Dang It

Short post today.
I am sitting in the St. Augustine McDonalds sipping a diet Coke so I don't have guilt issues about using their WIFI connection.
I ain't eating their food.


I was not supposed to be back in St. Augustine so soon, but Mom had a fall yesterday morning and I came over to cook them some meals and let her rest.

She is sore, but it looks like pulled muscles, not breaks.
THAT is very good news.

My brother and sister-inlaw will be picking up most of the duties due to proximity, so I dashed over here while I was available to do my share of the helping.

To make a long story short, she is usually the caregiver for my Dad and now she needs a little care-giving so she can recover.

I'm heading back to the folks house after this post to make a Tarragon Chicken lunch for them that hopefully will last for a couple of meals, plus I am making a big pot of chili that they can feed on for multiple meals.

Last week, I left them eleven pieces of fried chicken from Publix and they got 3 meals out of it.
Sheesh.
At my house that would not make a full meal if even 2/3 of the kids were home.

I'm going to fertilize her blueberry plants while I'm here and plant the wild rain (atamasco) lilies
... And generally do whatever she needs before I hand the duties off to big brother and sis.

Thank you all for the comments on the vulture. I savored each one.

Thanks for dropping in here in 2010 and sharing your views and insight.

Have a very Happy New Years Eve!

Just be safe.

I expect to see you back here next year.

Riding In Cars With Vultures

Somewhere between Hawthorne and Palatka, I began to hate the vulture sitting on the seat beside me.

Hate.
Now that is a strong word, much too strong ... for what I was feeling.
Resentment.
Yes, that's it.
I couldn't really hate a helpless, injured bird, but I am just selfish enough to resent his company.


My pre-vulture plans were:
Get up early, drive to St. Augustine, hit the beach first, and then slide over to Mom and Dad's where there was a porch rail to install so Dad's polio leg has some help going down the front steps.
Heck, I might even load up the kayak and hit Guana lake.


And then ... the vulture entered my life.

The first thing to go was the kayak.
Since I would have to stop at the wildlife rehab center, quite a detour and delay, I slashed kayaking from the plans.

There was still the beach after all.


Soon it was time to leave the house with a JEEP full of tools that might be needed for the porch rail project.
Somehow, I had to fit a full grown black vulture in there too.

There was absolutely no room in the back of the tiny JEEP with 2 sawhorses, a power miter saw, a drill, a tool box, a rolling bar stand, my overnight stuff, camera tripod, monopod, various bits of weaponry, and a tape measure.

It looked like the vulture would be riding up front with me.

Oh wait! Maybe he died during the night.
It could'a happened, ... you know, destiny and all that, ... nature taking its course, ... the circle of life, etc.

I stepped out on to the porch and lifted the beach towel from the top of the Rubbermaid vulture container.

Two shiny black eyes peered up at me ... and he hopped.

Lovely.
(Okay, yes, I was glad he survived)



I returned the towel.

Back in the house, with a pile of Christmas boxes still sitting in the den, there was not one vulture sized box.
So I grabbed a roll of shipping tape and my Gerber scissors, the ones I hide from everyone else around here, and McGuyvered a box that would both hold a vulture and yet fit on the passenger seat of a JEEP.

I lined the bottom with old GatorBait magazines to prevent poo leakage. After cutting a pair of air holes in the top, I placed the vulture in it and taped down the cover.

We left shortly after that, this vulture and I.


I had one quick stop at Junior's apartment in Gainesville which I accomplished quickly and in no time I was heading for Florida Wildlife Care over near Paynes Prairie.

I pictured a slight detour, a quick drop off, and zip! Back on the road again.

It WAS a pretty picture, but I waited too late to call them and got an answering service and a second pager number to call.

Pagers? In 2010?


Uh oh.
I cruised down to the rehab center and parked nearby, determined to wait a little bit and give the volunteer rehab folks a chance to call back.


Time passed and I really needed to get to St. Augustine, so I made the decision to push on.
Somewhere along the way, there would be a Vet Clinic and every Vet has a wildlife rehab connection.
Surely, the Vet would say, " Why, yes, drop your foul-smelling carrion eater here."

And I would be free.


Have you noticed ... there's never a Vet around when you need one?
I drove East, scanning each little community I passed through ... desperately seeking a Vet clinic.

Sometime later, when I had gone too far to turn back, Leslie of the Florida Wildlife Care center called me. She had gotten the page.

It turns out she and the other volunteers had been out rescuing an owl caught in fishing line. That certainly had priority in my opinion, and I told her not to worry, that I would get this vulture to a safe place.

I meant it at that moment, but as time wore on ... my attitude changed.

In the JEEP, with the heater keeping the very cold morning at bay, strange and pungent odors wafted up through the two large air holes in the vulture box top. They permeated the tiny JEEP and hovered right at nose level.

I swear I could almost see the vapors.
I think they were greenish yellow.


So it was that somewhere East of Hawthorne, I began really resenting the vulture and his intrusion into MY plans. Briefly I entertained the idea of pulling down a side road, out of sight of traffic, and dumping this stinky vulture out.


Let nature take its course and all that.

That didn't feel right now that I had already intervened and as everybody knows ... as soon as I dumped him, there would have been a Vet Clinic around the very next bend in the road.
Isn't it always that way?

So, the vulture and I pushed on.
I pushed my nose deep into my extra large McDonald's Coffee cup and breathed every so often to escape the vulture stink that filled the air around me.


Surely, I thought as we approached Palatka, ... surely I will pass a Vet Clinic on the drive through town.
Ha!
If there was one, I missed it.

Over the St. Johns River, through Hastings, and then, there it was! A Vet Clinic in Elkton.
Rustic and looking more like a ranch than a critter hospital, but the sign said Vet Clinic!

I pulled in, and a very nice lady called the local rehab folks (no, she did NOT say, "Give us your foul fowl.").
So, I was still "with bird", but she did give me the address of a Vet clinic that took injured birds ... AND ... it wasn't too far out of my way.

Thirty minutes later, I was handing over the vulture box to a cute, perky gal at St. Johns Veterinary Clinic in St. Augustine.
She even said, " Oh, he's in luck, the technician on duty today loves these vultures!"

I filled out a little information form and walked back out to the JEEP.
On the passenger seat, a small brownish damp spot shone in the morning light.

Gingerly, I swiped it with my finger tip and sniffed.

Gaacckkkk! Ugh.

The box had leaked.

More proof that "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished".


My tale ends with a dash into Winn Dixie for some paper towels and Febreeze.

Because of Winn Dixie, (wacka wacka) the JEEP smells a little girly, but not vulturey, which is just fine with me.

I suppose I won't ever know how the vulture's tale ends, but in my mind ...



... it turns out just fine.

Bear Backs Black Buzzard Beneath Bushes

Bear and I had just broke into a gallop as we jumped off the porch and headed for a jog/walk/run around PFHQ when it happened.

A black vulture sat directly in the middle of the trail, helpless, and unable to fly.
Bear saw it first and lit out for this amazingly large "chicken".
(Long time readers know Bear has a "chicken problem"... he's better, but once a chickenchaser, always a chicken chaser)

Luckily, I had Bear on the 30 foot leash we use for our outings, so I was able to put the brakes on his rush to the vulture.
He managed to scare it into some scrubby brush, so while the vulture tangled itself in the scrub, I put Bear back in the house.

I returned to the vulture with a large beach towel, which I draped over him after untangling him from the brush. I did not see an obvious injury, but he collapsed a few times when fleeing Bear without ever leaving the ground.
Whether it was leg or wing that failed him, I could not tell.


Black vultures stink like road kill ... what a surprise.
They also have very flexible necks and I can now add vulture nips to my list of bites and stings delivered by Florida's critters.


I called the FWC (state game and fish folks) for a nearby wildlife rehabber. The lady gave me a number for some folks south of here, but a message on their answering machine was never returned.
I don't really know the extent of the vulture's injury/sickness. It's been cold, really cold ... in the 20's last night so that could be a factor, but the vultures at Manatee Springs this morning were flying and sunning as if the cold were no big deal.

(Yes, I already used my park pass, No, the manatees were not visible)

On the internet, I found a 24 hour wildlife rescue center in Gainesville. Since I have to drive that way tomorrow, I'll drop this black beauty off on the way through town.

IF it survives the night.

In the meantime, it's in a quiet, dark holding area with comforting, familiar smells.

I hope he makes it.

Mossicles!!

No icicles here in Pure Florida yesterday, but my sweet sister-n-law did call me excitedly to announce that snowflakes were falling at her house.
They didn't last long, but were clearly visible on my big brother's black Ford pickup truck.
I did not doubt her for a second, because, at the time, I was only a few miles away at my folk's home and it was grey, windy, and FREEZING!

We were handed some much needed rain the night before as the front moved through and in typical Florida fashion, one day of grey mess dissolved into cold, clear, crystal blue skies.
Today is spectacular.

Christmas, both here at PFHQ and at Mom and Dad's, was very, very nice.
Lots of cheer and togetherness.


Mom and Dad gave me an ANNUAL PASS to Florida's state park system, or should I say, they gave US a PASS?
Y'all know that PASS will translate into beaucoup posts here at PF.
Sweet!

Florida's park entrance fees have risen lately, and while still reasonable ... if you go as much as I try to do ... for instance, dashing into Manatee Springs State Park (local for me) on a whim to check for sea cows, ... well the cost adds up.

The pass really is nice when I am just out wandering in the JEEP or cruising upon Raptor Red, because I can just whip in to any park that catches my fancy. In a park dense area, that can wind up costing big bucks ... but, not for me in 2011!

There will be posts.

Merry Christmas

Christmas trees come in all shapes and sizes, y'all.

I didn't think this one needed any tinsel, so I let it be.

PFHQ is in full Christmas tradition mode at this point with all kids home and a turkey ready to go oven diving.

I love our Christmas traditions.

The thing about tradition, is ... well, ...it's traditional.
Not boringly repetitive, but reliably consistent.
Sorta like that heirloom climbing rose outside my window.
It'll bloom this spring, just like it does every spring and the blossoms will be white just like they were last year and every year before.

T'won't be exactly the same though.
T'will be reliable,comforting, and welcome when it happens with just enough change to make it a unique experience.


That's how I see it anyway.

Let's see ... checking my list and checking it twice ...

• All shopping is done.
• I should take my grandfather's shotgun out and blast a bit of mistletoe from the top of the PFHQ oaks.
• Tonight is my favorite family night of the year.
• Junior agrees with me.
• Bear is pretty crazy about this day too.

Now, I should get wrapping.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Red Blueberries

The cold weather has turned my blueberry bushes red.
Time to feed them and anticipate the spring crop even as we feast on blueberry pancakes made from last seasons frozen berries.

Armadillo Chase Scene

Ahh bliss, Ahhhrmmadillo bliss that is.
Here we have the irritating exotic soil shnuzzler shnuzzling in the Pure Florida meadow.
Little does he know ... he's being stalked.

The wind shifts, the unseen predator stops in his tracks.
The Dillotente raises up for a listen and a sniff.
Is there danger afoot?
Sniff, sniff ... a tiny brain decides it was a false alarm.

("Tiny brain" refers to the armadillo, by the way not the predator ... although after the video, you may be indecisive about that point.)


Feeling confident, the 'dillo returns to his soil grubbing.

The unseen, unheard, unsniffed predator feels confident too and prepares his attack.

... which, coincidently, we have on a short video below.




No armadillos were harmed in the making of this movie.

The Icing Response In Alligators

Just trying to survive here ...

Icing on the Lake.
(subtlepunnicity ... I slay me)



My mistake last Wednesday, was the assumption that the gators at Payne's Prairie would be up basking on the banks due to the very cold weather. They were not.

In fact, they were all but invisible.


Temps had dropped below freezing that night and were still around 35 when I arrived at the preserve.


The spate of cold weather that week made the physical act of crawling out to bask in the sun not only a tougher physical challenge, but a poor survival choice for smaller gators, since the water was warmer than the air.





I observed about 4 gators in the 3 hours I spent roaming the prairie that day. Two were "icing", one was water basking, and one huge black gator had actually hauled itself out to sun.



Here's a little bit about "ICING" from one of Florida's best public treasures, The Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville ...


"Adult alligators can survive freezing conditions if they are in water. They submerge their body but keep their nostrils projecting above the water surface, so that when the surface freezes they can still breathe (called the "icing response"). Essentially their upper body becomes trapped in the ice. " (Credit: Florida Museum Of Natural History)

So an icing gator like this is not "... a lazy gator".
He's actually working real hard at getting through a life threatening event... i.e., a North Florida winter. He probably has not eaten for weeks, since gators generally stop eating below 70 degrees.



On my hike back to the Preserve entrance, with a noonday sun beating down, a pair of gators at the Alachua sink were exposing a little more skin to the air. Nobody was moving though.
The gator above has been floating long enough for his skin to dry out (the grey).

He remained immobile like that while a duck and an egret hunted (seemingly cooperatively ... more on that later) directly in front of him.
Eating was not an option for the gator. Heat absorption was the priority.


This gator was nowhere to be seen when I walked by on the way out to the prairie at around 0900 hours.
I took this picture at noon. For him, soaking up heat on the bank is a good gamble. His large size and dark color will allow him to absorb and store lots of solar energy before dusk brings another freezing night.

Another freezing night, another challenge for a critter with a survival tool box labeled, "Instinctive Behaviors".


You can collect a lot of tools in 200,000,000 years.
The "Icing Response" is just one of them.

Gator Cake, Dillo Dirt, Fins Fun

Bear still hasn't kicked his armadillo habit.

At the end of an almost dusk walk, he chased an armadillo into its burrow.
We spent the next 20 minutes here, while he dug deeper and deeper into the sandy soil. I actually encourage his harassment of our burgeoning armadillo population.
They are not native and I think it was Archie Carr who noted the drop in soil fauna where armadillos existed.

They can sure wreck a flower or garden bed too.
I have given a few of them lead poisoning, but they just keep coming ... apparently some of them actually DO make it across roads.
I wonder sometimes if they have a negative effect on my gopher tortoises, since occasionally I find a dome shaped former gopher burrow converted into a round 'dillo tunnel.
Did the gopher seek new digs as they do from time to time? Or were they forced out by 'dillo disturbance? I don't see the gopher plastron skid marks outside these confiscated burrows, so I don't really think they are co-existing in a burrow sharing arrangement.

So, for a variety of reasons, Bear and I try to make their life miserable here in the hopes they will move next door to my neighbors property.


Satsuma tee pee.
Clever me, I planted a young satsuma citrus tree just before a week of freezing temps. I cut some bamboo and made this little plastic tee pee to give the sapling a chance, but it definitely took a hit. Satsumas are one of the most cold hardy of citrus trees, but even they have their limits.
We'll see if she recovers.


Below, you see the Gator Cake.


One of my former students, who is also connected to the Southern Sisters catering clan, graduated with yet another degree from UF this weekend. Mrs. FC made a cake for the graduation party.

I was drafted into this cake operation also.
I drew the University of Florida's "Fighting Gator" onto the cake by scratching it in to the white icing with a wire cake tester thingie.
(wire cake tester thingies ROCK! I used to have to dash outside and cut a sliver of palmetto to check a cake ... usually at the last minute...no more.)


After I finished the etching, Mrs. FC took over with the icing decorator bag and made it real.

I think she did a pretty sweet job of it.

Junior and his buddy, Jonathon, are strangers in a strange land this weekend. Back in September we gave Junior two tickets to a Miami Dolphin game and this is that weekend.
The boy is a die-hard, loyal Fin Fan so he is pretty excited.
The boys are base camping in Fort Pierce at a motel, from which it is a reasonable drive to South America lite.

I gave them the usual MIAMI adVICE ...

• Get there early.
• Leave town immediately after the game.
• Expect 50 percent of the drivers to ignore traffic signals and stop signs.
• Ignore rude or belligerent people. Not worth a response.
• Be aware of your surroundings at all times.
• Get north quickly post game, before you stop to eat.
• Have fun.

That about covers it.

Two In The Bush

Yin and Yang.
A double hawk cypress tree at Paynes Prairie.
Talk about your icing on the cake ... two cooperative hawks after a morning of sandhills and whoopers.


Okay, bird-nerds, I'm calling this a Red-shouldered hawk.
Feel free to verify or vilify my identification, but I did slip over to Cornell just to double check.


These hawks were in a great hunting spot. The cypress stood alongside a canal, at a point with cover and open water. It was alive with blackbirds and other small birds flitting among the emergent water plants.
I'm sure there were also small critters creeping about that the hawk could see and I could not.

The sunny hawk, above, was cooperative to a point.
He allowed me to get fairly close, then the screeching began, and he soared.


He drifted back and forth over me a few times, crying an intruder alarm, before landing in a more distant cypress.

The shade hawk never did leave his perch.

In fact, he didn't seem to be interested in me at all, even when I walked right up to his perch tree while trying to find a clear shot through the cypress twigs.

Preening is serious business and I suppose he had already sized me up as a non-threat.

Which I was.

Hawks are known for their accuracy.

Payneful Doctor Visit

Yesterday was my semiannual regular checkup day with my perky dermatologist.
Pretty normal visit, but this time she did slice off a bit of me to send away for a closer look-see.
I was in and out of there in about 30 minutes. This skin doctor and my child's pediatrician are about the only doctors I have ever had that do not make you wait forever in a waiting room.
God bless 'em.

So, the check-up wasn't really painful at all, nor was it long, and before I knew it, I was sitting in Burger King sipping a pretty good coffee and checking my email ... and of course, Pure Florida.

I didn't stay long in the realm of the King since it was a chilly (freezing) morning and I was free for the day. There were a few other appointments on the docket, but the morning was mine.

I pondered a few options and then headed for the Alachua Sink portion of Payne's Prairie State Preserve.

A few minutes later, I was walking out on to the prairie, expecting to find sunning alligators, but there were none. It was such a cold morning that the water was warmer than the air (heat capacity!) and the few visible gators had only their snorkels exposed.
Pictures of that later.

There were birds though ... lots and lots of birds.
Herons, egrets, hawks,anhingas,sparrows, warblers, ducks, coots, gallinules, ibis,vultures, bitterns, cranes ...

Ahhh, C-R-A-N-E-S!!



The honking crane soundtrack was audible anywhere you walked on the elevated dikes that jut into the prairie. They were everywhere ... to my left, to my right, and flying overhead.



And ... I seemed to be the only person in the park, save for a crew of state prisoners renovating the observation tower far off in the distance.
What sweet duty that must be compared to being in the jail or picking up roadside trash.

The closest flock of cranes were still a hundred yards away and just inside a thicket of dead brush ... not invisible, not very visible, but somewhere in between.

Oh well, we take what we can get with critter photos.
I blasted a bunch of megapixies for just a few shareable photos, but every once in a while I managed to stop time in an acceptable way.

I like this trio.

Yes, it could be sharper and brighter, but I was pivoting and tracking with the little Sony's zoom maximized.

I was very glad I had thought to attach my monopod ... really makes a difference when you are zooming in, and it's easy to carry and maneuver, unlike a tripod.

As you might imagine, I spent a lot of time near this flock of sandhills. Every so often a group would lift off and cross over me, or an incoming group would circle and flare, flaps down, for a landing with the bush birds.

I'm not sure what the food source was in there, but they seemed to be actively feeding.

The pair below flew up out of the sandhill bush flock and flew over the dike to my left.

They were strikingly different from the sandhills and I had time to get one shot off before they slipped out of sight.

Whoopers.

Are those not whoopers?

Did I luck out or what?

Just the day before, I was listening to an NPR (local) interview with an ultralight pilot who is leading a flock of ten whoopers on the annual migration flight from Wisconsin to Chassowhitzka NWR, just south of PF.

And the next day, I get to SEE whoopers!

Sara N. Dipity, I love you.

Katie's Birthday!

December 1987, Savannah, Georgia.

December 2010, just east of Cedar Key, Florida.

If she isn't just the cutest little thing!

What a honey this pioneer baby turned out to be, bravely arriving first and taking a chance on two amateurs.

Happy Birthday Katie-Bug!

Sunday Chill

When Bear does this kind'a thing, I just have to stop what I'm supposed to be doing and get down on the floor with him.
This is often why the "to do" list stays in the future tense.


Life is short, play with your dog.


Last week, Bear mentioned this owl in his unauthorized post.
Yes, I found out.

None of my photos were spectacular, it was dusk, and the flashless shots were soft, so here's a barely acceptable flash shot.
It wasn't nearly that dark and the owl did not actually have laser vision, but at least you can get an idea of the scene.

This is about 4o feet from my side porch.




It was in the 20's a few nights last week and I did the evening run-a-round turning faucets on to a slow drip. Only this one had ice the next day and it was just serendipity that it did.
A tall grass seed head happened to line up with the faucet and give the drips a slow pathway to the ground.

The current forecast is for windchill temps comparable to 10 degrees tomorrow and Tuesday, even though the actual temps are forecast in the 20's.
I just planted a young satsuma, (a cold hardy tangerine) a few weeks ago. She's too young to be uber cold hardy, so I will cover her with plastic today. Yesterday, I cut several slender bamboo poles and laced them together tee pee style over the tree. That framework will support the plastic sheeting and help this young tree withstand the freeze to come.

This morning was grey, chilly, and rainy, but the sun is out now and the skies are clearing so the big chill should be arriving soon.

I'm looking out the window as I type and the wind is really picking up out there.

That is because, yesterday, I loaded my kayak onto my little trailer so I could slip out to Cedar Key for a little redfishing today.

My compromise is that I am detaching the trailer, but I'm leaving the kayak on it. This is the last week before school lets out for the Christmas holiday and since I am doing ALL my shopping on line, I will be out on the Gulf of Florida while the hordes are malling each other.

Let's see ... what else do you need to know ... hmmm ...

• The Southern Sisters catering crew had 4 events in the last 3 days, so I haven't seen but a fleeting glimpse of Mrs. FC. ... I think it was her, ... sure resembled her.

• Wednesday I get to go see my perky Dermatologist for our semiannual chitchat in which she tells me to stay out of the sun and usually finds something to zap with liquid nitrogen. I will attempt to earn good patient points by informing her that Santa might be bringing me a Tilley hat this season.

• Today, I will be blending Cuban mojo cooking with a traditional southern method, so stay tuned for an update on that.

• Question: Do any of you have experience with GoPro wearable video cameras? It seems like exactly the thing I need to capture some of the situations I get into while still keeping my hands free for snake handling(getting bit), tree climbing(aka falling), motorcycling (speeding), kayaking (tipping)etc. The online testimonials and video quality is pretty positive. Chime in if you have first hand knowledge.

• The frosts are browning the grass in the meadow here ... just in time for Emma to arrive home for the break. We shall pyromaniacize together as usual in the annual ritual of meadow burning.

• Tomorrow is a special day here at Pure Florida. I have a neat pair of before and after photos to share with you.

Mullet Fishin' By Airboat

While I was photographing the pair of preening scaup, an airboat appeared across the marsh.
Airboats are loud when powered up, but this one was idling as the two men on board tried to catch mullet.
They were pretty far away from where I stood and the ducks preened. Far enough, that the ducks paid more attention to me than to the noisy machine several hundredyards away.

Below is a short video clip showing the airboat teamwork involved in the pursuit of mullet.

Scaup at Cedar Key

Last weekend I rode Raptor Red out to Cedar Key in search of wildlife. It's only about 20 minutes to salt water from PFHQ and I was hoping the migratory waterfowl would be cooperative.

They were.

Since I rode the motorcycle, it was a simple thing to pull over when I spotted this raft of lesser scaup actively feeding in the roadside shallows.

They were busy.

Lesser scaup are omnivores so I don't know what the food attraction was here, but they were really going for it.

I love ducks.

I love their antics, their noise, and the way they cock their head sideways and look you in the eye.

The scaup below were in a quiet secluded bit of marsh separate from the rafts above.

It was preening time and this pair spent as much time belly up as they did belly down.

Peaceful paddlers.

Check out my abs!

We preen therefore we are.

Bear Chimes In

Hi folks,
Bear here.

FC is off early this morning to a Nerd Tournament. It's the district level tourney and his JV team actually has a chance of winning.
His varsity team is ... wishing for a miracle.

Anyhooo, he got up extra early and left in a dash today, but he left the computer thingie up and running, so I thought I would set the matter straight about who REALLY cooked the wonderful Thanksgiving turkey back in November.

Here I am checking on the bird and preparing to baste it with more whine ... (wacka, wacka...that's funny, I don't care what breed you are).

FC was out painting the doors before company arrived, so I took over the turkey cooking.
Just wanted to set the record straight.


I'm sure he will update you on how his team did, and I know he has some Cedar Key waterfowl shots to share with you, because he went off on that motorcycle without me and came back smelling like saltwater Saturday.

I think there's some backyard owl shots too, because he cut short our walk Sunday evening and shoved me in the house before dashing back outside with his camera and without me.

So, stay tuned.

In the meantime, he forgot to block off the living room with that scary gate, so I am heading for the couch.

Chow,


(more dog humor, I crack me up)

Bear

SWAI BOTHER?

First, let me say that I like mild fish.
None of the strong flavored fish that are so ultra good for you appeal to me. I would no sooner eat a medium rare tuna steak than I would eat some of Bear's dog food.
No salmon, no mackerel, no fresh tuna.
Nope.
None.

So, I was really surprised when I tried SWAI.
SWAI or BASA is an Asian catfish that is farm raised, flash frozen, and shipped to your local grocery store.

I checked it out on the net to see what the heck SWAI was first ... kind of hard to tell from a clean filet.
Catfish.
Well, why didn't they say so?

(Answer: Protectionist USDA policy only allows the right (North American) genus of catfish to be marketed as catfish here.)

I had high hopes for a great piece of fish. The filets were clean and white with no dark myoglobin filled regions.
Myoglobin stores oxygen for fish and it gives the meat a dark color and a strong "fishy" flavor.
You can actually look at a filet of fish and get an idea for whether the species is a couch potato or an athlete.
Speedy active swimmers (athletes) like tuna, mackeral, and salmon will be loaded with dark muscle ... and strong fishy flavor.
Ambush predators (couch potato) like flounder, grouper, snapper, will have more white muscle and a milder flavor.



I dredged them in a commercial fish fry mix even though I really prefer the crunchiness of good ol' cornmeal.
Then I deep fried them with some shrimp.



A little fish, a little Selmo salad, a little shrimp, a little datil relish ... should be a lotta good eating.

And it was, mostly, but the SWAI was pretty boring.

A little too much like eating tofu ... no taste and soft.

I like some dental resistance when I chomp on a piece of fish and SOME fish flavor, just not too much.

On a scale of 1-10, I give SWAI 3's in both flavor and texture.

I need to go fishing obviously and eat some REAL fish.



If you hung in there with me this summer, you know I take forever to finish a paint job, but the PFHQ exterior is done now except for a touch-up punch list and a few foundation pilings.
Soooo ... I thought I'd share it with you.

Remember, it was basic cedar brown before.

One of the things I like most about it now is simply losing the lattice that masked the porch foundation.
I love the way the house seems to sit up higher and to me, it's more country and less gingerbready.

FC is not very gingerbready.

In other news ...

• I planted a new Satsuma tree and bought a new Meyer lemon tree. The lemon is small and loaded with blossoms, so I think I will keep it in the pot through this winter. That way I can run it in on nights like last night when the temp was in the mid 20's F.

• We have eaten the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers except for that ham bone that will soon be Columbia Spanish Bean Soup soon.

• I'm still doing P90X, but I stretched out this past week of recovery exercise to let a sore elbow get ready for the next and final multi-week segment of heavy lifting. Tonight begins Week 9 and it looks like torture. I'm happy to say the holiday feasting was only a minor bump in that road.

• I used my dead deer pics and video in class today to illustrate the Carbon Cycle and I had them from the first disgusting picture. I think they may have grasped the concept finally. It's hard to tell with 9th graders ... they are not like you or me.

• Frank Update: Long time readers might remember my project kid, Frank. We don't see each other as much since he is not in my class. He played football this season and did well. I have not seen his name on any discipline memos, and as far as I know he's doing okay. I think he's involved in a dance or step team also. So, I guess the update, even though it's short on factual detail, is that he is all right.
  

I am not prematurely announcing "Mission Accomplished" regarding Frank, simply that the SITREP is positive.