A morning walk filled with the sounds of barred owls, sandhill cranes, wild turkey and circling hawks.
Simple joys
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Category Archives: South
Yes, there are fish in Lake George.
Kent and Lynn: three hours and not a bite. Eagle: 60 seconds and he took home his dinner. We drowned worms, rattled lures along the surface, and stirred up the weeds with dozens of casts. Nothing! We called it quits and motored off toward camp. An eagle soared down from his perch high above the lake for one graceful loop across our wake. His powerful legs lowered and his talons extended. With one smooth swoop to the water’s surface he claimed a nice sized fish and powered his way back up to the nest to enjoy his dinner. It was impressive and a bit humbling. It’s a good thing we have groceries in the motorhome.
A bit of a shadow over a bright, pretty morning
Drab, soggy, still, blobs lined up on the edge of the fish cleaning table. I am not really against hunting but when I looked close-up at the cold results of a duck hunter’s morning foray it was heart wrenching. Hours ago those lifeless blobs were brightly colored, quick to wing, ring-neck ducks just like those we have been watching this past couple weeks. Reality can suck sometimes.
I did that!
Rather, we did that. About 6 of us on the Habitat crew we have been working to built a storage shed from the ground up. It was cool to think, we built that! Retirement has a lot going for it; but ah, the immediate gratification brought by tangible results of manual labor. It feels like work with this group is a good fit for us.
Roaring airboats roust the gators on the lake.
A line out, floating on a glassy smooth lake. Eagles and terns again are having much better success in the fishing department than we are. It is a peaceful, bright morning. Long before we could see it we heard the roar of the airboat engine. They are impossible for anyone to ignore. Kent says he has finally found something he dislikes more than jet skis. One, two, three of them circled the lake hugging the shoreline spooking up every living creature. That’s how we came to see the first gators out on the main lake. One was over 10 foot. The lake water is already over 70F but I don’t think there is any swimming in my plans.
Makes one think of the Wizard of Oz
Day two as house builders. More hammer wielding for both of us. Plus, Kent got to run a masonry drill to put a bunch of holes in the concrete floor. It seems that in addition to about a zillion hurricane straps to fasten the roof on, they also lag the house to the foundation to keep the whole thing from lifting off. I’m not so sure that people should even build down here!
A cacophony of hammer blows
Eight people on ladders simultaneously driving nails through metal hurricane straps (10 nails per strap) in a little 1200 ft2 house. It made my head rattle.
We worked a Habit for Humanity house today. Kent spent a lot of time with feet on a ladder and a hammer in his hand and a bit of time running various saws. He pretty much jumped into the fray from the beginning. We both enjoyed our first foray into this type of volunteering.
Truthfully, my day was a little touch and go.
We were all signed in, had tools, and were on the house porch waiting for our task assignments. Our project coordinator turned to me and said “Do you mind being the safety watch?” In my head I sighed, “Can you imagine a duller job? From my mouth came, “Sure. I’ll do that”. It turned out much better than I thought. I ended up working the outside of the wall while one of the guys used a sawsall to cut out window and door openings. It was rewarding to see our progress and we were done by noon so I even got some hammer time in the afternoon. I didn’t have much opportunity to show off my rad mechanical aptitude but by the end of the day I felt like I had contributed to something good.
We are heading back to play carpenter or whatever they need tomorrow.
Oh, oh, a little sun burn.
It was 80 and sunny and we were out in the boat all day today. Even with SPF 15 we both got a bit of color.
Kent caught a gar, a really weird looking fish. It has row upon row of nasty teeth and is so long and skinny it wouldn’t have made even one decent fillet. He threw it back. I caught nothing. Again. I am holding out for the whopper!
Going on a bear hunt
Ocala National Forest, the heart of Florida Black Bear country. We hiked a bit and drove through the center but, no bears. The folks at the visitor center say the females and cubs are still denning but males and young females are out and about. We will hunt another day.