Indian Nut Cracker

A while back a herd of deer moved into the woods on the back of my property in Ashford.  They ate the undergrowth enough that I could walk in areas that I had previously left alone.  I am sure they are related to goats, but are more ambitious in the clean out aspect.  As I was walking through the other day I came upon these two rocks.  I thought it was unusual to see them together, since there were no more anywhere around.  Usually I walk by rocks like this, but the appearance of these two was so weird that I stopped for a second look.
     The one had smooth edges with an indention about 3/4 of an inch deep.  It was a grinding stone, but looked as if it had some damage on the inside of the indention.  The rough one had some crazy marks on it.  A curved line about 3 inches long with a hole at each end.  I showed them to my friend,  Craig Seay, who is an Indian artifact guru.  He said the damage to the indention was caused by someone using the stone to crack nuts.  I don't know if you can see in the photo, but there are two indentions inside the large indention that are used to hold nuts and keep them in place while they are being smacked by another rock.  The other rock was used to sharpen arrow points and the holes were used to sharpen the tips of the arrows, by spinning them in the holes.  I guess that I found an old Indian's tool shed.

Cardinal

On this 11x17 inch oil on canvas, I used a palate knife and spackling paste to mold the bird, leaves and branch.  I think I will use this more often.