Tuesday February 28, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

The weather is warming up here. It didn't get nearly as cold as it has been getting and the days are up in the high 60's. It's good shirtsleeve weather. I'll be glad to be back in shorts soon.

I told Todd I would come down to the fire hall and help him build the framework for the new signs today. Rain had been forecast and we decided it would be a good day to work in the shop. I had forgotten how hard it is to actually do physical work, getting down on hand and knees and throwing 4 X 4's around. I was exhausted by the end of the day. We took a nice break for lunch but I came home and relaxed in my recliner. Missing a meal won't hurt me!

We signed up to work on Saturday on a project for the Texas Parks and Wildlife. They had an artist come over and draw some pictures on the walls of one of the old storage magazines to illustrate invasive wildlife. We will be coloring the drawings using chalk. If these drawings turn out okay, they will use paint to replace the chalk, but that will be a very long process and we will be gone.

I am starting to worry about our summer trip this year. Much higher fuel prices are being forecast with gasoline being $5 per gallon. That means that diesel will be $5.50 or so. That will mean our fuel bill for our planned 5000 mile trip will be raised by thousands of dollars. Of course, groceries, clothing and everything else will pay the price of higher fuel, so I don't know how all this will play out. We'll see...

So long.

Monday February 27, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

Happy Birthday to Stella. She has put up with me for a loooong time and today is her birthday.


Today was a pretty good day around the refuge. I helped Todd in making up a couple of equestrian trail signs in the morning and Ron and I put up some new street signs along the auto tour route in the afternoon. I was tired at the end of the day but we had accomplished a lot.


We met for another happy hour on the deck in front of the visitors center this evening. Its a nice way to end the day. We talked about doing a large breakfast one morning and perhaps we'll do a potluck supper one night. We'll all be leaving here before you know it.


Here are a couple of photos of the boy scout troop that came out here over the weekend.


Here is a group photo of the troop with two of the signs they erected. They did a great job.

Here they are preparing to erect the post that one young man is holding. As it turned out, we were not able to drive the UTV's down this trail due to a couple of large trees that had fallen. The boys were able to maneuver around the trees and walk down the trail, but we met them on the other end and got the job done.

Our dogs love to walk down these trails. One of the shorter trails is right across the street from where we are parked and the dogs look forward to me taking them over there. So many new smells to gather! They will certainly miss this place when we leave here in April.

So long.

Sunday February 26, 2012-Caddo Lakes NWR

It was cold again this morning. My thermometer read 37 degrees but the online weather source (Weather Underground-wunderground.com) I use said it was 27 in Karnack. At any rate, it was cold! I didn't want to come out from under the blankets to go open the gates, but I finally did it. It really wasn't that bad once I got up and began moving, but I was soon back under cover in my chair.

We had decided to go over to Shreveport La. today to visit the boardwalk there and to eat the buffet at one of the casinos to celebrate Stella's birthday which is actually on Monday. Todd and Sue went with us to guide us over there and it turned out to be a perfect day. Brilliant blue skies and temps in the upper 60's made it a great day to be outdoors. We walked around the boardwalk for awhile and did a little shopping at the mall before going to the Sam's Town Casino and Hotel for the buffet. We ate before doing any gambling but soon learned that most of the food was overcooked by now. We thought we were doing a good thing by making it in before the price change for the supper crowd, but we got the leftovers from lunch. The food was just okay, not great like we expected. Oh well, we did save a couple of bucks. Speaking of saving, when we signed up for the club cards, we all got a 50% discount on the buffet, so another savings...
Then on top of that, Todd insisted on buying our meal. He bought Stella's because it was her birthday and mine because I drove. What a nice guy!

The three others decided to go try their luck on the gambling machines, but I saved up even more by opting out. I sat in the lounge and played on my I-Phone and called Phil, none of which cost anything. When they got done, Stella came out a dime ahead, Todd came out a penny ahead and Sue didn't say how much she lost. All in all it was a very good day.

We came on back to the refuge and I soon locked the gates and made the nightly drive through and we were done for the day.

If you think about it and have time, please call or email Stella (scoffman27@gmail.com) on her birthday. Or even if you're late reading this. Get me some brownie points and tell her I asked you to call her. Thanks...

So long.

Saturday February 25, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

I was wakened this morning by Todd's truck when he went down to open the gates. I had said that I would do it, but he must have woke up and decided to go take care of it. It is very cold this morning, the outside temp monitor said it was 36 degrees, but our water is frozen up! I went outside later and saw a lot of frost on the windows of the trucks. I feel sorry for the Boy Scouts, having to sleep in tents!

About nine o'clock, Todd came over to see if I was ready to go and I told him as soon as I took the puppies out, I would be ready. While I was on my way back he told me that I had a water leak at the water filter. We discovered that one side of the Y-valve had split and actually came apart when we tried to tighten it. When it broke, most of the copper of the splitter was left in the threads of the pressure regulator, so to keep the water running, I took the regulator off and hooked the hose up direct. IT WORKED!!!

We went out and hosted the Boy Scouts' project of erecting some trail signs. They were typical kids, about one third of them wanted to work and asked to do all the jobs; another third would do what was asked but didn't volunteer and the final group just didn't want to do anything.

I gave the boys a little more work to do in addition to the signs. While separating two of the sign poles, I cut my hand near my right thumb. I bleed very well due to the aspirin I take, so it looked pretty bad with blood all over my hand. The young man took care of me like a champ, although he got a lot of advice from Todd, who was an EMT and an instructor for many years.

Everything got done and the new signs look really nice. Good job Scouts!

We came on back home and later in the afternoon Todd and Ron took the scouts on a tour of the refuge which they enjoyed. When Todd came back, we went up to the shop at the fire hall and fixed the damaged regulator, so we're pretty much back in business for now. I'll have to replace the splitter, but thats not too expensive. It could have been worse!

We sat outside again this evening. This is one of the things that make volunteering so enjoyable. Friends sitting around in the evening and telling about their travels and comparing notes on different locations. Nice...!

So long.

Friday February 24, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

I went down this morning and opened the gates for the day. It's kind of nice to be up that early, there's no one out and about yet, and I can imagine that I'm waking the deer and other animals in the forest around us. The only sounds in the early morning are the trains that pass not far from here. They blow their horns at crossings as required by law, but it seems that some blow it longer and more often than necessary. It is very apparent that they have a very wide latitude about the use of their horns.

Someone asked me the other day in a comment about what our duties are around here and I forgot to answer, but will do so now. About the only requirement is to open and close the gates. There are contractors that come in early four days a week, so we only have to open the gates on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but we have to lock them every evening at dusk. One thing that was stressed is to tell visitors when the gates close. Several times, people have been locked inside the gates because they became lost or disoriented and didn't get back before the gates close. Getting back to our duties, Todd's wife and Stella both keep the visitors center and the educational center swept, cleaned and stocked with brochures and literature. Then there are a list of projects which we can choose whatever we want to work on, depending on our skill level and simply, our likes and dislikes. There will be more and more mowing as the weather warms and some planned controlled burns will keep us busy when that happens. All that being said, we can work as hard as we want to and the park staff is very easy to work with and are thankful for the volunteers.

Today we had a staff meeting at the headquarters building. After the safety meeting, we all went over to Marshall to the Cafe Italia restaurant for lunch. It was a nice time with all our new friends here.

We returned to the refuge and began making up the items needed for a Boy Scout troop that was coming to stay out here tonight. They will be erecting signs to mark a trail at the Star ranch. The Star ranch is just one block in this huge (8500 acre) refuge. It was owned by the Star family for many years and the old family home remains on the property. It is in need of repair and I was told that plans are being made to restore it.

While preparing the sign posts, we had to cut off some of the post length, which Josh did using a gasoline powered saw. While cutting the first set, he burned a hole through the cover on some protective chaps that he had on. It was a surprise to all of us, but it certainly proved the use of protective clothing. It could have been much more serious had he not worn them.

We had another impromptu happy hour this afternoon when everyone returned from their duties. Nice way to end the day.

The Boy Scout troop arrived about 6:30 and were escorted down to the ranch by Todd and Ron while Stella and I closed the front gates. We do not lock the gates while they are here in case of an emergency. Of course, we all hope that nothing happens, but you can never be too careful, especially with kids.

So long.

Thursday February 23, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

Well, this morning started off all right. It was cool this morning but spring is coming and it warmed up quickly. I took Todd and the resident cop here, Jason to stake out the locations of the new sign that we had worked on. Once that was done, I was assigned a John Deere riding mower and began mowing the grassy area behind the trailers and some land behind us. It was very wet, so I wasn't able to cut every single blade of grass, but it looks much better now. I probably mowed between 2 and 3 acres and finally got through around 2. Todd had told me about one area on a pathway that has water on both sides and if I was going to encounter a snake, this would have been where it would be. Trust me, I was extra vigilant when I rode through that area! They didn't say anything to me about snakes, but since this is a Wildlife Refuge, I'm sure they would have scolded me if I ran over ANY snake, no matter how venomous it was. Luckily I didn't see any!

When I got through mowing, I loaded it back onto the trailer and took it back to the fire hall where it is stored. I drove it in and washed all the dirt, mud and grass off the mower and put it away. At least I am getting a variety of chores around here.

We came back home and I got caught up on some blogs and many emails that I had gotten. I had forgotten how tiring that mowing could be. It's been almost 2 years since we sold the house.

So long.

Wednesday February 22, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

Today we had to go to Marshall with Jason, the Law Enforcement officer here at the refuge, to the Police Dept. to be fingerprinted for a background check. Marshall PD uses the new electronic fingerprint scanner that eliminates the use of the messy ink pads that got all over me and the person that I was fingerprinting. Stella's prints went pretty well, but the Crime Scene Tech that was taking the prints couldn't get mine to work. There was either movement of my finger or a bad recording of the minutia of my prints. There is a way to just accept the prints as taken, which is what he had to do in my case. Jason knows that I am a retired Police Officer and is certain that nothing will come back on my record, so everything will work out.

We stopped off at the Whataburger to get something to eat, since we had left before eating breakfast but were soon on our way back to the refuge. When we got back, I got in the truck with Todd to work out in the field and Stella worked with Todd's wife Sue. Ron, the new volunteer met Todd and I at the Fire station and rode with us to do some of our work. When we got done, Todd and I went back to the headquarters building to work some more on the new signs. We got through about 2PM and broke for lunch. Todd and Sue had a problem with their GFI plug in their trailer and went into town to buy a new one and I stayed home and relaxed. Today had been a pretty full day for all of us. None of us will have to be rocked to sleep tonight!

So long.