Countdown to El Camino

We have been training fairly regularly for our third experience with El Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the 1,000-year long pilgrim trail in France and Spain.  We leave in three weeks and hope to hike 300 miles, from Pamplona to Leon and a bit beyond to revisit some of our favorite places from the last time we went. If we cover the planned segment of the trail, we will have hiked the whole 500 miles, from the French side of the Pyrenees to Santiago...in three sections.

A big wind storm blew this tree onto the trail the day before we hiked here.

 We did the first 50 miles of Spain in 2008, as well as about 100 in France. In 2009, we covered about 200. It is such a wonderful personal challenge. Each day is different. Each segment of the trail is different.

 This year we know three other couples who will be hiking more-or-less at the same time...college friends of mine, Maureen and David; Russ's sister Phyllis and her husband Otis; and another college friend of mine Blanche with her husband Ben and daughter Colleen. We won't hike together; our schedules and routes are not identical. But it is nice to know they will be out there when we are.

We are down to the wire and ordered our last little bits of equipment...more sock liners and a new belt. We adapted my backpack to my increasingly old back by shortening it an inch so the hip belt hits my back right where I like it to massage away the achiness, and we keep thinking of things we don't really need to carry so the packs can be lots lighter this time.

Sunday we gave a talk about the Camino and our earlier experiences there for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Discussion Group. That got us all the more motivated. We are ready! And...best yet...Pam and James got tickets to fly down and see us off! What a great surprise.

We'll be posting regularly (we hope) to Facebook this time, instead of this blog. We'll post to the blog more occasionally when we get access to a relatively fast and convenient computer where we can upload photos.

Can't wait to get started.

The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses continues

 This week we will give a presentation based on the research from our book for the Newcomers Club at Temple Shir Shalom. It will be our third cheese talk since we taught the Amazing American Cheese class at Santa Fe College in January and February. We did two presentations in Cedar Key. "What Ever Happened to the Cedar Key Cheese Factory" was really about how people adapt their businesses to the resources of their locales, and how such adaptations have created the phenomenal recent growth of artisan cheese in America. "What Makes Blue Cheese Blue and Stinky Cheese Mild?" was a huge cheese tasting, with 14 artisanal American cheeses...three local to our Florida region.

The owner of a local restaurant, Edie from Kona Joe's, was there and invited us over to make mozzarella with her. Such a thing being news in Cedar Key, we had a full page story in the Cedar Key Beacon. Nice!

Friends of the Refuges

The Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges, El Camino de Santiago, and the Summer of a Thousand Cheeses are keeping us with lots of new challenges, and even retirement-style deadlines.

Russ is working on a Paddling Guide to 12 trails in the Lower Suwannee Refuge. His focus is the biology of what you see along each trail, while his partner on the project maps out the trails themselves. They're planning to come up with multi-media, maybe even interactive materials...print, laminated carry-alongs, downloadable voice descriptions, blogs where paddlers can input information about their observations along the trails...maybe more. The Refuge just received some additional funding to support material production. So, activity is about to gear up even more.

We didn't even own kayaks until this project captured us. It gave us a great excuse, and we are becoming almost skilled enough at using them to get in and out without falling in the drink.

I developed an electronic newsletter (this link will take you to the issue that went out yesterday)  and set up a website (here it is.) And, it has actually been sort of fun to run the Board Meetings since taking them on in last month. We worked the Friends Booth at the Cedar Key Arts Festival and will work it next Saturday at the Suwannee Stone Crab Festival.

We've had jam sessions and Friends Lectures on Fish, Ticks, Archaeology, and Geology.

 But Russ's project gets the gold star for getting us out into the Refuge itself.

Happy Easter

Our favorite decorations have appeared on the mantle.

 
We told the bunny story here. The Easter Retriever was a 2010 gift from our friends Donna and Larry.

In Training Again

 El Camino de Santiago de Campostela here we come! We walked with our packs today and realized that we're in a zero sum game; the more extra pounds we can shed from our bodies, the more things we can bring along in our packs.

My Birthday

I had a great 68th birthday today. We finally got our kayaks wet on a lovely paddle on a quiet backwater in the Gulf of Mexico. Good thing I wasn't born a day later because storms are expected tomorrow.

A Fragrant Spring

Three of our four grapefruit trees are blossoming--more profusely than in any of the past 14 years. As can be seen in this photo, many of the blossoms have already set fruit. The yard smells great, and if all goes well we should have a bumper crop of grapefruit come December.

Jake and Varmints

Our golden retriever Jake is conscientious about keeping varmints away from our house. He drives away rabbits, some of the legions of squirrels nearby and, presumably, the many raccoons and opossums that would course through our yard. He hates black vultures also and keeps them barely at bey, but they are persistent and are a challenge because they don't cower readily. Like them, some varmints bear continued attention. He apparently doesn't deal with snakes, but that has been an important contributor to his longevity.

Armadillos present a problem. They burrow under our back deck and, clunky and clumsy as they may be, should Jake catch one, they are hard to get one's teeth into, and they flee under the fence. Their armored integument makes them resistant to Jake, whose teeth rarely come into play; he's a big impressive dog and intimidation is his game, and why don't they get it?


Some instruction book we read how to avoid screwing up your dog's life cautioned that one must keep his dog mentally stimulated. Thank you, armadillos; whatever else you may have accomplished, you have kept Jake meaningfully employed.

Southern Blue Flag

Southern Blue Flag irises (Iris virginica) are at their peak now. We photographed this one last Monday on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, where roadside ditches are often choked with hundreds of blossoming plants.

Another Great Day of Hiking

Here is a view as we were beginning today's six-mile hike in San Felasco Hammock State Preserve. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful place, but don't take my word for it. Just try to put yourself in the photo. As followers probably know, we are planning to do the Camino again this year, but we have come to enjoy the dreaded "training" almost as much as the main event.

Ready to Go

We took one step closer to the allure of Lower Suwannee waterways this week. Here you will see our kayaks prepared to depart for the launch site. Our attachment seemed to work very well. Stay tuned for reports delivered from the superhighways.

The Amazing Cheese Story, Preparing for Day 4

Tuesday, February 8 is the final night of our mini-course, The Amazing Cheese Story. Follow the link for photos and thoughts about preparing for the big finale!

Curds and Whey

In the last couple of photos in the post below this one, you see the curds and whey we produced in our cheesemaking. Well, here they are again. First are the curds after they have been pressed into a farmhouse cheddar, bandaged in cheese cloth, and set aside to age. And then is the whey, transformed into a home made cabbage and whey soup...yummy!

Making Cheese at Home

Had lots of fun, and only a few frustrations and gasps of concern, making farmhouse cheddar today. We made a video too. Maybe we'll try YouTube.

Christmas Color

Each year the red maple tree near our shed in Cedar Key seems to get colorful just in time for Christmas. Most of our other trees are palms and evergreen oaks, so this red and yellow display provides a cheering contrast.

We missed a holiday opportunity with another of our trees. Seedling sand pine trees are always popping up in the yard, and we routinely pull them up with the abundant other weeds. This year we noticed that one of the fast-growing trees had escaped our attention and made it to nearly six feet tall. So, belatedly we removed it. With just a bit of foresight, we could have left it alone for a few more months and had it for a fresh-cut Christmas tree.

Our Red Maple

Dressing up the Cedar Key House

Those who know us well are aware that we tend to be financially conservative and environmentally sensitive. Nor are we big spenders. None of these qualities would appear to apply to people who own a house on a barrier island. However, we do own a house on Cedar Key, Florida, having acquired it more or less by chance. Getting the place wasn’t part of a long-range plan or the dream of a lifetime, but to our surprise over the past five years we have enjoyed it immensely. Once a week or so we escape into a new and alluring world, only an hour away, but far removed from the daily routines and relative bustle of Gainesville. 
 
This year we have dressed up the Cedar Key house in two ways, just in time for the holidays.  First, just after Thanksgiving we took advantage of a visit from Pam and James to install (James actually did the installation) a new lavatory in the main bathroom. The old one was funky and we discovered it even had a pedigree of sorts. After removing it we found a mark on the underside indicating that it was made in 1948. Venerable as it was, unfortunately its style was 40s modern. It seemed incongruous with our claw foot tub and did nothing for our decor. We’re enjoying the new one and keeping the old one for some other use. 


Then this weekend we set up an early Christmas gift—an electric space heater that is also a faux wood-burning stove. It has already served us, last night taking off a slight chill as we enjoyed an otherwise lovely evening.

Jake and Walking

Jake with Splint - 2007

Until 2008 our golden retriever Jake was a good walker, often logging six or more miles with us. Then around age eight he suffered a broken foot. He walked less with us in the Adirondacks that year and never regained the stamina we had seen earlier. We suspected arthritis, and since have kept him well-dosed with remedies. 

By 2009, abetted by cool temperatures, he managed the four-mile loop around Star Lake on two or three occasions. However by 2010 his walking had deteriorated to the point that we didn’t even attempt to walk him around the lake, settling for half-mile out-and-back walks. As summer turned to fall and we were back in Florida, he was good for no more than a half-mile in all, often signaling the desire to return home after a few hundred yards. His walking days were over, we believed.
 
More recently, close to his eleventh birthday (December 5), Jake surprised us by rediscovering the pleasures of walking. Several times since he has led us on three-mile treks, staying in front and leading us onward (if we had known how far we would be going, we might have worn stouter shoes).
 
We are led to wonder whether Jake’s joints and muscles have veered between sickness and health in yo-yo like oscillations, or (more likely) can it be our incompetence as dog doctors that is responsible? His physical strength may (like ours) be somewhat diminished with age. But maybe his joints-muscles-bones-tendons-ligaments-etc. are in fine shape, and he just doesn’t like to exercise when it is warm out. We think maybe that’s it; his physical prowess is far better than we believed, and our diagnostic skills are far worse than we imagined. We lament our failings in that department a bit, but are pleased that Jake can again accompany us on long walks—if only when it is cold out and we thin-blooded humans find it miserable.

Chestnuts Roasting

We have fun neighbors. Last night Ralph and Chris organized a cul de sac party for us. And, they roasted the chestnuts seen here. Total success. I don't know why roasting chestnuts have that burned smell they have in NYC, but these smelled and tasted delightful.

Earlier in the day, Pam and James, Russ and I hiked the La Chua Trail on Paynes Prairie. Among other things, we saw sand-hill cranes, wild horses, alligators, great blue-, little blue-, and black-crowned night herons, anhingas, ibises and glossy ibises, alligators, turtles, a sora rail, and marsh hawks.

sora rail nearest to you

Little Blue Heron

Anhinga

wild horses

On the Suwannee River

Yesterday was the Great Suwannee River Cleanup. We stayed on shore, welcomed back all the trash collectors, helped unload the boats, and weighed and recorded the stuff collected. More than 3,000 pounds was gathered in about 3 hours on the water, with about 85 volunteers (all with wet feet, some with wet clothes from falling are jumping in the river to rescue things like boats that tried to float off.) What did we find? Fuel tanks, 55 gallon barrels, chairs, lots of tires, huge pieces of styrofoam (average weight--80 pounds each, shoes, and more expectable, random junk. I posted lots of photos on the Friends of the Refuges site. Check it out!

Great Birthday

I had a great birthday celebration yesterday. We went to the Annual Holiday Interagency Luncheon at the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. Many of Russ's former colleagues were there, as well as many of our new friends from the friends of the Refuges.

In the evening, we went to dinner at the Island Room for the Wednesday special. Not only was it a gorgeous, cool evening sitting by the window looking out over the Gulf, but we had oyster stew, roast duck with cooked to just the right firmness veggies, pumpkin cheesecake, and wine for less than $20 a piece! Now that is a special!

This morning we ate waffles cooked in my new WaringPro and read the paper on my new Kindle...well that's an exaggeration. We couldn't actually download over in Cedar Key so that was just an imagined treat for the next visit, after downloading back in the world of connectivity.

Sunset on the way to the restaurant

Celebrating with Jake