CATCHIN' CRABS

At low tide the mudflats of the saltmarsh will have large areas covered by colonies of little Fiddler crabs, the males busy waving the larger of their claws to lure females to his burrow. Fiddler crabs dig down a foot or so, the burrow curves as it descends.

It was about high tide when I got to the marsh, this White Ibis was the only moving thing in sight. It was putting down those Fiddlers like popcorn. The Ibis are pairing off ready to nest now, but this one was all alone and pigging out, it obviously hasn't heard what Michelle has been saying..

It kept going behind little Black Mangroves and messing up my shots. I close cropped one so the Fiddler is visible. The little lumps and dark spots on the visible mud are burrows and material the crabs bring out when they dig.

There are places in this marsh where you would be stuck in the mud to your armpits but the Ibis has big feet.

I put almost a roll through the Minolta X9 I repaired, I'll ambush the cats to finish it out and see what it does. It functions smooth as glass, the blown capacitor was the only problem it had.

One thing I learned growing up in this hungry little old town was I better learn to fix anything that broke if I wanted it. I get mad at the kids over and over, they will haul expensive stuff out for the garbage truck when a few bucks and an hours work is all it needs. My grandfather even resharpened his used double edge razor blades until they wore completely out.

My youngest kid is resourceful like that. He’s currently got two old torn and worn out tents cut into sections, washed, measured, and laid out on the floor, ready to be stitched together into a new tent. He’s very creative. That kid can weld, too. His science project last year was a fully functional tornado siren. (Ya never know when you might need one here in the Rockies.) In the fall, he fabricated a stainless catapult that uses surgical tubing for propulsion - can launch an egg a hundred yards. Um, yah, he’s homeschooled. He’s been eyeballin my Exacta collection lately, so I gave him my D50... it’s a lot cheaper to feed, and there’s a course in optics just waiting to be researched.

My dad grew up during the depression, so the idea of make-do and fix-up was drilled into me and my brothers. It’s good to see a bit of it rubbed off on my kids. I’ve always enjoyed the challenge (and rewards) of keeping things in good repair, especially machinery.

I bought the house I grew up in from my dad. In the shed was the Murray lawn mower I used as a kid to mow ours and the neighbors lawns. I used it for another twenty years, and finally sold it to a young neighbor for twenty bucks, and I imagine it is still running. Amazing what an occasional oil change and spark plug can do. Briggs and Stratton, gotta love it.

Oh, and if my kids ever ask, yes, it was me that rebuilt the dirt bike in the basement. That oil stain in the old den rug is just one of the stories...

SS, you did again. Another 'A' in 'Condor's Photography Class' ;-) And you get an 'A+' for the last shot. The shallow depth of field is perfect, even at the f/7.1, but you used a shutter speed fast enough (1/4000) to catch each water droplet falling.

(Some rat is going to steal you photo's, print them, and hang them in their house. If they haven't done that already. Thieves and Liberals don't care about no stinking copyright)

Anywho, the only birds I see as of yet by me are Sparrows. There were two Robins last week when it hit 60^o but I haven't seen nor heard them since then. And the only 'wildlife' are the couple Squirrels that live in the tree outside the Master Bedroom window.

So I've been busy selecting Photos of Flowers I took last fall, printing and framing them so the wife can hang them.

No 'Spring' for us yet. Today it'll be a whopping 37^o and cloudy (we had 'light snow' Tues night --- aaaaarrrgggghhh!

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