adventures of jenn and randy (and a couple of cats)

West Virginia

2011-10-16T07:42:00.020-05:00

My friends Nikki and Scott invited me to visit them in West Virginia, where they were working on a wind energy project in the Canaan Valley for the fall. After seeing a few pictures and doing a little research on the web, I decided it could be an awesome fall trip. It was almost just a solo trip, but at the last minute Randy decided to join me. So 10/4-10/11 we travelled around eastern and southern West Virginia.

Day 1 - We arrived in Pittsburgh, PA around lunchtime, settled into our Ford Fiesta, and drove down through Morgantown, WV, home of WVU, and proceeded through some pretty scenic and wild roads to Davis. It was misting the entire way, and we found out that only the day before it had been SNOWING, 5 inches in the mountains! Luckily for us the gloomy spelled passed and we had wonderful weather all week long - sunny and 70s = BLISS. We eventually met up with Nikki and drove into Oakland, MD for some groceries and then just hung out at their house that evening. They were living at the end of a street in a house with huge windows overlooking a large pond with the mountains as a backdrop. Randy and I got the 3rd floor all to ourselves.

view from our room

Day 2- Nikki had the day off, so the 3 of us headed to Elkins to board a train. Our ride travelled along a fork of the Cheat River, eventually passing Cheat Falls. We were by far the youngest folks on the train, most were pushing 80+, but it was really fun!

train running beside the river

Day 3 - Nikki returned to work with Scott, so Randy and I were on our own the rest of the week. We decided to stay local and check out the many hiking oportunities that abound in the area. Blackwater Falls State Park, Canaan Valley Resort State Park, and Canaan Valley NWR are just outside in their greater backyard, in addition to the entire Monongahela National Forest! We first headed to Blackwater Falls to check out the namesake, named for the color of the water resulting from the tannins from the spruce and hemlock leaves leaching in the water.

Blackwater Falls

After the falls, we hiked a short trail at Canaan Valley Resort State Park where we found the best mixed flock of birds we had the entire trip, including 2 inquisitive Black-throated Green Warblers who came in close enough for decent shots with my normal lens.

After that hike, we decided to head over to the mountainous side of the park, take the ski lift up the mountain, and hike 2.5 mi across to the bald knob and back down. We found remnant snow in the evergreens and discovered that the recent bad weather had knocked down lots of branches, making the trail an obstacle course much of the way. It was a pretty steep descent too, so my knees and I were not getting along well.

view from the ski lift

view from the bald knob

Day 4 - We did a monster 12 mi hike along the Bear Rocks trail in Dolly Sods Wilderness Area north. We had 2 creek crossings that involved barefeet and toward the end almost a mile through a sopping wet bog! Randy went up to his knees TWICE in bog funk ON THE TRAIL!!! He was doomed from the start as he quickly discovered his hiking shoes were falling apart and his feet were wet from almost the start. I however was wearing my waterproof LOWAs and was doing fine, even when the trail was basically winding down a stream bed. Until the bog! Then my low-tops did not prove enough! I attempted bog hopping and jumping for a while, but the ground was so wet everywhere there was just no escaping it. It was a beautiful, scenic, awesome hike, but we were so ready to be done by the end!

Randy on top of some nice boulders we found

Jenn crossing the creek

whoa! that is a sloppy trail!

Day 5 - After the long hike at Dolly Sods, we were ready to sit back and enjoy some scenery. We spent the day doing a leisurely drive to nearby Seneca Rocks (too tired to hike straight up to the overlook) and then through the Monongahela forest. We went to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia. The drive up was very scenic and at the top is a great overlook with views in all directions of the mountains in fall foliage. We also walked the boardwalk around Cranberry Glades, where we got a nice mixed flock of birds hanging out in the bog forest. Near Cranberry Glades is a scenic byloop, which actually provided the fastest driving of the whole day until the interstate. We were actually overloaded with pretty vistas around every corner! Eventually, we reached the end of the forest and made it to the interstate, which is perhaps the most scenic stretch of interstate, and headed to Beckley for the night.

Seneca Rocks

view from Spruce Knob

Cranberry Glades

Day 6 - First thing, we headed north to the New River, ironically named since it is in fact one of the oldest rivers on Earth. We had a morning tour scheduled to walk under the New River Gorge bridge on a 2 ft wide catwalk. This bridge was the longest single span arch bridge in the world when built in the 70's and is now 3rd, and it crosses 850+ feet above the river itself.

view of the New River Gorge Bridge

view under the bridge - catwalk

view from the catwalk, see the tiny bridge below

It took about 2.5-3 hrs to cross; we stopped a lot to admire, take pictures, hear stories about the bridge. We also got up close and personal with a Peregrine Falcon who lives on the bridge, one of a pair that nest there!

Next we went on a rock climbing adventure (following up from my last post!). First we got to rappel down ~80 ft climb and then we got to climb 2 routes. One was twice as high as the other, but the shorter one was more vertical and I thought more technical. I was one of 2 females (of 8)that made it up both routes. We climbed the high route once and the hard route twice and rappeled down three times. The college kids were ready to go after most only made one attempt. I LOVED IT!!!

Randy almost at the top of the high route

Jenn stretching for the last rock to make it to the top

Jenn rappelling down

Day 7 - The grand finale of our trip was a water-water rafting trip down the Lower New River. Those familiar with either West Virginia or with white-water rafting may recognize this as "Gauley season", the 6-week period in the fall when water is released into the Gauley River from the Summersville dam producing worldclass white-water conditions. The upper Gauley is super hardcore, class 5s and the lower is pretty hardcore with 4s and 5s. So despite much protesting from Randy, with a whopping 1 white-water rafting trip under his belt, I decided to pass on the Gauley as my first experience and opted for the intermediate adventure instead. The lower New River provided a range from class 2-5, mostly 3s and 4s. WOW - that was a crazy adrenaline ride! We sat in the middle with another couple in the front and our guide on the back of the smallest raft (providing the biggest ride oh my!). We actually made it through every rapid (amazingly), but we did flip the raft during an attempt to surf the rapids that went bad. It was crazy scary in the few seconds leading up to it when I could tell my side was heading under, but once it happened those survival instincts kick in, oh and the big yellow lifejacket that pulls you to the surface immediately helps some too. I thought every rapid was super scary but I was able to loosen up more after the fall (you know, since I had survived and all). It was an amazing experience. The biggest bummer is that the second guide who had his own raft was not a videographer (as I had expected from the website) and I did not have a waterproof camera, so my bravest adventure of all went undocumented, except one picture I took of Randy beforehand.

Randy before the river

Day 8 - We returned to Davis after our rafting trip on day 7. We were not due back in Pittsburgh until early evening of day 8 for a rather late flight. So we ate at the Flying Pigs, did a short hike out to Table Rock for more gorgeous scenery (shocking). And then we proceeded on a slow drive back to Pittsburgh, slow due to our having time on our hands, then construction, then traffic, then not so much spare time;) Awe, another awesome vacation.

one of many pretty pictures of a very pretty place - Table Rock

rock climbing wall

2011-08-31T19:26:00.004-05:00

I have had rock climbing on my "bucket list" for >10 years now. And today, I came a little bit closer to crossing it off. NKC community center offers free climbing on their wall the last Wed of the month, so Randy and I headed down there to try it out. All we had to do was put on a harness and up we climbed! They had 5 courses, from easiest to seemingly impossible. I did the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and Randy did the 3rd and 4th. We each made it to the top each time. It was so fun!

Campout with Eric @ WCR

2011-05-15T19:25:00.008-05:00

This weekend, my nephew Eric and I headed down to WCR. We had planned to camp and just enjoy the outdoors. The weather over the past few days has been unseasonably cold with highs in the 50s. I was OK with it as I could stand to wear enough clothing to keep the bugs off and the cold seemed to keep the gnats away. When we arrived, we did some hiking over the trails, I got a couple new birds for the place, American Redstart and Yellow Billed Cuckoo. After the walk we got back I mowed the campground and the trails on the near side of Bear's Creek and set up our camp, I love my new Springbar (made in the USA) screen tent, it is very heavy duty and works great. We then got the canoe out and went about 1 mile upstream. We fished some of the deeper holes, Eric caught a few sunfish while I got skunked.

After getting back we set up the rifle range on the rail road bed. Eric and I took turns shooting at the targets, I let Eric shoot my target rifles and he ended up hitting the 75 Meter targets.

After shooting we built a good fire to get some coals ready for the burgers we brought down. We had some really good burgers and then planned our next adventure, we decided on fishing the pool near camp on Walnut Creek. We ended up catching Common Carp, Drum, Striped Bass & Channel Catfish, as Eric is quick to point out, he outfished me 3 to 1. (I think I got him on weight).

We then played around the fire for sometime, then headed down for some latenight catfishing, unfortuneatly we didn't catch a thing though we had some nibbles. We got tired so we headed back to camp. Eric is quite the firebug, so we got the fire going again and chilled til about 11 then headed to the tent for some low 40s camping.

We got up in the morning, the sky was crystal clear but unfortuneatly it clouded up later. I cooked some eggs and bacon on my old school Coleman Camp stove then we headed down to the creek to do some early morning fishing. I caught zip (had a few bites and one good one on though) Eric ended up catching several fish including a big Drum.

After fishing we hiked the trails. We got back and I decided to mow the remainder of my trails that I hadn't done. Eric tagged along in the cart as I mowed. He seemed to enjoy the ride.

I packed up camp as Eric played with the fire. We had to call it a day and headed back home under the cloudy skies. Hopefully we will be back in 2 weeks for a great family campout.

Another weekend at the ranch

2011-04-30T22:59:00.006-05:00

I spent two day so far on my 4 day weekend at WCR. Spring has really changed the place. The

firs pic of this post is about 4 weeks ago, the next pic was taken this weekend color has returned!

I had several new birds this weekend migration is here for sure. The new birds, barn swallow, blue grosbeak, indigo bunting, summer tanager, great blue heron, tennessee warbler and nashville warbler. Had several others as well incl. hermit thrush, carolina wren, northern parulas and blue/grey gnatcatchers. During one of my walks along Walnut Creek trail, I had a pair of wood ducks land close enough for my camera to get a really bad pic.....

Some new flower pics for Jenn.....

I brought my kayak down and made my way 1.25 miles down the creek to the confluence of the creek to the Marias Des Cygnes river. I had a great time exploring the creek. Many riffles and rocky banks. Lots of birds. Jenn is going to love this place!

Wildflowers for Jenn

2011-04-09T22:39:00.005-05:00

There are a ton of flowerS out @ WCR, I wanted to give Jenn a quick peek at what she is missing!

Hot a$$ April Day

2011-04-09T22:11:00.009-05:00

Today temps hit 90, I went down to WCR with my nephew Eric. We took a walk around the property when we first arrived, we found several turtles roaming around, we had both Ornate box turtles and Three Toad Box Turltes.

We also had a flock of around 8 wood ducks fly over us and I spotted a few wood thrushes in the woods. Northern Parulas have found there way to our place and there songs are all around. After our walk, I mowed the trails, the grass is rapidly growing with the warm temps and the spring rains. We then headed down to the creek with the canoe and paddled upstream 1.25 miles, it was a great trip and Eric really enjoyed it, we had an otter jump out right beside us and had a full grown snapping turtle tumble down the 20ft bank to the water right in front of us. On the trip we had several birds including blue-grey gnatcatchers, lousiana waterthrushes, ruby-crowned kinglets, wood ducks, great blue herons and the rest of the usual suspects. We finished our float and had lunch, after lunch we went for a swim to get away from the heat, the water felt great, I wish I had spent the whole hot day in the river.

We found a boulder that had water deep enough to jump off of and Eric and I had a few jumps.

After swimming we put together my new shooting bench and then we did some target shooting, alltogether a great day, though I am now burnt and parched!

Shooting Bench

2011-04-09T22:03:00.003-05:00

I have always wanted my own range, I have a 150 year old RR bed on my property that gives me almost a 300 yard range. It is straight flat and blocked from the wind. I decided to build a permanent shooting bench for the range. I built it over the week and with the help of my nephew we put it together on the property. It is not on its final resting place because the RR bed doesn't have an adequate back stop. That will have to be next.

Finally My Campout

2011-04-02T23:08:00.005-05:00

The weather and work aligned and I was able to go down and spend my first full night @ WCR. It was great.. 1st off I had wood ducks near camp and Phoebes singing. I did my birding walk and ended up scoring at least 3 Fox Sparrows, they are now my offical favorite sparrow. I then tackled cutting a trail to what I refer to as the gorge, it is the furthest part of the propert from camp. The new trail covers about 1/4 mile of Walnut Creek.

I have 20 acres that are across the gorge that we cannot access, Jenn and I will put up a bridge shortly.

I finished working and decided to set up camp. Jenn and I buy only MADE IN USA goods if it is an option, knowing the water around the property and the bugs that come with it, I decided to buy a Springbar tent. It is the self proclaimed "Best tent made in the USA" and I believe it. The quality was great and my screen tent worked well.

My camp:

I slept well, listening to nothin' but the stream, barred owls and coyotes howlin with the spring peepers and chorus frogs in the background. The night sky was brilliant without the light pollution from the city.

I had talked to my mom and she had said that the kids (my nieces and nephews) needed to run and burn some energy, I think they had a blast. We walked the creek trail then cooked hot dogs over a fire for lunch. We then walked a good part of the property. We got back to camp and the kids headed for the creek, they loved it and I am sure I will see them again.

Another working weekend

2011-03-27T19:45:00.003-05:00

This is my 6th weekend in a row that I had to work. This time it was only one day, I took the other day to head down to the property. The weather was gloomy, it spit snow much of the day until the end (3PM) when it looked like a blizzard. I did some tidy'n up of the place and just took in the cold windy solitude...

Great Late Winter Saturday

2011-03-12T19:27:00.008-06:00

I awoke this morning @ 5:30 to head down to WCR, I recently bought a garden tractor off of craigslist and I rented a trailer so I was headed down to drop off the tractor plus get a few other tasks done. Temps were around 35 in the morning but got up to the high 50s so it was a great day to work, it was also sunny which made it feel all the warmer. When I arrived, I decided to walk the property before I started to make a bunch of noise. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary just the regular, titmice, robins, cardinals, a bunch of woodpeckers (I did see at least one and maybe two sapsuckers, I haven't seen them for some time) and squirrels. The creek was up a little and the water a little cloudy, here is a picture at the Duckbill Falls.

After my walk, I decided to unload the tractor then head down to cut more firewood. I have plans to spend every weekend day out there that I can. Hopefully a lot of camping will go along with that, I have been frantically cutting firewood now so that later I don't have to fight through the growth in the heat, ticks and poison ivy to get the wood. The tractor has been a huge help, last weekend, I was the tractor and loaded and hauled all the wood by hand. I still had to haul the wood out of the woods, around 75 meters but the tractor did the rest:

In the last two weekends, I think I have a full cord of wood for camping, I am still not sure it is enough, so I will probably cut a cart or two every weekend for good measure.

After cutting wood, I broke for lunch, I ate at my new picnic table for the first time. My back was aching from all the wood hauling and I was thinking that I needed to lay down, then I remembered that I brought my new MADE IN THE USA hammock I just bought from Nags Head Hammocks. I found a good spot right on the bank of the creek. I had to clear a thorny mess but I got the hammock up.

I rested for awhile (10 mins) then headed back to work. I hauled a couple fo 2"x10'x10' boards to the little creek to make a bridge so that I don't hurt the moss and rocks. While down there I found a frog, I had seen one here a couple of weeks ago w/ Jenn but I couldn't ID it. I was able to get a pic and ID the sucker, It was a small Blanchard's Cricket Frog. No telling how many of these guys I used for bait over the years, for some reason knowing their name, I don't think I could do that again.

Can you find him?

After my frog adventure, I decided to mow the camp area. I then packed up everything and headed down to the hammock. I brought two beers with me today and about fell asleep as I listened to the water and enjoyed the beautiful day for an hour or so. I then headed back home, I can't wait to return.

2011-03-07T18:18:00.004-06:00

I recently read a great book based on a diary found in an old house. The diary was of a 15 year old boy and the entries were from 1805. In making several things, benches, picnic tables, bird houses etc... I have felt good about each thing and proud to just sit on my bench. It reminded me of a paragraph from the book, I looked it up, I think it is so true. "We are apt to ponder why almost everything of the old days was initialed and dated. It was simply because almost everything was made by the one who initialed it; the date was added because everyone was so completely aware of the times in which he lived. In modern times when everything a person needs may be bought in a store, there are very few hand-made things left. So we are robbed of that rare and wonderful satisfaction that comes with personal accomplishment. In past times, nearly every single thing a person touched was the result of his own efforts. The cloth of his clothing, the meal on the table, the chair he sat in, and the floor he walked upon, all were made by the user. This is why those people had an extraordinary awareness of life. They knew the wood intimately; they knew the ingredients of food and medicines and inks and paints because they grew it and ground it and mixed it themselves. It was this awareness of everything about them that made the early American people so full of inner satisfaction, so grateful for life and all that went with it. Nowadays modern conveniences allow us to be forgetful, and we easily become less aware of the wonders of life."

Beautiful Sunday

2011-03-06T19:34:00.007-06:00

I got up early and headed down to our property this morning. Last night, I broke down the picnic table that I had built on Saturday and loaded it and all my tools up. I awoke to temps in the 20s, but with highs forcasted in the upper 40s and sunny I knew that I would have a good day. I arrived at Walnut Creek Ranch and immediatley upon parking headed down to the creek, which you can hear from our camp. The water rushing just has a great soothing sound. Here is a pic of the creek today:

I then put together the picnic table, near the firepit.

I then headed down to my biggest task of the day, clearing the Creek Trail. I first started with the weed eater with the brush attachment and cleared all the brush, then with the leaf rake to clear the debris. After this I decided to break for lunch and a hike around the property.

While getting ready to leave, I noticed our first Spring migrant, I saw a E. Pheobe bopping through the trees. It was good to see a flycatcher again. I then headed to the duck's bill portion of our property, I measured the gorge that cuts it off because I need to build a bridge for access and decided that it is too much right now and it is going to be my fall project. I now realize that I need to build two bridges, one at least 40 feet. I want to do this with Jenn, so I will wait for her to get back and the leaves to fall to begin that task. On my way back to the truck I kicked up 3 wood ducks, I caught one male and one female in my binocs, but didn't get the other. This energized me to put up my remaining duck box. I got back to camp, loaded my cart and hauled everything 1/2 mile to the strip pit. The north end of our property is filled w/ thorns and after fighting through them, putting on my waders and slogging through some serious muck, I got my 2nd duck box up. I headed back to camp to start cutting firewood.

A large hackberry had fallen across the trail were I just cut the new trail, I decided that it would be my target for camp firewood. I ended up cutting up about 1/2 of the tree and splitting the wood on the spot (by hand w/ a maul). I filled up two carts full of split wood and hauled it with my cart by hand (uphill) to the camp.

Candid Cam from WCR

2011-03-06T19:20:00.005-06:00

I picked quite a few animals from our game cam, not included here is a whitetail rabbit a fox squirrel and some dog, one of the critters here was quite a surprise to me, hopefully to Jenn as well. OK since I have never figured out why some pics you can click on and they get bigger, here is what these are: Opossum, white tailed deer, turkey, racoon, skunk and armadillo.

Hate KU weekend

2011-03-04T17:09:00.003-06:00

Things at work are frustrating and we keep finding issues and there are more delays. All that means is that for the last 6-9 months I have been less than fully utilized and the next 12 months will be alot of (over)time that I won't get paid for. So I had today off and the weather was nice in the morning but a cold front blew in and it started raining and hailing. Temps went from 55 to 35 in no time, I think I hate Spring more than Winter, I like snow more than rain at least all is frozen instead of muddy. I bought a 18.5 hp mower off of craigslist today and then decided to make a picninc table. I would like to build one more, I think I will wait for Jenn to get home so she can build it herself.
Tomorrow I am headed to Columbia early to watch Mizzou hopefully beat kansas, then Sunday its off to the property to get some stuff done.

Jenn's bench

2011-02-26T18:03:00.005-06:00

Jenn has left for the Spring to work in Texas, we had a nice weekend for our last before she left. We did some hiking early and then I helped her make a bench for our property. She had never made anything like this or used the tools so she was super proud of her new bench.

A weekend on the property

2011-02-26T17:49:00.004-06:00

Last weekend, Jenn and I spent all day Saturday on the property. I had built 3 new blue bird houses, 2 new wood duck boxes, re-built one blue bird box and bought 2 bat boxes. We ended up getting all but 1 wood duck box put up, I plan on placing this in the old coal pit on the South end of the property on my next visit.

I also had built two benches so we would have some better seating at the property, we re-assembled these and placed one by the firepit and another over the creek.

A friend of ours Linda came by to point out some of the flora that we have growing on the place and out county's privat land conservationist came by to give some advice on converting our land back to it's native state.

Deep Snow Weekend

2011-02-06T18:13:00.006-06:00

Its been a long time since we have posted, probably in part because each weekend we have visited our new property. In the time since the post, we have seen every woodpecker in the state of Missouri, the "Grand Slam of WPs" as Linda put it, had mallards almost land on us in the creek and a bald eagle fly right over our heads. One of the 1st things that I did was put up a gate on the road into the almost 100 acres. My bro helped me out alot with that task. I also bought a Stihl chainsaw and have been cutting firewood. Jenn and I have been enjoying nice fires at the house on the weekends.

This past weekend depite the "Blizzard of 2011" hitting, Jenn and I again went down to the property, we invited a good friend of mine Roger who actually grew up near the place and had spent many nights nearby on the Marias Des Cygnas river fishing. The hiking was hard but we put at least 3 miles on our legs as we trudged through the snow.

Because of the bitterly cold week, the creek refroze and for the first time, we were able to walk (and slide) down a long length of it.

We have found that birds are a plenty in the area taround the land and we had some great finds on the way home, including two cooperative short eared owls perched on the side of the road who allowed some great looks. One with some long "ears" for a short eared owl.

Our New Property

2010-12-27T20:07:00.002-06:00

So much has happened this fall, I was moved to a new project @ work, Jenn and I finally tied the knot in Belize and my search for property finally came to an end. Though I haven't written about the wedding and the included trip (it was great) this post is about our new purchase. I have been wanting my own piece of the Earth for a long time, man I would guess since before I was 18. Finally thanks to some sacrifice, saving & investing, we finally were able to purchase a place to call our own. While I was in Utah on business I noticed a nice plot of land had dropped its price significantly and right into our price range, when I arrived back in KCMO, I couldn't stop talking about it to Jenn. Finally I decided that we had to take a trip to see the place from the road, the trip would either firm up my ambitions or cancel the whole thing altogether. Well, after we saw the creek, we knew we had to look into it further. We left, only seeing what we could from the road, to head down to one of the numerous MDC areas that are nearby. We had a great trip, Jenn and I both agreed that we would pursue this property as our 1st big purchase together. We contacted the agent that had helped me with my home purchase and through alot of stress, we finally came to terms, the land was ours. 93 acres with almost 1 mile of a clear, rock bottom creek that is over 20' wide in sections was ours! When we closed we got to walk the property with the owners, which was cool, we learned very little about the place since they had only used about 1/3 of the total area. The land is severly degraded in about 2/3 of the land, it is grown up hedge and locust trees with scattered oaks. The other 1/3 is large trees in the river bottomland. Our goal is to restore the property to its native state and clear most of the hedge, locust and cedar back to a glade/savannah/prairie. There are currently about 4 miles of trails, Jenn and I will likely double that in the next year, I have already bought the necessary equipment for that (chainsaw, steel blade for weedeater, loppers, etc...). We have grand plans and I think I will likely spend my weekends camping @ the property. There is almost no noise, except the faint sound of a train in the distance. The KC area astronomy club has a property a couple of miles away, the night sky is supposed to be brilliant since we are so far from KC. Jenn and I have been keeping our bird list going, so far we have every species of woodpecker in MO, plus many other birds including a Bald Eagle & hermit thrush. Skipping forward, Jenn and I again visited our property this time with my brother, who drove us down to help with putting up a gate. The prior owners had a chain between two trees but they took it with them. I decided I wanted something more significant, I wanted a gate. Our property is rocky and Brent and I fought like hell to get even 2' deep, we used a hammer and a piece of rebar to bust through stone, finally we got the posts in and the gate in. I am proud of the gate, finally I have an entryway to our soon to be kingdom!

Caves Branch zip lining and cave tubing

2010-11-16T16:55:00.005-06:00

Our Monday (Oct 20) activities brought a couple new adventures to us all. Randy and I took my mom and lil sis and the Cartwrights to Caves Branch, adventure capital of Belize. It was a "short" drive to central Belize in the midst if the Maya Mountains. The first activity was to zip line through the rainforest. The course consisted of 10 lines of varying lengths and steepness. It was the first time for everyone but Randy's brother. My mom and Randy's parents did great. It was the experience of a lifetime!

Trish, me and mom making silly poses after suiting up:

The Cartwrights: Sharon, Jenny, Randy Sr, and Brent are ready to go!

After the zip lining, we headed out on a short hike, tubes in tow, to the beginning of the river section for cave tubing. It was beautiful, with a cliff rising above the crystal clear waters of the Caves Branch River. Unfortunately for now I have no pictures to add since I didn't feel comfortable carting my camera through this part. Hopefully I will get some pics from others and add them soon though. The trip involved tubing through a section of a cave linked in 2 groups (feet under shoulders of the person in front of you) and the guides led us through the cave, pointing out the interesting geological wonders along the way. It ws pretty darn cool.

After the cave, we were allowed to separate and float the remainder of the way to the trail on our own. It was amazingly similar to floating down an Ozark stream, beautiful water with dramatic bluffs as the backdrop.

We ended up getting back to Hamanasi 2 hrs later than expected and Randy and I were 1.5 hrs late to meet the minister that night. It was worth it though!!!

Tikal

2010-11-12T17:27:00.018-06:00

The day before our wedding, we traveled across the border to Guatemala to visit the ancient ruins of Tikal. The Cartwrights and my sis and bro-in-law, Beth and Henry, attended while my mom and lil sis stayed behind and went snorkeling and kayaking. We began our journey by meeting up with Emiliano, our guide, at 4:00 A.M. UG!!! We recevied travel mugs of coffee and set out in to the dark morning. We arrived at the border a couple hours later and ate breakfast while our 2nd guide presented our passports and cleared us for crossing.

We then walked across the border and hopped into another van headed for Tikal. The ride was interesting. The eastern and northern parts of Guatemala are remote and unpopulated, compared to the millions living on the Pacific side. Despite the low population density, I was dismayed at how much rainforest had been cleared for cattle grazing. Almost the entire way from the border to the entrance of Tikal was cleared. We passed 3 large lakes along the way too. The one pictured below is actually a popular tourist attraction.

After a really long drive, we finally arrived at Tikal and embarked on a several hike through the ruins. The best wildlife were the numeroud coatamundis wandering the grounds. They were not shy at all and we even witnessed 2 spatting at each other, which, despite their best intentions of looking mean, are incredibly cute!

My impression of Tikal is beyond words, and I believe that sentiment is shared by all. It was magical and wonderous, beyond belief really. I took close to 200 pictures and Randy took at least a dozen videos. Basically around every corner was more and more impressive structures with the finale being a couple of temples about 130 feet high! We climbed all over the central plaza. Climbing is so tiring becuase the steps are very steep and each one may be a couple feet high, so each step is basically a lunge/squat. The granddaddy of them all had steps that were close to vertical; the wooden steps built for people to climb was basically a ladder (below). It was about a 75 degree angle and you had to walk backwards to get down. I actually got vertigo at the top looking straight down off the narrow ledge. Only Randy and I climbed that one. Talk about shaky legs!

The stairway to heaven!

And from the top looking down:

View from the top of the world:

One of the largest temples:

The temples undergo regular maintenance to clean off the vegetation and restoration is an uongoing process.
Many of the temples are only exposed on one side because once it is exposed, the structure must be maintained all the time.

It was unnerving the see the men working on the scaffolding with no safety measures.

All in all, FABULOUS!

Here is a clip of the grand plaza: (our video camera is amazing, but the converted files are not as crisp as the original)

Monkey River (Belize)

2010-11-07T10:24:00.016-06:00

Sunday, Oct 17, we headed to Monkey River w/ Sharon and Randy Sr., and Jenny and Brent (Randy's siblings). Monkey River is not a "scenic" river, but it does support abundant numbers of wading birds, iguanas and Morelet's crocodiles.

Additionally, it rpovided the only opportunity for the Cartwrights to see howler monkeys, which none of them had seen before.

It took a surprisingly long time to arrive to this point. After an hour long drive south to Independence, we boarded a boat and traveled through the lagoon for ~45 mins before arriving at the entrance to Monkey River. En route we encountered dolphins,

and brown pelicans,

We had yellow-crowned night herons, little blue herons, but the hihglights were bare throated tiger heron (below) and boat-billed heron.

We also had lots of kingfisher sightings, including the green kingfisher (below):

The guide, Ralph, also took us on a tour inside the jungle. I am not sure if I have ever encountered more mosquitos! They were swarming each of us by the hundreds. Luckily we managed to escape the jungle with nary a bite, thanks to lots of icky deet spray that we applied when we got off the boat. We also saw these really neat little bats hanging out on the underside of a tree right along the water's edge. They blended in so well that my little point-and-shoot did not take very good photos.

Along this walk was the only place we saw native bamboo.

And for the grand finale, we went on the hunt for manatees! randy and I had actaully seen one in the ocean our first day at Hamanasi, but it was just a quick glimpse. We were able to see the manatee and her calf come up numerous times, but due to the brackish water, we only glimpsed them for a few seconds at a time and it made for difficult photography and videography.

Cockscomb Basin (Belize)

2010-11-07T10:00:00.011-06:00

After diving, we only had one day to ourselves since the cartwrights were arriving Saturday evening. We wanted to do the ATM cave tour but no other guests signed up and the price difference for 2 vs more was too much to swallow. So we opted for a much cheaper tour of Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Paw, a preserve about an hour drive away in to the jungle.

One of my favorite parts about the hike was the beautiful flowers called hot lips. They have beautiful dark blue berries.

But below is where they got their name (w/ guide, Lorenzo):

cute huh!

We saw a jaguar paw print in the fresh mud, but we never caught a glimpse of the elusive cat.

And one of many tarantulas we saw:

After our hike and lunch, we hiked to a waterfall and went swimming. Luckily, since no one else signed up, we had the waterfall and pool to ourselves.

All in all, it was a nice hike, but probably not worth the money we spent because we didn't add but a couple birds to our list and the habitat was really the same as we'd been hiking in in Chan Chich. Once we returned, we enjoyed our last couple hours of solitude and then welcomed the Cartwright clan to Belize.

Belize scuba diving

2010-11-07T08:47:00.014-06:00

This is the next installment of the Belize trip! So after Chan Chich, we hopped on our charter from Gallon Jug to Dangriga, flying over the beautiful, and seemingly undisturbed, Maya Mountains. We were picked up in Dangriga and driven to Hamanasi, home for the next 10 days.

Hamanasi is located just south of Hopkins Village, a small, sleepy fishing village.

We arrived about 4 or 5 p.m. on Oct 12, a Tuesday. and spent the rest of the day lounging around the grounds. We were actually just laying out at the beach when 2 ladies approached us from the beach and asked us to check out their wares. We ended up looking at their stuff and I chose a pretty cool orange/yellow/brown bag for $25. The lady lied and said she handsewed it. I later found out it was machine-sewn somewhere in Guatemala. I was pissed about being lied to, but I still like the bag. The entire clan staying at Hamanasi that week was couples, most were honeymooners, a couple were celebrating anniversaries, and one was neither but at least half that couple wished they were honeymooning;)

Anyways, the next day began 3 straight days of diving adventures. We went with 3 other guests and the dive crew to the southern barrier reef. This entails about 45 min boat ride and a 1/2 day of diving.

The little boat on the left was our boat for day 1 and the big boat on the right was our boat for dives 2 and 3.

This was the view as we drove away from the coast, the Maya Mts in the background.

We dove to 80 feet our first day. Highlights were a turtle swimming right beneath me and many stingrays. And of course there was dazzling fish and coral. On our return trip, we encountered a pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming all around us (see video below)!

We didn't expect to get to dive Blue Hole, where divers dive to 130 feet, but because our group of new divers did so well and they had a large enough group to go the next day, we were cleared to dive Blue Hole the following day.

So the second day we went to the famous Blue Hole, seen below. Despite taking 2 dramamine pills, the choppy seas made for a sickening ride. Randy enjoyed the boat ride up on top and I barely held my stomach down in the back of the boat. Once inside the Blue Hole though, the waters were calm and we descended easily to 130 feet. However we descended in a crappy spot and really didn't see much. We were all disappointed so the divemasters said we could go down again instead of one of the other 2 dive spots. We opted to go down Blue Hole again in another spot, but that required a 2 hr rest to detox our body (from the excess nitrogen build-up).

Our second attempt at Blue hole was much better. Not only were the geological formations much more interesting than the sheer wall we had been at before, we also had 3 reef sharks circling below us. It was simply amazing!

After that dive we ate lunch and toured Half Moon Caye, a protected island that is an important nesting site for red-footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds. The island was also home to cool lizards and tons of hermit crabs.

The third day we dove at Glover's Atoll. We completed 3 dives thid say as well, 80 feet for dive 1 down to 50 feet for dive 3. Highlights were more turtles, spotted ray, and a dolphin that swam right by our group! by the end of our diving, we had swam with all 3 species of turtle, the green, hawksbill and loggerhead. The hawksbills were very pretty! We also saw many lobsters, lionfish (exotic), and many colorful fish.

We loved our first official diving adventures (minus the boat ride to get there).

Chan Chich

2010-11-02T17:58:00.014-05:00

We stayed at Chan Chich from Oct 8 to Oct 12, 2010. Chan Chich is located in northwestern Belize, in the Orange Walk district, only a couple miles from the Guatemalan border. We decided on Chan Chich because of its potential as a great birding location with ample hiking trails, as well as offering good possibilities at seeing at least one feline species, ideally, the elusive jaguar. Plus it is a very small eco-lodge located in the heart of a huge and well-protected rainforest.

We flew in to Belize City and were immediately whisked away to our charter flight on a 4-seat Cessna. Our pilot was a very nice Canadian woman who moved with her husband to Belize and owns 3 planes. We flew across inland Belize for ~30 minutes and landed at Gallon Jug, the farm owned by the recently deceased millionaire, Barry Bowen. The entire Gallon Jug estate is an important source of employment for people in the area. And it includes a shade-grown coffee plantation with native canopy!

This photo is of shade-grown coffee - couldn't even tell, could you!

When we arrived at Chan Chich, hidden deep in the jungle, we were greeted with a delicious drink and warm wet towel to wipe our faces and necks. And we were informed they had upgraded us from the deluxe cabana to the 2 bedroom villa!!! So in additional to the champagne and appetizer we received as part of the honeymoon package, we got a huge and awesome villa (so beautiful), appetizers served to us at 5:30 each night, full use of the golf cart. The villa included a wrap-around deck, an outdoor shower, and a screened-in hot tub area. I cannot describe our amazement and excitement at getting to stay in the villa! Unfortunately, although I took many photos of the villa, they are now missing so I cannot post them.

This is a picture of the outside of the villa.

The first night we were the only guests but the lodge was holding a goodbye party of sorts. The previous manager was there for the final move with his wife and baby. We also met Jason, the new manager, and Xander, the stepson of Barry's.

The next day we enjoyed a full day of birding along the numerous trails. After we finally left the awesome deck, that is. We had toucans, guans, aracaris, monkeys, hummingbirds, and the list goes on and on, right there on the deck. We enjoyed delicious food at our meal breaks and spent some time in the hot tub. We ended the evning with a night drive to Gallon Jug with another couple who had arrived earlier that day. Spotlighting was not overly productive though. We did find 2 potoos (LIFERS!), the 2nd much closer than the 1st, but I will not be satisfied til I see one in daylight. We also had sos-so views of a kinkajou in a tree and an ocelot that crossed the road in front of us and scampered off into the forest. All good animals, but I must admit I expected much more. Perhaps the downside of having so much wildland and so few roads - the animals can easily avoid roads.

On our 3rd day, we spent the morning birding and then decided to be adventurous for the afternoon. We hopped on the mt bikes for a bike ride into the tiny village of Sylvester, 6 miles along a overgrown path or 9 miles by way of Gallon Jug and the dirt road. After testing out the path, we decided to not risk popping a tire on the thorny, overhanging plants and headed back to the lodge. Then we set out for Gallon Jug. It was a long, hilly, exhilerating ride to the farm. Out in the open we added several new bird species, before deciding to embark on the final leg of the journey, where we passed through the coffe plantation and eventually reached Sylvester Village. We were exhausted and it was getting late (it starts getting dark in the jungle at 5:30), so we opted to get moving on the return leg instead of touring through the village. Good decision becuase by the time we made it back to Gallom Jug and to the entrance to Chan Chich, it was getting dusky and we still had 6 miles to go. I eventually got sick and hitched a ride with a guy dropping off water jugs at Chan Chich. Randy rode on in one his own. It was pretty dark when I arrived just before 6:00 and I decided to take the golf cart and meet Randy on the road. Unbeknownest to me, he had cruised in just after me and likely arrived at the villa less than a minute after I left to find him. I ended up being gone til 6:30 waiting in the pitch black of night in the jungle! And for all that effort, the only animal I encountered was a HUGE cane toad (an exotic animal). What an wild bike ride that turned out to be. We ended that evening with a long soak in the hot tub staring at the starry sky (pretty awesome stargazing being that far removed from civilization).

Our last full day we finished hiking the trails and even birded with another birder that had arrived the evening before. We really didn't do much that day. We were worn out from all the hiking and biking. I did wander the grounds and take pictures of birds that afternoon, including many of the ocellated turkeys foraging around the lodge.

The last day was a short one. After birding from the deck, we packed our stuff and prepared for departure. We made another round of the grounds to take pictures of the flowers and property, and managed to squeeze out one last lifer, tody motmot, with huge helper from Gilberto, one of the guides.

One of the many flower shots with my new macro!

Then we ate lunch and departed for Gallon Jug. We asked to go early so we could bird around the farm. Our last treat, the driver took us all around the farm, where we added gray hawk and fork-tailed flycatcher. The we met the pilot for our charter flight to Dangriga to begin the 2nd part of our journey.

We had a wonderful time at Chan Chich. The food, although overly plentiful, was very good, the staff was so warm and friendly, and the accommodations were luxurious. We LOVED Chan Chich!

we're MARRIED

2010-10-28T16:19:00.008-05:00

So we are finally married! We traveled to Belize for 2 weeks and just got back last Friday. I plan to post the trip highlights in a couple separate posts. This post will include the wedding day. We got married on Wed, OCT 20, 2010 at ~3:30 p.m. at Hamanasi Reosrt, just south of Hopkins, Belize.

After breakfast that morning, Randy and I worked on the ceremony. We had met the minister on Monday evening and worked on the ceremony, but we were both concerned that he didn't get it when we parted. We asked Brent and Beth to each read a short reading on marriage. We cut out about half of Beth's and we got our vows ready.

Later, Randy and his father biked into town while the rest of the family in attendance rode in a van. Patricia and I stayed behind. We were planning to play in the ocean, but by 10:30 the wind was pretty strong and we opted to lounge at the pool instead. By noon, Randy was back and soon after so was the rest of the family. We sat down for lunch immediately and hoped for quick return. That didn't happen and we didn't finish lunch til well after 1:00. By the time Randy and I went our respective ways to get ready for a 3:00 wedding it was after 1:30.

Patricia came over to do my hair and make-up just after 2:00 and Beth soon joined us and took pictures, which proved necessary since the photographer was running late. Eventually my mom wandered in and shortly thereafter so did the photographer. I ended up ducking my head in the shower and scrunching my hair in a towel to achieve the beach curls I desired (P had accidentally straightened my hair and couldn't get it curly again!) and then P pinned it back 1/2 way and tucked a beautiful red flower in it. Unfortunately due to the high winds, it was wrecked almost immediately.

According to Randy, his family was lounging in hammock only 10 mins til go-time! So they hastily dressed in the final minutes, and the minister finally decided to show up right about 3:00 (over an hour late!). I decided to have P walk out, followed by B, and then me and my mom together. Randy was told not to look at me by the minister, which was wierd and very disappointing to me, b/c I kept waiting for him to look at me!

The ceremony was pretty short. We made it through the vows and our first kiss.

Then on to the cutting of our beautiful cake!

And our champagne toast!

We left our families to chill on the beach with champagne, rum punch, and chips and salsa while we completed our photo shoot. We had a ton of fun at a beautiful, laidback, barefoot wedding. Thanks to our families for coming down!!!

Our first stroll down the beach as a married couple.

scuba diving

2010-08-31T07:07:00.006-05:00

The last 2 weekends Randy and I have been training for scuba diving certification. The first weekend was classroom and pool. Then last weekend we drove down to Beaver Lake near Eureka Springs, AR for our open-water skills test. We stopped at Roaring River State Park, near the MO border and adjacent to Mark Twain National Forest. It has a spring

and a trout hatchery

and is doing small amounts of glade restoration.

Plus, despite being so far south, it is only 3 hrs away thanks to Hwy 71, a 4-lane highway.

We also did a short float down the White River. We were suprised at how slow the river was and the lack of impressive scenery considering how rugged and beautiful the surrounding area is.

The it was off to Eureka Springs, a quaint, quirky town of hippies nestled at the bottom of the hills. We dived at Beaver Lake most of the time so we didn't see much in town. We did our deep dive on Sun and made it down to 75 feet! swimming amongst the trees at the bottom was eerie, and I even got snagged on a tiny branch. Randy came to help when he noticed me swimming in place. All in all we both loved scuba diving and can't wait for Belize!!!

NYC

2010-08-09T15:36:00.012-05:00

I flew to NYC for a weekend of fun, sightseeing, wedding dress shopping, and birthday celebrating with my older sister. It was a whirlwind trip, but very fun.

On Friday we went up to the Top of the Rock, and took a tour at rockfeller center, but got moving much too late Friday morning to make it on the TODAY show:(

This is the view of Central Park from the Top of the Rock

This is the view of Manhattan skyline from Top of the Rock

We also went to Long Island to visit the Cotton Bride workshop, where I tried on several wedding dresses. My sister and I spent 2 and 1/2 hrs there, having a surprisingly fun time playing dress up.

Saturday we took the ferry out to Ellis Island and to see Lady Liberty.

Statue of Liberty view from ferry

view of Manhattan from Liberty Island

Ground Zero is a construction zone for a national 9/11 memorial museum

view of New York Stock Exchange with Wall Street sign

We took in CHICAGO, the musical, which was very good. Much funnier than the movie and surprisingly entertaining considering the almost complete lack of a set. We then wandered Times Square, taking in the sights of the city at night.

Sunday was a day of museum highlights. We hit the museum of natural history (where we spent most of our time looking at birds of the world and at a space show that was super cool), the Guggenheim (which was kind of lame beyond the architecture of the museum itself), and the MET. The MET was huge and we barely made a dent in it. Very impressive museum, worthy of more than the couple hours we had to see it.

DON"T USE BUDGET RENTAL

2010-05-20T17:09:00.003-05:00

I had a bad experience recently. I rented a car from budget for a week while in Austin and when I showed up at the airport, they did not have my car. They offered me a free upgrade. When doing my bills later I had an additional charge of $134. I called them and they said it was for my upgrade. I got my rental agreement out and I found it in the small print that they had slipped it in on me. They offered to meet me half way and I went ahead and agreed. Make sure you read all fine print before signing anything.

AND DON'T USE BUDGET!!!!!!!

Big Bend #3 -birds

2010-05-15T19:11:00.004-05:00

So the official reason for our trip was to survey the Colima Warblers that only reside in Big Bend within the United Sates. This was an opportunity for me to see a bunch of wildlife, mainly birds that I had not seen before, here is the trip list, we had 101 birds, 33 of which were lifers for me an incredible 33% of all species was new... awesome:

These are my lifers:

Burrowing Owl
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Bell's Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
Cliff Swallow
Cactus Wren
Verdin
Curved Bill Thrasher
Pyrrhuloxia
hepatic tanager
black tailed gnatcatcher
Scott's oriole
lesser nighthawk
elf owl
yellow-headed blackbird
Cassin's Kingbird
scaled quail
common ground dove
blue throated hummingbird
broad tailed hummingbird
golden fronted woodpecker
Say's pheobe
Gray vireo
plumbeous vireo
Mexican Jay
canyon wren
colima warbler
canyon towhee
rufous crowned sparrow
clay colored sparrow
lark bunting
varied bunting
hooded oriole

Here are the others:
Swainson's Hawk
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Red-Shouldered Hawk
Mourning Dove
White-Winged Dove
Pigeon
Chimney Swift
Western Kingbird
Scissor tailed flycatcher
Comon Raven
Cave Swallow
Mockingbird
Yellow Warbler
Yellow -rumped warbler
Western Tanager
Painted Bunting
Black throated Sparrow
Chipping sparrow
house sparrow
house finch
blue grosbeak
balck headed grosbeak
lark sparrow
brown headed cowbird
Townsend's warbler
white-throated sparrow
common grackle
loggerhead shrike
horned lark
Northern Shoveler
osprey
red-tailed hawk
band-tailed pigeon
yellow-billed cuckoo
greater road runner
great horned owl
whip-poor-will
white throated swift
black chinned hummingbird
acorn woodpecker
ladder backed woodpecker
least flycatcher
Eastern Pheobe
Vermillion flycatcher
Western kingbird
warbling vireo
Nothern Rough winged swallow
cave swallow
black-crested titmouse
white breasted nuthatch
bewich's wren
ruby crowned kinglet
Swainson's thrush
hermit thrush
nothern mockingbird
Northern waterthrush
common yellowthroat
wilson's warbler
painted redstart
yellow breasted chat
summer tanager
spotted towhee
vesper sparrow
white crowned sparrow
dark-eyed junco
Northern cardinal

Big Bend Post #2 -- lions

2010-05-12T17:48:00.006-05:00

So Jenn and I arrived on Friday morning to hike out of the valley of the Pinnacle mountains and we headed up to boot canyon. We had to carry alot of weight since we were supposed to carry all of our water for the entire trip on our backs.

Since we had to be out 2+ days we would need 2+ gallons, thank goodness we ended up finding some pools in a dry creek beg to siphon some water out of to supplement the water we carried. This leads me to my best experience of the trip. Me, Jenn and Jim (Jenn's boss' husband) went off the trail and down into a creek bed to look for blue throated hummers (we found 2-3). Jenn and I filled our water up to the top and sat for awhile, I ended up seeing a painted redstart and chased it up the bouldery dry creekbed just below the trail above, got some great looks and then came down to meet Jim and Jenn. We headed up to the trail to see Jenn's boss Lisa and she told us that there was a mountain lion on the trail. We had seen signs at the start of the trail warning of the lions

and I couldn't believe that we may see one. We inched our way around the trail to see the mountain lion sitting crouched and staring uphill, about 30 yards away were two deer just chilling in the shade. He hardly even noticed us, only glancing at us maybe twice, he was just locked on the deer. We were about 20-30 feet away, ubelieveable looks.

We finally decided to leave him alone, a couple of park employees stayed and watched him slink along the trail in a crouch and follow the deer

up the mountain as they moved. Good deal I got to tick one of the "gotta see one of these before I die" items off my list.

Big Bend --Finally!!

2010-05-11T19:59:00.009-05:00

I have been wanting to do some backcounrty hikining in Big Bend National Park for some time, last week on Wednesday I flew down to meet Jenn in Austin for a soon to be great trip.

I landed early on Wednesday afternoon, picked up my rental car and soon met Jenn at her apartment. We had a nice dinner and then made preparations to head out to Big Bend the next day. Temps had been running around 110 in the low country so we had to pack with alot of hydration in mind, we would need at least 1 gallon per day each so we packed all the water we could into our packs. We headed out early and enjoyed the scenery the entire way, I had never been to West Texas and the drive from Austin was a gradual change from Oak/Juniper Woodlands to dry desert cacti.

The main reason for the trip was to do the every-5-year census of Colima Warblers in Big Bend National Park. Jenn had met Jim and Lynn Weber, who co-ordinated the whole Colima Census, through her work with Golden-Cheecked Warblers. I guess Jenn is some super stud or at least gave that impression to the Weber's so they gave us a pretty difficult survey area. We would have to ascend to Boot Canyon, some 6000ft above sea level starting from "the valley" at around 4000ft. We would spend the morning hiking to our backcountry camp then taking our first census count with renound Big Bend birder Carol Edwards on Colima trail (BTW Carol has over 5k birds on her life list and her late husband over 8k, we were in some pretty exclusive company). The next day we were to cover about 1 mile of the East Rim Trail and all of the top of Toll Mountain. BTW Toll Mountain has no trails to it, it is very loose rock on a very steep slope, covered with every kind of ankle biting cactus you can imagine. After our count on Toll Mountain we were to be back at the lodge by 5:30PM for dinner and the "closing ceromony" of our census.

I am getting tired so this will be a multi part post, tune in for the next few day for there is some awesome experiences in this trip. I was able to check off one of the few "I gotta see this before I die" items off my list and it was in superb fashion....

Got a lot to post

2010-04-20T19:39:00.008-05:00

I have been lazy but the last item on this post is really cool so bear with me. Work has been nutz, our bullet is going through government acceptance and I have put most all my energy into that. Besides that I have been in the yard, fishing, or getting ready for this weekends big turkey hunt. So this will be basically a few posts in one.

Jenn, here are your Spring yard pics and of course, snowball is 1st!

Here is the Golden "clove" currant in bloom:

Front Prairie garden with only some tulips coming up (from when I first moved in they come back every year, I kinda like them cause the come up when the prairie is still dormant)

I finally got a tree to last more than 1 year, this red-bud has made it 2 winters:

So rabbits basically destroyed my first planting of the season and since I can't shoot 'em I build a fence:

I had to work this Saturday but I decided I wanted to go fishing on Sunday, I came home from work and did all my chores so Sunday would be all mine. I ended up picking a new spot, Outpost Lake @ Poney Express Conservation Area, I had to haul my canoe just over 1/4 of a mile through fields but eventually I got to catch several fish. Here is how I get there:

The morning was great, it was in the low 40s which made the lake look like it was smoking in the early morning (8 am). I didn't have binz but I got some good looks at some good birds. I had Osprey (just wait), 3 BW teal and kingfisher were the highlights, I would have had better birds but w/o binz I could not ID! I also had a muskrat that I chased around the lake in my canoe, they are fast little buggers. I had the lake to myself for about 3 hours

So how do you like my Osprey:

I caught a few big bluegill and some bass, the bass in the pic is the largest fish of the day:

So today I got home from work and I decided to go outside on the deck and I got to witness something unique. I watched the robins scavenging for food when I heard a sqeak and found and looked to see a robin throwing a shrew (most likely) around the yard. We have not used pesticides or fertilizer on our yard in many years, since then I have noticed a bunch of new "friends" sharing our yard. We did have 2 shrews get into the house somehow while we were in Texas but we haven't seen any since, I see them on occasion as I mow and I am happy they are here. I almost interfered with this incident but I held back, I feel bad for the shrew but this is life for the robin. I have learned if it is amongst native species let it be. I got video of the robin about 5 mins after he found the shrew, I think he is dead in this clip:

Procductive Easter weekend

2010-04-04T20:12:00.006-05:00

This weekend I had to work on Saturday, after work a few friends and I brewed 5 batches (25 gallons) of beer. We then watched the final four games, guess I am a Butler fan tomorrow.

I tried to sleep in on Sunday but the cats got me up around 6am, I got probably less than 6 hours of sleep. I got up, did a clean up of the house: vaccumed the floors, swept the floors, did laundry, dishes, cleaned the kitchen and watered the plants. Then I went to the store for the weekly groceries and stopped by lowes to get some fertilizer stakes for my bushes and tress. Got home and started the yard work. I tilled up about 96 square feet of my garden by hand and mixed in my first home made compost.

3 years ago I started a compost pile, all of Jenn's and my organic waste goes there plus the leaves from the yard each year. My compost pile:
My brother then called and needed a hand, I helped him move his old washing machine out and his new one in. Man my back was killing me but I kept going. I got home, mowed the yard, weedeated and then drove in about 90 fertilizing stakes. After this I did a few more odds and ends. I then grilled some burgers and treated myself to a couple of brews.

After eating I decided to take a walk down the neighborhood greenway to see how spring was coming along. Jenn and I usually pick up some garbage on our walk to clean things up and in that spirit I ended up going a little further as I was getting ticked off from all of the litter. I threw a few cans and plastic bottles on the trail to pick up on my way back, I then found a yellow trash bag in the woods and kept going. By the time I got home this was what I found:

What a bunch of crap that this much stuff was in the neighborhood. After I sorted through what was recycleable this was what was left:

Just earlier today as I was driving down our service road along I-35 I was considering adopting a highway, there is so much crap out there, it just pisses me off.

Weather sucks yo

2010-03-20T17:13:00.003-05:00

Between last night and today we got somewhere between 6" & 8" of snow and it is still coming down.

Somehow I woke up with alot of energy and made a list of stuff to do inside (besides watching March Madness). I ended up cleaning up most of the house and knocking off some dirty chores that I have put off for some time. My energy really tired the cats as they tried to keep up with me through they day, finally after a few hours they both just pooped out:

After the chores I ended up brewing a winter/holiday brew, between last night and today, thats 15 gallons of beer fermenting in my bathroom!

Way to go Tigers!

2010-03-20T17:10:00.003-05:00

I left work early on Friday and met my co-op student @ buffalo wild wings, we drank a few beers and watch Mizzou upset Clemson. Afterwards me made a couple batches of beer. Look forward to tomorrows match up with West Virginia.

Update on Bandit

2010-03-20T17:05:00.003-05:00

Bandit made good progress last week, he recovered from his ailments and was introduced to the household. I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the two other cats, no issues and they got along fine. Bandit did loose some of his spunk and kept a good distance from the other cats and as a result me, since the other two are always with me. I posted on craigslist to try to find him a permanent home and only got one response. It was from a young lady that seems to be really good with pets and actually has fostered cats in the past for local shelters. She was exstatic when she found that he was or had some Maine Coon in him, I guess that is a sought after breed. She said had I posted a picture I would have got tons of responses. A few days after he left, she emailed me and gave me an update, sounds like thing are going well with Bandit. In the mean time things have returned to normal here. I feel good to give this guy a 2nd chance, she said he would be pampered to no end.

This weekend

2010-03-14T17:47:00.007-05:00

This weekend was pretty uneventful, spent most of Saturday making sure that Bandit's introduction to Jack and Tiger went well. I would say that I couldn't have asked for better. No fitghts not even any growling. The only concern I have is that Bandit has lost his personality, he pretty much just sits around and does not re-act much to me ie purring, jumping on my lap. I am giving him a break on this since he been through so much the last week, I will give him a couple of weeks to see if he will be staying with us for the long term or not. Here is a pic of Bandit loungin on the couch:

I didn't get out of the house on Saturday due to the crappy weather, it was raining off and on, cloudy, windy and just downright depressing. Sunday was supposed to be partly sunny, almost no chance of rain and no wind; so Saturday night I decided that Sunday AM I would take the sea kayak out to Smithville and paddle for a couple of hours. Got up on Sunday and it was misting, gloomy, mid-40s and just crappy again. I said screw it and went out to the lake anyway, when I got there the wind picked up, it was misting and cold. I ended up paddling for about 3 hours, enjoyed the time and explored some new territory while scouting for next years duck season. I saw probably about 15 bald eagles, all but one was a juvenile, probably 200+ common mergansers, 100+ hooded mergansers, 50+ comorants and 150+ white pelicans, the pelicans are the birds in the photo below.

I got home and took care of some chores, getting ready for the NCAA brackets and gonna grill some burgers and pretend likes it a great spring day. I did note that my witchhazel is blooming, not too showy but a sure sign of better weather to come.

Update on Banit

2010-03-11T20:10:00.004-06:00

So my sis took Bandit to the vet on Wednesday, he checked out well with the exception of some intestinal worms (get to this in a minute). He is most likely less than 1 year old and a little underweight. She also got him an appointment today to get nuetered (sp?) This week has been taxing spending all of my time @ home each night between spending time with the regular cats, which have been used to Jenn home all day and they seem to need a ton of attention now and spending time with Bandit in the basement. I have felt bad with leaving him in the basement but it just had to be that way to ensure that he didn't give anything to the other cats and thank goodness we did since he had worms. So yesterday the vet said that he had roundworm, my sister said that I could expect to see some worms in his litter box.... she could have elaborated. I woke up this morning as usual and went down to see him for a few mins before work and I found a mess I didn't expect, to put in nicely the wormer worked and I didn't expect to see what I found. I have seen alot of gross things in my life and this would have to be the tops, I feel bad for this poor kitty, he must have had a terrible night, I couldn't believe what came out of his body. Since I got the unfortunate good look he didn't just have roundworms but also tapeworms. I did the quickest clean up I could do and left for work. I got home from work and spent a good 1 and a half hours cleaning up and disinfecting the mess before he got home. He arrived during cleaning and was a little irratible (I would too if the did that to me), the poor cat had a shitload of shots one day, crapped his guts out that night and then got his manhood removed. I am trying not to hold his behavior against him, but I may wait a few more days to introduce him to the other cats. We shall see.....

Charity Bike Ride to Benefit Wayside Waifs Pet Shelter

2010-03-10T17:07:00.008-06:00

Just got a flier in the mail from Heather @ The Wheel Cyclery (a team sponsor). They are hosting a charity ride to raise money for a local no kill animal shelter, Wayside Waifs. The ride is on March 20 and there is a 15 and a 30 mile route, I will probably either try to ride from home or start a little ways away and get some extra miles but I plan on attending. Wayside Waifs is where we picked up Jack, they were very helpful when we found out that he had distemper and the advice, IVs and special care items that they gave us free of charge were just as big of a factor in Jack's survival as Jenn's dedication in caring for him. So if you got the time, come out and support the shelter, all you have to do is bring an item to donate. More info here.

Some people just need to be taken out of the pool

2010-03-09T18:02:00.003-06:00

This break-in happened to a no kill shelter here in KC, consider donating a little if you can. They are already hurting for donations this year.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/09/1800609/burglars-break-into-merriam-animal.html

Update on me & Bandit

2010-03-08T18:20:00.008-06:00

Its been along time since I posted on this thing and probably not many people checking on it but I figured that I would give a quick update on me! First off I spend 2009 getting fat and lazy as my motivation to do anything was pretty low, not sure why I just didn't do a whole lot. I started 2010 out lifting with Jenn every other day in our basement, and running a couple days a week. I got about 5.5 hrs on the bike over the last 8 days, just really out of shape.

Jenn left Sunday morning for Austin to do her research so we hung out together for most of Saturday (except for the MU KU game). In the evening we went to Martha Lafite Nature Sanctuary, we have been members there for a few years and we unintentially met up with the director and his wife to watch the Woodcocks displaying ritual. While we where there we found a cat that was super nice and just followed us everywhere he was very thin and dehydrated but he continued following us and purring as we traveled. I ended up having to hold this guy why watching the woodcocks because he made an attempt to catch one. Long story a little shorter, we ended up taking him home which pretty much ruined our plans for a nice night @ home together on Jenn's last night. His current home is our basement, the decision is left to me whether we are going to keep him but @ a minimum I am going to have him neutered, shots and health check-up on Wednesday. We are keeping him separate from our other guys just in case he has something unfriendly to pass along. So here he is, Jenn named him Bandit, but I have been calling him Bandy for short:

So thinking about what to do if he doesn't work out got me doing some interenet searching and I found some interesting info, I found that there are places to catch feral cats, they will fix them for minimal costs and then release. Better than shooting them or catching them and dropping them off in the country. This leads me to the 3rd part of this post....

Just over a year ago we found a little kitty eating from the garbage can @ Knob Knoster State Park, when we walked up the cat ran into the woods, Jenn slowly managed to coax the cat to her arms from the brush, we took her home and we now have my little girl Tiger, she is awesome and we are attached like a kid and his dog, actually as I write this she is on the arm of my chair, hold on I will get a pic.....

While doing my searching to find out what I can do with Bandit if he doesn't work out, I found this story about a kitten someone else found out on its own.

Anyone that knows Jenn and I know that we love our yard and our birds and we have found at least 5 birds and one cardinal nest destroyed by cats. I have to admit that I have thought about shooting the cats to protect the birds but especially after this I couldn't do it. Hopefully between me and my brother we can get all of the stray or ferals we can catch in his live trap spayed or neutered so the incidents in this story are minimized.

San Diego (zoo)

2010-02-28T15:55:00.005-06:00

Wow, our posts are getting few and far between. Most of that is winter related - we are just not that active this winter. But also very busy trying to complete work and getting ready to migrate to Austin for the spring. I headed to San Diego for a week in early Feb for the American Ornithologists' Union annual conference - you know where the bird-nerds convene! I didn't get to explore San Diego much but I did get to go to the world-famous San Diego Zoo, as well as a couple small birding/beach trips. It was pretty sweet being buzzed by all the Anna's hummingbirds and seeing many old friends, but human and feathered. The San Diego Zoo was pretty fabulous - there were several huge aviaries with dozens of super cool birds. I also saw a baby panda sleeping and its momma chillin' nearby. It is a huge zoo and took all day to see most of it. Totally worth the $40!

All the captive birds have bands, as seen in picture, so that if they escape, they can be identified.

the deep clean

2010-01-09T15:00:00.003-06:00

BEFORE

AFTER

We refinanced the house, and used the appraisal as motivation to finish some odd jobs around the house and clean clean clean! We actually hauled out several boxes to the donation and recycling and a bag or 2 of trash. We decluttered the office and turned the spare room into an actual guest bedroom to be proud of! We took the before shot after the actualy clean up, but before the painting to finish it off. That room was a disaster site where we shoved all etc. and misc. stuff that didn't have a 'place'. Tiger and I sometimes even take our breaks laying on the bed in there - the sun shines warming on the bed and is quite a cozy place in winter.

snow snow snow

2010-01-09T10:23:00.004-06:00

Randy and I have cooped up at home since Christmas due to the deep freeze and the deepening snow. We did however get out on Jan 3 for the Trimble Christmas bird count. This is the 3rd year for us and the 2nd for our territory east of Smithville Lake. We suited up in thermals and coveralls and snow boots and braved the single-digits in a foot of snow with more coming down for the first half of the day. Despite the conditions and the resultant sparcity of birds, I had fun hiking through the snow. It was not the typicaly slushy, mushy snow of MO but powder, soft and sparkly and dry!

We did flush a long-eared owl out of a grove of pines and we watched 8 short-eared owls.

Me looking like a camo marhsmallow

Randy shoveling the sidewalk back at home

Snowball

2009-12-08T17:39:00.006-06:00

In My Heart

I thought of you with love today, but that is nothing new.

I thought about you yesterday, and days before that too.

I think of you in silence.

I often speak your name.

Now all I have is memories, and your picture in a frame.

Your memory is my keepsake, with which I’ll never part.

God has you in his keeping.

I have you in my heart.

In Loving Memory of SNOWBALL October1998 - December 8, 2008

your mommy still misses you very much silly snowball

D.C. here we come

2009-11-20T19:23:00.022-06:00

I went to Laurel, MD (a suberb between Baltimore and D.C.) the first week of Nov to attend a workshop. The objective was to teach me how to use software to create models I don't understand to analyze data! Couple that with Randy's dad living in Alexandria, VA (a beautiful and historic city across the Potomac from D.C.) and Randy and I were presented a grand opportunity to explore D.C. last week. We rode the Metro into the city each morning and landed at the national mall. Each day we explored a new Smithsonian museum, except for the natural history museum, which took 3 visits!

The first evening, his dad took us to the 'mall' and we toured the monuments at night. We went to the Washington Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, reflecting pool, and WWII memorial.

The next day we visited the Holocaust Museum, which was as disturbing and fascinating as one might imagine. We followed that up with our 1st stop at the natural history museum. It was very crowded and we only made it through the dinosaurs section and other prehistoric creatures!

Monday, we started with the natural history museum. We progressed through Darwin's exhibit and the oceans, soils, and gems. Gems were suprising interesting - so many gorgeous rocks!

(my ring was just a little smaller than the Hope Diamond!)

We eventually made our way to the native american (or american indian) museum. We were starving so we ate in the cafe first. The cafe is themed native american food from different regions (I ate from south america - really good - and Randy ate from the northwest I think). The top floor was really interesting, and they had several walls of beautiful art and artifacts.

After milling about here for a few hours we went over to check out the gardens adjacent to the musuem, which ultimately led us to the botanical gardens. Beautiful!

And the neatest part was the models of monuments and federal buildings made entirely of plant material. Wouldn't you know our camera battery died at this point!

Tues was our last sure day of great weather so we headed for the Arlington Cemetery. We went to JFK (and other Kennedies) gravesites, the tomb of the unknown, witnessed the changing of the guard, and viewed the many memorials.

Glimpsing the Lincoln Memorial across the bridge, we decided against the metro and for a nice long walk (despite our aching feet and knees from the miles of walking already behind us each day). Along the bridge we saw the Roosevelt Islands (which we never made it to). Passing the Lincoln Memorial, we headed to the Vietnam Wall, where there were many tourists and veterans. From there, we bravely ventured off away from the mall and toward the great unknown. Becoming increasing weary and hungry though, we finally broke down and asked someone where we could find food (we were completely surrounded by federal buildings!). Luckily a 5-min walk led us to a quaint bar with good food. We soon discovered we were on the campus of George Washington University! We next headed to the White House. Unfortunately, we couldn't get very close, but still very cool!

We stopped at the natural history museum and finished up the mammals and birds. We then passed the capitol and continued on to the National Botanical Gardens to take pictures of the 'plant models'.

After almost 8 hours and countless (>10) miles of walking, we headed toward the metro and the short ride home. Except we hit the rush hour madness, and had to stand for much of our ride...

Wed was Labor Day and the first day of non-stop drizzly cold dismal rain (thanks to a tropical storm that popped up). (And of course, Randy had not brought any rain gear) We set aside this day for the space museum, knowing it was huge and would take a long time. What we didn't anticipate was the large number of families and teenagers that would be there too! Even worse, the only place to eat was a giant McDonald's, which we hit just prior to the insane lunch rush (think hundreds of kids and teenagers), and endured a pretty horrible meal (which, yes, did cause some stomach upset later). Despite the madness, this was a very interesting museum (and clearly attractive for families) - space suits, shuttles, astronauts, planes, the Wright brothers, etc.

We decided to hop across the mall to the art museum for a brief visit. We were too tired to spend a lot of time here, so we basically saw what we could in an hour. We did find an exhibit with knight suits and swords and related stuff, which was awesome. We also saw a Da Vinci and some Rembrandts. Way too many artists doing the Madonna and child in my opinion. Anyways, we were pretty worn out so we headed home early that day, arriving home before the rush.

Da Vinci

Thursday, rainy day 2. We went straight to the American history museum. Obviously there was some overlap here with the other museums, so we spent more time in the early history exhibits through the Civil War and skimmed WWII and such. We sailed through the presidents a bit too quickly. Some really neat exhibits in this musuem. Since this was our last museum and last day - we skipped out early, being very tired from the week's adventures. That evening we met a couple of Randy's old college buddies for dinner. I didn't take too many pictures here.

Friday, rainy day 3! We rode the metro to the Reagan airport and picked up a rental car. We ate breakfast on King's Street and headed northeast to the Chesapeake bay bridge. Randy drove one way and I drove the other - it was fun! We stopped at the shore-side park and Randy got lifer Greater Black-backed Gulls in the 20+ mph wind.

(at the sandy park by Chesapeake Bay)

We continued on to Baltimore, checked in to our hotel, and dined at a local brew pub.

Next day flew home! Hope you enjoy the small selection of photos - we took ~500!!!

carving pumpkins part dos

2009-10-25T19:29:00.004-05:00

Today it was Randy's turn, so today we did some couple's pumpkin carving. Randy decided to carve the bone collector (a skull/elk) and I did a cute spider because we have many on our deck! Our hands are pretty tired, but it was fun and we now have our pumpkin trio complete! We lit them up tonight on our little bale of hay on the front porch, protected from the rain!

carving pumpkins

2009-10-25T15:57:00.007-05:00

Wes, Julia, and I carved pumpkins last night. Randy was present, but unanle to contribute much because he was otherwise engaged watching the Tigers get slaughtered by the Longhorns. We had a great time stuffing ourselves with yummy pizza from the take-and-bake shop and some easy breezy pumpkin cake before we settled in for the serious business.

hard at work:

the masterpieces (I made "in memoriam: Snowball", Wes made " in utero: Kippy", and Julia made "in memory of: Michael Jackson"):

OK Hogs

2009-10-25T09:10:00.005-05:00

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PACnITFu3sk/SuRhZVvQPOI/AAAAAAAAAjY/drvJZwEEvpg/s1600-h/IMG_0817.JPG

Hunt #1 Fri night -- Had several hogs moving around my stand, they pretty much stayed in the woods chomping on acorns, around dusk I had a nice sow move in close to the stand but she never came into my shooting lane though she got within 25 yds away. I got out of the stand to meet my brother and as I walked down the dark path back to camp I came face to face with the large sow, I screamed at her and ran her off. I really didn't want a run in with her in the dark on the way back. Got back to camp and found that Brian shot a 75# boar out of a ground blind.

Hunt #2 Sat Morn -- Sat in the same stand convinced that the same hog would come back, no deal. Only saw one group of about 7 hogs and they never came within 75 yds. Got back to camp to find Brent shot a 100# sow & Jason shot a 80# boar.
Saturday we went to local bar and watched the TX & OK football game and BS'd with the locals.

Last Hunt Sat evening -- Since Alex and I were the only ones to not shoot anything we got to get 1st pick on where to hunt. I picked the ground blind that Brian used the day before so Brian and I could sit together and hopefully Brian could get some video of the hunt. He and I sat for about 30 mins when a large boar started slowly making his way into the clearing. After about 10 mins he gave me a 30-35 yard shot, I hit him a little foward in the shoulder but the arrow penetrated to his vitals, he only went 30-40 yards and went down. Got back to camp and BS'd with Jason and Brian while we waited for Brent and Alex, just at dusk we heard Alex shoot. My hog went 175# while Alex's was about 75#.

All in all a good hunt and we will likely go back again next year.

My arrow and what was left of my broad head after my shot.

Matt and Cheryl hoisting my hog out of the gator.

Brent and Jason with their hogs.

More dead hogs.

All of us minus Brian, he headed off into the woods before the pictures.

welcome Gabrielle

2009-09-27T14:55:00.009-05:00

We haven't posted in a while because not much was going on. I have resumed the life of a desk biologist and Randy was been getting busy with his project at work. Then last week we wento Texas to visit my family and await the arrival of my 4th niece. Gabrielle Skye was born Set 15! - her birthday is 1 day after her grandma's. All went fine and dandy and she is now closing in on 2 weeks old!

baby in belly

baby out of belly

I also met my new feline niece - a beautiful kitten only a few weeks ago who looks so much like Snowball that I almost took her home with me!

Precious Belle

Besides hanging with the fam, RC and I headed to the coast with our kayaks. We paddled the Lighthouse Lakes trails in the mangroves. It was pretty cool being up close and personal with all the wading birds - great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, reddish egrets, and 1 roseate spoonbill! We spent ~4 hours paddling, by the end we were heading into a strong headwind and we pooped by the time we came ashore.

We also paddled down a 6-mile stretch of the Colorado River through Bastrop, which was really fun and neat to finally really experience the river that was in my childhood backyard. And we hiked around some of my study sites in Austin one day.

All in all a fun and much needed vacation.

Jack and Tiger were extremely happy to see us when we got home and have been rather needy and attached to us, but it is really sweet:)

BIG NEWS

2009-08-15T14:09:00.007-05:00

We're getting married! I know this may suprise some of you that probably assumed we were already, but no, we are not! Randy proposed on June 30 at my field site at Ha Ha Tonka State Park. Yes, I was hot, tired, and covered in sweat and dirt after a long field day, my hair was a mess, and I was in my field clothes, but hey, that's me, so it only seemed fitting. We were on the boardwalk overlooking the spring looking at two great horned owl fledglings.

We are planning a destination wedding, originally intended for our immediate family, but too many of them were unable to make it, so we have decided to make it just us. The wedding will likely be this winter in Belize, a country we have wanted to visit for the past couple years.

That was the same weekend as our annual float trip down the Jack's Fork River. We had a great time this year.

entrance to a cool cave we found on the water

That was followed by my 30th birthday and then our 5 year anniversary!!!!!!!!! So a lot has happened in the past 2 weeks.

ummm- yummy homemade strawberry cake

yeehaw cowgirl

2009-07-12T18:11:00.005-05:00

RC got me a Cowtown (his cycling team) outfit. So we suited up today in our matching outfits! and went biking on the paved trails at Smithville Lake. RC also put skinny wheels on my bike - I felt like I was flying today. We rode 2 hrs and ~30 miles - my longest ride ever!!!!!!! I felt great. RC has made a big return to cycling this week, after taking 2 months off he biked several times this week. So I'm patting us both on the back:)

Along the way we had the usual assortment of birds: chickadees, cardinals, indigo buntings, dickcissels, field sparrows, summer tanagers, brown thrashers, eastern kingbirds, meadowlarks, blackbirds and grackles...

shingles

2009-07-07T15:00:00.002-05:00

So I finally went to the doctor today to determine why my lymph nodes in my neck is HUGE (eek). In so doing, I found out my sunburn rash, which is now scabbed over completely and even more disgusting looking than before, is actually shingles (the same virus that causes chickenpox). So that explains the insane pain associated with the rash that is different from regular sunburn. I have to have blood drawn and get a cat scan. I won't know for a couple days what they find out. The good news - I have good blood pressure, a healthy weight, and nice veins!

not so much fun in the sun

2009-07-04T11:52:00.001-05:00

Despite SPF 30 sublock, my weekend fun has turned into a very painful experience. I wish I could say this is the first time I had suffered a sun burn rash like that above, but it has happened a few times before. It is very painful, and of course worrisome knowing I just increased my chances of getting skin cancer. This only happens to my chest, so no more lounging around in my swimsuit:( This is the 4th day, each day the rash grew and grew - I think it should start receding by tomorrow. It actually wakes me up at night, and just my hair touching it hurts. OUCH...

fun in the sun

2009-06-28T18:32:00.005-05:00

I have a long, hard and very exhausting week doing field work in blazing hot and humid weather (as in heat index up to 110 degrees!). I was quite ready to enjoy a relaxing weekend at home with RC and Jack and Tiger. RC and I decided to go to Smithville Lake yesterday with our kayaks - we paddled out to a cove he'd found the weekend before (while I was working) with his bro, Brent, and sis-in-law, Wes. We bought a couple float and lounge chairs and had a great time floating around in this cove. Despite the crazy heat, it felt great on the water. Later we ate burgers over at Brent and Wes's.

Today, we brought Brent, Wes, and Wes's mom to the same spot. We had an awesome time - just chilling in the water, throwing the ball around, eating cold cheeseburgers (still really good!).

the brothers cartwright

jenn and randy in our "floatation devices"

jenn and wes

SummerTime

2009-06-25T17:25:00.002-05:00

So I must be the only guy who is more active in the nastiest part of Winter than I am in the Summer. Being in the manufacturing business for 10+ years, everything picks up in the summer so i have to work more, my yard needs more attention and I have my vegetable garden to attend to. Jenn is always away in the Spring and Summer so all the household duties are mine to take care of, so I seem to drop most hobbies especially time consuming ones like cycling. Work has picked up to a crazy pace, 10 hour days are the norm and I have been working weekends to keep things on schedule. It will not let up until December, just in time for me to start biking again in the middle of Winter. I am making a commitment to start lifting again after work as long as I get home before 6PM since I have a full gym in my basement.

The Jack and Tiger Show

2009-06-07T21:03:00.009-05:00

Tiger and Jack's close-up

"How cute am I" (a snowballism)

("I'm so cute that I can even be rotten!")

sleepy Jack

Snowball's Memorial Garden

2009-06-07T20:51:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow is the 6-month anniversary of Snowball's tragic passing. In honor of him and his memory, Randy and I spent all day working on his memorial garden. It is beautiful, just like him. We planted 4 fame flowers around his grave, a small, but showy magenta flower with gold stamens and succulent leaves. We planted 2 prairie sundrops, 2 New England aster, and 2 blue ice around him in a bed of dark brown mulch surrounded by a border of white rocks.

We love you Snowball and miss you everyday!

Whats up

2009-05-31T21:40:00.005-05:00

Well I have been busy with work and my household duties. On memorial weekend I found a great campground and river that me and some friends went to fish and camp for a few days. The campsite was primitive which luckily kept all the crowds away, I spent Thurs and Friday by myself in the middle of nowhere, I camped, fished and napped for a day and a half in the middle of the Ozarks and only saw a couple of people... It was great and I remembered why I loved to "rough it". The highlight of the adventure was while I decided to float down the river by my camp, I walked about 1/4 mile up river and had my life jacket to bouy me as I floated down, while I walke in about 3-4 feet of water I noticed some peculiar motion in the water in a pool that I was approaching. I proceeded upriver and had a few heads poking up above the water in front of me, in short order I had otters swimming within a few feet of my legs. This is the first time I have seen them in Missouri, I worried about getting bit by them but they kinda just followed my downriver as I floated down.

I fished, napped and fished some more until the rest of the group showed up late on Friday, we drank some brews and settled into the camp fire for the night. It decided to rain on us on Saturday for our float, for the most part it was just a steady sprinkle, we caugh loads of fish I think I was near 30 for the float including the largetst small mouth I think I ever caught ( around 3 lbs). Goggle Eye were numerous throughout the day and we finally reached camp around 8 at night, we cooked some burgers and setteled in for another campfire. The place was great and I don't think that the rest of the group really realized it since that didn't spend much time in the river near our camp.

I have decided that at least every other weekend to go camping this year, next trip will be at lake of the ozarks state park, Jenn is going to join me since that is one of her study sites. I will post some pics of the last trip soon... can't seem to find the camera right now..........

I'm Back!!! (again)

2009-05-19T19:59:00.002-05:00

I returned last Sat, May 9 to KC. And I headed off for field season #2 Monday! I have 2 crews and they are both doing great - already finding many nests. I have been so busy training them and getting office work done that I haven't surveyed my own site yet - but that's about to change. I'll be surveying starting tomorrow and will keep you posted...

Bad new Good news

2009-05-07T20:39:00.005-05:00

So we confirmed to our best knowledge that a cowbird had parasitized our poor cardinals nest, I came home a few days ago and found that the little orange chick in the previous post was missing. I looked for it to no avail on the ground, and finally came to the conclusion that all signs point to the two remaining chicks being cowbirds. It was a hard decision but the two remaining chicks were put down, I hated to see the two parents working so hard to feed chicks that were not their own when they could be starting another brood. It sucks that two years in a row they have nested right near our deck only to be unsucessful, cat the first year and cowbird the next. I feel bad for the parents but it is over now...they can start anew.

The good news is that I found yesterday that our pair of Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks had returned to our feeders to refuel on their way to their breeding grounds. They were at the feeders almost non-stop, like they were starving, yesterday and when I got up this morning @ 6am they were there eating. I haven't seen them today so I have to think they have moved on after fattening up on our food.

This afternoon I worked in the yard triming the grass around our bushes, we had some bad storms about 50 miles north and I heard that a tornado had touched down, here a couple of pics of the clouds in that direction:

Chicks!

2009-05-03T19:47:00.007-05:00

Today after all of my yard work, I kept hearing some really light chips coming from my cardinal's nest and noticed the parents flying in and out instead of the female just sitting on the nest, I took a peek then took a couple picutres:
I also got the remainder of the vegetable garden planted, 2 eggplants, 8 different peppers, 3 different tomatoes and two zuchinni plants:

The Orange One

2009-05-01T19:48:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Dave came over to bottle his brew we made two weekends ago, while I was heading out of the kitchen I heard a chattering that sounded familiar, I walked back to the door to the deck and saw an Oriole around the spot I put the Oriole feeder every year, seems like they remember year after year. I put the feeder up that night and today I have seen him multiple times, if only I can get the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak I have had the last two years....

Sorry for the crappy picture it was taken through the screen door.

4 Jenn

2009-04-28T19:54:00.005-05:00

Here are some pics for you Jenn:

I found that the male cardinal pretty much roosts outside our living room window, I keep seeing him catching worm & caterpillars, then flying to feed his lady while she is on the nest:

Jack catching the last sunlight of the day: Tiger keeping watch on the yard as the sun sets:

Need some advice

2009-04-26T16:42:00.003-05:00

Okay I know some of Jenn's bird friends frequent this blog, if you can check out a few posts back some wierd stuff happened with my cardinal's nest. She had three eggs, then one, I found two broken near the nest, she came back and then there where three again, I was looking at her nest and I think that one is bigger than the rest, I have recently had some brown headed cowbirds at the feeders and I wonder if she has been parasitized (sp?). Here is a pic of her current nest:

Here are some pics of brown headed cowbird eggs in other nests:

What should I do? Should I remove the bigger egg? From the Peterson Field Guides " Easter Birds' Nests" book: "Cowbird lays egg at dawn; removes egg of host day before or day after parsitic egg laid" Could a cowbird be the reason the eggs were removed from the nest? Advice please......

Great Day

2009-04-25T18:54:00.008-05:00

Today I got up @ 4am to meet my friend Wayne at his parents farm in Richmond. Wayne was taking me to his place to go turkey hunting, he shot his 1st turkey yesterday and since in Missouri you can only shoot one the first week, he was along to help me out and enjoy the hunt. Wayne and I met up at the gate @ 5:10 and walked th 1/2 mile back to his center field, we decided to pass the near part of the field and walked to the far side, as soon as we got there we scared a half dozen turkeys out of the roost, not good. We set up decoys and waited anyway. We heard several gobbles from all around but none too close. After about 2 hours we decided to move to the top field where Wayne shot his Tom the day before. We sat up , called and listened. We could hear a turkey gobbling a ways off across a ravine that I would say was at least 400 yards away. We decided to make our way over that way. We walked sat, got closer sat, got closer sat.... we could not get this Tom to respond to our calls, we figured he was already pre-occupied with a hen. Finally we got near the next tree line. I went to stealth mode as Wayne stayed back and made my way to the edge, I could see one hen and one Tom strutting away. He was about 75 yards away and we didn't think he would come closer. The turkeys went below the slight rise in the field and I was afraid they would head off the other direction. I decided that I would low crawl through the 8-10" grass and see if I could get near the top of the rise to take a shot. I asked Wayne to call if he could see them so I would know to stop and watch. After about 50 yards of low crawling, I heard Wayne call, I got as low to the ground as possible, gun ready and watched for the turkey. Finally I saw a head poke above the rise, I waited for a few minutes hoping to see him clearly to make sure that it was indeed a Tom and not a hen, finally I could see most of his neck and decided to fire, BAM, he was down. This is my first day of turkey hunting, I hunted one day about 16 years ago and really didn't try, happily it was productive, but I had to work for it. Wayne agreed it was a great hunt.
24 pounds, 1 3/8" spurs & 9" beard

We headed back to Wayno's, cleaned the bird and had a beer, Jason joined us with his son Jake and we decided to do some skeet shooting.

We hung out at Wayne's for a few hours just hangin out and decided to head to his parent's neighbor's pond to do some fishing, I borrowed some gear and ended up catching my first fish (plural) of the year.

Jason with the biggest fish of the day.

I had to bail early due to the weather at around 6PM, tornado warnings are currently in effect until 11PM, and one has already touched down and demolished a few houses in Kansas. I got home, ate dinner, hung out with the cats and typed this up. I got nothing done around the house, but I have the opportunity to catch up tomorrow because its supposed to rain all day, I am sick of the nice sunny days during the week and rain on the weekends, this is 3 in row! It was a great day, only thing that could make it better was the sun out and Jenn here to greet me at home!

and now there are 3

2009-04-20T19:57:00.004-05:00

I left work today to some wonderfully Spring temps, my mind was struggling between either cycling in the windy weather or doing something else. I got home and after seeing the yard, I made the easy decision to mow and do some more yard work, after I was done with the mowing I thought I would check out my Cardinal's nest to see what is going on, she was depradated this Saturday and 2 out of 3 of her eggs were on the ground and busted, when I looked into her nest I saw:

Thanks to Jenn, I have the most comprehesive library related to birds next to David Sibley, I noted that the average Northern Cardinal has 3 eggs, this lady is on at least number 5. I hope she makes it, last year a feral cat got a cardinal, maybe her, in the other evergreen.

Jenn, a token cat photo:

Weather sucks yo

2009-04-18T20:22:00.009-05:00

Okay so I got up this morning to a spring shower, it rained from about 6am to 11am. I measured almost 1" on the raing gauges. I had thought about racing the bonebender but if I had any doubt about racing, the rain easily put me over the edge, not to mention that my $3k moutain bike is a basket case. I went out and rode at Stocksdale Park in Liberty on Friday to see how my legs felt (crappy) and my bike, well I don't know how to say it but it needs help. I took my bike to Heather @ The Wheel to get it fixed, here is what is wrong with it: 1) both front and rear disc brakes rub BADLY; the rear wheel is dented BADLY and the tubless tire will not hold a bead; my front fork is shot, it won't lockout and will not hold any pressure; the chain is a wreck and finally my RH crakbrothers pedal got hid hard and is bent. Heather told me 2+ weeks on all the repairs and the rear wheel may be beyond help. Anyway I talked to teammate Chris Locke, who promoted the BoneBender race and the race was a mud fest, congrats to Chris tho he won the overall 3 hour solo and on a single speed, so he won both categories.

On to my day.... I got up and did routine housework during the rain, when the rain let up I hit Lowe's and Home Depot for some yard stuff. I finally got my "Certified Wildlife Habitat" sign up in the yard and did a few other chores.

I checked on my cardinal nest and it had 1 egg still in it, I noticed that she sat on the nest several times during the rain so I was hoping to see more eggs. I checked the nest as I did the yard work and was happy to see that there were two eggs. I did another errand grabbed the camera and came back to take a picture of the two eggs. To my surprise when I got there only one egg was there, I questioned my sanity for a second and called Jenn to give here my confusing news. As we spoke on the phone, this is what I saw

Two eggs on the ground, one totally busted and one with a small hole in it???? Someone got into her nest. There was still one egg present so I hoped that she will still try to keep the nest and not abandon, I did see her later sit on the nest but she didn't stay for long, I think that she will probably find another location.

Tomorrow is supposed to be crappy so I figured I would go for a hiking trip and settled on Cooley Lake Conservation Area, I found some cool rock formations (forgot the camera in the truck sorry) and I did see my FOY Blue-Gray Gnatcher & a Hermit Thrush, I got several other birds including a mess of Yellow-Rumped Warlbers & Ruby Crowned Kinglets. I spent about 2 hours hiking around and finally got to pattern my shotgun in the parking lot for Turkey season. BTW I saw two Tom's within 15 yards of me, I could've taken 'em easily if it was season (which starts Monday). This year I plan on getting into Turkey hunting, I already have planned to hunt the next three weekends with my friend Wayne on his parent's farm, he is a seasoned hunter and is going to call them in for me to teach me the techniques, hopefully a post will follow this one with a picture of my first turkey kill. I did some trading with my friend Jason and got a Remington 870 that chambers 3.5" shells, lemme tell you, it packs a punch, I got a good mark from the one shot I used to patter the gun. Tomorrow I have planned to brew 3 batches of beer, two for me and one from a friend from GM to teach him how its done. It is supposed to rain AGAIN tomorrow. Next week is supposed to be beautiful, then rain next weekend, I am sick of wonderful Spring days during the week and rain on the weekends, rainy weather sucks, YO.

Jenn, pics of the flowering bushes as you requested:

check out the link below

2009-04-17T18:32:00.000-05:00

http://goldencheekedwarbler-research.blogspot.com/2009/04/catch-of-day.html - really cool non-target bird I caught in a mist net yesterday

One egg

2009-04-16T19:29:00.002-05:00

I haven't seen the cardinals around the deck lately, this weekend while I was working in the garden they kept flying in but would immediately take off because I was only about 15ft away. I was hoping that I didn't spook them off. I decided to do more yard work today, the weather was great but a little windy, since my heart hasn't been with cycling I have time for other endeavors. Anyway I peeked into the nest and found that there is actually one egg that has been layed since Saturday, maybe they haven't given up afterall.... Hopefully I don't have to take care of a bunch of cats this year to protect this nest.

Crappy, I mean Crappie Fishing

2009-04-16T19:19:00.004-05:00

I decided that since it was such a great day, yesterday I pulled out the canoe and my fishing gear and headed for Watkins Mill after work to do some fishing. I spent almost three hours at the lake with not much luck. I enjoyed the time none the less, there were very few people out. I have decided to do more fishing, I spent many many years fishing almost every day and have gotten away from it lately.

I'm finally certified

2009-04-12T19:00:00.012-05:00

This Saturday I spent the entire day in my yard. I have spent the last few years turning my yard into a native landscape and wildlife haven. Jenn got me into the native gardening and wildlife thing several years ago and each year the yard gets better. I believe that in 3 years that the yard will be awesome because by that time the bushes should be grown up giving alot of cover. For Xmas Jenn applied for certification for my yard as "Certified Wildlife Habitat" by the National Wildlife Federation, the sign came a little late but the weather is finally good enough to put it up in the yard.

This weekend I got another "lifer" in my own yard, this time not a bird but a reptile, I was very excited to get my first snake in the yard. While turning over my compost in the compost pile I noticed all the large earthworms that were in there, I then noticed while I had my hands right in the pile a snake moving through the litter, it was a northern red bellied snake. I was super excited and then went straight inside to MDC's website to ID the snake, it took me a few minutes to find the correct ID, but after looking at several other sites' pictures, the habitat descriptions I figured it out. This past weekend in Little Rock Arkansas my friend showed me a snake that he had killed with a hoe a week before in his flower bed, in addition to this he told me his neighbors kill alot of snakes in the creek behind his house. This bothered me because 99% of all snakes that would be in a residential area are not poisonious and are only eating rodents, bugs or worms. Please don't needlessly kill these creatures, they are a part of a natual ecosystem that was here thousands of years before your foundation was poured.

After mowing the yard and checking out all my plants & bushes I tilled my garden after laying down 500 lbs of manure. I then planted my broccoli plants, carrots, red onions, white onions & finally spinach; the remainder of the garden (tomatoes, peppers, zuccini & squash will come aftert the threat of frost is gone).

Another great surprise was I found that a pair of cardinals were nesting in the evergreen off the corner of my deck right by the railing (the picture below shows the nest do you see it?). This was exciting because last year a pair nested on the other corner but was depradated by a damn cat and all her eggs were broken. I assumed that she was killed because she was always on the nest and feathers were all over the ground. Hopefully it is the same girl and she is giving the yard another chace. Each year we have had a pair of robins, a pair of barn swallows, a pair of house finches and a pair of house wrens nesting in the yard (we had a pair of blue birds one year but the house wrens depradated their nest). Not bad for a crappy yard that started as a cow pasture. I get so much enjoyment in the wildlife that is in my yard, if more pe0ple would give up on the exotic non-wildlife friendly gardening & landscaping I think they would find 10 times the enjoyment from the wildlife than they do the "pretty" landscaping that they have planted.

MIZZOU

2009-03-28T14:08:00.002-05:00

I have always been a die hard Mizzou fan, especially football. During my years at Mizzou, I only went to a handful of basketball games since the team was just about average and basketball has never really been my thing. I will admit that I am fair weather basketball fan, but this year has been great to watch this Mizzou team. I didn't think they had much of a chance against Memphis and before I new it they were up by 24, in an hour and a half they will take on UCONN and that 7'3" freak. Hopefully this season has a few more games in it. I am heading to Buffalo Wild Wings to meet my brother and some friends, I am crossing my fingers that I won't be drinking down my sorrows!

Friday blah....

2009-03-27T23:43:00.002-05:00

The weather stinks, I am stuck in the house so I have been reading up on stuff on the internet. Ever think that the 70s fashions were just a trainwreck? It could have been worse you could have been stuck in Sweden in the 70s: http://pics.yemii.com/swedish-dance-bands.html

2009-03-26T19:26:00.001-05:00

Great video link of some awesome freeride, wish we had some of this sh.. around here.

http://vimeo.com/3338567

howdy from tejas

2009-03-24T17:41:00.000-05:00

I uploaded some photos of my beautiful feathered friends to http://goldencheekedwarbler-research.blogspot.com. As of today, I have banded 34 golden-cheeked warblers (36 banded total). We are doing great and I'm in warbler heaven. Hope it continues.

Hornady Mach 2 explosion

2009-03-23T19:10:00.004-05:00

I am posting this jut to upload to rimfirecentral.com

Another nice weekend

2009-03-22T14:18:00.005-05:00

This weekend turned out to be really nice, highs in the low 70s, the weather had called for a good chance of scattered showers but that never came to fruition. Saturday I took the nice weather as an opportunity to get some yard work done. I trimmed back all the dead scrub from our prairie gardens and hauled it, off. I also tilled the vegetable garden (by hand). Sunday I got up early and headed to Chris Locke's for a long easy ride, we then met up with Sarah, Dan Gierer and Dave Wathan. I ended up getting in about 75 miles in, mostly easy miles but I was able to get about 30 miles by myself where I pushed the pace on a hilly route. My knee was still bothering me but not the extent it has lately. After I got home and ate, I went to Lowes to buy some peat moss to add some organic material to the garden,

I also picked up a couple more bushes and planted them between the garden and the compost pile.

Now the entire back yard is bordered by bushes, I don't know where I am going to keep planting stuff, I am pretty much out of space.

I can tell that Spring if FINALLY here. Lately I have been seeing the robins fighting for their territories and they have started singing way before dawn to try to lure in some ladies. The male cardinals are sticking super close to their females, I have been seeing a pair around my deck, last year we had cardinals nest in the bushes right on the rail of my deck, unfortueately a stray cat killed her (I think) and broke all of her eggs. Today during my rides, I saw a group of three small flycatchers, a few turkey vultures and a group of double crested comorants. I keep seeing juncos flying around, but I gotta belive they will be gone soon. Several of my bushes are showing signs of life and soon I will have to begin mowing again.

Getting into the groove, again....

2009-03-19T21:22:00.002-05:00

This week has been pretty good for getting back into cycling. I had basically 1 ride in 4 weeks until this past Sunday. Tuesday was the regular group ride, we hit a hilly route with Curt Shelman and Dan Jordan pushing the pace. I could stay pretty close in the hills but I didn't have that extra gear on the hills like I usually have. Towards the end my right knee cap was hurting badly so I limped back home to Liberty in the dark by myself. Thursday night I joined the wheel group and did intervals at the downtown airport, it was a hard work. I ended up staying with Dan and Curt, we took turns pulling at full effort for 1minute intervals, there was basically no rest, since I had Dan pulling after me I struggled to just to get back in line. I ended up with over 30 minutes straight at over 185bpm heart rate. My knee was hurting towards the end, I plan on taking this weekend easy, hopefully I will be ready for the Oauchita Challenge in a few weeks.

Stuff

2009-03-16T19:51:00.006-05:00

Okay since Jenn is giving me the business about not posting, Iwill take time out of my busy life to post a couple of sentences. Jenn is in Austin and banding her beloved Golden Cheeked Warlbers. She started her own research blog, check it out, sounds like she has banded 5 males in her first two outings.

I haven't done much but veg out the last 3 weeks. I felt like crap a few weeks ago, probably a mix between slight illness and overtraining somehow 1 week turned into three and I finally got out yesterday. I rode around 65 miles on Sunday with Chris, Caryolnn, Sarah, Dave W and Sarah's friend, it was mostly easy but my legs were really feeling it today so I just did about 45 minutes easy. I hope I can sit in and still hang with the fast guys tomorrow at my first offical group training ride with the Tuesday night crowd. I wonder exactly how much fitness you loose in 3 weeks of inactivity.

We had alot of rain this past week, the rivers are up and I wanted to get some kayaking in. I was able to get my first kayak trip of the season in last week, the weather was threatening rain in the 50 degree weather so I ended up paddling like a madman. I hit the Platte river for a quick 1 hour run.

The cats are fine Jenn, don't worry about them, worry about me, they are a constant handful, here is a pic of them watching the birds on the feeders.

update

2009-03-15T18:46:00.002-05:00

Check out the latest happenings of field life at goldencheekedwarbler-research.blogspot.com. Can't wait to read about RC's return to the bike today and see pics of the kitties!

Snow for Jenn

2009-02-28T13:45:00.002-06:00

Jenn left for Austin TX yesterday for work, she'll be gone for 2-3 months. Temps in Austin yesterday were over 90 degrees. Today I woke up to 6-8 inches of snow, here are you pics Jenn.

snowy owl

2009-02-26T13:49:00.002-06:00

So I finally made the trek to Breckenridge, MO to see the Snowy Owl who has been hanging around the last couple weeks. Wow - it was a beauty. She was right by the road too so I got lots of pics. I need to really learn my camera though cause the settings weren't right and the dark lighting from a stormy sky did not do the owl justice. Oh so pretty!

last update of Feb

2009-02-25T14:39:00.004-06:00

Well I have been pretty busy lately. When I had finally lost hope of getting my permit to band Golden-cheeked Warblers this season, the permit was issued! So I am the proud and nervous holder of a banding permit. With that responsibility came a flood of additional to-dos for federal and state permits and equipment ordering and getting equipment organized. Plus I have been wrapping up work here in MO.

That includes a site visit to Ha Ha Tonka and Lake of the Ozarks state parks last week. Both were nice and I made some contacts. All my techs are hired and sites chosen so the 2nd field season is coming along great.

Jack and Tiger are doing great and looking forward to the spring when the windows are always open! Tiger is a she-devil but sweet as can be. Jack is crabbier than usual this week - I think he is jealous of his little sis - and has been picking on Tiger the last few days. Randy will definitely have his hands full being a single 'dad' for the next few months.

I'm off to Austin at the end of the week, so my next blog will likely be from there.

Here's a cute pic of the 'bears' snuggling:

winter green

2009-02-25T13:10:00.004-06:00

Well, one year later and we finally painted the downstairs living room! The picture of the new sage isn't the best due to lighting, but it is a very pretty color. We're done until next winter!

old blah color

new soothing color

4 Counties Nocturnal Gravel Grind

2009-02-13T20:52:00.005-06:00

I had a great ride on Tuesday, got in about 2 hours on a great night and my legs felt the best that they had in about 8 months. During the ride while exploring some new roads I ran into about 5 miles of gravel on my road bike, I also ended up getting home 45 minutes after sunset. I had such a good time I decided that I wanted to do a night time gravel ride on Thursday and so I invited a few people including the one person that is just crazy enough to try it with me, Chris Locke, I picked out a 35 mile ride that included about 80-90% gravel roads north of Smithville Lake . I met Chris at 5:30 PM at a balmy temp of 45 degrees in the Smokin' Davey trail head, I realized as I was getting ready in the parking lot that I had forgotten the map even though I took meticulous care to pack extra tools, food and water, this was not great since I hadn't been on several roads that we would be traveling. The route covered four counties, started in Clay, then Clinton, Platte, Buchanan, Platte, Clinton and finally finished in Clay. You could almost tell when a county would start by the newly dumped gravel on the roads, several spots had 2"+ of new gravel which made it feel like climbing a gravel pile instead of a back road hill. As we rode through the night, you could count the number of cars on your fingers we saw in the 2+ hours we rode, including one that passed us that must have had a monster joint fired up, since they left a trail of smoke that should have us testing positive for the near future. As we returned to the car the temp really started to drop and we were both getting cold. In the end it was a hell of a workout and I can't wait to do it again. It was a nice change to winter training in the cold midwest.

Weekend in Review

2009-02-08T17:58:00.002-06:00

It seems like the seasons are struggling against each other, last week we had below zero temps only to have 70+ degrees on Fri and Sat. I can remember riding at Smithville trails Wednesday after the sun went down and having to stop early because the 20 degree temp was just too cold for my dress. Then on my day off from riding Friday, we had the 100+ year record tying 70 degree day, winter just wouldn't give in totally and hit us with some 30+ mph winds just to remind us that it ain't over yet. I got up early on Sat and rode 4.5 hours with Dan and the Wheel Cyclery guys, got in about 80 miles, mixed group so the pace varied a bit, in the end it was a nice ride and I was pleasantly tired for the remainder of the day. Jenn and I went for lunch at McCormick and Schmicks, I had the blackened Mako shark, it is just unbelievable if you haven't had it. We enjoyed the sun on the plaza as we sipped a few beers and wine on the deck and we watched all the people stroll by on the Plaza. Sunday morning I awoke early and realized that it was in 20s again, too cold for an early morning ride so I started doing chores, I finally decided to go on an easy recon ride, my name for a ride where I just set off and go exploring. I ended up taking it really easy, exploring some new roads, finding some nice WT shantys and even a new town, Glendale. After the ride, Jenn made her great homemade pizza for lunch and I headed to meet my friend Jason for some skeet shooting. All and all a nice relaxing weekend, lots of rest and ready for the week ahead, looking forward to next weekend!

bikes and birds

2009-02-08T16:39:00.002-06:00

We experienced a 3 day warm-up - FINALLY! It was 65 Thurs and up to 70 degrees Fri and Sat. I met RC out at the trails Thurs to ride with him - but I forgot that the last time I had biked he had put on my reg. pedals to do some birding by biking and hadn't changed me back to my clipless pedals - uhoh. So he continued on and I went home. But RC got my bike spruced up that night and I went out to Stocksdale Park Fri. It was deliciously warm, but also woefully windy. It took me 40-45 mins to do a full lap and another main loop only lap - usually I can do 3 laps in 45-50 mins. The wind was a real drag - literally. The were a few slick spots along the way which weighed me down. I barely made it back across the grassy field biking straight into a 30+ mph headwind. Fun but exhausting.

Yesterday RC went on a 4 hr bike ride so I went over to Martha Lafite Thompson Sanctuary. It was not very windy but there was a lack of activity. I got also the commonest of the common despite walking all the trails. Still a beautiful day to be out hiking!

and then there were four - Introducing Tiger

2009-02-08T15:37:00.005-06:00

We picked Tiger up from her boarding home last Friday (Jan 30) and brought her home. She has been with us a week now, so it seems to be an appropriate time to introduce her to you. She is a wild child and a sweetheart. Since day one, she has has sleeping between our heads (she also has a bad habit of walking across us, including our faces, during the night, but she's so light we barely notice). She also swats at Jack's tail, chases the laser like a madwoman, jumps into the plants and throws dirt on the carpet, leaps from the floor to the speaker and through the rails to the 2nd floor, follows us around like a puppy, eats like she may never see food again, and is so cute she charms the socks on anyone who meets her. Tiger is a good companion for old man Jack, and Jack is a good brother, toelrating her nonsense! They are already playing together, and Friday they even slept together in the papasan:

PS Today is the 2 month anniversary since Snowball's passing - we miss you boo.

Nice Winter training Weekend

2009-02-02T17:38:00.005-06:00

This weekend it was an unseasonably warm 60 degree day on Saturday. I set out to meet up with a group at the usual Northland Tuesday route. I left from my house about 1 hour early to make the 18 mile trek to the ride start, I intended of making it a 3 hour 55 mile road ride. Off the bat the 18 very hilly miles were straight into a super strong headwind and I got smoked prior to the start after barely making it on time, most were late and then the group threw a wrench into my plans and we did the route backwards which meant that I was in store for about 75 miles instead. A good group showed up, the Wheel Cyclery boys, Team Chamois Butt'r and a few Cowtowners. The group had some different levels of fitness so it started out and remained fairly calm for this group for most of the ride until we hit a monster hill, I purposely lagged back (not that I could've hung with the 5 that broke away) because I knew I had at least 25 miles left. I ended up about 15 seconds behind the main group at the top of the hill with nobody behind me for some distance, I tried to bridge up for about 6 miles but the neverending stiff headwind meant that since I was stuck in no mans land by myself I wouldn't catch the group (Ryan Halloran, Curt Shelman, Dan Jordan, Fred Herron and some guy I don't know) until they stopped for a minute to let me back on. I ended up riding back to Liberty the shorter way with the Wheel guys so I ended up with 72 miles in about 4 hours. Not bad workout for early season. Sunday I got up and tried to drag Jenn to the Smithville trails, she declined and decided to just go birding instead. Chris called and gave me a heads up that only the west side was dry so I made up my own route riding the same trails about 5 times over. I was surprised but my legs felt good after the prior days ride. I ended up with about 1.5 hours. Jenn and I spent the remainder of the day at home with the new kitten, I bottled my new Boulevard Beer Clone and vegged out the rest of the day. BTW I think I finally got a BLVD Wheat recipe that tastes just like the real thing, I will post the results and recipe after I get a good taste. I'll stop rambling now, I told Jenn I would make a cat scratching post/perch so I better get back to work. Adios.

Getting Back Into the Groove

2009-01-26T16:25:00.006-06:00

I am about finished with my first month of riding after taking around 8 months off completely. My legs are coming around slowly and I still need to shed about 10 lbs of flab off my body. Most group rides I have had a hard time keeping up the entire ride, most everyone is in pretty good shape after cross season and my top end just isn't there. I have decided on a few races this year and I think my focus will be on longer races. I am planning on doing the 6 hour solo at the Bonebender this will mainly be a training race for me, I plan on just surviving it at this point. My first real challenge will be at the Ouachita Challenge 60 mile race through the Arkansas Ozarks. I sumbitted my entry for the Leadville 100 I think I am crazy for entering this event but this will be a huge challenge that will pretty much cap off my season, my team mate Chris Locke signed up with me, hopefully (or maybe not!) we get drawn in. For the next month I hope to up the volume gradually and try to keep from back to back hard rides, which has been a challenge unless I ride by myself.

first post of the new year

2009-01-15T17:21:00.007-06:00

First off, Jack is doing fantastic - he is vibrant and healthy and has put some weight on those sagging bones. Now that he is feeling better, we are really starting to see Jack's personality- and he has a lot of it! He is a pretty funny character. In other feline news, I coaxed an abandoned kitten out of the woods of a state park a couple weeks ago. She is super sweet and adorable. She is currently staying with R's sister, who also has 2 other kittens for Tiger to play with, because of Jack's distemper and the contamination of the house. After her 2nd round of vaccinations, we plan on brining her home and testing her out with Jack, who is very needy for attention and would probably do well with a rambunctious friend.

Tiger en route to his new temporary home

Secondly, the weather here has been atrocious, so I haven't ventured out as much as I'd hoped. But I did swing by Eagle Bluffs CA on Tuesday where I picked up 4 Savanna and 1 Vesper Sparrows! Plus a few others for my Jan list.

The last couple days have been a whirlwind. I went to St Louis with my boss for my 1st professional meeting with project collaborators. It was quite the learning experience. I met people I only knew through e-mails, so I got to do some networking. Our efforts are to provide a recommended point count protocol and to get multiple state and federal agencies to adopt it - not an easy task!

In other news, I am officially off to Austin for Golden-cheeked Warbler monitoring in March. I'll only be there through early May becuase I am headlining the woodland restoration project here in MO starting in mid-May.

Adios for now!

Last Ride of 2008

2008-12-31T18:51:00.003-06:00

2008 was a bad year for me and bikes, I was in awesome shape early in the year but by mid-April I was off the bike for basically the remainder of '08, my old job @ GM, took up 10+ hours a day, I was very unhappy with my job and I couldn't get motivated to do much of anything. I am hoping next year will be alot better, I should be able to work less hours at my new job with ATK. I do have a plan to have more fun riding and not take it too seriously, I really enjoy riding when I don't have to worry about training. For now until spring I have basically committed to riding only 2 to 3 times a week and enjoying the scenery.

Today I went to Smithville lake to ride the paved trails on my cross bike, I wanted to get a ride in because I abuse my body most evenings on New Year's Eve and I don't feel like riding too much on Jan 1st. I ended up taking it easy and rode for about 1hr 45mins, I probably only covered about 30 miles. The temp was about 28 degrees when I started and was still under 30 when I stopped, it was cold but sunny and it is always nice to have the park basically to yourself. I wish I had some nice weather like Chris http://chrislocke.blogspot.com/2008/12/beaches-and-bikes.html, but I guess I have to take what I can get.

Happy New Year!!!

Smithville Lake birding

2008-12-29T18:29:00.003-06:00

Randy and I participated in the Trimble Christmas Bird Count (covers Smithville Lake) this past Friday. This is our 2nd year to do this CBC and the 1st time I have ever been the leader of my section (and I've done a lot of CBC's)!!! We had a great time - record high of 67 degrees, moderate winds (much better than I foresaw), and overcast skies. Still our section of water was shallow and remained frozen over, so we struck out on waterfowl. Despite plenty of ag fields, we also struck out on blackbirds (except red-wingeds). And despite lots of great sparrow spots, we failed to find any thing 'good' - mostly just lots of tree sparrows and juncos. We did come up with 7 Harris's sparrows, which was awesome. We also had a hermit thrush and brown thrasher. But the bird of the day was long-eared owl, heard briefly responding to our owl tape playing on my Sansa through 2 portable speakers (my Christmas present!) and later seen briefly as RC flushed it from some pines. Not the way to get a lifer as Randy would say.

And BTW, did I mention we got great looks at a Snowy Owl last Monday at Smithville Lake. That is Randy's 2nd and my 3rd. A fine bird to add to my 2008 list. woo-woo

My New Year's resolution is to bird more and do a better job at record-keeping!

just Jack

2008-12-29T18:06:00.003-06:00

Jack is doing great - he gets healthier every day! Now that he is perking up and acting like himself, he resumed more typical cat behavior, such as scratching. We had bought him scratch mats, because his first few days here he demonstrated a preference for carpets. That turned out to be a side-product of his illness though. Since feeling better, he has taken to scratching both horizontally on the carpets and vertically on our beautiful comforter! He uses his mats - when he feels like it! But he has no qualms about tearing at whatever he is closest to, and we won't even discuss the kneading on the lap. After some investigating, we discovered Soft Paws - nail caps for cats. I trimmed Jack's nails and placed all 10 caps on presto. It took a couple minutes and Jack has been totally fine with them. He has been wearing his 'nails' for several days and we have seen no problems. He continues his normal scratching behavior, but now when he tugs at the carpet, no carpet pieces go flying up in the air.

Check them out:

introducing Jack

2008-12-24T12:36:00.007-06:00

While grieving for Snowball the week after his passing, Randy and I stumbled upon Jack. I enjoyed seeing pics of him because he reminded me of Snowball and in some odd way it comforted me to see his picture. Besides just looking like Snowball, Jack is Snowball's age - it was fate! We met him at the shelter and knew immediately we wanted to take him home.

In a strange twist of fate, Jack got very ill the following Wednesday, only 4 days after we brought him home, and was diagnosed with feline distemper the next day. Distemper is highly contagious and usually fatal. It is very rare for a vaccinated adult cat to contract this virus. In fact, the shelter vet had never encountered this situation before. Jack had been vaccinated on Halloween, the day he arrived at the shelter, and we adopted him 6 weeks later. I can only guess that the vaccine didn't take because he was not healthy when he was brought in (which we know).

The vet sent me home with fluids, meds, and AD (special wet food for recovering dogs and cats) and wished me luck. The next 3 days were tough. I administered his oral and SQ meds, and gave him fluids. I started force-feeding him AD through a syringe over the weekend. By Monday he showed signs of improvement. Yesterday he started really eating on his own and finally he is drinking on his again.

We are starting to see Jack's personality finally. He actually got quite playful last night and chased around a twistie-tie (also one of Snowball's favorite games). He likes to follow us around and is even running up and down stairs and around the house. He is really claiming us and Snowball's things and loved his new home.

When we initially adopted Jack we knew we were likely saving him because very few older cats get adopted. Little did we know we were really saving his life. Had he gotten these symptoms in the shelter, they would have been forced to put him down because of how contagious the virus is, especially for kittens.

Snowball's tragic passing enabled this cat to live. We will always miss Snowball, but everyday I get to see some of Snowball in Jack, which brings me some peace. Welcome to our family Jack!

PS His story is on http://blog.ourdoglog.com/search/label/adoption%20stories

Jenn and Eggnog (Jack)

2008-12-20T17:54:00.015-06:00

For those of you who don't know, we adopted an older cat just about a week after snowball passed. The cat looked exactly like snowball and he was the exact same age, one month over 10 yrs, well that is what the shelter put him as at least. So we brought the guy home and he followed us everywhere and seemed to love having a loving home.

I should take a step back, his shelter name was Eggnog and Jenn especially felt guilty looking for a cat after Snowbs passed. We found his pic online and decided to just pay a visit to see if we would be compatible. Jenn must have looked at his pic online about 100x, when we got to the place we said to each other that we wouldn't bring him home unless he was special. When we walked into the cat wing of the shelter, we saw that the old man (that's what we call him) had his own penthouse right beside the entry way door, he had a 6'x8' kitty condo as far as shelters go. We had one immediate concern, that he was not in the enclosure. We couldn't believe it but the cat must have already gotten adopted. Well we were wrong, we found that the weasel had gotten out and overtaken another cat's kennel. When we finally found him sleeping, we found that he immediately responded to us, he purred and he continually put his head under our hand when we stopped petting him. Jenn right away knew we were taking him home. As Jenn left to find the shelter people, I decided to test the new cat. I got up and slowly walked way. Just as I hoped, this guy got up and followed me down the hall. I knew as well, we were taking this guy home. Just a note, Eggnog has the crappiest meow that I have ever heard - if you can imagine a full size adult male cat meowing as a little kitten with a chest cold, this is what he sounds like, we thought it was adorable...... but it could have been a sign.

We brought him home and were so happy with him. He ran after us when we walked away, he slept on the foot of the bed (as Snowball did), and he walked very gingerly showing his old man age. From what I have heard, a ten year old cat is equivalent to a 65 yr old man, that is how this guy was acting.

Well fast forward a couple of days, we noticed that "Jack", our new name for this guy, was very lethargic, he wanted to sleep and wouldn't follow us around the house. Finally one morning we woke up and we found that he had very bad diarrhea and he vomited several times. Over a series of vet visits we found out that this old cat had contracted feline distemper, despite being vaccinated when he entered the shelter on Halloween. His prognosis is still very bad, and we were not given alot of hope. Wayside Waifs (http://www.waysidewaifs.org/) helped us out alot and gave us all the meds that we would need to give him a shot. Jenn has previously done animal (wild) rehab and knows the ins and outs of a syringe. At this time Jack's room resembles an ICU, Jenn has a medical chart and she is attending to him at all hours. We are hopeful that this little guy can make it through. The shelter basically told us that if we wouldn't have adopted him, he would have been put down, maybe it was fate that Snowbs passed and gave this guy a possible life. To this minute, Jack is struggling, he won't eat unless Jenn forces food down his throat via a syringe, he is only getting fluids by injection under the skin. From our online research, cats that make it 5 days, have a good chance of making it. It is now day 4 and we hope that the little bear can keep on. We are giving him constant companionship and love. If nothing else this little bear has at least a home. We hope he can pull through, we are doing all we can. Jenn is unbelievable, getting up at all hours to attend to Jack.....

Yard Cam

2008-12-14T08:50:00.007-06:00

I recently bought a game camera to help with scouting for deer season. Since it is so late in the season I decided to put the camera on the deck to catch all the critters that move through our place when we aren't looking. Hopefully we find something besides cats, the camera even caught me taking the compost out. You'll have to click on the pics to see the guys I caught in the yard.

In memory of Snowball (Oct 1998-Dec 8, 2008)

2008-12-10T07:08:00.009-06:00

Monday was the worst day of my life. Tuesday was the second worst. Today is starting off pretty hard. Life post-Snowball is lonely. But I want to share his final day. Monday morning he crawled to my side and sat. Then he got up and crawled to his spot at the foot of the bed. I immediately knew something was wrong - this behavior was strange. I got up out of bed and he jumped off too. Then he slinked into the hallway. He started the ugly head bob that indicates he is about to throw up. So I quickly slipped a towel under him. And waited. But he didn't throw up. He laid on the towel. I continued watching him and sitting with him wondering what could be wrong - did he eat something bad and have a tummy ache? Then he did something really strange - he threw his back legs from under him and laid on his side in a weird position. At this point it clicked that something was wrong with his hind legs. I closed the bedroom and bathroom doors so he couldn't hide from me and ran downstairs to get his carrier. When I returned he was still sitting in that same pathetic way, and only protested a little when I forced him into his carrier. (Snowball hated that thing with a passion and usually resisted going into it vehemently.) I raced to the vet and demanded emergency vet care. The vet (who was not his usual vet) checked his pulse in many places. She felt no pulse in either back leg and said his back legs were getting cold. By this time, Snowball was howling in pain and stress from being there. She diagnosed him with saddle thrombus - an extremely serious condition. Saddle thrombus is a blood clot resulting from congestive heart disease that restricts blood from getting to his hind legs. It is a very painful condition and recovery is highly unlikely. The only options were devastating - put him down or rush him to the animal hospital in KC. At the animal hospital, they would try to restore blood flow to his back legs, but he would be paralyzed. Through intense therapy and daily medication, he may recover some function in those legs within 6 weeks - if he lived through surgery, which many cats don't. Then he would spend his remaining days on medication (Snowball, like his mother, is not a good patient), just to suffer from another episode within months. In later research on this condition, I could find no instance of a cat living past 1 year; most die or are put down much sooner than that. Snowball and I stayed in the examination room waiting for Randy to arrive from work. During that time, Snowball's condition got noticeably worse. He had dragged himself back to his carrier while the vet and vet tech were still present, which was so pitiful and sad knowing how much he despised his carrier. I tried to comfort him in his carrier, but he kept trying to find a comfortable position and cried at my touch. Finally Randy arrived and spoke with the vet. We decided to take Snowball to another vet for a second opinion. Wes recommended the vet she had spoken with about her cat's medical condition and who she really liked. Once there, we discovered 'her' vet was Snowball's vet - she had, unbeknowst to me, moved to a new clinic. She gave us the same unfortunate diagnosis and prognosis. She remembered Snowball and was very caring and gentle and she was noticeably upset giving us the bad news. It comforted me to know Snowball's vet was there, and to see how much it pained her telling me to best option was putting him down. By this time, Snowball's legs were cold to my touch and his paws were turning blue. He winced in pain when we touched his back half. I didn't know what else to do, seeing my little angel in so much pain, and being told that the medical options were extremely unsuccessful. Randy and I decided to let him go. We held him and kissed him as the vet gave him the sedative. He kept looking in my eyes and fighting for me. The vet returned several minutes later surprised to see Snowball still awake. He continued to growl at her touch (but not mine and Randy's) and she administered another dose. I moved behind him so he wouldn't see me. It took a long time, and when he finally fell asleep, his eyes were open. We held him til he was gone and kissed him goodbye. We brought him home and Randy built him a coffin and dug him a grave in the back yard where he loved to look out at the birds. We buried him in his blankie and a sock (he loved to play with socks), and placed some rocks around his grave for now.

Snowball has been my baby and light of my life for 10 wonderful years. He tolerated me traveling all over the country and the world, bringing him when I could and waiting (impatiently!) for me when I couldn't. It took us a long time to find him a real home. He moved in with Randy long before I did, and he claimed this house, and let Randy know it, as his own right away. Snowball's full personality really developed after he moved here - a full 6 1/2 years into life. He had seasonal modes here - he switched to his winter mode last month. His habits and favorite spots changed when he switched from summer to winter mode. I had recently thrown a comforter over the papasan in the office, and he had taken to laying on it beside me while I worked. He loved basking in the sunlight and moved with the sunny spots as they moved during the day. He loved when Randy or me 'chi-chi'ed him up the stairs at night to go to bed. He usually ate one last time and then he would jump up on Randy's side and walk across him to my side, almost without fail. Sometimes he would walk up to my face and demand more pets (by firmly pressing his face against my hand) before he retired to his spot at the foot of bed, just beyond my foot. But sometimes he would plop down right beside me, forcing me to sleep more in the middle! Every night while Randy and I were watching TV downstairs, Snowball would be looking out the sliding door in the kitchen. We'd hear the swishing of the vertical blinds and Randy would say 'Did you hear that? What was that?' And then Snowball would come look down through the bars that divide the kitchen and den (split-level home) - I called it kitty jail - cause he would put his face close to the bars and it looked like he was imprisoned. Then he would gingerly step down the stairs, investigate the little entryway to the garage, meander into the den, sniff around one spot, and plop down. He would rub and rub all over this spot, and eventually he would leap up and race up the stairs like a bat out of hell. And Randy would say "what was that?!' while I just laughed. Sometimes during these little episodes he would let out a loud wreouw. Snowball had a full and intricate language, with a different meow for his every whim. And he even had a bark, recently developed for Randy when he got up in the morning and started moving around and turning closet lights on. He was saying 'come on dad - can't you see we're trying to sleep'. It was so super cute. Randy would respond 'Can I help you sir? Excuse me, can I help you?' And Snowball usually replied with another bark. During the past year, Snowball developed a little snore. We usually only heard it on those rare nights when he fell asleep in his night bed (on the floor beside Randy). But every now and then, we'd catch him snoring on the bed too. It was a soft quiet barely audible snore that I adored. Sometimes he would get up with Randy in the morning and run around, but he always was right there snuggled in his spot when I woke up an hour plus later. He typically waited for me to officially get out of bed before he would jump off and we'd start our day. Sometimes I took too long and he would walk up to me and nudge me to get up. But he never left me in bed alone. From there we spent our days together in the house, but not always in the same room. He often enjoyed his mornings in the living room, either in his day bed or sitting in grandpa's chair looking out the big window. Eventually, he would come upstairs and bug me to pet him before settling in for an afternoon nap in the papasan beside me. He'd stay there until I left for the gym. He usually greeted Randy at the top of the stairs when he returned, meowing furtively and acting like he had been alone for so long (so dramatic). But really he just wanted daddy to get him his 'greenies' (our name for any treat). I liked to wait til Randy got home and they'd go get his greenies together. All we had to say was 'greenies, chi-chi, greenies' in a high voice and in a flash, Snowball was there purring and meowing. This was pretty much the only way to rouse him from a dead sleep too, or get him out if he was under the bed. We sometimes liked to tease him and stand in the hallway, instead of going in his room. He would have none of that. He would meow at us from the doorway or walk down to our hiding places (inside the doorways off the hallway) and look up at us, meow, and run back to his doorway. He did this until we relented and gave him his greenies. Snowball was very protective of his room, which was really the guest bathroom, but we always called it his room, cause, well, it was his room. And you couldn't enter it without Snowball. No matter where he was in the house, somehow he just knew if you had entered his room and within seconds he'd come flying through, cock his head and say 'meow' (translation - what's going on guys?). If you shut him out of his room, he's stand right outside of it waiting for you to come out. He didn't come in my bathroom with me while I was in the shower, but usually, when I exited the bathroom I would see my Boo standing right there waiting for me. On those occasions when I took a bath, he would push the door open (yes, he forced his way in) and come in and stand up against the tub to see what mom was doing ('ew, that's wet, I think I'll wait outside'). His favorite games were not toys - oh no, he was not one for those cat toys, and Randy only got a reaction from him to the laser on his last night, but he was one for more involved games. He loved loved loved peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek games, chasing each other around the couch and hiding under Phil the plant, and around corners. And Randy and I always liked to see if we could 'get him'. When he was not apparently paying attention to us and looking away, we tried our best to sneak up on him and poke him. If we made the poke before he caught us ('meow') - we got him. If he meowed at us first, he got us. He usually got us. He also loved to play with the laundry. He always came in the bedroom with me while I was folding and lounged on the neatly folded towels, and batted around socks - I would hold them in front of him and he would jump up and try to get them from me. Randy and I called it 'playing socks'.

On weekends, Randy liked to keep him active and awake. And Snowball loved it. But he was a cat, and as such, still liked to sleep. Randy and I were so amused when we'd see him sitting up looking at us after breakfast, with those droopy eyes, fighting to stay awake, but falling asleep. After all, staying awake 2 whole hrs after a full night's rest is so hard for a little boo. When he woke up from his slumbers, he would look around with his 'blinkity-blinkity' eyes. Randy and I would usually spend a couple hrs in the office and Snowball made sure to always join us. Often I would curl up in the papasan while Randy paid his bills and balanced his accounts, and Snowball would jump up on top of me. We enjoyed our weekend routine. Recently, he discovered another white cat outside the windows at night. He would poke his head through the blinds and see his reflection. Not understanding what he saw, he would move around, switch windows (we have 3 in a row with a ledge running beneath it), and climb the glass, his little ears pointing forward in perplexity. I don't think he ever did figure it out. But don't think he wasn't sharp - he knew all his names. Randy and I had many many nicknames for him, most variations on boo and bear (and boobear). It always amazed me that a cat responded not just to his name, but that he grasped his other names - what a smart boy. The best years of his life were spent here at this house and these past months have been Snowball's dream - he in his house, and me working from home, we were together all the time. Our family had developed so many routines, and I expected to see Snowball enjoying his life for so many more years.

Snowball was a loving, complicated, strong, stubborn, unique, charming, quirky, delightful, loyal cat who depended so completely on his mama bear and whose mama bear depended so completely on him. It gives me some comfort that he had his mommy and daddy with him as he passed, and to know that every day of his life he was healthy and pain-free up to the last day. But his absence leaves an unbearbale void in our lives and our home, and memories and pictures aren't enough to heal a broken heart. Since Randy and I met almost 4 1/2 years ago, Snowball has been part of my memory of this house, because I always brought him with me when we visited and then Randy invited him to move in. I hope somehow he knows how much he is missed. Snowball will forever be mama's little bear.

To learn more about the horrible disease that cut his beautiful life short, click here http://blog.ourdoglog.com/2008/03/fritzs-diagnosis-saddle-thrombus.html

silly snowball

2008-12-09T10:04:00.004-06:00

I am just too sad right now to write, but I wanted to put up a couple pictures of my baby.