June 10, 2006 - Lake Texoma, OK

Good grief!  It's only been a week and here I am doing another update.  Gee, I hope this isn't habit forming!  Actually, it's kinda fun not to have a bunch of pictures laying in their folder waiting for me to mess with them so I can post them.

Today Barb's sitting behind me at the dining room table doing some beautiful cross stitching.  It's a nativity scene full of vibrant colors with a black background.  And it's probably the last time she'll undertake a cross stitch with a black background; black thread on a black background, apparently, is no fun at all.  She mutters to herself every once in a while back there.

Besides this, I've been busying myself by going fishing again this AM before sunrise, and then after breakfast I began to polish wheels on the Road Abode.  Bought some new chemicals from Mothers along with some power buffing balls.  Sure does make the job go easy and fast!  Only problem is that I'm using my cordless drill to spin the balls, and the battery only lasts for about 15 minutes under that kind of stress.  When the heat drives me inside, we'll go to some thrift stores and I'll look for a corded hand drill for this kind of job.

We've got birds galore around us most the time, and some of them are real colorful like this northern "Baltimore" oriole.

And then there are the young & dumb ones.  Not sure all these baby birds make it when they're out like this.  Since this one is sitting about 3' off the ground on my makeshift painting platform, it may be able to fly and might make it another day or two.  That's our outside step I'm painting so we can replace the non-skid material that had worn pretty badly, and it's sitting on a couple of plastic crates Barb has for storage.

These guys are a hoot.  Typical curious squirrels, but they have real short memories.  The mockingbirds are ruthless about defending their territory against these guys, and will rip fur off their backs/tails driving them away.  But it doesn't seem to stick.  They run like crazy, charge up the tree with the birds just hammering them, and then about an hour or so later, there they go again.  Really kind of fun to watch.

Mother in the tree, Junior messing around near my bucket.  She'll come down and feed the little guy, but he apparently left the nest too soon.  Can't fly yet.  Probably didn't make it through the second night.  We've had no luck with any of our bird books identifying this pretty bird either, so if you happen to know who it is, please drop us a line, OK?

It's not only the birds that fall out of the nests, the nests fall out of the trees!!  This one had obviously been abandoned and then the wind blew it out of the tree, because no bird in its right mind would ever build a nest under our horn!

I've got to be one of the luckiest guys alive.  This is the second time I've been able to go fishing on the lake with some campers.  This is Bill (or Chester, depending on if you're family or friend -- like me, his family all call him by his middle name) and he's the brother of one of the park staff here.  Remember Biz and Pat from Barb's office?  Well, Bill is Biz's brother and he and his wife are camping here for a bit.  And when Bill couldn't get his satellite dish to pick up any signals for their TV, Biz came and asked me if I'd lend a hand.  And even though I loaned both hands, it was to no avail.  But they were kind enough to ask me if I'd like to go jug fishing the next morning.  Silly question.  Of course, I had no idea what a jug fish looked like, how you caught them, or anything about them, but I wasn't about to tell everybody there how stupid I am.  All I knew was that tomorrow I was going to get to go on the lake and do some jug fishing.

This was the first time in my life ever being on a pontoon boat.  And I liked it too.  Seemed like a pretty cool boat for all kinds of things like fishing, entertaining, or just poking around.  Could even use it as a swim platform I suppose if you liked to swim.  Sure was a flat day on the lake.  Not a breath of breeze anywhere.  And as soon as I got on board my suspicions were verified.  The jugs were already on board.  And here's even a picture of one.  Works like this.  There's this 35' or so of heavy line, and every couple of feet there's a small leader with a hook on it.  A jug on one end, and a weight on the other.  Put bait on the hooks, lower everything over the side, and go do something else for a while and let the fish come to the bait.  And I'll confess, because I'd read the fishing regulations carefully, I had a pretty good idea what jug fishing was all about, but I'd never talked to anybody about it, never seen it, and of course had never been involved with it before in my life.

After we dropped 6 or 7 jugs, we went after some stripers while waiting for the fish to come to the jugs.  We didn't catch anything and it turned out that neither did the jugs.  Didn't keep this ol' boy from having a great time anyway that's for sure.  Thanks, fellows, for inviting me along.  Great fun!

OK.  Barb's day off and we played tourist.  So where do we head?  Why, to Lake Texoma and the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge to look at birds.  Doesn't matter that we're watching them every day out our windshield and side windows, not counting the bird feeders.  This area is unique in that it's a real mixture of industrial (private) stuff, farming (some by the Wildlife service and some private), and man-made marshes.  All to help the migrating flocks of birds that come through in the spring and fall.  And since it's summer now, of course, we'll miss the main attraction and we know it, but we just can't help ourselves.  Gotta go see it while we're here, eh?

And if any of you knows the name of that flower Barb's pointing at, we'd sure appreciate knowing.

Those flowers come in at least a couple of colors, too.  And then one of the private farms on the border of the refuge.  Old barn, newer house, plenty of cattle egrets waiting for the cows to show up.

The town is underwater now for sure, as there's no evidence of it anywhere that we could see.  And the edge of the lake with a ubiquitous Great Blue Heron.

Pretty well traveled roads and here's why.  Oil drilling!  Yeah, a red winged blackbird in the foreground who couldn't care less about the activity going on across the water.

Yup, this is farmed by the Wildlife Service so the migrating birds will have something good to eat while they rest up.  For some reason, I like having my tax dollars spent this way as opposed to spending them on............. well, Barb would edit that out so I'll just leave it at that.

In the background are several active oil wells, and that derrick drilling another one while right in front of us is a great egret waiting for a late breakfast/early lunch.

Couple more wells, then three crested cormorants doing some serious resting.  And I can't hold it back any longer, so beware, here's a short "rant."  I get furious with our country's "leaders" in Congress who will spend my money taking junkets all over the place supposedly so they'll know how to respond to various proposed legislations.  But how many of them have been here?  How many have actually seen the truth regarding wildlife and oil drilling?  As Alaskan's, we've seen first hand how the kit fox population has grown because of the oil fields, we've seen the caribou herds expand because of the improved browse and scratching posts of the pipe line.  Yeah, the environmentalists are needed to keep things from going crazy, but the lies the extremists in that group put out need to be countered with some of the truth that we've seen.  When the Exxon Valdez spill occurred, my younger brother was a commercial fisherman in that area.  In the areas where the beaches were cleaned, the fishing was ruined for nearly five years. Where the beaches could not be reached because of the terrain, and were left in their natural state, there was good fishing again the following year.  Good grief, just think about it.  Where does the oil come from?  Yeah, the ground!  It's a naturally occurring part of nature for crying out loud, and most all the flack about drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge is a bunch of lies.  Simple as that!  There.  I may not feel any better, but at least I've said it out loud.  And as you know, I could go on.  But........  End of rant.

If you'd like a bigger picture of that guy standing up there, and more detail on the rig, click here or on the picture.  That's a couple of turtles on the log on the right, and a mallard duck taking a nap on the log to the left.  Blissfully at peace with all the racket from the drilling right there.  Harrumph!!  Yeah, yeah, I know.  "Hey Jenkins, why don't you tell us how you really feel about that."

There, see?  Told you so!  Neener-neener...........

Ah, a thrill a day.  Never saw any "stand-up" lilies like these before.  Most the lilies in ponds that we've seen have been right down on the water.  Now, don't try to tell me it's the result of "pollution" caused by the drilling or we'll have us a knock-down, drag-out right here and now.  Of course, you knew that would be my response.

A facial shot of one of the lilies, and then a "threefer."  You know, as opposed to a "twofer."  As in "two for the price of one."  There's three critters taking advantage of the poor little thistle flower.  A butterfly (obviously), an ant (somewhat less obvious), and then the beetle (almost part of the shadow).  Dang beetle didn't let his presence be known until I put the picture up right here. Sure did surprise me!  Had no idea it was there when I shot the butterfly and ant.

Yup, that beetle sure is there alright, and hanging on pretty good too as the wind was blowing that butterfly all over the place.  The ant left though.  Dunno where it went.

Whole mess of those stand-up lilies on one side of the road, and some flowers with their stamen sticking way out there on the other side of the road.       

Here's a great example of government and private organization cooperation.  Ducks Unlimited, even if you don't happen to enjoy duck hunting, is one of the greatest conservation outfits I know of.  Besides, every year at the Puyallup, WA, Western Washington State Fair, they have a booth that gives out wonderful information and they have a drawing for a boat and motor.  Never won anything from them, but sure do support their causes.  Managed to miss the turtle crossing the road from one marsh to another.  As you can tell by the moss/mud that isn't quite dried, he's been hurrying too.  Then it's time for a hike.  Remember that ad for dog food on TV, Kibbles and Bits?  Well, every time we get out to do any hiking here, I wear long sox because of the "chiggers and ticks."  Reminds me of the Kibbles and Bits ad.   Go ahead, say Kibbles and Bits and then chiggers and ticks.  Don't they sorta sound alike?  Oh, well, you'd have to have been there I guess.

There's Barb waiting patiently for me -- in the shade, of course.  This sign is just one example of how much the National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and all those other "set-asides" need maintenance.  Even if they could figure out a way (and we could help, you betcha) to install decent RV pads, then volunteers would help with simple things like this.

Nice view from the top of the Crow Hill.  This picture was taken from the observation platform (a little shaky, but still safe enough) that has been built up there.

More butterflies on a bush we couldn't find the name of as well.

Barb finally snagged a good shot of that stand-up lily we've been admiring, and of course while she had the camera she couldn't resist yet another great egret.  We really do enjoy those big birds.  Speaking of those big birds......we've been watching a behavior pattern we'd not seen before.  In front of the motorhome is a finger from the lake where the park has a couple of boat ramps.  The water is shallow, maybe 10-12 feet deep, and full of a small (3-6 inches) fish called a shad, the favorite food of striped bass and lots of birds.  Well, the shad come in here on a regular basis, and these big birds (the great egrets and the great blue herons) will line the bank waiting to eat them.  Unless there's a great school of shad being pursued by the striped bass, and they start to break water (showed a picture of one out of water, remember?), then these birds will take flight.  They face the wind and almost hover, necks extended, right next to the surface of the water, and then they'll land briefly like a duck, stab into the water to grab a fish, and take flight again.  The great blue heron will actually sit there in water deeper than it can walk in with its stilt-like legs, and make multiple stabs before taking flight again.  In all our years of enjoying these birds, we've never known them to sit on the surface of the water like that.  Thrill a day, eh?

Skidded to a stop to keep from squashing this snake.  I'm still not positive about its identity.  Same guy as we had climbing that tree that I think is a Texas Rat Snake, but not sure. 

Barb has a special scream/squawk/piercing noise for bugs that are too close for comfort and surprise her.  And since she's not a natural killer like her husband, I'm usually given instructions to dispatch the critter.  Usually with the admonition to not hurt it.  Only this time after I'd recovered from the shock of her outburst (my startle response is still pretty good!), I noticed it was just a huge (to us) mayfly, and I told her to take its picture.  They sure grow 'em big here.  The trout I've chased in the Sierra Nevada mountain streams sure would enjoy one this big, I'll bet.

Can't tell you how many shots of this pretty butterfly Barb took trying to get one with its wings spread out.  Never did catch it.  Pretty colors anyway. 

That's not Dead Woman Pond behind Barb after all, but if it was this is proof that she's not dead.  We never did find Dead Woman Pond by the way.

Then on the way home we found some pretty horses, guarding the parking lot of a bank in Pottsboro, TX.  Seen these before--some pretty clever metal sculptures.  Is this a great lifestyle, or what?

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