Ernie Caldwell Diaries.....

[RobbiesCornField]

some didn't come out so well. I'll post em later...I'm about to hit the hay. I love having the hours but TGIF!

If you're interested Robbie I have a pic (somewhere) of Hurricane Charlie making his entrance into Orlando.

That sounds cool!

I have (vague) memories of watching Charlie just before the turn into the coast.Let's just say I wasn't smoking cigarettes at the time. I was living in Naples at the time, and it hit not too far north of us. Scared the bejeezus out of my mom! Wasn't it Charlie that had the "2" appear in the eye on the radar? Just before the turn... I can't remember if it was Charlie or Wilma...

 

[Cflaguy]

I don't remember either....

I remember he went right over us. We lived about a quater mile West of I-4 in Altamonte. AT 11:30pm we had 90+mph.
This is the first pic I came to....3:30 that afternoon Charlie arrived.

 

[snakemom1961]

Stupid question. Do striped corns get their stipped genes from stripped rats?

Is a beautiful snake... Congrats on the find.

 

[Cflaguy]

Best find yet....

and Murphy's law takes effect.

Coming off the paved road into the site was the best find yet. An Indigo four ft. long. I scooped em up and showed it to as many people as I could. Only because they don't know the difference between the Indigo and a Racer. They have told me Indigo are everywhere out there. I know better.
Then turned him lose well back in the woods away from any equipment.
Pictures ya ask? No camera that day. As I often do, I let my phone run out of juice and that camera wasn't available.:duck:

 

[RobbiesCornField]

You're so lucky to have found one! I would love to find one in the wild...

 

[Cflaguy]

Seeing is believing...

I still haven't seen the panther, others have, but this is the best next thing....

 

[ArpeggioAngel]

I could die happy if I saw a panther in the wild....

 

[The_Thunderer]

I was thinking the same... As a kid, I read about how close to extinction some Mountain Lions were... and I felt so sorry for them. Now, it seems that they're making a comeback and I'm so glad that they're around.

 

[Cflaguy]

Went to the 7-11.....

for fuel and found this U=haul beside me. I had seen that before.....and then I wondered if the snake in the secong picture had posed for the painting?

 

[diamondlil]

Great pictures and explanations, thanks for sharing. I absolutely love these peeks into places I'll never see in person.

 

[RobbiesCornField]

That's really cool! I don't think I've seen that U-Haul before.

 

[Cflaguy]

Kinda slow lately....

With construction in full swing and lots of heavy equipment running animals are scarce. But the other day a dozer operator threw his chicken bones on the ground. The headed up to the honeypot. When he came back he found the panther had visited his machine. There were prints on his seat and kitty spray on the levers. And the bones were gone.

A small Garter was found and released before I could "officially document" him. We did find this juvie racer.
As I was leaving the afternoon weather came in.....

 

[Cflaguy]

The chap who caught the juvie Racer....

brought this little Yellow Rat to me.

 

[Cflaguy]

Already having 2 YRs.....

I took this little guy down to the creek to a very nice area and let him go. He kinda cheesed my cracker. He was very mellow until I turned him lose, then he wanted to ruin my day. Some appreciation uh?
I finally got him in the water and he swam off to the other side where no construction is scheduled.

 

[diamondlil]

Now that's not a nice way to thank you!:roflmao:

 

[The_Thunderer]

LOL. I was thinking the same thing last night... along the lines of "That's gratitude for ya!"

 

[Cflaguy]

The cat is everywhere.....

Tracks every morning where we are currently working.
Thursday morning I found some pretty neat tracks. They had installed some storm pipe and left the trench open. It was about fifty feet across and ten feet deep, and about five feet of floor at the bottom. You could see where she had in one step/leap gone down one side of the trench stepped over the pipe, and in in two steps/leaps gone up the other side.

 

[gimpsnakelvr]

that would be amazing to see a florida panther

 

[Cflaguy]

We're 90 days....

that would be amazing to see a florida panther

into a 600 day project. Good odds I'll see her. They are saying now there ar three on site. Tracked by GPS (collared) sytems.

 

[Cflaguy]

This is really cool.....

Day was winding down today so one of the pipe crews had stopped and the guys were wandering around and found this....half an arrowhead.....