Feeling the Pain

Denny, at Backwoods Drifter ,is sharing with us some intense emotion about the destruction of local flora and fauna with the practice of mountaintop removal for the purpose of coal mining. Now,it is reaching his own backyard, so to speak. It is definitely a hard thing to pass through when EVERY thing familiar is going to be rearranged,scarred, and have no rhyme or reason for years to come, maybe never. Trees,animals,rivers,buildings, and people all take a beating in situations where the practice of dynamiting away huge rock surfaces becomes the norm to reach an end result. Human nature has a way of ignoring the situation when it doesn't want to face the facts. Either on the side of the commercial entity - turning a blind eye to the people's lives that are irrevocably damaged, or the residents of the affected areas that shove it under the rug in the backs of their minds - telling themselves it "won't happen to us." My hope is that big business can start being up-front with the populations in the areas where they plan their next excavation. Or is that EXplosion ? In closing, there are many issues that can lead us to become proactive about the spaces that we live in. I hope that somewhere along the mountain road each group involved can find a solution that will satisfy the needs of both...

Antler on a Tree

Antler on a Tree you say... Now what in the world could that possibly mean?!? Had some fun exploring recently. Took a climb up a huge staircase, behind a mountain, in the back middle of the interior of a store we see spoken of quite frequently on this blogspot. These antlers have long since parted company with the original owners. Imagine they may have been procured from antler auctions like those that took place at Dubuque,IA., at the 7th Annual Whitetail Classic Sport Show & Antler Auction ,this month. Only seeing these creations online or in catalogs didn't have the same effect as getting up close. My imagination went back to the beginning when the antler was still attached to the Whitetail "Big Buck", or in the case of Moose or Elk "Big Bull", sporting it high above his head. Were there some reindeer antler in there too? For some reason my mind wanders to the question"how many dogs would be using an antler table lamp for a chew toy given the opportunity?" Looks like something I wouldn't mind including in a cabin setting - to dream of the future... Do you own antler art, other than the trophy bucks hanging on the wall?