15 minutes of fame

jill and i went to buffalo for new years and i was tempted by front row tickets to the bills-jets game. before leaving to the game jill was worried about being cold so she borrowed an old green military jacket from her uncle and was a little 'self conscious' about maintaining her fashionable image.  i told her 'dont worry, who's going to see you? its better to be warm.'
after a kick return one of the players ran over us and it was captured by the bills photographer and posted on their website.  jill is the one over his left shoulder with the ugly, puke green jacket and im the goofy looking one with the blue sabres toboggan taking the picture.

my reverse angle picture

the bills were victorious in front of a half filled stadium.  at least one of my teams wins...

rednecks with bow and arrows

everybody came down to louisiana for nate jones' wedding.  while the groomsmen were distracted by dressing up and eating fancy dinners.  we escaped to go bowfishing with some of the capts i work with the oilspill.  they are professional and fantastic guides if youre ever in the new orleans area and want a wild experience call them or visit louisiana bowfishing

 meet at sun down and buy beer and licenses.  the airboat rigged with huge halogen lights

front shooting deck

bows are set up with broadtip arrows with a tethered spool



the boys: dave tormey, matt moe, bear, and wilbur.  you drive along the bank shootung redfish in the shallows

 27 redfish (red drum), 2 sheepshead, 2 black drum

 pile em up

 amazingly good night

cleaning started at 2:30am and ran til morning

wilbur on filet

poor man's DIY greywater treatment system

i have finally posted the house for sale for $55K. any takers????


I finally got around to building the greywater filtration system for the house.  greywater is water uncontaminated by fecal matter i.e. kitchen sink, shower, sink, etc.  in my case the water will include urine from the composting toilet which diverts urine. the basic design is greywater from the house is piped into two 55 gal retention drums with alternating layers of 3/4 in. gravel and charcoal.  the drums provide retention time for the solids and initial breakdown of the waste stream. the overflow then enters the plastic lined pond that will house aquatic plants and fish.


started the day with two holes and a pile of supplies. 500 gal pond liner, 2 x 55 gal drums, 3 x 1 1/2" PCV couplings, 1 1/2" PCV, 2" hole bit, primer and PCV glue and other stuff.


the drums need to be uphill of the pond to encourage flow through the system.


laying out the system


i drilled holes through the adjacent drums to connect the couplings.


1 1/2" couplings with 5" PVC pipe


downhill.


pitch the overflow pipe down into the pond. this was just over 2" fall over 2'.


drums with 3/4" gravel (1 ton filled both perfectly) and store bought charcoal (without lighter fluid) layers filter wastewater.


the view after everything is in place.

summer in canadia

i spent the summer as an instructor for a college marine ecology program on vancouver island in british columbia, canada. its always great to work with young people and realize that we are in good hands in the future. but more importantly to go fishing.

boccaccio rockfish and travis

sculphin

boccaccio rockfish

sea urchin fresh from the sea

gigging for rockfish in the deer group islands


travis was hung up on what we thought was a rock or kelp turned out he had hooked a huge sea star that wouldnt release from the rocks.


between courses jill came to visit and we ate our way through vancouver, well known for amazingly authentic and diverse asian cuisines. the richmond night market is an eclectic outdoor street fair every sat through the summer. vendors from all over asia have these little tents offering the most interesting/strange foods.

yup vietnamese bbq horse meat wasnt too bad

japadog a weird twist of east and west.

kobe beef dog with seaweed, onions, terimayo, fish flakes, and sriracha.

after i finished up teaching the marine ecology course i met up with my friends from vancouver island, ian and tove, who are back down in victoria for the summer from teaching in nunavut. nunavut for those who dont know is the newest (1999) and largest territory in canadia, way up above the arctic circle (you can follow their adventures at tovian.wordpress.com). anyway they just had a little baby, wren and she is the cutest thing in the world.


somehow i got signed up for a salmon fishin derby with ian and dave. we woke at 5 to fog and wind.




the coho, silvers to americans, started biting right away, but we were hunting for chinooks aka springs, kings to americans. we brought in 6 weighing 5 lbs each.


5.2lb coho

fish on!!!

releasing a small chinook

dave at the weigh in

ian with 5.2 lb coho

notice how when i took pictures of the other boys i manipulated it to make the fish look bigger. ian wasnt so kind.

the eventual winner 26.4 lb chinook


day at the beach in tofino

tove and wren

the fine looking family

more quizzes

funny things i found

test your north carolina pride
carolina on my mind

pick your state
test your statehood-ness

north or south
rebel or yankee quiz

guide to american dialects

i found this, it was titled 'redneck dishwasher.'

this is a picture i took of my dog. see any similarities?

lost in migration

ive been working as a sea turtle observer on a dredge in the gulf of mexico in southwest louisiana. we are dredging the calcasieu river channel so oil tankers can get up the river to the city of lake charles and its refineries. the dredge slowly moves along the channel with two big vacuum hoses that suck up the bottom and everything near it. unfortunately sea turtles like to swim around the bottom looking for delicious morsels also and are quickly introduced to a 15' whirling suction impeller at 250 rpm. needless to say you get very dead turtles. lucky this doesnt happen often and instead i spend my days walking around getting in peoples way.


tough guys doing tough stuff

tough guys hanging over the edge of the abyss

one of the cool things about being in the gulf during the spring bird migration is that most of the south american migrants come up and over the gulf and since we are offshore and look like a big floating island, tired birds use us like a stopover (like a layover in kansas city). so i get to break up the endless monotony by seeing cool birds. sometimes they are so tired you can pick them up with your bare hands. but mostly they just flit around; drinking freshwater and eating bugs. once they are alone and near the water they become prey for gulls, which follow us patiently waiting for the little migrants to leave the boat.

migration patterns

the species i have seen so far
yellow warbler

ruby-throated hummingbird

american redstart

little green heron


bay-breasted warbler (similar to the baywatch breasted)


magnolia warbler

magnolia warbler


indigo bunting


wood thrush


lesser nighhawk


yellow-billed cuckoo

yellow-billed cuckoo (on the rail in the middle) digiscoped through binoculars


eastern phoebe


dragonfly


american redstart

not everybody makes it. i found 6 dead songbirds on deck after a large storm.


bonaparte gulls, brown pelicans, royal and caspian terns waiting for snacks


oil tankers from far and wide

oil tanker