those ants

I've been crazy busy with a design/build bayou restoration project. It's been great being out on site digging, planting, stacking, installing and mostly sweating. This morning when I was out there I came across this really interesting ant bed.

Oh the Springtime

I meant to post this a while back but I got too busy. I know I've posted on this place before but I just really like it out there on Deer Island. The waters were very calm and a cool breeze offered a nice break from the sun. We're getting the hang of our paddling techniques - it only takes us fifteen minutes to paddle from mainland out to the island. Here is a cross section of photos from the island. Some of the spring time blooms are a great contrast to the whispy grasses and gnarled live oaks and pines. The coral bean plants are a favorite. Oh yeah, the sting rays like to creep up into the shallow edges. Watch your toes.

msspi-->mnpls-->chcgo-->msspi

A few weeks back I left the beginning of spring in Mississippi for the ending of winter in the upper Mid West. This was my week and a half... an amazing sunset from a north bound plane, movie at a theatre with all it's original 1950's furnishings, a cougar encounter, shoveled snow, drove through Wisconsin (yes, we stopped for beer and cheese curds), became excited driving into Chicago (it's impressive), met up with some friends, got chilled by the Lake Michigan winds, went to a conference, saw a giant bean and Gehry's snake-like bridge, and then I flew back to the Mississippi spring to thaw out and find a Giant Leopard Moth on the ground.

Those Smoky Mountains

Last week my whole family got together in Smoky Mountains for a little R & R and outdoor adventures. Just a few weeks ago blizzards were hitting the area hard but our trip was welcomed with sunny 60 degree days. Lucky, I suppose. What I love about this area is that you can quickly experience, by car or hike, open vistas from a mountain top or narrow forest steams and waterfalls. Above are a few of my favorites.

Paddling Around

This last weekend of January has offered sunny days with temps in the mid to high 60s. That meant a great day to get out and paddle around in our newly acquired canoe/kayak hybrid. Our trip took us out to the eastern half of Deer Island, just a miles paddle from the point of Biloxi. As you can see Sarah was very excited. This was our second trip out to the island. Last weekend we went to the western portion where there are groves of live oaks, complete with a rope swing. The eastern end is mostly pines with an understory of saw palmettos. As we walked along the beach, over exposed pine tree roots and through some marsh grasses we came across a few ponds that are home to a number of birds, (we saw five Blue Herons and a whole assortment of smaller birds as well as an eagle nesting. I need to get a better camera than the one on the iPhone to capture some of this) and there were obvious signs of nutria. From what I hear there are wild pigs that live on the island as well. I suppose they just spend there days foraging mostly for palmetto root. I guess with all that saw palmetto none of those male pigs will be getting prostate cancer. Good for them. Each time we go for a walk on the beach down the street from my house or out to the island, whatever the excursion is, we find ourselves collecting things we find interesting - shells, sea glass, wood, stones and pebbles or something random covered in barnacles. This little excursion was good for finding some interesting pieces of worm eaten wood. I'll do my next posting on beach finds.

Pecan Butter

I've been a bit lazy in getting pecans cracked this year and made into something. Last year we had made lots of pecan/basil pesto as well as pecan brown ale before the new year. I finally got around to cracking them recently. This year I wanted to try something that caters a little more to my typical diet... pecan butter. I eat lots of peanut butter, therefore spending a small fortune. Now I can make my own out of pecans. The trick is to roast them for a bit, it draws the oils out so it becomes much more buttery once blended. When blended fresh they turn more into a grainy dust and I had to add some oil. Due to pecans being a little on the bitter side I decided that adding a pinch of salt and little honey to each batch makes it perfect. I've got a lot more cracking to do to keep up with the amount I eat.

On crepes, the pecan butter is fantastic with the ginger-pear preserves (the pears that grow in Biloxi are really crispy and tart) we made back in the fall.

Bayou Cleanup

For the past year our office has been working other local agencies on a master plan for restoring a bayou that runs through East Biloxi. We've received three grants so far to assist us in the effort. Before any on the ground restoration work can really happen we had to get rid of all the trash in the bayou, whether it ended up there by someone throwing it in or a hurricane, who knows. We just had to clean it up, so we hosted a community cleanup day. We managed to remove four shopping carts, some barnacle covered bicycles, who knows how many tires and an assortment of other oddities. We were able to recycle ten 30 gal sized bags full of bottles and cans.

I found a frog like the ones on my name tag.

After a hard days work at the bayou we had a bonfire on the beach and under a full moon.