Coons

Looking out one of the windows overlooking the driveway, I saw four of these critters causually skipping toward the street.   Two of them went across the road and two went in the culvert across the end of my drive.  I slipped out the back door and blocked one end of the culvert the waited at the other end with my camera..   The other two came back, here's three of them.

Pike Minnow

Here's the "Catch"
Caught on hand-tied imitation "Grasshopper" (#8 hook) .

These fish are locally known as "Squawfish" however, in recent times, some of the N'west Tribes have objected to the use of the word "Squaw" noting it to be a sobriquet of unflattering nature initated by some of the early settlers and trappers. Now, many of the creeks and other landmarks, etc. have been renamed due to objections raised by the Tribes.
(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Pictures include me, my wife, Bev; and my great grandson, Liam.

Big Creek

A tributary of the St. Joe River
Friday, June 18, 2010

Water Strider

Here is an interesting little water bug.  I have always been fascinated by their means of locomotion. 

This photo was taken with a cheap 2 meg pocket camera with a taped on magnifying lens (Jury-Rigged) for a macro effect. 

You can easily see the indentation of the water surface where the bug's weight is distributed down each leg.  Notice that the area of detention for the hind-most legs is greater than the two forward sets.   These indentations provide plenty of grip or traction for the bug's ability to "stride" across the water surface. 

The Osprey Are Back!

It seems the Osprey show up about this time every year.  Their biological clock tells them it's time to straighten up the nests and get on with the mating routine.

This one seemed pretty curious about the one big eye looking at it.. 

Five Watter

Sunday, 3/14/10

Changed the tank circuit, still not much improvement but now almost a full watt output looks closer to 750 mW.

Chatted with W9USS, a local ham who lives here in town and is tolerant of my poor signal and my fist.

It turned into an eventful day though, I called CQ several times and finally heard someone return my call.

N6DIT  (Nice cw call.) Dennis, Mountain Ranch, CA was in a contest (WES).  Turned out to be SKCC..  #3283T 

N7OC Stan from Custer..  we know each other and had a great QSO. 

KE7DZ from Seabeck, WA answered my CQ.  I think he might be pretty close to Alan..  KA4DXP.   This contact was pretty solid and typical of the path between my site and the Seattle area for QRP contacts.

Five Watter

Couldn't wait to put the "Thing" on the air. Worked Bob, W9USS, my buddy who lives here in town. Haven't modified the tank coil or tried to correct the voltage sag so the output was about 1/2 watt. Bob checked the signal and gave it a clean bill of health.

So, one entry into the log book for the "Thing."

(Click on photo to enlarge)