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.

San Fran

Last month Sarah and I, along with some friends, took a week long trip to San Francisco. There is so much I could write about but I won't. Essentially, we ate really good food, saw beautiful landscapes and ate more really good food. The highlight was a hike along the Pacific on a foggy afternoon.

Research Day!

Today was a research day for work. We're currently working on a bayou restoration project that has many variables. To get a feel for what those variables should potentially look like in a restored state, we had to visit some sites that contain plants, bank profiles and hydrologies that should occur naturally to our site. We visited these sites via boat with our wetlands ecologist. One thing we did see today that I didn't expect was five foot tall Cardinal Flower growing in the marshes (pictured on the right).

Photomerge mishap

I'm currently working on a project that involves turning an underpass into a lively place... We'll see what we come up with in the near future. For now though, here is a photomerge mishap of the site. I likey!

Meet Xerxes

Xerxes is our new cat. He was a stray that hung around the office looking for food or just someone to pet him. He seems quite happy just laying around the house and has warmed up to living with a large dog.

Founder!

I've been thinking (as well as some of my friends) for a while now that maybe I (we) should get some chickens. Its one of those things that seems really daunting and I question "do I really want to raise chickens or do I just like the idea of it?" So....

The other day we had quite a ruckus storm blow through. After it passed I went over to Sarah's house to trim some of the palms that were taking over the front steps. Some of us were standing around when someone said "Is that a baby chicken?" Sure enough, a chicken had arrived at our front door; a perfect opportunity to see what it might take to raise chickens. Sarah and I took the chicken to my house, made a temporary cage for it out of an old dog crate and set it in a spot where it could still peck at the ground. Sarah and I went in for dinner and as we were finishing up we heard loud chick sounds, it had made it's way out of the cage in the back yard and around to my front door. We then named it Founder. It was cool that night and Founder loved to snuggle itself into Sarah's lap. We later made the cage escape proof and sent Founder off to bed. The next day Founder hung out on the sidewalk with me as I pulled weeds from between my picket fence and the sidewalk. Just as fast as the ants were biting me Founder was eating the ants. Founder wouldn't get any further than a few feet from me. She (well we don't know if Founder was a she or a he) would follow my every move.

Being that a number of us were interested in raising chickens we thought it be best if Founder went to live over at Sarah's and Kristen's house,where a big dog named Pounder doesn't live, and we could all be apart of raising a chicken. We made the switch and Founder was now to live in it's own back yard. She was put to bed that evening in her new place. The next morning another strong storm moved through. After the storm passed Kristen went out to check on Founder. One of the boards had shifted in the wind and Founder was gone.

She came in with the storm and left with the storm.

I'm still not sure if I want to raise chickens or not.

Topsail Hill

I'd been needing a camping trip for a while now and this past weekend offered the perfect chance. Sarah and I along with four other friends loaded up and went to Topsail Hill State Park in Florida. We got there on Friday evening in time to go to the beach before the sun set. The park is designed so that no development is closer than 1/2 mile from the beach, which is great. Once you get to the beach you only have dunes an pine forest behind you - nature not condos.

On Saturday morning we went for a wake up swim, played some frisbee, and then biked to Seaside for some lunch, drinks and a peruse around the town. It was a great chance put some miles on my new-old bike.

|A few months back I got a 1981 Fuji Royale - smokey blue and chrome. I stripped off the unworking gears, cleaned and oiled the bike head to toe and now I'm remodeling, starting with the 'head'. I put on a pair of mustach bars with elk hide grips and some inverse brake levers. There are many other parts to be updated in the future. I'll add it to the blog with process images when it is done(ish).|

After riding what was about a 20 mile round trip we headed to the beach for a pre-dinner swim. It was so refreshing. That evening we prepared an amazing meal over the fire and enjoyed some rounds of drinks before heading to bed. Sunday we woke up to an overcast day which was kind of nice actually. I made some french toast which was from a loaf of chocolate orange bread that my friend Kristen made. Sarah and Jody made some herby hash browns.

After breakfast and clean up we biked over to some of the lakes and then hiked through the dunes back to the beach for one last swim. It was such a beautiful place. I can't wait to go back.

DauphinIsland,AL

The weekend started off with a severe storm system that wandered east, letting it's warm, humid tail drag slowly across Saturday. The weather did make for a good day to clean inside, so that is what happened.

Sunday was bright and crisp. Sarah and I wanted a little escape from Biloxi so drove over to Dauphin Island for a day hiking through the bird sanctuaries and around the beaches located on the island's west end. What is now the island's west end used to be the middle until hurricane Katrina chopped the island in half. you should look at it on google earth; as you're zooming in you see the island as one long strand, then once you zoom in closer the updated aerials show it broken in half. You can see where the western tip is slowly elongating; like a finger nail or a claw. It will be many years before the island reconnects, if even at all. Whether it reconnects or not, it was a beautiful day and I'm sure there are many more to come.

Controlled Burn

Saturday morning I received a text from my ecologist friend 'It's a burn day - check your email for directions'. I drove out to an area called Black Creek Swamp where they were burning a pine savanna. By the time I got there the fire had already swept through a majority of the site leaving the ground chard, logs smoldering and a dry heat surrounded every step I made. The tops of black titi and inkberry were left green and shiny; spring blooms still hanging on. While it looks like something awful may have just occurred, burning is part of the natural cycle for pine savannas. Within weeks new vegetation, bright green, will be popping out of the ground - being fed by the new surge of nutrients and space available to them.

The pictures only tell part of the story. Being there, feeling the heat and breathing in the smoldering ground is a more powerful experience than the sight of it.

zomBEES

I'd like to give a shout out to the clever kids that live around these parts.

Hand Painted Biloxi Street Signs

I just like them...

Matchbook

As many know, I am a collector of matchbooks. This is one I found a while back, stuck in my bag and forgot about it. I'm not sure where I got it from. Yesterday I was digging through my bag and found it lying open and saw that something was inscribed... I hope that who ever this was written to got the message and that I didn't just swipe it on the way out the door; therefore, the receiver not receiving such a caring message from such a caring friend about some other obviously caring person.

Fresh Food for a Fresh Year

After being gone for a few weeks to Alabama for Christmas and then to Minneapolis for New Years I arrived home in Biloxi. While it was so good to see both my and Sarah's families again it is always nice to return home. Its so good to wake up and walk Pounder down to the beach, look out at the ocean and start the day; so good. Speaking of fresh starts, we have a new year. This year I'm looking to grow and prepare more foods than before - learn more about my soil, what does and doesn't grow - how to prepare the foods I grow, what does and doesn't taste... and so on. So far the radishes are what have been ringing in the new year. They are delightfully spicy.

Nostalgic Line

For the past week it has rained and rained with an accompaniment of fog. It is an interesting thing when no matter where you go, for an extended time, you can never see more that a few hundred feet, if that. It makes you focus more on what is right in front of you, the present; not what is beyond, the future. On Sunday morning the rain broke for a bit so i went down to the beach where there is no horizon. I feel like the birds were even slightly nostalgic for that magic line.