Contrary to appearances I have not vanished.  In the 7 weeks since finishing my section hike of the Ouachita Trail I just haven’t done any one thing that seemed to deserve a blog post.

The first 5 of those weeks were kinda wet but I found 10 days that were relatively cool with a low chance of rain so I could do some work on both the Highlands and Ouachita trails.  I cleared brush along about 8 miles of trail that has been inadequately maintained.  The Highlands segment is probably now “under control” but the Ouachita segment will probably still need a lot of work this fall and next spring.

My sister and brother-in-law visited for 3-4 days.  One day we went to Mt Magazine for some sight-seeing and then did a tour of the wine-producing area just north of there around Altus.  I don’t drink wine but I’ve been wanting to see the wineries.  They do enjoy wine and went home with almost 2 cases, I think, from the Post and Chateau Aux Arc wineries.  We had dinner in the Weinkeller Restaurant in Wiederkehr Village.  The food was fine, but not anything special.

The last couple weeks have been dry with heat indexes over 100.  I’ve been shifting attention back to the to-do list at home that was abandoned when backpacking season began last fall.  Painting, landscaping, and some minor plumbing projects are underway.  By the end of the summer I might even be able to finish unpacking from the last move.