CE Wills

My wife was at work so I started out alone for a walk in the woods behind our house. I took the usual path, winding down a hill through a forest of oak, maple, sourwood and mountain laurel.     It was winter but a rather pleasant day for that time of the year. The leaves had all fallen, except for the laurel, of course. I think this fact may have saved me from a bad experience.     I was halfway to the creek and had reached a huge maple we call 'the butt tree' because it has a huge knot on its side that looks like a massive butt. There was a flash of movement up the hill and to the right. When I swung in that direction I saw a young mountain lion who was evidently stalking me as he moved parallel to my course.     The beast was about half grown and he was still bigger, and much longer, than a german shepherd. When he saw he had been discovered he jumped behind a tree to conceal himself. It was somewhat comical. After a moment he took a peak at me from behind the tree.     W

OK, I admit it. The first thing I did with the I-Pad was put hair on a picture of a deer. Immature, but fun. The app I used is called Hairstyle light. It's free and it's fun. I bought the I-Pad about two weeks ago and thought  I would pass along my impressions to you. After all, everyone else has reviewed it. Let me start by saying that my computer expertise is limited compared to my knowledge of pumps and transformers.     My wife and I had left home intending to buy a Nook by Barnes and Noble. In fact, we did buy a Nook that day. The young guy at Best Buy who helped us told me I should really think about the I-Pad, so we walked over to the display and played with it. Sure enough it was really cool. The pictures were crisper and sharper than my LCD monitor at home could deliver and the touch screen has to be used to be appreciated.     I had done a lot of study before making my decision on the Nook and was not easily dissuaded. Things like the Nook having a battery you can r

   One day my wife and I had been for a walk in the woods behind our house. We had walked down to the creek and looked for tracks in the mud. On our way home, just as we reached our yard,we heard a rustle in a clump of weeds at the base of an oak tree. My wife was startled and jumped to the side.    We didn't see anything in the weeds so we walked on to the deck and sat down to rest. It was a hot day and the walk back home had been up a steep hill.      Suddenly, a hawk came swooping down and snatched something from the very clump of weeds we had heard the noise emanating from. As our eyes followed the hawk's flight it was easy to see that he had a snake in his talons.     The hawk sat on a limb that was a mere fifty feet from where we sat. We could plainly see his every movement as he held the snake at two points; one with his beak and the other with his talons. He ripped the snake into strips and devoured it, one strip at a time.It's reasonable to assume that the hawk

    I've heard all my life that cats hate water. Since I've moved to the wilderness I've learned that animals are rather unpredictable. Their actions depend on the individual critter, their needs, the whim of the moment and a zillion other things. Let me tell you another true story to illustrate.      It was a rainy evening, about thirty minutes before dark. The weather was warm and I had been sitting on my deck at the back of my house. As usual, I had sipped a couple of beers and listened to some music on my I-pod. The drizzling rain had coaxed me under the eave of the house at the glass doors which open to the deck and the forest.      My eye was attracted to a movement from my right, only about thirty feet away. When I swiveled my head I saw a mountain lion walking past the house in a direction that would take it past the side of my house to the front yard. That was not the most surprising thing, however.      Behind the mama were three cubs, lined up nose to tail lik

    One night as I lay in bed with my hands folded behind my head, I heard a thump at the opposite end of the house. It sounded as though a heavy body had landed on the roof. Then I heard something walking right along the ridge of the house. As you know if you've ever had someone shingle your roof, the sounds are magnified for those inside.      As I lay and listened with keen interest, the steps proceeded the length of the house until the creature was directly over the bedroom. They paused for a moment and then ceased as the animal evidently leaped to the ground below. The next morning I found mountain lion tracks at that side of the house. They showed fairly well in the place where he had landed due to the drop. After that there was no evidence of his passing. The beast was probably hoping to pounce upon his prey from the elevated position.      As you might well imagine we thought about this when we came home at night in the weeks following this event. We have had several ot