Saturday Afternoon Boat Ride

My BIL bought a new boat this past week and wanted to put her in the water today to see how she runs. It's a used boat but seems to be in pretty good shape.

It was windy and rain squalls were coming in out of the Gulf every couple of hours but it was really warm and BIL couldn't stand it any longer so he called to see if we wanted to go for a boat ride. And of course we did.

We took my horrible point and shoot camera because the weather was bad so the pictures are terrible but I guess bad pictures are better than no pictures at all LOL

This is my BIL with two of his kids and his new toy.



They put the boat in the water



And then fiddled with a bunch of stuff while the kids waited impatiently



Finally, they were ready and off we went



We puttered up into Joe's Bayou and looked at the huge houses





I'd like to have this one




Because it has this



I told the Island King he could live in the boathouse and I could live in the big house. That way his fishing, hunting, photo taking stuff could pig up his house and not mine. He said he'd love it! He'd put in a disco ball and play Donna Summer's music all night long. He's odd like that.

You can't really tell from the picture but the name of this boat is "Terror"
From the rigs we saw it appears to be a shark fishing boat. I don't know about you, but you couldn't pay me enough money to go out in the Gulf in a boat named "Terror" LOL



We'd no sooner left the dock than the Youngest Island Boy wanted to climb the Cobia tower and go REAL fast LOL



We cruised out into the Bay but it was pretty choppy out there and as soon as my BIL started going a little faster my nephew lost it. Apparently the boy doesn't like to go fast - at all.

So we turned the boat around and I agreed to wait with the kids on the dock while the Island King and BIL made a run out into the Bay to see how the boat runs at cruising speed.

My kids put up a serious fuss about having to stay on the dock so while I stayed with my niece and nephew the little boys went back out with the big boys.



They turned around, idled away from the dock and then opened her up.



And in true marine craft form, she promptly died.



They sat out there for a while trying to get her started again and were finally able to limp back to the dock - with a kid who couldn't see over the wheel driving LOL



Our little adventure didn't last long but it was a nice break on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Wine Making

A few days ago the Island King and I were sitting outside enjoying our late afternoon cup of coffee when we started talking about wine. We both agreed that we've always wanted to try making our own and that lead us to the internet and a search on homemade wine.

We found all kinds of articles, tutorials and videos and it didn't take long for us to decide to make some ourselves.

I found a simple recipe involving Concord grape juice and as we continued surfing around we came across a recipe for a Kool-Aid wine. Well, the Island King being the redneck that he is, immediately decided that he wanted to try some of that.

I decided that I would stick with the grape juice wine and that he could have all of the Kool-Aid wine that he wanted so we made both.

We started by gathering the ingredients for the grape wine.



And the ingredients for the Kool-Aid wine.



The directions said you can use any flavor of Kool-Aid so the Island King picked his favorite which is Berry Blue. He calls it Romulan Ale.

I learned quite a few things that night and the first was that if you pour a little dish washing soap into a pot of water and then put it on to boil the soap bubbles will grow and grow and grow into an odd mushroom shaped tower LOL





Once we cleaned up the soap mess, we put the bottled water on to boil for a bit.



For the grape wine we added sugar to the hot water, let it dissolve and then cooled the water down in an ice bath.





For the Kool-Aid wine we let the water cool but poured the sugar directly into the container.



While the water was cooling we poured 2 containers of grape juice concentrate into the water jug.



And we activated the yeast for the Kool-Aid wine.



We poured the sugar water into the container with the grape juice.



And then emptied a yeast packet directly on top of the juice/sugar water mixture.



We poured the warm water onto the sugar in the Kool-Aid wine container,



Shook well and then added the activated yeast.



For some reason the instructions for the Kool-Aid wine say not to add the Kool-Aid until the wine has fermented, which will take 6 to 10 days. I'm a little worried about that process because the directions also state that when the Kool-Aid is added it should be done in the bathtub because there will be "a reaction" I'm thinking we'll add the Kool-Aid outside LOL

We still had one last step for each jug and that was to cap them.

We poked a pinhole in two balloons, covered the mouth of the jugs with the balloons and then secured them with rubber bands.





This will let the CO2 that builds up out without letting air in - or so the directions say.

The directions for the grape wine said to put the jug in a warm place away from sunlight and in a spot where it can sit for 6 to 10 days without being moved.

The directions for the Kool-Aid wine said to "find a safe, warm place to hide the jug" Hide the jug? For some reason I'm now thinking that the person who wrote the Kool-Aid wine tutorial may not be quite old enough to make or consume wine LOL

We didn't feel the need to hide the jug so both jugs went onto the top shelf of the kitchen pantry where they will sit, wait and ferment.



I woke up this morning and can see that something is happening.



I'm not sure what prompted us to spend Wednesday evening making cheap wine but it was fun and I can't wait to see what it tastes like LOL

Mockingbirds Can Be A Little Rude

This is our resident squirrel. He spends a lot of time teasing our dogs and he eats all of the bird seed I put out but I really like the little guy.



Yesterday, he made his way over to the palm tree and bellied up to the huge cluster of nuts growing there.



He would rifle through the bunch with his paw, carefully choosing which one he wanted next. He'd nibble the green, outside covering off, throw the rest on the ground and then get another one.



He'd been sitting there for about 15 minutes when we heard a loud squawking coming from a nearby tree. Suddenly, this Mockingbird swooped down towards him, screaming something in bird speak that must have really scared the poor guy.

He took off as fast as he could and the Mockingbird landed on the branch where he'd been sitting.



The Mockingbird made his way up into the middle of the nuts and then stayed there.



He never ate any of the nuts or even acted like he might want to - he just didn't want the squirrel to have them.

Oh well, Mockingbirds can be a little rude but we love them anyway.

Wordless Wednesday

The Casket Truck

As we were driving to see the King and Queen of Spain the other day I noticed a truck in my rear view mirror. It was coming up behind me pretty fast, weaving in and out of traffic and trying very hard to get in front of the pack of cars driving along.

Just as we pulled up to a red light the truck swerved in front of me and then slammed on brakes for the light.

I made some derogatory comment about his driving and then the Island King and I started chatting about something else. It took a minute for the words on the back of the truck to sink in.



It was a casket delivery truck! I can't recall ever seeing a casket delivery truck before and the Island King couldn't either.

When the light turned green the truck took off really fast. The Island King has his camera out and is telling me to catch up to the truck because he wants a picture of the side of the truck.

My van has pretty good pickup but this truck left me in the dust. He was going so fast and darting in and out of traffic that there's no way I could have caught him.
I hit 60 and he was so far ahead of me that he must have been doing at least 80.

We never did see the side of the truck but we spent the next few minutes wondering why a casket delivery truck needs to go so fast.

Was the driver late for a funeral? Surely the funeral home would have secured a casket sooner than the day of the funeral, right?

Are people waiting on him? Seems like the people waiting on him would have a little extra time on their hands.

Or is he just out drumming up business? With that kind of driving it wouldn't have been too hard.

It was a little bizzare but it gave us something to talk about for the rest of the trip LOL

The King and Queen of Spain

Last month I read that King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain were coming to Pensacola to help celebrate the 450th anniversary of the city.

Being a Pensacola native and a huge history buff I marked it on my calendar.

And today was the day - we saw the King and Queen of Spain!

(Click on pictures to enlarge)


The Island Girl and her best friend (who's mom thought seeing the King and Queen of Spain was much better than spending the day in a classroom) skipped school and we loaded the whole family up in the van and drove over to Pensacola.

The King was scheduled to speak from the balcony at the T.T. Wentworth Florida State Museum at noon. The museum overlooks Plaza Ferdinand so that's where the crowd gathered.



There were several thousand people there but we managed to get a good spot in the shade and not too far from the balcony.

The Island King was wandering around taking pictures and realized that the King and Queen's motorcade would be coming along right where he was standing so he jumped up on a wall and waited.





They stopped just past him and the King got out and shook hands with people along the barricade.



The King and Queen went into the museum and then a few minutes later Governor Crist, the museum director and several other political folks came out onto the balcony and then introduced the King and Queen.



People were cheering and the King and Queen were waving and the Youngest Island Boy looked at me and said "Where are their costumes? Their crowns and royal scepters?"
He was extremely disappointed that they weren't dressed in full King and Queen regalia LOL



The Governor spoke for a few minutes and then the King spoke for about 10 minutes about Pensacola and Spain being intertwined in history. It was an interesting speech but his accent is really thick and I could only catch about every 3rd word LOL

We had so much fun and it was really cool to see the King and Queen in person and to hear him speak. I don't run into royalty very often here in my little corner of the world so today was quite memorable LOL

Point Washington State Forest

Sunday afternoon we drove over to Point Washington State Forest to look for a geocache and spend some time in the woods.

Point Washington is a 15,000 acre State Forest located in South Walton County.
It's relatively flat ground covered with pine trees and palmetto bushes and there are several good trails that run through it.

They have a huge deer population and we saw several while we where there.

The first ones were standing along the side of Hwy 98 just as we entered the Forest.
As we drove by the Island King commented that once again our nature photography skills seem to be seriously lacking since the camera was still in it's case on the back seat.

I turned around and as we were driving back the Island King was getting his camera ready. He started giving me directions on how to approach the deer so he could get some good shots but to be honest I was making a U-turn on a busy highway and not really listening to him at all.

In a "failure to communicate" moment I pulled over at the wrong spot and spooked the deer.

He did get a couple of shots of them running away though LOL





We left the highway and drove into the woods in search of the cache. It was a nice long drive along a good trail and we spotted several deer running across the road in front of us as we drove along. It's amazing how fast they can run!

We drove to about 300 feet from the cache and then parked and hiked in to where the cache was hidden.



The Oldest Island Boy made the find. This wasn't a hard one because the cache was bright purple. Not much risk of muggles out here.



Back in the truck, we thought about turning around and going back the way we came but that magical question "I wonder where this road goes?" came up and we decided to follow the trail and see where we ended up.

The best adventures always happen on the road less traveled.

Until this point we'd been on dry trails but as we drove farther along the trail started getting smaller and muddier and muddier.

I was driving and I like muddy LOL

We came to the first mud hole and as the Island King is telling me that he thinks we should turn around I decided we should go for it.


I thought we'd hit dry ground again just around the corner but the farther we went the wetter it got.



We were fully committed by this time and the Island King spent half the time yelling "You're a crazy woman! You're going to total my truck in one of these holes!" and the other half of the time yelling "Don't let off the gas or we'll sink!"

The trail was getting more narrow by the minute and I was beginning to wonder if maybe I needed to figure out how to turn around without getting stuck when we drove up out of the mud and onto a small berm.

And could tell that we'd come to the end of the road.


The Island King was pretty stressed by this time and it took a few minutes for him to realize that we'd made it without sinking in the mud, ripping something important off the bottom of the truck or slamming into a tree. LOL

Once he'd calmed down a little he must have caught some of my enthusiasm because he said "I'm driving back and now that we know we can make it this will be fun."

I don't know what came over him because normally he's a little on the girl side when it comes to 4 wheeling but he turned the truck around, made sure everyone had their seatbelts on and then floored it.

We flew down that trail. The truck was bouncing and stuff went flying everywhere and we hit those mud holes head on. It was great! 4 wheeling at it's best.

We followed a few more trails before making our way back onto the highway. It was getting dark and was obvious we weren't going to be hunting any more caches so we drove around a little neighborhood that backs up to the forest.

This little guy was sitting on a quiet dead-end street and he looked so cute I had to take a picture of him.


It's hard to imagine that they have a speeding problem on that road so maybe he's their ounce of prevention LOL

We didn't find all of the caches on our list but we sure did have fun driving through the woods.