Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures
    The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures
    The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures

    By Sherry Chadwell

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A wild raven learns to trust the author and her husband.
    A bat flies in to gently take moths from a child's fingers.
    A mother warbler perches on the author's thumb to feed its babies held in the palm of her hand.
    A foundling baby pack rat grows up with the family and is gradually returned to his natural home in the woods.

    These are just a few of the tales found within these pages. Sherry Chadwell takes the reader on heart-warming and delightful adventures with creatures wild and tame, in settings that range from her home and yard to the heights of her beloved Siskiyou Mountains. Woven among the stories are the author's essays and observations on the marvelous natural world around us, and the whole is brought further to life by Sherry's richly-detailed pencil illustrations.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSherry Chadwell
    Release dateDec 3, 2013
    ISBN9781311901620
    The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures
    Author

    Sherry Chadwell

    Bobcats in the backyard, bears on the front porch and skunks under the floor are regular occurrences for Sherry Chadwell and her artist husband, Jim Bowlin, at their home in the woods of Southwestern Oregon. As Sherry comments, "Our lives are enriched by our constant contact with Nature. Every day holds the promise of a new adventure."They have surrounded themselves with animals, including wild foundlings they have raised and released, and have embraced the lessons these temporary members of the family have taught.Sherry is a wildlife artist, working primarily in pencil and watercolor. She and Jim are happiest when they are outdoors hiking, fishing, canoeing, or otherwise enjoying the wilderness. Sherry also spends time "running across fields, swamps, hills and gullies," training her tracking German shepherd, Sage.

    Related to The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures

    Related ebooks

    Nature For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Healing In The Forest

      Jul 2, 2020

      Healing In The Forest
      4 min read

    • Article

      Roosevelt Elk Relived

      Aug 2, 2022

      Roosevelt Elk Relived
      5 min read

    • Article

      Moments Of Truth

      Jan 10, 2023

      Moments Of Truth
      7 min read

    • Article

      Even Necessity Is Fun

      Jun 22, 2022

      Even Necessity Is Fun
      5 min read

    • Article

      Bold Buck Amid A Barking Chorus

      Jun 30, 2021

      Bold Buck Amid A Barking Chorus
      5 min read

    • Article

      Going Over And Above For Doves

      May 18, 2022

      Going Over And Above For Doves
      5 min read

    • Article

      Boss hen

      Sep 14, 2020

      Boss hen
      7 min read

    • Article

      In Relation to All Things

      Apr 25, 2023

      In Relation to All Things
      6 min read

    • Article

      My First Deer

      Jul 5, 2023

      My First Deer
      2 min read

    • Article

      Doe May Flee

      Jan 7, 2021

      Doe May Flee
      4 min read

    • Article

      Looming Large

      Apr 11, 2023

      Looming Large
      7 min read

    • Article

      Chasing Ghosts Among The Trees

      May 31, 2023

      Chasing Ghosts Among The Trees
      5 min read

    • Article

      An Impossible Tusk?

      Nov 25, 2020

      An Impossible Tusk?
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Joy Of Boxing Day

      Nov 19, 2020

      The Joy Of Boxing Day
      5 min read

    • Article

      Learning To Take Your Chances

      Mar 1, 2023

      Learning To Take Your Chances
      5 min read

    • Article

      Twenty Times To Tassie

      Apr 12, 2023

      Twenty Times To Tassie
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Wrights of Swastika

      Aug 13, 2020

      The Wrights of Swastika
      7 min read

    • Article

      Arnhem Land excerpts

      Feb 28, 2018

      Arnhem Land excerpts
      6 min read

    • Article

      Bad Luck Blesbuck

      Jan 21, 2022

      ON A cold July afternoon, a young man crouched beside me where we waited concealed in a shallow, bush-covered gully. We call it the sloot. Ahead of us stretched a large open plain. At the far edge of the plain, where a minute ago there had been no si

      6 min read

    • Article

      In The Line Of Duty

      Mar 22, 2023

      In The Line Of Duty
      5 min read

    • Article

      Girl Talk

      Jun 28, 2022

      Girl Talk
      10 min read

    • Article

      Red Letter Day

      Dec 10, 2020

      Red Letter Day
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Saga of Peabody and Other True Life Adventures - Sherry Chadwell

      The

      Saga of Peabody

      And Other

      True Life Adventures

      Stories and Essays

      by

      Sherry Chadwell

      Raven Mountain Press

      The Saga of Peabody

      And Other True Life Adventures

      Copyright 2013 Sherry A. Chadwell

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      All art work by Sherry A. Chadwell

      Dedication & Acknowledgments

      To my husband and best friend, Jim, who is a co-conspirator in so many of the tales in this book, and who is always coming up with a great idea for the next wild adventure.

      To my parents, Thelma and Rixey, who fostered in me a love of Nature, and who gave me every opportunity to be who I was meant to be.

      To the Barn Owls: Shirley, Pilar, Jean, BJ, Sharon, Joan—and Alan, our rooster among the hens, whose loss has left this world a poorer place. You are my friends, my critics and an endless font of encouragement.

      And, finally, to this incredible wide world and the funny, fascinating and beautiful creatures that live in it. They are what have inspired the stories within and continue to make each day a new adventure.

      Table of Contents

      An April Encounter

      The Virgin Tree

      Raven

      Smoke

      Bees—A Requiem

      Fun With Flip

      A Winter Song

      The Saga of Peabody

      Mr. Sonar

      A Warbler Tale

      Wonder Mountain

      Incubation—Hen and Machine

      Bullbat Ridge

      Traces

      Eight Eyes

      Skunk and the Egg

      Storm Walk

      About the Author

      Connect with the Author

      An April Encounter

      Woom, woom, woom, woom, woom.

      They say men can hear sound in lower ranges than women. Maybe that’s why my husband, Jim, could hear it. I could only feel a low throbbing against my skin, a vibration upon my eardrums that was not interpreted by my brain as sound.

      That April day, we’d parked our truck at the end of a logging spur, high on the back side of Wonder Mountain. We walked toward the forest of old-growth Douglas fir and sugar pine, stepping onto a path that led from the open, sunlit road into a shadowed world. Grand old trees rose around us, the wind whispering through their crowns high overhead. Purple lupine and the pale yellows of trout lily and wild iris lined both sides of the path. Foot-long sugar pine cones lay among last year’s leaves on the forest floor. The earthy perfume of the woods filled the air. The trail began to climb, following a ridge, the mountain dropping away on either side.

      Woom, woom, woom, woom, woom.

      The thrumming began to register to me as sound—low, bass, and still felt more than heard. With each step, it increased in volume until we arrived at our destination. Tipping our heads back, we trained binoculars onto the ancient trees around us, concentrating on the bottommost boughs that were still forty and fifty feet overhead. Some of those limbs were as big around as a man’s thigh, the bark rough and black. Pale, gray-green streamers of old man’s beard lichen trailed a foot or more from them.

      Woom, woom, woom, woom, woom.

      The sound was all around us. We circled and glassed.

      Jim saw him first and pointed toward one of the massive, overhead boughs. I trained my binoculars on the spot and found the bird on the limb, standing next to the trunk. He was the size of a chicken, and blue-gray in color. The bird cocked his head, looking down at us. Then he leaned forward, swelled his neck feathers and spread his tail into a broad fan.

      Woom, woom, woom, woom, woom.

      It was a male blue grouse, sending his mating call rolling out over the mountainside. As we watched, he displayed and called again and again. Two bright yellow sacs, inflated with air, were visible among the feathers on either side of his neck. They acted as resonating chambers to magnify the sound.

      For several springs, we’d come to this spot, to hear the big blues booming, but this time we were prepared to try an experiment. Jim had with him an empty two-liter Coke bottle. Putting the opening to his lips, he blew across it in a familiar pattern of bass notes.

      Woom, woom, woom, woom, woom.

      The grouse froze. Then, with wingtips dropped low and tail dragging, he swaggered a few steps along the branch, stopped, and stood still as if listening.

      Jim again blew across the bottle.

      The bird became electrified. He puffed out his feathers, raised his tail and fanned it, strutted several more feet along the branch. Then, dropping his head and swelling his throat, he answered.

      Woom, woom, woom, woom, woom.

      Jim replied with his Coke bottle.

      The big bird rocketed from his tree and across the path on whirring wings, landing in a fir on the other side, looking around for his rival. Whoever that interloping he-grouse was, our grouse was going to kick butt!

      If he could just find him.

      The big blue flew from branch to branch, searching for the other bird. Again, he boomed out his challenge.

      Again, Jim answered.

      The grouse, noticeably ticked off, displayed and boomed and displayed some more.

      Finally, Jim stopped his teasing, deciding he’d given the grouse enough excitement for one day.

      After our big blue called several minutes more with no response, he appeared confident he’d frightened his rival off with his superior prowess. He calmed down and returned to his original pattern of booming, with long pauses in between. Jim and I stayed for a while longer, then made our way back down the path and left him in peace.

      The Virgin Tree

      The sugar pine towered above the other trees, dominating the skyline to the southeast of our home. She was old when we first made her acquaintance, the only remaining member of the original virgin growth that had covered this patch of land. Our family called her The Virgin Tree.

      This was in 1963 when I was thirteen. My father had just retired from the U.S. Army and my parents moved our family to Southern Oregon. They built our house on a beautiful piece of forested property. I’d known little but suburban life until then but I thrived in my new environment, growing to love the woods.

      The firs and pines were second growth, the very large old trees having been logged off long before. Just scattered, disintegrating stumps three feet and more in diameter gave mute testimony to what had been. The lone exception was The Virgin Tree, holding court over the rest. She was over four and a half feet in diameter and surely reaching well over a hundred feet above the earth.

      I was fairly certain why she alone, of all her kindred, had been spared the logger’s saw and axe. When I stood at her base, as I often did, I could see that long ago she’d been hit by lightning, the explosive electric charge gouging a spiral path down her length. The bolt from the heavens could have ended her life—instead it saved it. She survived the strike and it left an obvious scar that must have rendered her lumber unusable. The loggers left the damaged tree alone.

      How old was she? Surely two hundred years or more. She’d been here before white man had found this place, when the wolves and grizzlies still roamed the area and Indians still quietly trod the wooded trails as they had for thousands of years. For most

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1