Strangers in the Night

1:48am, I am watching some show on the Travel Channel about these two guys who go live with natives in the woods. I see a shadow out of the corner of my eye...it is my oldest and he's walking into the living room holding something...

Sam: Look who was sleeping in my bed.

Me: Oh my God! Is that Steve?

Sam: Steve is the only white snake around here.

Me: Wow! Out of this whole house, he escapes and ends up YOUR BED?!?!?!

Sam: Yup.

We put the wayward escape artist back into his home, placed the bricks back on top (someone had left them off) and Sam went back to bed, and I went back to the Travel Channel.


Some people would've completely freaked to be sleeping in their bed and have their foot touch something that shouldn't be there, especially a 3 1/2 foot snake. But not Sam. The whole thing was a little surreal and yet, seemed completely normal. Yeah, we're weird.

The Hunt for the Ghost Orchid and more!

After procrastinating forever, myself and 9 other geocachers met up in the Fakahatchee Strand to hunt for a cache called "The Ghost Orchid". As we stood around gathering our thoughts and supplies, a few of us heard a deep, low growl coming from the north side of the road. By unanimous agreement, it had to have been a panther, especially since the very next day, our friends Chris and Misti (who hid the cache) were out there and SAW a panther and took some awesome pictures of it! Check out http://www.oceanicwilderness.com/ if you want to see them.

Our team consisted of MuldernScully, Shade's Brigade, Lj&Co., Spazzler and his crew, Longerdog and Silly Gilley, who after going to this cache a couple other times, tagged along to be our videographer.

Off we go!

We saw quite a few orchids, but no Ghost Orchids. I believe this one is a native butterfly orchid. None of what we saw was in bloom, so it was kind of hard to identify things. The area was very dry.

A vanilla orchid? Maybe?

The only wildlife we saw was this beautiful owl. He wasn't frightened of us at all and posed for several pictures. I need a better camera!


Much of this area would normally be underwater, but our lack of rain has left it very dry. It was hard to call it a "swamp"!

Gilley at a gator slide taking some pics.

Another orchid.

This cracked me up. It's a tree with a built in drink holder! Susan and Gilley...

Taking a break. We were deep in the swamp at this point.






Our total mileage that day was 5.5 miles. It was rough going, but we just went slow and steady. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.



Orlando, Lee and David at Ground Zero! We found it!!!


It was a long walk back down this tram road to our vehicles. Well, not really...only 1 1/2 miles, but my feet were screaming the whole way!

There were several old hunt shacks along the tram road. Some looked prettty good, but others were falling apart. When we popped out of the bushes, we were surprised to see three very nice elderly people sitting off the road at a table and chairs. I guess they owned one of the nicer shacks and were out there to get away from people for the weekend. Sorry we kind of ruined it for them...

There were a couple of old, delapidated vehicles out there, too. This one appeared to have been a tourist-type tram car or something...it had an old rack on the roof that made it look very "safari-like". Interesting stuff!!



Before meeting up with everyone at Joanie's Crab Shack, I had to go into the Picayune State Forest to check on a cache of mine that was possibly missing. Lj came with me and Lee and his kids followed in their jeep. We made it out to the cache site to find the tree had been trimmed and the cache missing. Oh well! We turned a corner to head out and there was a big Black Bear in the middle of the road!!! It sort of bounced off the road into the woods as I was laughing and getting very excited. I stopped and waved Lee up next to me. He rolled down the window and I said, "Did you see that bear!?!?!?!?!?" "No. There was a big white truck in front of us."
Oops!



Now yesterday, there was a geo-event at Oleta River State Park. Eventhough it's in Miami, I had never been there before.

Seeing friends and having a chance to go kayaking made for a perfect day. That's my oldest in front and our geo-friend, Erik, in the back hading out in search of 3 caches.

The brains behind this event, CaneDNR! (and the back of objet's head)

AIdan had a blast playing with the kids. He actually had some of the adults playing hide-n-seek and running around, too. He was asleep before we even made it out of the park. A tired kid is a good kid!

Dennis decided to hide a cache up in the rafters of the shelter we were at. Emily went up to help him. I think this would be a 1/5?

Just hanging out laughing and having a good time!

I took my son's kayak out and it handled great! The hub rented one and said it wasn't too bad, either. We paddled and explored the mangrove creeks...it was nice, but kind of weird. You feel like you are far away from everyone and isolated, yet you hear constant traffic! Yuck! Paddling back we were against the wind for a bit and it was rough. I was so surprised to wake up this morning and NOT be aching! Come to think of it, I didn't ache after the Ghost Orchid, either. Hmmm...not bad for an old fart (with MS, too!!!!)

These are just two examples of why I LOVE geocaching!

Adventure, friends and being outdoors!

A Fun Day at Work

Yesterday, we celebrated our re-opening at work (eventhough we've technically already been open for a couple months now). One of the commissioners came, our department director and LOTS of kids from neighboring parks. Our naturalist contacted the zoo and this very nice guy brought over an alligator, gopher tortoise, striped skunk and a BIG Eastern Indigo snake (all native to Florida).

The skunk was so cool...very friendly and social, and NO he didn't smell bad at all! His musk gland had been removed. The tort was, well...a tort... and the Indigo was just gorgeous and very well-behaved.

I got to hold the little gator all day. His name was "Tootsie Roll" and he was a sweetie. I even removed the rubber band that was on his mouth. He never snapped (though I know he could've!) and was very patient with all the llittle hands feeling his rough, bony back and long tail.


All the kids loved being able to actually touch a gator, as well as the other critters, though the big snake freaked alot of folks out. One little girl was amazed and told me how cool it was to be so "close to nature", then she whipped out her cell phone and started taking lots of pictures. Touching that one girl in a positive way made the whole thing worthwhile.

It was a good day!

Last weekend, a bunch of us went for a cache called "The Ghost Orchid" in the Fakahatchee Strand. I'll post about that adventure later as I am trying to get things together to go kayaking up at Oleta River State Park. Just a few m,iles north of here and yet I have never been there!

Ya'll have a great weeked!!

Orchid Discovery!

WooHoo!!! A big CONGRATS to my friend, Chris, for making another great discovery! Read the article here:

HERE!!!

Awesome find!


His wife, Misti, is a fellow blogger, geocacher (sometimes) and friend of mine over at Oceanic Wilderness. Check it out. She always has beautiful pictures to share!

Fun Monday: Kids say the Darndest Things!

I'm late posting, but here is my FUN MONDAY entry for this week...(sorry, no cute picture. I had to put all my pics on a cd and can't find them right now)


Mariposa stepped up as the hostess and she wants us all to tell about our experiences with the funniest things our kids have said.


Well, having 2 kids fifteen years apart in age has given me LOTS of funny (and no so funny) things to tell about. I actually have a list that I kept of the things my oldest would say. Just words like "centsippear" for disappear, "p tarts" for poptarts, "theeteeer" for theater. I like looking back and remembering how cute it was to hear him trying to say certain things.


Now my youngest..he is a whole different story. He is pretty good about pronouncing words the right way. He really tries. It's more the not-so-nice things that he says that are really kind of funny. I just have to make sure he doesn't see me laughing! Somewhere, and I honestly do NOT know where, he picked up this cute phrase when he's mad at me..."Oh just shut up, you stupid woman!" The first time he said it, my jaw dropped! He has never heard anyone say anything like that, so I am assuming he thought it all out himself. When you think about it that way, it's not bad for a 4 year old. BUT for any kid to say that to anyone, let alone his MOM, is terrible. So I do NOT encourage it (along with his other appropriate, yet wrong usage of the words asshole, jerk, jackass, dumbass, etc.). It can be so hard to deal with at times! And yes, I have washed his mouth out with soap AND put a drop of hotsauce on his tongue. He doesn't like it, yet it doesn't stop him, either).

Ok, now for one of the latest things he said that was actually CUTE...

He woke up one morning and the first thing out of his mouth was, "I need to go up into outer space and get some of those things...not stars...those other things."

Me: What other things? Planets?

Aidan: No. Satellites. I need to bring a bunch of them home.

Me: Um...why?

Aidan: Because I will put them on the roof so I can have free satellite!


Now, I'd say that's pretty good thinking for a 4 year old!

Hundred year old treasure or junk?

Last week I had found another trail in the hammock where I work. I'd walked down it a little ways and to my shock found lots and lots of those black plastic pots that plants come in. How they got there, I have no idea. My sister thinks maybe they blew in during a hurricane since we are surrounded by nurseries and farms. Well, today I decided I'd go back out there and start getting some of the pots out of there. As I was pulling the pots, I noticed something yellow in the distance...something sticking out of the ground...I pulled it out and this was what I'd found:

A treasure! From the date on it and what I could find online, it is from 1908! I also read that the company was bought out by Wrigley's so that right there dates it, too. I brought it home and cleaned it up as best I could. I'm sure in it's condition, it's not worth a dime, but to me it's priceless!

I can't wait to see what I can find next week!

Shameless begging

***Scroll down for recent posts!***

UPDATE: This past weekend, I completed my miles for the "virtual walk". My friends and I walked at least 8 miles during the course of the weekend and we all decided it would count for the MS Walk. So YAY! I did it!!! You can still, of course, make donations through my website below. Every penny counts!


Every hour of every day, someone is diagnosed with MS (someone like ME). It amazes me that since being diagnosed with MS, I have had so many people tell me they know others with MS. It is getting to be a fairly common disease. That's why I registered for the MS Walk and that's why I'm asking you to support my fund raising efforts with a tax-deductible donation. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is dedicated to ending the devastating effects of MS but they can't do it without our help. It's faster and easier than ever to support this cause that's so important to me. Any amount, great or small, helps to make a difference in the lives of people with MS. I appreciate your support and look forward to letting you know how I do.


P.S. If you would like more information about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, how proceeds from the MS Walk are used, or the other ways you can get involved in the fight against MS, please visit nationalmssociety.org.


Click HERE for my personal fund raising site.


Thank You for your time!

P.S. I have post dated this so it will be like a "sticky" post. Once the walk is completed, I will put it back in it's proper place.

Until then, simply scroll down to the next post to see the current stuff.

Secret Societies

Ok, this is a strange question, but...are any of you out there Freemasons? My husband is thinking about joining (he has found out he knows several masons) and I just want to get some thoughts on it.

I have had a few members of my family in years past (Way past. We're talking my great-great grandfather and great uncles and aunts) who were Masons or in the Order of the Eastern Star (the women's version of the masons), but I have never known, at least that I'm aware of, any current members of any "secret societies".

I'd like to know something more about them. I know they aren't devil-worshipping heathens. I know they do good things. But I am not sure how I feel about my husband becoming one. Do they drink alot? How often do they meet? What's their deal?

If you have anything to offer, please feel free to post a comment anonymously or email me. I'm just very curious and want to know a bit more what my hub may be getting into.

Brisket the Bull...the final chapter?

Back on Feb. 9th, I posted about "Brisket" the wayward Brahman bull that wandered onto our property at work. We thought he was long gone after that post, but on Feb. 17th, he showed up again...and this time Animal Services (followed by Animal Planet) were actually prepared to catch him.

By the time I got out to ground zero, they had Brisket tranqued. It wasn't easy moving him out of the pine rockland, but they did it.

The cameras were rolling as he got to his feet. Right after I took this shot, he got a little spunky and decided to charge. We all ran in different directions to get out of his way, but thankfully, the guys from Animals Svcs. had a tight hold on the rope.

He was stilled a bit dopey and allowed a couple folks to get closer to him.

We had to wait for a trailer from the SPCA to arrive, so decided to move him into a shady spot. He didn't want to cooperate.

Finally, the guys got him as far as he would go. Brisket decided to rest for a while...still groggy. If you click here: http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/mapd/mapd.html You can see a picture of the woman on the far right, Kathy, and also see if you can find out when this episode will air. The producer (the woman in the turquoise and long sleeve shirt below) had no idea when it will be on, so keep your eyes open for it! You might even see me!!

He was a cutie! They estimated his age to be 12-14 months and weighing about 450lbs.

That's Lily, our naturalist, giving him some water.

This guy did ALOT of the work and gave some blood, too.

More filming!

They finally decided to tie him to two trees across the path from each other so he couldn't get lose, and no one had to hold on to him.

I don't think Brisket had warm fuzzies for this guy!

Finally, the trailer arrived, but now they had to get him over to the parking lot. The chase was on!

Everyone tried not to get in front o fhim as we were told that he would NOT follow anyone, so it was like a game of guided chase. Brisket was not amused.

When a bull doesn't want to move, you can't make him move!

Finally up to the trailer...now to get him in!

I didn't know you could steer a cow by pulling on their tail. Ya learn something everday!

Success!

Now Brisket will be up for auction. I hope someone buys him who appreciates him for what he is...not what he could be... *gulp*!