Smarties Bar & Grill #76

First Monday was always on my bucket list till covid and now it’s on the back burner. We have been to Canton but never at the right time for the flea market.
That is some pretty land around there. We saw a lot of people fishing at a dam so the fishing must be good as well as having beautiful land. Good luck with your new home.

 

You can still see some of the damage from the hurricane in the trees.

The palmettos are a neat plant. They are one of my favorites.

 

And that's just the scrub oaks in the palmetto thickets. Seeing so many great liveoaks down is a sad sight. Same all over the county

 

They aren't as elegant as live oaks true but they do have a beauty all their own.

 

So I was feeding my pet squirrel yesterday and I opened the cage to rearrange a couple of her toys and I went to pet her while she was eating. ( I know, I was asking for it )

She opened her mouth really wide and put my finger in it and bit down with a little pressure but she didn't break the skin as she never has. She let me know she could.

She has this grunting noise that she makes but this time she made it in a manner that I've not quite heard before. My friend was there at the time and I said is it just me or did she sound really pissed and annoyed?

He said she sounded really pissed and annoyed. Lol.

 

It is a wild animal. Don't let it tear your face off.

 

That she might be but she has been domesticated. I looked into giving her to the Peace River wildlife preserve but they told me that since she was domesticated she would be euthanized.

I'm not going for that and I don't want to just release her because I don't think she would survive with the Hawks and the cats and cars around here. She has a very large cage now

 

Finally made it back out on the Peace River for the first time since last spring. The water is just getting low enough to Fossil hunt after having been at a height of 24 ft after the hurricane. I'm pretty sure it's never been seen that high in recorded history.

I have my girlfriend drive me about 7 miles up the highway to a boat ramp yesterday morning to paddle a stretch that I thought looked pretty doable from satellite.

I got about 5 mi down and called one of my friends to pick me up at a bridge which was about 65% of the way to my intended destination. Turns out paddling a kayak is rather arduous.

I was going downstream in the river has a good two or three mile an hour flow but for some reason I always forget that even though you're going downriver you can have two and 300 yard stretches where the winds blowing against you. I took me a cooler of beer of course. Lol.

 

I wish I had video or picture of this but I came around one bend in the river and I saw a small Gator of about 3 ft cross in front of my boat headed to the other side of the river as I was close to one side that he came from.

As I continue going around this bend there was no less than a total of seven alligators that headed across the river in front of my past too. They had all been sunning their self on a Sandy Bank.

The largest one was probably close to 7 ft. And of course as soon as you get closer they go underwater. I'm not really scared of alligators but I was glad to get past that spot.

A little plastic kayak is not much between you and an alligator

 

Fun fact.... Did you know that a majority of archaeologists are women due to their natural ability to dig up the past? Lol

 

Saw a barn owl and a badger on the way to work this morning.
It's the only good thing about leaving home at 5 am.

 

I'm getting home about 6:20 a.m. myself. I have to watch for deer especially at that time on the motorcycle on the back roads. In general I don't go anymore than 25 miles an hour in the areas that I expect the most of the deer.

They're always in certain areas but you must also always assume they'll surprise you and be in unexpected spots.

 

Yeah. I live in fear of hitting a deer.
I've had two run in front of me this week already.
It's the first time I've seen a live badger though. I've only seen them squashed on the side of the road before.

 

Huhh.... We don't have badgers here but we have one of the rarest mammals of all. The pine marten.

Of course I have never seen one. Kind of a joke but not a joke.

Of course you don't want to hit a deer even in a car but most people don't pay any attention. There's too damn many deer around here. One of them needs to get in my freezer about once or twice a year

You most certainly don't want to hit one on a motorcycle

 

Farmers hate badgers because they infect cattle with TB.
They are a protected species so they can't legally shoot them so what they do is kill them then run over them so they look like road kill.

 

Cancelled two of my 5 life insurance policies today. Screw NY life. They were already the 2 most expensive I have and they doubled my premium because of the high number of claims in the last year. They weren't my claims. I will just pick up 2 more $100K policies from Met Life whose premiums are pretty good anyway.

 

There are no words for a moment like this — the picture says it all . ..

My friend's daughter went to adopt a cat from the local shelter... she chose this cat because he was 20 years old & didn't want him to spend the rest of his life in a shelter.
There is a place in heaven for her.

~ Copied and pasted from QUORA ~


"Just been adopted, going home with new Dad! ❣️❤️ "​

 

Blessed are the animals....

 

That is priceless.

I hope the guy with the heeler he has a big area so the little guy can run. They have their own personality thing going on and I hope he takes the time to enjoy the show. Their antics are video worthy.

 

A little bit past my house in a private neighborhood. If you did not know how to find this place you likely never would.
Every time I ride through this area I spook some sort of Big Bird today it was a great white egret.

 

I would adopt a dog but it would be unfair to my cats. One of them would welcome a dog as a new toy to play with, one would be aloof as she is with everything, and the other would run away from home because dogs freak him out. I, however, want no more cats. Nothing wrong with cats but you can't walk them.

 

Yes you can. Mine will come for a walk with me.

 

Had a Manx like that,, and they loved to ride in and on top of the car, and you could set them on othe animals