We got a pop-up camper.

We found an Aliner popup camper on the local Facebook swap and shop, went down to check it out, and brought it home.  It's in good shape, generally.  According to the former owner, it's crossed the Continental Divide four times on trips to Alaska and/or Canada.

I've replaced the battery, disinfected the water tanks that hadn't been used to boondock since the current owners bought it. mounted the spare tire, and we're going on an easy trip to make sure my wife is willing to sleep outside of a hotel/house again.

Note: she swore that once we could afford it, she'd no longer "camp", even though I have more tents/shelters than I'd care to admit....

Photos to come after our trip to Skidaway Island State Park.

It's basically this model (photo borrowed for the time being)

We already plan for a week on the Gulf coast in August, and I hope we can get it out into the Apalachicola National Forest and Tate's Hell for some boondocking before then.  There are great, quiet/private/underused campgrounds on the Florida Panhandle if you avoid the public stuff along Hwy 98 and like swamps.

Some of my trekking gear, part 1 - Sewing kits

Here are photos of my 18th century sewing kit, or housewife a/k/a "hussif".  Soldiers carried these to repair their own clothing when it was inevitably damaged in the field.

It's made from scrap linen cloth and some red cotton bias-cut "tape", sewn with linen thread by hand.  Stitches are not my best.

Housewife - closed

Housewife - open

Inside there is a patch of wool cloth to hold the needles, several bobbins of linen thread (waxed and plain), needles, pins, small hunk of beeswax, and a thimble.

The checked section has loose wool stuffed in it to serve as a pincushion.

I have a pair of small scissors that can be wrapped up in it now - I didn't when these were taken.



From a historical perspective, the housewife was used at least up until the second world war, with an issue 'sewing kit' being issued to British GIs.  A quick Google search will turn up tons of examples from the 17th century through relatively modern times.

Melanistic Gambusia Holbrooki?

I was sampling and doing limited collecting on July 12, 2014 near the Wacissa River Florida, south of Aucilla WMA/Cabbage Grove, about halfway between the Aucilla (under ground for the most part) and the Wacissa Rivers on  road 681.  We found a sinkhole just next to the road with heavy sediment, high ph -- off the register of the kit I had.  Limestone/lime "mud" bottom. Little or no visible aquatic vegetation in the area we could see.

Seemed to only be a single species in the small pond; all that we caught appeared the same general body type.  We couldn't sample in the center of the pool, only on the edges.

We saw a good many melanistic fish, and caught two - thinking both were males.  They were obviously a lot larger than the typical Gambusino males (I have several in my aquarium, and have caught a good many)

However, once we got the fish in a clear collection tank, one was definitely a female.

I am pretty sure this is a female melanistic Gambusino spp - either G. Affinis or G. Holbrooki.  Common name "Mosquito Fish". By the way, the fins are not shredded - the margins are clear, and the photo quality is mediocre.

Kept two female "normals".  One didn't make it home  Below is a photo of the full body. The color is washed out; there is a clear "preggo spot" on both this fish and the other "normal" that I now have in an aquarium along with the two melanistic fish I kept.

 And the head only of the same fish.  Fins were marked like most G. Affinis/Holbrooki, but there was not a clear "eye spot", the fish was more slender, and had a significantly more gold tint than the Gambusia caught within a mile of this spot in the Wacissa River (at Goose Pasture camp/launch)

Below is the male, with the female in the background.  He is a full centimeter longer than the males I have caught/have in aquaria. Notice the obvious gonopodium.

When they settle into the tank and are over the shock of transport, I can take photos of all three from this location.

When we can, we'll go back and do a more thorough search, hopefully get an accurate water test as well.

Bald Point Florida - snakes and birds and plants

Pictures from Bald Point, Florida trip - March 2014

We spent four days in a house on Bald Point, Florida last week.  This state park is on the southwestern side of Ochlockonee Bay.  It's the point where the bay opens into the Gulf.  Find Panacea, Florida on the map, follow US 98 southwest, and there ya are.

Bald Point has a couple of dozen houses and nothing else, but is completely surrounded by Bald Point State Park, which in turn is pretty much surrounded by St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge and the Gulf of Mexico.  It's near several other state parks, two great clear-water kayaking rivers (the St. Marks upper portion and the Wakulla), and within easy driving distance to the award-winning St. George Island sugar sand beaches.  You can eat in Panacea or at the bridge over the Ochlockonee Bay, or drive to Apalachicola for an evening.

We had a good weekend walking on the beach, paddling in black water (the lower Wakulla and Otter Lake Recreation area) watching birds, catching minnows in the brackish water, and eating good seafood.  Since it's early spring, we saw a lot more snakes than usual, which is always cool.

A good many of these photos were shot with my Olympus water-resistant point and shoot camera, so the quality isn't great and they aren't meant to be art...

View Across the marsh.  There's a bald eagle in the dead pine in the middle. 

Wandering around in the interior of the park, there were a good many deer - here's a pair of does (one behind the palmettos) that stood and watched me for a good while.

We had warm, sunny weather until the day we came home.  Sunday was cloudy, cool and foggy.  This view across the end of the bay, towards Mashes Beach, was within an hour of low tide.  The oyster bars in the bay attract predatory fish and things that like to catch them (people and dolphin) like crazy.

Otter Lake Recreation Area in St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge, near Panacea, FL.  This cypress has a water oak growing out of a hollow in it.

One of the small jelly fish that wash up on the beach - the patterns are neat.

American Kestrel that visited us each morning.  I couldn't tell if it had gotten wet from dew each night or from swimming or bathing, but it came to the dead tree in the back yard and preened every day. 

I think Otter Lake Recreation Area should be renamed Osprey Lake.  There are more nesting pairs of osprey there in the spring than I thought possible in such a small lake.  This one was solo, but spent its time fussing at anything that moved around it.

A pair of osprey at the edge of the lake (sorry - this was my point and shoot waterproof camera)

A towhee near Chaire's Creek bridge in Bald Point State Park

A gnatcatcher??? on the point at Bald Point State Park.

I had good luck with snakes this weekend.  This is a scarlet kingsnake (not a coral snake).  Found under some wood in the scrub near Chaire's Creek bridge in Bald Point State Park.  This little snake posed for me - you can see that the end of his nose is red - one way to tell a scarlet king from a coral snake.  For a more thorough guide - see the Florida Museum of Natural History site

Brown water snake on the Wakulla River, laying up on a tree in the water.  A couple of other paddlers told us to be careful of the copperhead.  This isn't one - notice the checkerboard patterns and the non-triangular head?  Also, it was IN the water.  Copperheads can swim, but prefer not to. This one was clearly living in the water.  Not a great shot - my waterproof point and shoot doesn't like to be within three feet of the subject...

Tiny sparkleberry (wild blueberry) plants

Another type of wild blueberry - haven't figured out the species yet.

Mounting my all-around light for fishing/kayaking at night

I was trying to figure out a light for my fishing kayak to complement a headlamp.  I'll post later why I wanted an all-around instead of bow/stern lights.

I knew how I wanted to do the pole itself, and want it to be truly portable, so wanted a battery based light, but one I wouldn't have to replace every time I dropped it in the water.

At the suggestion of some great person on the 'net, I got the Fantasea Nano Spotter light from B&H photo (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/527259-REG/Fantasea_Line_6023_Nano_Spotter.html).  I can't remember what forum had someone share the link, but appreciate whoever/wherever it was.

Nice things about it:  It's got bright LEDs, is truly waterproof for my purposes, and it has the diffuser already.

Minuses - the base is not round.

That's not really a problem, though.  I took 3/4" PVC and heat gun.  I wrapped two or three wraps of electical tape around it before forming the pipe with the light, so it would be tight but not impossible to remove. Heat PVC, smoosh, let cool, pull out the light, dunk in a bucket to "set" the shape.

While I was at it, I made two.  I then cut the formed piece off and sanded any roughness from the heat off, along with the lettering.

Once glued into a slip/female thread coupler that attaches to the top of my 3/4" light pole with a matching male thread.  I painted the whole light pole black. I actually wish I hadn't painted it, but I got PVC solvent all over it, and didn't like the purple streaks.  I plan on using reflective tape bands around it anyhow.

I sprayed liquid electrical tape inside, so the light press fits in. If it seems at risk of falling out, I'll probably add a hole big enough for the lanyard strap, and use a toggle or something.

One thing I thought of doing was using a tee at the top, having one light shining up, one forward --maybe even without the diffuser.

The photo is the spare I made, and may use for the forward facing light.  I'll get a picture of it on the kayak sometime.

Bit by a bug...a fishing bug

I got bitten by the kayak fishing bug, and am learning to like some things I figured I never would. After trying several times to fish from my "Artic", then having my pirogue blow the bottom laminations (see earlier post), I decided to get a Sit on Top. Of course, I looked for one that was as much like a sea kayak as possible - an "LPB" (Long Pointy Boat) as some of the skin boat folks call them.

I ended up with a used Wilderness Systems' Tarpon 160i. It's definitely long/pointy, but I was still afraid it would be like riding a cork, as my other experiences with SoTs were like that.

It isn't. It tracks very well, has pretty good speed, and once I get an appropriately longer paddle than my Werner Camano, will be da bomb for fishing.

It was already set up for fishing, even with some things I probably won't use, like fish finder mounts.

Here are a couple of pictures that were sent by the guy I got it from (he bought a Hobie Pedal drive boat).

I'll have to see if it becomes my 'go to' boat for just messing about - the "Artic" still fits that bill, since it's light, fast, and easy to unload.

Paddling spot - headwaters of Lake Blackshear

 My latest spot for a quick paddle is on the top end of Lake Blackshear, near Drayton, GA. It's not as "birdy" this time of year as I expect it is in the spring and early summer, but there are wading birds and ducks, plus tons of turtles. Here's a Google earth image.

Flint River south of the Hwy 27 Bridge

The arrow points to a launch called "Camper's Haven".  There's a little store + bar and grill there, and I believe the launch itself is owned by someone else.  You drop your $2 launch fee in the box and take off.  The concrete ramp is both steep enough and shallow enough to launch from there.

Notice the sloughs on both sides of the big S curve?  They are relatively deep, full of fish, turtles and birds. Just south of here is where the former state record alligator was taken, so I know there are big and small gators around.  Traffic on the river isn't bad, and I don't stay in the channel much.  The current's pretty slow too, so ferrying across is effortless.

I need to fish more here and see what I can turn up.  General map coordinates from Google: 32.044605,-83.963835.