December 25, 2006 - Lovers Key

Merry Christmas!

While we spent some time on the beach today, it was pretty short.  Wind blowing pretty hard, shelling not that hot, metal detecting a bit slow, and those were some really black clouds coming in.  Cut it short because the weather report was being backed up by a rapidly falling barometer, and we figured we were in for a storm.  Sure enough, five houses destroyed some 300 miles north and east of us (tornado suspected), and we had some pretty strong winds and rain.  But no damage other than a few trees down in the park which will be cleaned up tomorrow.

Started the day by cleaning some bathrooms, picking up some trash, and unlocking the gate like we usually do on Monday mornings, and surprised the ranger who was opening the rest of the park.  She thought that because we were volunteers we'd be taking Christmas off, and she'd have to do the whole job herself.  Gee, and here we thought Christmas was about giving!  Hope yours was a good one.

While Elmer and I were slaving away building a deck, Ann and Barb were playing with their shells.  Well, maybe that's not really fair.  They pulled all the weeds from around our main gate sign, then hauled many five-gallon buckets of shells to line the newly cleaned-out borders.  Must have been a cool day from the way they're all dressed up.  The task was not without discovery of some nasty fire ants; Barb kneeled on some and was promptly told to back off (after a few bites)!

Barb tells me that the olive shell critters make these little paths.  Hummm.  Looks about finger sized to me, what do you think?  You can see the little spotted olive shell sort of to the right, so I guess they really do.

Then the "girls" were gathering seeds for our nursery.  Same seed pod in both these pictures.  What a fun place this is!  This is a wild balsam apple and, unfortunately, is what park rangers call an "exotic" (it is not native to Florida and, therefore, should be exterminated).  Such a pretty plant, in the gourd family.

Ann caught Barb up a tree gathering a seed pod of some kind (in hand), and, if you look carefully under her left elbow, you can see Naples across the bay.  That means they were at the beach yet again!!

Party time!  Raymond and Josie (volunteers from Quebec) decided we needed to have a Christmas party before all the "real" parties began.  Elmer is in the middle, with Ron Schmidt on his left, and yeah, that's me on the other side of him.

It sprinkled off and on, so I dug out one of the little clamp-on beach umbrellas we'd picked up at the FMCA rally in NC, and found that it keeps the rain off as well as the sun.  Barb's in slacks and long sleeves not because it's chilly, but to keep the no-see-ums from getting to her; they are such nasty little insects.

I'm standing under the "lamp post" constructed to hold the propane lantern that lets us see what we're picking up from the table to eat.  Ron Richie standing in the background with his camera, as the sun is setting.

From left to right: Rainey, Ron (with camera), Ranger Robert, Elmer, and Ron who's married to Rainey.  Next shot is Brian, Sonya, and Judson.  Sonya is one of the part-time staff here, Brian her boyfriend, and Judson is their roommate.  Ann's pink shoe.

Ann, Josie & Raymond (the two that started all this), Ron with his camera, Barb, and Rainey.  Then Elmer, Jason, the husband of Ranger Amy (with a shoe almost gone) and Brian.

Little better shot of Ann, Josie, and Raymond.  They're from Quebec and we have fun with their very French accent.  Amy decided that some heat on her feet would keep the no-see-ums from chewing on them.  Didn't help much, and she had to resort to insect spray.  She's a bit allergic to their bites and will swell up with enough of them.  Fortunately, they didn't last long.  Mornings and evenings are the worst time for the little critters, but without a breeze, they'll suck your blood almost any time you're in the shade if you're in their territory.  I've done a good bit of internet research on the little rascals, and nothing seems to be truly effective in repelling them.  I've discovered (with others) that a liberal application of baby oil seems to drown them, so the bites are much less frequent, but a shower is needed later to clean off all that oil.  Barb is bothered more than I am by the bites.  I get a little red spot that goes away in about 20 minutes, and the only time I really get frustrated with them is when I'm cleaning a fish and they get under my glasses and chew on my eyelids--of course, my hands are all slimy, so I can't do a thing about it but cuss them!  So, just before cleaning the fish (usually just before sundown--when they're at their worst), I'll goop my face up with baby oil, and they don't bite while I'm busy.  If you happen to know of something that will work for more than eight minutes as a repellent, I'd sure like to know about it.  Even with 100% DEET, it only seems to last about that long.

We're not much for building and sitting around a campfire on our own, and we enjoy letting others fuss with the fire once it's built.  But once a fire is going, I've noticed an almost hypnotic state while staring at it.  Much like watching water flowing in a river or stream, or the surf at the beach.  So I took a few shots of this fire to see if I could capture that feeling a bit.

Frigatebirds (also called Magnificent Frigatebird or Man-o'-War birds) are among the most agile of birds on the wing.  They have the largest wingspread (72-78" on a body length of  36" to 40") in proportion to weight of any bird and have short legs and tiny feet without webbing (unusual for a seabird).  In addition to stealing fish from other seabirds--their most famous method of obtaining food, they can soar for hours and often dip down to the surface to pick dead fish and other marine animals from the water or skim past a breeding colony of boobies to snatch young birds from their nests.  They never alight on the ground or water because their short legs and long, narrow wings make it difficult for them to take off except from a height such as the limb of a tree or a rock.  We have a pair (these are pictures of the male which is all black with red on it's breast, female has white breast) that have been hanging around here for better than a week now.  Since they nest on mangrove islands, we're hoping they nest someplace nearby so we can watch the fledglings.  They don't often come this far north, preferring to breed and nest farther south in the Florida Keys.  In non-breeding times, they'll go as far north as the coasts of NC, TX, and even CA.

Because Barb's little camera went in for warranty repairs again (3rd time - but good story for another time), we don't have any pictures of the deck Elmer and I are building, but I do have a few pictures of fishing if you're interested.

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