Dumpster diving

It was not the typical monday morning. We had a visitor to my office dumpster who helped themselves to our trash. The plastic flaps on the dumpster (now destroyed) and open gate made it an easy target. A bunch of us gathered around and gawked at it until the landscapers' truck drove up to it and scared it off. Everyone except me went back in the office. I just had to get a closer look with my camera. Sure enough the culprit was relaxing along the treeline waiting for another opening so that it could continue its breakfast. The landscapers felt the need to try to warn me. Surely I wasn't around to take out some trash considering I was holding my camera in fully ready mode. Then the garbageman showed up so the landscapers had to back out and I alerted the garbageman of the bear. Of course, neither the landscapers nor the garbageman picked up the trash and so the bear, I'm told, came back. As I left for the field, there was a trail of trash leading to the woods. And we wonder why bears are a problem. It's like leaving a pile of cookies and candy on the counter at work. People will swarm in and help themselves without abandon. But I think I'll be taking the scenic route to my parking spot each day to cruise by the dumpster. Side note - The copy repairman was so scared of the bear he spent 45 minutes in his car. Apparently he couldn't just drive to a different part of the parking lot to avoid the bear.



But my bear stories don't end there. I ventured to bear country and had to do a turtle survey. There was a couple of recent bear dumps as we walked in. Add to that chomped skunk cabbage and cattail. Both usual sights. But today, throw in some nice and very clear bear prints. We all separated as we searched. I was in a tucked in spot along the woods. I then spotted an unusual tree sapling and was yelling out to the others about it. Then I heard a large crash and a huff very close in the woods. I couldn't see anything and I didn't hear any running. So my gut said "Bear, not deer!" I quickly rejoined the group and told of my observation. Needless to say none of the guys ventured over to that part for the rest of the afternoon. Their excuses were "You covered that area so well" or "There was just not enough time." I think we know the real reason.

More visitors

The camera has been put back up, but I'm not the one who's been checking it. Work has been way to busy and it's really a one person job since you swap out the spent battery with a freshly charged battery. It had been put up in late fall when my coworker discovered it on the ground and all the metal hook of the bungee cords all stretched out. Unfortunately no pictures or videos had been taken of this attack, but it clearly was the work of a bear. Maybe it was this bear in the top photo. I'm told that after this bear photo, a blurry bear snuffle pic was taken.

In the meantime, turtle season is in full swing. So far I've had a banner year of catching spotted turtles. I think I have like 13 spotted turtles. I'll be back out this weekend if the weather holds.

Babe central

I unearthed these youngsters underneath a rotten log. You got two red efts and one leadback salamander (which is just a color variant of the usual redback salamander). The red efts are the pre-teen stage of the red-spotted newts. These youngsters roam around in search of new ponds and you often see them after a rain. This week we found a couple on the surface of a pond just floating by, which was quite strange. Often these reach adult, they become olive in color and totally aquatic. I wonder if the remember the good ole days of roaming around on land.

Seeing spots

The turtle preseason is fully on its way. I hit the jackpot in my secret land that currently resembles glacial lake passaic. See photo at the very bottom. But once you get past the first ocean, it's an oasis of nature that's rarely sees people. I've had a rare owl there on my last brief outing there. I even heard the owl briefly call in the middle of the day, which is unusual but not unheard of. Today I found 5 spotted turtles. The last turtle I even sprinted across part of the lake. Of course it plopped into the water and I thought it was long gone. But a few seconds later a turtle head came to the surface and I grabbed it. One turtle that I did miss (but see it's butt) caused me to plant my butt and sleeved arm up to my elbow in cold water. Nevermind the clipboard that came undone with piles of semi wet paper strewn about. I taught myself a new turtle finding technique. Since I was in crunchy dry vegetation, I could see and hear when a turtle was moving and would sprinto to that location and find the turtle. So it was a great but tiring day and my hand tan is full swing.

Prepare the ark

From this past Friday to late Monday it rained. The next town over got 7 inches. Mind you before the rain, all the snowpack had melted and the rivers and streams were full or were already flooding. I ventured out on Saturday afternoon and it was not nice. Wind gusts up to 50 mph, nonstop horizontal rain, and umbrellas were mostly inverted. Branches had fallen on powerlines and lake sized puddles were already invading the road I hunkered down at home and relaxed. Then a knock comes at my door at 10:30 pm. I'm in my pjs and see that there's some sort of commotion going on in the basement. I then see that there's an inactive pump and the basement is flooded. It's never happened while I lived here, but I had seen evidence that the basement had been flooded before. I slap on one of my 4 pairs of rubber knee boots with pjs and scope out the situation in my individual basement. Thankfully it wasn't completely flooded and I rolled up the carpet and lifted anything that could be damaged off the ground. But the trough around the perimeter of the basement was full of water and overflowing onto the floor. I had an inch or so in spots. My neighbors were less fortunate since their basements were jammed full of junk that doesn't do well in water.

The maintenence guys then make an appearance and I still don't fully understand the situation. I really can't blame then since they were soaking wet even with rain gear. I also don't recommend using a towel as a rain hat. Point being was that they thought it was pointless to pump the basement since water just keeps coming in. But that they would come around and pump if the water got too high. Thankfully by morning the water had mostly drained or had been pumped and only a puddle was left in my basement. It's still very damp down there and my dehumidifier is making a rare spring appearance. It's all so strange since I've never even had a drop of water down there during large rain events. Not sure why it was an all or nothing situation.


On sunday afternoon, I just had to get out of the house and run some errands. Very quickly I realize that most of the next town over is under water. Here's some shots I took today (Tuesday) and water has dropped enough that they are allowing cars on the main road.

The below road is still undriveable, but it makes a good rafting spot. That's a raft in the middle of the road there.

Here's another road closed. It sure makes you figure out new ways to get around.
Of course I have a ton of field work to do in this town, but it just going to have to wait under the water goes down.

Snowicane

Update: I really thought the snow would be over and I'd be sitting in my office, not home again. Looks like we've got over a foot and it keeps coming down. My parking area and sidewalks have not been plowed since they won't do that until the storm is over. With the winds, there's lot of drifts. Here's some new pics.

Day 1 below

Snowpocalypse, Snowtorious B.I.G., Snowmageddon, and Snowicane are all new snow terms I learned this winter. Last fall, I had a feeling this winter would be bad and purchased 2 pairs of wintry type snow boots. So here I am looking at snow storm part 1 zillion. After taking work home all week, it finally materialized. Mind you the daily weather report this week has been 2 to 4 inches of snow every night. But it never seemed to really happen until today. Of course there's been a battle between the raging snow storm and the above freezing temperatures. The result is a slushy disgusting mess in the parking lot. I'm off the check the mail in my rubber knee boots before the reported hurricane force winds should kick in. Is it spring yet? Time to grab the nearest groundhog and interrogate 'em.

NOLA last chapter

Here's the last chapter of my BR/NOLA trip from last month. Two things I wanted to see on my visit were the plantations and the above-ground graveyards. Neither of those exist back home so I tried to see as much as possible. We cruised some graveyards in NOLA and the clouds and sun were just right to make some cool shots.

The next day we headed out to some plantations. First stop was the Audubon State Historic Site. We were immediately greeted by a tom turkey who took a real fancy to Co. He was in full display mode and was so close I could pet him. He had an entourage of very vocal cats, which I also petted. Alas, we were late for the last tour (I blame it on the turkey and entourage), so we wandered the grounds instead. Below is a pic of the main house.
We decided to head over to the Myrtles plantation to take some pics and walk the grounds. I really didn't need a tour since Co had taken one before and I've watched the ghost hunters episode a few times. We encountered some young girls doing their own ghost hunt at the pond. I even got to see Hester tossing some water (or something out of a pail) out back. Below is a pic of the front of the house.

As Co started the car, all hell broke loose. The interior light started flashing like a strobe light, a bonging noise came on, and a clicking noise was happening behind the radio. This ghost carjacking continued down the driveway but as soon as we were on the road, all was normal. The more logical answer is that the big bump Co had hit in NOLA had begun to jar the permanently shut passenger door so that the "open door" sound and light would sound. No idea about the radio noise. But more about that later.

The potential ghost carjacking wasn't enough to stop us from making a stop at the local graveyard. Dusk was approaching so we scurried around to check out the older graves. We got back into the car and everything seemed normal. But as soon as got on the road, the passenger door, which was stuck in the shut position, suddenly flung wide open. I was riding shotgun at the time so I grabbed the door and we pulled over. I mcgyvered a quick fix with some twine and hung onto the door handle for the 30 minute drive home. Thankfully the twine held the door so that I or car contents weren't tossed out onto the highway at top speed.

For my final day, we took another look at the door. I double tied the passenger door to the car and we headed out to River Road. We aborted any long driving trips thanks to the passenger door situation. We stopped at the Houmas house and got a pricey but worth it tour. Our tour guide was rocking the full petticoat skirt but a fleece jacket on top. That and the only other person on the tour was some sort of idiot. He was one of those people that don't listen and then ask stupid questions. If I had more time and memory, I'd relay the lawn dart death interaction between the tour guide and that guy which almost turned into a "who's on first?"

It goes without saying that the grounds and house were beautiful. The super old live oak was giant and you can barely see me standing at it's base.