Vacation

Just got back from a camping trip to Fort Custer State Recreation area, in Augusta.












I have been there before, but Charlie had not. I had it confused with one of the other camp grounds where we had camped.
Some of the sites at Custer are a little samll, but most of them hav a lot of wooded space between sites. On Thursday about noon while the guys were off doing something, I drove around the park there were only 13 sites occupied. The first week of June, before school gets out is not a bad week to go camping if you can manage it.

We got set up on Tuesday and Charlie and the dog went for a walk. I was alone at the camp site and heard, in the distance, what sounded like somebody pounding on a tree with a hammer. It got closer and closer, then I saw it a huge Pileated Woodpecker, I went to get may camera and it was gone by the time I got back, but this is what it looked like. The sound it makes when it is peeking at a tree is really loud. Like I said like someone hitting a tree with a baseball bat.

While I'm talking about birds, I don't know if I have every mentioned this site before, but it is really cool, it has great pictures of birds, and you are able to hear the song, or call.

Ed came on Tuesday and went to gather fire wood he came back with a piece of wood about 8 feet long.
He and Charlie took a long time to cut it up so it would partially fit in the fire pit. We never did figure out what kind of wood it was, but it was really hard, and didn't burn very hot.

While we were gone, something got into the hen house and got several of the baby chicks, Charlie found parts and pieces of at least 7 chicks and we think a duck it got a duck because we haven't seen it around. Charlie thinks it was probably a raccoon and says he his going to sit out with his gun tonight and wait for them.

In the strange critter happenings category.

• A neighbor down the road said he heard a cougar in the woods in back of his house. He said the horses and dogs were all upset. He called a few nights later and said it was out again. We went out and heard nothing from our yard. We drove down the road and definitely heard something but it did not sound like a cat, or a dog, maybe a mad raccoon.
• A couple of other neighbors, said they have seen very large tracks that looked like dog track but had claw prints. One of them had a 40 pound bag of dog food carried off, leaving a trail to the woods.