Notes from the Hollow

I recently learned of the death of a buddy from my army days. Russ Dwyer was from Arizona and helped teach me how to be a 72G at the Schwaebisch Gmuend Telecommunications Center for the 589th Signal Detachment.

Livetrapped this woodrat and released it into the wild at an undisclosed location.

Eastern Woodrats are the native woodrat of the Ozarks. They are vegetarians. Their healthy diet makes them a "clean" meat to eat, or so I've read - simiar to rabbit or groundhog. I've not tried one and doubt I will. Woodrats sometimes build large, complex homes and are supposed to be good parents. I've seen many nests built of briars off of blackberry bushes, which I bet keeps everything out except snakes and weasels.

Reminds me, for some reason, of the time I entered a muffler shop near here and heard one man telling another, "I eat groundhog, but I've never tried possum." That is a line more likely to be heard in the Ozarks than, say, Manhatten.

The old Shady Grove Church near Kings River in Carroll County, Arkansas is coming down and the stone looks like it will be hauled off.

My grandparents, Jack and Betty (Southerland) McCall met there for the first time.

Today a tombstone was set at the grave of William Alexander Weems in the Eureka Springs Cemetery. Alex Weems, as he was known, was a Civil War Veteran and the first Weems in Carroll County, Arkansas. Gordon Hale, President of the Carroll County Historical Society, set the marker, as he has done for many, many Civil War veterans all over the area.

Beaver Lake filled in hundreds of hollows in Northwest Arkansas.