our orchard high in a mountain meadow! They seemed more hurried than usual. I attributed it to way the wind was blowing and perhaps their catching my scent on the breeze.
Spring is a time of awakening in Idaho's hills. Every flower that has waited for springs warmth to waken it from winters slumber added it's perfume and it's pollen to the thin air of our mountain.Winds spoke to me, each small animal left it's signature track in the deep dust of the roadway! There was much to study and hold my attention written in the dust along the road. Some of the animals who left their track were not so small. I espied bear, deer, elk ,porcupine,cougar, Bob cat and skunk tracks in the same dust where I left my track as I walked along!
I knew from the size of the track the approximate size of each animal.There were black bears just awakening from their winter slumbers to find they were mothers! When they waken these aggressive animals are very protective of their young! They don't care for humans on foot any time! We are at the top of the food chain in many ways in the Idaho Mountains.
The Mother bear mostly craves privacy and safety to raise her babies. Our forest was the perfect cover for her! We were taught early NOT to leave any garbage outside to draw the bears to our house. The many children of the leased house were city kids! They had no idea that a hot dog could feed more than a small child in the middle of the night! They had wiener roasts and left the buns and food lying around till morning!
This was one of the things that was strictly forbidden at our house! One never left food out to draw the bears and small animals close to the house!
We had a Mama squirrel who lived in our attic with her babies...she would run down the logs to tease the cats. She could be so quiet that she could sneak past the ever vigilant cats to get pine nuts and other foods for she and her babies in broad daylight! She drove our cats wild! I watched her by the hour. This was about the limit of wild things Dad liked in the yard. The squirrels, chip monks and Mom's wild cat ;she hand fed occasionally were on the edge of our world and his patience! The rest were considered food! He was raised in those hills and knew how to feed his family without the local grocery! Cougars were Not welcome! Mom's Lynx was tolerated because they were rarely seen and he rather liked it. It was big enough to keep the larger pests like raccoons, skunk,and Porcupine away from the house and barns!
We actually lived off Mom's big garden,the orchard, wild craft berries, home raised meats and wild game from our fields and meadows. There were some rules Dad lived by....one of which was, you never took a game animal with young to small to survive without it's Mama.
You did not feed the animals to chum animals to you. That was not fair game! If an animal became a danger to your family or your farm beasts it was on it's way OUT....We had many cougars on our mountain! In most cases cougars and bears did not come around our house much.They were wise enough to stay away from the farm steads!
This was an "open herd" area and they had ample choice of farm animals that were not kept up by farmers who cared nothing about other peoples Gardens! I think in Dad's mind some of these cattle WERE fair game! I know the cougar and bear took them often and violently!
Once it got to the table, I was to young to tell what was beef and what was NOT! I also know that Dad rarely butchered his own beef or hogs! Our table was always laden with a variety of foods. We grew potato, and other vegetables,we picked wild mushroom, grape and elderberries. We flourished in our cabin in the hills.
As I walked I could hear the songs of wild birds....the wind whistle through the leaves and trees of our hill and the trains whistle from many many miles away. A trick of sound waves made it sound as though it was coming down the track near by. From the top of our hill it made a mournful whistle, a ghost train way below us.
We were taught never to run from a wild animal. If we came face to face with something wild and fierce we were instructed to freeze in our tracks and just stand very very still! No Problem. My legs wouldn't work any way!
I could hear something coming out of the wood in front of me. The doe and fawn made nearly the same noise when they ran through the old burn and brush that was our home. What ever this was; seemed to be good sized cause it was no respecter of real estate or forest floor! I knew better than to take to my heals and try to out run it before it got to the road! I stood with the farm house behind and below me. I thought perhaps it was another doe, we had many deer on our mountain. We also had a lot of cattle. One bull in particular was to be avoided..
I stood stark still to wait for what ever it was to arrive....I knew it was very very close! I knew I was afraid. Just as Mama bear and her baby stepped onto the road,at her full and menacing height it dawned on me that something chased that doe and fawn from the forest! NOW I KNEW what it was. I also knew it was a meat eater. I was young and tender!!! That didn't leave a lot of choices. It was a bear. She looked very big and very frightening to a small girl in pig tails. Her baby was cute. He was also cause for her to be more protective than normally she would be. We were schooled to NEVER EVER get between a Mama and her cub! I stood stark still and stared at her. She stood stark still within full reach of me. A tasty morsel of a child. She sniffed me up and down. This process brought her much closer than I was comfortable with! I only moved to shiver in my tracks!
When she was done sniffing me, she knew she had me thoroughly frightened. She shoved her baby ahead of her. I wanted to keep walking toward the neighbors. She let me know with a look and a growl I was to walk in the same direction she was taking. If I was going home alive I was going to join her on HER walk in HER direction! I KNEW who was BOSS! I turned around to retrace my steps toward our cabin in the woods! She carefully kept her cub on one side and me on the other. I did my best to lag behind her. She didn't care for that......When I got to far behind she turned and growled! I KNEW what she was telling me! "Keep up kid, or I'll eat you HERE!"
We walked a long way like that. Her cub was in the lead, she was in the middle and I inched along behind! I inched till she let me know With a growl which gave me a look at her big teeth,it was in my best interest to "KEEP UP!"
I had a problem, our house was down in a draw below us. There are trails, many trails from this road to our house below! Finally with a look of utter disdain she crossed in front of me and ambled onto the hill with her baby toward the meadow, orchard and the doe in the high hills above our home! I had been dismissed!!! I stood still to watch her disappear into the brush. THEN: I took the trail home. I needed a bath and a change of clothes! My brothers would Never let me live it down cause I wet my pants like that!...
In order to clear my "good name" I had to talk them into walking onto the upper road and examining the tracks we three made in the powdered dust that was the road to our friends home!
Do you have a current pic, or is this one current? He is so darn cute, and love the dimple! Can't tell the hair is red in the picture, but both my girls had redish hair when they were little. Still have red highlights. I loved it, miss it, oh and they are still feisty as heck! That is so good that you get to babysit, I am sure he loves you so much!
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