Kreher Preserve & Nature Center

I'm a little late with my blogging!!  Life has been a whirlwind for me lately!!  I never appreciated all Mike did around the Ollie until he wasn't able to do hardly anything!!  Thank you, Mike....you're truly appreciated!!

I spent Sunday week ago washing the patio side of the Oliver!!  I might have mentioned this before but we have a gutter guard right behind the awning to stop any water from dripping on the patio during a rain.  This gutter guard gets all kinds of debris such as pine needles, leaves, acorns and such in it and then the water, whether its rain water or the run off from the AC gets trapped in this area, gets very dirty and drips down the sides of the Oliver making a stain on each end.  It takes quite a bit of elbow grease to get it cleaned out and white again.  Couple that with being short I have a hard time reaching behind the awning and cleaning this area out.  I think I was up and down the ladder at least 9 times going across the awning/gutter chasing this debris and dirt.  It was hot and I was wringing wet.  When I finished it looked good!!

Gerri just after she finished washing the Oliver

I was resting and cooling off when our son called and said he wanted to show us something pretty cool.  He knows how much we love birding and nature and he had been told about Kreher Preserve and Nature Center located right in the middle of Auburn...very near the campus because Auburn University maintains and runs this preserve.  To put it in their words, "to promote a sense of stewardship towards nature through quality environmental education, recreation, and outreach programs with Auburn University and its community partners." 
        

This is at the center of the parking lot

Main entrance into the walking trails

We discovered this area provides over six miles of trails winding through 120 acres where you can encounter area wildlife and seven different regional ecotypes.  The preserve provides nature based education to area schools through awesome field trips.  

There are events scheduled throughout the year including "Bird Walks" led by birding specialist.  

We were standing behind a bird blind

Workshops, programs and camps.  There is even a nature preschool which is the only Nature Preschool in East Alabama.  Last but certainly not least is the research that is conducted here on environmental engineering, wildlife sciences, forestry, biology and landscaping.        

Entrance into the fairy houses

Kids made the fairy houses

We spent about 3 hours here Sunday afternoon exploring one of the many trails.  We walked approximately two miles just enjoying the beauty and peacefulness the forest brings to your soul.  

Stephen at the herb garden

One of the walking trails

The fire pit near the amphitheater

The amphitheater

Kreher Preserve is definitely a place we will return to many many times when in this area!!  We didn't have our cameras with us so the pictures are the ones we captured on my IPhone.  

A pond along the trail, we saw a snake swim into this right in front of us

Our Guide...Stephen

Today marks 5 weeks for Mike since surgery!!!!  That means one more week and he's made it to his six weeks.  He has his x-rays on Tuesday that will show the progress he's made in fusing and growing bone.  He sees the neurosurgeon on Thursday and we sure hope that brace comes off and all those many restrictions with it.
We are getting a really bad case of HITCH ITCH!!!!!!!

Small waterfall along the trail

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully we'll see "down the road" very soon!!