yeah... because its hilarious

Continuing with my silly graffiti theme...

HA HA... brian the explorer!!!

Lake Kissimmee State Park

Over the weekend Ellen and I went for a short backpacking trip at Lake Kissimmee State Park in Lake Whales, FL. The weather was great, the birds cooperative, and the park was a unique experience. We traveled back into the 1870's to the park's "Cow Camp" an authentic Florida cracker cow hunters camp where a cow pen and an original "Florida cracker." The thing is, these aren't your average beef cows or milk cows that you see everywhere on the sides of the interstate travelling through the state... these are scrub cows. 'Whats a scrub cow' you ask? Well the Keys are known for thier little deer, we also have little bovine. These "cracker" cattle, as they were also known, are smaller shorter horned bretheren of the Texas longhorn, that evolved into a smaller breed due to the fact that they were feral and needed to survive in the upland scrublands of Florida. History lesson aside, these are cool little cows and they are a unique part of our states past and present.
From the cow camp we set a bearing for the north loop trail. Along the trail we were suprised and slightly startled by the piercing call of a sandhill crane. I stopped in my tracks to take pictures as this bird was within a few feet of me and I feared I might never get the chance to get a shot this close ever again. Much to my surprise this magnificent bird turned to walk right across my path, close enough to touch! I followed her around for a few minutes and took my fill of shots before I decided to leave her alone. We later found out that this bird was distracting us from the rest of her family and chicks which were hiding nearby in the tall grass.
A ways down the trail we saw some deer in a field of tall grass, we moved as close as we could to take pictures before they ran off when one of the does started kicking any deer that would get in front of her, it was an odd behavior to witness but according to a hunting page I found online this doe must have been the dominant fmale of the group.
Our stay was quite nice as the temperature seemed to get down into the 60's overnight and proved cool and comfortable. We got several pictures of birds and landscape as well as a few of us goofing around. Here are a few of some birds and of Ellen. To see Ellens versions of the weekend check out her pics when she gets around to posting them :)

Ft. Desoto Park

Spent the day at Ft. Desoto Thursday after class taking pictures. Here are a few of my favorite shots. Brown Pelicans, a cute raccoon in a tree, a rose-breasted grosbeak on migration, and a female scarlet tanager also on migration (could not find a male). The birding thing has certainly hit me hard :)

Backpacking this weekend

Ellen and I are going backpacking at Lake Kissimmee State Park this weekend. Its only an over-nighter, but I am hoping to find some Florida Scrub Jays and steal their souls with my SLR. Story to come :)

A monochrome day

This last sunday Ellen and I went walking in Tampa. We took a bunch of pictures and generally had a good time. Here's the results of my shots. To see Ellen's shots see the link on my links page.

Where to next?

The touring itch is creeping up again and I'm thinking of planning my longest trip yet. I talk about it all the time and things often come up, but this time I'm planning life around it. This summer semester I am taking all online classes lending myself the ability to take my classes from local libraries as needs be. I have been doing strength training to hopefully assure that my knee is healed up and strong, combined with the hiking I have been doing hopefully that will help. Though I could be spending more time on the bike. I still dream of taking that trip to DC to see our nations capital. I definitely want to make it out of the state this trip around, possibly a trip to Kitty Hawk?
Well, as I lighten my load with "upgraded" gear i can see the plans forming for another trip and another story. Suggested routes and locations will certainly be heard and If anyone is looking to do a similar trip let me know and maybe we can plan something out.

When drinking has more purpose

So I have been messing around with the idea of making a denatured alcohol stove for camping/touring/hiking etc.. There are lots of different plans for making such a thing online, and though you can buy one that is pre-made from a reputable manufacturer(and seemingly safer) I decided to go the cheap and easy route. The prep for this job is basically how I prep for just about any such daunting task, downing two beers. Cept this time I saved my empties and instead of throwing them into the recycling bin, I re-used them for this project. Now I'm not usually a fan of Heineken, and this task was no exception, but I put on a half-hearted grimace and comenced with the drinking, trying all the while to keep myself from just pouring the beer down the drain, repeating to myself "get to the third one and the taste wont matter". I lied. to myself. After shotgunning two... or was it 5? 6? uhm... at some point I switched back to something I can stand, good ol' Sierra Nevada... mmmm, but any way... I got strait to cutting these cans to use for my stove. two can bottoms one pressed firmly inside the other with holes drilled into it for the burner (note to self, next time try using the power tools before getting to the nth number of beers.)
One large hole in the center for filling and pressure control will be covered by a penny durring burning, and six smaller holes in the outside ring of the top can... the instructions on the website do a better job of explaining than I do. http://www.csun.edu/~mjurey/stoveinstruct.html but here are some pictures of the results of my half hack job. After doing this I realize that anyone can build a stove in a pinch... I used bicycle spokes and scraps of the beer cans to build the pot base, obviously the Heineken can works well but I imagine other beer cans might work as well, and the the denatured alcohol was picked up at home depot, but can be found at a hardware store in any small town. just knowing how to do this I now see this as a necessary survival skill.

The fruits of labor

The garden is in full bloom and the fruits are starting to blossom from our labor. This year Caleb and I are growing all kinds of things. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach, corn, and onions. We are starting to see tomatoes and peppers and the rate the corn is growing we will see corn in a few weeks as well. It is exciting to work so diligently with something that requires attention and care. I believe this is teaching Caleb a lot of things and I am proup to use this garden as a teaching tool for my son.

Who says bird watching is boring?

I had to do a biological collection for my Intro to Florida Field Biology course that I am taking as a requisite to my degree. We had to choose from either plants, crustaceans, insects or birds. I thought that plants or insects would be boring and I dont like the beach so that pretty much ruled out the shell thing... which would have been boring as well. I chose to turn in photographs of birds. This was a decision not only for a class project, but it turns out that it was a life decision to become a birdwatcher. With camera in tow everywhere I go I constantly find myself shooting pictures of birds no matter who is around to see or how far I had to trek to get the best shot.
I have always been the type to have my camera with me everywhere I go, but having a purpose has made my camera wielding nonsense much more exciting. I really enjoy watching these birds in thier habbitats, whether natural or right in the city. I have taken thousands of shots and only a few have come out as good as these but finding a great shot in a pile of "ehh" can be almost as exciting as finding the bird itself.