Because of a sporting event of some consequence on Sunday, it looked likely that I wasn't going to get down to Roundrock then, and I didn't. I went to Fallen Timbers instead. New readers may not know that we have a second bit of forest on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks we call Fallen Timbers. It's a mere 40 acres (in a square), but we've owned it longer than Roundrock and have had lots of great adventures there. We don't visit as much as we used to, but when I suggested a trip to Libby on Sunday she hesitated only a moment (worrying about leaving Queequeg, who was in the care of #1 and #2 Sons) and then decided to go with me. (She had briefly flirted with the idea of bringing him along with us, intending to carry him in a backpack the entire time.) Eschewing our usual bagel breakfast and choosing instead to eat something from our own refrigerator, we still didn't get on the road any earlier. The ride to Fallen Timbers is a bit longer, the last third of it involving twisting Ozark roads that are both scenic and deadly in equal parts. But we managed to arrive alive and parked in the open acre on the ridgetop near the entrance. That's where you see Prolechariot parked in the photo above. (I don't think I have that much open space at Roundrock. Well, maybe among the pecans, but you wouldn't get that much view of the sky there.) We had no real agenda other than the clean up the fire ring and the couple hundred feet of road in. In years past, Good Neighbor Max would mow our road and the open area of the ridgetop, but we haven't seen sign of that in the last year. I still see his tractor at his cabin down the road, so I think he's still around. The fact that we don't visit Fallen Timbers much could mean that we've merely happened to go down there long after he has mown it. Regardless, we got to work with loppers and cleared the road, cutting back encroaching branches and removing scrub from the lane. When we were done, we had what looked like a nice broad avenue through the trees. (When we drove out a few hours later, it didn't seem as broad.) We also tidied up around the fire ring. I'm sure it's been more than five years since a fire burned there. (A windy Ozark ridgetop is not a prudent place for a fire.) I had built a log cabin fire with some cut-up branches years ago, and by the time we visited last Sunday, most of those logs were powder, held together by inertia. Had we been truly ambitious, we could have cut new logs from all of the downed tree branches here and there. We weren't though, and we didn't. Instead we rearranged the powdery logs, adding to them from a powdery pile of old logs nearby. We also cut away all of the scrub that had grown up inside the fire ring. I hadn't thought to bring the rake, which would have helped for clearing out the accumulated leaves and left a much more tidy appearance, but the wind may yet do that for us. When we were last out at Fallen Timbers, back in October, I think, we had visited three of the four corners, but for some reason, we had not hiked over to the southeast corner. The next thing on our agenda, therefore, was the hike to the southeast corner. Missouri calendar:

• Great horned owls begin nesting this week.

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