i have what??

a brief explanation of what jeremy and i are doing now. we have decided not to resign with our previous school, ecc. it was honestly the perfect school for our first year and we are forever grateful for the experience and the opportunity to work with such amazing people. we decided, however, that we want to do some more traveling this next year and therefore picked schools that allowed us to do so. jeremy got a job at a vocational high school which he started the other day and loves. i will be working part time at an academy which will be a nice change of pace and allow me more time off.

with that being said, in order to change schools there are several hoops to go through and forms to be filled out. one of these was a health check at the local hospital. simple enough, urine test, blood test, hearing and sight, along with a chest X-ray. when jeremy and i went back to the hospital to pick up our results the nurse looks at jeremy "you're fine" then proceeds to turn to me and say "you have kidney disease." i love how delicately she put it. now, after being here a year, i have heard of several serious misdiagnoses, which is why i wasn't too concerned.

i went back to the hospital the following week and had more tests done. i walked into the doctor's office to get the new test results. he had my chart with my passport picture on it and when he looked up he jumped back. always the reaction you want when someone looks at you, right? he continued to go on and on about how i look so different from my picture and how my cheeks were "sharper" now. reading in-between the lines: you used to be fat, but not to worry, you look fine now. he then turned to me "oh and you're fine, no kidney disease." i can't wait for my health check next year.

Not exactly the day I had planned

The day dawned sunny with no strong winds, so I felt pretty good about being able to take a canoe paddle down the bayou this afternoon.

                                                                        Chipping Sparrow

I spent the morning gathering all the documents necessary to send my stuff off to my tax preparer in Minnesota.  I know many people do their taxes themselves, but I’m not one of them.  It’s worth it to me to let someone that knows what they’re doing take care of the filing.

                                                                          Carolina Chickadee

Once I had gathered everything I needed, I headed for the Post Office in town.  While I was gone, John and Diana had left the volunteer village as well. 

                                                                           Tufted Titmouse

That fact was important to me since I can no longer carry a 17’ canoe down to the bayou launch site by myself. 

                                                                     Red-winged Blackbird

Diana and I planned to tackle that together, and then enjoy a nice paddle.  Things didn’t turn out that way, though.

                                                                 Eastern Towhee (male)

As the afternoon wore on, I replenished my bird feeders, threw some seeds on the ground, and got out my favorite book to read in the warm afternoon sun.  Emma enjoyed her time outside protecting our site from marauding squirrels, and my camera was at hand to document our avian visitors.

                                                                     Northern Cardinal (male)

My stomach began growling, so I tried firing up the grill with the new propane hose attached to my mini-tank.  In very short order, I had a couple of hotdogs cooked to perfection along with toasted buns.  Halleluiah!  It appears that my long standing problem with grills has been solved.  Of all the different things that can go wrong, I obviously never guessed until the other day that it could be the hose.  Iron Chef Bobby Flay watch out! 

Pretty soon, the sun was setting and the moon was rising.  No trip down the bayou today, but I had relaxed and enjoyed myself anyway.  It turned out that Diana and John had a death in their extended family, and had to take care of family things today.  Totally understandable.  We’ll do that paddle some other day…

                                                                               THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Ordinary days

I haven’t posted in a couple of days because nothing exciting has been going on.  After a super busy February, March has come in like a lamb for me, unlike other folks across this country.  Friday was another work day in the VC, and nothing notable transpired. 

On Saturday, John, Diana, and I headed for Pascagoula to the farmer’s market.  It was cold and windy and only one couple showed up to sell their wares.  It was a real bust!  So, we headed back to Ocean Springs to go to their once a month open market.  There were some interesting offerings there, and I ended up buying some smoked pork chops.  I fixed one for dinner, and it was delicious.  I suppose it’s too early in the season to expect much produce to be available.

When we traveled to the monthly art fair, it turned out that it was cancelled.  Other than the pork chops, the morning was pretty much a waste of time and gas.    The cold and miserable weather kept Emma and I in the rig for the rest of the day.

It was a nippy 42* when I took Emma for her first outs this morning, and the wind really began to blow, but at least the sun was shining away.  I hung out a couple of loads of laundry, and it was amazing how fast they dried.  Of course, I had to hunt down a tee shirt and one pair of jeans that took flight from the high winds.

The other day, I broke down and purchased another gas grill.  I haven’t had one in almost two years because I got so frustrated trying to get a large enough flame to cook anything.  The last grill I had took an hour and a half to warm up two hotdogs!  That grill ended up in the dumpster.  I’ve been carrying around that small propane tank all this time with nothing to use it with.  So, last Wednesday I hooked everything up and turned it on High to burn off the newness as the instructions said.  Well after 20 minutes, it had barely warmed up.  There was no difference between High and Low settings.  Ack!!  I tried changing propane tanks, and still no difference. 

I finally resorted to asking another volunteer if they had one of those little tanks that hook directly to the gage on the grill.  Viola!!  I actually had a flame that I could cook something on.  By this time it was almost dark outside, and I was anxious to cook my Teriyaki chicken stir fry so I made the mistake of putting the food on the grill before it had cooled down enough after the 20 minute burn off.  It was edible, but barely so.

To me, that meant that the hose from the grill to the tank must be bad.  I purchased a new hose yesterday, but it was way too windy today to check it out.  If the wind subsides tomorrow, I’ll give it a try.  I’ll do that right after I take a canoe paddle down the bayou.  It all depends on the winds.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

A minor mishap dealing with HLS

Diana and I were manning the Visitor’s Center today.  In between visitors it can get a little boring, so we decided to work on an assignment that I had volunteered for last week.

The Blue Goose Passport Book is similar to the National Parks Passport Book, but the Blue Goose book lists every National Wildlife Refuge separately by state.  The idea is to get a stamp for your book at every refuge that you visit.  Most refuges have a stamp like the one in the lower right (Aransas NWR).  Before the advent of hurricane Ike, Anahuac NWR had a rather unique stamp that I really liked.  Very few refuges have unique stamps.

These are the stamps that are currently available at the two sister refuges here in Mississippi. 

The stamp being used here only went up through 2011, so a new one was needed.  I suggested that a new stamp be developed that would be unique and not dependent on a date limitation.  That’s how I got this assignment.  Doug, the volunteer coordinator, suggested I also develop a new stamp for Grand Bay NWR.

After getting a tutorial from Diana on how to find and adjust images on the computer, I chose a sandhill crane for our refuge, and pitcher plants for Grand Bay.  These two images depict the essence of each refuge in my opinion.  Then, between the two of us, we got these designs made and sent them off to the stamp maker company.  The Blue Goose is the symbol for all National Wildlife Refuges, but I feel each refuge has something special about it, and these images will bring back specific memories of a visit.  I’m pretty proud about the results.  It will be just one little thing that I’ve left behind…

And now for the minor mishap.  It was warm enough this morning that I was finally able to wear shorts today for the first time since last October.  Since I don’t wear my glasses when I first get up and get dressed in the morning, it wasn’t until I was at work that I noticed my yearly onslaught of HLS (Hairy Leg Syndrome).  It does seem to be a malady that I talk about once each year upon discovering my pale legs sticking out from my shorts.   

After work today, Emma and I sat outside as usual and, as I exercised the generator, I decided to get out my battery run shaver to rid myself of the HLS.  As I was peacefully listening to all the birds as I ran the razor up and down my leg, I felt a slight twinge.  It seems that one of the thin metal coverings to the roller blades had split, and the razor like sharpness of the break had sliced three slim gouges in my leg.  There was a bit of a delay before I felt it.  So now it looks like a three-toed sloth has scraped the front of my left leg.  Ugh!  Guess I’ll have to resort to carefully using a regular razor tonight to finish the job.

                                                   I leave you tonight with a sunset on the bayou.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Cranes don’t know it’s leap year

March 1 usually signals the beginning of the breeding season for Mississippi sandhill cranes.  So what happens when there is a leap year and an extra day in February?  The cranes ignore it and just carry on as usual.  That extra day this year happened to land on a Wednesday, which meant we had one last crane tour to conduct for the season.  We had a small, but enjoyable, group of visitors for the tour including the man who is the voice for McGruff, the police crime fighting dog. 

We were able to find 11 cranes for them to observe, along with a good view of the two young eagles.  I’m thinking it won’t be long before these youngsters start flapping their wings and the next thing you know, they’ll be fledging.

Then, on the way back to headquarters, we encountered this water moccasin snake on the side of one of the refuge roads.  This snake had attitude!  As we moved to the opposite edge of the road to pass it, it reared up and snapped open its mouth as we passed.  It was successful in sending us on our way. 

In the afternoon, all of the volunteers went along with Doug to visit several areas on, and adjacent to, the refuge.  Several volunteers had never seen the eagle’s nest, and we got quite a show.  While the mother eagle was perched in a nearby snag, the father swooped in with a big fish to feed the ever hungry offspring. Then we went to the Western Jackson County Water Treatment Plant that is surrounded by refuge lands.  Diana and I will be leading refuge tours beginning next Wednesday that differ from the crane tours.  This will be a tour that includes birds other than cranes (which will be nesting) and whatever wildflowers are blooming.  We wanted to check out the treatment plant for a possible destination to include in the tour.  While there, we spotted a pair of cranes working the fields surrounding the ponds.  Tomorrow we will let the biologists know the colors of their leg bands.

I’m sure just about all of you know that in addition to being leap year, today is also Sadie Hawkin’s  Day.  That means I have the opportunity to propose to the man of my dreams today!  Sorry to say, I have to report that I haven’t found a likely candidate.  But on the bright side, I’ve got four more years to investigate possibilities.  LOL!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Mississippi Taco

I think I’ve beaten down my cold, so when Diana emailed me last night about a cooking class today, I said, sign me up!   I had an appointment for an oil change and tire rotation for the toad this morning at 10:30, but it was on the way to the 12:00 cooking class in Gulfport.  By the time we finished with the car, it was obvious that we were going to be late for the class.  We got a phone call asking when we thought we’d arrive.  They didn’t want to start without us.  Wow!  How cool is that?

If any of you have ever watched Emeril Live, you will have an idea of how this class operated.  Just like on Emeril, we ladies were seated around the cooking area so we could all see what was going on, and provided with a recipe so we could follow along as the chef prepared the meal.  It was quite intimate with only twelve of us participating.

Chef Julian Brunt was very open to any questions.  The Mississippi Taco was his own creation.  That cast iron frying pan that he used was handed down from his grandmother to his mother to him to use in his cooking.  You just can’t beat a well seasoned cast iron pan for frying.

Chef Brunt began by sautéing some diced Bay St. Louis Italian sausage in the frying pan.  After it was cooked, he removed the sausage and added red onion and garlic to the pan, which after about ten minutes was added to the sausage.  Then it was time to fry the shrimp in the same pan.  The shrimp had been marinated over night in the Valentine hot sauce.  (this made my taste buds cringe, but it turned out great)  He admonished us that shrimp only needs to cook a very short time in a hot pan to reach perfection.  Absolutely no more than three minutes!  The secret seems to be to use small amounts of shrimp at a time.Next, he stepped over to a second deep pan of hot oil and quickly fried up separate handfuls of Julienned sweet potatoes.  Then it was time to assemble the tacos.  He also had a bowl of cole slaw that he had prepared ahead of time.  First down on the tortilla was a scoop of the sausage and onions, then the shrimp, then the cole slaw, and finally the sweet potato crisps.

                                           Here’s the final product.  Just roll it up and bite into it. 

I’m thinking Diana was pleasantly surprised with this culinary masterpiece.    I’ve always really enjoyed cooking and trying new recipes, but my culinary ambition has fallen by the wayside since I’ve been on the road.  This was a real invigorating shot in the arm for me today.  Diana and I even chipped in and bought Chef Brunt’s cookbook to share.  This is certainly the best way to learn about regional cooking.  I’ll be signing up for the class on crab cakes in April for sure.

We were so inspired by today’s class that we stopped at Desporte & Son’s Seafood Market to purchase some Gulf shrimp.  I got the peeled headless shrimp, and Diana got the large head on shrimp.  Her shrimp turned out to be much larger than mine, so next time I’ll buy the large head on shrimp, and she’ll teach me how to behead them. 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Responding to some ‘Cave Dwellings’ comments

A couple of friends of mine out there in blogland are Donna and Dennis (aka Mcgyver) of the Cave Dwellings.  I haven’t met them in person yet, but it’s one of my desires to do so.  Donna often leaves comments on my posts, and I would like to respond to two of them that she has left recently. 

Back in January she asked, McGyver just asked me, "What kind of credentials do you have to have to do your job?"..It's obvious you are a teacher, and you know sooo much about the birds, plants and wildlife..Did you just learn that? Did you get your Masters in Biology??”  No, I do not have my bachelor’s or master’s in biology.  I’ve just had a life long interest in this area.  My credentials include many years in the education field, and that certainly helps with conducting tours.  I’m at ease with speaking in front of groups.  I also spent 20 years as a federally licensed bird bander, so couple that with a willingness to introduce others to the wonders of the natural world, and there you have my essence. 

As for volunteering at National Wildlife Refuges, in general, no special skills are required.  All of us volunteers find our own niche.  Every volunteer that I have worked with has had a vast background in a wide variety of areas.  NWRs strive to place their volunteers in positions that take into account their varying strengths.  My opinion is that Donna would be a hoot working with kids.  Her sense of humor would knock their socks off!

Speaking of socks, that brings me to the comment that Donna left on yesterday’s post.  It's very smart to listen when your body is talking...I always end up getting sick after I overdo and do lots of days running after my ass to catch up...Put something in the crockpot, take a nice hot shower, put on one of your ensembles, (come on, Judy, I KNOW you have one), get a nice glass of red wine, plunk down in your recliner and watch an old movie...Do that 2 days in a row and it will recharge your batteries.

                                          

Now in the RV blog world, Donna is the queen of ensembles!  I can hardly imagine competing with this fashion star.  But, I decided to take her advice and give it the old college try.

I guess I’m an ensemble person in training.  No flashy socks or lighthouse sweatshirts in my wardrobe yet.  However, I would like to point out that I do have snazzy Mickey Mouse and Pluto lounging pants.  My footwear is beaded moose hide moccasins with beaver trim made by the First Nation People of Canada, and the fleece jacket that I got in the Yukon that’s keeping me warm, has a grizzly bear head embossed on it.  No fancy wine glass here either.  Just an insulated mug since I like my wine on the rocks.  I think I got the recliner right, though, and I’ll be watching another installment of the mini-series Centennial tonight.  I think that qualifies as an old movie.  I’m feeling a lot better already!

Okay ladies, can we start an ensemble parade?  I double dog dare you to participate. 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy