Monday February 29, 2016 Monte Rio CA.
Kayaking Monte Rio
I went on down to Monte Rio to kayak for the day. I put in around noon and started on down the river.
This female mallard duck was looking for a handout as I pulled away from the boat ramp.
Steelhead fishermen
There were two boats fishing the slot just below the boat ramp. I paddled on up to the right side and shot the bull with them for a bit.
Not much happening today on the steelhead scene. I left them at it and continued on down the river, just drifting about a mile an hour or so,……….. slow.
I passed by this great blue heron sunning on the shore.
I’m just drifting along here headed down to the Villa Grande Hole just up ahead.
A great blue heron took off as I got too close to it.
A boat full of steelhead fishermen motored up the river and went on by. No luck with them either as far as fish were concerned. But it was a nice day.
Villa Grande
I drifted down to this area, the Villa Grande hole, where I sat for a good spell and watched for any goings on.
There were a couple of osprey just above me screeching away as ospreys do. Here’s one of them on their nest which they are just getting ready to use for the season.
And this male mallard duck paddled up to me and checked me out, before paddling away.
I stayed in that area for quite some time, napping and just taking it easy.
Sunning turtles
Eventually, I started back up the river. I was paddling along when this turtle caught my eye, so I had to back up and get it’s picture.
Shortly after that I had just put the camera away when I glided by these four turtles. Lucky they stayed on the log for a group photo.
The dreaded waddles
Just below Monte Rio, where the fishermen were fishing in the slot something caught my eye up in the brush on the gravel bank. Darn, another one of those dreaded waddles. See it up there on the gravel bank? They aren’t easy to see.
They are hard to spot, but here’s a closer shot of it.
They willingly put thousands of waddles out each year
Our government agencies are requiring these waddles be used for construction projects and they are not removed on most projects. In other words, the plastic is left on the ground and works it’s way down our waterways towards the ocean. They put thousands of these things out each year and they are starting to add up and showing up in the river more often. Can you imagine the same people that don’t like to pollute the earth with plastic willingly use this stuff scattering it around in our environment in numbers that total in the thousands. These are being used in most of the west coasts water systems, unfortunately.
There’s something wrong with doing things this way, eh. At least I think so. :O)
Boat ramp and a gate repair
I made it to the boat ramp and went on home for the day where I was puttering in the yard when I decided to repair my neighbors gate as it keeps the deer out of my place. The gate was built when I was a kid in the 1950s out of redwood. The left end bottom board was broken and the end was dragging when opening and closing it making it hard to use. More importantly, I wanted to fix it before it got broken worse.
As I was starting to repair it, my brother Tom came by and offered to get his battery screw tool. Good thing he did as I had a lot of screws to put in. I added a brace board on the bottom left and screwed most of the fence boards on the left to it.
The screw tool was a Milwaukee, the best one I ever used.
Here’s the old gate I repaired, going into my neighbors apple orchard.
I sat around the yard for the rest of the day until the sun went behind the mountain to my west. When that happens, it starts to cool down so that’s the signal to go in the house for the day.
Nice day.