The Back 40

Our property line doesn't end at the edge of our backyard, but continues down a rather steep ravine. Despite living here for nearly six years, none of us had ever seen what is down there, so curiosity finally got the best of me and I headed down with my trusty camera. What I wanted to see most was a wee stream at the bottom, but what I found was much cooler than that.

Terrific Stump

Cool mushroom, bigger than my foot

Tiny spider

Kitty on a log, halfway down the ravine and I can hear water.

Aha! Found it.

Neat limestone half-moon waterfall

Layers of rock

Down the watershed

Human refuse brought here by the water.

I was really saddened to find quite a bit of refuse down there. Possibly some of it landed during the 100-year flood we had in 2010. Debris is a terrible problem for the Middle Tennessee watershed, which is another reason I'm glad to be helping in the annual cleanup by the Nashville Clean Water Project. Metals and plastics leach chemicals into the water that harm birds and other wildlife and all that refuse has a dramatic negative impact on our beautiful natural environment in Middle Tennessee. It's all connected! If we don't pick it up, it could wind up in the Gulf of Mexico; debris from other parts of the U.S. might find their way to the Pacific Trash Vortex.

We like to think we are insulated from our waste, when we sit with our laptop in our sanitized, temperature-controlled homes. We like to think we are masters of our environment. But we are woefully out of sync with the deepest rhythms of our earth, of which we are just a part. Nature will find a balance. If we don't act, our trash will always find us in the end.

Not down the ravine, but a cool caterpillar "train" and gathering.