Walking the dog at Haines Creek/ Blount Island

So... in our neighbor hood is a secret place. People have lived here for years and drive by it everyday and don't even know it is there. The entrance is not that of some big fancy park and there isn't any fancy jungle gym or much of anything really. Just an island that is tucked away off the road.



Entrance to the park.

So I thought I would show my friend CG, who also lives in the neighborhood. We got our faithful companions and decided to drag them along. And in the case of my spoiled dog that was about the truth of it.

Sitting on the swing at the Haines Creek part of the park.

 The front part of the park has a nice picnic area and a cool bench swing to sit and enjoy the beautiful view of the canal. So of course we had to try it out.

CG's dog checking out the knolls.

 CG's dog DD decided to have a look at the cypress knees. I've always heard them called cypress knolls but I guess they are also called knees. When I was little I was told it was the tree's noses. And I remember thinking how gross it would be if they sneezed, it would land right in the water. But I guess that they are now saying these are not the tree's noses, that help the roots to oxygenate the tree when under water. They are to help keep the tree stable in the wet area where these trees grow. So it's like they are sticking their knees up. I think the nose story sounds better. Plus you can say you touched a tree right on it's nose.

Close up of cypress knee's. They even look like noses.

Under the bridge that leads to the island

 A few years ago you could drive right on the island but I guess the bridge got week and now it's foot traffic only. Which is just at well because it's such a nice walk.

Looking off the bridge

All around the island is a canal that leads out to the main part of Haines Creek. I don't know if the canal was man made or not. Each person keeps up there section of it so some have sand bags and some docks and some it's just natural dirt into the water.

Sign at the entrance of the island.

 Most of the trail is over grown with muscadine grape vines. Some areas the vines grow right over the trail and it is like going through tunnels.

On the trail.

Leaves!

Hidden in the tons of grape vines is black berry bushes. I'm not sure what variety but they have lots of thorns! I'm glad the park service keeps them at bay but I'd hate to see them smothered out by all the grapes.

Muscadine grapes on the vine

You can get an idea of the size of these grapes.

Some fresh green ones growing in the Florida sunshine.

I read some where that muscadine grapes were native to Florida and at one time all the grapes in France got some sort of decease and were at risk of dieing out, so... they took native Florida grape vine roots, which are very hardy and can live through about anything, and grafted the French vine onto our roots. So next time your drinking fancy French wine just remember your really drinking  wine that wouldn't exist without the help of the good old Florida muscadine.

Butterfly!

 There were lot's of other things to see besides grapes. We saw lot's of butterflies and some really pretty flowers.

Not sure what this flower is called but it was sure putting on a show.

Beauty berries. Similar to Poke weed but the berries are bunched up more.

Looking into the middle of the island

The interior of the island looked like a ancient jungle with all the vines and huge ferns. And I guess my dog thought he was in the jungle because he soon wanted to be carried. We had to stop and give him water and encouragement to get him moving forward again so he would stop jumping up and down in front of me with that carry me mommy face.  

We brought lot's of water as the weather was hot. And some coconut water too, to help rehydrate us.

Here is my baby getting some encouragement form CG's dog.

As out of shape as this dog looks she was gung ho the whole way. I guess it was the hound dog in her.

Lead dog!

On the way back to the parking lot my dog was at the front dragging me the whole way. But I think he had a good time. I know I did. This turned out to be an excellent place to walk our dogs.

Soap Box Saturday!

So standing on my soap box the topic is "What is the American dream?"

I used to think life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness meant simply living and having a good time. You know pursuing happiness. Then, bong, it came to me one day. An epiphany! That's not what the American dream was. That's not the meaning of life. The whole thing goes back to when people are talking about freedom. What did the founders of this country think freedom was? Well, let's look at the world they were living in and try to compare it with the world we live in today.

The King was like the federal government. He was over all the major stuff. The Lords were like the state government they took care of smaller issues. And then under that were the land owners. If you've ever rented you know what I mean. The land owner tell you pretty much how you can live. Take out your trash, clean your house, spray for bugs, cut the grass all how he wants you to. Back in ye old times the land lords would tell you such things as what kind of crop you could grow. How much water you could have. Where you got your water from. The average person would give the land owner some of their profits to use his land and live on it, the land owner would give the lord money or taxes to own their land and live on it, and the lords would pay those taxes to the king to let his people stay on the land and live on it.

What we are taught in school is the King was bad, tea was dumped in the ocean so no one would have to pay taxes. That we pay every time we go to the store and every year at tax time. What's different now is that in ye old days only the land owners, Lords and King could own land. When we came to America land was free for the taking. And  some places still  offer free land. Homestead for a year and boom you a land owner.

Well, any way it clicked a few years ago. If you don't own some land even a house in a subdivision your just left to be one of those un free people being told what to do. On your own land you can grow your own food. I'm just now finding out most of the food grown today has all kinds of horrible things in it. Things I wouldn't want to eat. Like natural flavorings some time come from the anal glands of animals. If I wanted to consume that I would just join my dog next time he is licking his bottom. Any way that's a different soap box. If you have your own land you can do what you want. You can grow your own food. You can drill a well for your own water. You could mine it if you wanted. As long as the state, county and local officals says it's OK.  The more land the better because if your neighbor dislikes something he sees you doing on your land he may complain. Like playing the drums at mid night because the sound trespasses onto his land.  But other than that, I think it is owning land that is what makes you free.  Sorry for all you renters. Your not pursuing the dream your letting others tell you what to do and how to live.

 

Some people have been squatting on bank owned land that has been left vacant and I think there is some law that says after they are there long enough it's theirs.
Some people have been heading to national parks to illegally homestead land. Land that we all agreed to set aside and not homestead, so one day when all the land is gone, we can look back and go "that's what the land was like before it was homesteaded." Some of the national parks are on choice pieces of land and  so there have been fights for just taking the resources off the land (oil, lumber). I'm one of those people who believe we need wild places. It is sad to see homeless people living in tents homesteading this land when there is still land to be homesteaded. But there you go, they just didn't get the American dream. I don't think it was properly taught in school. I didn't get it.

I suggest you go to school, learn how to get loans, get money and get land! If you can't do that head to Kansas and get some of that free land!

Fourth of July 2012

I know I 'm a little late for the 4th of July post but.... everyone is celebrating the 4th up until this weekend anyway. We had planned on going down town to watch a professional display but the weather report said probable downpours maybe with hail so we decided to stay at home. But with no plans on that we had to run out and find some fire works. And we did.

  Early in the day we went to my Aunts house for some swimming and visiting with relatives.

We left just before the down pour, there was no hail. Thankfully the rain let up just before dark and we got ready to light up the sky.

V set up a Chinese lantern. I don't know how American that is but it was a flag lantern.

After bar-b-queing the ribs for dinner. Husband got the bonfire started with an old wooden crate. Everything was really wet, so let me tell you the boys got talent when it comes to fire.

Me and V set some tiki torches around to chase off mosquitoes and there was nothing left but to wait for the sun to set.

Hubie using his Florida coozy and watching the beautiful sun set.

Husband stuck with his beer but I wiped up a pretty good rum drink. That you can check out out the recipe part of the blog.

See what I mean talent!

We saw these great fireworks coming from our neighbors and decided to wonder over. Turns out they had purchases about $400 worth. And we had a great view right in our back yard.

Sparkler!

Ground firework with firework feature on the camera.

 We lit our own off too. And every time one went up the neighbor on the other side of us cheered. It was and impromptu block party. Even though most of the neighbors on the block were gone.

We all really enjoyed the night.

Turtle, Turtle

Must be turtle matting season. V caught this one walking though the yard.

Lookin' for a hot chick!

Wow, look how my dirt looks just like beach sand. Well, that's why nothing grows here.

He seemed happy.

We've just been taking it easy lately. Not to many projects going on but a million that need to be done. Today, Debby went by and boy did we get some much needed rain. But it was so dark and gloomy here all day it was hard to get up and do anything.

Dinner tonight of summer pasta recipe is going to be featured on the recipe section of the blog.

Be sure to check the recipe section for a new yummy recipe that uses fresh vegetables. This had husband saying "Wow, that's really good!"

Bird watching part two

Well after finding the little bird eggs we decided to head out. Also Reese's had made his own find. While distracting us with the bird eggs. He had found some alligator poop to roll around in. We didn't discover it until we got down the trail aways. Thank goodness for bottled water and hand sanitizer. We cleaned him up as best we could until we could get home. And enjoyed the rest of the ride.

Not many birds but plenty of beauty to be found.

I'm thinking about planting some of these near my pond.

Blue pickerel rush

We saw all kinds of different water plant flowers.

This one is called Arrowhead. The flowers look small but they are really big about the size of a small baseball. 

Water lilies



Wild man! We saw this guy just sitting there.. enjoying the wild I guess?

We usually don't see too many people when we're out there but here this old guy was sitting right next to the water. We debated whether or not he was waiting for an alligator to come eat him. Emeralda Marsh is one of the most alligator populated places in Florida despite the fact that Lake Griffin, which this marsh is filtering, had a huge alligator die off in 1999. April through May is  alligator mating season here in Florida and it's not to smart to get in between those kind of lovers. We generally stay out of the water until June.

I think this was a black heron

This is a cattle egret.

Cattle egrets love to hang around cattle but this little guy was out here in the marsh.



You can't hide from us! Great white heron.

Grey heron.

White heron in flight.

Looks like we are going to have to get the John boat and come back soon.