A FANTASTIC CANOE SURPRISE AND BACK ON THE LAKE!

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"OK everyone - take your places - lets go!  Shove off!  Shade - get on point!  Shade!  Shade - slow down girl - your enthusiastic attitude astounds me!  Shade  - Shade!  OK girl - you can stay back here with dad.

 Its actually been weeks since the boat has been launched at the lake.  Its been plagued by mechanical problems lately and its taken some work to sort it all out.  I've been helping out with fish habitat projects for the lakes.  That is interesting work and it gives one a sense of time well spent.

I visited the boat ramp and campground down at Douglas Dam yesterday and noticed a canoe on top of a car.  It had a canoe cover on it and I could see by the shape of it that this boat was special.  I stopped and asked the gentleman at the camp site if I could look under that cover.  He took the boat off and removed the cover.  I about fell over.  I told him I'd be back tomorrow (today) to photograph it.  I didn't have my camera yesterday.  That's rare.  The boat below is fabulous!

I have the privilege to know of one other canoe builder who is capable of this quality and her name is Catherine Faber.  Cat - if you want to, you certainly may post your web site on the comments section.  Ron, the builder, showed interest in talking to you.  I spoke to him of your fantastic canoes and told him I would let you know.  Ron is from Michigan and is vacationing here visiting his son who lives in Knoxville.  Ron and his wife showed me exceptional hospitality and endured my constant questioning and chatter about canoes.  I can talk a lot when confronted with something I'm really interested in.

That is a water tight compartment in the fore and aft nose areas.

Note the dowel pins used as fasteners instead of screws.

The seats are gorgeous.  Fitment is perfect and flawless.

Look at the nose of this canoe.  The wood fitment is perfection.  I have always been amazed at how all the wood parts can come together with the result of absolute perfect fitment.

The design front and rear is very traditional.  This canoe looks fast, and I'm told it is.

Look at the the places where wood joins wood.  It looks molded. (above)

The above picture is of the yoke.  Look how perfect the pieces fit together.  Amazing!  I admire this quality.

The boat is 17.5 feet long and I didn't get the beam or width.  It is a narrow craft and primary and secondary stability would be questionable I'm guessing.  One would have to be on his game at all times in this baby.

These folks were trying to get things done around the camp and I was beginning to feel like a third wheel so, I packed up and left.   Every now and again a treat is thrown my way down at the lake and today was a treat day.  I never forgot the day almost a year ago when I met Catherine Faber and drooled over one of her boats too.  I'm a sucker for a fine canoe I guess.
Thanks Ron for your hospitality and for showing me your canoe.  You have a fine boat there and  you are a craftsman.  I appreciate you sir.

There was a threat of storms today and the sky darkened a couple times.  The rain never came.  We put a couple hours in on the lake and headed for the barn.  The bilge pump didn't work and I wanted to at least check it out if I could.

What a sweet baby doll!

 She hangs on me like velcro.  She's my baby!

An interesting thing occurred when I neared the boat ramp at the dam.  I swung the boat around and headed to the opposite shoreline to talk to some fishermen I saw there.  When the boat was recognized as a TWRA vessel - half the guys on the bank picked up their fishing stuff and ran for the woods.  Funny!  Wonder if they had fishing licenses.  I won't mention nationality here but they were all of the same background.  I mean they were tripping over themselves moving off that bank.

Above:  There they are having a great day.

The guy on the left with the tackle box was really moving around collecting his stuff.  The guy with the red thing on his shoulder started running toward him. 

Look at the three guys on the right heading for the woods.  Here comes da law.   Funny!

We loaded the boat back at the dam and headed home.
I paid particular attention to the property at the house as we drove down the driveway.  Color.  Color was actually apparent.  I didn't notice until this moment of the flowers growing in "my" yard.

Where did this stuff come from?  I guess whoever built this place planted them.  Thanks to - whoever.

Lookin pretty colorful around here.  One might think I'm adopting domestic attitudes.  Ha - not a chance.  Not even a fraction of a chance!
Chestnut Hound found a toad.  Her little nose touched the toad and the toad jumped.  Chestnut bolted for the house frightened to death.  She's so funny!

I think I'll work on toad habitat restoration.  See ya next time.  Thanks for looking in.

TURKEYS AND BAMBOO

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I have been working on a fish habitation project 80 miles west of here and in the vicinity of where I used to live.  The project was to create and install artificial habitation for fish on Melton Hill Lake.  I have entries on the blog showing the installation of discarded Christmas trees on the shorelines of the flood control lakes where I live.  We used bamboo for the artificial habitat.

I think I posted these few shots of gathering the bamboo in a previous entry but, wanted to add them to this part of the process.

This is what the top portions of the bamboo plant looks like.  It is leafy and will provide good cover for the fish when submerged.

The use of bamboo for fish habitat has never been used before in habitat restoration.  In a way, we are pioneers with this project.
Melton Hill Lake is bordered by a huge Department Of Energy (DOE) wild property.  It is off limits to the public and is gorgeous as there is nothing on it but grasses and trees.  The wildlife that lives there is diverse and enjoys a habitat that is natural.  We're talking enormous acreage.   We assembled the bamboo habitat on the shoreline.  There is no rocket science involved.  We had many discarded plastic buckets that we drilled holes in and inserted the bamboo through the holes.  The ends of the bamboo were tied with wire and 40 pounds of concrete was mixed in the bucket around the bamboo to hold the stalks in place and to weigh the buckets so they would sink and remain stationary on the bottom of the lake.

50 years of industry management and it was all to end up like this.

Very stressful work.  Very stressful!  "Hey - where'd you guys go?"

The pine tree habitat laying on the bottom of the lake is excellent habitat for spawning fish and also offers hiding places for the smaller species.  These bamboo habitats will provide cover for fish both large and small that suspend off the bottom.  

As you can see we stayed busy on the project

And over the side they go.

I really love doing these little projects.  Its a good feeling to help out the little critters and to contribute to ecology in some small way.  Another really good benefit to being over here is that I have the run of all this DOE land, as TWRA conducts many projects and wildlife studies here.  Many people think that Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is comprised of a bunch of game wardens who run around and hand out tickets to errant fishermen and hunters.  This is far from the case.  The agency is comprised of the best professional biologists anywhere.  Their law enforcement division not only protects wildlife but protects the citizens involved in enjoying wildlife.  Many of those citizens have less than honorable intentions when in the wilds.  TWRA works hand in hand with community organizations to educate and involve young folks in outdoor projects.  The young today are the stewards of our wild places tomorrow.  An example of a TWRA/community project is the building of bat habitat for the "little brown bat" AKA: "tri colored bat."  (Myotis Lucifugus).  The TWRA manager of the wildlife management area (WMA) at Oakridge on Melton Hill Lake worked out a project with the local Boy Scouts to build and install habitat boxes for these little bats.  The project was conducted on the same DOE land I mentioned earlier.  Not only did the scouts learn about an important member of our wildlife community but, they actually built habitat structure to help the little bats survive in an ever declining bat habitat.

These are wooden boxes attached to a tall pole and painted black.  They are hollow inside for the entire length and open on the bottom to allow the bats to enter.  They will cling to the inside of the box.  The black color will absorb the heat of the sun and keep the inside of the box warm both day and night.

I wonder if the boy scouts have a bat merit badge.  Probably not.  By the way - this type of bat habitat is named a pocket box and is meant to mimic the shag bark hickory.

The above is only one example of how TWRA interacts with the young folks in the local communities.  There are many, many projects designed to interact with the youth and to familiarize them with our wild neighbors.  I'm so happy to be a part of all this.  I have the best job in the world.

 Above and below is another type of bat habitat that is used for bat propagation.

Well, its time to take a spin around this huge expanse of land and see what we can see.  We heard a million turkeys gobbling all morning.  Lets see what we can find.

Well, well -  not a turkey but, she's sweet.

This is one of the amazing perks working for this agency.  I get to work in the environment I absolutely love.

We heard the gobbling of turkeys even as we took these photos.  There were turkeys everywhere.

 Its spring and the only thing on their minds is finding a mate.  Note the beard on the gobblers below.

There were turkeys everywhere.

Theres a really great old cabin on the property that is sometimes used for youth meetings and gatherings.

Its been a strenuous, high tension day working on this project and taking all those photographs.  Whew!  Somebody has to do it though.  Wonder what pressure filled, tedious, time consuming work I'll be into this week.  I'll let ya know.

Osprey