Northern Arkansas Ice Storm January 09

Here in White County Arkansas, we had ice for one day and warm rain the next. We escaped the brunt of the storm. 45 minutes North of us though was a completely different story. Mt. View was shuttered for several days; trees are splintered by the thousands. Even Wal-Mart was closed. (You'd think after a year that had 100 yr tornadoes and floods, Wally World would have its act together.) My buddies in Melbourne, Izard County did some A+ video reporting of the situation - they've had a very busy year with such. CHeck it out

We wanted to go up and check out our land in Mt. View this Saturday, but too many people have warned us that the steep road hasn't seen the sun yet and the creek will be too high to cross.

Dagnabbit, I wanna crank up our new chain saw.

Attack of the Beavers

There is a pretty stand of Sycamore Trees on the bank of our slice of Sylamore heaven. It's where we camp. We hadn't been for a visit in almost 3 months. Low and behold the beavers have been busy.

They are eating the bark and killing the trees.








This is all a welcome diversion from the plague of bad front page news elsewhere. But we've got to save those trees! The roots are doing a fine job of staving off flood erosion. ( We lost very little soil during the TWO 100 year floods in the Spring of 08. The lot next to us lost a great deal.)








photos taken with cell phone - sorry.

my temp solution. at hand.










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Smallmouth Fishing on South Sylamore Creek; Mountain View, AR

4th of July, 2008

Autoharp and ukulele duo; Mountain View, Arkansas

We're gearing up for the big time - from the porch to the Sqaure (Big plays a pretty mean ice cup)

Mountain View, Arkansas' Severe Weather Season

In the span of three months, Mountain View has had a very bad time. In February there was the F3 tornado that flatened homes to the foundation and tore a part of the hospital out. Right in front of this tornado and right after it, there were record snow fall amounts. March 18-19 saw a 100 year flood. Jack's fishing resort on the White River was flooded several feet into its ground level. The restaurant and the rooms for rent were totaled and because they had no flood insurance, the community had to pitch in for the rebuild. (it needed it anyway IMHO) There are videos here of cabins floating down the middle of the White. Last week didn't bring this area tornados like predicted, but it did bring almost 5" of rain to the already saturated ground. Gail reports that this flood was worse than the one last month. The work done on Jack's resort was all for naught. Our neighbors and residents in the S. Sylamore Creek hollow lost their dogs, two horses, tool boxes and again, the picnic table. The water rose to their front steps. The tree below the Big Cabin (where we walked in to fish) is gone. The remaining soil is loose sand and silt and will quickly erode away - all the way to the rock bluff that once was 50+ ft from the creek. To compound the problems in our hollow, the front road access AND the back road access are completely washed out. The telephone lines are down and the water line to the cabins is kaput for the moment. The fence on our property has been knocked down by the high waters.

I neglected to mark it in the picture above, but the flood waters filled everything you see b/w the purple lines. (we know where NOT to build!)

First Spring Camp

Pure Bliss. My brother Ben, just back from deployment in Iraq, asked to visit our Ozark Oasis. He brought my nephew Moss and my other brother Adam in tow. The weather cooperated for the most part even though we had to hunker down and dodge a tornado one of the nights. Ben's new truck got a good work out and we got a lot of fresh air. If you've been here before, note the how much land got eaten away in the recent flood!(all three of us took the pictures below)








































not much to see in this video but it sure is worth a listen to hear a 6 yr old free style a campfure song.


first person to willingly jump in S. Sylamore Creek this season, I imgaine.