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It was an overcast, rainy, somewhat dreary Monday morning in early November, 2006 on the Upper Grant Creek area. The daughter had asked her father, the old geezer who lives next door, if he would be interested in helping her burn the six foot high by eleven foot diameter timber slag pile that was in the area between their two houses. This pile of branches, pieces of tree trunks and pine needles was the residue from six 100 foot tall dead pine trees that had been cut down a few weeks before. A fire permit had been obtained and the Local Fire Department said it was OK to burn today. ‘Guess they thought that because it was raining so hard it would be almost impossible for anyone to get a fire going. HA

The old geezer said yes, and with a little persistence, a whole lot of patience and a big jug of diesel fuel, the timber slag pile was turned into a hot….I mean….a very….very….hot fire…..even as it was raining. But the size of the fire was kept small enough so that it was under good control.

Even with all the rain, there were a few birds around the bird feeders that day, Stellar Jays especially. Several days before, a Magpie was observed in the area. Magpies aren’t usually seen this high up in the mountains. Did you know that Magpies are related to and are in the same family as Stellar Jays. That’s why the Magpies were here! THEY WERE VISITIN’ THEIR RELATIVES. How ’bout that. Just a valuable piece of information thrown in for free that you can use at one of your next social gatherings so you can impress everyone with your wildlife knowledge and expertise. No thanks necessary. In the olden days (70 years ago), the government paid a bounty for Magpies because they were such a nuisance and were destructive to farmers crops. Today they are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and it is illegal to kill them. ???

With the fire burning good and just needin’ ta be tended now and again, the daughter went on into her house to do some wifely and motherly chores while the old geezer stood fire guard duty. The old geezer was a leanin’ on his pitch fork and sometimes his rake, tendin’ the fire as needed, when he suddenly realized there was an outdoor couch sittin’ on the covered front porch of the daughter’s house. That couch looked awfully lonely and invitin’, so the old geezer went over and helped the couch out by laying on it. In this position, not only was he was out of the rain, but he could keep an eye on the fire, listen to the 120 songs on his i-pod and study the upper atmosphere. You know, look at the sky and the top of the 100 foot high trees that surrounded the burning timber slag pile and catch a 10 minute one closed eye nap. As he was concentratin’ on these new responsibilities, he noticed three different small branches about 80 or 90 feet off the ground on three different trees. These three different branches was just a dancing, wiggling and jiggling like crazy, while all the other branches on all of the trees in the area were dead still and not moving at all.

“Ah ha”, the old geezer thought, “Them Magpies and/or Stellar Jays is a bouncin’ on them branches”. But upon lookin’ closer he could see there were no birds of any kind around; nor were there squirrels or any other wildlife in the trees. Then he noticed tiny wisps of smoke swirling around the branches. You ever hear of a little bit of smoke powerful enough to make a tree branch dance like a chicken with its head cut off? The old geezer’s never heard of such a thing.

You don’t suppose it was the “PHANTOM of Upper Grant Creek”, do ya? Naaaa, we don’t believe in phantoms or ghosts or any such nonsense.
Naaaa,……………… it had to be the smoke. ??????

Papa (Jim Diede)

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Upper Grant Creek. Edit this entry.