Look Who Came To Dinner

Hi Everyone!

I got a surprise e-mail while I was visiting my parents for the Thanksgiving holiday from the woman that owns Chester the Peacock. You may remember him, he was hatched with an injured leg back in the spring of this year.

He has grown up a lot since I first wrote about him (here near the bottom), and (here when he went crabbing), and here when modeled for a photo-shoot, and I said my goodbye's to him here at the end of the boating season.


Guess who came by for Thanksgiving breakfast? His human mom even laid out a placesetting for him. I understand he likes just about anything people like and begs terribly while standing on the kitchen counter while Mom and/or Dad cooks.


Chester . o O (Do you think mommy will notice I sampled hers?)

:)


Chester . o O (Eat, drink and then just lay back and relax by the fire... Ahhhhhh!)

Or should I have captioned this, "Chester's Nuts Roasting Over an Open Fire?"

I suspect I need to put his name on the Christmas card I send to his mom and dad!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just crack up laughing looking at Ernie's face.

Enjoy! :)

Gone Fishing

On Saturday, I went to the western end of the Perkiomen trail and into Green Lane Park - As a young boy, my parents often took my brothers and I to this park to swim and then later to have a picnic diner.

Sometimes we would go to the Candlewick Restaurant (which burned down when I was in school and the grounds are now a housing development) and sometimes we went to the smorgasbord served at the Schwenksville firehouse (which now has a nice BBQ Chicken event but no smorgasbord dinners) instead of grilling burgers and hot dogs in the park. No matter where we ate, it was always tasted really good after hours of swimming in the lake.

I put the pictures I took on Saturday (here). I hope you will take a peek.

This park, the largest of the Montgomery County parks, consists of over 3400 acres and three beautiful lakes totaling 870 acres.

Just to illustrate - a typical block in Manhattan (New York City) is about 6.4 acres, meaning the lakes at Green Lane Park would cover about 135 city blocks!

It is miles from one end of the park to the other end and it is laced with walking (and horseback riding) trails. Unfortunately, you can no longer swim here so that is a now just a fond memory of the past.


Could this be Cappy and I fishing in Deep Creek Lake?

The road from Green Lane goes to Red Hill and on to East Greenville. Colorful, huh?

I will be very busy over the next view days - so if I don't get the chance later - I want to wish you all, a very Happy (and safe) Thanksgiving holiday.

Weekend Wordle

It's that time of week again!

It's time for Shan's Weekend Wordles.

Here's what you do:

1) Go to Wordle.net to create your Wordle.

2) Post it on your blog with a link to Shan's Week~End Wordles or Last Shreds Of Sanity.

3) Once that's done, go back to Last Shreds Of Sanity and sign the Mr Linky that she'll have up - this will help direct those who play along to your blog.

From Cappy Got A Bath!


This post is dedicated to a truely wonderful person, Yaya.



When it hurts to look back
and
You're scared to look ahead...

You can look beside you
and
Your friends will be there.

Trouble With Manatees

The trouble with Manatees is that try as you might, and ChicagoLady knows best, you can't keep one as a pet. Even a baby manatee measures three to four feet long and weights between sixty and seventy pounds and would crowd even a large claw foot tub!

I saw eighteen manatees during a lunchtime trip to Wakulla Springs - you might want to visit the Friends of Wakulla Springs Website which has an excellent photo gallery page.

Wakulla Spring is a giant freshwater spring located near Tallahassee, Florida. Its waters come from an aquifer in Georgia, emerging from an underground cave system.

Though little known, Wakulla Spring is a natural wonder, one of the largest and deepest (exceeding 300 feet) fresh water springs in the world. The natural pool above the spring is exceptionally clear; the bowl is approximately three acres in size.

It was the site of the filming of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", some of the early Tarzan movies and scenes from Airport '77.


The West Indian Manatee has adapted fully to an aquatic life style and has no hind limbs.


As its name implies, the West Indian Manatee lives in the West Indies, better known as the Caribbean, generally in shallow coastal areas. A manatee can withstand large changes in water salinity, and have been found in shallow rivers and estuaries.


It is limited to the tropics and subtropics due to an extremely low metabolic rate and lack of a thick layer of insulating body fat. During summer, these large mammals have even been found as far north as New York City, New York!


Say Cheese!
I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the teenaged girl taking the picture with her cell phone.
The Florida manatee is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee and is the largest of all living sirenians.


Adults typically run from 8-12 feet in length and run 1,500 to 1,800 pounds, although the largest are over 13 feet and weigh 3,500 pounds.


The manatee is surprisingly agile in water, and individuals have been seen doing rolls, somersaults, and even swimming upside-down. Manatees are not territorial and do not have complex predator avoidance behavior, as they have evolved in areas without natural predators.


The Manatee is an opportunistic feeder, with large adults feasting on nearly 20 to 65 pounds (9 to 30 kg) of sea grasses and plant leaves daily.


Florida manatees may live to be greater than 60 years old in the wild. The biggest single threat to Florida manatees is death from collisions with recreational watercraft.

The Florida manatee subspecies was listed as an endangered species on the basis of a population size of less than 2,500 mature individuals.


Momma With Calf
Makes you want to sing and/or hum the Hugh the Manatee song, does it?

As I was snorkeling down in the cayes
I came upon two manatees
I looked at them and they looked right at me
As they chewed on their dinner of hydrilla weeds
One came over and said to me
I'll tell you what life is like under the sea
My name is Hugh and I'll show to you
Just what manatees do.

Hugh the Manatee
Swimming around from caye to caye
Oh how I wish that I could be
Like Hugh the Manatee
Hugh the Manatee
Swimming around the West Indies
Oh how I wish that I could be
Like Hugh the Manatee!

You can download the entire Hugh the Manatee song (here)

You can join the Save the Manatee folks (here)

Sciurus Carolinensis and Ursus Americanus

If you sight a white squirrel in North America outside of captivity, its almost certainly a color variant of one of the many native species of the genus Sciurus; most likely, that would be the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

Now, I've heard of these "albino" squirrels but had never seen one until I was in Florida a few weeks ago. From I've learned, they are most common in Brevard, North Carolina, and the ones in Florida were probably imported from there.


Spotted high in a tree in Ochlockonee River State Park


Close up


Climbing a tree near the birdbath


Close up


This little guy was trying to drink out of the birdbath behind the place I was staying at - but it was empty - so I took a bucket of water out to refill it for him and his pals.


I no sooner got back to the house I was staying at when I heard the landlord's dog start to bark furiously. I walked back toward the birdbath and nearly dropped my camera trying to take this picture! A Florida Black Bear had found a nice clean cool drink, emptying the birdbath, and was now going to tell the mouthy dog to shut up!


The dog was up on a balcony and when the landlord saw what he was barking at, I saw a hand reach out, grab his collar and the dog get yanked into the house. The landlord's head popped back out and he hollared over to me, "This is a cub, born early this year, if its momma is around - you will want to be inside!" So I quickly went inside and up to the balcony to look around for momma bear!

The American black bear is the smallest of the three bears species found in North America, and are found only in North America.

Fast Facts

Height: 2-3 feet (.6-.9m) at shoulders
Length: 4-7 feet (1.2-2m) from nose to tip of tail
Weight: Males weigh an average of 150-300 lbs (68-158 kg), females are smaller.

Exceptionally large males have been known to weigh 500-600 lbs (227-272 kg).

Lifespan: Average lifespan is around ten years, though black bears can live upward of 30 years in the wild.

The Florida black bear subspecies (Ursus americanus floridanus) is listed as threatened by the state of Florida. I was a very lucky guy to see one!


I guess when I can see this sign like this one outside my bedroom window, I ought to pay attention to it, huh?

:)

Florida Snaps

While I was in Florida I got to take some extended lunch time breaks - so I took advantage of them!


A Sandpiper walks the foamy beach at Bald Point State Park.


The Monarch Butterflies were migrating to Mexico. I saw thousands upon thousands of them.


A metal Rooster crows at the Apalachicola Sponge Company. I wanted to get it for Marmite Toasty!

Before the development of railways in the Gulf states, Apalachicola was the third busiest port in the Gulf of Mexico (behind New Orleans and Mobile). In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the sponge trade, led by Greek immigrants, was a major industry in the town. Apalachicola is still the home port for a variety of seafood workers, including oyster harvesters and shrimpers. More than 90% of Florida's oyster production is harvested from Apalachicola Bay.


The St. Marks Light is the second-oldest light station in Florida. It is located on the east side of the mouth of the St. Marks River, on Apalachee Bay.

In the 1820s, the town of St. Marks, Florida was considered an important seaport. The town served as a port for the planting region of Middle Florida and some counties of South Georgia. Growers hauled their products down to the port town in wagons by way of an early road via Tallahassee and on to the town of St. Marks. Later, this road would be widened and improved upon by the Tallahassee Railroad Company and would become the state's first railroad. The railroad is a now a very pleasant rail-trail and I walked on about 6 miles (of 20) of it.


I stopped for lunch and while I was eating, some of the birds in the trees above me started making a huge racket. I looked around to see why, and lo and behold, someone was interested in joining me for lunch. I then moved to a table much further away, I'm antisocial like that.


I love turtles. When I saw this low-lying branch in the Wakulla Springs I happily started counting turtles and then went "Whoa! That last one isn't a turtle!" While I watched, the little alligator licked the last turtle's foot and that caused him to push and shove really hard on the backed up line!

I saw the Manatees at Wakulla Springs too. Hopefully I'll feel up to putting together a post on them soon -or- you can check them out in the Flickr photostream if you wish.

:)

Awards That Made Me Smile

I know - I'm always very slow with posting these - but today, when many I know seem to be struggling, unemployment, illness, cruel twist of fates, friends angry at other friends, cancer and swine flu killings, and even teenage deaths. It just seems the whole gamut of the seven horses of the apocalypse are running pell-mell for leather this week, and I wanted to bring some smiles into the world.

But how to do that? When my friends struggle - my mood plummets with theirs.

Well - One sure-fire one way is to tell you all to go visit JennyMac's Let's Have A Cocktail - Her entry today had me guffawing so loud the boss thought I was suffering a heart attack.

Not to minimize any other awards - I was stunned to receive this one - JennyMac is one of the most brilliant persons I know and her blog is ... well it is what I aspire to make mine like someday, the poor imitation that it is.

Please go visit JennyMac today - I guarantee you a good laugh.


Thank you JennyMac!

The rules for the I give good blog award are simple. Make a cocktail, pick out some of your favorite bloggers. Send this award to 4 of them. Tell them why you think they give good blog.

So I made myself a nice cold, tall glass of orange Metamucil and thought I'll give this to people I've "met" recently; people I'm glad to call my friends and neighbors.

Airing My Dirty Laundry, One Sock At A Time by WhisperingWriter - She's got two of the most beautiful rug rats ever to dress in Gap and Gymboree clothes - her daily entries are about her daily routine - but her recounting of the routine is anything but routine.

A Corgi In Southern California is someone I simply admire - and not just because she's an unabashed dog person. I wish I could be even half the wonderful person she is - I met her through Martha Menagerie - who is another one of those irrepressibly happy-go-lucky people every one should know and I admire.

The Daily Grind by Martha in PA - now here is someone I went to High School with - and her journy through life and my journey through life couldn't be more different - but here we are - once again neighbors. Her mosaics are to die for - I hope you will visit her and her daughter Tara and give her a hello. Butterflies are the mosaic masterpiece of the day today.

Matty Thoughts who's birthday is today as a "matty of fact"! In a blogosphere short of guys, I'm glad to "met" another neighbor and a guy one at that! Matt is a someone I respect - his class and gentleman demeanor sneak past the words on his blog. I hope you all will give him a happy birthday shout and check out his previous entry featuring the Left-handed King of Whiffle Ball.

If this award wasn't enough to make my head swell here some others.


From The Daily Grind by Martha in PA. "Over the top" huh? I guess those orange cone antics might be a little.. silly. :)

The rules say answer these questions using only one word and then pass the award along to 6 others -

1. Where is your cell phone? ..Arms-reach
2. Your hair? ..MIA
3. Your mother? ..Special
4. Your father? ..Super
5. Your favorite food? ..Chinese
6. Your dream last night? ..tormented
7. Your favorite drink? ..Metamucil (well! Diet Coke is two words)
8. Your dream/goal? ..silence
9. What room are you in? ..office
10. Your hobby? ..blogging
11. Your fear? ..blindness / cancer (its a toss-up)
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? ..retired
13. Where were you last night? ..home
14. Something you aren't? ..smelly?
15. Muffins? ..blueberry!
16. Wish list item? ..tires
17. Where did you grow up? ..Pennsylvania
18. Last thing you did? ..blushes
19. What are you wearing? ..clothes
20. Your TV? ..dusty
21. Your pets? ..none
22. Your friends? ..fabulolus (thanks Martha)
23. Your life? ..full
24. Your mood? ..retrospective
25. Missing someone? ..always
26. Vehicle? ..dirty
27. Something you're not wearing? ..mankini
28. Your favorite store? ..bookstore
29. Your favorite color? ..blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? ..today
31. Last time you cried? ..today (please don't kick me out of the man club!)
32. Your best friend? ..wow
33. One place that I go over and over? ..bathroom
34. One person who emails me regularly? ..boss
35. Favorite place to eat? ..home

I'm going to pass this one along to Yaya (with the orange) Stuff - a person with a heart of gold and who radiates love - and who could really use a friendly visit and a smile today.

...and to MemeLove, a truely gifted young writer and painter - her art, no matter what the form; prose, paint, or poetry makes me envious inside.

To TOOJ at Circling a Square Table who is expecting and will be called TOOJBA for now...

To Sherri at a Matter of Fact - a person with a big heart and smile - and who could really use a friendly visit and a smile today.

To LadyStyx who can understand the meaning of my answer to question 23.

And last but my no means least - Rita at SoulComfort who defines the word "pluck" and has a beautiful attitude I wish I could emulate.

---------

From LadyStyx - to whom, I hope knows, I am "dragon loyal" - thank you Styxie!

I'm going to pass this one along to five people who have steadfastly supported my feeble blogging efforts - and I know I'm slighting others - so I regret having to pick and chose -

Alice Kay from the Wilds of Pennsylvania, JunYah over at Creation Corner who might not be able to get his hands and fingers to work Blogger right - but I think that's because his talented hands are tying flies and doing amazing home improvements, Deanna .aka. Punkn, Karla the Texan and Tori from Wales. It's been a whirlwind of a couple years.

---------

From YellowDogGranny who's 1795th post today is definitely worth reading.

I'm going to pass this along to:

SugarLens, Dorkys Ramos over at Dry as Toast and the rated "R" (you are warned!) A Yankee Girl None of these lovely women's blogs are remotely the similar - yet I enjoy each of their blogs immensely.

Thank each and everyone of you - I feel incredibly blessed to have gotten to know you.

Sunday Frolics

I went over to my parent's house this past Sunday to celebrate my Dad and my niece's birthdays. While waiting for the festivities to start, I took a walk along the Delaware Canal heading south from Washington Crossing, PA.


Now, I've walked this stretch of the canal many times, but this walk featured something a little bit different from the usual.

Meet Frederica, Ormandy the Blackfaced, and Petunia!

They were so excited because their human parents were taking them for a walk on the canal!

Actually, I think they were more excited by the fresh clumps of very green grass that are to be found along the towpath - but we'll let them think it's a secret. :)


Frederica was a little slow forming up for the walk having found something special to munch on - but when she heard, "Come Freddy!" she got to trotting along!


So off they went, down the canal, stopping every so often to munch and chew.

Which led to Pumpkin becoming very upset. Pumpkin didn't want to be left behind and protested strenuously. According to Mr. Sheepherder, Pumpkin used to walk with them on the towpath when she weighed a svelte 150 or so pounds - but now that she is a tad bigger, she simply has to stay home.


I never heard such mooing - a 750-pound cow can really bellow!


After a nice walk and a delicious ham dinner, two more animals of the partying kind enjoyed blowing out the candles on their cake!

Weekend Wordle

It's that time of week again!

It's time for Shan's Weekend Wordles.

Here's what you do:

1) Go to Wordle.net to create your Wordle.

2) Post it on your blog with a link to Shan's Week~End Wordles or Last Shreds Of Sanity.

3) Once that's done, go back to Last Shreds Of Sanity and sign the Mr Linky that she'll have up - this will help direct those who play along to your blog.

From Happy Birthday Tori!


There are people in this world whose courage and character and strength are so remarkable and profound that it leaves me awed

Cappy Got A Bath!

As you may recall, I recently adopted a most forlorn looking orange traffic cone named Cappy. He came to me from Yaya in a huge box packed with Styrofoam peanuts. I am happy to report that Cappy is not allergic to syrofoam nor does he have a peanut allergy, either of which would have made my life a lot harder.

Yaya sent a note saying Cappy ought to "clean right up" so I decided to give him a nice hot, sudsy bath and see if I could take some of the filth off of him.


Here is a picture of both of Cappy's parts before he got his bath. I have to wince at those open sores. I told Cappy I would look into what his tattooed EVM stood for - I really hope he wasn't involved in any gang activity.

Thanks to Mr. Google, I now know that EVM stands for "Earned Value Management" which is some sort of fancy-smancy accounting thingy and that the construction industry was an early commercial adopter of it, whatever it is...

The tattoo, however, might stand for Motorized Venting Model which has something to do with automatic skylights but for the life of me - I don't understand how it applies to orange cones...

Ever the optimist, I am hoping EVM is basically harmless but I would really love to know what it means for sure.


Another "before the bath" picture. Judging by the tire tread marks, Cappy was cleanly run over at least three times.

Who could do such a thing? And was it a case of hit and run? Will there ever be a CSI/IggyLand television episode that explains all?


After his long, hot, soaking bath, Cappy stood a little taller and seemed to regain a bit of his dignity and a slight, ever so soft, orange glow.

Not having any dignity of my own, I spent 20 minutes washing the bathtub out afterwards and while I was at, I pondered whether or not orange traffic safety cones were "Dishwasher Safe".

Now before you yell and scream at me for contemplating stuffing Cappy into a tight, confined box with what would be dreadfully noisy, scalding hot jets of water blasting at him, be assured I would sit (stand?) him down and carefully and calmly explain what was going to happen beforehand so he won't panic - and I will be very, very certain to use the "No Heat" dry option.


He really needs another go in the tub with something a little stronger than Johnson and Johnson's baby shampoo. I was fearful of getting caustic soap in his eyes and adding to all that he's suffered already.

Does anyone of you have suggestions for a good powerful, but gentle, cleansing (and most importantly, cheap) soap?

After writing this - I found a can of heavy duty rug spot cleaner. I tried it out and it seems to have worked pretty well - now all I have to do is come down from the high the fumes gave me.


Here is a close-up of Cappy's head before he got his bath.

He seemed to be in good spirits even after soaking in the bathroom sink for nearly 3 hours. In fact, I think I heard him singing that "Mr. Bubbles" song but that made me a little mad since the slogan goes, "Mr. Bubble gets you so clean your mother won't know you" and poor Cappy doesn't have a mother.


A close up of Cappy's head after he got his bath. I spent extra time scrubbing behind his ears (please don't ask).

The Doctor says Cappy's headreattacholectomy (can you say "headreattacholectomy" kids?) should take place really soon, perhaps even during this weekend! Oh, I do hope it all goes well.

-Cappy's proud but nervous Daddy

Happy Birthday Tori!

It's been an eventful year for a certain, very special blogger in Wales - it has been a little more than a year since she had her "final eye operation" that left her completely without vision.

In the space of that year, she has continued to amaze me.

She is too modest at times - like the times when she downplays her ability to knit gloves with fingers and shape items like ducks and dragons from clay - and to write her blog and read and comment on our blogs, and to take pictures of birds that ... well ... they simply can't be all the result of happy accident or pure luck.

I want to wish this dear friend a very Happy Birthday! Make a wish and blow out the candles Tori!

I hope the upcoming year is a busy one; one that is fulfilling; and filled with happy family trips to the beaches and castles; and Kero walkies; and a year completely devoid of leaf monsters. I hope your greatest, most fervent wish comes true this year too.

Perhaps you will also get that pet Lion and a ride in horse pulled caravan that you want!

So Tori, have a dandelion and burdock (or two) on me...

- one of your not-so-secret admirers...

Iggy

Worm Gruntin' Festival

As some of you already know, I'm a well travelled guy, having been to almost every one of these United States and several dozen foreign countries too - I've seen a lot of sights.

From empty desert expanses, cities full of 100+ floors of neck crinkin' skyscrapers, to endless vistas of blue wind-swept waters.

From spooky empty ghost towns to bumper-to-bumper cars and people - from the totally ancient like Stonehenge to the sparkling new ... with all things human - the variety is never ending and I'll never be able to truthfully say, "Now I've seen everything!" But... sometimes I have to wonder.

A case in point - Last week while driving around in the "forgotten coast" of Florida, I ventured through a small town that appeared to consist of a single un-traffic-lighted crossroads with a florist, a recording studio, a town hall, an IGA supermarket untouched by modern electronics, and antique store named "Sisters Antiques and Uniques" where I spotted this store front banner:


I had driven by but I just had to stop and go back and see what this was all about.

At the Sisters Antiques and Uniques, an older woman came out to greet me saying, "Hello! y'all like to see those t-shirts?" I looked around me to see just who "y'all" was referring to - and found myself standing there alone.

Feeling slightly foolish, I replied, "Yes, ma'am, I all sure would."

She made an inscrutable face as if to decide if I was worth talking to, but then smiled and escorted me into the antique shop where I learned that she had been adopted at a very young age and when her adopting parents had passed away, she searched for her biological parents and found out at the age of 62 that she had a sister. A sister that subsequently went into the antique business with her - hence the "Sisters Antiques".

In a few short minutes we were chatting like we had known each other for years. She has a highly rated eBay store (here) that shows the kinds of items that she sells in addition to brand-new (non-antique) Worm Gruntin' Festival tee-shirts.

It was from her that I learned that the Annual Worm Gruntin' Festival in Sopchoppy, Florida is held in April every year and that this year's event was the 9th annual festival.

What is Worm Gruntin'? I thought you'd never ask...


Worm grunting is a method of capturing worms in order to use them for bait or putting them in compost piles.

A wooden stake is driven firmly into the ground and vibrated by dragging a piece metal such as a handsaw or leaf spring from an old car across the top of it. These vibrations apparently mimic the sounds of underground predators, such as moles and scare the worms to the surface.

Some people choose to make a living out of worm grunting. Gary and Audrey Revell, who I think are featured in the video below, have used worm grunting as their sole source of family income for over 40 years.

Video

I was offered the chance to do some worm gruntin' in her side yard but I settled for making a new friend and getting a t-shirt. Sopchoppy Florida is a right friendly little town...

:)