Everglades City Day Trip

Mike's day off, he looks over at me and says, "How about we drive to Everglades City and get some lunch?" I'm in!

It's pretty much a straight shot down Hwy 29. There are canals all along one side of the highway and we had our eye out for gators. We saw lots.

We drove all the way to the Everglades National Park. Just a tourist trap to get you to ride their boats through the bay waters. Pretty busy this time of year.

We did a little wandering around the area hoping to see something interesting. Found this dead sting ray. Ick!

Time for lunch so we stopped at a restaurant called City Seafood. It has outdoor seating facing the water and you can watch the air boats coming and going. 

Lunch was good. I had the shrimp basket and Mike had a burger and fries and this seagull watched us, patiently waiting for us to drop some food.

There's always a pelican around. 

Not much to see here so we headed back out Hwy 29 looking for a likely spot to see something a bit more "everglades-ish."

We found a dirt road leading into the Big Cypress National Preserve. As always there's a canal running along beside the road. We stopped at several likely spots and carefully took a peek behind the brush. Beautiful spot!

The birds are all over doing their fishing.

Anhinga.

Mike found this big old painted turtle alongside the road. As soon as he picked it up it peed all over him. I mean, it gushed about a gallon of pee on him. LOL! 

We also stopped at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Rescue. They have hiking trails and it was beautiful. Here's a bromeliad in bloom. These were everywhere.

There are fences all along the highway in this area and we were trying to decide if that was to keep the panthers in or to keep the people out. But when we were walking along inside on this trail we kept hearing something rustling along beside us in the woods....

All we saw were lizards, though.

Back on the highway headed home we spotted this huge alligator by the road. We stopped because we had to get a closer look.

This guy had to be at least 12 to 13 feet long. Wow!

I should have counted the gators we saw on the way back. There had to be at least a hundred. We stopped here and there to take a look and I found these snail shells. 

That's some huge snails!

A nice lunch, a nice drive, beautiful weather, good gator hunting. 

What more could you ask for?

Eddie Money in Concert

As you all know I don't get out much so it was great when I found out that Eddie Money was going to be at Six Bends Harley Davidson for a concert. Hm, I know somebody who can get me tickets! LOL!

It was a lot of fun. 

So as the sun went down we made our way into Top Rocker Field and found us a spot to set up our chairs and check out the surroundings. This was an event called Jazz on the Green but they didn't allow anyone to bring in any coolers or food or drinks. WTH do you think "on the green" means?

But it's alright, we managed. Here's Mike and some of his friends from work.

They had 3 other jazz bands playing while we were schmoozing around and before long the real concert began.

They threw out t-shirts to start the show. I made a diving catch... awesome... but it was only a BobFM shirt not one from Eddie Money.  :-(

Eddie was only on for about an hour and 15 minutes but he put on a great show. He played all the hits and more.

He's quite the character!

Hey, Mike!

Blowing the sax.

The end of the show...

Afterwards they set up a tent and Eddie came out and signed those high dollar T-shirts.

We casually sat not 5 feet from him and watched. At one point Eddie looked up at me and said, "Hey, baby."  AWESOME!

Time to call it a night. I hope 6 Bends has more concerts like this.

I've found it very hard to take decent video of a rock concert when you are 3 people back from the stage and being jostled around. Well, not to mention I was busy bouncing around myself. Anyway here's some clips from my video. Warning, it sucks and the audio is horrible.

Click Here!!!!

I Heart Little Rock

I got the call that my mother was headed to the Heart Hospital in Little Rock so since I hadn't been home in a long time I figured it was about time. Last minute trips are expensive and no fun at all but I bought my plane tickets, rented a car, packed my bags and took off.

Now I'm not going to get into Mom's condition and illness here, just know that she's alright now and in good hands. I spent almost a full week with her in the hospital and when it got to be a little too much I grabbed my camera and headed out to take a few pics.

It was COLD!!! And this Florida girl was not happy. I went out early one morning to try and snap a few pictures nearby. There's not a lot of content in the middle of Little Rock but I did my best to try to find something interesting to look at.

Here's the heli-pad, early morning.

LOL, I'm trying to find the humor here, guys!

Interesting shot... beautiful, yet stark.

Ah, the money shot. 

The wall...

Finally Mom was released. I said good bye to my little chair bed and started the long trip back home.

Home AGAIN. 

Red Ear has grown a funky hair-do.

Back to my flowers...

And  back to my palm trees and warm weather. I really missed this.

It's good to be home.

Textures (or lack of real content)

Sometimes I run out of interesting things to take pictures of so instead I took close-ups of uninteresting things.

Click on the pictures to for a larger more interesting version. You will be able to see more detail.

Mold growing on an old barrel

Merry Christmas from Low Roller Acres

Christmastime in Florida is a little different. 

You'll see...

Mike put up the tree this year. WTH!?

Vultures and the Crested Caracara

We get lots of vultures here at Low Roller Acres. They are some ugly birds and they come in several different varieties. We got your black vultures and your turkey vultures and some that are mix of something in between.

Vultures can look really mean, too but mostly they'll just fly away if you get too close.

I'm an idiot, but it's OK...

     We all do stupid things. Me, most recently. I downloaded something I really, REALLY shouldn't have. I know better, I'm a tech for chrissakes! I tried everything I knew to fix it but it just wasn't working. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I got several messages from my credit card company. 

Creepy Crawlies

I knew I had another bug post just waiting. What's a better time for the Creepy Crawlies than Halloween.

Butterfly Love....

Well, not so creepy...

Hot Flashes and Cool Weather

I feel terrific today! 

After so many restless, sleepless nights fighting with the hot flashes I think I have found what works for me. It's the Black Cohosh, suggested to me by many of my Facebook friends. I take one a day and although I sometimes have a flash or two, they are not nearly as often nor as intense.  

I got a lot of suggestions also about the use of Melatonin  and Sleepy Time Tea. Thanks to my friend next door, who kindly slipped some into my mailbox for me to try, I can say that neither are for me. 

I took the Melatonin for 4 nights straight. I couldn't tell that it did anything for me, good, bad, or indifferent. I also brewed up some of that Sleepy Time Tea. I've never been much of  hot tea drinker in the first place and this tea didn't change that. Although I've always enjoyed the smell of daisies and wildflowers on a warm summer evening just after a rain, I certainly don't want to drink it.

Anyway, on to the regular mix of nature like things....

The weather has cooled off a bunch and with it comes volunteer morning glories.

Florida's Subtle Seasons

The rainy season has been in full force for a while. Just now, the last few days, we are coming close to being knee deep. Just the usual....

American Bittern

Some more of My Backyard

I've been wanting to get back to taking pictures of what I do best. I've had the camera out for several day now and I just can't seem to make the pictures pop like I used to. I don't know if it's the camera, the lack of opportunity or (most likely) the lack of enthusiasm on my part. Whatever it is here's a few odds and ends for you.

Kansas City

I decided it was time I went to see Chris at his home in Kansas City. Booked the airline, rented the car, and spent 5 days with him and Steph. 

First night there we were getting ready to go to a KC Royals game and what do I find?

Mom's Diet Coke!

Saltwater Catfish - Good to Eat?

It's been a fun couple of days. It was Mike's Birthday so I baked him some cupcakes.

And bought him a good bottle of whiskey.

Sunrise in Labelle

I am not a morning person at all so I miss opportunities like this all the time.

A few pictures of the sunrise looking across the field.

Back to Nature

It's time, back to nature and back to nature photography.

This is an Anhinga. He will dive under the water and hunt fish for up to 5 minutes.

Projects: Cement and Bone

Here are a few projects that we've done over the last few months. What inspires us? Well, we had picked up several bags of cement and stucco on a trip to the home improvement store. These were busted up bags that they were giving away for free. Gotta put that to use. And I have this dremel tool that has been sitting around for ages and I figured it was about time to put it to use, too. 

Mike and I did 2 separate cement projects and I've been using the dremel tool to carve jewelry from bones.

We have a New Kitten!

We have a new kitten!

They say cats have 9 lives and I figure this one has already used up about 7.5 of them.

Mike was on his way to work, doing about 65-70 mph when he saw something come out from underneath the car in front of him. He swerved to miss it and looked in his rearview mirror to see this little fur ball rolling down the highway. He locked up his brakes, shoved it in reverse and watched as 8-10 cars went right over her. He jumped out of the car and threw his hands up, stopped the traffic, to pick up this little girl.

  

He brought her home to me. Amazingly, this cat has very few injuries and is in really good shape. I found a bit of road rash on 2 of her feet, her eye is swollen and red, a rough spot on her nose, and it looks like she bit the inside of her mouth. I called Chris, who is my go to guy for anything animal, especially injured and lost. I think we are getting her back into shape. Feeding her regularly, worming and so on.

I think this girl is in excellent shape for what happened. Mike calls her Road Rash.

She was also feral and quite feisty, spitting and hissing at me. Chris assured me that would only last a short time being so young. He judged her age from the pictures at about 4 to 5 weeks. She's eating ravenously, she's playing like a ferocious lion, and she purrs really loud. 

So we worry how Dusty is going to get along with her. The main fear is because of this. We were out for a walk and Dusty hit on this huge field rat, grabbed it, and with one flip over her head, it was dead. Please note, this rat is bigger than the kitten.

So I've been working with Dusty to make sure she is careful. She grrs at the kitten if she comes too close and twice now Dusty has nipped the kitten hard when the silly cat tried to share Dusty's food bowl. I worry but the dog listens to me very well, and it's getting better. They "almost" played together the other night. 

The kitten will hide underneath one of the couch's and when Dusty isn't looking she'll run out, make a feint at her and boogie back under cover of the next couch. The kitten also tries so hard to play with Dusty, she thinks that fluffy wagging tail is fascinating!

And I think you'll notice I've been calling her kitten throughout because we really have yet to stick to a name for her. I cannot call her kitty because it confuses the dog (my fault for calling the dog kitty in the first place). Mike wants to call her Road Rash which makes sense. We have a tradition of naming our animals from whence they came: Freeway, the cat that Mike bottle fed after finding his mother dead on the freeway and Birch the dog, of course, found on Birch street. We did the same with Dusty. We got her from a shelter on a road called Industrial, so I suggested in-DUST-rial would be Dusty which fits because she has a big dusty mop of a tail. 

I have been calling her Elby! That's short for Elby Kay or LBK or Little Baby Kitten. It doesn't vary that much from family tradition in that the last cat we had was named via acronym: Pita, who really was a pain in the ass when we first got her.

She is about 6 weeks old now and she has come a long way. She is very funny and playful and I can't wait to get a picture of her and Dusty playing or cuddling together.

Whatever we end up calling her I'm glad she decided to roll out from underneath a car and come live with us.