Butts and Breasts

When I arrived home from work the other day, the whiny barred owl was sitting in the majestic live oak tree that commands my front yard. I almost didn't photograph it ... the light was going quickly, I needed to let Bear out, and I have posted a bazillion barred owl on a limb shots here at PF.

BUT, I could not help myself, so I walked around for a few minutes shooting from different angles while Bear, who knew I was home, went crazy inside the house.

I think this rear end view is a new one for PF barred owl photos, so enjoy!


Nature's perfect food.


I picked up a nice little basket fryer yesterday and tried it out as soon as I got it home. Winn Dixie had some whopper chicken breasts on sale, so I grabbed a pack for my test subjects.

I skinned them, cut them into thirds, and soaked them in a brine of salt and Tony C's Cajun Seasoning.
While they soaked, I unpacked and washed the new fryer.
I breaded them lightly with House Autrey chicken breading and let them rest on a piece of parchment paper long enough to get a good adhesion, and then into the oil they went.

The little booklet said 20-25 minutes for chicken wings. That seemed insane to me and there was no mention of Dolly Parton sized mutant chicken breast cooking times, so I channeled my inner teenager.

Ohhhhmmmmmmmmmm .... going back to 1975 .... ohhhmmmmmmmmm ... summer job at Crescent Beach Maryland Fried Chicken Stand .... ohhhhmmmmm .... how long did we fry that chicken .... ohhmmmmmmmm .... about 13 minutes ....

Back to the future.

I set the timer on the fryer for 13 minutes and let her go.


When the chicken came out, it was so beautiful, I didn't cry or anything girly like that, but it was a wonder to behold.

I did burn my fingers and my tongue as I dug in to it's steamy, juicy, crispiness.


I ate the first batch while the second batch was cooking.

Skinless and hand trimmed of huge yellow globs of fat by me, it was about as "healthy" as true fried chicken can get.

Sorry milk and eggs, fried chicken is nature's perfect food.

Ya gotchur protein, carbs, and fats all in one nice, neat, delicious package.

Perfect.


Now, I'm going outside. It is a spectacular day out there.

Here's a little owl video ... narration by Bear.

FRI'd Echinoderms

A few years ago, I went through a teacher training called, "FRI", an acronym for the "Florida Reading Initiative".

Unlike most professional development in the education world, this training was actually about helping kids learn!

Imagine that.

Most of our trainings these days are all about form filling, accountability, and interpreting data ... test data, demographic data, data data data.
Professional development has become data form filling lessons that are "CYA" for administrators because they are under the NCLB gun.


This week, I dusted off my FRI binder and pulled out a favorite from the many activities within.

The activity is called Product Performance and it consists of a full page of product ideas, including, but way beyond the usual reports, posters, etc.

The idea of the Product Performance list is that no matter the topic the kids are working on, they must produce a product from the list.That product must educate us about the current topic.

A few examples of topics: job interview, eulogy, play, wanted poster, epitaph, film, graffiti, diorama, marriage proposal, sermon, journal, story cube, petition, photo essay, bumper sticker, comic strip, interview, food ... it goes on and on.

I once had a kid do a resume from a mangrove tree. The tree was applying for an environmental protection job with the US Coast Guard. The mangrove listed all of it's very fine (and real) contributions to the health of the marine ecosystem.
It was great!

This week in Marine Science, we were finishing up a unit on Echinoderms, so it seemed like a good time to spring this product project list on the kids.

I told them they had to produce two products from the list, either two on their own or one alone and one group project.

Everywhere they turned they had to make choices ...

• What topic in Echinoderms to I focus on??
• What products will I make?
• Should I work in a group or just do both of them all by myself?

I tell ya, it brought tears of joy to my eyes watching them stress out for a change.

(Quick refresher: Echinoderms are starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, and the crinoid clan.)


Here's a model of a sea cucumber spewing sticky threads from it's anus as a horseshoe crab attacks. It's a defensive tactic called "Entanglement".
Some creative modeling and a can of silly string created a memorable demonstration.
The video of this demonstration is pretty funny, but I won't post it here for privacy reasons.

This is a starfish cake showing the water vascular system inside a starfish. The student has it accurately portrayed from the madreporite to the tube feet. Go here to see a diagram of the real thing.

My understanding is that this starfish was eaten by predators right after class.


This guy loves wood shop, so when he had a chance to pick his own product, he went for a diorama. He did a great job creating "Echinoderm Beach". The card contains information, front and back, about the phylum Echinodermata.

A story cube about endangered species. Each side of the cube contains information about the topic.

I used the product list on my Environmental Science classes also. They were working on Biodiversity and they are a great example of diversity themselves ... younger, less mature, and much less adept at reading than the honors Marine Science students.

They are often a behavior challenge and always a teaching challenge as skill levels in the same class range from almost unable to read, to college level, but 90% of them have below average reading skills.

When you don't read well, your self-esteem takes a beating every day. Any kind of motivation begins slipping away as failures mount up. This is the class where I am always poking and prodding ... trying anything to spark interest.

Would they buy in to this?

Yes, they did! For two days they built, wrote, drew, taped, computed, and generally produced!!

And no discipline problems.

And no heads down, trying to sleep in class!

And I know you shouldn't start sentences with the word "And", but just one more ...

And they gave me great stuff!

I think each of them became mini-experts in the Biodiversity topics they worked on. They had to dig out the info just like always, but they were enthused about the product they were making, so they needed to comprehend what they were reading.

I think I'll just let their products stand as their test for this chapter.

I think they earned that.

Y'all have a good weekend.

I feel like celebrating.

Barely Barren

Things are a little drab around here, what with a real winter and all.

Wussup wit dat?


The bare bushes on the right side of this photo are my resting blueberries. The stump is a little oak that got big and was shading too much of my garden/blueberry zone. He has kept us warm this winter and provided a robust smoky flavor to my BBQ ribs, chicken, etc.



The little green hut is the "mallard mansion" ... a leftover from our duck days. It's a garden tool shed right now.
The view of that green shed would be blocked by worn out chicken pens, but we cleaned those out recently. At the far end of the garden zone are some nursery beds, a fish tank, and the hog pens.


Laya and Son of Hoot roost in this East Palatka Holly every night ... can you tell?
I have to shovel that pile up every so often so it doesn't kill my pretty native holly.

The pond puddle has grown with our El Nino inspired rains this winter. This pic is a week old at least and it has crept up even more. The frogs should fill it with babies soon. Already the chorus frogs are singing nightly.

I listen and hope the tiger salamanders hear the frogs singing of the return of water.


The palm glade where I did my prescribed burn last winter has recovered nicely. It is one of the most pleasant places to be on the property.

Here is a section in the same zone that was not burned. I like a mix of thick and thin, so this area may just be left alone to do it's thing.

The pocket gophers have been busy in the back corner near the planted pines. The fresh mounds fascinate Bear. He sticks his nose in the still damp earth and sucks in all kinds of data about what lies beneath.

He keeps this to himself and I can only wonder.

The sky alternates between barren and quite productive this winter.

Oh Yeah, I Am The Man ... the appliance repair man.

(Shiny new appliance appendage)

About a week ago, the door latch on the Maytag dishwasher went kaflooey, rendering it impotent.



After some poking and prodding, it was obvious that the latch was broken, not just jammed. So, I went online, found the right part for about 25 bucks, and ordered it immediately. A quick search for "How to replace a door latch on a Maytag Performa dishwasher" came up pretty dry.

In the appliancerpairrranting forums, the question came up often enough, but answers were few and less than detailed. I gleaned enough info to know that it was frustrating for the folks asking the questions and that the latch is an electrical component.
That last little bit is fairly important ... wasn't really expecting that.

Armed with several cups of coffee and a slice of poppyseed cake, I grabbed my trusty 30 year old Sears Screwball screwdriver and went at it.

"Good boy, hold it right there... perfect."

Bear was his usual helpful self and in no time we had the inside door panel off and the old part exposed.
Sure enough, the latch was in two pieces.

The only thing difficult about this job was disconnecting the wiring as both sets of wires were attached by a tight friction fit.
Just took a little "umph" and patience to wiggle the wires off the old latch and onto the new.
It really was a cakewalk ... I should post a detailed, how to do this task post.
I took plenty of pics. That's my insurance during any operation ... I want evidence of what the sick appliance looked like before I messed with it.



There's kind of a Romeo and Juliet thing going on with Bear and Tyrion. I told him not to get too attached to her.

She is growing too fast by the way. To enter the fair, she can not be over 280. When I weighed her Sunday ... after fixing the dishwasher, she was at 255.
Not good with a month to go.

So she is on a diet exercise regimen.

It's just one thing after another around here...





Here's one of my baby datils.

Welcome to the world, little hottie.

Bear Meets The Scary UFO

I'm Not Aground.

Conspicuous by my absence ... I know.

It's been 3 days since my last post on the 15th.



Life has been a little too normal around here (not my normal).



The week has been a cold one with pretty steady icy breezes, so there's not much moving about when I do take the slow, usually crittery, way home. We've had lots of rain over the past week or two and the swamps are full. Roadside ditches are full. Retention ponds along the highway are full.



My pond is not full ... but, we have a substantial puddle.



This winter with it's extended cold periods and wetness is exactly what was predicted for an El Nino winter here in Florida, but even I, an admitted winterlover, am looking for just a few more degrees.



My wardrobe is not prepared for this.



When you live in a place like Florida, steady cold weather like this really does a number on your wardrobe.

I have ... um, ... maybe 6 warm, long sleeved shirts that are suitable for work and it's just not worth it to go buy some more, because (a) winter will suddenly end soon and (b) next winter will probably be back to normal and 6 warm shirts will seem just right.


The cold weather has brought us some cool bird congregations though.

The video below was made early one morning recently.
It's nothing to look at, but turn up your volume and enjoy the bird cacophony.

A Little Serenity At Manatee

Winter transforms Manatee Springs.
In the summer, the main pool above hosts scuba divers, snorkelers, swimmers, and even tiny kids wearing floaty arm thingies.


In the winter, they shy away, even though the 120 million gallons of water that issues forth each day is always about 72 degrees F.
Sure, that's chilly on a 98 degree summer day, but in the winter, ... in the winter it feels divine.
Until you get out.
Ah, but that's life isn't? If it feels too good to be true, it probably is about to change dramatically.



Lief clung to the rocky shore and thanked Odin for delivering him from Moskstraumen.


You just never know what you'll find at Manatee in the winter.

Water Fern

Below, you see yet another exotic species mucking around in the Florida ecosystem.

Notice the surface of the water?
Of course you don't.

That's because it's covered entirely by a mat of Salvinia minima, a type of water fern.

You can bet there are no submerged plants growing in what must be almost total darkness beneath that cover of Salvinia.

We have a native water fern called Azolla, which is what I thought this was going to be when I first arrived at Haws Creek. I've seen mats of azolla before, but nothing so extensive as this salvinia ... I suppose that may be due to the fact that azolla is a native and therefore has checks and balances on it's population.

Azolla turns out to be a pretty amazing plant, a high protein nitrogen fixer that is an excellent green manure and feed supplement for livestock. The recent rains have filled our ditches and bunched up azolla along the shore where a guy like me can dip some up without even getting his feet wet ... not that I mind that much.

I'm going to go scoop some up and bring it back to my tanks for a little experimentation.

In the meantime, remember ... Salvinia bad, Azolla good.

Gratuitous hawk picture thrown in, just in case water ferns do not excite you.

He supervised me while I was dipping out the Salvinia for the picture.

Oh yeah ... I almost forgot ...

Happy stupid holiday y'all.

Friday Florida Food Fest ... BECAUSE I HAVE NO NEW NATURE PHOTOS! ARRRRRGGGGHHH!!!

Gloomy Yankee weather has infiltrated my lovely state this week and picture ops have been few and far between.
I am feeling that pain as celebrating Florida nature is the "Prime Directive" here at PFHQ.

Now that my little bit of whining is over, let's eat.

Last week, Pablo of the always fascinating RoundRock Journal, posted a recipe for Kale Soup. It sounded really good, even though I gave up on Kale about 20 years ago after one unappetizing experience.

Perhaps it was time to reconsider Kale.

I hope Pablo and his better half, Libby, don't mind, but I tweaked it a bit.
I can't help myself ... I'm a tweaker.

I followed the basic setup, but subbed chorizo for kielbasa, great northern beans for kidney beans, and added mushrooms even though they were not called for.
Also, all I had was smoked paprika, so I used that in place of the recipe paprika.



Man, was it good!! I am now a Kale convert.



One day last week, I was not the first one home for a change and walked in to a ready to eat wonderful supper.
Chicken Tarragon over farfale pasta.
Exquisite .... especially since I did not have to cook that night.



(One of those wings is looking a little nekkid!)

Even though I don't watch football, the superbowl still sounded like a good excuse to fry up some hot wings.
My crew enjoyed them as they watched the game while I ate mine in the kitchen with Bear at my knee.
(No I did not give him any spicy chicken)

We had made too many baked potatoes a few nights earlier so Mrs. FC zapped them into twice baked potatoes. They were a nice accompaniment to the spicy wings and the cool salad.


That's just a few of the calorifinous capers this week.

Now Cut That Out

As I feared, the recent long spell of cold weather tricked some of my low chill blueberry bushes into thinking winter must be over.

"Hey Bluebelle ... BLUEBELLE! Wake up!"

"Huh, What chu want Climax, ... it's only February. Let me sleep."

"No, it can't be ... check your chilling hours... it must be March at least."

" Look Bud, you are starting to tick me off ... I'm not a winter person... wanna sleep."

"Okay, sleep your life away, but I'm telling you, it has to be spring, time to open up those buds, Bud."

" Go right ahead, but wake ME when winter's over."

Unfortunately, I understand Blueberry, but I just can't hold a conversation in it. If I did, I would have agreed with Climax*. Any blooming now risks the entire crop as more freezes (32 this morn) are coming.


The long super cold spell of January even zapped the foliage of natives ... really tough natives, like these coonties in one of my nursery beds.

They should recover as most of the plant is a huge underground tuber, but it certainly sets back their growth and it killed seed cones that were forming.



The horse radish was not bothered by the severe cold and is doing quite nicely.

Almost ready to pick.












*Bluebelle and Climax are two varieties of southern highbush blueberries.

Wordless Waterday

Silent Water.

Chatty Water.

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

This may be the only even remotely cooperative grebe I have ever encountered. They have this irritating habit of diving just as you get ready to shoot.

One second they are there, and then ... only a slowly widening ripple ring marks the spot.



I delete a lot of ripple shots.



These shots were taken on a chilly day in December and the turtles were enjoying some late day sunbathing. I did not see the first gator.

Like a lot of waterfowl oriented NWR's, St. Marks has a number of shallow impoundments that are drained and filled for the management of migratory ducks and other waterbirds. This makes for nice walking opportunities since the dikes that form the ponds are kept mown and provide ready access to the pond banks.

This clever overflow section allowed this impoundment to drain into a nearby saltmarsh creek when it was over full pool stage.

The St. Marks Light is a quaint historical site inside the refuge. You can walk around it, but not enter it.

You can learn more about this refuge by going here.

OMG! We Won!

Good golly, you should have been there!
We were behind by ten or so points almost the entire game and then in the last 4 minutes, a rally led by Junior (the floating blue entity above) tied us up.
In the final seconds, we took the lead and won!
Getting ahead was captured in the photo above ... Junior had just stripped the ball away down at the other team's territory and raced down for a layup.
I was so proud of him, not just for being athletic, but for rallying his troops and leading by example.
It was electric... I'm always down on the sidelines shooting pics for our yearbook and at one point in the final minute, I realized my legs were shaking with adrenaline.

Soooooo, we have at least one more game as this was the first round of a district tournament.
Okay, enough Dad bragging.


I posted about this when I first made it a year or so ago. You know I like to tweak my woods here at PFHQ with little habitat "improvements". When I first installed this little critter refuge, I had it nicely camouflaged with palm fronds and a very small brush pile.
Over time, the plant material rotted away and the Florida rains washed off some of the covering soil.
None of that diminished the useability of the plastic tunnel. If you were a deer mouse or a snake trying to avoid a hawk 0r just looking for a cozy dark shelter, it still provided that.

It just wasn't very natural looking anymore.

So, I tweaked it.


Now it looks like this.
Yes, the openings are still there, just a little more camouflaged.



Last weekend, Mrs. FC and I tore down the ancient chicken pens that had existed in the garden since the kids were little.
They were looking pretty rough. With gaps and rusting wire, they were more of a death row for chickens anyway.
The last few birds who were placed in them were eaten by something soon after.

If I get a few banty chicks this year, they will only be in a cage for a little while anyway since I like my birds to roam PFHQ and fend for themselves. Right now, I'm thinking my tiny flock could use some new genes ... and Laya, the only hen could use a rest. Did I mention that she is the best hen ever?

Speaking of genes ... I'm listening to the audio book, "Next" by Michael Crichton whenever I am driving the JEEP and I am loving it.

Dju read it?

First and Last

Shootin' this hysterical marker saves me a lot of textification on a weekend when traffic is slow anyway, so 'scuse me for postin' a picture of a sign.
As Granny would say, I really wanted to show you this concrete swimming hole.


Here, in Flagler county, is where Floridians began their water wasting ways.

Fed by an artesian well, the water flows through the pool and out this spout. From here, it's a short trip down a sandy bank to the adjoining saltmarsh.

Freeflowing artesian wells are illegal in Florida for obvious water wasting reasons. Somehow this place gets a pass.

The bath house is sagging a bit, but this is a relatively newish park and lots of restoration is going on.

That huge concrete tank just makes me want to farm fish or prawns in it.

A simple diving board harkens back to the era before we all wanted to sue each other for every little slip and fall.

You don't see many diving boards anymore ...

A peek through the bath house.

Last, but not least, the "Last" of this post's title.

Tonight will probably mark the final high school basketball game for Junior. A tournament is scheduled for later today, and we've lost some players in the last week, so it will be challenging for Junior and his mates.

Kinda bitter sweet, but I confess, I am looking forward to no more mandatory, 3 game a week, basketball attendance.