Through The Eyes of a Park Ranger

Time Flies

2010-09-15T23:10:00.000-04:00

I guess that time flies when you are having fun. A lot of time has passed since I last blogged and that is regrettable. I am a person who functions well with deadlines and if there is no deadline... well, there is little blogging. I have still been taking photos. I don't take pictures daily and I am really seeing a difference in what I end up with. I am still catching some nice views every now and again though. I have quite a few photos to share with you today and quite a few more, that I have to pass up and share another day. I don't know that I can accurately catch you up on all that I have done in the past months, but here's my attempt.
I hit the 5 year mark with the Florida Park Service. My park manager presented me with a certificate and my 5 year pin at our last personnel meeting. Its hard to believe that it has been such a long time. I am really looking forward to seeing what the next 5 bring.

I have been getting more comfortable in my new job. I have passed the 6 month mark though, so I guess it isn't that new anymore. I have had my first review with my park manager and have to start giving all the rangers their reviews... a big task! I have participated in several prescribed fires since I blogged last and have done lots of paperwork. Local schools are back in session and we have passed Labor Day so things are really slowing down at the park. It was amazing how quickly that change happened, it was like someone flipped a switch and all of a sudden, we don't have overcrowding in the park on weekends anymore. I am helping to coordinate more special events now that things are slowing down and the weather is thinking about cooling off a little. We have adventure races and orienteering events in the park often. They have excellent organizers and my responsibility is just to make sure that the facility is available, their paperwork is in order, and that there are no conflicts with other user groups. There is also a fundraising horseback ride coming up that I will be helping to coordinate.
One event that I thoroughly enjoyed happened last weekend. We celebrate Literacy Month every September in the Florida State Parks by offering special programs and free admission when you show your library card or donate a book. The books fill our camper library so that campers in the campground can borrow a book while they are with us. This year we also had a big event at Wekiwa. It was put together by the Florida Literacy Coalition and included several other partners to make it a great event. There were several stations that children and families could rotate through in the picnic area. There were some terrific story tellers who highlighted enjoying nature and science through reading. There was face painting and fitness, literacy programs, and even free books!! Every child who participated left with at least one book that was new to them and theirs to keep. I was impressed by one event sponsor/participant. A group called Just 1 Book was there. Their organization was started by a 10-year-old in Orlando. She started the program in her school when she learned of the poverty in a neighbouring town. She realized that if every child in her school donated "just 1 book," they could supply 763 books to other children who could really use the help. Within months, thousands of books were donated and the program is continuing to grow. Just 1 Book brought hundreds of books to the park and every child was permitted to choose one to take home.

I had my own station at the Literacy Event. It was Reading With A Ranger. It was nice to be an interpretive ranger again. I read a book about a ladybug who was searching for a good home. When we finished the book, we went on a little nature hike to see if we could find some bugs who had made their home in the park. I was impressed with the kids and how long I could keep them interested in finding bugs. I expected to only be able to keep them focused on the walk from the picnic area to the spring area. It ended up that I took them on a half mile hike and we found spiders, ants, a beetle, some damselflies, dragonflies, and more.
Another great program was the Moon Rope. Two wonderful storytellers read the book in Spanish and English and then, with the help of the kids and some excellent props, they acted out the story. Each child (and even a park ranger) got to be a different animal. They carried the colorful cut-out of the animal that they were representing. They made it to the "moon" and found gummy worms inside!

Aside from special events, I am still just plugging away with the day to day responsibilities. As I am more comfortable in my position, I am finding that I am taking more time to enjoy my surroundings. Here are some of the great things that I have seen. Rock Springs Run is a northern part of the park that I usually visit once a week. I never know what I might see there. Sometimes its Sandhill Cranes and sometimes a new flower will be in bloom. The giant, pink blossom below is in the Hibiscus family. These beautiful flowers were towering above my head and I had to walk through some thorny shrubs to get to them... well worth it, I think. Once I was through the thorns, and photographed the Hibiscus, I started chasing a Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly and followed it to a Buttonbush.

The main part of the park has shown a lot of wildlife and floral activity as well. There have been quite a few spotted fawns that I have watched grow.

Horsemint and several other flowers are in bloom in the beautiful butterfly garden which is located in the center of our parking loop near the picnic area.

One of our Park Biologists also pointed out to me an orchid that was in bloom. When I heard the name, Giant Orchid, I expected to see a very large flower. I was surprised to see that its stalk was very tall, but the blooms were tiny! Its also called Wild Coco, which might be a little less misleading.

I have been working with the Friends of the Wekiva River group lately as well. They are an organization that works to protect the Wekiva. I serve as an advisor to them and attend their monthly meetings when I can. They have monthly outings to enjoy the Wekiva River Basin, to socialize, and to attract new members to their organization. Some of those outings happen on park property. Last weekend, after work, I met with two of the board members to look at an area for a planned hike. It was a property that I haven't had the chance to explore yet. I had a wonderful time! We saw some ponds as well as some hilly areas. Those are Sandhill Cranes flying over the pond.

I saw my first Burrowing Owl which was amazing!!! I didn't get a good photo of it though, that will have to be another day. The tiny owls utilize Gopher Tortoise burrows and have the most striking yellow eyes! I did find a Quail that was willing to be photographed. I think this is the best image of a Quail that I have every captured. They are normally quick to hide in the brush.

Well, I hope that will keep you for a little while and I will try to return again sooner rather than later to share some more.

BEAR!!

2010-07-17T14:38:00.001-04:00

I'm back. I have had a very nice break from blogging now that my 365 days are up. I still haven't sent my camera away to be cleaned, its hard to give it up. The send-away process takes a couple of weeks and I don't like to be without a camera for that long. I will force myself to give it up one day soon though. I have been staying very busy. The park has been a popular place lately as the temperatures have been hot and humid. Everyone wants to come and swim in the cool spring water to cool off. Wouldn't you? I find it hard to believe sometimes that I ever had time to blog everyday. I have had a couple of long days recently when I got home late, absolutely exhausted and was very happy to not have to blog. I have been missing it though. I enjoy sharing the fun events at the park and hearing the reactions. I think from here on out, there will be a nice balance for me. I will blog for fun with no stress involved. To kick off the fun and the new beginning of the blog, I have redesigned the page. Let me know what you think of the new layout.

I stopped by Katie's Landing last week. I was just floored by the beauty of the place. You may remember some construction pictures that I had previously posted. The majority of the construction took place before I arrived at Wekiwa. An old facility had been removed and a picnic area, parking area, and restroom had been built. I witnessed the construction of the bulkhead at the water and the graveling of the canoe launch. Now, nature has had its way with the new construction and the place looks like it has always been this way. It is a very inviting place now and I look forward to spending more time there. I am finding a lot of favorite places in the 42,000 acres that I help to manage that I look forward to utilizing once fall arrives. The summer heat and humidity mean that any recreational outdoor activity for me involves being in the water.

The most exciting thing that I just had to blog about was my first bear sighting. I have been wishing and hoping that I would see a bear soon. I have heard so many other people's bear stories and I was so ready to have my own. It finally happened! I was in the office, working on a computer training, when a call came across the radio. A bear had crossed the main park drive by the ranger station and was headed to my house!! Several of us in the office ran outside to see what we could see. My yard is visible from the office and we finally caught sight of a big, beautiful Black Bear!!! It came out of the woods near us and walked along slowly. I snapped quite a few pictures and may have done a little dance of joy while we watch the giant bear mosey along. It wasn't at all interested in us. It was out exploring and maybe looking for something to eat. I was so pleased to see such an amazing wild animal outside of a cage, just being itself in the woods. It was a great experience and definitely worth the wait! I'm sure it won't be the last bear sighting for me. Stay tuned and I will continue to share the fun stuff.

Last Day!!!

2010-06-23T16:24:00.000-04:00

Well it was a wonderful year and I have a great sense of accomplishment for finishing this project. I have been able to share a lot of beautiful, crawly, and fun experiences with you all and I hope you have enjoyed the ride. Please stay tuned and check back with me in a month or so. I am going to take a break, give my camera some much needed rest, relaxation, and repair, and revamp the site a little. I am done with daily postings, but I will try to keep up with the exciting moments that I encounter.
I'm sorry that I don't have a more interesting day to report for the last day of the blog, but it is what it is. Today was a quiet day at the park. Several of the administrative staff are using up some leave time before the full force of the summer arrives. Park visitors were pretty quiet today as well. I spent most of the morning in the office and most of the afternoon with the park staff.
I got a fun Bee photo yesterday that didn't make it to the blog yet. It was intently feasting on the unidentified purple flower in my back yard. This Bee could not be distracted from its mission. It was there when I found it, allowed me to take several photos, and it was still in the same spot when I left.

The only photo that I took today was of a Royal Walnut Moth who was having a rest under a leaf near the door to the ranger station. It is a beautiful moth and, I think, deserving of the name "Royal". Its caterpillar is an interesting character that I would love to see in person. Until then, this is what a Google image search yields of the Hickory Horned Devil, as the caterpillar is named.

While I am gone, I hope you go out and do some exploring on your own. Turn over logs and turn over leaves. Bring your camera, a magnifying glass, and a child. That's all you need for an exciting day in the woods or in your back yard. Take photos or notes and bring them home to your field guides or the Internet to continue the adventure at home to learn more about what you saw.

Thought of the Day #1
As I said, this has really been a fun experience. I am glad to know that I can accomplish what I set my mind to and the benefits to my readers and myself have been more than I ever expected. I hope that I have helped to inspire future rangers or at least helped people to appreciate their state park rangers. I know that I have helped to educate a few people and that is worth all the work.

Reflections

2010-06-22T15:44:00.000-04:00

As today is my regularly scheduled day off and the butterflies that I was chasing this morning refused to be photographed, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to look back and show you some of my favorite photos. When I had this bright idea, I was apparently not thinking very clearly. I had 365 days of photo files that I had to look through to find those photos. I didn't look through all of them. I stopped when I had a handful to share with you. So here they are:

I love this Dragonfly close-up, originally posted 6/8/10 because of the difficulty level of capturing it. I had to get super close to it to use the 10X macro lens and usually bugs don't like that. Especially bugs with wings who can easily just fly away. I also really enjoy showing photos here that people may not see on their own. When is the last time that you magnified a Dragonfly?

Another image that people may not see on their own is a person using a drip torch to apply fire to a prescribed burn. The photo looks very dramatic because it seems that the fire might engulf her at any moment. Truth be told, the road edge is just to her right and she is in no danger at all. It looks exciting though! The photo is also composed in a way that would make my photography teachers proud. I have always been taught the rule of thirds in photography. If you divide a photo into thirds vertically or horizontally and break up the focus that way, it will be pleasing to the eye. For example, if you are making a landscape image of the beach and you make the sky the top third, the water the center third and the sand the lower third, it will be more attractive than dividing it in half with a horizon line dead center. Additionally, if you were to draw those lines dividing the image into thirds vertically and horizontally, where they intersect are called "hot spots". It is more visually interesting to have your subject on one of those hot spots rather than in the middle of the photo. You eye is drawn to those locations more so than the center of the photo. In this image, the person is in the left third of the shot. Her head is in a hot spot. Your eye is likely drawn to her head and then follows the line that her arm makes to the tip of the drip torch. The tip of the drip torch is also in a hot spot.

One of my favorite photo days on the blog was back in October. I had a great morning where the light was in my favor and very inspiring. I picked two photos from that day to display here. I don't think that my photo teachers would have liked either of them very much. There is no exciting subject or focal point. In the first one, the top is very overexposed. I'll tell you why I like them anyway though. I like the way that the light carries your eye throughout the image in the first one. If you follow the rays of light, you cover the whole image. I also like that the water looks blue. This is where personal knowledge makes a difference in the image to me. The spring used to always look blue about 40 years ago. Now, if there is a color it is much more of a green hue from the increased nitrates in the water and the subsequent algae growth. The second image is the only one of my photos that is currently hanging on a wall in my home. It isn't very unique and nothing is going in the photo. I really like the diagonal line of the branch and the color variation in the leaves. I love the way the sun lit the leaves from behind and created so much contrast in the image.

Another day in October produced a very fun image. I liked this one so much because of the reaction that it got. It is a crisp image of the subject and though it is centered, normally a no no in photography, the baby spiders are close to a hot spot. Its not a textbook good photo, but the shock and awe from the blog readers made it great! I love the reaction that I get from a good creepy crawlie photo.

I do love a good bug photo. Many of my readers don't like the spider pics, but who doesn't love a butterfly? I have a ton of butterfly photos, but this one may be my favorite. I wish that I had shifted the camera over a little to put the butterfly in a more interesting place, but I'll take what I can get with a bug that likes to flutter away. The sun was so nice and bright and the butterflies had been moving so much. It was hard to catch, but I am proud of this image. I am glad that the butterfly was perfectly in focus. I also like how the swivel viewfinder on my camera can let me get right on ground level without having to lay in the mud.

Last, but not least is another photo that I got some good feedback on. The colors turned out so rich and bold. The sky was reflecting off of the water in a dark blue color and the white clouds were in stark contrast. The puddle on the rock was in a hot spot and the dark red leaves were a pretty blast of color. The blogged photo showed more of the scene, but I have another image of this view that I like even better because it was zoomed in on the rock puddle. You can still see the dark blue of the sky in the water but it highlights the red of the leaves even more.

Thought of the Day #2
I really enjoyed going through my photos for this blog. It reminded me of another benefit to this whole project. Each photo jogs my memory of the day that it was taken. If you were to ask me what my day was like on 10/28/09, I would never be able to tell you. Looking back at my photos though, I remember the morning well. I remember the walk that I took around the spring and the way that the light created so many amazing views. The photos are like memories in themselves.

Summer, Day 1

2010-06-21T20:25:00.003-04:00

Happy summer solstice! Here we are again at the first day of summer. You may remember that I started this blogging endeavor on the first day of summer last year, it was also Father's Day. So we have come full circle. Today is actually the 366th day that I am sharing my visions with you. I didn't forget how to count halfway through, I knew that I would go over a few days. I wanted to do something special and countdown the last 100 days. However, the 100th day was in the middle of my move to my new job/house. I didn't start the countdown until I was somewhat settled, so here we are at Day 366 with two more to go.
Today was another normal Monday. I think that a lot of people dread Mondays, but they aren't so vicious for me. I am off on Tuesday. If I work the weekend, then Monday feels like Friday. If I am off over the weekend, then Monday is just a blip on the radar before another day off. Mondays aren't usually very stressful for me either. Monday starts with a staff meeting at the shop and then a meeting with the administrative staff at the office. I get caught up on the happenings in the park and the upcoming events. I also spend some time at the computer as there is usually an influx of e-mails on a Monday morning. I also usually get to go to our distant, northern properties to do our weekly check. Today was no different.
I really enjoy my trip out of the park and the 15-20 mile drive to the northern properties. Rock Springs Run doesn't seem like much. It is basically a long road that was going to be a much longer county road but it became a park instead. There are extensive hiking and horseback riding trails, but no structures or exciting attractions like a spring. Something about the property really draws me in though. I enjoy the long road that seemingly goes no where. The expanse provides a great view of the ever changing sky. The clouds were really performing while I was there as the afternoon storms were rolling in.

There weren't as many wildflowers at Rock Springs Run today as there were a couple of weeks ago. I should say that they weren't as obvious. Once I started to really search, I found more than I had seen from the road. There was the occasional Prickly Pear Cactus that would catch my eye with its bright yellow flower.

Once I was out of the truck and at the Cactus, I found a few more little flowers here and there. I found this type a couple of times but I couldn't see it at all from the truck. It was so small and delicate. I couldn't find an identification for it, but its flower resembles those in the pea family.

I found some flowers that were done blooming and had gone to seed. They were just waiting for a good gust of wind to carry the seeds to other places to start the cycle all over again.

I also found some flowers that similar to the wispy seeds mentioned above, but the white fluff was the blooming flower. There were several insects interested in these flowers, they must have been tasty ones. The wasp at the lower right was focused. It didn't care at all about the camera that kept inching closer to it. I also saw a few ants and a butterfly that probably would have landed if I had not been standing there.

The last flower that I found stood out almost as well as the Prickly Pear. I believe it is a type of Coreopsis. You may remember the Coreopsis photo that I have posted before, the older post is Florida's state flower. This one is a close relative. I can't decide which one I like more. The state flower is more colorful, but this one has such a simple beauty about it.

My next stop was Katie's Landing. There wasn't much to see there, but that was a good thing. An orienteering, adventure race was held there over the weekend with over 100 participants. I saw absolutely no trace of crowds. It was definitely an environmentally conscious group because the park looked better than I have ever seen it. I found some ducks there enjoying the peace and quiet. They looked like teenager ducks to me, not quite old enough to venture out on their own.

On the way back to the main part of the park, I drove through a few tiny patches of rain. I saw a lot of dark clouds, but it didn't rain at the park. Its funny how hit-or-miss the rain can be here. I wrapped up the last of the things that I had to do for the day and stopped in at the ranger station just before heading home. I found one more flower to photograph. It was right outside of the ranger station. A Saw Palmetto was in bloom. A tall stalk jutted out from the base of the plant and was covered in tiny white flowers. I see Saw Palmettos almost everywhere I look, but I don't always get to see these beautiful flowers. I will have to try to remember my 10X macro lens to really enlarge them and do them justice.

Thought of the Day #3
Another reason that I have benefited from the blogging process has been the education that I am getting. Though I am not always successful, I try to identify everything that I post. In the past, I would see something interesting and try to make a mental note of it to look it up later. Apparently, my mental Post-It pad erases like an Etch-A-Sketch. I rarely got around to looking up all of the plants and bugs that I saw daily. Now that I have been photographing daily and blogging, I am doing a lot more research. I still don't find all of the answers that I seek, but I am learning a lot more than I would otherwise.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T22:21:00.000-04:00

I started this blog on Father's Day last year. On that day, I painted a very different picture from the park life that I have now. At Troy last year, I was all alone in a very quiet park. The spring was flooded and everything was quiet. This year, I wasn't working, but the park was far from quiet. Here at Wekiwa, there are no days when the spring is flooded and closed. It would take a hurricane to close down this park. Even though I was off, I had two park visitor calls before 10:00am. I could hear how busy the park was, even from the house. I was anxious to get away. What a difference a year makes!
We went to the beach this afternoon. It was too hot out to do anything that didn't involve water and I was not interested in being at work. We expected the beach to be busy, so we went a little later in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day at the beach! It was much busier than when we last went, on a Thursday. When we got there though, some people were beginning to leave. We didn't have any trouble finding parking or a cozy spot of sandy beach. I even discovered some evidence of wildlife right away. There was a smashed crab on the beach. I'm not sure how it met its demise, but it was interesting to see. A fly was inspecting it at the same time I was. I thought of my Dad because he loves to eat crab legs. This crab didn't look tasty to me, but I think that fly thought it looked good.

We saw quite a few kites flying in the sky and it was fun to play the game "bird or kite." There was one kite that was very bird-like. It had me fooled for quite a while. One kite was just enormous. It was attached to a surfer. The kite pulled him all over the place. Even though there weren't any big waves, the person looked like he had a good time. It must have been exhausting to hang on to that giant kite all day. Quite a few times, he came to shore and had to walk back up the beach again to his starting point, towing the kite through the air the whole time. He was there when we got there and he was there when we left.

The beach was full of people, but as I mentioned they were starting to leave as we arrived. The first photo was taken right after we arrived and the second, shortly before we left. It was late in the afternoon and there were some dark clouds looming overhead. We heard thunder in the distance, but only found rain when we were traveling home. Please excuse the dark blob in the lower center of each photo. A piece of dust has settled inside of my lens and I have no way of removing it aside from sending it in to the manufacturer for repair. As soon as the blog is done, that will be the first thing I do.

The smashed crab and the multitude of people were not the only wildlife that we saw at the beach. I saw a lot of the same pretty shells that we saw last time. I also found this little oddity. I picked it up thinking that it was a shark tooth, but on closer inspection, I found that it was not. It appeared to be a very young something or another. The ocean is a mysterious place to me.

The beach was dotted with this beautiful seaweed. The edges remind me of pine needles. I can only imagine how many miles this little pile of seaweed has traveled just to end up on our beach.

Again, we didn't see any Seagulls. I really don't miss them. Another scavenger was in their place though. I saw quite a few Pigeons. There were a lot more of them today than there were last time. Maybe it was because there were a lot more people who might drop their snacks on the ground. We also saw several Pelicans, but none came close enough to photograph.

All in all, it was a great day at the beach. We got just enough sun, the waves were small and manageable, the way that I like them.

Thought of the Day #4
I have enjoyed blogging because it forces me to find things that are out of the ordinary. I am always looking for interesting things to photograph for the blog. I don't think that I would have taken such a close look at the seaweed or found the mysterious "thing" if I had not been searching for something other than a beach landscape to photograph. When I was at Troy, I made a brochure for a program that I gave. It was entitled, "Ten Ways To Have Fun On A Hike." One of the ways that I listed was to bring someone else with you when you walk. Quite often, you will see things that you might have missed or the other person will spot something that you overlooked. Blogging has been like taking other people with me wherever I go. I really search for something neat to entertain you all. Thanks for the company, its been fun.

Lazy Day

2010-06-19T19:07:00.000-04:00

I am off this weekend. I spent a lazy day at home today. It was pretty uneventful. I served as a pillow for my lap dog, a Great Dane named Dozer. I did make it out just before a rain storm to catch some photos. I found some flowers in bloom and plenty of insects enjoying those flowers.
I am amazed by the staying power of the Scarlet Milkweed near my front porch. Each individual flower doesn't last more than a week, but when one fades away, another is right behind it to takes its place. The Ants just love these flowers. There must be some sweet nectar inside. I caught one Ant diving head first into a flower.

At the end of my driveway, I found a plant that I had never seen before. I thought that the little pods would open into flowers and planned on checking back in a day or two. When I looked a little closer, I saw that there were some flowers emerging. I had assumed that the whole pod would open into a flower, but it appears that only a tiny flower pokes out of the top. Fluffy seeds form in the pod, similar to the seed of a Dandelion.

Nearby, I found another little purple flower. I think that Florida has a lot of tiny purple flowers. I also think that I need a better wildflower field guide.

In the back yard, yet another purple flower was still in bloom. I have photographed this one before, but I still don't have a name for it. I even showed it to one of our District Biologists. She thought that it may be a non-native that was planted to attract butterflies. I haven't seen any butterflies on it yet, but one Bee was loving every single blossom.

Thought of the Day #5
Blogging has done wonders for my organizational skills. In addition to the journaling of information that I mentioned on another day, I have catalogued my photos extremely well. For starters, I made sure that the time and date on my camera were set correctly. I also now have a folder on my computer for every single day of the past year. Its amazing how often that comes in handy.

HOT HOT HOT

2010-06-18T20:30:00.000-04:00

Today was another hot spring (yep, still not summer) day. The temperature was in the high 90's and the heat index was over 100. We also had high humidity. If that wasn't enough, we put fire on the ground! We did another prescribed burn today and it went very well despite the weather conditions.
The zone that we burned was mostly Wiregrass and Pine Trees. There were a few scattered Oaks as well. The zone was burned just two years ago so it was really in good shape. There wasn't a lot of fuel that had built up, but just enough Wiregrass and Pine needles to carry fire along. We were a little concerned with the weather conditions at first. Our burn boss made a wise decision to decrease the size of the burn because we had very low winds, which allowed them to change direction easily and the humidity was very high, which made ignition difficult sometimes. When we lit our test fire at the beginning, I was a little worried that this would be a long, hard day. The fire didn't move at all, it just went out. It seemed like it was going to take a lot of work to get a fire to carry through the zone. Fortunately things turned around. As we moved down the line a little, we found better fuels that were in the direct sun so they were a little drier. It still took some work to get started though. One person lit the edge of the zone and I walked in to paint stripes of fire a little further in. The strips of fire pulled toward each other to burn out each area a little better. As it got later in the day and we moved into more open areas, we finally had a little wind on our side from time to time and that helped push the fire along. I did a lot of walking in the woods next to fire and got pretty hot. Before too long, I needed to take a break in the air conditioned truck. Fortunately, we had enough people that we could rotate our jobs as we needed to.
We started on the east line of the zone. Once we rounded the corner to the south line, I was refreshed an ready to go. I was able to just walk along the edge of the zone and light as I went. The wind was pushing the fire into the zone and we were able to just move right along without much work.

It was neat to be able to watch the fire from the east line move across the zone towards us. We had to slow down about half way through to give the crew on the west line enough time to get their side burned out before our fire made it to them. While we waited, our afternoon storm came to visit. The approaching storm brought some stronger winds and they were shifting around a little. We needed to get the whole area lit before the storm came along and put it out. Some people from our team went to help the team on the west side finish up their line and I continued to creep along, slowly bringing my line towards them. I had the time to enjoy some wildflowers while I waited. I saw some of my favorites, the Purple Passion Flower. There were also a few other tiny purple flowers that I caught a quick shot of.

When our ignition was complete and the sky was getting darker, we all got into our trucks and enjoyed our lunches in the air conditioning, a rare occurrance. We were hoping that the storm would arrive while we waited and put out the fire for us. We heard some thunder and saw a lot of dark clouds, but the storm decided to dance around us. In fact, the road was wet as we drove back to the shop after the burn and there were even a few drops when we got back, but nothing on the burn zone.

After we gave the fire a chance to burn a little, we mopped up what was still burning near the edges and called it a day. There was very little mop up because the fuel burned well. There was not much on the ground aside from Wiregrass and Pine needles. There weren't many branches on the ground and there were just a few dead trees at the edges. We had to drop the dead trees that were burning at the edge of the zone to make sure that they didn't spread any embers into neighboring zones overnight, but there was only one such tree that I saw. We put out just a couple of other places where there was still fire smoldering and we were done.

When we got back to the shop, we had to prep the trucks for their next use. We filled up all of the fuel containers and topped off the gas in the pump. We used almost no water, so we didn't have to fill the water tank this time. We put our gear away and headed home. It felt like a very easy day on the fire line. When I got home though, I started getting a headache. I knew that I had been drinking plenty of water and I didn't feel overheated or dehydrated. It ended up that I needed more electrolytes and some Gatorade fixed me right up. Next time I burn in this heat, I will be sure to bring more than just water.

Thought of the Day #6
I have enjoyed the feedback on my photos through the blog posts. I have really gotten a lot of encouragement from others with my photography. Its also interesting to hear which photos really excite people and which photos are just so-so. I think that I often have a different opinion about what my best photos are than other people. I don't know if that is because of the meaning that the photos have to me as they hold a memory of a time and place for me or because of what I see in them from photography classes. Sometimes other people will love a particular photo and I won't because it doesn't follow the "rules" of photography. The blog has been fun because the feedback that I get from people remind me that some rules are meant to be broken from time to time.

Thoughtful Thursday

2010-06-17T14:54:00.000-04:00

Today was a laid back day. It was too hot to stay very busy outside. We are now at the very end of our fiscal year and can't do any more spending, so any projects that need supplies are on hold until we get our new budget information. Most of the administrative staff was squeezing in some time off while they could and some of the rangers as well. I myself am only working a half day today, so the blog will be posting nice and early today.
Even with the slow pace of the day, I managed to get some things done and even got to explore the park a little more today. I took care of paperwork in the morning. We are saying goodbye to a temporary employee today, so I did her termination paperwork. She was one of our clean-up people, so I decorated a toilet brush (a clean one, of course) with her name and a thank you note. Everyone had a good laugh about it. We also had some other park service trinkets around that I gave her to remember us.

Later in the morning, I was dropping some paperwork off at the ranger station and I got a call to come back to the office with my camera. A Barred Owl was perched above the courtyard in front of the office. A group of office personnel had gathered to watch the owl and as each person arrived, the owl moved its neck around to get a good look. We all agreed that the owl was enjoying people watching today.

In the afternoon, I drove out to the Youth Camp to meet with one of the directors to coordinate some canoe transport. They are beginning their staff training and the kids will start arriving on Sunday. The Youth Camp is really coming to life and its fun to see. I had a good view of the "bowl" behind the Rec Hall at the youth camp while I was out there. It was just burned last month and most people would never know to look at it. I love that fuzzy look that the new Wiregrass gives the ground.

While I was in the area, I drove out to the Primitive Youth Camp for the first time. There are three campsites deep in the woods for scout groups and other organized youth groups. The road to the Primitive Youth Camp is over a mile long and it really feels like you are getting away from everything. On my way out there, I came across another Softshell Turtle. I'm sure that she was considering the road as a good place to lay her eggs. I'm glad that I came along at the right time to convince her otherwise. Her shell is very interesting from the back, it looks like a big helmet.

When I made it to the Primitive Youth Camp, I was in awe. It was a beautiful area, full of Live Oaks. The entrance to the camping area is marked by a bridge that crosses a depression that evidently has water in it sometimes. The bridge was made last year by an Eagle Scout. There are three campsites, each with benches around a fire ring and a couple of picnic tables. There are even restrooms way out in the woods. They are primitive sites though, so the restrooms are just a step above an outhouse. They do have running water though. I think they are very nice for being primitive site restrooms.

When I was back in the main area of the park, I was about to walk down to the spring. It was looking much busier than the last few Thursdays I have seen. The hot weather and the end of school have definitely increased our visitation. Before I made it to the spring though, I got called back to the office to meet with a person who is holding an event at one of our distant properties over the weekend. I went over some details with him and then decided to call it a day. I don't know how many more quiet days like this I will have this summer, so I might as well take advantage of them while I can.

Thought of the Day #7
I enjoy hearing reactions to my blog. Quite often, I get calls or e-mails from friends, family and co-workers who want to talk about something they saw on the blog. Sometimes it surprises me to know who has been following it each day. Sometimes I feel like a celebrity. I have been at work taking a picture of something and hear someone pipe up "oh, is this going to be on the blog!?" Its fun, this has been my 365 days of fame.

In The Box

2010-06-16T22:30:00.000-04:00

My day was rather uneventful, another day in the office. My evening last night was a little more exciting. Somewhere around 9:00pm, I got word that lightning had started a wildfire at one of our northern properties. There were already some park staff and two of our fire trucks on the scene, but they asked me to bring another truck and call in some more park staff. When I arrived, the county fire department was there as well. The crew that arrived first had battled the fire a little, but the humidity was on our side and it remained manageable. If it was left overnight though, there was no telling what it might do as the weather conditions changed. The Division of Forestry also responded to help with the matter and they had equipment to create a firebreak around the fire. There wasn't much that we could do aside from wait for the firebreak to be put in. The majority of us headed home. We didn't do much and I never actually saw the fire, but it was a good exercise.
Today, several people went back to the fire with a crew from the Division of Forestry to work on further containing the fire. It was still burning so they burnt out a little more of it to make sure that there was no fuel around the fire, no way for it to spread. We will have to check it again tomorrow, but it is under control. Hopefully it rained up there this evening.
I didn't get to join the group at the fire today because I had to finish up the webinar training program that I have been participating in for the past few weeks. Before the webinar started at 9:00, I had to send an e-mail, reporting the fire to all of the people who oversee the park from above.
By lunchtime, the webinar was over and my training was complete. I still had more work to do in the office though. I responded to some e-mails that I had flagged earlier in the week that needed attention. I reported a staff injury to our workers compensation line. I wrote up a memo to inform staff of some down time in a program that we use to report our hours. I got out of the office only a couple of times to take care of a few things here and there. I had to help receive and relocate a shipment of 1100 pounds of doggie poo bags (don't worry, they were new bags). I also paid a visit to the ranger station. It was another wildly hot and humid day. The temperature was in the high 90's but the real feel temp was 109!!! I was glad that I wasn't on the fireline.
The day was over before I knew it and once again, I hadn't taken any photos. When I got home though, I took my dog out and found a giant juvenile Lubber hiding from the rain under the roof of my back porch. It is almost full sized at about two inches long, but it has not yet changed to its adult coloration. It wings are also just starting to grow. It is an awkward teenager at the moment.

Thought of the Day #8
With my shift in job positions from Park Ranger to Assistant Park Manager, I do less of one part of my job that I truely love. Interpretation is my passion. I really enjoy teaching people about the environment and helping them to discover and connect with their surroundings. This blog has given me the opportunity to continue to interpret the things that I see with people, even if they are not park visitors.

Stormy Tuesday

2010-06-15T19:16:00.000-04:00

Today was my usual day off. We had considered going fishing, but the hot and sticky weather made us decide against it. Instead, we stayed inside and even had someone come over to inspect our air conditioner to make sure that it is ready for the summer. It needs to have its coils cleaned and some loose fan blades are making an irritating noise, but all is well other than those small issues.
In the early afternoon, a storm arrived. The rumbling thunder came first. Soon after, there was lightening and more thunder. One giant FLASH-BOOM later, shook us. The power flashed off and on again. It was even powerful enough that the phone rang once! I was really glad for the surge suppressors that we installed less than a month ago on our good TV and the computer.
I went out once today to run a few errands. There were tree branches and leaves coating all of the roads and neighboring yards from the storm. One store's lighted sign at the road was laying in shards around its posts. It was either struck by lightening or a surge made it burst. It was really something. The storm didn't last long, but it was intense. What a great day to be inside!
I did get out for just a minute to take some photos. I had to wait a few minutes for my foggy lens to clear, but I captured some lovely rain drops that had remained on the Coral Honeysuckle.

I also spotted a Regal Jumping Spider who was enjoying the shelter of my porch. I know that most people would, but I don't mind sharing my porch with this beautiful spider. It won't leave webs all over the place, but it will pounce on any other insect invaders.

Thought of the Day #9
Another reason that I have enjoyed blogging is the journal that it has become. It is so nice to have a reference when I am at work as to when I did something. My time sheet is submitted monthly and not only do I record my time, but also a module number that reflects how my time was spent. There is a code for prescribed fire, park maintenance, training, working with volunteers, helping park visitors, etc. I will admit that I don't always stay on top of filling out my time sheet regularly, but it is easy to look back at the blog at the end of the month and know what I have been doing all month.

Mojave Monday

2010-06-14T19:37:00.000-04:00

Today was another normal Monday. We had our usual morning meeting at the shop, followed by an administrative meeting in the office. I reported to the group about the uneventful weekend and heard everyone's plans for the week. I did a little office work after the meeting and somehow, 11:30 rolled around before I knew it. I headed north to the distant areas of the park for a weekly visit. I was hoping to see some more of the wildflowers that I caught last week. To my surprise, there were almost no flowers this time. They must have all melted, it has been hot and dry this week. The only ones that I saw have been photographed thoroughly on the blog. To be honest, I didn't mind that there weren't any good photo ops, I wasn't really looking forward to standing in the hot sun to take pictures. The temperature got up to 97 degrees today and with the humidity, it felt more like 103. Can you believe that it isn't even summer yet? We still have another week of spring!
When I got to Katie's Landing, there were a few things to see. A Dragonfly was on the ground near my truck. I snuck up to it slowly to take its picture, but soon realized that it wouldn't fly away from me. It was dead, but it was still a good opportunity for a photo. This dragonfly is called a Red Saddlebags for obvious reasons. The "saddlebags" on its wings may have a purpose aside from a pretty design. The dark area makes the Dragonfly look bigger which may be in its best interest. It is also speculated that the design might make the Dragonfly look like a wasp, and who would mess with a wasp?

Near the river, some Ducks had the right idea. What a good day for a swim! I guess if you are a duck, every day is a good day for a swim. There were also some Mullet leaping out of the water. I'm sure that they appreciated the cool water that they live in even more after a trip through the hot, humid air.

I stopped for some lunch on the way back to the main area of the park, then I headed back to the office. I did the paperwork associated with the properties that I visited today and thought that I would sneak away home a little early to make up for my late weekend days. I stopped at the ranger station to enter a deposit into the computer, and to post a new schedule. I made the mistake of answering the phone though while the rangers were busy. I thought it would be a quick question that I could answer, like it usually is. It was a person wanting to rent a pavilion. I started the call, I figured that I might as well finish what I started. I took the reservation and did all of the paperwork. Then I was put on hold to be transferred to the person who would be paying for the pavilion. I waited, and waited. Two of the rangers who had come in to cool off left. Another ranger got ready to go home because it was that time. I finally gave up. I called back the number that they gave me and asked that when the person was available that he call the ranger station. I didn't make it home early, but at least I made it home on time.

Thought of the Day #10
Ten days left of my 365 days!! What a year! I am looking forward to having a little more free time once the blog is over, but it has still been a great experience. I guess for my last ten days, I will tell you ten reasons why I have enjoyed blogging about my job. Where should I start?! It has been wonderful to press my photography a little. My best work prior to the blog had been when I was taking photography classes in school and was given assignments to complete. I had to take photos based on a specific theme or topic. Sometimes the photos were so-so if I wasn't interested in the topic, but quite often, I came up with images that I was proud of. Without an assignment, quite often my camera stayed at home. The blog became my assignment again and reminded me to keep taking photos. Just like in school, some of the photos were ordinary or just told the story of the day. I have had some great moments though that captured the magic of the natural world around me.

Super Busy Sunday

2010-06-13T21:40:00.000-04:00

Today was another relatively tame weekend day. It was a little more challenging than yesterday, but that isn't saying much. We were busy. There were a lot of people that wanted to come to the park today and we had to send a lot of people away because we had reached our capacity.
The day started out the way that most Sundays do though. We were slow in the morning. People get a late start on Sundays because of church or sleeping in or whatever. Once the ranger station was open and things were all set there, I took the rare opportunity to check out the park for a little while. I took a walk around the spring. There were quite a few people swimming laps in the spring. There were a couple of families that got there early to get the best picnic spots, but most of the people there in the morning were regulars who were exercising themselves and/or their dogs before the heat and the crowds set in. When I got to the lagoon area between the spring and the river, it was very peaceful. It really made me want to go kayaking though.

I felt a little sad when I got to the top of the hill and some of the park staff were coming my way. They asked me what was wrong because usually they only see me in the spring area if something needs attention or if there is a problem. I really need to find the time to get out into the park more often.
I drove out to the other end of the park next to the Sand Lake parking area. Along the 2 mile park drive, I enjoyed seeing the sun filtering through the trees. I was also happy to find a very large group of deer grazing just off of the drive. There was a mother with her yearling and her young fawn. There were also two or three other does. A little ways away there were two bucks who had some very fuzzy new antlers growing. I thought that I would be able to get some great pictures because they were standing in such a nicely lit area. The vegetation in my way and finding out later that my camera was not set to the settings that I intended led to photos that were not what I expected, but its still nice to capture the moment.

The park looked great. Most of the mowing had been done at the end of the week, so the park really looked nice, the way that it should. On my way back from the Sand Lake, I spotted a turtle in the road. At first I thought that it was a Gopher Tortoise, a normal sighting. As I moved closer to it to get it out of the road, I realized that it was a Box Turtle!!! I couldn't believe it. I had just been talking about Box Turtles with a coworker yesterday. I had told him that they are not very common and I would like to see one because I had never seen a Box Turtle in Florida. I used to see them regularly when I worked at a nature center in Delaware. Box Turtles spend most of their time on land, but they will go to water sometimes to cool off or to catch some food. They are unique because if threatened, they don't just retract their limbs into their shell, they also can close a garage door like flap to seal up their shell. It would be very difficult for a predator to find a soft place on a Box Turtle.

After the Box Turtle sighting, I moved it off of the road and continued on my way. I stopped one more time to photograph a lovely yellow flower that I had seen along the park drive. There were several of them sparsely dotting the Sandhill areas along the drive. I believe that they are Rabbit Bells. Shortly after I took this photo was when I realized that my camera was not set up the way that I expected. The photo is a little darker than I would have liked it, but it was a neat, accidental effect.

The flower photo was the last one that I took today. I returned to the ranger station and things began to pick up a little. A steady line of two or three cars became a steady line of eight or ten cars and by 10:00 there was a line out to the road that stayed that way until well into the afternoon. We finally reached our capacity shortly after 11:00. When we closed and began turning people away, they weren't mean, but everyone had a question or a comment. It was hard to keep the traffic moving. I am definitely getting more comfortable with the process though. I am much more confidant with my answers to the common questions, complaints, and comments. I watched a lot of very patient people pass by me over and over again as they circled and waited to get into the park. It was nice to rejoice with them when they did finally get into the park. We stayed closed until around 3:30. We were able to open for five or ten cars at a time several times throughout that period, but people were coming to the park in droves. This was the longest lasting crowd that I have seen so far here, it seemed to be never-ending. Things finally began to slow down after 5:00 and fewer people were trying to come into the park. The crowds in the park were pretty well behaved. It was a good day, just a hot and busy one.

Thought of the Day #11
The early morning park visitors have it made. They are annual pass holders who have requested after-hours permits. The Annual Park Pass is good for all of the 160+ Florida State Parks (with just a couple of exceptions for parks with a higher fee). The after-hours permits are park specific because not all parks are able to allow after-hours visitors. The after-hours visitors can come into the park two hours before or after the park's normal hours. This works out well for people who come to exercise and want to avoid the crowds or the heat of the day. It is also great for photographers who want to catch the morning or evening light. We see a lot of people who walk, jog, or bike and then take a dip in the spring. There are also quite a few people who use the spring as a lap pool, as I saw this morning. The Annual Park Pass at $60 per year for an individual or $120 for a family is cheaper than most gym memberships and I'm sure the scenery is much better than the gym.

Easy Peasy

2010-06-12T21:43:00.000-04:00

Day one of my weekend went pretty smoothly. The repeater for our radios was making a horrible noise yesterday, but it had been off since then. Apparently the time off was just what it needed and we didn't have any radio troubles today. There were no pavilion rentals today, so there were no large groups in the park. It was definitely a summer weekend, but it was a tame one. We didn't have to close the park because of overcrowding until almost noon. We stayed closed, aside from a few openings to let 5-15 cars in, until about 3:00. There weren't any outbursts like the one on my last weekend. People were kind and as understanding as they could be. It was a pretty easy day. We didn't have any accidents or injuries, everything ran smoothly.
It was still a busy day though, and I didn't have the opportunity to take many photos. I snuck out of the ranger station during a quiet period in the morning and snapped a photo of the flowers that were blooming in the garden in front of the ranger station. This one is appropriately called a Firebush. Not only are the flowers a bright red color, but the stems of each leaf have a reddish tint to them and I read that some bright red berries will follow the beautiful flowers.

One thing that was a little different today was the check-in/check-out processes in the campground. We are no longer taking reservations in the campground because construction will start very soon on the sewer upgrades. Until the construction starts and possibly during construction if they are able to work on one loop of the campground at a time, we will accept walk-in campers on a first-come, first-served basis. As the walk-in check in takes longer than a reservation check in, a lot more time is dedicated to campers. It is a time consuming process because all of the camper information has to be typed into the computer. With more face-to-face time spent with the campers, there is more opportunity for chit chat and questions... which makes the information gathering process much longer. Maybe this will make all of our park staff appreciate our sometimes frustrating reservation service a little more.

The day went by quickly because we stayed comfortably busy. I even got home before 6:00! It was a good day and I hope tomorrow will hold more of the same.

Thought of the Day #12
I'm sure that I am going to regret typing this, but I think that my weekend curse may have lifted. The other Assistant Park Manager and I alternate weekends worked at the park. Our Park Manager warned us that with Assistants in the past, one of them would have all of the bad weekends and one would have all of the smooth weekends. It had begun to look like I was the unlucky one. I was getting a lot of angry visitors and accidents and injuries and missing people while my coworker was getting away easily with very few issues. My last weekend on and so far, this weekend have been very tame. I'm glad, but it makes me a little nervous about what may come tomorrow.

Appreciate Your Water Heater

2010-06-11T18:45:00.000-04:00

I have been a little cranky today and I am having a hard time getting started on the blog without letting this bad attitude show. I will probably keep it short and sweet today so that I can stay a little closer to the sweet side of things. I promise to get a good night of sleep tonight so that I am good as new for my weekend on.
The day started with the usual morning meeting and then back to the house with two of the Rangers. Yesterday, the water heater at my residence sprung a big leak. (Perhaps the mopping and cold shower this morning had something to do with my mood). It seems as though the tank itself ruptured some how. I was able to go out and purchase a new one yesterday evening and two people were able to come over this morning to install it. It is so nice to have a person dedicated to repairs like this. His expertise made the job go by quickly with few hangups.

I now have a nice, new water heater and it is even a bit of an upgrade from the last one. A connection still needs to be made between the steam vent and the outlet pipe, but that will wait for another trip to the hardware store. While they were there, they also installed the new flood light for the back yard that I purchased but had not yet installed. I am actually looking forward to taking the dog out this evening to see how well it lights up the yard. This fix also needs a little caulk and paint, all in due time though.

While the guys finished up with the repairs at my residence, I decided to make myself useful where I could. I helped to clean a couple more cabins in the youth camp. We were chasing spider webs and removing dust, sweeping floors and cleaning windows, and cleaning off the ceiling fans. We took care of two cabins before lunch which left only two more to complete the job.

On my way home for lunch, I stopped to see a Soft-shell Turtle. She was on a hike away from the water to find a place to lay her eggs. You can still see duck weed on her back, which is an aquatic plant. I gave her plenty of room because though they look big and slow, the Soft-shell can move her head quickly and deliver a strong and painful bite. They are unusual looking turtles. The pointy nose acts like a snorkel in the water so that the turtle can breathe without surfacing all the way. Their shell is strong, but flexible enough to allow easy maneuverability through underwater obstacles like rocks or trees limbs. Soft-shell turtles are mostly carnivorous, eating fish, crustaceans, and amphibians.

I witnessed another carnivore in action today, but I wasn't able to get a photo because I was driving and it was flying. I saw a hawk flying overhead carrying something in its talons. Its catch was dangling and at first, I thought it might be a snake. As I watched though, my angle changed and I realized that the hawk was carrying a small squirrel. It was just landing on a perch to enjoy its meal as it went out of my view.

The afternoon had a hodgepodge of issues that came up. A tree limb was dangling above a walkway, just waiting to fall. A man was looking for car keys that he lost last night. Some hikers were lost on a trail and calling the ranger station via cell phone. The ranger station was overloaded with registering campers, taking phone calls, and welcoming park visitors just as soon as the morning person left. The park radios were acting up as well, producing a horrible and repetitive noise, making it a little more difficult to tackle all of the issues at hand. We took care of everything and managed to get the youth camp cleaning and maintenance wrapped up as well. I was glad to be home at the end of it all.

Thought of the Day #13
Happy Birthday Mom!! Thanks for always making me go play outside.

FIRE!

2010-06-10T23:54:00.000-04:00

I got to participate in another prescribed burn today. It was nice to take a break from office stresses and other concerns to just work in the field. The burn was not as exhausting as it could have been either, so that was nice. We burned a small area to ensure that no one acquired any overtime as Thursday is the last day of our schedule week. We were finished well within the work day and had time to prep all of the trucks for the next use.
I was stationed on one of the Fire Engines and just followed along to watch the fire while other people did the ignition. The conditions in the burn zone today made my job easy. Either the fuels burned well or they didn't burn at all. There were only a couple of wind shifts that threatened to move some embers across our burn line, but nothing gave us any trouble. The crew on the other side had a few more obstacles than we did, but overall the burn was quick and easy. I had plenty of time to look around while I was watching the fire. Before we even got started, I had already found some butterflies. There were several Variegated Fritillaries fluttering around a very large Lantana. You have seen Gulf Fritillaries on the blog before, they are a bright orange color. The Variegated Fritillaries are a dull brown color, but have a similar pattern.

I also found more Meadow Beauty right next to the Lantana. A LOT more. There was a very large patch of it on the property where our fire was today.

At the edge of the burn zone, I found the prize for burning in the hot, summer sun. There was some Wiregrass that had gone to seed. Wiregrass needs summer fire to stimulate seed production. Fire has been through this zone often enough to keep the Wiregrass in good shape. The seeds are beautiful in the sun, they look like tiny glass beads.

I found someone else enjoying the Wiregrass as well. This tiny Bagworm was moving, home and all, very quickly along the blades of grass. I wonder if it was headed for cooler territory. I have blogged about Bagworms before, but this one had a few differences in its structure.

The zone that we burned today had a lot of variety. There were some open, grassy areas, some large Sabal Palms, some large Pines, and some Oaks. There was a mixture of fuels to keep things interesting. Some areas didn't burn well at all and others produced huge flames and a lot of heat.

When the big flames would die down, there were always more wildflowers to observe. I caught some quick photos of some Daisy Fleabane.

Another tiny, white flower was much more independant and unique. I only saw two individual stalks of this plant and each one had a solitary, three-petaled flower.

After the whole zone was lit, we gave it a little more time to burn what would burn and then we began mop-up to put out any hot areas near the edge of the zone. There was almost no mop-up to be done. It was really nice to have just a relaxing day on the fireline.

Thought of the Day #14
Fire and flowers seem like an odd combination. The truth is though, that there would not be as many wildflowers without frequent fire. The Sandhill ecosystem that we were in today would turn to Oak Hammock without fire. Without human interference, fire would come through periodically, killing the dense Oaks and opening up the tree canopy. When there is not dense tree cover, the sun can reach the ground and the wildflowers and grasses can flourish. Because of the need to control fire to keep people and homes safe, we must assist the natural processes and administer prescribed fire to keep the Sandhills as they should be, open.

Training Day

2010-06-09T22:23:00.001-04:00

Today was a long day, but I don't feel like I actually did a whole lot. When I got in this morning, I had just enough time to get caught up on e-mails before I headed into the rest of my morning. Today was the second part of the training that I attended last week, Volunteer Management Training. For the first one, we met in person and the last two are being held via webinar. We logon to a computer meeting and we can all view one person's computer desk top. She was able to show us all a PowerPoint presentation while we were on a conference call together as well. It saved us the travel expenses and it was a good way to get more information out to us, but it just can't fully substitute for face to face group discussion. I finished up the webinar around lunchtime and headed home.
After lunch, I went back to the office to pay an invoice and to sign some purchasing card records. When that was done, I headed to the Rec Hall for a talk about retirement investment options available to us. It was nice to hear the information. When I first started working for the parks, I was not at a point in my life where I knew what to plan for. I wasn't sure if I would stay in Florida State Parks for a long time or not and I didn't take my retirement choices very seriously. I'm glad to have the reminder to take another look at my options. When that talk was over, I headed to the Dining Hall to see the progress that had been made. It really looked fantastic and it is very nearly ready for the summer camp to begin. The floor will be touched up a little more tomorrow, but the kitchen had been thoroughly cleaned and several surfaces refinished. It looked great. I also had a little time to chat with the Park Manager and the other Assistant Manager. Outside of the Dining Hall, a Grape leaf that was burned in a prescribed fire was catching the sun just right. It looked like it had been dipped in bronze.

We left the Youth Camp area a little after 4:00 and I was glad to be on my way home. When I was just about to round the corner to be on the final stretch to the house, my phone rang. Someone from the park office was calling because someone from the district office was calling because someone from Tallahassee was calling about time sheets that had not been finalized. I bypassed my driveway and headed in to the office. Last month, all of the time sheets had been submitted on time and there were no problems or issues. I also had plenty of time to work on them last month. This month, when I was pressed for time, there were missing time sheets, time sheets with errors, and overall silliness. I finally made it home around 5:30. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Thought of the Day #15
I am looking forward to the summer camp beginning in the Youth Camp. The camp is run by the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs. We have worked hard to prepare the facility for this big, annual event. I am really craving the camp atmosphere as well. I spent a lot of fantastic summers at summer camp. I am interested to see this camp in action. As a park, we are not involved in the camp aside from support of the facilities, but I think it will be fun to have a camp so close. The camp staff will start arriving tomorrow!

Flying Dragons

2010-06-08T22:25:00.000-04:00

Today was my regular Tuesday off. I love Tuesdays. I had another relaxing day at home. My fiance took the dog out at one point this afternoon and when he returned, he told me that I needed to get my camera and go outside. He had discovered something interesting in the yard. It was a big, white, fuzzy ball. I snapped a few photos of it and then began probing it carefully with a stick. I believe that this furry alien in the yard was a mushroom that became covered in a mold. Mushrooms and mold are both types of fungus and both like warm, moist environments. A mold spore must have found a moist home on the mushroom and flourished.

When that mystery was solved, I took a look around the yard. It was a little cooler than it has been lately because of a welcome breeze. It was sunny, but bearable in the shade thanks to the breeze. I noticed that the yard was covered in Dragonflies! They were zooming back and forth just a foot or two off of the ground. They seemed to be hovering over the mowed areas of the yard. There must have been some tasty bugs flying about. The longer I stayed out, I began to notice that when the sun went behind a cloud, the Dragonflies would stop and perch. When the sun came back out, they took flight again. I wonder if the hunting was better in full sun or if their vision was better to see their prey. How many Dragonflies do you see in this photo?

I believe that these are all the same type of Dragonfly, though I am hesitant to say exactly which type. Dragonflies are very similar to one another and I am not certain about this one. I am pretty sure though, that the yellowish Dragonfly is the female and the blue ones are males. This particular guy was very patient and tolerant of me. I was able to get several photos of it and even stick my macro lens right in its face.

Thought of the Day #16
The veins on a Dragonfly's wings are not in a random pattern like a finger print. Each individual species of Dragonfly has a particular arrangement of veins on their wings. They are part of an important structural design in the wing that keeps it strong and firm. There is blood being circulated through the veins to keep them strong. You may have seen some Dragonflies with spots on their wings. The spots are blisters of blood which may add weight to the wings and reduce vibrations. The Dragonfly eye is also rather intricate. Up to 25,000 tiny lenses are working together to create one image for the Dragonfly. I imagine it had a good laugh over my one, giant camera lens.

Wildflower Day

2010-06-07T21:35:00.000-04:00

Today was a normal Monday. I met with the park staff in the morning at the shop and the administrative staff a little later in the office. There wasn't much news to report. We are all focused on two things right now; spending every last dime of our budget before it is gone at the end of this month and get ready for youth camp to begin at the end of this week. It is a busy and stressful time of year for everyone, but we are just putting our heads down and working through it all. It will all get better soon.
I got to take a trip out of the main part of the park today to head to the northern properties. I really like taking the trip up there. It is peaceful and I love being out in the field. Today it was especially fun because there were so many wildflowers in bloom. The hot days and afternoon rains have been just what the flowers needed. There were so many flowers in bloom that I had to pass some of them up (I do still have a job to do) and even some that I photographed that will have to wait for a slower blog day. I started at Rock Springs Run Reserve. I drove down the entrance road and found the majority of the flowers along the road edge. Before I even started seeing flowers though, I spotted some Wood Ducks in one of the ponds.

The first flower is not very showy. The Blackroot doesn't have much color to its bloom. It is just a big white cone. The insects that it attracts bring a little life to the party though. The bright colored beetle was easy to spot on the pale background of the flower.

Another beautiful white flower was on a tree. The Loblolly Bays were in bloom and they were just stunning. These trees are dependent on the ponds and marshy areas at Rock Springs Run Reserve. Their roots do not go very deep into the ground so they would dehydrate quickly without a constant source of nearby water.

I had to lean over some Blackberry bushes to get close to the Loblolly Bay flower to take its picture. I was so focused on the white flower that I didn't even see the berries at first. I looked down to place my foot so that I could lean over the plants and saw that there were ripe berries. After I took a few more photos of the flower and the berries, I had a little snack. They were sweet and delicious. I left plenty more for the wildlife.

The next place that I stopped had quite a few flowers as well. This second area was further away from the ponds, in the drier grassy areas. It was easy to see which side of the park drive got the most sun. One side of the road was covered in beautiful flowers and the other had only a few. The first flower that I photographed at this spot was appropriately named, Meadow Beauty. It is a vibrant and fun flower.

Nearby, I found another purple flower. This one I can't find a name for. It is a delicate flower and it eventually becomes little tufts of fuzz. It spreads it seeds the way that Dandelions do, via wind. I like the jagged little edges on each petal.

The last flower that I photographed is also nameless for the time being. It is very similar to a lot of other yellow wildflowers, but I couldn't find this one in my field guides. It looked very nice with all of the purple flowers around it.

When I left Rock Springs Run, I headed to Katie's Landing. It was the first time that I had been there since the bulkhead was completed. It really looked good. The park no longer looks 'under construction' and the bulkhead looks like it has been there for years. It has come along way since I posted the last photos less than a month ago.

When I got park to the main area of the park, I went home for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the office. I finished up my first draft of a proposal for funds to rebuild the bridge at the spring. It was nice to get that project out of the way. My manager is looking it over now and I will add some more photos, but I'm glad to have the majority of it done.

Thought of the Day #17
It was fun to see so many new flowers today. Its still amazing to me what a difference in vegetation there is just three hours south of where I had been at Troy. I don't remember seeing any of the flowers that I showed today at Troy. It makes me wonder how much of the difference is related to the excellent burn program here and how much is geographic. I am glad to have the blog though, I wouldn't have looked up all of these flowers otherwise, I'm sure.

Soaked Sunday

2010-06-06T19:32:00.000-04:00

Today was another rainy day off. I got some laundry and some vacuuming done. I was hoping to be able to take the dog for a long walk today, but when I took him out for the first time in the morning, it was too hot and humid for both of us. The humidity was followed by some short thunderstorms and more humidity. I managed to get out in the yard for some photos but I had to wait for my lenses to adjust to the conditions outside and for the fog to fade away from them.
I found a lot of the usual suspects and looked for any changes with the plants in the yard. The spiders caught my eye today more than the flowers did. The first one is a close look at an Orchard Orb Weaver. I have shown you this little spider a few times before, but I don't think that I have caught the interesting pattern on its underside before. It almost looks like a smiley face!

Another spider was close by. A Basilica Spider had a web almost touching the Orb Weaver. Like the Orb Weavers, the Basilica Spider is named for the web that it builds. There is a big tangle of fine webbing surrounding a dome in the center of the web. The spider waits below the dome for another insects to get stuck to its web. You can see how fine the webbing is in this photo. Its an easy web to miss. This spider is about the same size as the Orchard Orb Weaver, only a millimeter or two long. Without the macro lens, you wouldn't be able to see as much of this spiders beautiful patterns.

There is still Tropical Sage blooming all over the yard. When the first one popped up, I watched it carefully. Now that I see there is so much of it in all of my gardens, I haven't hesitated to mow it down in the areas outside of the gardens.

The Aloe had caught a little rain puddle from today's showers. I imagine that some insects or maybe even a lizard or frog will benefit from this fresh pool of water.

I had to look closely, but some of the other plants were still hiding a few drops of water from the hot sun.

Thought of the Day #18
Plants usually take up water from the soil through their roots. Excess water evaporates from the leaves and the cycle continues to pull water from the soil. If needed though, plants can also take water back in through the leaves and distribute it to dry areas of the plant. If the soils dry out from the heat of the Florida sun and the short afternoon rains do not soak the soil again, the leaves of the plants can pull water in to cool and moisten the plant. Some plants, like the Aloe, are succulents and can store excess water for use later.

Super Saturday

2010-06-05T22:00:00.000-04:00

I am off this weekend and loving it! I was ready for some peace and quiet. I had a day at home, alone, doing a whole lot of nothing! I did get out to take some photos though. I actually dreamed about taking photos last night. In my dream, I came across a small body of water that had turned red from a setting sun. I was trying to photograph some young, awkward birds who were perched together on a branch above the water. The white birds were pink from the setting sun also. I was just about to get my shot when a ringing phone woke me from my wonderful dream. I did have some fun this evening taking pictures, but it was between rainstorms and there was no beautiful, red sunset.
I wasn't two steps out the door when I saw a Dragon Fly right away. They are becoming the blog mascot lately. Their reflective eyes and giant mouths always make them look full of personality.

My next stop was at the still unidentified plant that I photographed on Thursday. There were even more blooms today. There have been ants all over the buds and blooms on this plant every time I have seen it. There must be something about it that the ants like.

I also revisited the Beauty Berry Bush that had started to bloom. It was COVERED in blooms today. They are such lovely and delicate little flowers, I decided to get even closer today with the macro lens.

The Aloe right next to it had dropped all of its flowers. The remaining stalk was kind of cool looking. I think I like the bare stalk better than the way the flowers looked the last time that I saw them.

My last discoveries were of the fungal variety. There have been a lot of mushrooms springing up around my yard thanks to all of the rain that we have had in recent days. Mushrooms are so much fun to observe because of all the variety. They come in different shapes and sizes and colors that are always amazing. I especially love how quickly they spring up and disturb the sand and ground cover. The first mushroom is wearing a top hat of sand that must have been on top of the mushroom when it started to grow.

Thought of the Day #19
I enjoy watching the same plants several times a week. Its neat to observe all of the changes that they go through. Its funny to me how some plants will be covered in flowers and then completely bare, like the Aloe. Other plants like the Coral Honeysuckle in my yard will just bloom and bloom and bloom. The flowers last for quite a while and there are so many individual blossoms all over the plant that continue to spring up.

Friday Fun

2010-06-04T23:36:00.000-04:00

Well, I have been wishing for more time in the field and I got my wish. I will need to learn to be more careful about my wishes. I didn't have much office work to do today and the fast approaching beginning of summer camp in the youth camp was weighing on me. My coworker was in a distant area of the park giving an ATV training program for state park staff. I decided to work with the Rangers today to help make progress on the cabin cleaning. We started with the Rec Hall in the youth camp first today because a meeting was going to be held there in the evening. We touched up some last minute details in and around the building and I picked up sticks to prepare for mowing. I spotted a couple of Tolype Distincta moths mating on a tree nearby. I was impressed by their furry appearance and the bright white color was a striking contrast to the dark Pine Tree bark.

Once the outside mowing was a the last thing to do at the Rec Hall, an afternoon rain started. The very dedicated Ranger on the mower stayed on board and finished the job. I was glad to have that whole area out of the way before lunchtime but I felt bad for the soggy Ranger. I know how that feels. After lunch, we had a big group of people working on the cabins. We finished one half of the youth camp and started on the other half. It is really a big job to clean those cabins. The majority of them have four bunk beds and two single beds. All of the mattresses had to be removed from the building and cleaned. While that was going on, someone dusted all of the walls and the ceiling and cleaned the ceiling fans. The beds had to be moved, the floor swept, and the windows cleaned. There are also a few cabins that are a little larger. Some have restrooms and separate bedrooms so they are an even bigger chore. Everyone worked together to make a lot of progress. It was another hot and sticky day out and we were dodging thunderstorms throughout the day. We were all hot and tired and wet with sweat and or rain by the end of the day. I was glad to have a change of pace though. I miss stumbling across flowers and moths in the field. We all enjoyed this little Butterfly Pea that was at the bottom of the steps to one of the cabins.

Thought of the Day #20
I couldn't find a common name for the Moths that I saw today. I was able to locate their Latin name, but I don't have a memory for Latin names and visitors aren't usually interested in that information either. People are able to retain information if it means something to them. I have heard it described as a velcro spot on your brain. I have a velcro spot for natural information but not for dates in history. Plants and bugs are important to me and information about them stick to my brain, but who-shot-who-and-started-a-war is not important to me and it slides right off. Common names for plants or insects are more likely to be remembered because they are usually something that a person can relate to. A Black Racer is a fast, black snake. A Scarlet Milkweed is a plant with a red flower that produces a milky substance. Sometimes when I can't find a name for something or in this case, when there is only a Latin name, I might make up my own name. It will help me remember information about the thing named and create a velcro spot on my brain. What would you call this moth? Maybe a Rabbit's Foot Moth or a Black and Grey Fuzzy Foot. Whatever I call it, I will be able to remember that it feeds on Pine Tree foliage and it will stay with me on my velcro spot. Try it the next time you have something that you can't identify. If you give it a descriptive name it may help you to identify it later or at least allow the information you have gained to stay with you.

Thursday Storm

2010-06-03T21:25:00.000-04:00

Today was a busy day. I had been off Monday and Tuesday and away from the park Wednesday. I was the only Assistant Manager on duty today and I really had no idea of what had been done in the park and what was needing to be done. There were a few people that had specific projects to work on, but the majority of the park staff worked on getting the Youth Camp ready for the summer camp that will begin at the end of next week. Last Friday was the last business day that I spent in the office, so there was a lot to do. I had thirty-eight e-mails to read! Some of them needed action or other responses, so I flagged them until I got through reading them all. I had some messages on my voice mail so I listened to them next. Once I had a handle on all of the new things that had come in, I began knocking things off of the list. I answered the e-mails and returned the phone calls. I approved time sheets and completed my own. I followed up on some things that I had been waiting on last week, and I answered calls from the field while I worked.
In the afternoon, the Park Manager and I walked the Youth Camp area. It was really coming together and the Rangers were doing a terrific job. They were working together in the Florida humidity to detail clean and prepare the cabins. It is no small task and it will continue tomorrow and into next week. There were a few small cosmetic fixes that had to be done to some of the cabins. We made lists of the more involved fixes. A Ranger with a hammer was all that was needed for others and they were fixed right away. The cabins have been there for a while, and many of the groups that stay in them are hard on them. The park staff put a lot of effort into making these cabins as good as they possibly can be and it really shows.
Towards the end of the day, the sky began to get darker. Another storm was moving in. At 4:00, all of the morning shift people were gathered and ready to head home before the rain started. It was as if the wind blew them away, they were gone in an instant. I made it home after the rain had started and I was so grateful for the dry, covered path between the carport and the front door. I love my new home, especially when its raining.

Thought of the Day #21
Throughout my day, I never had the chance to take any photos. I also didn't see anything spectacular. I headed outside after the rain stopped to photograph a new bloom in the yard this evening. I have several of these plants and have been waiting for a bloom so that it would be easier to identify. No such luck, this one evaded my Wildflower Field Guide as well. Perhaps a reader will help me out again.

Ravine Gardens

2010-06-02T21:29:00.000-04:00

Today was a little out of the ordinary. It started early and ended late, but it was a good day. I met my fellow Assistant Park Manager and our Park Manager at 7am. We drove about two hours away to Palatka, FL for a Volunteer Management Training. It was held at a beautiful park that I had not been to before, Ravine Gardens State Park. The training was in a very nice conference room in a spectacular building. It was not the usual state park meeting hall. At lunchtime, we were able to break to a beautiful courtyard and enjoy our lunches under a large gazebo. I walked around the courtyard a little bit after I ate and enjoyed the views and the flowers. There was a fountain in the center of the courtyard. I was able to hear the water in the fountain from where we ate.

Around the fountain were thoughtfully placed flowers of a few varieties. The most impressive in my opinion were the Blueberries. They were just starting to ripen, but they were the biggest Blueberries that I have seen!

With the Blueberries were some large Pink Hydrangeas. They were also just beginning to bloom, but there were quite a few full blooms available for our enjoyment.

It seems like this park would be a lot of fun to explore on a day when I have more time. There were quite a few paths and trails that disappeared into the giant ravine.

I caught one more quick flower photo before heading back to resume training after lunch. I don't know what this one is, but it was very close to a Gardenia. I was able to smell it before I saw it, and by then, it was time to go.

The training was beneficial. I went to a similar training a few years ago, but as my responsibilities have changed, it was nice to have a refresher. I was able to look at everything from another angle. I think that it reminded me of several things that I can do to assist our volunteer program, but some items definitely apply to managing anyone. It was also nice to see some of the friendly faces that I know from throughout the Park Service. These training have become so infrequent, I don't get to see my coworkers from other parks nearly as often as I did a few years ago. It was nice to catch up and also meet some new people.
On the way out after the training, we drove the loop around the top of the ravine. It was a cool experience, it was almost like driving through the mountains, on a much smaller scale. The ravine was formed by water flowing to the St. Johns River. In the 1930's, Ravine Gardens was established as an attraction and developed during Roosevelt's New Deal era by the Civil Works Administration. The gardens that were planted, as well as the ravine itsself have been drawing visitors since then. The park has a very interesting modern history. I will let you take a look at their webpage to read more about what drew attention to the park during the Chicago World's Fair and how the Miss Azalea Pageant began.

Thought of the Day #22
It seems a little strange to have so many exotic plants and so much manicured landscaping around a State Park, but not all of Florida's State Parks are managed to preserve Pre-European impact landscapes. Some of the parks preserve our cultural heritage as well. In 1999, this park was recognized as a National Landmark for Outstanding Landscape Architecture. Ravine Gardens is one of several parks that preserve some of the impact that we have made on our landscape in the past. I had a hard time photographing some of the flowers around the park because of my experience with exotic removal at other parks. It was hard to embrace things like Impatients and Coleus growing in planters around the building and the courtyard. While they were flowers that I enjoyed planting in our household gardens when I was younger, they don't align with state park foliage in my head.

The Weekend Continues

2010-06-01T23:18:00.000-04:00

Today was my second day off. The day was full of errand running and grocery shopping. It was pretty quiet and uneventful, following the tone for the weekend. Tomorrow, I will be traveling with some of my coworkers to another park to attend a Volunteer Management Training. It will be still another day away from the office. I will have a lot to catch up on, Thursday. Its nice to have a little variety though.
I didn't take any photos today, so here is a collage of the Scarlet Milkweed. You have seen its progression very slowly throughout the blog, but here it is, all together.

Thought of the Day #23
Summer is pretty much here. The official first day of summer is not for another 20 days, but it feels like summer to me. The temperatures have been high, the afternoon rains frequent. Hurricane preparedness commercials are frequent as well, and the park has been busy. The arrival of summer is bringing me back to where I started this blog a year ago. As the year is nearing completion, I am amazed at the year that its been. I am looking forward to looking it all over again soon but I am also looking forward to a break. The blog has been fun, but a lot of extra work. My camera is beginning to show some signs of exhaustion as well. I am really looking forward to being able to send it away to Canon for some cleaning and R & R. The blog will continue in some capacity, but after a little time off.

Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-31T22:51:00.000-04:00

Today was a nice, restful day off. Its nice to have a co-worker and a holiday off. I got my haircut in the morning and found that my hair will be used to help with clean-up efforts in the Gulf oil spill. Soak up lots of oil, little hair clippings, work hard! The rest of my day was a leisurely day at home. It was a nice day. I did not get out to take any photos today though. It was cloudy all morning but waited until late afternoon/early evening to actually rain.
In honor of the Gopher Tortoise naming poll coming to a close, here are some previously taken photos. Introducing the Tortoise formerly known as Neighbor with her new elected name, Bonita Tortuga. Some have also requested permission to tack on an additional last name of Turkleton. Making her a very official sounding, Bonita T. Turkleton. Ella es una tortuga muy bonita!

Thought of the Day #24
My dog, Dozer goes crazy when Bonita is out and about in the yard. He is very interested by her burrow, but we don't let him get close to it. When he sees her walking around in the yard, Dozer cries at the back door. I think that the Tortoise looks a lot like Dozer's toy basketball which also lives in the yard, only this one moves on its own. He wants to pounce poor Bonita so badly. She was out picnicking today, but everytime I went out on the porch to try to get a photo, the dog would get excited to go out and Bonita made a quick get away to her burrow.

Memorial Day Weekend Day 2

2010-05-30T23:14:00.000-04:00

Today went just as smoothly as it did yesterday. It was a little unnerving. The day started out very slowly. I had time to enjoy the morning sun a little bit.

I had time to drive through the park and reattach the volleyball net that was laying on the ground. When I made it back to the ranger station, I was expecting a line of people. There wasn't one. We also didn't have many campers checking in today. The phone didn't ring nearly as much as it usually does. I folded some brochures while I manned the phone and we just waited for the crowds. The park filled up so slowly, but we did finally close shortly after 11:30am. Once we closed, I turned away about six cars without any questions or problems, and then the park drive was empty. It was possibly the quietest Sunday that I have seen since we started getting busy on the weekends. It was just strange. There were a few busy periods where we were turning away more cars, but people left without any hassle. By 2:30, it started to rain and overcrowding was no longer an issue.
With the park visitors steadily leaving, I headed over to the office to make some copies so that the ranger station would be stocked for tomorrow. When I returned to the ranger station, I stuck around to answer the phones for a while and help out as I could. Later we had a phone call that the Wi-Fi was down in the campground so I went out to work on rebooting it. The burn zone from the 14th was looking beautiful. All of the recent rain was causing the Wiregrass to grow up in a hurry. A burn zone looks so nice when it starts to get green and fuzzy.

After working on getting the Wi-Fi up and running, I ran one last errand before heading home for the day. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful aside from one group who wanted to fish late into the night and had to be convinced to go because the park had closed. I felt bad for the ranger who stayed late to deal with them. Shortly after 9:30pm though, I got a call at home telling me that there was no toilet paper in the restroom at the campground. It must have been overlooked because the other three restrooms in the campground area were well stocked. Late night visits to the campground aren't fun, but I would rather fill toilet paper than have the problems that usually arise from a busy holiday weekend. It really wasn't bad, and now I have two days off ahead of me.

Thought of the Day #25
What did you do/are you doing for the Memorial Day Weekend? Did you picnic or enjoy some outside time?

Memorial Day Weekend Day 1

2010-05-29T20:34:00.000-04:00

We were bracing for a wild day today. The morning was beautiful. There were cars lined up at the gate as soon as we arrived at the park. The closing field ranger last night had lined up all of the traffic cones in preparation of the great turn-around events that were sure to come. The morning staff hit the ground running, jumping into the duties that they knew they had to complete. We even had two campers checking in before we even opened at 7:30. Once the Ranger Station was open, I went to check on a campsite and wanted to drive through the park to see how it looked. While I was out, I realized that our radios were down because of a loss of power early this morning. When I called the ranger in the ranger station to let him know the status of the campsite and to let him know that the radios were down, he already had lines inside and outside of ranger station and needed assistance. I rushed back to reset the radios and then jump into action at the ranger station. We continued to be steadily busy into the afternoon. I never did get to drive through the main use area of the park. From the ranger station, it felt like we had let in many more cars than our parking lot could hold, but we didn't have to close until 11:00. With all the traffic we were seeing, we thought it would have been much earlier.
The closing of the park went off with a bang! The driver of the first vehicle that we turned away had a reaction that was unparalleled. He didn't stop to argue or ask for any other options. He just started screaming and slamming his steering wheel and making unfriendly hand gestures toward anyone who would look at him. He also screamed the F-bomb at any and every person and vehicle that he passed on the way out. It was quite a show. He was really pretty lucky that our Law Enforcement Officers were not there to witness his outburst. He would have had a much worse day than he was already having. Fortunately, the majority of the other people that we turned away were much more jovial. I think people expected the park to be busy today, so it was no real shock that we filled up. I also had the help of two Law Enforcement Officers. At one point we were really glad to have three people turning traffic because there were a lot of side issues going on. Everything was resolved relatively smoothly and we were all able to keep smiling throughout. We were smiling even bigger when we started watching the sky.

The dark clouds were moving in closer and closer. Eventually, it did start to rain and there was even a little bit of thunder. There was soon a mass exodus of people leaving the park. Oddly enough, there was still a line of people wanting to enter. I guess they had endured the lines and the wait and were determined to get into the park. Once the rain started though, we were able to stay open for the rest of the day. I almost didn't know what to do with myself because things had slowed down so much. I left the park to get change for the rest of the weekend and then headed to the office. On the way back into the park, I saw that the only ones out in the rain were Turkeys. No, I'm not calling the visitors names, there were Wild Turkeys walking around.

They did put themselves out on the line to dry a little later when there was a break in the rain. Silly Turkeys.

In the office, I checked my e-mail and did some reading of our policies. I also re-created our Lost and Found log. I had been noticing that it was lacking. It was a binder with four or five pieces of paper in it and it didn't make much sense. One form even had Department of Natural Resources at the top of it. We have the Department of Environmental Protection since 1993. I adjusted some forms that I had made when I was at Troy and added them to the binder to see if they meet our needs here.
When I was done in the office, I checked in with the park staff again. Everyone was happy that the day ended up being much easier than we expected. Hooray for rain! Now we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Thought of the Day #26
I never know what to expect on a holiday at the park. On some holidays, people stay at home with their families. On others, they come to the park in droves. On some holidays, people are jovial and friendly, on others they are cranky and vicious. On Mother's Day, people were wonderful and on Easter, they were not. We expected the worst for today, but aside from one bad apple, the people were great.

Half Day

2010-05-28T19:57:00.001-04:00

Because of my late night last night and what will surely be some late days this weekend, I took a half day today. I had completed all of my pressing projects yesterday and first thing this morning. The rangers were plugging along at their projects and the park was pretty quiet. I wrapped up the last of my responsibilities before I left. I put away some items that I had purchased for exotic plant treatment. All of those supplies are stored in a Bio shed for use by the Biologists and Rangers working on resource management.

While I was working on bringing the supplies over, a Dragonfly landed on the pull cord to the overhead door. It was such a funny perch to me, but the Dragonfly was very fond of it. When I was done and needed to close the door, I had to shoo the Dragonfly away. It tried to land again before I was done!

It was nice to get home a little early! I even got to have a little shopping spree at the hardware store to get supplies to make some improvements at my residence. I was able to get things like paint for a room that had been patched but not repainted before I moved in. I am also replacing a few light fixtures, including one on the back of the house. The old outdoor light had been blocked by the addition of an electrical box at some point in the past. There was no way to put in a light bulb. I purchased a new floodlight that will fit in that spot and shine out into the back yard.

While I was walking around the house, inside and out, looking for any other items that I might need, something caught my eye. There was one solitary Ladybug wing sitting in the Coral Honeysuckle. I thought it was funny, because Ladybugs don't often misplace their wings. As I looked a little closer, I found out what happened. A Dragonfly was feasting on that poor Ladybug! It was pretty cool. Before I was able to capture the photo from another angle though, my park radio started squawking. I rushed in to hear what was going on and found out that a person in the park had been injured. I listened and chimed in a few times while the rangers helped the person and called an ambulance for them. They handled it well though and didn't need me.

Thought of the Day #27
Today was a good day. Everything went relatively smoothly and my coworkers were in good moods because it was Friday. Everyone was looking forward to the upcoming long weekend... except those of us who have to work. I'm sure that today was the calm before the storm for me as tomorrow starts Memorial Day Weekend. I am happy to see some rain in the forecast which will definitely help with crowd control. After typing that last sentence, I am realizing how much things have changed for me since arriving at Wekiwa. At Troy, I was always wishing for a few more visitors, and here sometimes I wouldn't mind a few less visitors. Maybe there is a park in my distant future that will be juuuust right.

Sparks May Fly

2010-05-27T20:20:00.003-04:00

Today was primarily an office day, but it was an exceptionally busy one. My coworker was off today, so I was administrative and field supervisor. The field supervision was easy, there was almost no one in the park today. Wednesday-Friday we usually have a full crew. Today, however, it was a skeleton crew. Two rangers had to take time off because they worked 16 hour days on Wednesday helping another park burn. One ranger that was supposed to be in the main area of the park was helping the north field ranger with his duties because two people were necessary. Still another ranger went to help another park burn. Fortunately, it wasn't a busy day in the park and we still had enough people to cover the essential positions.
In the office, I had projects from yesterday that were waiting on phone calls or e-mails or decisions. I realized partially through my day that very little was crossed off of my To-Do list, but I had accomplished quite a bit. I actually added things to my list just so that I could cross them off.
Another challenge was added to my day because of computer troubles. When I arrived at the office this morning, I found out that my battery back-up had passed away. They don't die quietly though. They put out an ear-splitting beep at a pace that is infrequent enough that you let your guard down and forget about it until it startles you with another yelp. I unplugged it and turned it off and moved my computer over to an unprotected outlet. I made a mental note to save often and requested that a new battery back-up be ordered. The power surges that likely were the death of my battery back-up also took out something that affected our local server. Most of my computer functions were just fine, but I couldn't access some files that I needed for several hours. E-mail and the internet were up and down again, but I wasn't too affected by those issues.
All morning, I kept telling myself to take lunch early. Something happens at noon everyday that makes me the center of attention. I suddenly have calls every few minutes, questions from the rangers, things that I need to ask people or get from people. Chaos happens everyday from noon-four. I haven't found a way to avoid it yet. I didn't get to lunch early, like I knew that I should have. There was always one more thing that I was almost done with and wanted to finish. I think I finally ate lunch around 1:30 or 2:00. I did get quite a bit taken care of this afternoon though. Despite a 3:00 shut down of all the office computers to allow the server issue to be solved, I was able to finally cross off almost everything that had been on my To-Do list and a few more items as well.
I must have been busy because it wasn't until around 3:30 when I was pumping gas and forced to stand still that I realized that I didn't have my camera all day. I guess it didn't matter if I didn't even know it was gone. I made sure to take a walk around the yard to capture some photos for the blog when I got home. So here is what I found.
A new flower emerged from a giant clump of greenery that was growing behind our back porch. I haven't found a name for it yet. The color in the photo is a little deceptive. The flowers were a pale purple even though they are almost white in the photo.

I found several very small Garden Orb Weavers around the house. They are very quick, intelligent spiders. The white, thumbprint sized area in the center of the web serves as a shield when the spider needs it. When a human with a camera in hand approaches, it is able to quickly dart to the other side of the web and hide. This was the third spider that I had attempted to photograph, this one was either trusting or stupid. Either way, it was nice to get such a close image.

I revisited the Aloe that I had been waiting on for a bloom. It was a little anti-climactic. The blooms were not much different from the buds. The end opened up and then the flower died... not very exciting, Aloe. It is still a very beneficial plant for sun burns though, I won't hold a grudge.

Near the Aloe, I glanced at a Beauty Berry Bush was getting quite large as they are prone to do. I noticed something that I had never seen before though. They have very tiny, discrete flowers! The berries that come later are so large, bright and conspicuous. It was a treat to see the little beauties.

Thought of the Day #28
I have to apologize to my loyal readers. This post is very late. I was about 3/4 of the way done with this post when the food that I had put into the oven for dinner was ready. I took a break to eat, but just as I was pulling the food out of the oven, my work phone rang. How does it always know when dinner is ready? A ranger was calling to let me know that she had driven by and noticed a power pole near our gate sparking. I went out to take a look and it was steadily sparking and flaring up. I had quite a struggle to notify the electric company. I eventually had to contact the fire department because after an hour of calling and waiting on hold, I hadn't gotten any response from the electric company. The fire department was able to notify the appropriate people and I was grateful that they relieved me of my post, watching the sparks. By 12:30pm, after more calling and frustration, the problem was fixed. A fuse on the pole had given out and it was evidently the cause of the power surges that we had been having. We were without power from 10:00-12:30 and by the time the whole ordeal was over, I was headed to bed. Thank goodness for the auto-save function on Blogger. I still had the post that I had started.

Back to the Grind

2010-05-26T19:41:00.000-04:00

Now that I'm finished with all of my days off this week and I am back to work to stay for a few days, the week is ending. My week will continue through Sunday, but in the office, everyone was scrambling to get things done. We are still in the mad dash to wrap up our budget before the fiscal year ends in June. We have almost reached the deadline to stop using our purchasing cards so that the payments process this year. We are rushing to get all of the things that we need while we have the money. I spent most of the morning calling and pestering a business that needed to get me a quote and a cleaning company that needed to e-mail information about the work that they did weeks ago. By 3:00 I had reached a point where I couldn't get anything else done because I was waiting on responses from others.
The majority of my day was spent in the office. I did find a few bugs hanging around the office porch to share with you. One is a variety of Tussock Moth caterpillar. They have very distinctive tufts of fur at each end that stick out further than the rest of their fuzz. You have seen some other Tussock Moth caterpillars here and here. This is a head-on view of its face.

Near the caterpillar, I found an Assassin Bug Nymph. When it grows up, the orange, spiky mouth part that you see will be much more intimidating. It will use that mouth part to stab other insects to feed.

I did get out of the office for a little while after lunch. All of the park staff joined forces to patrol the spring area when we heard that a rowdy group was coming into the park. A "senior skip day" tradition had started with a local high school. For the past few years, the groups that came had caused a lot of trouble. I had heard stories of stolen food from a family in a pavilion and a ruined birthday cake, rotten eggs, and bullets found in the woods. Everyone was on guard for what the group might bring this year. Overall, the group was good. They were rowdy high school seniors, but for the most part, they were respectful. We had to watch closely and catch problems right away, but they were responsive to our requests. I stuck around for a while, but I saw that there was no major trouble and the Rangers were doing a great job. I finished up what I could in the office and then went back to check on the crowds one more time. Most of the people were on their way out. I heard reports of a stun gun and a boxing match from the rangers, but they were stopped immediately. You just never know what to expect, but I am more and more impressed every time I see the Rangers jump into action together to tackle a big situation. They really are like a family. They pick on each other and complain about each other, but when someone is a threat to the park, they work well as a team.
Before heading home, I took a quick walk around the Wet-to-Dry Trail. I was taking a look at the accessibility of the trail. We have a group coming in next week for a tour. The majority of the trail is a wooden boardwalk and is accessible. Where the boardwalk ends though, there is a sandy, bumpy and hilly trail to the picnic area. Anyone on wheels or needing stable, flat ground would have to turn around on the boardwalk and return the way that they came. I had to look again to make sure that there was enough clearance to turn. My Manager and I discussed it later and while ADA regulations are often on our minds, we remembered the layout of the trail much differently that it really is. I'm glad I took another look. While I was on the trail, I saw a Dragonfly that was a different color from the blue and green ones that I see in my yard most often.

I also saw a large Skink. While I stood there and took its picture, two park visitors walked up behind me. I started talking to them about the Skink when another one arrived. While we stood there and watched, at least three other Skinks scurried through the area. I believe that they were all Broadhead Skinks, but the female and young Broadhead Skinks look very much like another, Five-Lined Skink. They are usually somewhat solitary creatures, but they usually lay eggs in the summertime. I imagine its time for them to make friends.

On my way back through the picnic area to my truck, I passed another Dragonfly. I know I have photographed one like this before, but it seemed to be studying the sign. I thought it was funny. The Dragonfly obeyed the sign too... it didn't bring a grill or a pet past that point.

Thought of the Day #29
Crowd control can be a delicate beast to deal with. Everyone in the park paid their entrance fee and deserves to enjoy the park the way that they want to as long as they are following the rules. Different people enjoy the park in different ways though and it can be a difficult balance between visitors sometimes. Some groups come to the park to enjoy the peaceful serenity of nature. Some people come to the park to play in the water and have fun with friends. Both groups deserve to enjoy themselves, but its up to the Rangers to make sure that they can compromise with each other. Its hard sometimes. All we can do is use the rules and policies in place to guide our decisions to make sure that we are fair and reasonable to everyone involved.

Time-Out Tuesday

2010-05-25T18:57:00.000-04:00

Today was a very quiet day off. It was a rainy day, so there was not much outdoor activity to be had. I did make it out between showers to study the Scarlet Milkweed a little more. It really is a stunning flower and I wasn't the only one who thought so. This little ant was posing so perfectly while it inspected the flower even closer than I did.

I was having a great time with that, and even found some Dragonflies who would let me chase them with the camera.

My camera batteries had other plans for me though. They quit after the dragonfly. That was the end of photos for the day, but I did run out to get more batteries, so I am ready for tomorrow.

Thought of the Day #30
I was grateful for the rain today. When I mowed my lawn on Sunday, I noticed how dusty everything was. It had really been getting dry. The rain helped knock the dust back down and hopefully it will get more grass started in the yard. The rain is also important if we want to continue burning. We can't do any prescribed fire if everything gets too dry. We need a little rain from time to time to make sure that a prescribed fire is safe.

Milkweed Monday

2010-05-24T22:15:00.000-04:00

Today was a typical Monday. I spent the morning in meetings. We had our daily staff meeting at the shop and then the Monday Morning meeting with the administrative staff. We looked at the week ahead and spent a lot of time talking about money. The end of June is the end of our fiscal year. We are working hard to effectively utilize every bit of money available to us before it is gone and the new budget is upon us.
When the meetings were over, I went back to my office, where I stayed for the majority of my day. I worked on getting organized for the week, and made progress on a few projects. The floor cleaning estimate that was scheduled for today was rescheduled for tomorrow, my co-worker will have to take care of it. I don't like leaving my projects for someone else to finish, but we need to get the estimates in and the work done on this budget year. I also got prices and purchased a new box blade, which is a tractor attachment that smooths our dirt roads. I processed honor fees for three park entrances and did the associated paperwork. I also spoke to someone about one possibility for replacing the bridge over the spring area.
It was a busy paper-pushing day, but I did steal a few glimpses of the beautiful outdoors. The Milkweed Plant outside of my front door had burst into bloom by the time I got home for lunch. The yellow color was a surprise to me! I had seen the tight, crimson buds and had expected flowers the same color. This is a Scarlet Milkweed and though it isn't a native Florida plant, it has established here. It fits in well with our Florida habitats. It does have predators and it grows well here, but doesn't overgrow. It is also a favorite plant of the Monarch Butterfly. I will have to keep an eye out for more butterflies. I will definitely be revisiting this flower with my macro lens tomorrow.

I also had the opportunity to walk down to the spring area, late this afternoon. I was initially surprised by how many vehicles were in the parking lot on a Monday afternoon and shocked at all of the people around the spring. It was a pretty busy day! As I walked toward the water though, I noticed the sky getting darker and darker. By the time I was at the water, the thunder began to rumble in the distance and the crowds were quickly dispersing. The weather was absolutely perfect at that moment. The air was warm but there was a cool breeze. I took a few seconds to enjoy the view from the bridge over the spring, looking out onto the lagoon which leads to the river. I just love to watch an incoming storm.

There was a little bit of rain, but not much at all. The storm left just as quickly as it came. It led to a nice, quiet evening at the park.

Thought of the Day #31
Tomorrow is another day off. It almost seems silly to have two days off, one day on, and one day off again. I think I like the new schedule though. When I return on Wednesday, I will have to work six days in a row, but that beats the eight days in a row that I worked with the other schedule. Strange and rotating schedules are something common to Park Rangers. We work when other people recreate. We have to be here on weekends and holidays, because that is when people most want to come to the parks. There are different rotations at all of the state parks in Florida. Each park finds what works best for their crowds, and their Rangers. I think that my favorite schedule was to work four 10-hour days and have three days off in a row. It was also nice when I had a set schedule at Troy, and didn't have to keep track of rotations. One thing that I like about my schedule these days is that I rarely have to work into the evening.

Yard Day

2010-05-23T19:07:00.000-04:00

On Day Two of my weekend, I slept late, relaxed all day, and then used the cooler evening hours to get some yard work done. My neighbor, the still-to-be-named Gopher Tortoise, was trying to politely tell me that my yard needed attention. She was out there this afternoon trying to trim things back a bit on her own.

While I was outside, sitting perfectly still to photograph the Tortoise, a flock of Turkeys snuck up behind me. They moved through the yard and pecked around a bit. They didn't stay long, they were apparently appalled by the unkempt tall grass.

To appease the wildlife, I finally went to get the weed eater and the lawn mower once the afternoon sun was gone. My fiance trimmed up all of the edges and I mowed the yard. When I was done, I had to leaf blow all of the concrete surfaces, the cars, and myself because of all of the dust that I blew around with the mower. I may have to mow another four or five times before all of the leaf mess is ground up and gone. Between the leaf dust and the sand, mowing this lawn is a very messy job. It was well worth it though. The yard looks much better, I hope that the wildlife will approve as well. Take a look at the before and after of the yard.

Front Yard

Back Yard

Thought of the Day #32
I was being a little silly in the blog today. Of course, the animals don't care about the length of my grass. The Gopher Tortoise was just feeding, not trying to trim the yard. Don't worry though, there is still plenty of tall grass at the edges of the yard for the Tortoise. She had also returned to her burrow long before I started mowing. Don't forget to place your vote for your favorite Gopher Tortoise name! Once you select your choice, you can see how everyone else is voting.

Weekend Peace

2010-05-22T23:42:00.000-04:00

Its nice to have a weekend off again! After three in a row, I'm glad to not be in the midst of crowds of people. I spent a peaceful day in the country with friends and got to spend time taking photos. It was great. Here is what I found.
I couldn't find a name for this shrub, but the tiny, delicate flowers were impressive to me. The bush is in my friends' yard, so I don't know if it is native or ornamental. I didn't see it in either of my flower/shrub field guides, and a quick google search turned up several Florida shrubs with small white flowers, but none like this one. The groups of white buds were obvious, but I had to look closer to see the ones that had burst into bloom. The flower was so slight, it was easy to overlook.

In a field of grass, I found this one stalk standing proudly. The Ladies' Tresses were blooming in a spiral around their solitary stalk.

At the base of a tree, I had to work quickly to catch this quick moving Lubber Nymph. It will later become a giant, bright colored Lubber Grasshopper. For now, it is a little more discrete. You may remember seeing another Lubber Nymph in the past with a red stripe instead of yellow. Their colors vary, but all of these bright colors warn predators that they are toxic. In case you were planning on snacking on one... it probably wouldn't be a good idea.

I found a beautiful caterpillar that I can't identify. Its pristine, white fur coat was stunning in the sunlight. I hope it was hungry. I found it on an invasive, exotic Wisteria plant. It didn't see any chew marks in the leaves though. Eat-up caterpillar, tell all your friends!!

Finally, I was lucky enough to catch a couple of dragonflies. They are easily, one of my favorite insects. They are amazing to look at, they don't bother people, and they feed on pests. What a great bug!

Thought of the Day #33
Thirty three days left!! I can't believe it! I started this endeavor on the first day of summer last year. I am even more surprised that summer isn't officially here yet. We have already had some hot days over 90 degrees. Summer seems to have arrived at the park if you take a look around on the weekends. Looking back on my first post, I think that Day 1 of summer here at Wekiwa will be a little different.

Training Day

2010-05-21T21:47:00.000-04:00

A really nice perk to working at Wekiwa Springs is that because of the park's location and facilities, trainings are commonly held here. Today, I was able to participate in a fire training that I had been trying to go to for the past year or more. I needed this training under my belt to begin working towards a Crew Boss status on the fireline. I had not been able to take it before because of the remote location of my former park and the travel restrictions that we have been under for the past couple of years. Now that I have completed this training I am a Firefighter Type 1. I need to work a certain number of prescribed fires as a Crew Boss Trainee. Then, I will be a full-fledged Crew Boss. I still have a long way to go before I can be a Burn Boss, in charge of an entire prescribed fire. As a Crew Boss, I will guide one group of people working on a fire to achieve the goals set forth by the Burn Boss.
I spent the whole day in training, but it was interesting and well presented. It didn't feel like a classroom day at all. The majority of the training was spent reviewing two resources that we carry on the fireline. One is the Fireline Handbook, which has everything that I might possibly need to know about dealing with wildfire. Most of the information is also applicable to prescribed fire. It has detailed checklists for any scenario we might encounter from a safety checklist for every incident to evaluating homes in the path of fire to guiding a helicopter water drop. It has charts to give us an idea of how long creating a fireline by hand should take, and how much room a helicopter needs to land. It is an amazing wealth of knowledge in a small, cargo-pocket sized book. I still have my first Fireline Handbook from my initial fire training. It was a little out of date, so I got a new one today. The other resource we were given is the IRPG, or Incident Response Pocket Guide. It contains the most commonly used bits of information in a condensed format. The IRPG is a much quicker reference to use and it fits in a shirt pocket.

Throughout the day, we reviewed different sections of both books and participated in several group exercises to put the knowledge to use. We looked at maps and scenarios that a firefighter might encounter on the fireline. We had to work together to run through our checklists and create a plan of attack while keeping our crews informed and safe. After the group exercises, we had a quick review and then took a test. I aced the test and got my certificate. I will add it to the collection.

After I finished my test, I went outside to wait until everyone was finished. I watched a Red-bellied Woodpecker inspect an Oak Tree. I first noticed it when it was on the ground. Then, I watched it hop all over the tree. It went round and round and up and down checking each fissure in the tree bark.

Every zone around the building that we were training in today has been burned in the last month or two. It was a great way to set the mood for a fire training! This area was burned a week ago today, and the black is quickly being replaced by green.

Thought of the Day #34
I have mentioned the different outdoor agencies before. It is often difficult for people to make the distinction between state park, national park, division of forestry, city park, water management area, etc. We are all separate entities and for the most part, we work independently. Firefighting is one thing that brings us all together though. We all go through the very same National Wildfire trainings, so quite often, we are at those trainings together. We can help each other out when one area is short on staff for a prescribed burn or if a wildfire happens, we can work together to fight it. Because we go through the same trainings, it is easy to work together to achieve the same goals. We use the same terminology and look for the same safety considerations. Our organizational structure is the same, and our procedures are the same. Today, there were several other Florida State Park people, but there were also people from the county, the Office of Greenways and Trails, a Water Management District, and the Nature Conservancy. Many of the people in the room had worked some of the same fires together or burned on the same properties.

Thursday Thursday

2010-05-20T23:44:00.000-04:00

I was in the office a lot again today, but I did have some relief. I was the field supervisor today in addition to my normal duties because my coworker was off today. The majority of the staff worked on a small prescribed burn though, so I really didn't have to do much. I talked to everyone in the morning and they went their separate ways to prepare for the day. The only people not burning were stationed in the Ranger Station, working on clean-up, or taking care of completing mandatory trainings. I plugged away at my office work, hoping that I would be able to go out to watch a little of the burn.
I had a lot to do in the office, and more things kept coming up throughout the day. I processed some paperwork to get a fuel card PIN number for an employee. I did some more paperwork for a new hire to make sure that the funds to pay this person were coming from the right budget. I set up another appointment to get another estimate on floor cleaning. I did a few more steps to prepare for a new ADA compliance tracking database. I responded to a few calls and questions from the field. I sent and answered at least a dozen e-mails. It all kept me busy until well past my lunch time. I did get to step outside for a minute or two in the morning. I couldn't get out into the park, but nature came to our doorstep. One of my coworkers noticed a perfect little spiderweb that had caught the sunlight just right. She pointed it out to me and I agreed that it was photo-worthy. This little Orchard Orb Weaver was one of many spiders utilizing the railing on our porch to provide a structure to build their webs. Its funny, the Park Ranger in me took the time to admire the spiders and educate those around me. Then the Assistant Park Manager in me wanted to clear the spiderwebs from the front of our Administrative Office. The Park Ranger won today... the webs are still there.

When I was finally able to break for lunch, I stopped home long enough to make myself a bite to eat and quickly scarf it down. I was determined to make it out to the burn zone before they were done. The prescribed fire today was at the youth camp area. The majority of the larger zones around the youth camp have been burned in the past month or two. Today, they burned the small islands between the buildings and pathways throughout the camp. The islands are not part of larger zones, but they do get built up with pine needles, debris, and woody growth. Fire keeps the area nice and open and protects the buildings in case of unintentional fire.

The burn today was a nice, small one. They were able to burn each plot and mop it up right away, the fire was extinguished before they moved on to the next one. Thursday is the end of our work week, so they had to be done on time because there is no opportunity to make up for time that they might stay late. By mopping up each section before moving on, they were able to stop when they needed to. They were able to get a lot done today and even finished up with one slightly larger section.

While I was walking around to see their completed areas, I got called away to meet with a county inspector. She wanted to see how we were storing and disposing of hazardous wastes like light bulbs and used oil. We did just fine on the inspection and the inspector gave us some helpful hints to improve even more. She also gave me some ideas on disposing of items that we would like to recycle, but haven't yet found a facility that will do so. After parting with her, I headed back to the office. I was given another assignment while I was there that I am looking forward to. We are looking into replacing the bridge that divides the spring swimming area from the lagoon that leads to the river. The bridge is beautiful, but it is showing its age and it is not compliant with ADA standards. I am working on drawing up a proposal to request funding for a new bridge. I did a bit of research online and requested a quick quote to start thinking about numbers. I also took a walk down to the existing bridge to take some photos for reference. I really like the old bridge, but I see where it needs improvement. I hope that our replacement will be aesthetically pleasing while meeting out safety, functionality and ADA goals.

Thought of the Day #35
If you are not familiar with the acronym, ADA, it stands for Americans with Disabilities Act. It is law that was put into place in 1990 to ensure that people of all abilities have the same opportunities available to them. The Florida State Parks have been making an admirable effort in the past years to make sure that the parks are compliant with ADA standards. This has been a huge endeavor to check picnic areas, pathways, restrooms, and buildings to make sure that we are in compliance. It also has been challenging to make the changes necessary on our limited budgets. We are making tremendous progress though and slowly, but surely finding ways to serve all of our visitors.

Coincidence

2010-05-19T22:25:00.000-04:00

Today was another officey day. I processed some more paperwork for our newest employee. I think it may never end. I also got caught up on some projects that had been put on the back burner for a little while. I made the whole office laugh when I called to speak to someone named Mary Ann. Her co-worker, Ginger answered the phone so when I said "Hi Ginger, is Mary Ann available?" everyone thought that I was phoning Gilligan's Island. I didn't even realize the connection until I hung up the phone and everyone was laughing. I wonder if they hear a lot of Gilligan's Island jokes at their office. I had to make some edits to a data-filled report that I completed about a month ago. My eyes began to cross from going through the difficult database and I knew it was time to break for lunch.
While I was at home, I took the dog out for a walk around the yard. As we were headed back to the door, I was delighted to see three butterflies around the Lantana! I was just talking about them yesterday and wondering why I hadn't seen any. It was just my bad timing, but it worked out today. All three Gulf Frittilaries were enjoying the Lantana and the Honeysuckle. It is difficult to hold a leash attached to a Great Dane in one hand and a camera in the other and take macro photos of things that fly, but I managed to get a few shots.

I'm glad that I caught the butterflies because there were no other photo-worthy views before me for the rest of the day. After lunch, I went out to the youth camp to pick up a community service worker and transport him to another work area. I went back to the office to pick up a few things that had to go to the Ranger Station. By then, it was time to head to the district office. The district office is conveniently right down the hall from my office. I was taking part in a conference call with parks throughout the district and it was nice to be able to be in the same room as some of the people on the call. During the call, we discussed our volunteer programs, our interpretive programs, our new ADA database for keeping the parks accessible and compliant, and safety issues.
Before I knew it, the day was almost over. I chatted with some of the rangers about plans for tomorrow and wrapped up any loose ends from the projects that I worked on today. It was a good day, but a quick one.

Thought of the Day #36
I feel like the blog is not as exciting as it was when I was a Park Ranger. I'm glad to be able to show the changes between being a Ranger and being an Assistant Park Manager, but I miss being able to show all the cool things to find in the park... I miss seeing all the cool things in the park. I spend a lot more time in the office than I ever have. My coworker is off tomorrow, so hopefully I will need to spend more time in the field tomorrow in his place. I know that I have some office work to take care of though.

Time-Out Tuesday

2010-05-18T20:07:00.000-04:00

Today was a nice day off. I didn't do much aside from walking the dog and taking a nap with the cat. All is right with the world. I took a little stroll around the yard with my camera as well. The flowers have not changed much, but one of the buds on the Aloe did finally spring open. The flowers are a lot like the Coral Honeysuckle.

The Lantana is still blooming and is as pretty as ever. There is so much of it! There is a lovely yellow pocket in my yard. I would like to know where the butterflies are though. I don't know how they could be passing up all of the foliage in my yard. It must just be poor timing on my part.

Just when I thought that the Coral Honeysuckle couldn't possibly produce any more blooms, it makes more. It has overgrown its trellis, but there are so many flowers on it that I couldn't possibly trim it back now. I will just have to wait until its done blooming, but I don't see that happening any time soon. I really like the little green nubs that the flowers come out of. They look silly before the flowers emerge.

I wasn't satisfied with just the same flowers that you have already seen. I went walking around the yard for a little while to find something new and interesting. Between smacking the mosquitoes and deer flies that wouldn't leave me alone, I stumbled upon this odd combination. A blade of grass must have grown up through a leaf. The grass leaf was curled through the oak leaf. Can't you just imagine this process happening in the slow motion of real life?

While I was examining the leaf that was stabbed by the grass, I saw a little fuzz on another leaf of that grass. I didn't think it was anything more than a fuzz until I looked a little closer at it. It was an insect! I had never seen anything like it aside from a few caterpillers. This little guy had defined legs though, it was no caterpillar. I photographed it using the macro lens and was finally able to get a good look at it once it was on the computer screen. It is a Planthopper Nymph. When it grows up, it won't be much bigger than it is right now, but it will be a splotchy brown color and it will loose its fuzz. It was true to its name. I didn't get to take many photos of it because it suddenly disappeared. It hopped away. I never would have seen it if it wasn't for that wacky leaf.

Thought of the Day #37
There are millions of species of insects that share the planet with us. Its impossible to know them all, and it can be challenging to identify insects sometimes. Their different stages of growth add another degree of difficulty especially with insects that undergo complete metamorphosis and their appearance changes drastically throughout their life cycle. Learning the different orders of insects can make pinning down an identification a little easier. Within the classification of insects, there are around 30 groups, called orders that are defined by some of the insects characteristics. A nice break down with photos can be found here at Bug Guide. Some of the Orders that are most common and you may already be familiar with are Coleoptera, which are Beetles, Lepidoptera, which includes butterflies and moths, Hymenoptera are bees and wasps, and possibly, my least favorite are Diptera which are flies and mosquitoes. The latin names describe some of the insects characteristics. The "tera" on the end of the word refers to their wings. Beetles have sheathed wings, butterflies have scaled wings, flies have two wings, etc.

Rainy Monday

2010-05-17T23:54:00.000-04:00

It was nice to have a quiet, rainy day today. I was able to spend most of the day in the office, just taking care of things that I needed to get to. I had to take some time in the middle of the day to go to the vet to work out another issue with my dog, but even that ended better than expected. The day had a nice, slow pace to it and I even got to enjoy the rain storm from the porch in front of the office.

It was quite a show, we even had some thunder. While in the office, I completed more paperwork for a new hire. I waded through a big pile of papers that were on my desk. I printed the photos that I took of all of the staff at the last personnel meeting. I called to set up an appointment to get an estimate on floor cleaning for two of our buildings. I called to arrange payment for an exhaust vent cleaning that took place last week. I placed a uniform order. I typed up four incident reports from the weekend. I took some phone calls from visitors. I prepared some paperwork for two employees who need to complete a training and fill out some forms to get a PIN number to use our fuel cards.
It was a productive Monday, but at a nice pace. It was a great way to lead into a day off. My coworker and I are starting our new schedule this week. I will now have every Tuesday off and every other weekend off. I already love Tuesdays, this just gives me another reason.

Thought of the Day #38
It was so nice to have a good hard rain today. It put out anything left smoldering from the last week's prescribed fires. It wetted down our dirt roads which were becoming dry and dusty. It knocked down some of the airborne pollen that has been giving everyone trouble. It also gave the beautiful flowering plants some growing power. I bet this next week will be colorful.

Chaos

2010-05-16T22:49:00.000-04:00

Today was another busy weekend day. It was just like yesterday. It started out crazy and wound down in the late afternoon. There weren't any major issues today, but the crowd at the entrance was a little harder to control. In honor of Military Appreciation Month, the Florida State Park System offered free admission to everyone at all of our parks today. People were pleasantly surprised and thought of their friends and family that are or were in the military. Most of our visitors were also very generous with donations to our park in lieu of the park admission.
Like most Sundays, the morning was quiet. We had a slow but steady stream of people coming in. I stayed in the ranger station to answer phones, but I had plenty of time to fold brochures as well. We are well stocked for the next few days on folded brochures and trail maps. I even had time to take the only two photos that I took all day. I spotted a pretty little moth on the window of the ranger station. It was outside and I was inside, so the view that I had was of its underside. I didn't find a name for this little moth, but it reminds me of a very common butterfly that I used to see during our butterfly life cycle programs at the nature center where I worked in Delaware. I watched a lizard on the same window as well, but I was soon called away by a ringing phone or visitor, or something.

By 10:30am, the rush was beginning. The constant line was forming and getting longer and longer. The parking space counter got into position and began monitoring spaces. Once we reached our capacity and had to begin turning traffic away from the park, things got difficult. It was harder to get people to keep moving today. The line was so big all at once, that there was both a line coming in and a line going out that were connected and not moving. That gave people the perfect opportunity to blow their horns, yell, and complain. Soon, I had three separate families who had surrounded me from behind. Each group had already gotten into the park but had people that they were waiting on that had been turned away. They wanted me to let their additional people in. Between trying to explain the situation to each group, I was still trying to keep the traffic moving and catching the barrage of complaints and "but I" and "what if" and "can't I" and "why don't you" from each passing vehicle. It is difficult to be kind, accommodating, yet fair in that situation. I did my best and called our Law Enforcement officer for additional support. People whine less when there is an officer standing there... maybe its the gun on his hip or the handcuffs. Whatever the reason, I was thankful.
We were eventually able to get more people into the park. The three groups waiting behind me went through all levels of begging, demanding, screaming, and eventual gratefulness as they waited for their companions to be let in. Finally, by 4:00 we were able to reopen for the last time and we stayed that way. I heard from the field staff that it was a good crowd today out in the park. I guess they got all of their frustrations out on me before they got into the park. Maybe it was the free day that made them happy.
By the time I got home, I was so glad to be there. I am really looking forward to a weekend off next weekend. I am even looking forward to Monday. Even Monday is better than the weekend that I had.

Thought of the Day #39
Did you know that the first park rangers were military personnel? When the first National Parks were created, someone had to protect them. The US Army was first tasked with this job in 1886 in our first National Park, Yellowstone. Over time, it was realized that while the Army was effective at protecting the land and keeping visitors safe, there was still a need to educate the public and answer all of their questions. Over time, park rangers evolved into the multi-talented people that they are today. The job has changed drastically through the years, but there are still some reminders of the Army days. We are still uniformed personnel and are strictly regimented in many ways. We still are here to protect the land and the people coming to visit, but our jobs have evolved to include many more things as well.
Please take the time to remember those who have served in the military, past and present.

Silly Saturday

2010-05-15T21:51:00.000-04:00

It was one of those mornings... the kind when you just can't predict what will happen next because everything that happened was out of the ordinary. I was expecting a crazy weekend though because this weekend is my normal rotation. I am figuring out that I get the rough weekends and my co-worker gets the run-of-the-mill weekends. I know this because I worked his weekend last week and it was just fine. My weekends, before and after his weekend, were not fun. So, I knew it would be weird, but I didn't know what direction it was coming from.
I usually spend most of my time on the weekends in the ranger station, helping out, until I have to turn traffic when the park fills up. This morning, I had to run an errand out of the park, I had to go to the office to pick up signs for a special event tomorrow, I had some burn zones from Thursday and Friday to check, and I had to head back to the office later to sign some paperwork for one of the Rangers. The burn zones looked great. On Thursday, they burned the zone across from the parcel that we burned on the 7th. Its neat to compare the two right next to each other. The burn from the 7th is on the left side of the road. You can see lots of green grass filling in the black areas. Thursday's burn is on the right side of the road with no new growth yet.

They burned on Friday as well. That burn was in our youth camp area which was vacant at the time. It must have been a fun one to watch because there is a deep bowl, or a dip in the ground. I'm sure that standing at the top of it provided a great view of the fire. It looks like they kept the fire nice and low, the trees are not very charred at all and most of the pine needles are still green and not brown.

As I checked over the burn zones, I found that the only things still smoldering were on the ground and well inside the zone. They will be no threat to catch anything else on fire. At the edge of one zone, I found a Gopher Tortoise near its burrow. This will be one happy Tortoise in a week or two when the fresh, new shoots of grass start to emerge. It will have a clear path to any food source in its sight. The Tortoise burrows are a big help to other animals during a fire. If they aren't able to find their way out of the burn zone before the fire moves through, there is always plenty of room in a Gopher Tortoise burrow. Hundreds of species of animals, lizards, snakes, insects, etc. know to dive for these burrows if they need to. Gopher Tortoises are crucial to the fire communities because of that function.

Between all of my random tasks this morning, I was helping out in the ranger station. The calls that came in were just silly. Everyone took their crazy pills this morning. At least a dozen people called for directions after they were already on their way to the park. A few more called for the park address to enter it into their GPS. Then they called back when the GPS couldn't find which of the dozens of streets in the area labeled Wekiwa or Wekiva was the right, Wekiwa Circle. They still didn't want directions at that point, they just wanted me to make their GPS work... that's hard for me to do over the phone. I had quite a few callers that couldn't understand why we didn't have room in the 60 site campground for them, even though it was a busy summer weekend and they didn't make reservations. In the midst of the phone calls to the ranger station, my Manager called from our shop area to tell me that our burn pile was ablaze. We have a large pit where we pile wooden debris that can be burned and it was pretty full. Some coals had been dumped there and even though they seemed cool, they managed to re-ignite and start a fire. We were really lucky that our Manager just happened to come by. I had to call in my co-worker and have one of the Rangers come in early to keep an eye on the fire until it went out. They wetted down the trees around the pile to make sure that the fire was not able to spread and kept sprinklers running around it. With that problem under control, I headed back to the ranger station to hear about a person who slipped and fell and hurt their ankle on the spring steps. I was beginning to worry that this Saturday was going to eat me alive!
I survived though, fortunately the day calmed down after that. The park filled up around noon and we had to close, but people began leaving then as well. We were able to open again several times and stayed open for 15-20 cars each time as people slowly trickled out of the park. Shortly after 3:30, we were able to stay open for the rest of the day. The afternoon flew by and I was even able to duck out to walk down to the spring for a few minutes. This is the first time that I have been able to see the spring area when we were at full capacity. It was busy, but people still had some room to move around. I definitely wouldn't want to see it anymore full.

Thought of the Day #40
GPS devices are wonderful things. They can make navigating much easier... sometimes. No gadget is completely fail safe though. It is wise to still look at a map and know your general route before relying on your GPS. It worries me how often people ignore common sense because their GPS device told them to.

In The Wild Backyard

2010-05-14T19:47:00.000-04:00

Today was my last day off before I head back to work for the weekend. I spent the majority of the day at the vet with my dog and cat to find out that my dog is allergic to Florida. The excessive pollen in the air this year is not just making people miserable, its making my dog very itchy. He is content now with medicine (which means a wet food treat to make sure he gets food with his meds) and a new toy to distract him and keep him from scratching. He is happy, but I think that the cat is still mad because we forced her to leave her sanctuary.
When we returned home, I went for a walk outside to get some photos for the day. I started with the plants around the house but them stumbled upon some interesting insects as well. The first plant was Aloe. We noticed that we had some growing in the garden last week because its tall flowering stalk was starting to bud. It still hasn't bloomed all the way, but it is starting to show some color... stay tuned for more! Its amazing that a plant that is so cool and soothing would be so prickly and harsh on the outside.

You may remember a post from a couple of weeks ago when I blogged about some tiny Aphid nymphs and a young Lubber grasshopper on a Milkweed plant. That very same plant is beginning to bud as well. I can't wait for it to bloom.

I wandered into the side yard next and spotted a beautiful Dragonfly perched in the sun. It was a little nervous as I crept towards it and it kept fluttering away and then coming back. I slowly moved into position and waited for it to return. I was able to get several photos of it before we finally parted ways. I was glad to see several more Dragonflies while I was out... they eat mosquitoes. Happy hunting Dragonflies!

Near the Dragonfly's perch, I saw some busy little Paper Wasps. They were hard at work and didn't mind me taking a closer look. Wasps usually get a bad rep because of their sting, but they do some good too. They feed on nectar, so they help to pollinate plants. They also will feed on some other insects which may be pests in the garden.

After a few more steps through the woods, I nearly walked into a spiderweb. It was at face level and the individual strands of the web were so tiny, it was easy to miss. The spider itself could have sat comfortably on the top of a pencil eraser. It took several tries, but I was finally able to capture it in focus with the help of my macro lens.

On the way back to the house, I was examining a plant that has some new growth on it. It also has the dead stalks from last year's growth still standing in the middle. As I looked at the dead stalks, I noticed an insect perched on it. I think that it is a young Robber Fly. You may remember seeing their photos in other posts here or here. It looks like it might cause a person harm, but that pointy mouth part is for insects only.

Thought of the Day #41
Have you looked at your yard closely today? Spend a few minutes, the next time you have the chance, to really look at things. Bend down to look at a few plants, really scan the things that you would normally just glance at. What did you find? A great web page to help identify the mysterious insects you may find can be found here at What's That Bug.

Just Beachy

2010-05-13T21:59:00.000-04:00

Today was a lovely day off. My fiance and I drove to New Smyrna beach which was less than an hour from the park. We had absolutely perfect weather and the beach was not crowded at all. There were several other people there, but we had plenty of room to ourselves. I'm sure it was good that we were there on a weekday.

There were no Seagulls anywhere. I think this is the first time that I have ever been to a beach that wasn't overrun with Seagulls. I don't know why that is. There were a few other birds. We saw a few Pelicans fly over us and there were several Ruddy Turnstones that were always pecking around on the beach nearby. There was also one bird that only thought that it was a Ruddy Turnstone. It stayed with the group the whole time we were there.

The waves were nice. I usually prefer the calmer Gulf waters, but my fiance loves to battle the waves. I think we were both happy with the water conditions today. There were enough waves to play in, but I didn't get knocked over by them.

What is a visit to the beach without some seashells? I learned long ago that while it is fun to collect pretty seashells, once they come home in a pocket, they just become clutter. I would rather leave them on the beach for everyone to appreciate. That doesn't stop me from collecting them and photographing them though! Here is what we found.

Most of the shells that we found were tiny or they were pieces of shell. On the way off of the beach, there was one more shell that I had to stop for. It was the largest one that we saw all day and it was far from the water. I wonder if it fell out of someone's pocket at some point.

Thought of the Day #42
At some point in my career, I think that I would like to work at a beach park. I'm sure that they come with their own, unique set of challenges with crowd control and water safety, hurricanes and wildlife protection. A beach park would also have some very different natural communities that I would like to learn more about. Salt water communities are fascinating to me. I grew up in the mid-west so life near the ocean is still quite foreign to me. I had a small introduction to salt marshes and the Delaware Bay when I worked for a private nature center in Delaware. What I learned was exciting, but I feel that there is so much more for me to learn. Plants have evolved methods of dealing with the salt and harsh conditions near the shore. There are also completely different birds, turtles, fish, etc. Florida is an exciting place with so many opportunities to explore.

Quick Friday

2010-05-12T23:19:00.000-04:00

Today was Friday for me. I am taking Thursday and Friday off this week. My schedule has been so upside-down lately, I am really looking forward to a break. It will be nice to get back on a regular schedule soon too. I think that my co-worker and I have finally settled on a new schedule that seems like it will work well. We will see.
The day started out in a rush. I went to the morning meeting at the shop and then hurried to the office to take care of new hire paperwork for a temporary part time employee. When all of the pages were signed and photo copies were made, I headed out of the park. I had to take the last water sample at Fechtel and then carry both water samples to the county health department for routine testing. It was so peaceful there. I thought about how nice it would be to sit on the bench in the shade of the Oak Tree to watch the day go by.

I couldn't sit and enjoy the Oak Tree though, I had water samples to deliver. I packed the new sample with the other one in my cooler and got on the road. It took about 45 minutes to get from Wekiwa to Fechtel and then almost another hour to get to the health department. I returned to Wekiwa with plenty of time to spare before our personnel meeting at 1:00. I took care of some office work and then headed home to change. We wore our Class A uniforms (our formal uniform with tie) to the meeting. This is not a usual occurrence, but we have had some changes to our uniform policies in the past couple of years and we wanted to make sure that all of the Rangers had complete Class A uniforms and knew how to wear them properly. I changed into my Class A and headed to the meeting.
I had to drive past the zone that we burned last on the way to the meeting. It was looking beautiful. There was already green grass growing just five short days after the burn. Its amazing to see how quickly the plants come back. There will be some nice grazing opportunities for Deer and Gopher Tortoises.

The meeting went well. We talked about current events at the park and some upcoming events. We also talked quite a bit about customer service. We watched a DVD that I have seen before. It is a fun way to get the idea of customer service across. Its called Give Em The Pickle. In the DVD, a man named Bob Farrell discusses his background in customer service at an ice cream shop. He relates some stories in a funny way about giving the customer what they want and serving them the best we can. After the video, we discussed a few more issues and then started taking pictures. With all of us looking our best, we took advantage of the situation and I took individual pictures of all of the staff and a group photo for our archives. Here is mine!

After the meeting, it was almost time to go home. I wrapped up my office projects and turned in some paperwork. I talked to my coworker about the next few days because we won't see each other again until Monday. Then, I headed home.

Thought of the Day #43
I enjoy the monthly personnel meetings here at Wekiwa. It gives us a chance to communicate as a group and discuss important issues. We also communicate with the staff via memo, but the memos don't get all of the information out as well as face to face communication. I enjoy seeing how the group interacts as a whole as well. There are so many different personalities at this park and while they are all very different, they all are essential to the operation of the park. Its neat to see how they interact.

Busy Bee

2010-05-11T20:48:00.000-04:00

Today was a very full day. It started out with some office work. I worked on finishing up some projects that I had going and revisiting scheduling discussions from yesterday. I did some more paperwork for a new hire and prepared forms for signatures. The morning really flew by. It was lunchtime before I knew it. When I returned from lunch, I headed over to our sign storage room. It needed some work and I am preparing a big sign order so I wanted to make sure that I wasn't ordering any signs that we already had. I organized all of the signs according to their topic and labeled the shelves. I also pulled out the unusable signs and made a stack for recycling later. I hope the signs stay this way for a while. It is really pretty easy to look for a sign this way.

When I returned to the office after the sign project, I had more paperwork to track down. I spent some time with our newest ranger to get his paperwork all squared away. Once I was done with things at the park, I headed out to our distant properties. The bulkhead at Katie's Landing is almost ready to be poured. Things are really coming together over there.

I found my way to the Fechtel Tract of Lower Wekiva River State Park today. It was one of the properties that I toured with my Manager a couple of weeks ago. I saw so many different places that day that they all sort of blended together. It was nice to make my way out there on my own to learn the route. While I was at Fechtel, I had to take a routine water sample from the well. I have to do another one tomorrow morning and take them both to the health department to be analyzed.

The edges of the service road into Fechtel were covered in a sea of yellow. There were SO MANY Prickly Pears and they were all exploding into blooms. They were beautiful.

On the way out of the gate, I stopped to admire a few more flowers. I see these purple Ruellia often. They are also called Wild Petunia.

There was also a Grapevine nearby. Its new growth was showing off some beautiful colors in the evening sunlight.

With the water sampling complete, I made the long journey home.

Thought of the Day #44
Managing properties that are so far away from the main areas of the park is very challenging. There are two gates to the Fechtel property. One is to enter the property from the road and one is set in much further and leads to the primitive horse camping area. The property is just too far away from anything for a staff member to have to go there to open and close the gate every morning and evening, so the first gate stays open. Unfortunately, that can attract people who are up to no good. There are usually a few beer bottles or cans to be found. The inner gate has a combination lock that changes monthly. When campers register at Wekiwa to camp at Fechtel, they are given the combination and help themselves to the facilities. A ranger visits the property once or twice a week to maintain it, but we rely heavily on volunteers for the majority of the property management.

Monday Monday

2010-05-10T22:05:00.000-04:00

Today was a very full Monday. It definitely felt like a Monday though. My brain always felt like it was a step or two behind what I wanted to be doing. After our morning staff meeting at the shop and our Monday morning administrative staff meeting, I went to my office to get some work done. I just wasn't as focused as I wanted to be. I still was able to take care of the things that I needed to though. I checked e-mail, approved time sheets, tracked down the people who had not yet submitted their time sheets, and made an appointment with a duct cleaner to have the dining hall stove exhaust cleaned. I worked out some scheduling issues with my co-worker... sort of, I did some paperwork on the honor envelope payments collected at our other park entrances, and wrote up an incident report from this weekend. By noon, my thinking skills were pretty well used up... Monday was winning. Then I heard that we were going out to lunch. That was the break that I needed!
I enjoyed lunch at a restaurant that was new to me and had a nice time with some of my coworkers. When we returned, I made another visit to my office to see if there was anything that I missed doing. I wrapped things up there and prepared to head to the Environmental Health Department in another county to pick up water sampling bottles for a well at one of our distant properties. Before I left, I was called to the ranger station to open a lock on the cash box. While I was there, I was told that the printer had stopped working. It was crumpling up every sheet of paper that we tried to put into it. I opened it up, pulled out some crinkled shards of paper and snapped a roller back into its proper place. With the printer up and running again, I headed out to find the Health Dept. I made it there successfully and only made one wrong turn on the way back. I got home a little late, but I realized that I had not taken a single photo.
I walked around the house and was happy to find some fun stuff to photograph. A tiny spider, right outside of the back porch door caught my attention right away. This is an Orchard Orb Weaver and its smaller than a dime. I have photographed them before at Troy (third photo down) but they are hard to photograph because they are so small. Today I used my macro lens and got a nice close view of it (sorry anti-spider people).

Also near the back porch, I found some bright red flowers in bloom. I had to settle in and sit right in the middle of them to steady my camera on my leg to take the photo. I was running out of light and had to keep the camera very still to avoid a blurry image. When I sat down in the flowers, they had a very strong aroma. I found out later that it was Tropical Sage. It is an herb in the mint family.

There was a very young Garden Orb Weaver who had spun a web between the Tropical Sage and the outside wall of the porch. I disturbed it when I first tried to take its picture and it darted to the other side of its web's stabilimentum (the dense area in the middle). It makes a very good visual shield which the spider uses for protection from predators. I soon realized that I didn't want to eat it and came back to have its picture taken.

The next flower that I came to was stunning. I had noticed the plant along my walkway and wondered what flower it would produce. I was pleased with the outcome! It is a native Lantana. I have blogged about the non-native before. I like the solid yellow much better than the multi-colored version. This is again, taken with the macro lens. The flower is the same size as the non-native that I had photographed previously.

As my light was finally almost gone, I hovered over an ant mound. It was under construction and it was fun to watch the little ants carry out the balls of sand from down below. There were also some ants carrying pieces of Sage and Honeysuckle blossoms into the hole. I tried to get some close photos, but the ants were moving too quickly and blurring the image. I decided to try a video so that I could still share the experience with you.

Thought of the Day #45
One of the people who lived in this residence before me planted native plants in gardens surrounding the house. There are butterfly and hummingbird attracting flowers all around the house. Most of them died off during the unusually frosty winter. There were a lot of tall, brown skeletons of plants around the house when I moved in. Slowly but surely, they are coming back to life. New green growth is rising from the ground and it seems like I am surprised with new colors in the yard every week.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T20:20:00.000-04:00

In honor of Mother's Day, all of the Florida State Parks offered 75% off of admission to the parks for mothers with their children today. We were expecting a crazy day because of it. We have had busy weekends lately anyway and it was a holiday and there was a discount. I was afraid that we would fill up early, have to close the park, and hear lots of heart-wrenching stories about how I was ruining Mother's Day for hundreds of people because I wouldn't let them into the park. Fortunately, most everyone remembered what their mothers taught them today and even after we closed, people were very nice about it. I only had one person really get mean with me and he came back to apologize later. The day went very smoothly and we even got a few extra things done this weekend. It really went about as well as it could have.
This morning, after opening the ranger station and starting everyone on their tasks for the day, I got away while I could. I took another drive around Friday's burn zone. It was in great shape, the only things left smoking were well inside the zone and didn't have anything near them that would burn. I enjoyed admiring the result of our hard work, and the morning sun was really making it beautiful. I thought that this grouping of charred, dead Oaks was very impressive.

Most of the zones burned very well, but there were some funny areas in the interior of the zone that stayed very green. I guess those little areas were burned recently for a training so there was not any dead fuel built up. This really illustrates one of the reasons that we do prescribed burning. If we remove the dead pine needles and other dry, dead plant matter with regular fires, than the risk of wildfire spreading uncontrollably is very small. If there is no fuel, a fire can't burn.

After checking the burn zones, I went to the office for a little while and then back to the ranger station to help with the phones as the park began to get busy. As expected, we were hit hard by the after-church-rush. The morning was slow until about 10:00 when everyone came at once. We had traffic backed up onto the road, but there wasn't much that we could do about it. We let people in as fast as we could and once we filled up, we had to turn people away. We closed before noon and stayed that way until just after 3:30. We opened 3 or 4 times throughout that period to let in 5-10 cars. By 4:00, the park was calm and there were just a few people still coming in. I really wasn't needed anymore, but I was afraid to go home. It seems like whenever I go home, things get crazy. The visitors must be able to sense when I am comfortable on the couch. I stuck around the park a little longer, but when I knew that things were well under control, I headed home.

Thought of the Day #46
It was fun to be in the ranger station today to hear people's reaction when they found out that the fee was only $1.50 today instead of the usual $6.00. Most people were very pleasantly surprised and grateful for the unexpected gift. It was also fun to listen to the rangers at the window as they delicately danced around the question of who was a mother and who were her children. Its a difficult question to ask without offending people and most people just stared blankly when asked if the children with them belonged to the woman in the car. Its also hard to tell when the child is an adult and mother and daughter look like they could be sisters. Sometimes language barriers added another degree of difficulty to the situation. When someone only speaks enough English to handle a monetary transaction and then we start asking about familial relationships, they really get confused. It was fun to watch the surprise and joy on people's faces though, and it was fun to watch the rangers' creativity as they handled each situation very tactfully.

Oh Deer, Its Saturday

2010-05-08T20:34:00.000-04:00

I worked last weekend, but I had some extra weekdays off when my sister visited. I am working again this weekend to make up my time off and to give my co-worker time off that he requested. After opening the ranger station this morning, and getting everyone started on their tasks for the day, I went out to the burn zone from yesterday to check on it. Everything was just fine. One tree that we were concerned about had fallen overnight in just the place that I wanted it to. As I made my way around the zone, I saw some deer. There were two bucks enjoying the openness of the freshly burned zone. One was resting peacefully near fire break road and the other decided it would be better to cross the road and hide in the bushes. They both have shed their antlers, but you can see the velvety nubs that will produce antlers this fall.

When I headed back to the main area of the park, I saw two does near the edge of the park drive. I drove slowly and watched them. When I got close, I realized that one of them had the tiniest fawn that I have ever seen. It must still be so young. The mother was comfortable with my truck being nearby. She wasn't going to let me stop her from a tasty meal of greens. The fawn wasn't sure what to think. I am glad that it was nervous around my vehicle. It needs to remain cautious if it is to stay safe. It was hard to get a good photo of it though. Fortunately, I had to drive by that spot a few more times today and they were there every time. Here is the best photo I got of mother and fawn.

The rest of the day was a normal Saturday. We reached our capacity in the early afternoon and remained closed until 3:30 or 4:00. We opened a few times throughout that time period, but I sent a lot of people away. It is a bad situation to be in. I had to give so many people the bad news that they couldn't come into the park and so many people had good reasons to be there. They had a daughter/sister/friend having a birthday party, they had the food for the company picnic, they came all the way from (insert distant state), there were people inside waiting for them, etc. Everyone had a good reason, but that didn't give us any extra parking spaces.
The day was pretty uneventful in all. There was one lost bicycler out on the trail who had to be retrieved, one person slipped and fell, but was OK, and a lost child who thought her family had left without her (they didn't). There was nothing serious, which we appreciate so much!

Thought of the Day #47
Our trail system is expansive. The main area of the park has a hiking trail that is 13 miles long. There are also horseback riding trails and bike trails that crisscross through that area. To add another degree of difficulty, there are also unmarked service roads that serve as through transport or fire breaks for us. There are nice, color blazes along each trail, but its too easy to get off of the trail. Something that I would like to focus on throughout my time at Wekiwa is improving our trail labels and maps.

Wekiwa Burn #3

2010-05-07T21:37:00.000-04:00

It was a HOT day today. It was in the 90's and humid... and we started a fire! It sounds crazy, I know, however Wiregrass needs a burn in the summer time to encourage its seed production. The two zones that we burned today were overdue for a summer burn. The open area that should have been full of dense Wiregrass and some Longleaf Pines was being invaded by Oaks and Dog Fennel and plenty of other volunteer growth.

The burn today was just what it needed to open it all up again and restore the natural community to what it should be. The burn went well and because so much of the burn zone had predominately Wiregrass and pine needles, it went quickly. We didn't have to work too hard to get fire to carry through the zone evenly. We did have to drink A LOT of water. Anytime I wasn't doing something else, I was taking a drink of water. We also took turns getting cool in the cab of the firetruck with the air conditioner.

Every once in a while, we would find a shady spot to stand in. Sometimes the wind would blow and give us a little bit of relief.

I spent most of the first half of the burn on ignition. I carried a drip torch, the red can pictured below, and applied fire to the edge of the burn zone. I did small segments at a time and then watched until the the section that I had lit moved into the zone a little before I lit a little more.

The rest of the time, I was raking around things that we didn't want burned, moving the fire truck along, watching the fire, looking at flowers, and of course, helping to extinguish what we needed to at the end of the burn. I found a lot of beautiful flowers and didn't have time to photograph them all. Here are a few of the beauties that I found. The first was new to me, but still familiar. It looks just like the Spiderwort that I have shown before, but its was smaller and pink instead of blue. It is a relative of the Spiderwort that I am familiar with. The only common name that I found for it was Pink Spiderwort. The photo makes it look more lavender, but that is an illusion. They are a pale pink in person.

I saw a lot of Prickly Pear Cacti. They were everywhere and many of them were in bloom. They have such big, lush flowers in contrast to their waxy, prickly exterior. The cacti do well in the fire. And are able to survive.

I didn't find a name for this one. It looks so soft and delicate.

When I got home, I was ready for a shower and some dinner. I smelled like sweat, diesel fuel, and smoke and I had worked up quite an appetite. My fiance was kind enough to make dinner for us, but while he was in the kitchen, he made me get up one more time. There were three Fox Squirrels in our backyard that he could see through the window. They were beautiful and romping all over our yard! I was able to sneak out the back door to catch a shot of one who was all black. The other two looked more like the ones I see most often. It is normal for their colors to vary between individuals. This one looked like a tiny black bear! Can we count this as my first bear sighting?

Thought of the Day #48
While I was looking for more information about the Pink Spiderwort, I stumbled upon an amazing tidbit about the original recipe Spiderwort. It is reactive to radiation. The bright blue hairs, or stamen, in the center of the blue Spiderwort will turn pink if the plant is exposed to even low levels of radiation. It can be used as an indicator of dangerous conditions even before some man-made equipment. There are many other natural things that humans have learned to gauge their own safety with. I'm sure you have heard of the canary in the coal mine who is much more sensitive to carbon monoxide and methane gases which could be harmful to miners. There are also insects in streams and waterways that are indicator species. Their presence or absence says a lot about the health of the body of water. I wonder what else nature could tell us if we looked closely.

O is for Office

2010-05-06T20:33:00.000-04:00

It was another office day for me today. I had a lot of little things to take care of today. I got through most of what I needed to do though and only had a few things that will carry over for tomorrow. Because of the end of the month, I had to complete my time sheet and approve most of the ranger's time sheets. I also had to complete and submit my vehicle log for April. I completed an online training and sent an e-mail to the rest of the park staff informing them that it has to be taken and how to find it online. I did some application reviews, some interviews, and hired a part-time employee today. I also prepared all of the paperwork that the new employee will have to fill out tomorrow. I typed up the remaining incident report that I had to do from the exciting weekend that I had last week. I spoke to the leader of a volunteer group and faxed her the forms needed to volunteer in the park. I finalized an expensive order for a part for one of the firetrucks, and received a call about an incoming donation for almost the exact amount as the part. I called a person that I have been trying to get a hold of for weeks and again, waited in vain for a return call. I made some copies of the best map that we have of all of our trails and service roads and made a folder to be kept at the ranger station in preparation for the next missing person. I also refreshed some fliers in the campground advertising our Wi-Fi survey.
The day sped by because I stayed so busy. Today had a nice flow to it, I hope that will continue through the weekend. I enjoy being busy, just not being stressed. I realized at the end of the day, that I had not taken a single photo. When I went to the campground to hang the new fliers, I looked around for some pretty things. I found some lovely little Daisy Fleabane. It is such a simple and common plant, but a closer look makes them something special.

A true bug of some sort thought these flowers were rather attractive as well.

My next discovery was much more exciting. I didn't see them until I was really searching for something to photograph. Once I spotted them though, I realized that they were EVERYWHERE! This stunning creation is a Purple Passion Flower. It is also called Maypop. I don't think that I could imagine a more beautiful or interesting flower.

After taking several photos of the Purple Passion Flower, I moved on. I was amazed that they were in bloom all along the road and it took me so long to notice them. I stopped again when I saw several butterflies hovering around them. I was dreaming when I thought that I would catch a beautiful butterfly on one of these flowers, but I did find something. I noticed a bright orange, spiky caterpillar on a leaf of the Purple Passion Flower. It will one day become a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly once it eats enough Passion Flower leaves.

I found these caterpillars in all stages of growth, there were small, medium, and large ones. This medium one was posing in such an interesting way, just opposite a Gulf Fritillary egg. I didn't even notice the tiny, yellow speck when I took the photo.

Thought of the Day #49
You have likely heard the story about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. While its true that caterpillars eat A LOT, they do not usually eat things like apples, oranges, cake, or ice cream. They usually have something specific in mind. The Gulf Fritillary caterpillar only wants Purple Passion Flower leaves. Monarchs only want Milkweed leaves. Some caterpillars will be a little more flexible to include foods from a family of plants. For example, a Black Swallowtail will eat from the carrot family which would include carrot, dill, or fennel. These specific plants are called host plants and the adult butterfly will seek out the right kind of plant for its egg. That will ensure that when the young caterpillar hatches, it can get right down to business... eating. The adult butterfly will drink from any number of different flower types for nectar, but the caterpillar is picky as can be.

Rainy Day Off

2010-05-05T22:59:00.000-04:00

Today was my last day off this week. We had considered playing some disc golf or going kayaking, but the weather report looked a little damp for outdoor activities. I didn't mind another restful day at home though. The rain started in the afternoon and continued, on and off for the rest of the day. We spent some time on the porch because the rain brought some cooler temperatures. It was really nice to sit and watch the storm. During a break in the weather, we saw our neighbor, the Gopher Tortoise out for lunch.

She didn't mind the rain when it was light. It must feel nice to have a shower, even to a tortoise. After I went back inside and the rain got much harder, the tortoise headed back to her burrow as well.
While I was out photographing the tortoise, I walked by the Coral Honeysuckle. I am a sucker for perfectly formed raindrops perched on a leaf. They are just like like sparkly diamonds to me.

Thought of the Day #50
I think that my neighbor, the Gopher Tortoise needs a name. She is a regular feature in my yard and I think we should at least be on a first name basis. Do you have any suggestions for a female Gopher Tortoise? Please post in the comments below. I will make a poll later with the ideas.

Buggy Tuesday

2010-05-04T23:59:00.000-04:00

I was off today and took my sister to the airport. We had a great visit together. I returned home around noon and enjoyed a quiet day at home for the rest of the afternoon. I did get out once it was below 90 degrees again in the evening to take some photos. I decided to get out my macro lens and look closely through the yard. I found some cool things!
I started with the beautiful and still steadily blooming, Coral Honeysuckle that is just outside of my home office window. It was such a long flower that the majority of it was out of focus with the macro lens. I liked the surreal feeling of this photo.

I was taking a closer look at this budding flower. I was wondering what it will become, I will have to wait until it blooms to find a name for it. Then I noticed that some ants were very interested in the buds as well. One was so focused that it didn't notice the camera lens just inches away from it.

One insect was not as cooperative. This caterpiller was a very quick mover. It was spotted crawling across the ground, but it quickly took camouflaged cover on a pine tree. It was amazing to see how well it blended in with the bark. I think that it was the same type of caterpillar that we saw on our shed.

A Lubber Nymph caught my eye on a tiny milkweed plant by my front door. One of the former residents of my house planted several butterfly and caterpillar friendly plants in multiple gardens around the house. Milkweed is a favorite food plant to many insects, including Monarch Butterfly caterpillars. The Lubber Nymph will feed on many different types of plants as it grows into the giant, bright colored adult. This guy didn't seem too interested in the Milkweed. It was pacing round and round the plant, but there weren't any chew marks on the leaves.

While I was looking at the Lubber Nymph, I spotted some more babies. These tiny yellow specks are Aphid Nymphs. They were definitely enjoyed a Milkweed feast. These little things are 1-2mm long. They are almost hard to see without the macro lens.

Thought of the Day #51
Insects either go through complete or incomplete metamorphosis as they grow from an egg to an adult. Insects that go through a complete metamorphosis change from an egg to larva to a pupa to an adult. A familiar example would be a butterfly. The caterpillar larvae hatches from an egg. When it grows large enough, it will pupate in its chrysalis and emerge as an adult. The young and the adult look completely different in complete metamorphosis. With incomplete metamorphosis, the young nymph hatches from the egg and it looks very much like the adult. It will grow in size and it may change color or grow wings, but it will still look very similar as an adult. The Lubber and the Aphid go through incomplete metamorphosis. The adult Lubber will be bigger and brighter and have wings, but it will still have the same legs and antennae and body parts. The aphid will also change color and grow wings, but will look very much like the nymph above.

Monday Make-up

2010-05-03T22:05:00.000-04:00

It was a short work day for me today. I had hoped that I would be able to leave early to spend my sister's last day here with her. My brother drove down from Gainesville as well. My late night last night, granted me that time off. I went in at my regularly scheduled time to work. I met with the staff and briefed them on the events of the weekend. Then I met with our office staff for our usual Monday morning meeting. I had a short online training to do, a couple of calls to make, some incident reports to do, and then I was done. Just as I was finishing up, my brother arrived.
My brother and sister met me at the office and then I took them around the park. We spotted a Fox Squirrel on our way into the campground and had fun watching its antics for a little while. It used the scaly branches of this young pine to scratch an itch or two, then laid down to rest for a bit. It realized that we were watching it at some point and decided to hide in the tall grass. It still wanted to watch us though, so it sort of looked like a prairie dog. When it started bounding through the grass and went behind another tree, we moved along.

We stopped at home so that I could change into canoeing clothes and we ate some lunch. Then we headed out to do some boating. My sister kayaked and my brother and I shared a canoe. It was great to finally get out and explore the river. Where the spring run joins the river, there is a T. We paddled to the right for about 30 minutes, returned to the spring run and then paddled to the left for about 30 minutes. We had a great time. There were several other people out enjoying the river and lots of wildlife! We saw butterflies, birds, fish, heard bull frogs, and even saw a young alligator. The gator was too quick and dove for the water before I could get a good photo. The river was beautiful and very tropical. It was very hot and sunny, but the tree-lined banks provided some shade and there were cool breezes when we needed them most.

There were beautiful Bromeliad air plants in bloom everywhere! I had seen them with the pink stalk, but never with the purple top on the bloom. They were just gorgeous.

Another lovely plant that we saw a lot of was Pickerel Weed. It had a tall purple stalk of flowers. This Gulf Fritillary butterfly was enjoying the plant also.

This Great Blue Heron surprised us. We paddled so close to it before we saw it and it stayed very still, hoping that we didn't see it.

An Ibis watched us go by from a branch up above. It flew away when it first saw us, but landed on a branch up ahead. We must have surprised it initially because as we went by its new perch, it just sat and watched us.

We had a great time on the river, but we returned home with a little too much sun. We were worn out and ready for air-conditioning. After we had cooled off a little, we went outside in the yard to look at a few things. I just happened to look down in time to see a tiny Gopher Tortoise strolling through the yard. It was so much fun to see! We watched it progress as it moved all the way across the yard. I wonder where it will end up. I wonder how a little, young Gopher Tortoise decides where to start digging its burrow.

Thought of the Day #52
It was really great to finally see the river. It reminded me of the Ichetucknee in some ways. There were areas that were very clear and you could see every fish and stick all the way down to the sand below. Unfortunately, the Wekiva River has some challenges that the Ichetucknee does not face. There are several private areas where people can access the river. That means that Wekiwa Springs State Park is not able to supervise who gets on the river and what they do while they are there. From time to time, Law Enforcement officers are able to patrol, but they can't be everywhere all the time. Alcohol, garbage, and exotic plants are reminders of that fact. There wasn't much garbage, but each piece feels like an insult. I was spoiled by the pristine conditions of the Ichetucknee. There, the park is able to monitor everything and everyone that gets on the river because all access is within the park. The wildlife on the Wekiva is a little more accustomed to activity from people though and I think that wildlife opportunities may be greater on the Wekiva than on the Ichetucknee. I can't wait to go back and see it all again!

Super-long Sunday

2010-05-03T00:22:00.000-04:00

Oh what a day! We started out short-staffed, but we made the most of it. We had the essential positions covered and we were able to serve our visitors. Everyone had to work a little harder than usual, but all was well. Then we started getting calls about a dead deer on the road. It was the road that the park is off of, but the deer was no where near park property. Our park is not involved with hunting, hunting regulations, or wildlife management and is certainly not responsible for dead animals outside of the park. It was obviously bothering our visitors on their way in though. I started making calls to all of the agencies I could think of and following their recommendations as well to find someone who would scoop the poor animal out of the road on a Sunday. I found no one. I sent our only ranger, while I ran the ranger station, out to quickly dispose of the deer remains into the woods. Fortunately, when he arrived at the scene there were other people there with the same idea. Their agency didn't handle those matters, but they had received so many calls that they chose to just act. Thank goodness for them, our ranger was able to return quickly.
Fortunately, the park didn't fill up as quickly as it did yesterday. The major rush waited until the evening shift began and we had an overlap in staff. We did have to close because of overcrowding for a longer period of time than I have seen before. People were enjoying themselves and just didn't want to leave to make room for more people... I can't blame them. My sister and my fiance showed up when I was beginning to turn traffic away after we closed. They watched the whole ordeal and gave me a little friendly heckling. Then, my sister did a wonderful thing. She took my camera and began a walk around the park. I couldn't go far, but thanks to her, you have some things to look at today!
This was my view for several hours this afternoon from my post at the turn-around. I stood behind the ranger station, grateful for the shade of all of the Oaks.

I flipped this sign back and forth as we opened or closed throughout that time period. This is the second sign that visitors pass when we are closed, but for some reason, many still ask "Why are you closed?" once they get to me.

The spring area was pretty busy all day. It was all our staff could do to keep up with them and keep the litter at bay. I don't get to see this area so busy very often, because my post is at the ranger station on busy days.

My sister also explored some other areas of the park. It was nice to have a second set of eyes taking pictures today because she saw and photographed some things that I take for granted or have overlooked.
This is the lagoon area. It is behind the footbridge that stretches over the spring. The bridge divides the swim area in the spring from the beginning of the spring run to the river. The lagoon is also where canoes and kayaks can launch or enter the park from the river. This is the area where I saw the manatee.

This is one area of the shop facility. I like this photo of our mowing fleet with the all important Coke machine in the background.

Finally, this is my home sweet home. I did not see enough of it today. After I left for the day, more trouble began.

From about 5:00pm to about 10:00pm, several emergency personnel were in the park trying to locate a missing person. The person was finally located and was not injured. I was continually getting and giving updates to the appropriate people and when the ranger shift ended, I took over the ranger station to help guide incoming help. It was a long night. This is what people have been warning me about. It wasn't horrible though. Everyone did their jobs so well and from my vantage point, the park staff could not have been more efficient or helpful in the situation.

Thought of the Day #53
I never had to deal with a missing person at Troy Springs. There were only 80 acres to the park and I knew every inch of it. It didn't take long to drive around the park and see were anyone might have accidentally walked. There was one time when a person was reported missing and after a frantic search it was realized that big brother had left little brother at a different spring and only thought that he had been along for the ride to Troy. At Ichetucknee Springs, we would get reports of missing people, but they almost always showed up moments later. Tubing down the river was the most popular activity there and sometimes groups would get separated. There are very few places to get off of the river, so usually the missing people floated in to the landing eventually. Troy Springs has 80 acres, Ichetucknee has 2,000+ acres and Wekiwa has 42,000+ acres. A missing person at Wekiwa is a much bigger issue.

Sweaty Saturday

2010-05-01T20:57:00.001-04:00

It was a hot one today, and it being Saturday, the park was busy! We stayed hopping all day long. I don't mind busy days like these, they fly by so fast. We didn't have many problems at all, it was a good day. It was such a full day though, that reviewing my photos just now was a little surprising. I had completely forgotten about the early morning activities of the day.
I started out by opening the ranger station and making plans for the day with the park staff. On the weekends, there is very little room for projects. We mostly work on crowd and garbage patrol, answering thousands of questions along the way. Once the day was set in motion, I met with a ranger visiting from another park. I took her to her campsite and got her set up for a great weekend. Near her campsite, I found several Bull-Nettle in bloom. These pretty, white flowers are hard to miss, not just because of their looks. If you brush up against them, they give you a little sting. I wore shorts today and was not able to avoid walking too close to one. It was an irritating sensation, not as bad as a bee sting. Fortunately, it didn't last more than a few minutes. I did stop to take some pictures of one, and it wasn't until I reviewed my photos that I spotted the little Crab Spider perched on one of the petals. I don't think that I would choose that seat.

Back at the park, I helped out where I could in the Ranger Station as the park began to fill up. I had to run out to take care of some things here and there as well. I had to reset the internet connection in the campground again and I had to unlock some locks for the group in the youth camp. On my trips back and forth on the park drive, I saw a Gopher Tortoise marching along the road. I wanted to stop for a photo-op, but I thought better of it. Someone might try to avoid my parked truck and run over the Tortoise. I decided it was best to let it keep moving along to get off of the road. By noon, the park had reached capacity and we had to begin turning people away. No one was mean today. Of course, people were disappointed and frustrated, but I think almost everyone made it in eventually. We were able to open again by 3:00 and remain open for the rest of the day. While I was manning my post at the turn-around cones, I noticed a wild grape vine. These vines are very common, all over Florida. They are also referred to as Muscadine Grapes or, my favorite, Scuppernong. The grapes will be ripe in late summer and everyone will be after them. Bear, Deer, Turkey, Gopher Tortoises, even people love them! They have a tougher skin and bigger pit than the grapes you buy at the grocery store, but they are worth the trouble.

Once the rush was over, I retreated to the office to work on some e-mails and incident reports. A turkey was enjoying the lack of traffic near the office and the freshly raked courtyard as well.

It was a busy day, but a good day. The visitors were happy and well behaved. Our radios gave us some trouble today, but that issue worked itself out. Lets hope that tomorrow goes just as smoothly.

Thought of the Day #54
I found out about an incident on the Wekiva River last night from the evening news. Tragically, a canoe overturned and one person did not survive. The event had nothing to do with our park and it happened miles away on the river. One news station reported that it did happen at the park and that was disappointing to me. We had a few concerned people call the park to see if we were still open because of what they had heard. Unfortunately, in my time here at Wekiwa, I'm sure I will have to deal with tragedy like this in the park. We do all that we can to maintain the safety of our visitors, but people make their own choices in life and they aren't always good ones. Also, with the high volume of people coming through the park, things are just bound to happen. All that I can do is to learn from each situation. Please be safe when you recreate.

I Saw The Sign

2010-04-30T20:57:00.000-04:00

Today was one of those officey days again. In the morning, I met with the park staff for the day and got them started on their work projects. I retreated to the office to work on my own project. I was compiling a sign order for the park. I had 4 pages of sign notes from various people as well as my own requests... and I'm still not done! The park service has its own sign shop so that we can get consistent and uniform signs at a fair cost. Some of the signs that we are ordering are replacing damaged or missing signs, some are needs that we have identified over time and some are replacing the old-fashioned wooden signs with the standard metal signs. It took me a long time to get all of the signs on my lists onto the appropriate sign order form. I had to check each sign to see if it was an existing sign in the catalog and if it wasn't, I had to provide all the details to get what we wanted. I also had interruptions throughout the day, as is the norm. I checked in with the park staff as they worked and I helped a ranger complete a travel form on the computer, which nearly defeated us both. We were triumphant in the end though! I also had to go out into the field for a little while to check on a few more signs. I didn't see anything exciting though, I didn't get any photos. It was a pretty relaxed and uneventful day. I finished up in the office and prepared my notes for tomorrow at the end of the day. Just as I was headed to my truck, one of my coworkers from the district office came out of her office looking very defeated. She had several deadlines to meet and had just gotten an e-mail from Tallahassee that needed immediate attention. They wanted to check our inventory in a FEMA supply trailer and needed the information right away. I'm guessing that Tallahassee wants to be prepared to send support to the Gulf Coast areas that will be affected by the oil disaster. She really couldn't fit one more thing into her agenda and I have definitely been in that situation before. Without really knowing what I was getting into, I told her that I would take care of it. She gave me an inventory list and I headed to the trailer to check it out. As I began pulling things out of the trailer and marking them off of the list, I quickly realized that I would need some help. There was a lot packed in there and some of it was very heavy. There were generators, tents, sleeping bags, cooking supplies, and tools for 25 people. Fortunately, my fiance was home and he was willing to volunteer his strength. Together we made quick work of the project and I was on my way home in no time.

Thought of the Day #55
I am not looking forward to seeing how the recent disaster in the Gulf is going to effect my state and my fellow parks. I am glad to be inland, but I'm sure that the effects will be far reaching. Keep an eye out for volunteering opportunities in all of the Gulf states. I'm sure that lots of help will be needed as the oil approaches land.

Adventuring

2010-04-29T22:28:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day back at work. I had some time this morning to get caught up on e-mails and current events at the park. I made a little progress on ongoing projects and again tried to no avail to reach a very illusive person about a well testing requirement. Mid-morning, my Park Manager and the other Assistant Park Manager and I packed some sandwiches and hit the road. We spent the whole afternoon touring and getting to know the most distant of our park properties. It was great to finally see the places that I have been hearing about.
Because of their locations and the absence of recreational facilities, some of the properties are not visited as often as we would like. We had a chainsaw along for the ride and we needed it to pass one area where a tree had fallen across an interior road.

We started at the furthest area away from the main part of the park and worked our way back. By the time we were well into the first tract that we were exploring, it was about lunch time. My Manager had our expedition well planned, because we arrived at this cool little cabin where we could eat our packed lunches. The property had formerly been a hunt camp and the cabin was built to house the hunters. It was a well made cabin because it was holding up very well for being hidden away in the middle of the Florida wilderness. Our Manager has ideas to relocate the cabin so that it can be utilized by park visitors. It would really be a wonderful place to camp for a weekend.

The properties that we toured were mostly home sites or farm sites that were no longer used and purchased by the state for restoration and preservation. Its interesting to see how nature takes its course with these disturbed areas. In some places, only a well trained eye would know that people had ever been there. In others, the damage and remnants of people were obvious. At all of the properties, there was no shortage of wildflowers. There were Spiderworts everywhere, one of my favorites. We also saw quite a bit of the yellow flower below, Hypericum. It is a relative of St. Johns Wort.

Another flower that we saw quite a bit, but a new one to me was Sedge. It is a very grass-like flower, and often called a weed. I think its unusual because the flower becomes green again at the tips. Its as if it isn't a flower at all, but a grass that someone spilled some white paint on.

We visited two of our primitive horse camping areas, Fectel and Rock Springs Run. Both are very remote, but excellent facilities. The building shown is the horse barn at Fectel, but there is also an identical barn at Rock Springs Run. These are individual stalls for visitors to bring their own horses to stay overnight and there are plenty of grassy areas around each one for tent camping. Each camping area also has a restroom available. Both areas have extensive horse trails throughout.

On our way out of the Rock Springs property, we spotted several Sandhill Cranes. I have seen them here more than once and I now look for them every time. They are such beautiful birds and I am always impressed by their calmness around people. We gave them their space, but they didn't seem bothered by our presence at all.

Once we were in the Rock Springs Run property, we were back in territory that was familiar to me. I visit Rock Springs and Katie's Landing sometimes on Mondays. We decided to stop in at Katie's Landing to see the progress that had been made on the bulkhead construction. It looked like they were trying to control the water around the existing construction to continue their work. I'm sure its a difficult task. The 3+ inches of rain that we had last week brought the water level up again.

On our way back to the main area of the park, we went through a property that I had only driven past before. We ended up at a stunning oasis, tucked away in the woods, before we popped back out onto paved roads near the main park. Our last stop was at a small sulfur spring. It smelled terrible, but it was absolutely beautiful. The small spring was pumping out its fair share of water and it was mesmerizing to watch the sand churn at the bottom. It was so nice to watch the blue, blue water. If it wasn't surrounded by poison ivy, I would have loved to sit and stay all day. It was a terrific way to end the tour.

Thought of the Day #56
It may seem strange that the park owns so many properties that are seldom used and far away from the main use area of the park. Park property is not just for recreation though, it serves multiple purposes. Wekiva River Basin State Park (a title that encompasses all of the land that we manage) is more than 42,000 acres surrounding some of the Wekiva River. It is a long corridor that provides a pathway for wildlife and it connects to State Forest land to expand the corridor even further. Many species of animals will roam great distances in search of food, different habitats, or even mates. This corridor allows them to continue their natural practices with minimal threats from the human world. As more properties are added to expand this protected area, they are gradually restored to natural conditions and sometimes recreational areas are added so that people can enjoy them as well.

Leaving The Real Florida

2010-04-28T22:38:00.001-04:00

We took my sister to Orlando today so that she could start her conference. We spent some time exploring a little bit of Orlando and doing some touristy things while we waited for her to finish up her first day. It was fun to see the sights. Orlando is only about 30 miles from the park, but it feels like another planet.
We spent most of our time looking at man-made structures and places, but there were a few natural items mixed in... well, living things anyway. Most of the plants that we saw were exotic and even the little Anole lizards were the larger, Cuban Anoles instead of the native, Green Anoles. The exotic plants aren't a problem because they are contained. Exotics only become a problem when they are invasive and are allowed to spread and compete with native plants. They were pretty to look at, that's for sure.

When the first day of the conference was over, we spent a little more time visiting and walked around the area. We got to see a beautiful sunset and then drove home again in view of a beautiful moon covered in clouds. I will be back to work again tomorrow and back to the regularly scheduled events.

Thought of the Day #57
Moving from Branford, FL to Apopka, FL was a bit of a shock. We went from having one small grocery store 6 miles away and regular shopping 30 miles away to having our choice of several Publix stores and anything else we need within a 5 mile radius. We have been adjusting to "city-life" and re-learning the value of convenience while still missing the quiet, slower paced life that we left behind. A short visit to Orlando made us appreciate our park oasis so much more. Apopka felt like Branford once we got home today.

Sister Fun Day

2010-04-27T22:00:00.001-04:00

I think that living close to Orlando is going to be a very handy thing. My sister came for a visit all the way from Indiana. She is attending a work-related conference in Orlando, but is able to find some time to visit with me before and after the conference. We picked her up at the airport today and brought her back to the park. She reads the blog, so she was familiar with many areas of the park but it was nice to be able to put it all together with her in person.
We drove along the whole park drive and through the campground. We encountered a Gopher Tortoise happily munching on some grass near the entrance to the campground. We sat and watched it eat for a while. I wasn't able to catch it wrapping is big tongue around the grass, but I think you can tell how intent it was on eating this grass.

When we went to the youth camp area, we surprised an armadillo. It started to run when we pulled up, then tried to wait us out. As we walked closer to it, it finally bolted for cover in the tall grasses.

After seeing the sights visible from the park drive, we went for a little walk. We walked the wet to dry trail that I blogged about on Sunday. We walked it in reverse though so that we would end up at the spring. So, I guess we walked the dry to wet trail. I saw many of the same things that I saw on Sunday, but I also saw some new things.
There was a lovely Bromeliad clump on a fallen branch. It was really striking because the filtered sunlight was highlighting the pink bloom.

We watched some very large Whirligig Beetles skate around on the water's surface on one of the streams. I wasn't sure what they were at first because they were so big, much larger than the ones that I saw at Troy. The photo of the beetles isn't very crisp, but I loved the color of the reflection on the water.

I was surprised to see a fallen tree. It was definitely standing on Sunday. We had just over three inches of rain on Sunday night, I wonder if the storm is what did this tree in. It could not have fallen in a better place though, it didn't harm the walkway at all.

I was able to catch a photo of these Damselflies this time. They are very similar to the one I photographed on Sunday, but they have a tiny white patch on the tip of their wings. I saw this type flying around on Sunday, but they were a little more cooperative this time.

The best find of the walk was spotted by my sister. She saw these lovely little Jack-in-the-Pulpits in bloom. They are easily overlooked because the flower is the same color as the leaf and it even looks a little leafy. They are beautiful little plants.

After our walk, we went for a swim. I had to work at her for a while to get her into the cold spring water. I had some help from the biting no-see-ums and some encouraging park visitors. It was a good day.

Thought of the Day #58
Its easy to think that if you have walked along a particular trail that you have seen it and done it and there is no need to do it again. Its nice to walk the same trail at different times of the year to see the changes in the foliage. Its also nice to take a different companion with you each time. Its amazing how many things are well hidden until the right pair of eyes come along.

A Day On From My Days Off

2010-04-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

I feel like I am on vacation or something. I had the weekend off, worked today, and am now taking the next two days off as well. My sister is coming to visit, so I took a little time off to spend with her. After work today, we accomplished a little more in the quest to put our house together and had a huge achievement. We finally arranged the living room furniture in a pleasing way. We had been so close all along, but one chair just had to be shifted and we knew immediately that we had done it! It may not sound like much, but it was a major victory in our book. Home is just not home without a comfy living room.
So, back to work, I went to work today and got some things done there too. We had our Monday morning meeting and reviewed the upcoming week. It was a good week to take time off, I think we are in the calm before the storm that is summer. It won't be long before the summer rush starts, but its nice to have some time to prepare. After the morning meeting, I set out to check on a few areas in the park and at the distant, northern properties. When I got to the spring area, no one was there yet. It is a rare treat to see it so quiet. It is always a beautiful site, but its stunning when its empty.

I wasn't alone though. There were several squirrels rushing around to eat their breakfast acorns before they had to start running from visitors. I also found this group of little bugs. I have never seen them before, but they were very interesting. I am guessing that the three little stripey guys are young versions of the adults around them.

I zipped through my morning duties and enjoyed my adventure out of the main park and out to the other properties. I was back in time for lunch and headed back to the office afterwards. I took care of some paperwork and made a few calls that I needed to make. I stopped in at the ranger station to process a transaction through the register and to fill out some receipt forms. On my way back to the office, I passed by my house. I found three Turkeys out enjoying my front yard. One male Turkey was doing his best to show off for the female Turkeys. He fluffed out his feathers as far as they would go.

The hens were not all that interested and ended up walking right past him to peck at the dirt... poor guy.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the office. I got a little progress made on getting ready to start ranger evaluations and talked to my coworker about our next steps. I waited for a phone call that never came, and I straightened up my office before heading out.
At home, we found an amazing caterpillar on the shed in the back yard. It looks just like a stick! It was holding tightly to the door frame with one end and the other end was suspended from a tiny wisp of silk. I couldn't find a definite ID for the caterpillar, but I think it may be a silkworm caterpillar of some sort. I will check back tomorrow to see if its still there.

Thought of the Day #59
I spoke to the ranger who took my place at Troy today. It sounds like Troy Spring is finally clear again. He described the water clarity to me and I could picture it so vividly. I remember every inch of that park. I wonder how long it will all stay with me. I wonder how long it will take to feel the same way about Wekiwa.

Weekend Part II

2010-04-25T21:14:00.000-04:00

Today was my second day off of the weekend and it was another delightful day. The kitchen, dining room, and living room are now 100% box free. The furniture in the living room is still in disarray because we haven't found an arrangement that works for us yet, but we'll get there. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to walk through several rooms in a row without seeing a cardboard box. The house is feeling bigger every day!
After a morning of cleaning, straightening, and unpacking, we were ready to leave the house by the late afternoon. We took a walk on the Wet to Dry trail at the park today. It is a short but enjoyable boardwalk trail near the spring. If you look at the map, it is the tiny, black circle near the spring in the bottom right. The trail is named appropriately because you can begin near the spring and walk along some low areas that are very wet, hence the boardwalk to keep your feet high and dry. The trail loops around and very gently gains elevation, leaving the damp areas behind and moving to dryer areas. The vegetation and animal life changes subtly as you walk. If you walk slowly and listen carefully, there is a lot to see. Here are some of the things that we found.

This lovely little Hedge-nettle was quietly nestled between the walkway to the restroom and the parking lot. I wonder how many people walked past it without even seeing it. The poor little thing is even referred to as a weed in my flower field guide.

I'm sure that this fellow was missed by many, by design. This water snake was very well hidden in a little stream. I'm sure he was waiting for an unsuspecting frog to come along and overlook him as well. Can you see his head peaking above the water? It looks just like a leaf.

This Broadhead Skink does an excellent job of camouflaging itself on the reddish-brown forest floor. Its quick movement makes it easy to spot though.

This stunning Damselfly was hard to "catch" with my camera. I'm glad I got it though.

A squirrel though that the boardwalk was a nice spot to stop for lunch. It even found a nice big leaf for shade.

The beautiful white flower below is in the Linnaeus family and it has several cousins that look very similar. I am leaning toward Ti-ti (aka Leatherwood) for this particular plant, but Lizard's Tail and Virginia Willow have almost identical flowers. None of them match perfectly with the leaves that I saw, so it may be another cousin altogether. It was in bloom in the wetter areas of the trail.

I just love the way that these leaves look like their color has just been painted on. Can't you see the brush strokes?

A young hawk flew in to see us off near the end of the trail.

Thought of the Day #60
I can't believe that I have been blogging daily for almost a year now! We have only 60 days to go. I am having fun. I enjoy sharing what I see and the feedback from all of you has been very valuable. The blog has also reminded me to keep enjoying the fun parts of my job even when things get stressful. I try hard to keep things positive so that I am not ranting and complaining and I think its good to force myself to see the upside of every day. It has also become a very handy work journal. I have no trouble filling out my timesheet, I can always look back at what I did each day if I don't remember. I don't think that I can just stop blogging, and I don't think that some of you would let me! There are only 60 days left of my promised 365 days, but I don't think that this will be the last that you hear from me.

Day at Home

2010-04-24T23:03:00.000-04:00

Today was the start of my weekend off. It was a pretty quiet day at home. We unpacked some more boxes and we now have the guest room and guest bathroom set-up and ready. Its hard to believe that we have been here for almost a month and a half. The time is flying by so quickly. I spent the day working around the house and battling malware on the computer so I didn't get out to take any photos. Here are some leftovers from the past week. The flower was from Wednesday and the fire photos are from yesterday.

Thought of the Day #61
Someone asked yesterday how we decide when to start a prescribed fire. Our park biologists write burn prescriptions for each zone of the park. The prescription tells us how and when to burn the zone to achieve our desired results. It gives us a range of conditions that are necessary for that zone. The prescription takes into account wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, recent rainfall amounts, fuel moisture, and several other factors. Our biologists can look at the weather forecasts for the week to plan out a window of opportunity to burn. They look at the upcoming conditions and find zones that fit those conditions. When there is a match, we tentatively plan ahead to burn, but the final call is made the morning of the proposed burn. Those of us on staff that participate in prescribed fire are to be ready at all times to burn. As you know, weather forecasts are not always accurate, so things can always change at the last minute. Another check is done right before we start the burn. There is also always someone on the fire line monitoring the weather throughout the burn.

Wekiwa Burn #2

2010-04-23T17:48:00.000-04:00

Today was much better than yesterday. I started out a little grumpy, but I found out soon after arriving to work that I would be burning today. I thought that a day out of the office, on the fire line would do me good... it did. I was able to make it in to the office and finish up the project that I had to complete by today. It took less time than expected and I ran home to change into my burn gear. I have been wearing my burn boots to work everyday to break them in. I wasn't too confident that they wouldn't cause blisters though. I strategically placed a double layer of band-aids on my heels and put on an extra pair of socks. It did the trick, my feet aren't any more sore than they always are after a burn. I think that I do need to invest in some squishy insoles for my boots though.
The burn zone that we hit today was a nice, quick burn but we did have a lot of mop-up at the end to put out anything still smoldering near the edge of the zone. One side of the zone was along the road that the park entrance is on. We had to make sure that we didn't worry visitors or our neighbors with smoke near the edge. The wind did its job today and all the smoke blew into the zone and through the woods. We didn't have any trouble with smoke on the road and our coworkers in the park never even smelled smoke. The only trouble in the road was with people slowing down to watch what we were doing and one turkey caused a little worry... no, not a driver, a real Turkey. A group of turkeys were being turkeys and scrambling around to decide what to do about the fire coming towards them. One silly bird flew out into the middle of the road. It took flight again when a car came along and a man driving a convertible almost got a passenger that he didn't expect. All of the turkeys made it to safety though, none were roasted.
When we got into position at the beginning of the burn and were waiting for the OK from the test fire location. I took the time to photograph some of the things around us. We started out in a rather wet area and there were lots of wildflowers that I hadn't seen before. This one looks like it belongs in a Dr. Seuss book.

We also saw quite a bit of wildlife today. Aside from the silly Turkeys, we saw more than a few hawks. This pair sat on their perch and enjoyed the show for a long time. Can you see them? They almost look like a couple of pine cones.

Once we put fire on the ground, someone saw this Pygmy Rattler making a run for it. I was able to get close enough for a good picture. It didn't care about much aside from moving away from the heat. It was exciting! This was the first time that I have seen a Rattlesnake in the wild, live (I have seen a few dead ones).

It was a calm fire, for the most part. The side that my team lit was a wet Hammock (an oak filled forest that doesn't burn well). We had to work to get it to burn. Once we made it around to another side, we were able to watch the fire carry through a little better.

Later in the morning, when the sun had been out for several hours and things began to dry up a little, two people went back and re-lit some of the areas that didn't burn well this morning. It was nice to go back and see it afterward. It was a beautiful sight to see open, nicely burned Hammock.

Thought of the Day #62
Burning at Wekiwa is a little different from burning at some other parks. Much of the park is right in the public eye. We have neighbors close to our fence lines and roads that cross through and around the park. We have to work hard to educate the people around us to make sure that they know we are doing this for a good reason. If we didn't burn these zones, our neighbors would not enjoy such a lovely view and their homes would be in real danger of incidental fires if we didn't keep the fuel load low. We also have to burn carefully to make sure that smoke is not bothering people or creating a hazard on the road. We have to do much more extensive mop-up than I have done at other parks. Generally, after the fire has burned, most of the burnable fuel is gone. Things like downed logs and branches can continue to burn or smolder for a long time afterward. We put out fires that are near the edge of the zone or could flare up later and catch something else on fire. Here at Wekiwa, when our burn zone is in the public eye, we have to make sure that anything that is smoking within 100 feet of the edge (the length of our fire hose) is fully extinguished. It takes a lot of work, but it alleviates a lot of worry.

A Hiking We Will Go

2010-04-22T22:55:00.000-04:00

After just one day back, I'm ready for my weekend. I was stuck in the office most of the morning to finish adding our resource management needs to a database. It was time consuming because I was going between several different documents to make sure that our requests were in line with our management plan and that the information was added to the database in the preferred format. Just about the time I was ready to pull my hair out, I decided to take a break for lunch. I went home, made some lunch and just as it was ready, I got a call to meet a contractor in the youth camp area of the park. The construction is just about to begin for our sewer upgrade and the contractor was looking over the area and representatives from the utility companies were there to locate buried utility lines. I was needed to unlock locks and buildings so that they could see what they needed to. While I was at the youth camp, I noticed a Sandhill Crane enjoying the porch of one of the cabins.

While they walked some of the areas that I was not needed for, I headed home to finish my lunch. The contractor was going to call me later when he needed me again. I was able to return to the office to get a little more done before I headed out again to unlock some more locks. I decided that I had made enough progress on my project to be able to finish it up tomorrow. When I was done with the contractor, I tried to fix a problem with the computer that the rangers use. I didn't get to finish because I was called to the ranger station. I had to cover the ranger station for a little while between shifts. It was just one of those days and I was glad to be home when I got there. Tomorrow, I will start fresh and it will go much better, I'm sure.
When I got home, my fiance and dog and I went for another walk. I needed it. It was really nice out. It was warm, but comfortable. We saw a lot of pretty views along the trail. The trail we walked moves through several different natural communities. There were wetter areas with lots of ferns.

There were also areas that had more trees. We surprised a hawk that flew out in front of us and landed on a nearby branch. It seemed as interested in watching us as we were in watching it. It seemed much larger than the Red-shouldered Hawks that I saw often at Troy. Without seeing its front, I can't be completely sure, but it appears to be a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.

There were a few areas that had some pretty flowers. I found several plants with these lovely flowers on them. I had found flowers like these that were white shortly before I left Troy. I wonder if these are also in the Blueberry family.

One of the last areas that we walked through was almost completely covered in Palmettos. It felt different in that area too. The air smelled like rain and it felt a little cooler. I am really liking this trail, and there is so much more left for us to explore. You can follow the link to the park trail map. We walked on the orange Volksmarch trail from somewhere around the 2 to the 24. I don't think it was more than 2 miles each way, but it was very relaxing.

Thought of the Day # 63
One thing that impresses me about Wekiwa is how dedicated the regular visitors are. The rangers hand out dog biscuits at the ranger station to anyone with a dog in their car. I found out that there are several different visitors that supply the biscuits. There are visitors that have come to the ranger station to report suspicious activity, and visitors that come every single day and take the time to chat with the rangers as they come in. Wekiwa can be a busy and frustrating place, but overall, its a great place to be.

Photo Day

2010-04-21T20:34:00.001-04:00

As promised, I made it a point to take lots of pictures today. I was off again today, but I had a personnel meeting to go to this afternoon. The meeting was at our shop, so I only had to walk to the end of my driveway to get there. It was nice to be home in less than a minute after the meeting too!
When the meeting was over, my fiance and I tried out another disc golf course. It was yet another local course that we had not yet been to. Its so cool to have so many to choose from near by. This one was called River City Nature Park. It was a nice little city park near the St. Johns River. The course was a 9-hole course, but it was well spread out and a nice combination of wide open, grassy fairways and curvy, tree-lined fairways. There were other people there, but it wasn't at all crowded. I even had time to stop and take photos throughout the whole course... and there was a lot to photograph! I had a great time. I did OK playing too. I was inches away from a hole-in-one once.
The start of the course was a barren, grassy field. We quickly found some dense vegetation though. After the first few holes, I was beginning to worry that we might loose a disc or two in the dense areas. It was fun to search for a disc in the woods here though, I kept finding cool things everytime I ventured into the bushes. The first photos are driving me crazy. I have seen this plant a million times before and it is as familiar to me as an old friend, but I can't think of a name for it and I can't find it in any of my books. Please feel free to comment below if you know its name. It was very tall, easily 8-10 feet and the flowers remind me of Queen Anne's Lace. I really liked the flowers that had not quite opened yet. I really did NOT like the ant mound that I found myself standing in while I was taking these photos.

Once I swatted all of the biting ants off of my ankle and shoe, I started to notice all of the other bugs about. There were big, fuzzy bumble bees buzzing from one flower to the next. I only have one blurry photo of them though. They would stay on a flower just long enough for me to focus on them and they would fly to the next spot just before I hit the shutter. I was easily distracted from the the bees when I saw a bright green Dragonfly. It was much more cooperative and stayed perfectly still. I highly recommend clicking on this photo to enlarge it. You can see every vein in its wing.

A hole or two later, we were back in a lightly forested area. There were some nice, old Oaks. One tree really caught my attention. It had a very thick trunk, but there was almost nothing left of the lowest section of it. The top had obviously been severed by lightning or a similar drastic force. Its largest branches had been knocked off as well. Somehow this trooper was managing to flourish though. It was covered from its scraggly top to its scraggly bottom in fresh, new growth.

This course was such a neat combination of areas. There were little islands of Oak, little islands of Pine, and even some Palm trees. I felt like I was on a ball golf course when we were on the section pictured below.

I was still throwing some discs between photos. I think that the disc was helping find some cool photo subjects though. Once it landed right next to this vertebra. It is pretty big, I assume it is from a deer, but it seems big enough to be a cow. There was a flower conveniently located nearby, so I had to share this Georgia O'Keeffe tribute.

The next hole had a little tunnel of pine trees. There wasn't much in between them aside from dozens of Paw Paw. I just love the lazy beauty of these droopy flowers. As I knelt down to take some photos, I noticed that they have a very strong smell. I'm surprised that I never noticed it before. At first, is smells perfumey, but as I took another sniff, I realized that they smell a lot like Anise or black licorice.

When we were out in the open fields again, my fiance made a discovery. The other day, we watched a series on PBS about the Florida outdoors. There was one about springs and we were surprised to see A LOT of places that we recognized. There were scenes from the Ichetucknee, and even of Wekiwa. In one segment, they were standing around a sinkhole that is literally in my backyard! Another of the shows was just about Frogs in Florida. It showed researches putting plastic pipes in the ground that would attract frogs so that they could collect information about them. While I was taking another photo, Isaac walked past a PVC pipe in the ground that was labeling a gas line. He peered down into it because of the PBS show that we saw and sure enough, there was a frog inside! It backed down further into the pipe when it saw him and had changed from green to brown by the time I arrived with my camera. We walked by another one of these pipes minutes later and found three frogs inside!

The eighth hole made a beautiful tunnel through the Oaks and the ninth was a nice open drive towards the car. It was a beautiful course and a beautiful day. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Thought of the Day #64
I am at a loss for the thought of the day today. It was a day for photos more than words. What are your thoughts today? Do you have any questions that you have been wanting to ask? Is there something at Wekiwa that I haven't shown you yet that you want me to get to this week? Do you want to share something neat that you saw outdoors recently? What's on your mind?

Camera Scare

2010-04-20T23:04:00.000-04:00

Today was a very relaxing day off. I got to sleep in, watch some movies, do some laundry and take a walk with my dog and my fiance. It was a nice day, but I did have a small worry in the morning. The dog was being silly and insisted on laying on the kitchen rug while my fiance was doing the dishes. The 130lbs dog had wedged himself into a place that he did not fit into. I grabbed my camera to take a picture and the batteries were dead. I usually get a little more warning than that and I thought it was strange, but I went to the junk drawer and found four more batteries. When I loaded the new batteries, the camera would turn on but not take photos. It was still telling me that the batteries were low. I was horrified at the thought of my camera being broken. We decided to leave for our walk and I brought my cell phone in case I wanted to take photos. I was hoping the walk would keep my mind off of my camera for a little while.
We had a nice walk into the park and along a section of one of the nature trails. We walked by a few other people and Dozer didn't slobber on anyone. I was relieved that no one was too nervous around him. Sometimes people don't react well to meeting such a big dog. He did see a Gopher Tortoise that he wanted to chase, but there were plenty of other distractions to keep his dog-brain busy. We had a water bottle with us for our use and we poured some into our hands for Dozer. He decided to just drink straight from the bottle, so he got to finish it... we were done. When we got near the ranger station again, we stopped at a faucet with a water bowl under it. It is specifically there for dog watering. I knew that Dozer would rather drink from the faucet than from the bowl, but I had to laugh when he laid down on the ground to do so. The faucet is close to the ground. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture, but I will be ready next time.
On our walk we saw several of the same type of shrub or tree. They were just sprouting new leaves and each stem of leaves had pink, fleshy petals curled back at its base. I wasn't able to find an identity, but they were very unique.

The cell phone photos are not very crisp, but I like the fogginess in the photo below. It makes my day off look so dreamy.

When we returned from our walk, we decided to go out and buy some new batteries. It was possible that the batteries bouncing around in the junk drawer were not in their best condition. Thankfully, the new batteries did the trick and my camera is just fine now. What a relief!! I will have to find some beautiful things to photograph tomorrow.

Thought of the Day #65
It occurred to me today that I take my camera for granted. It has become so easy for me to shoot and share everything that I see. My cell phone is not quite good enough to be my regular camera, and I just wouldn't be able to afford to post photos at this pace if I went back to one of my old 35mm film cameras. One-hour photo processing would make it possible, but it would take so much more work and money for processing. I am grateful for my digital camera and quick file transfer to the computer. I'm glad its not broken.

TGIF

2010-04-19T22:26:00.000-04:00

My "Friday" is finally here. I am off for the next two days and I am ready for it. It has been a good week, but a tiresome one. I was really doing just fine until today, but as this was day 8, I started feeling it. We had our usual Monday meetings and everything was going well. I went out to check on the Ranger Academy group next. They were in their best uniforms and ready for graduation day. I helped with some last minute details. A lock was really holding us up. It was being stubborn and my key wouldn't work. I was also trying my best to not interrupt a group discussion that was going on nearby. I felt terrible when I had to call a ranger away from the project he was working on to open the silly lock. When that battle was won, I moved on to the kitchen area. They needed more garbage bags and tweezers to remove a sliver. I drove back to the shop area to get the bags and stopped at home for some tweezers. I dropped off the supplies to the kitchen and began to make my rounds of the youth camp area. I had to check on the men's side restroom because someone reported to me that there was a back-up with the drains. The restroom looked fine, but I checked the nearby lift station pump and it was too full. No one in the park had a key to the lock securing the fence around it, so I had to make another trip to the shop for some bolt cutters. Meanwhile, I called out the cavalry to help round up some assistance with the well. I went back to the smelly issue at hand and opened up the fence. Then I checked the pump controls to see what I could do. It was not a problem that could be easily repaired. We had to call in one company to pump out the VERY large tank so that we could see a little more. We happened to get very lucky because another septic service agent was in the park on another due to a completely un-related ordeal. He was able to check over the wiring and get things working well enough again. I don't know why this pump couldn't wait just a few more months to falter, it will be removed very soon because we are about to connect everything to city sewer. The majority of my morning was spent dealing with sewage. The only photos I took today were of, you guessed it... a septic tank. This is the cleanest of them all, after the tank was pumped and pressure washed.

When we left the issue in capable hands to get the pump pumping again, it was lunch time. I was not ready for lunch yet. I returned to the office and sent a response to a fire marshall inspection. With my mind clear and the smell of sewage no longer lingering in my nose, I headed home to get a bite to eat. After lunch, I inched forward a little more on a project that I need to complete by the end of the week. I have to enter our natural resource project needs into a database which tracks such things. Last week, I was able to locate the program that I need to use and got logged on. Today, I had someone show me how to enter the info, but I was not yet authorized to do so. I had to call a help desk and then another contact to gain those permissions. When I finally was able to get somewhere, I got called away. The Ranger Academy participants had graduated and were ready to go home. I had to walk through and check their cabins and restrooms to make sure that they were clean enough. It was starting to rain and everyone was eager to hit the road. My coworker gave me a hand and everyone cheered when we gave the thumbs up. Park Rangers are great at cleaning! It was fun to watch them all say their good-byes and then flee to their vehicles. We stuck around to take care of some last minute items and then headed home.

Thought of the Day #66
Between grease traps and lift stations, I have had more than my share of smelly things to deal with this week. As a Park Ranger and now as an Assistant Park Manager, I have felt like a plumber on so many occasions. I'm sure that the iconic image of a Park Ranger in your head does not include a plunger, but human waste really becomes a big part of the job whether it is litter or sewage. I remember being a little surprised in college when I had to take a waste water treatment class and I visited almost every waste water treatment plant within 45 minutes of the school on different field trips. If you think about it though, managing natural resources includes managing our impact on them. Waste water is treated and it returns to our water table. We have to make sure that waste water is treated effectively and consistently or else it can be detrimental to something that is so important to life, clean water.

Drippy Sunday

2010-04-18T21:24:00.000-04:00

Today was very quiet, you could even call it a slow day. The cloudy skies that we saw all morning finally became a very light rain around 11:00am and continued into the late afternoon. We never came close to having to close the park today. I spent the day back and forth between Ranger Academy and the main park again. I worked with one of the rangers to remove another load of garbage from the overfull dumpster at the dining hall. We also hauled chairs from the pool area back to the dining hall. I delivered an enormous truck and trailer to the Ranger Academy area which carried a set of bleachers which the Academy class will stand on tomorrow for their class photo, weather permitting. On one stop at the dining hall, I had the opportunity to stop and look out onto the water. Lake Prevatt has much more water in it than it usually does and the view has been opened and improved by our recent prescribed fire.

I had a few little rescue missions today. Once I had to pick up two Ranger Academy participants who missed the bus for their field trip. We didn't really know where the rest of the group was headed, but we tried one area and went the other way when we didn't see tire tracks. We caught up to them just as they were leaving the spring area. I also took some jumper cables to someone at the Sand Lake parking area whose battery had failed. That was right after it stated raining, of course. While I was there though, I noticed some of the biggest Thistles that I have ever seen. They were just beautiful. I set my camera up under the cover of my rain jacket and snapped a few photos with my lens pointed down so that I didn't catch any rain drops.

It was a quiet day, but a good one.

Thought of the Day #67
With the park so slow, I had time to have conversations with the rangers. That was nice. I am still getting to know them all. When a camper checked in who had a similar last name to mine, one of the rangers asked me about my name. He told me that he had known a guy with the same last name years ago in Lake Park, FL. He told me that he worked with him at the fire station. My jaw dropped to the floor. This ranger worked with my Dad 30+ years ago. We really couldn't believe the coincidence and began exchanging details. It really was true. I immediately called my parents and put them on the phone with the ranger. They had a great time passing memories back and forth and they are looking forward to meeting up again after all these years at some point when my parents come for a visit. My Dad was the fire chief so the ranger called me chief for the rest of the day. I had to laugh when I walked into the ranger station and he said he was seeing me with the beard that he remembers my dad having.... I guess there is a bit of a family resemblance. It really is a small world.

Smooth Saturday

2010-04-17T22:27:00.000-04:00

Today went by very quickly. I stayed pretty busy, but it was the good kind of busy where I was never stressed. I am getting better and better at moving in several directions at once and I heard more than once, "wow, you are everywhere." I met with the people working today at the Ranger Station this morning. I opened up the Ranger Station and ran all of the register reports. Then the chaos began. The ranger for the distant properties called to check in with me. While I was talking to him, I was looking for one of our biologists phone numbers to help facilitate a volunteer project at another property. When I was done in the Ranger Station, I headed out to get some change that would be needed during the day. As I was pulling back into the park, I got a call from the Ranger Academy because the computer and the projector started to malfunction. I headed up that way and got to listen to a great presentation about prescribed fire while I waited to get to the computer. Fortunately, the next activity for the Academy was outdoors so I was able get in to fix the computer issue and help set up the equipment for the next presenter. I also dropped off some paper towels while I was there and found out that the kitchen was having some trouble with the freezer. My next stop was to the kitchen. I picked up some boxes to take to the recycling dumpster and checked on the freezer. It began to cool down while I was there and I checked on it again later in the afternoon. It was doing its job, but it could have been doing it a little better. We will have to look into getting it serviced. Another issue was brought to my attention while I was there. The dumpster by the dining hall had not been emptied when it should have been and it was VERY full. I resolved to deal with the garbage later in the day and I headed over to check on the Ranger Station and the rest of the park. Things were pretty quiet. There was a steady flow of traffic coming into the park, but the cars weren't lined up to the road as I have seen in previous weekends.
Somewhere after 1:00, we finally got close to filling up. At one point, there were four of us in the Ranger Station and we were all busy. Two people were helping campers and other walk-ins to the ranger station. One person was at the window taking entrance fees, and I was answering the phone. We were managing to help everyone quickly and courteously though and the line kept moving into the park quickly. When the parking lot was almost full, we got into our ready positions. Someone was counting parking spaces and I readied the cones and signs to close the park and start turning people around. When we did start turning cars around, it was only a few at a time. There was no steady line like I saw last time. The slow trickle of traffic was nice because I was able to give people a better explanation than I can when there are 30 cars behind the car I am talking to. People were disappointed, but not nearly as upset as they were the last weekend that I worked. Most of the people did end up coming into the park a little later as people began to leave.
Once the rush was over and we knew that we wouldn't have to close again, I went to check on Ranger Academy one more time. I brought them some extension cords for an evening activity and carried a table to the pool area for them. The freezer was still plugging along as it had been and I picked up some more boxes for the recycling dumpster. I also called one of the rangers to come and meet me by the dining hall. Together, we loaded some of the garbage bags from the overfull dumpster into the back of an EZ-GO. We took them to a less full dumpster so that the kitchen would have some room this evening for garbage. We can't leave any food garbage anywhere but in the bear proof dumpsters.
Once I had made my last rounds around the park and things were really quieting down, I headed home for the evening. It was another quiet, uninterrupted evening... I could get used to this. I realized when I got home that I had not taken any photos today. I just didn't have any time. I won't leave you without something to look at though. How about a tour of another area of the park?

Thought of the Day #68
On Monday, I visited Katie's Landing, which is one of our distant, northern properties. It is another launching point for boats on the Wekiva River and a nice picnic area. The property has served this function for many years, but it was just acquired and redeveloped by the park recently. There is still some construction that is being finished up, especially at the water's edge. There is a bulkhead that is in the midst of construction to keep the river back in place. A surface to launch boats will also be added. Every time I visit Katie's Landing, it makes me want to go kayaking. I will get around to it soon.

Fox Squirrel Day!!

2010-04-16T21:44:00.000-04:00

Today was a nice day. It started out beautiful and very foggy. We had our morning meeting at the shop and then I headed out to check on the Ranger Academy. They were ready to start class and I got the very short list of problems. They needed more fire wood and a light bulb. I also looked over the youth camp area to see if there was anything that needed attention. I straightened up around the outside of the dining hall a little and then headed down to the office. While I was out and about in the park, I took a few photos of the fog and wished that I had time for more. The spiderwebs were heavy with dew and EVERYWHERE!

I stopped by the ranger station on my way back to the office and learned that their copy of the operations manual was very out of date. While I was at the office, I printed the chapters that had been updated since the existing copy had been made. I also checked my e-mail and responded to the e-mails that needed attention. My new fire boots that were ordered last week came in. I decided to wear them right away to try to break them in before I have to spend 8 hours stomping around in the woods on a burn. I'm glad that I did. Just the walking that I did today very nearly caused blisters. The boots are tall, leather lace-up boots. The soles are Vibram, so they are more resistant to hot embers on the ground. They have to be tall to make sure that no burning embers land in your socks, and the all leather sides offer more protection than most shoes. The tall, stiff leather is hard to break in. I can't believe that I didn't take a photo of them! Here is a link to what I found when I Googled, looking for my boots. I stomped around the office like I was wearing ski boots, most of the morning.
I was expecting a septic company and the county health inspector to arrive at 11:00 to pump the grease trap at the dining hall. At 10:00, I got a call on the radio that the septic company had arrived. I met them at the ranger station and led them to the area that needed attention and then had the chance to talk to them. They had finished their last job early and tried to reach the health inspector to notify him that they would be early. They weren't able to get a hold of him though, so I hung out with the septic guys for an hour. The health inspector wanted to be present when the trap was pumped so that he could inspect it. I answered a lot of the questions about the park that the septic guys had and we sat and watched some Fox Squirrels for a while. It was really kind of cool. After watching them for about 20 minutes, we decided that there were a total of four of them. They were playful with each other and about the same size and coloration, so I am guessing that they were siblings. They really camouflage with the trees and the Spanish Moss very well. Do you see all three of the squirrels in the photo below?

When the health inspector finally arrived, we all watched the grease get sucked into the truck. It was pretty gross and pretty smelly. Now I know what the entire grease trap looks like and exactly how it operates. I now officially know far more than I ever wanted to about grease traps.

That was pretty gross wasn't it? Here is one more Fox Squirrel photo so that the grease trap is not the last photo that lingers with you when you are done reading the blog.

The rest of my day was much less exciting, thankfully. I visited the campground once to check on the WiFi set up. A visitor had reported that it wasn't working. I turned the system on and off and removed one of the air cards and replaced it and had it up again in no time. I also replaced some of our signage to encourage people to participate in our survey about the WiFi connection. I also got caught up with my coworker on needs for the weekend and current events in the park. It was unusual, but I went home on time and didn't get any calls after I was home. It was great!

Thought of the Day #69
Sherman's Fox Squirrels are a Species of Special Concern in Florida. Their numbers are declining because of habitat loss or degradation. They are much picker about the places that they live than the average Grey Squirrel. The Fox Squirrel prefers to nest very high up in pine trees. When an area that is predominately pine is not permitted to burn on a regular cycle, hardwoods move in and become the dominate species. When this happens, the Fox Squirrels are forced out to other areas. In addition, Longleaf Pine, specifically is a favorite food of the Fox Squirrel. Many natural stands of Longleaf Pines have been harvested in the past and replaced with faster growing, less desireable pines. The fact that there are so many Fox Squirrels in the park is a great compliment to the land management in this park. The regular cycles of prescribed fire are keeping these unique creatures happy at Wekiwa.

Turkey Lurkey

2010-04-15T22:38:00.000-04:00

My day had a much different pace from yesterday. My coworker was back from his days off and I was free, for the most part, to get some office work done. I checked in with the Ranger Academy this morning. They were just starting class when I arrived after our morning meeting. Everything was going well at the time. Once I had been at the office for a while, I got a call from the Ranger Academy area. The dishwasher was not running correctly in the kitchen. Even in the kitchen, park equipment is park equipment. The dishwasher had to be talked to nicely and rattled the right way. Later in the afternoon, it was the steam table that was being difficult. Each occurrence is a little intimidating because each time is the first time that I have experienced these issues and it takes time to figure out how to fix or who to ask to fix each thing. Every experience is a learning experience though, and I will be prepared to rattle the dishwasher the next time it starts misbehaving.
When I was able to work in the office, I made progress on several ongoing projects. I scheduled a company to come and pump a grease trap on the septic system near the kitchen. I also had to schedule a county health inspector to be there at the same time to inspect the trap. The big event is scheduled for tomorrow. I also continued on a project to track resource management project needs for the park. I located the program on the computer and called to get my log-in information. Then, I scheduled some time with someone to get me started with the program because I have never used it before.
With my coworker back for just a couple of days before his weekend off, I decided to make the most of having him around. I headed home on time, and was relieved to do so, for the first time in a while. When I got home, something caught my eye in the back yard. I snuck out the back door in time to catch three of the five or six turkeys that were meandering through my back yard.

It was a busy and productive day, all around the park. It was really nice to go home on time with the park running smoothly.

Thought of the Day #70
The Florida Wild Turkey, also called an Osceola Wild Turkey for a Seminole Indian Chief, will start becoming more scarce in the next month or two. The toms have been out and about, chasing the hens and soon the hens will start nesting. The Turkey hen will lay ten or more eggs in a nest on the ground in a well hidden spot. She will pick a spot where she won't be discovered, but it will also be close enough to water and foraging areas that she won't have to be far from her nest for too long. We won't see the turkeys much at all while they sit on their nests for nearly a month. When the eggs hatch, the chicks stay in the nest for only a couple of days. Then the hens will group together again and there will be huge groups of mothers and chicks roaming about together.

The First Day of Academy

2010-04-14T23:10:00.001-04:00

Today was a steadily busy day, but it wasn't stressful at all. There was a lot happening, but it was happening pretty smoothly. This morning, we all met and planned the day before we went our separate ways. I spent a little time in the office, and some time driving through the park and checking in with the staff. One ranger was working on the morning cleanup and blowing off the walkways around the spring. Another ranger blew off all of the roadways and parking lots. The park looked fantastic for about an hour, until the trees dropped another steady layer of leaves on the ground. I talked to one of our biologists about some resource management projects to add to our database. I checked in with the Ranger Academy trainers to make sure that everything was going well for them. In the afternoon, I got to meet the Ranger Academy class and watch our Park Manager give a presentation to welcome the group to Wekiwa. I took care of a few things at the youth camp and headed home. I had to return later in the evening to check on a gas leak in the kitchen. We were able to relight the pilots on the stove and all was well. I stuck around the Ranger Academy campfire for a little while since I was there. It was great to be among so many like-minded people doing something that we love. There were several people with instruments and musical talent who were gracious enough to entertain us. It was a nice way to spend the evening.
While I was on the go today, back and forth on the park drive, I saw quite a few animals. The park was quiet enough that there were Deer, Turkey, and Fox Squirrels grazing right next to the park drive. I love this park.

I was also near a burn zone that was burned shortly before I started at Wekiwa. I have blogged photos of this area before, but it has really greened up dramatically since mid March.

Thought of the Day #71
The point was made at the campfire tonight, that sitting around a fire is deeply rooted in our human history. Its interesting to think that we are doing the same activity that people have done for thousands of years. Its an amazing force that can bring so many people together. I think everyone has memories of sitting around a fire with plenty of good conversation. Our discussion Monday about technology in the campground shows how much some things have changed, but its nice when some things stay the same.