Banana Bread and Broken Truck

The past two days have been Hot, Hot, Hot!  Yesterday I worked the beaches alone while Kate stayed home and did chores.  She did lots of laundry at the other house, and raided it for painting and caulking supplies.  She's working on fixing up the bathroom a bit.  She also painted the white posts we use for marking nests.  We're really going through them fast now, and we have to constantly keep up on making more.  She also used all our old bananas and the secret McKinley Market recipe to make three loaves of banana bread!  Of course we've already eaten one.

Monday morning I woke up around 3:30am, I'm not sure why.  It may have been the noise of yet another trapped mouse who had managed to get inside one of the three traps I had sitting on the counter waiting to be re-baited.  I didn't even set them out on the floor, but we caught one.  Of course it was early, I was groggy, and I accidentally let him out while trying to put him in a jar (they chew and ruin the traps if left in there too long).  With that over, I moved onto breakfast.  I made a monster one, with not one, but two scrambled egg and cheese burritos with red pepper, mushroom and leftover hog meat, along with a bagel and cream cheese. We've been eating huge out here, and we're still losing weight.

Too early to leave the house I watched a show on the computer with my breakfast.  When that was over, I headed out in the pitch dark.  The island is rather spooky in the black of night, but when you get out of the tree canopy and into the marsh or onto the beach, it's beautiful.  I took my time driving to the beach, but was still there too early at 4:45.  I used the extra time to just enjoy the moment, listen to the waves and watch as night became twilight.  Once there was a little light, I was able to start my patrol.  By the time I was done checking North Middle, the sun was just breaking the horizon.  Then I started on North Beach.  I found two nests that day, and several false crawls.  One of those false crawls was very interesting, it looked like a nest, and I even found a nest cavity where the eggs would have been, but inside was only one tiny, non-viable, "spacer" egg, the size of a dime.  Usually if a turtle abandons a nesting attempt after digging the cavity, she just walks away, but this one was covered over and camouflaged.  The eggs just weren't there.

I had taken the truck to do my patrol, and I'm sure glad I did.  The air conditioning was a godsend.  The radio kept reminding me about the heat, saying it was 95 in Savannah, with a heat index of 105-110.  They rated the UV index as "very extreme," which sounds to me like they had to make something up higher than "severe."

After the North beaches I headed off Bradley and down toward the south end.  On the way I hit a rather nasty pothole on the causeway.  Even at less than five miles per hour, everything in the truck, including me, was thrown up in the air, and then back down at double speed.  It really hit hard.  I regrouped and continued south.  It didn't take long for me to start hearing strange noises from under the truck.  It sounded like a branch stuck underneath, which happens a lot.  No problem, just stop and check it out.  It was then I realized, the brakes were out.  Luckily, they weren't completely gone - the peddle traveled an inch from the floor, and then stiffened just enough to stop.  I checked underneath, but nothing was there.

Halfway to the kayak to South Middle, I decided I would keep traveling, driving very slow, and finish my patrols.  When I finally got to the kayak, I checked over the truck some more, but still found nothing stuck underneath.  At this point, I feared the suspension was damaged.  I would have taken a closer look, but it was very hot out, and the truck had been running for hours, and was even hotter underneath.  And so, I parked it, and paddled out to South Middle.

There I ran into Tim, one of the DNR bird guys.  He was out doing a bird survey about Wilson's Plover and Oystercatcher nesting.  We chatted a bit, then he continued up the beach while I took a phone call from Kate.  When it was over, I saw Tim just a hundred feet up the beach standing at the base of a crawl.  I met him there and started my probing, pulling out an egg in a minute or two.  I always feel good when I can quickly locate the eggs in front of an audience.  He went on to finish his survey while I relocated the nest.  I had one other nest to take care of there, and then I needed to go for a swim.  One nice thing about working on the hot beach, is that the water is always right there.

I didn't find anything on South Middle, so I headed home - the truck still making awful sounds.  I stopped along the way to take a few shots of wild flowers.  After our lunch and afternoon break, we dropped the truck off at the shop.  I looked got a good look at it there, and realized the connection between the drive shaft and the hub on the left front tire was loose, and shredded metal was in between.  We went home despondent that we were now down to just the Mule.  I called Mark when we got home, and told him I'm sure I could fix it, I'd just have to take it apart, see what was broken, and then somehow get new parts.  He liked that plan, but then we got a real break.  Eric stopped over the house and when I told him about the truck he said, "Let's go take a look."  I showed him the problem, he jacked the truck up to take a closer look, and then he pulled out a box from under a workbench.  Inside was a brand new hub, exactly what I needed to fix it.

I went home and worked out a schedule with Kate.  I'd work on the truck in the morning, and she'd run the north end.  If I could finish fast enough, I'd run the south end.  This morning, that's exactly what happened.  I had the truck back together by 9am, and got Kate on the phone.  She was working her nests on North.  I took the truck again south, and found two nests during my patrol.

We were both home by 1pm, and enjoyed another large meal and a little down time.  We watered Kate's flowers, which are a real hit with the swallowtail butterflies, and watched the birds.  The birds are crazy.  They love the feeders and are now using the bird bath.  It's such a joy to watch them.  I counted 18 birds in a single moment on the feeders, bath, and clothesline.  We get house finches, cow birds, cardinals (a family of five), ruby-throated hummingbirds, and the ever-gorgeous pained bunting.  The next time we go to the mainland, we'll have to buy a giant bag of food - they can clean out a whole feeder in two days.

Tomorrow Adam is coming to patrol with us.  He's bringing much needed supplies, and sounds excited to see all our nests, calling our numbers "very impressive."  We'll be happy to see him, since we don't get visitors often, and he's a pretty fun guy.  We could use more visitors, and you are all welcome to come, just give us a shout and we'll set it up!  Until tomorrow...