Crab fight!

We took a long weekend to the gulf where we met a friendly blue heron:

I suspect he/she was a super-model on break, as she/he struck some poses:

We also met a crab, who was crabby. Helen decided his disposition earned him a trip to our kitchen, but he was not very cooperative:

Helen won the battle, but the crab drew some blood:

His last photo shoot:

Not too busy this time of year, still warm enough to be swim-able (barely).

Our rental was 50' from the ocean!

Several times we had the beach to ourselves for a mile in each direction:

Back home, I gave my little electric chainsaw a workout:

This 30" diameter tree is about the limit for my little 18" saw:

Helen loves her carbonated water, but got frustrated filling up the little 1 lb soda-stream bottles at $15 a refill. So I bought a 20 lb tank and filled it up at the local welding supply store (when making metal arc welds, CO2 is used to shield the weld from air impurities) for $14!

If you happen upon me hiking through the forest while touching and talking to my pocket, there is an explanation:

       

Plants have moved back inside. We are at peak fall color here:

The bears are enjoying the scenery from their perches:

There is one tree trunk here (top of photo), all the rest are vines that grew up with the tree:

This is a beautiful section from an old, rotting tree trunk:

This is a vine trunk that borrowed my camera to take a selfie:

The box turtle is (hopefully) hibernating. Helen brought the store bought Russian tortoise inside for the Winter.

Obligatory bug photo:

Bruce

Talking to the hot tub

James the turtle has been given free kitchen roaming privileges. He and his long neck are having fun exploring:

White Dog got wet when he got too excited and slipped into the pond:

This raccoon also got wet when he got stuck next to the creek in a rainstorm:

In other water news, our pond made it’s first Lilly!

The little $0.20 feeder fish are also thriving:

I found some bamboo in the Internets and re-jiggered the pond waterfall:

I got semi-naked and made a video of me talking to our hot tub:

Semi-naked seems to be my native state:

A couple of trail switchbacks in the making:

Bought some cheap Amazon Fire tablets and re-programmed them to show video and photo slideshows:

Closing with the obligatory insect photo:

We get a few of these cicadas a year. Looking forward to the big show. For us, the next in the 13 year cycle will be when the Great Southern Brood emerges in 2024. Expect a few more photos of these guys then!

Bruce

Mail Order Frogs

We dumped 20 mail ordered tadpoles into our Lilly pond last month, then never saw them again. But magically, this week, some bullfrogs started showing up:

Now we need to figure out what to feed them. I asked this guy, but he said no thanks, he was just visiting us on a short term tourist visa and had to fly home:

So then I asked this guy, who we found on our way to the hottub the other night, and he said he would be happy to go ask the frogs what they eat:

Turns, after doing some research, we discovered he is a poisonous baby copperhead, a rattlesnake relative. Fortunately we used tongs instead of fingers to move him.

We really enjoyed our trip to Seattle for the pig roast:

I enjoyed the visits with family more than I did visiting the pig:

We rented out a ‘castle’, replete with a home theater and hot tub:

Chloe got a bunch of really great photos:

She has bunch more here:

2018-07-27-30 Bremerton Trip - Chloe Fan
I immortalize your best moments so you can focus on living in the present. I specialize in weddings, conferences, and…photography.chloefan.com

Here is a two minute video recap:

Also did a 3 minute video of Mom and Mikayle’s visit:

One last video showing the pond build. Sorry for the singing …

I’ve been strangely enjoying working out in hot and humid summer. When the mosquitoes are out, I suit up with pants and long sleeve shirt and get really sweaty:

I measured 3 lbs (6 cups) of sweat in that shirt and pants!

We set up a turtle-cam for James. Helen has finally figured what he likes to eat (crickets and strawberries). He sometimes joins us for our dinner.

This monster is called a jackfruit, grows in a tree. A bit hard to cut up, but tasty and healthy:

Speaking of healthy, Nick talked me into buying a power rack. They let you do solo strength training safely. Turns out you can also solo assemble it safely, barely:

I was going to title that video something like ‘installing a rack in our bedroom’, but thought that might paint a slightly misleading and sketchy image :)

Bruce