What to do, what to do

    I'm trying to come up with stuff to post but when it comes down to it, there's really only so much to do on an island.  Candice has been plastering the walls that have a lot of moisture damage, and I'm doing some plumbing inside and at the outdoor composting toilet.  There's yard work to do, and visitors to greet.  But over all not a lot to report.  So, if there is anything you folks would like to hear about go ahead and post a comment.  I'm sure a lot of what we do I am taking for granted and will be more interesting to you.  It's weird how that works.  You talk to people with incredible lives and to them it's just a job.  Don't get me wrong, we love it here and are totally grateful for God's blessings, I just don't know what to write about.

Count'n Terns

  
    The other day the first tern hatched on Falkner Island, that means it's time to go count eggs!  We wait to count until they start to hatch because that means they're pretty close to wrapping up the laying.
    Counting tern eggs is a bit of a process.  You need to wear the appropriate attire to venture out among a few thousand birds that use feces as a weapon.  The refuge was kind enough to supply us with jumpsuits after we supplied them with sizes.  I told them large for each, but Candice took offense to that and changed hers to a medium.  I now wear the medium and have Tommy Boy running through my head the whole time.  Love ya hun.  Along with the suit is a sombrero, without it the terns would impale your skull and crap on you while they do it.
    Terns lay their eggs all over the Island.  A popular spot is on the beach that is covered with rocks that look a lot like tern eggs.  So, you make a line across the width of the beach taking slow deliberate steps yelling out egg numbers to a recorder who is walking behind.  The island is broken into plots and the numbers are recorded for each plot.  Sounds easy enough, but bare in mind there are nests everywhere, you have maybe a half dozen people yelling simultaneously, the terrain is rough and of course there are the terns.
    All told it is quite an experience!  I would recommend if you're in the area some time in early June you should volunteer for a count.  I would not however recommend volunteering to live on the Island for the summer unless you're one of those crazy bird people!

Be Specific

    Cas and I were at it again tonight trying different places to fish.  First we went to the south side of the island, hoping the low tide would allow us to get closer to some rocks we always see birds on.  The birds weren't there at this time, which should have been our first clue, but we cast out anyway and were met with a very successful seaweed harvest.  We decided to go elsewhere.
    On one side of the dock is a little cove with a sea wall to help protect the moored boats (you can see it behind Cas in the pic of her holding her delicious Black Sea Bass).  We decided to check out what it was like on the wall so we scrambled over some rocks that will be back under water in a few hours.  The Sound was down about five feet and falling but we went for it anyway.  Armed again with nightcrawlers we started casting.
    The technique I was told to use was hang a weight on the end of your line, attached at the same point is another short line with the hook on the end.  You let the weight drop to the bottom and occasionally drag it creating noise that attracts the fish.  The problem with this method is that sometimes the dragging weight can feel like a nibble.  Or in my case, it can feel like an itty bitty fish that barely weighs more than the sinker.
    What I thought happened was that some larger fish had felt sorry for me and replaced my mangled worm with a more appropriate form of bait.  I found out after that in fact what had happened was that Candice had asked God to help me catch a fish tonight but had failed to detail the specifications.  Prayer works!

Candice Caught a Delicious Bass!

Cas and I went fishing off our dock last night, the first time for her in about 15 years!  Of course she was the only one to catch anything.  The sun was getting low when Candice threw her line out with a tasty worm on the end.  Out of nowhere, bam!  She was using a crappy old reel with the drag set wrong and the fish took off.

    Like a pro she held on and brought it to the dock where I hauled it out with a net.  It was the biggest fish either of us had caught.  We had to call a guy from the refuge to help us figure out what it was and if we should eat it.  Leaving it in a cooler for the night, we got up just after dawn to clean it.  I walked Cas through the process but she did it all by herself and was awesome.

  We'll eat like kings tonight and let you land lovers know what it's like!

Conn-ec-ti-cut

    Well, we have been in Connecticut since April 25 and on our Island since May 21.  The posts in South Carolina got a little lagging as we just kind of fell into a routine and not a lot was happening.  Cas finished up there with a small, but successful, wildlife observation art class as a part of a larger Nature and Birding Festival that was city wide.  As soon as the class was over we hopped in Bessie (the camper) and hit the road.

    I would not recommend driving I-95 anywhere north of Richmond, VA in a camper towing a car.  We got off north of Baltimore and headed up I-81 and others to get to Cas's sisters house where we stayed for two weeks.  While we were there we sold the camper and dolly and bought a pick up and topper.  We're holding onto the car for a little bit as it's easier to get around in and uses less gas.  After we left Chandra's house (Cas's sister), we moved toward the coast to the Stewart B. McKinney NWR and our final destination Outer Island.
    For two weeks we lived in the shop yard at the refuge in the back of our pick up, cooking everything on a hot plate in the wood shop as we went through training.  I am proud to say Candice and I are now certified in First Aid, CPR, Blood Born Pathogens, Epi Pens, Automated Electronic Defibrillator (AEDs) and operating government boats.  At the end of our training we were moved out to the Island to start our three month tour of duty.
    The island was donated back in the 90's to the Fish and Wildlife Service and has a house on it that needs a bunch of work.  You can learn about the island here. That is a lot of what we'll be doing, getting the house back in shape and also just being present to greet visitors and let them know when and where they can go.  There is a small cottage as well that is being renovated to be used as classroom space so we'll be helping with that also.  Tomorrow will be our first day with the Island open to visitors, so we'll see how it goes.
    We have been out here a week that has thus far been great.  The weather gets better every day, and the people we have encountered have been very pleasant.  We are looking forward to a summer of learning lots of new things and sharing those things with you.  If you have any questions please let us know, and please help keep us accountable in maintaining relationships as we have been doing a very poor job of it.  We sincerely apologize for that.  We hope everything is going great for all of you, let us know what's new in your worlds.

We're Famous! Okay, Candice Is

Cas made the paper and was kind enough to mention me!  Check it.

Ugh

I was all ready to update this thing this afternoon thinking I was over the flu hump, then the fever came back.  Somewhere around +100, it's hard to tell on those little meat thermometers.