Not The Usual Monday

While I was on my morning drive through the park today, I was making a list in my head of all of the people that I needed to call this morning.  I had to call the dumpster people to have them replace our rusted dumpster because holes have formed in the bottom and I needed to call the Department of Transportation because someone hit the stop sign at the end of our road on Friday night.  I couldn't make either call this weekend, so I wanted to be sure to remember to do it today.... I made both calls.  No one was there to answer them though because it is a holiday.  I was at least able to leave a message at one place.  Next, I took care of the end of the week paperwork.  I wasn't able to do my Monday errands though, the bank was closed so I couldn't take my deposit slips with my paperwork to Ichetucknee.  I hit the ground running today, ready to tackle Monday and I had to just change gears.  I slowed down and went for a walk.
I took the Secchi Disc with me to check the visibility in the spring.  I climbed out onto the rock which was not much further out of the water than yesterday.  To my surprise, we had more than four feet of visibility.  We were able to open the spring again today!!!  I am still recommending that divers wait a little longer, but the spring is open to daring swimmers and divers.  I'm sure that it will improve quickly now that it is at this point.  The local rain that we just had will recharge our local aquifer and may give the spring a little more pushing power.  When I returned to the office, I made new signs cautioning divers that visibility is not at its best.  Our volunteer took the signs to hang them and to take down all of the signs that said the spring was closed.  I e-mailed the person who can update our park webpage and asked her to change our message.  I also changed the message on our answering machine to give the good news.


Believe it or not, that was the only picture that I took at work today.  I stayed pretty busy aside from my struggles in the morning.  I was doing a bit of reading about another park and mid-morning, our volunteer and I went to Adams Tract.  We picked up the log splitter to return it to its home park.  While we were there, the Adams Tract volunteers told me that the chlorine pump needed some adjusting.  I took care of it quickly and we headed out to return the splitter.  When we returned to Troy, we had lunch.  While we were eating, we realized that there were actually people in the park.  I had a couple of nice conversations and then headed back to the office to do some more reading before heading home for the day.
I was disappointed that I had only taken one photo today.  I spent some time out in my yard after I got home and some Red-bellied Woodpeckers made themselves known.  They are noisy!  I got out my camera, my new lenses, and my tripod and waited patiently for close to an hour while these two little birds completed a repetitive circuit between three or four trees.  I focused in on one and just waited.  I found a really neat setting on my camera while I waited.  I can put the shutter on a timer so that I don't shake the camera at all, but there is a setting where it will then take multiple photos.  It worked out so well because the birds moved quickly and often.  I was able to get some shots where the birds were positioned nicely... in addition to several where they were not.  Here are the nicer ones.