Birds of Prey... In My Backyard

It started out innocently enough.  I wandered outside the house to take a few photos of my garbage cans.  Pretty boring, right?  Last week we had a storm come through, and a few tornados touched down.  Even though we were miles away from the tornados, we had some extremely high winds.  I realized that I was going to have to pick up a bunch of fallen limbs if I was going to mow the lawn.  Otherwise, I would end up destroying my lawnmower blades.

I was aiming to post on Facebook about picking up four garbage cans full of limbs when I thought, "Why not take a photo of the garbage cans?"  A photo can express the things I can't put into words.  I realized that it's a somewhat uninteresting photo to take, but I had the time and didn't mind.

While I was out there I heard a bird screeching loudly.  I immediately knew what it was.  You see, we've had a pair of hawks that have lived around us for over twenty years.  I'm not sure if this is the same pair, but we've always had a pair hang around the property.  What's funny, is that, they had a nest in a pine tree behind us for almost fifteen years that I know of.  The pine tree was perfectly straight, and right at the top the hawks built their giant nest.

However, the pine tree ended up being hit by lightening and dying.  I hated to see that, because the hawks kept their nest in the same place.  Every year they would add to it.  That's one reason the nest was so big.  And that brings me to today.

I heard the screeching, and looked up.  I saw one of the hawks sit up on the electric pole near my house.  When I took a closer look I saw it's mate was sitting up there with it.  I took a number of photos, but here are the best ones I shot.

In this part of Florida we have both "Red Shouldered" and "Red Tailed" hawks.  I'm not sure which species these are.  Either way, these two are always hanging around the property.

There was one time I was mowing the lawn, and one of the hawks hung out in the oak tree I was mowing around.  It was looking for bugs and mice that I could scare up.  You know what?  One time I did scare a mouse, and the hawk managed to grab it.

Which brings me to their nest.  You know that oak tree that the hawk was watching me from?  Well, it's the same oak tree they have their nest in now.  Here are a few photos I took of the nest.  These two photos are the ones I took before I saw the hawks.

These two photos I took later.  I tried to take the photo from almost underneath the nest, instead of an angle.

I'm going to keep an eye out on the nest.  It won't be long before a few eggs are laid, and chicks hatch.  I won't be able to take photos directly inside the nest.  You can see just how high up it is.  Even if I had a drone to take photos, I'm sure the hawks would take it down hard.  The hawks can be a bit aggressive.

So I'll try to get a few photos once the chicks leave the nest.  Maybe I'll leave a steak out for them?  I'm sure they'd like that.  Okay, I won't do that.  It would be funny if I did, but I won't.  I'll stick with shooting photos.  Stay tuned.

Duck Tales: That Shouldn't Have Worked

The other day I was thinking about one of the craziest duck hunting trips I ever took.  After thinking about it, I realized I hadn't written about it on this blog.  What follows is not only a great "Duck Tale," but also a hand drawn map to explain everything in further detail.

My Father and I used to duck hunt at Cockroach Bay out of Ruskin, Fl.  And yes, that really is it's name.  Despite the name, it's an amazing estuary where the Little Manatee River flows into the Bay.  All sorts of wildlife lives there, whether it be fish, birds, or plant life.  I've seen a flight of Rosette Spoonbills sitting in the mangroves a number of times.

Of course, Dad and I were there to duck hunt.  We had our favorite island that we always hunted at.  Depending on the tide, the water around the island could be anywhere from six inches deep to three feet deep.  Usually it was about a foot and a half to two feet deep.  Just perfect for ducks.

Below I've drawn a rough map of our hunting spot.  I've marked, "Our Island," as well as, our decoy spread.  We would run two rows of candy cane shaped decoys out from our duck blind.

The trick to duck hunting is to get up insanely early.  The idea, is that, you want to have your decoys out before it's light out.  So getting up at 4 AM is not uncommon.

This particular morning everything went as planned.  From the time we got up to the time we were in our blind everything went as planned.  So Dad and I were sitting in the dark waiting for daybreak.  Once the first few rays started shining through I noticed that we had ducks.  Although, they were on the shore about 250-300 yards away from us.

Duck hunting regulations say we can only use steel shot in our shotguns, so our range is limited at about 40 yards.  We actually put the last decoys out at 40 yards so we can judge our distance.  If the ducks are beyond the decoys we know not to shoot at them.

Well, the sun starts shining through, and I notice what appears to be quite a few ducks setting up... at the shore away from us.  Fifteen minutes go by, and I can hear them quacking across the water.  This is usually when we would have a few ducks come over to our decoys.  However, none were making their way over.

A half hour goes by, and the sun is now up.  About 100 ducks are over at the shore.  A group of bluebills swims near our decoys, but they are still out of range.  I'd say the closest they ever got to us was about 70 yards.  Again, that's way too far for steel shot.

By this time, from the time we first saw the ducks it had been one solid hour.  Not one duck had come over to our decoys.  Now there were at least 200 ducks over on the shore.  There might have been upwards of 250 ducks.  When there are that many it's kind of hard to judge.

I could see Dad was getting frustrated.  As long as he had been hunting nothing like this had ever happened to him.  Suddenly, a thought came to my mind.  I said, "Dad, how about I shoot one shot into the air to scare the ducks up?"  Dad replied with, "I don't care."  Dad never talked to me like that.  But it just goes to show you how frustrated he was.

I said, "Okay, but let's get a few things organized.  I took shotgun shells from my box, and lined them up so I could quickly grab them.  I then held one shell in my hand so I could quickly reload after shooting.  I then asked, "Are you ready?"  Dad said, "Sure."  Again, he was a bit frustrated.

So I aim up high and straightaway, and I pulled the trigger.  What happened next could only be called a mass exodus from the shore.  Ducks started swarming all over the place.  It took about a minute, but some of the ducks swung back over our island, and dropped in our decoys.  And as you would expect, we blasted the snot out of them.

But our second round of shooting caused something else to happen.  The ducks we had driven off the shoreline with the first shot had flown to another spot as expected.  But when we shot a second time those ducks started flying again.  And wouldn't you know they came over to our decoys.

Dad didn't even have time to get out of the boat to go pick up ducks.  They kept coming in waves so we kept shooting.  After about 10 minutes Dad was able to go our and retrieve our ducks.  Again, most of them were about 20-25 yards from us.  Dad barely made it back into the boat before the next wave of ducks dropped into our decoys.

Again, we started knocking them off the water, and out of the sky.  We were shooting green wing and blue wing teal.  Back then the Florida FWC rules said we could shoot ten of them each if we didn't shoot anything else.  It was on a point system which was kind of weird and hard to explain.  The short version, is that, we were allowed 10 teal a day per hunter.

So, going back to the beginning of that morning, we sat in our duck blind for a solid hour without even thinking of taking a shot.  After I fired that first shot to stir the ducks up, it only took us about 20 minutes to limit out.  That's right.  We managed to shoot our 20 teal.

I think back on that hunting trip, and the only think that comes to mind is, "I can't believe that worked?  I mean, I can't really believe that worked?"  I could have easily scared all the ducks away, and we might have never seen another one that day.  Any number of things could have happened.  But as luck had it, we managed to have one of our best hunting days ever.  

That trip really stuck out to me.  If you've ever watched a hunting program you'll hear them say, "It's not so much about the hunt as it is the memories."  And that's definitely the case with that trip.  It reminds me on "Family Guy" when they had the segment called, "Damn Nature!  You Scary!"  Yes, nature can be scary, but it can also be really weird.  And this trip fell into the weird category.

Idiot Scoutmasters: The Idiot Committee

Throughout my time blogging I have written a series of "Idiot Scoutmaster" posts.  They are about certain Scoutmasters from my time in Troop 12 of Lutz, Fl.  Due to "Professional Differences" I was asked to leave the troop.  After my time there, I joined Troop 189 of Tampa, Fl.

The Scoutmaster there was a great guy, Mr. Camp. That's right.  My Scoutmaster was named Mr. Camp.  His family lived three houses down from me.  I was in the same grade and Orchestra with his daughter.  Actually, we both played cello.  Sometimes we would share a music stand depending upon where we were seated.  I also got along well with his son, who was also in Troop 189.  His wife, Mrs. Camp was an active member of the volunteer community.  She worked with the Girl Scouts and the Red Cross.

Mr. Camp was a darn good and underappreciated Scoutmaster.  So this blog post is NOT about him being an idiot Scoutmaster.  No, he was one of the good guys.  This post is about the Troop Committee, and one of the dumbest screw-ups I have ever seen in Troop mismanagement.

Troop 189 was a drastically different troop from Troop 12.  The parents in Troop 12 had money.  Wherever they wanted to go, they went.  When I switched to Troop 189 the equipment was old and we camped in free state parks.  In fact, the tents the troop owned were old 1960's military canvas tents.  Pretty much all the equipment had been donated.  Troop 189 was the very definition of an inner city troop.

There's no easy or polite way to say my family was a hell of a lot better off than anyone in Troop 189.  For one, I had a Dad.  Including mine I can remember seeing about four total Dads.  Also, my Dad was the mailman.  As in, he was a U.S. Mail Postal Carrier.  Let's be honest, he was pulling a lot more money than anyone else there.  I'm not bragging.  This will be important information later on in the story.

So Dad is sitting in the committee meeting.  The Troop Committee (all Moms) are wanting to put together a fundraiser for the troop.  That's great!  We really needed to raise funds.  They decided they wanted to put on a spaghetti dinner.

So Dad asks, "What do you mean?"

It was explained that the boys would sell tickets to a spaghetti dinner held at the church (where our troop met.)  The boys would set up the tables, serve the food, clean up, and act as waiters for this spaghetti dinner.

So Dad asks, "So how do they sell tickets?  Do you want the boys to go door to door?  Who goes to a spaghetti dinner?

The Moms (or rather the one in charge of the committee) explained that other troops had done this and made a lot of money.

Dad said, "It sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth."

So they start to talk pricing.  The committee chairwoman wanted to price it at $3 a head.  (Sidenote: Think of costs in 1991.)

So Dad speaks up again.  "How do you plan on making any money?  I mean, that won't hardly cover cost.  It needs to be closer to $5 a head.  We're not running a church social gathering.  We need to make money.  This is a fundraiser."

That's when Rich stepped in.  He had come up through Troop 189, and earned his Eagle rank.  He was now a Councilman in the Gulf Ridge Council.  (Sidenote: Just a year later Rich would end up being the head honcho of the Gulf Ridge Council.)

Rich said, that, "If we're going to do this we need to make money.  The price needs to be closer to $5.  Rich was a good guy.  He wanted to be fair to everyone.

So the committee decided to set the price at $5.  Dad did some quick math in his head.  He said, "The best you can hope to make is about $40.  Do you want $40?  I'll give you $40 just to avoid the hassle."

Remember what I said about my Dad being the mailman?  Well, when I transferred to Troop 189 the Moms looked at my Dad in fear the first time they saw him.  They recognized him.  He was the one who delivered their welfare checks and food stamps.  He delivered their government  documents.  If there is one thing you get out of this blog post, remember this.  The mailman knows everything about you!

So when my Dad offered them $40 not to hold the spaghetti dinner the room went silent.  They just looked at him with fear.  Again, Rich stepped in, and said, "No, we want to boys to work on this like they would a service project.  It's important they perform a fundraiser."

So they turned my Dad down.  He told me all that went down in private.  I told him, "Heck, I would have thrown in $10 along with your $40 just to avoid the hassle.  Did you try to raise them to $60?"

He thought that was pretty funny.  He told me, "No, they pretty much had their minds made up."  Besides, I don't think Dad wanted to come across as a bully.  He just wanted to avoid the hassle.

So what happened the night of the spaghetti dinner?  It was almost entirely relatives of the members.  Some family members bought tickets and didn't show.  And for some reason a couple of the boys were playing around behind the pulpit.  While bumping around back there someone inadvertently turned on the baptismal tub.

Since it had no water in it, it burned out the element in the tub.  So, Troop 189 had to pay for the damage.  So with the money taken in for the spaghetti dinner minus the cost of repairing the damage from the tub, the troop ended up losing $20.

That's right.  Troop 189 lost money on that fundraiser.  And to be honest, they were probably lucky it was only $20 lost.  I just hope the committee members had it in the back of their minds that they should have just taken the damned $40 my Dad offered.

Below are the blog posts of my "Idiot Scoutmaster" series.

Bored Scoutmasters and the Tale of the Wampus

Idiot Scoutmasters: A True Story of a Scout's Canteen

Idiot Scoutmasters: Once Bitten, Forever Stupid

Idiot Scoutmasters: The Dishwashing Paradox

A Sunflower Grows in Lutz

Recently I have posted quite a number of blog posts about my birdhouses.  Having birdhouses and bird feeders brings quite a large number of birds around the house.  Yesterday I discovered one of the weird side effects of having birds hanging around.

The bird feeder has the usual kinds of wild bird seed in it.  But the ones the birds and squirrels love the most is the sunflower seed.  In a "Damn nature!  You scary!" kind of way something pretty funny happened.  It seems one of the birds dropped a sunflower seed in the rain gutter.  Well, if a tree can grow in Brooklyn, then a sunflower can grow in my rain gutter.

And even though I am posting this on April 1st, I assure you this is not an April Fool's Day joke.

Here's a wide shot of the sunflower.

I actually noticed it when I was looking at the roof.  The reason I was looking at the roof is because all the pollen has piled up there.  I knew I was eventually going to have to go up there with the blower, and clear everything off the roof and clean the gutters.

I do need to clean the gutters, but I'm really having a hard time determining how clean I want it.  I don't want to get rid of the sunflower, but I really need that gutter clear.  We do get a lot of rain here in Florida, and it pays to keep the gutters clear.  I've got time to decide what to do.  After all, it's raining out there now.

Tortoise or Snake?

We have a section of the yard called, "The Swamp."  When it rains here, and since it's Florida it rains often, this section of the yard floods.  Let's just say it's always pretty moist, and as such, it's tough for anything to take root.  So we've left it alone for years.

A few plants were planted in that section, and some have taken root.  But the funny thing, is that, a lot of ferns decided to make it their home.  In the end, there were ferns two feet tall all over the area.  However, it was decided that the ferns would have to go to let other things grow there.

So I took the weed-eater, and cleared out the ferns.  I was clearing around a pine tree when I suddenly lost gravity.  Yep, I started going down, and wasn't sure why.  Eventually I did stop.  That's when I realized I had stepped in a hole.  And I have to say it was a pretty good hole.

Let's take a peek at the beautiful photo I took of said hole.

I didn't clear away the pine needles from the hole as I didn't want to put my hand near it.  Although I did get close enough to put the yellow flags near it.  The reason I didn't want to put my hand near it is because of what is probably living there. 

It's either a Florida gopher tortoise (endangered and protected,) or a really large snake.  Here in Florida we have a number of large poisonous snakes.  Namely the Diamondback Rattlesnake and the Cottonmouth Moccasin.  Both have really bad attitudes.

So to put it this way, it could be this living down there.

Or this guy.

Either way, I'm not putting my hand near it.  I'm just going to leave the hole alone.  I'll just let the reptiles rent their space on the property.

Hunting Season: Snipe Island, 2016

So I made it back from hunting last week.  I have been able to think on things properly, and feel like I can put together a pretty good, although pretty long blog.  I had my computer up there, so I posted what happened to me the next day on Facebook.  So I will copy and paste what I originally posted, and then edit and expound on my thoughts. 

This year we didn't get to go on the quota hunt.  We all had things to do at that time.  So we had the week of Thanksgiving off, so my Dad (John L.) and our hunting buddy, John W. left on the Thursday before Thanksgiving.  Due to attending school I left on Friday after class.

We didn't hunt at our usual place, Hickory Mound, which is 15 miles from the town of Perry, Fl.  We decided to hunt next door (to the west) at a place called Snipe Island.  Word had gotten around that the hunting was much better there.  It was also much easier to hunt that year, in that, they had not had rain for a while, and I could walk in my regular hiking boots there.  That made it nice as I have a nice broken in set of Columbia boots.


This is my post after hunting Saturday, Nov. 19th, 2016.  I wrote this on Sunday morning (Nov. 20th.) at 9:54 AM.

I wasn't able to post last night due to a series of strange happenings. First off, I shot a hog at 4:50 PM, but I just made it mad.  I didn't realize it at the time.  I thought I hit it, and wounded it.  I called Dad on the handheld CB, and it took him about ten minutes to make it over to me.  Although, a lot of that time was spent getting down from his tree-stand.

As I was in my tree-stand, I pointed Dad down the path to where I thought the hog was.  The path was about 40 yards from me, and brush blocked my view of where I thought the hog was.  Dad used his tracking skills that he hadn't used in years.  He ended up walking within 10 yard of it, and then.... IT FREAKIN' CHARGED HIM!!! No, I'm not making this up.

It was only 10 yards from him. Dad shot four times, and the hog turned tail. I saw it 150 yards away  running through the brush into the next county. Dad says he is okay. His pants need a good washing, but he's okay.  Again, I am not trying to pull an April Fools in November. A big 200 pound (most likely boar) hog tried to run over Dad.

And that's not the end of it. So we were waiting for our hunting partner John to come out of the woods. He comes out at his usual pitch black darkness time of night. But then he tells me that I saved his life.  I thought, "What?" 

Earlier in the day I showed him how to use his new personal GPS toy. Admittedly, he's still not quite up on electronics. But I plugged in the truck's location on his GPS, and showed him how to use it.
He was still kind of iffy on how to use it, but carried it with him anyways. When he decided to come out the woods, he took his compass out, and that's when he noticed it had come apart. In other words, no compass, and he's out there in the dark.  And this was the time of month where there was no moon.  It was, "you can't see your hand in front of you" kind of dark.

So he takes out his GPS, and he at least starts moving in the direction where the distance towards the truck is getting shorter. He ended up going through some dense woods, but he made it to the truck.  Once he got to the truck he thanked me many times.  I don't think he's ever done that.

So it got down to 29 degrees last night (from Friday night to Saturday morning,) and with it being a late night for all of us, we decided to sleep in this morning. There was no way I was going to be able to get Dad and John W. out of bed at 5 AM with it being 29 degrees out. So we decided to sleep in.

And you know what? I still woke up exactly at 5:00 AM. On the dot. Exactly. But I did manage to go back to sleep. Now I am up and about. We are going to go order breakfast at Poncey's Restaurant.
I told Dad that, "Only winners get breakfast," but he said we needed to eat so that we could go back out there, and bag something.

I'm still feeling a bit depressed. In my life I have shot 5 hogs. I recovered 3 of them. One was so big, I probably just torqued it off, and the other was this one. I hate wounding an animal, and having it run off like that, but it has happened to every hunter.

So I will get back out there this evening. I will say this. This place we are hunting this year, (Snipe Island,) is full of game. I saw a man take a hog out on a trailer it was so big.  It looked like it was part bear.  It was a true 300 pounder.  And another hunter, Zack, who is hunting the same area as us, managed to take out a 6 point buck. So there is a lot more game here than at Hickory Mound.

Okay, let me hunt down some breakfast. I'll be careful out there. Take care everyone.

I managed to get back to my computer that night, Saturday, Nov. 20th, 2016 at 9:35 PM.

I'm back at the camping trailer tonight. Today we slept in, and still ended up with a late start to the evening hunt. I did manage to see a bird of prey. It was bigger than a red shouldered hawk, but smaller than an osprey. It was diving through the trees so I didn't get a good look at it. I'm not sure what kind of bird it was.

Dad did see a few owls, and we both had squirrels acting.... well squirrely. They were throwing stuff all over the place including at palmettos.  And when the acorns hit the palmettos the sound would carry through the trees like crazy.

We will start out a bit later than we usually do in the morning. It could have something to do with it being 31 degrees in the morning, and not being able to drag the retired folk out of bed in that weather.

So we are planning to really put a lot of time in the woods tomorrow. I don't know when I will be able to check back in. So if you send me a message give me time to get back to you. Take care.

Here's my post from the evening of Monday Nov. 28th, 2016 at 9:56 PM.

Today was a weird day. Here's what happened.

I used some cardboard to check my gun's shot pattern. I have some older shells that didn't really pattern too well. That's strange since they are Remington shells, and my gun is a Remington 1100. It usually shoots Remington shells well. I shot some newer Remington shells, and they didn't pattern that well either.

The other thing was that they sounded underpowered.  I tried some Winchester shells I had, and they patterned the best of all of them. They also had more kick (power.) So I am using those Winchester shells for the rest of my hunt.

This leads me to think I just flat missed the hog. But I'm still not sure why it laid under the palmetto bush instead of running. I wonder if I hit it in a place where it stung it, but not hurt it.

We had a late start to the day due to being up late yesterday. As we were driving we had two does jump the road 300 yards away. Where we were driving through was still private property on each side of the road. We hadn't made it to the hunt area quite yet.

Nothing happened in the morning, and nothing happened in the evening. Dad and I planned to get out of our treestands at 5:30 PM. At 5:28 PM I heard all sorts of racket. I thought a turkey and a squirrel were going at it. I called Dad on the walkie-talkie, and as I was doing so, I saw an owl come out from where I had heard the noise.

It landed within 15 yards of me, but high up in a tree. It was amazing. I was talking to Dad when all of this happened. I told him to hang on while I got my camera. I managed to hoist my bag up, get my camera out, and power it up. However when I looked down to power it up, the owl flew somewhere else. I would have loved to have gotten film footage of it.

(Sidnote:  I found out later that the owl was a Great Horned Owl.  Their color patterns can vary from brown to grey.  This one had a lot of grey on it.   It was also very tall.  It was probably the bird of prey I saw the day before.  It looked a lot like this one.)

So Dad and I are making our way down the trail to get to the truck. The squirrels start making all sorts of racket. I hear the woods just come alive. It's now about 5:50 PM. I hear some rustling, and look over to see!!!!...... an armadillo. So we keep walking.

We are about 75 yards from the truck when I hear another loud crash and bang in the woods. It's so dark I can't really see anything. Whatever it is, is making a lot of noise. I almost wondered if it was another hunter it was making so much noise. I looked around for a hog, but couldn't see any movement.

I slipped my tree-stand off my back, and walked into the woods. Whatever it was stopped moving. I suspected it was another armadillo. I couldn't see anything by this point. It was 6:00 PM after all. So I made it back to the trail.

That's when I heard yet another crash. Dad saw it immediately. This time, to the right, was two giant birds ( I believe they were vultures) rising out of the treeline. What I think happened was that they had sat on a dead branch, and it broke, then fell onto a palmetto making a racket. The birds took off in flight. So we continued onto the truck.

We then drove down the road to pick up John W. We told him of our strange happenings, and he told us that not much had happened to him.

Once we made it to Highway 98, Dad started noticing deer on the road. I thought he was having fun with us, in that, I hadn't seen them. But then, I started seeing them. One after another after another. I think I had counted up to 15 deer (all does,) before I thought to get my camera out. Of course, then there were no more deer.

So we decided to eat at Poncey's Restaurant. It has amazing food, and that small town feel to it. I am still stuffed.

So I have one more day of hunting tomorrow. Let's see how it goes. I am wearing the pair of pants I hate the most in hopes that I get blood (not mine) all over them.
Take care, Adrian out.

My next post was on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016 after I had made it back home.  I wrote about what happened on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd, 2016. 

So here's the weirdness that was yesterday's hunting adventure. We got up late since I couldn't get the older men out of bed at a normal hunting hour. Also, it was just too cold for them. In all fairness it did go down to 29 degrees.

So nothing really happened during the morning hunt. We went to a new place in Snipe Island.
During the afternoon hunt, nothing happened.... until 5:10 PM. I heard a gunshot, and thought it was our hunting partner John W. shooting at something.

At 5:28 PM (2 minutes before we were supposed to get down from our treestands,) I hear all sorts of racket. I stand up, turn around in my treestand, and look over to see what's going through the woods. I could hear it, but not see it. I suspect it was yet another armadillo.

So we get down, and head to the truck. Just 50 yards from the truck, I hear a noise. I turn to my right, and it's a .... possum. Dad says I can't shoot it since it's my spirit animal. It runs down a hole, and we continue onto the truck.  Dad is correct about that. 

Dad and I were at the truck when two men walked up to the truck next to us. I immediately got a weird vibe from them. They never looked at us. They never said hi. One guy threw his loaded rifle in his truck, ripped off his orange, and jumped in. The other one did unload a shotgun, put it in the back, and jumped in the passenger side.

They then fired up the truck, and took off a little faster than people do when driving on a dirt road. I almost thought they peeled out. Either way, they got the hell out of there.

I asked Dad if he thought they were acting strange, and he said he thought they were creepy and acting very suspicious. Dad asked me if I remembered what kind of truck it was, what color it was, and what the license plate number was.

I got on the CB, and start asking if John W. was on the air. He was supposed to check in with us at 6:00 PM, and it was now past six.

I keep trying John on the CB, and am getting no reply. Dad and I decided to go down the trail (we had never been down,) and search for John. It was pitch back, and we had only our radios and flashlights looking for him.

We were worried that the gunshot was one the creepy guys killing John, and then getting the hell out of Dodge. Think about it. A single shot from John's direction. Two creepy guys acting creepy. And then John isn't on the radio.

At 6:30 PM, I see a light down the trail. Thankfully, it's John. I ask him why he wasn't on the radio, and he says that, "We didn't agree to do that today." Sidenote: John has the worst memory of anyone I've ever met.

I told him about what went on, and he completely dismissed my feelings and told me that I was jumping to conclusions. I got pretty pissed off. Even after I calmed down over an hour later, and explained everything again, he didn't get it. I got angry again.

I keep trying to explain that I was actually concerned for him, and he just doesn't get it. He can not see something from someone else's point of view. He never has.  So I'm kind of glad that hunting season is over. I think it went on long enough. Any more and we were just going to end up annoying each other the rest of trip.


Conclusion:  So, I've had a chance to think it over.  I know I'm a bit quick to anger and a bit quick to suspect bad things.  I wish John had seen things from my point of view, but I can't make him.  I wish we would have had more days to hunt, or at least be able to participate in the morning hunts more.  I really wish I would have killed that hog.  But that's why they call it hunting, and not getting. 

After looking at shot patters of shotguns on the internet I think I am going to have to use a rifle out hunting.  In fact, I am talking to the local gun store about trading in for a Ruger RAR in a .308.  It's a no-frills workhorse with a synthetic stock.  I can knock it around in the woods and get it dirty. 

One thing that we did that we hadn't done before was get a group picture.  Since one of us had to hold the camera we never took a picture with all three of us.  So this time we had the check station manager take a picture of the three of us.  I'll leave this post with this.

Flippity Flop

For those who don't live in Florida, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.  It's hot.  And not just 98 during the daytime kind of hot.  Unlike the Northern states, the temperature doesn't let up at night.  I remember one year at summer camp where it was 85 degrees in the middle of the night.  If we were lucky it would dip down to 82 degrees some nights.

For reference, I want to bring up the HBO show Dexter.  It took place in Miami.  I know a lot of people think that all the girls running around in tank tops/bikini tops/short shorts and flip flops were just eye candy.  Well, that's how Miami really is.  The girls really dress that way for a reason  It's hot.  Dang hot.  Africa hot.  You have to wear light and small clothing due to how hot it is.  And not just T-shirts and shorts.  A good pair of flip flops are considered daily wear in Florida.  My point being that a good pair of flip flops are not just summer wear, but can be used year round.

Due to how much use my flip flops get, I just wore out my last two pair.  So it was time to get new ones.  Luckily, I managed to snag exactly the kind I wanted that were made by one of my favorite brands, OP or Ocean Pacific.

Back in the late 80's/early 90's surf wear was all the rage, and I really dug Ocean Pacific's clothing.  Back in the 80's I had a few brightly colored shirts of theirs.  So when I spotted this pair of flip flops, I instantly knew I had to have them.  It may take a little while to break them in, but even new, they are really comfy.  I hope to log many miles in them.

Hunting Adventures, 2014

Every year I take pictures and video of my experiences out hunting.  I have been getting better at my movie making computer program, so I think this is my best yet.  It is also my longest yet.  I split it into three parts of about seven minutes a piece.

Part 1. 

Part 2. 

Part 3.

Adrian: Amateur Gardener: Part 3

To catch up on this ongoing story, read these blogs first.

Adrian: Amateur Gardener
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/03/adrian-amateur-gardener.html
Part 2.  Adrian: Amateur Gardener, Part 2
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/03/adrian-amateur-gardener-part-2.html
Adrian: Amateur Handyman
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/04/adrian-amateur-handyman.html


In part one of this ongoing series I laid out the ideas I had for putting in a garden.  In part two, I laid down the timbers, mulch, and bromeliads.  In the Handyman blog, I did a lot, but as far as gardening, I planted some coleus and vinkas. 

So now I want to update how the plants are doing.  This is kind of my first time planting a garden, so I wanted to be very careful.  Namely, I looked very closely at plants that could happily live in mostly shade.  Those happened to be coleus, vinkas, and bromeliads.  So how are they doing?  Lets look!

The coleus is actually blooming!  Once it got planted, and had a little bit of rain fall on it, all of them just started taking off.

All the vinkas started blooming really nicely as well.

The bromeliad's roots have really taken hold, and are doing really well.

 

 

And here's a shot of the bed on the left. 

I'm sure there will be another installment of the "Amateur Gardener" series.  I have a feeling I will be building two raised garden beds in the back.  Stay tuned. 

Quit Bugging Me! A Cicada Story

Note:  If you don't know what a Cicada is, please check out this Wiki article.  It will explain a lot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

When Northerners come down to Florida for the first time, the thing that catches their attention pretty quickly is the number of bugs that are flying around.  And not just flying around, but crawling inside, outside, and all over the place.  Some are bad, some are good, and some are just plain annoying. 

In older times, the "song of the South," was the "song" of the Cicada.  When you have a number of them singing together it is unbelievably loud.  As in, up to 120 decibels loud. 

Cicadas go through a series of changes in their life cycle.  Namely they shed their exoskeleton so they can change into a bug with wings.  Being in the South, I find the shells all the time.  However, I had never seen one emerge from its shell.  That is, until now.

As I was walking the dog up to a favorite tree of his, I noticed something on the oak tree.  And there it was.  A Cicada was emerging from it's shell.  I was only able to get one picture since all this happened so quickly. 

As I was trying to hold it up to get a better picture, it crawled out of its shell, and fell.  But it was neat to see something like this.  I only wish I was able to get more pictures. 

Adrian: Amateur Gardener

So I have something new in my life.  That would be a girlfriend.  I think it's as big of a surprise to me as it is to everyone else.  And then to add to the surprises she moved only three miles from me.  I couldn't really blame her as her old place was not very nice.  It was also in a not so nice section of a town that was far away from both her work and favorite hangout. 

She is renting a mobile home that sits on a 1/3 of an acre of property.  She really wanted it for her dog who needs some space to run around.  He's a little over two years old, but he still acts like a puppy.  So this place works out really good for both of them, as she doesn't have to put up with apartment type neighbors and he gets to run around and exercise.

The people who rented before her did their best to destroy the place.  That's what the landlord flat out told us.  He was more than happy to rent to my girlfriend in that, she expressed an interest in rebuilding the place inside and out.  She talked to him about adding plants to the place, as it is kind of sparse.  He was all in favor of that, and told her she could do whatever she wanted as far as plants were concerned.

And this is where I come in.  I am good at manual labor, but I have to admit that I am an amateur gardener.  The only gardening that I have been successful at it online playing Wizard 101.

So I was told to come up with a plan.  I have given it a lot of thought, and have come up with four spots to start off with. 

First I have to contend with what is available.  There is a lot of land, but due to the heavy cover of oak trees it is mostly a barren sandlot.

That's okay.  I will just have to get creative.  I was thinking of running/building a wooden fence along the front of the house. 

My girlfriend knows someone who knows someone, and can get me some leftover two by fours.  It may look a little odd until I slap some paint on it.  Then it will start to look spiffy. 

I was thinking about planting some giant bromeliads behind the fence/ in front of the house.  Those things will grow in anything down here in Florida.

Next to them/ around them would be a good place to start growing some Aloe Vera plants.  My girlfriend has always had them, and they are really useful to have around.

 

 

Then to spice up the color a little I would add some of those small floppy ear type plants.  I'll admit, I have no idea what the different ones of them are called.  But I do have a bunch of plant people I know who can tell me what they are.  All I have to do is show them this picture.

 



So that's what I am thinking for the front.  When I say from the front, I mean from the house door and going left.  That's the longest part of the house.  From the door going right is a nice small spot.  However I think I have an idea.  I am thinking of doing a raised bed.  There are a couple ways to do this.  The first is kind of simple and involves using concrete blocks.  It looks like this.

That's simple enough, and won't take much time to put together.  Then there's the other way.  It involves using red bricks.  It would be a bit more expensive, and take more time to put together, but it would look sweet.

 

Okay, that takes care of the front.  I was thinking of using the front for the decorative plants.  However, the one thing my girlfriend really wants is a herb garden.  There could be a few vegetables thrown in there, but mainly for herbs.

 



However due to having a dog it would need to be fenced in.  I do like this type of fencing.

But I have to be honest, the dog is really, really good at jumping.  He's also really good at building up speed and jumping.  So that kind of fence isn't going to stop him.  I was thinking of putting up the wooden type fence that would match the front fence, and then stapling chicken wire to it.

The next step involves planting tomatoes.  As you look at the property, the very front right corner has a lot of sunlight hitting it.  It's the only place where grass grows on the property.  I thinking about setting up a raised bed strictly for tomato plants.

The plant would be able to get a fair amount of sunlight there.  Not too much, not too little.  And the good news about Florida is that, we get crazy amounts of rain all year long.  And anytime tomatoes get rain, they grow till they want to explode. 

So that's the four main ideas I have for garden beds.  I don't think I would be overdoing it.  I am trying to stick with plants that are native and not hard to raise.  I am lucky in that, I have a lot of people around me who know the ins and outs of plants.  I may not know much about plants, but I am good for the manual labor.  With those things combined, I feel that this garden will be a success.

Hunting Season 2012: Story 1, The Gator

Earlier this winter, we (Me, Dad, and our friend, The Weasel) didn't get to go hunting during the quota hunt season.  My Dad hurt his back and the next best time to go was this past Dec. 6th to the 10th.  Since we started hunting on the day after we got there, a Friday, there weren't too many hunters in the woods.  It was pretty quiet that day, like a lot of hunting days.  However, sometimes things take a turn for the weird.

Our hunting buddy, The Weasel, was walking down the road when he saw something in the ditch.  By golly, it was an alligator.  He said it was an 8 foot alligator, but when we looked at it, it had shrunk.  Yep, it had shrunk all the way down to 5 foot.  But that wasn't the only thing.  The alligator's left eye had been injured/destroyed.  You can see it in the pictures.

So we grabbed our cameras, and took some photos.  Note:  We were careful to only look at the gator, and not disturb the gator as that is a federal offence.

So here are the pictures: