Kolb Knob in June '04

For the first 3 days of this week (june 14) the whole family (minus Becky, who had to work) went to a 500 acre farm owned by a friend of ours, Joe Kolb. Kolb Knob is located several miles southwest of Jacksonville in northeast Texas. It consists mostly of pastures with mixed forests in spots. We stay in a former sharecropper's cabin on small 2-3 acre lake surrounded by trees. The 3/4 acre house site is populated with about 3 dozen loblolly pines about 70 years in age, 50 feet high.

Aside from the beauty of the place, the most striking feature is it's isolation. Not a sound of civilization can be heard except for the train 'whistle' in the distance. The trip to the lake house proceeds from a 4 lane highway with turns onto a 2 lane highway with paved shoulders to a 2 lane road with a painted center stripe, no shoulders, to a 2 lane county road, no shoulders or stripe, to a farm road with two graveled paths, to a two track grass path. The final approach to the cabin could be considered a mere depression in the grass. A bit tough to locate in the dark. No phone, no radio, no TV.

Apart from fishing, about the only thing you can do is bird watch. And relax.

Sighted on this trip (apart from the common cardinal, mocking bird, etc.): kingfisher, Eastern kingbird, Eastern bluebird, red headed woodpecker, piliated woodpecker, red breasted woodpecker, scissor tailed flycatcher, painted bunting. The most interesting was the pewee with its plaintive call.