Swamp Adventures

I can't believe that today is already Wednesday! I guess I better finish up my recap of my adventures in Calhoun County. David's one request for must-do activities in Blountstown was go to his family's swamp down on the river. I could totally get on board with that because I miss being out in the woods, so I happily went with him. It was my goal of the day to take pictures of every animal that we could find. I was still on the hunt for my alligator, but sadly we didn't see any. Maybe next time we will get lucky. I will warn you that this post has lots of pictures!

First off, David and I had a little dare going on. While we were at the river walking around trying to sneak up on a gator, we came across a tree that had fallen across the water. I dared David to walk across it. He of course, said no and asked me if I wanted to instead. I of course took him up on his dare. I did take gymnastics for years, so a big tree is nothing compared to a balance beam! David really didn't think I would go through with it. I had no problem with it. The only thing I asked of him was that if I fell in the water that he would rescue me if a gator came up to eat me. Ha! (this post sounds more and more redneck by the minute!)

So here I am beginning my decent down the bank onto the tree.

I had to look really carefully to ensure that no snakes were hiding in the crevices of the stump. That was the only fear I had, or that a snake would be chilling out in the middle of the tree sunning.

It was a bit tricky trying to get around that piece of splintered bark. But I finally made it out to the middle!

After getting my picture snapped, I headed back in. This is my "you-didn't-think-I -would-go-through-with-it face" that I gave David when he was truly shocked that I am such a "dare devil." Ha!

Actually it was more of a "will-you-come-help-me-back-up-this-bank" face. It was a bit steep climbing back up! After our little game of truth or dare, we got back in the truck to see what other redneck fun we could find. We started to head towards a field that had just been cut and replanted in long-leaf pine trees that David's dad wanted him to go look at. Plus, its the site of the an old Indian Village and we were hoping that all of the clear-cutting and replanting had unearthed a few artifacts. Away we went. But not before David stopped to pick me a flower out of his truck window for our journey.

Isn't he the sweetest? It promptly got put in a lovely and beautiful Coke vase. Fancy! We finally got to the field and hopped out to check out the status of the long-leaf trees.

After checking on the trees, we got to walking around looking for some pottery. Little did we know that this guy was watching us.

If you can't tell, that's a Diamondback Rattlesnake. Thankfully, he rattled at us so we were able to not get to close to him before we saw him. We debated on leaving him alone, but ultimately decided to kill him because his dad is out in this field quite often and it's dangerous to have these guys running around, especially when his dad can't hear them rattle.

He was a pretty good sized snake, about 4 feet long. He was an evil looking thing. Have I mentioned that I hate snakes? Cause I most certainly do! While we were attending to the snake, we came across Morla.

When we first spotted him, we thought he was a gopher turtle, but he was not. And for all of you, this is why I named the turtle Morla:

Hope I'm not the only Neverending Story fan. We came across a few deer and some hogs.

David tried to catch a piglet for me, but as it turns out, he's not as fast as he used to be :)

My favorite find of the whole day was coming across a pair of peacocks...in the middle of nowhere. We still have no idea where these guys came from!

I wanted to catch them and take them home to my parent's house, but David put his foot down and told me he wasn't going to be pecked to death trying to catch them! Speaking of birds, we also came across a stupid guinea, just running down the road like a dodo!

After our adventures in the swamp, we went over to David's family's river house to go check on some wild cats that have taken up under his mom's porch that she wanted gone. We searched and I finally found the kittens.

They look pretty cute, but don't be deceived. They are truly wild and I understand why his mom dislikes these kittens. They are pretty feisty and hiss and spit every time you walk by them. Cute will only take you so far when you have a bad attitude.

After our long day traipsing through the woods, it was nice to sit back and relax on the porch for a spell and enjoy the view of the Chipola River. The perfect ending to a long day.

So that wraps up my weekend adventures!