Swoosh. Swoosh. Like a whale exhale. What is that noise? Oh yeah, this is manatee country, even this far inland. The manatees are enjoying the warm spring water of Salt Creek as it flows toward Lake George. They didn’t come real close to the boat but we caught a few glimpses and listened to them for a while. Very cool.
Eagles and osprey in search of their next meal circle overhead and do that amazing hovering thing. Fortunately for them, they are much more successful at fishing then we have been so far. Still birds, lots of birds. A couple of great blue herons are regulars around the fish cleaning table. Seems that they get hand outs now and again.
Word around camp is that fishing gets better late January when bass are spawning. Here’s hoping! There is other stuff to do and floating on the lake in 70+ weather isn’t to shabby. We got rained on a bit today but all in all, ok.
Gator country again. Only a couple so far.
We have settled in at a Marina on Lake George in Florida. We cruised the lake this afternoon. Birding is going to be fun. There are lots of eagles, heron, pelicans, terns and other water birds and the boat is a great vantage point for watching. Lots of fishing guides claim it is one of the best lakes in the state but we haven’t wet a line yet so time will tell about the fishing.
Jumping Fish 
Sand sculpture
Mother Hubbard’s shoe 
Barnyard 
Eagle 
Santa’s Sleigh
Thanks to the Charleston SC Parks Department for the lovely drive-thru display open for most of December. We drove through twice and spent about 2 hours walking around admiring. Really hard to capture the beauty and grandeur of the many acres of lights.
Perfect for waxing the trailer. Kent did most of the work. I don’t like the high steps of the ladder. It is big enough that we both got a good shoulder workout. It has not been banner Florida weather. We are hoping it improves soon. We are heading down to Lake George to try our hand at fishing.
Along the shore of a black water pond the pine needles are pushed up into a pile six feet long and two feet across. Some sort of scat is scattered across the whole pile. Ick. Looks a lot like a gator nest to us. I wonder!? It isn’t the right time of year for gator eggs in Florida but we didn’t hang around very long to see if some out of sync mama gator was watching over it.
Hit-n-miss engines are powering all manner of device at a small show in StarkeFL. We have been to similar shows around Indiana but there were some cool, unique machines here. There was an early addition shopsmith, sort of. It is a combination band saw, planer, joiner, and a shaper built in 1910. It was all belt driven from an old hit-n-miss, single stroke Cushman engine. 
The same collector also had a snow fence making machine, circa 1920 that twisted the wire to capture the slats and automatically coiled the finished fence. It was quite ingenious. There were outboard motors back to 1910, a mechanically timed hay compactor/baler,
a specialized saw for making shake shingles, and plenty of old tractors. We got an invite to their big show that is a little further south in January. Maybe we’ll try it?
Rare wood storks, great blue heron, egrets, brown pelicans, osprey; they covered a huge leafless oak like ornaments.
We are among live oak trees again. The wide reaching limbs draped with Spanish moss create an inviting world of soft greens. The trail is surrounded by the rustling sounds made by crunchy leaves of the palmetto moving in the breeze. It is beautiful in the daylight. I suspect it could be a bit creepy as the sun sets and shadows move in.
Oh, just so you know, I think we found the latitude below which mosquitoes thrive year round…about Jacksonville, FL30o 24.414. We had to dig the DEET out today.
In it’s hey day, dozens of slaves on the Kingsley Plantation on George Island harvested acres of premium long strand sea island cotton and produced highly sought after indigo dye. It is now a National Historic Site with a focus on the lives of African slaves and survival of their cultures. It seems that Zephaniah Kingsley allowed his slaves to keep their given names and to practice their own traditions (at least to a greater extent than most owners). Plantation records document who was brought here and when. As a result, African Culture archeologists are using this place to recreate a fuller picture of those peoples’ history, culture, customs and lives.
