Wild Side

Here I thought my nephew the cowboy was a little crazy after "roping in" 14 gators in 2 days. But I was reminded today you don't have to travel to faraway Louisiana to experience the wildlife.

My sister Romey and her husband Rick are always seeing black bears in or near their yard -- and have photographed a few in their 40-acre woods with some magic night-vision camera. Even when Carter has stayed there during his "Up North Vacations" he used to take, he would see one or two bears.

Last night, Rick's nephew on his side of the family, shot a big black bear on their land. A big, big black bear. A big, stinkin' huge black bear! I don't know much about hunting bear, but I always assumed a 300-pound bear is big. This one was twice that and more. 653 pounds! Shot dead not that far, really, from where we were having a campfire just a few weekends ago. Uff da. Who needs all this excitement?

My heart stopped the way it was when we came over a hill on our way home from Iola and hubby had to slam on the brakes in a "leave tire tracks in the road" kind of way to avoid killing 8 big ol' turkeys crossing the road. If you haven't heard already, hitting a turkey is like having someone throw a bowling ball at your car or windshield. Not good. Thankfully, hubby has cat-like reflexes and stopped in time.

I'm glad the only wildlife around here are the hornets and bees trying to get in the house and away from the cold. (Low of 43 tonight.) I don't mean to brag, but I am a pretty good hunter, too. I managed to kill 2 long-legged wasps with the fly swatter -- using my lefthand, mind you -- while talking on the phone. Yes. I am that good.

Since I bagged my limit, I let hubby chase the third one around the kitchen tonight.

Yup, wild times in the not-so-North Woods. Yee-haw.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

We all have our hobbies or special interests. You know mine include writing, scrapbooking, golfing (trying), running (trying) and eating ice cream (succeeding). It's amazing how different each person's is -- even people in your own family.

Take my nephew Zach, for instance. He's a cowboy at heart -- and professionally. He is a horse trainer and farrier and does some sort of roping and sorting competition that earns him world titles and belt buckles as big as a Thanksgiving turkey platter.

At one time, he also served as a "guide for hire" taking rich folks on their big hunting excursions out West. This week, the tables are turned and he is the hunter, learning from a special group of guides known to most cable television viewers as the SWAMP PEOPLE. Not kidding. Somehow through his vast connections, he got flown down to Louisiana on a private jet and went huntin' gators with the Swamp People today.

Want to see how he did?

Zach (the handsome cowboy at left) said it took a "10-minute fight" to haul in this 10-foot gator. "What a rush," he said.

Uhm, to each his own, I guess. I wouldn't be caught dead trying that! Actually, if I did try it, I would be caught AND dead. Uff da. That kid has officially topped the Redneck Scale.

And I couldn't love him more. Just hope he comes back in one piece!

My sister Rayna and brother-in-law Paul just returned from a 2-week vacation in Alaska, which included a week on a cruise and a week on land, doing such daring things as riding some sort of tram on cables up one of the tallest mountains. Uhm, heck no. That sounds too dangerous for this fear-of-heights woman. I almost need to take an anxiety pill thinking about it!

Glad they could cross that adventure off their bucket list, though. Sounds like a great time in a beautiful part of America.

I am looking forward to our own adventure out East in a few weeks. I think the most daring thing will be crossing Lake Champlain on an hour-long ferry ride, hoping no hurricanes are messing up the weather then. Of course, some would say spending 7 days in a car with your spouse is pretty scary in its own right.

That's us... living on the edge!

What do YOU do for heart-stopping fun??

See Ya Later, Alligator

Up until today, the Florida Gators have just been a sports team in my mind. Now, they are large, scaly things with ginormous, crooked teeth and small bladders. (That one will be explained.)

First thing this morning -- after beautiful sunrise pictures I'll have to share at a later date -- we hopped a shuttle out to Holiday Park in the Everglades. Our tickets included an airboat ride to be followed by an alligator-handling show of some sort.

The airboat ride took us around all kinds of canals and routes in the tall grass of this eco-landmark of the south. I don't know where we went or how we made it back. I'm just glad we did!

At first we were cruising along slowly, looking around, then our "captain" said he was going to put some speed on "so hold on!" Well that was fine until he sort of zig-zagged a bit and I felt like we were going to tumble into the water! Now I don't mind doing that on a lake in Wisconsin where my worst enemy may be a snapping turtle. But the prospect of getting dumped into water infested (at some level) with gators and 25 species of snakes native to the Glades was intimidating. Well, downright frightening. I only screamed a teeny bit. Didn't want to call attention to myself if the gators where listening nearby.

That was the only scary, scary part. A little less scary -- but just as cool! -- was sidling up to a gator in the water and taking a picture or 2 or 3. My hands were a bit shaky so I'll be lucky any of those pictures turn out! I got a few good ones. We ended up seeing 3 grown-up gators and one baby one. Not bad.

Also saw millions of lily pads, several vultures and other native birds and, thankfully, no snakes.

Afterwards, we were treated to an alligator show where the handler was a cross between Steve the former Crocodile Hunter guy and Crocodile Dundee. He dragged a gator out of the pen and opened his mouth for all of us to see, then did some potentially hazardous and life-threatening tricks. Got pictures of that!

Then we all got to pet a muzzled baby alligator and could, for a price, hold it! We decided to let Carter and Nate take a shot at that. Apparently our northwoods smell made him nervous, because the gator peed on Nate as soon as he started holding him. Probably a good thing he has a small bladder (the gator, not Nate) because he was well behaved and house broken for Carter. Got pictures of that, too!

Yes, I can see my scrapbooking pages piling up before me. And it's only Monday!!

And that is a good thing. A great thing! OK, back to vacation...

See ya later, Alligator!