Caves and Kivas

Posted on August 17, 2013 by waterhigh

So many things can go wrong . . . .
Eastman boat in Chicago
24 July 1915

Just finished reading Preston/Child’s Thunderhead, a thriller set in the mysterious canyons of the desert Southwest. Thrills. Chills. And sherds. Lots of potsherds.

New words: kiva; Quivera.

Forrest Fenn is listed in the Acknowledgements. You’ll see why if you read it.

Will I sleep tonight? Yes. Well, maybe.

Will I wander the canyons in the Southwest? Not on your life.

I also picked up Treasure Island at the library since it’s mentioned in Fenn’s The Thrill of the Chase . I don’t think I ever read it as a kid. I see that there is a Skeleton Island on the treasure map, and, (yes, I peeked at the ending which I rarely ever do), there is a cave — filled with all manner of gold and such.

Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Chest

Click on this link to see a 45 million year old stalagmite in Europe.Antiparos, the Cyclades – A travelogue [part II].

Review: Preston/Child – Relic (abstracthorizons.wordpress.com)
Underwater Cave (rbcconnects.com)
Treasure Island: A Review (nobodyputssarahinthecorner.com)
Explorer rescued after getting stuck inside New Milford cave (rep-am.com)

Blackberry Moon

Posted on August 8, 2013 by waterhigh

Tiny thing

Yes. Another frog. This little guy posed for me this morning while I was gathering wild blackberries.

(Courtesy note: no new Forrest Fenn/Thrill of the Chase Treasure Hunt clues in here. Just frogs and flutterbys….)

By the time I put the last batch through the juicer to take out the seeds on Tuesday, I ended up with only 9 half-pints of jam. Not enough for Christmas gifting and a year’s supply for us. Not a problem. There are plenty more out there.

Blackberry thorns are meaner than the wild raspberry’s, which ripen in June. So, I armored up, grabbed water, my phone, and my camera. Ready or not, I still missed a shot of the deer and fawn getting a drink. And darn it—the butterflies just won’t sit still for me.

I’ve seen several black and blue swallowtails, very large yellow butterflys, small ones, a tiny blue one, but only 3 monarchs fluttered by this year.

English: Photograph of a Monarch Butterfly. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The monarchs are in some distress.

milkweed

I’ve got plenty of milkweed plants for them (want some seeds?), but I heard they’re not making it past the Texas drought area. There are several generations per summer. The final generation flies all the way back to Mexico to winter in a particular area.

The bigger disaster for their population was 2 winters ago. I remember hearing that a hailstorm hit their winter haven and decimated the flock. Crop Duster

Another issue is the ubiquitous use of pesticides which don’t discriminate between life forms based on desirability. Don’t you wonder what they’re spraying up there? Fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, peoplecides. And why, if the biotech transgenetics are so wonderful?

US distribution of Japanese Beetle, (This map is not entirely accurate. Infestation is established much farther west at least to the Oklahoma line.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

About the berries. I don’t pick along the fencelines where the neighbors are raising corn and soybeans. So, yes. There are occasional bugs in the bucket. But, I’d rather remove them myself than pollute my food.

Still. I’m really not happy with the voracious Japanese beetles who moved into the neighborhood 3 summers ago. First it was the grapevines. Then the rosebush. This year the orchard. The bright side? The chickens come running when I shake them out of the trees.

Japanese beetles foraging on grapevine

Where are all the monarch butterflies this year? (ctvnews.ca)
Why monarch butterflies’ numbers are in freefall (theglobeandmail.com)
This one’s cute: How A Frog Fights Rain (ramanan50.wordpress.com)

“One of These Things Is Not Like the Other”

Posted on July 31, 2013 by waterhigh

SESAME STREET*Google (Photo credit: COG LOG LAB.)

I’ve got that Sesame Street song in my head. It’s been laying tracks for a while now–the subconscious working on the conscious.

“One of these things just doesn’t belong. . .”

Result: I’ve come to the conclusion that no way were the Fenn’s hungry enough to eat meadowlarks during the Depression. The father had a college degree, steady employment, and apparently, plenty of fish and potatoes. Besides, who would go to all that trouble. I’m going to attribute that to the 15% of the memoir he made up, and add it to the list of questions I’d love to ask him someday. Like, when I drop off the bracelet. (I wish.)

So. Why is that story in the book? Four meadowlarks and a scissortail.

“Can you tell me which thing is not like the other . . .”

Full houses in poker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why are four cards and a joker mentioned? Why are there four nuggets and a frog, and a coin, sitting on the map?

“. . . Before I finish my song?”

English: Pot of gold under post! Consolation prize after a soaking. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Or at least before I head west for The Thrill of the Chase.

A visit to the book factory (hotkeyblog.com)
Pic Shows End Of The Rainbow (No Pot Of Gold) (now100fm.cbslocal.com)

Hackles and Cackles

Posted on July 16, 2013 by waterhigh

The greenest Badlands I ever saw

It’s been a little quiet on the western front. Maybe the searchers have boots on the ground. Only so many weeks before the snow flies again. . . .

Color Plate A from Favorite Flies and Their Histories – Mary Orvis Marbury, 1892 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, until the next Today Show clue from Forrest Fenn, you might want to visit Dal’s blog and see the latest video interviews he did with Mr. Fenn. There are several under the heading “Gone Fishing”.

They are not all related to the sport, but I especially enjoyed watching Forrest tie a Woolly Worm. He made it look easy.

I have, rather, will have, some of the raw materials, when this guy and his cousins grow up.

Junior Hackles

I’m just not sure how (or IF) it’s going to go from A to B, so to speak.

Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park (colescruising.com)

Chasing Idaho

Posted on July 1, 2013 by waterhigh

The Fisherman

Not a long post. Just wanted to mention the 2 new pages on this site: Flywater, filed under The Book, and Idaho, filed under The Diagrams. (A great and future destination.)

Okay. I have mixed feelings about crossing Idaho off my top three TTOTC list, but that’s okay.

Raspberry Trove

There’s so much to be done.

Count all the bees in the hive.

Pick another batch of berries.

Pit the cherries.

New Clue –Forrest Fenn on NBC Today Show

Posted on June 28, 2013 by waterhigh

“The treasure is not hidden in Idaho or Utah.”—–Forrest Fenn

English: Clearwater River near Orofino, Idaho (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s the link:

http://www.today.com/news/keep-searching-fresh-clue-released-hunt-n-m-treasure-worth-6C10480482

Well. That narrows it down by 168,469 square miles. I can cross one trip off my list and write about where I was going to look.

Darn. It looked like a lot of fun. Wait. Maybe I’ll still go down that canyon. . . .

Today Show Clue Delayed

Posted on June 27, 2013 by waterhigh

Hard to corral . . .

Forrest Fenn has notified Dal that the Today Show clue won’t be given until Friday morning, about 0505. (Click on Thrill of the Chase blog for the full message.)

I’d guess that’s Mountain Time zone.

Looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, back to my new decoder ring. ; )

(Re–(Updated) Clues Blues

Posted on June 19, 2013 by waterhigh

Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Ches

{Now scheduled for Friday, June 28th at 0505 Fenn Time}

For those of you not familiar with the Chase, Forrest Fenn has been giving out one new clue a month on the Today Show. It was scheduled for June 17th but got postponed. Not for the first time. Last month they made him get up at 3 something in the morning two days in a row. “Truck trouble,” they claimed. (Although I suspect the crew was out searching for the treasure on the extra day.) ~~It’s now scheduled for June~~ ~~27th~~ ~~(Not~~ the 28th)according to Stephanie (What’s A Blaze) at Chasechat.

So far the clues have been:

helpful. Like don’t dig up old outhouses (people apparently thought that’s what “putting in below the home of Brown” meant. Not what came to my mind.
common sense. Like, don’t dig up a cemetery. Again, not something that crossed my mind.
vague/general. Like, it’s above 5000 feet. Not a surprise since he said it was in the Rocky Mountains.

Actually, I don’t mind the generality of the extra hints. I don’t want to hear that it’s been found already. I still plan to head West as soon as we get the chance. I say we. I’m waiting on my husband to clear his schedule. He’s mildly amused by my new hobby. Also, I haven’t exactly figured out the poem yet….

Forrest Fenn says all one needs is the poem, which is in the book.

Meanwhile, enjoy the Thrill of the Chase as you search/seek/solve/obsess …..

Tea with Olga

Posted on June 16, 2013 by waterhigh

: tea time (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some things don’t jump out at you until later.

This chapter of The Thrill of the Chase is about a neighbor and friend of Forrest Fenn’s, a bittersweet story. It put me in mind of many things, the line from Robert Frost’s poem, for one, about having promises to keep.

Another was a woman who lived down the hall in the hospital dormitory. She was old, and frail, and worked in the surgery department, as I recall. She was a refugee from the Sudetenland. Quiet.

I dropped off some cherry tomatoes from my Dad’s garden one day. She couldn’t eat them, but insisted on returning the kindness by preparing blintzes for me. A first and best ever for me.

She also shared a bit of her story. I hope I get this right. I think it was well after the Nazi’s had rescued/annexed/invaded the area, and that it was the Russians coming through much later. Either way, soldiers came to the house and demanded that her mother get up to prepare them a meal. Her mother was quite ill and in bed. They beat her anyway. If I knew anymore than that, I’ve forgotten it.

I also don’t know what happened to the sweet woman who made me the blintzes. They closed the dorm, and I’d moved on. She had a daughter in the area.

There are so many stories out there that we never get to hear. Or is it that we don’t “listen good”?

So, what did I learn from this chapter of TTOTC? I think it was about making adjustments in the face of reality.

Yes, Forrest Fenn was headed for the summit, the usually icy, snowy peak, but the green of the meadows within the ponderosa and aspen seemed the better choice.

And, that’s why I think he may not have hidden the chest where he originally intended. Just speculation on my part. Like he said, “Indecision is the key to flexibility, . . . .”

Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Chest

But then again, he said he “knew exactly where to hide the chest . . . .”

Addendum — June 23, 2013

I just listened to a WGN interview with Forrest Fenn, not sure of the date, in which he said he’d been very certain of where he was going to hide the chest. You can listen to it and find other Thrill of the Chase info at Shaun’s site. (http://www.creationeer.co.uk/forrestfennfacts.htm)

Meadowlarks and “Flutterbys”

Posted on May 31, 2013 by waterhigh

The most beautiful birdsong is that of the meadowlark. I miss them. I’m a hundred plus miles distant from where I grew up. Even twenty-five miles away from the farm, and twenty years later, the song was not the same. It was truncated, not as sweet somehow.

I can’t imagine they’d make very good eating, but I won’t judge what hunger necessitates. (See the TTOTC book and One of These Things is Not Like the Other.)

Lewis and Clark, other early explorers, traders, and the emigrants that followed, even contemporary travelers, have found themselves in dire straights in cold mountains and hot deserts.

This image was selected as a picture of the week on the Malay Wikipedia for the 1st week, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I know a woman who didn’t learn until she was nearing fifty that her father had spent a year in Stateville for stealing a chicken. Four kids to feed. Had lost a farm and home due to fire before the Depression hit. Even so.

She remembers at four or five overhearing adults discussing an eviction. One of them saying, “Well, I can’t kick them out in the cold.”

Purple Prairie Coneflower

Summer always returns. Here we have Indigo buntings, hummingbirds, cardinals and vultures. Prairie flowers and butterflies galore. (At least, until the chemicals and transgenics get them.)

I’ve never known hunger. Not like that. And I hope our children never do. It’s so much nicer when they can enjoy and observe the “flutterbys”.

“If Robert Redford had ever written anything….” Forrest Fenn

Posted on May 30, 2013 by waterhigh

Robert Redford in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) ( Sorry I missed this event. I love Madison.)

When I returned my armload of TheThrill of the Chase-related library books yesterday, I thought I’d check the history section again. It’s about 4 1/2 feet long, but has had an amazing amount of titles I could use in the chase.

After a minor delay (they’d rearranged their shelves), I found 5 more books to check out that I hadn’t seen before. I suspect someone else in this county is also on the TOTC hunt and had just returned them.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when they landed on a young Robert Redford. Serendipity strikes again. Important Literature. I won’t mention the title, but it was sub-titled A Journey Through Time. Does that not resonate, fellow Fennsters?

The book is full of photos of a trip on horseback that Redford took in the Rocky Mountains (more than 300 miles west of Toledo) and some fascinating anecdotes, historical and otherwise.

English: U.S. Postage: Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1954 Issue-3c. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Currently, I’m thumbing through a book, a 1979 publication by the National Geographic Society, and taking copious notes. And then there’s one on Lewis and Clark.

Another of the books on that same history shelf is on fly fishing. I should probably study that before I head west.

My husband/fiance/boyfriend at the time tried to teach me how to fly fish.

Putting In

One of the problems was that we were in a canoe on a lake in Wisconsin. (A friend dubbed the plastic orange-ish Coleman “a barge with points.” It did have stability in its favor.)

We’ve since bought fly rods. I’ve got waders, needed for another purpose. I picked up an assortment of flies. I watched my Dad fly fish. Am I ready for a chalk stream in the Rockies? I just hope no one will be video-taping.

Serendipity

Posted on May 21, 2013 by waterhigh

The morels and asparagas already gone, I wandered a washed field on Mother’s Day afternoon and found a trove of arrowheads, mostly pieces. Like gold and fish, they are where you find them. I think luck plays a part, but also some logic and imagination. To find Forrest Fenn’s The Thrill of the Chase treasure, it will take all of the above. And research. He says the lucky finder will be able to walk right to it, deliberately.

And so, we seekers continue our research and refine our plans. A simple Venn diagram (see Wikipedia) is a series of overlapping circles yielding useful data. A Fenn diagram is going to look more like a flow chart

Flowchart (Photo credit: BWJones)

branching off each time a clue has more than one solution. There are so many diagrams because no one knows where to begin. Well, we might think we do.

I thought at first it would be a simple fill-in-the-blank game. Decide where the warm waters halt, where to put in, and what the blaze is. Okay. But ‘halt’ has many meanings, likewise ‘warm waters’, even ‘warm’. And then you start to wonder, what does ‘it’ even mean!

A couple weeks ago, I came up with an utterly unique answer for “where warm waters halt”. This week, I even found a butterfly connection.

So, maybe the Chase isn’t keeping me away from the internet, but it has gotten me into the library, especially the history section. Here’s to all your discoveries made along the way. Enjoy.