Yesterday morning I took a hike up the mountain on the back of our property.

It's not the biggest mountain, and we don't own the whole thing, but it was still quite a hike. We live in a holler, about halfway up the slope of a small mountain. Our property line goes from just in front of our home, all the way back up to the ridgeline. All 18 acres of it were used for cattle grazing when we purchased the property, but since then we've let it grow wild, and so what used to be a fairly straightforward trek has turned into a bushwhacking experience in the summer, when all the vines and brambles take over.

I didn't hike all the way up to the ridgeline to get the highest (and best) view our property has to offer, but I did go to the second best spot--where there's an old, venerable oak tree that I like to visit from time to time. Here's the view from there.

And here are a couple of pictures of the oak tree. Its branches spread out so luxuriously because for a long time, it was the only tree on the hill. The cattle used it for shade. Now, it's surrounded by a lot of quick-growing young trees like tulip poplar and black locust. In the fall, we'll probably go up there with a hand saw and coppice most of those.

Because it's so big, I can't fit the whole tree into one frame, so I got it from two different angles to give an idea of its size. I dearly love this tree. I would like to build a treehouse in it, one day.

When I got back tot he house, my arms and legs were striped with scratches and dotted with thorn pokes. My pedometer says the trek up and back down again was only 1300 steps, but 1300 steps going up the side of a mountain feels like at least five times that. I was beat! But I really enjoyed the hike. I'm thinking of making it at least weekly, from now on.

Hi, I'm Starr!

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