Monday, Apr. 29, 2013, Monte Rio, CA.

Sometimes I can’t make up my mind,…….but no matter

I looked at the weather report for Jenner today. It would be warm, but the wind might go to thirty miles and hour. OK, I can handle that. So, off I went to Jenner, but when I got here the tide was real low, exposing a lot of mud along the shore line.

OK, I’ll just use the boat launch today, instead of the shore where I usually launch which I could see was a bit on the muddy side as far as getting the boat in the water.

Oh, oh, a brake problem.

I backed my car down the boat launch and when I put on the brakes, I heard a grinding sound from the right front tire area. Oh, oh, I thought I heard something like that a couple days ago. That right front tire needs to come off and an inspection is in order.

But right now, I wanted to put my boat in the water,………….but, the bottom of the boat ramp was all muddy too. Not really that bad, but I had options now. Go home and look at the brake problem, which was fairly important, or go back to Monte Rio and put the boat in the water.

Back to Monte Rio to kayak.

I couldn’t make up my mind, so I drove back to Monte Rio and thought about it. Of course I stopped at Monte Rio and put the boat in the water, the brake inspection could wait a bit.

I put the boat in the water and headed down stream. There was a fairly good breeze, but it was on the warm side so it was very comfortable.

Just down from the boat launch I passed though what the fishermen call the slot, where I noticed a lot of little bird activity on the shore line, so I had to investigate.

Swallows, lots of them. They were getting mud to build nests.

Below is a picture of some of these mud gathering swallows on the river’s edge.

I slowly worked my way down the river, stopping often, just taking my time.

Below is a view of what the river looked like as I paddled down the river, looking down toward Villa Grande hole.

Checked out the osprey nest.

I spent a bit of extra time at the Villa Grande hole as it’s a real nice place. There is an osprey nest there, up in a tree that is real easy to see.

Can you see the osprey nest in the picture below? It’s on a tall dead tree.

I had my camera at the ready to try and get a picture of the adults coming and going from the nest or whatever they might present. Of course, nothing happened for a long time and when it did, I was day dreaming. :O) As I looked up, one of the pair was returning to the nest, flying in. Before it got to the nest, the one in the nest left the nest and I just got the camera out and ready as the other one landed on the nest and started to settle in.

This is the same nest that the osprey flew from to attack the young bald eagle a couple of days ago when I was here.

You can see this osprey in the nest below.

Continued down the river.

After awhile, my interest waned and I found myself paddling down the river again. The wind had picked up some, but it was still warm.

Just below the Villa Grande hole, I stopped at the place below, which is one of my spots as it’s out of the wind.

After a brief stop, I continued down the river to the Sheridan Ranch area. The wind died down a lot while I was there. I stayed awhile then turned back up the river and moseyed back up the river.

I stopped along the way often as it was a real nice day. Below is one of my spots where I stopped for awhile.

Those darn car brakes were on my mind.

I thought I should be getting home to look at my car brake problem, so didn’t’ stay out too long. I was off the water around four thirty pm and went on home.

I wasn’t really in the mood to take my car apart, so I got something to eat and had a bit of a nap. My eyes kept looking at the clock, it was a little after six pm, still plenty of time to take the car apart before it got dark.

Get those tools out.

I got the tools out, the jack and the air wrench and looked to see if I had any brake pads around for my car and I did. They were only slightly used, so if that’s what I needed I was good to go.

Yes, there was a problem all right.

I took the tire off and sure enough, the right front outside brake pad had prematurely worn out. I took the brake caliper apart and looked to see why the outside pad was wearing so bad, but couldn’t find anything wrong, so I put the used pads on that were almost new and put it all back together. A little test drive around the yard showed I was good to go. That wasn’t so bad, only about an hour to do this job,  Of course, that was good for another little nap.

Had a nice day.