Tuesday May 31, 2016 Guerneville CA.
Too early
I woke up tossing and turning around day break this morning. Too early for me to get up, but since I was tossing and turning I got up and got it going, then went back to bed until eleven and was down at Jenner around noon. The fog was trying to come in and it was pretty thick down near the mouth area, so I crossed over the river and decided to head on up the river at my slow pace, just taking it easy.
Female mallard
I stopped here for a bit at the little channel on the upper end of Penny Island. I could see this female mallard sitting there in the channel.
But as I sat there, the little guys came out from hiding and began to feed in front of me.
Slow down and see more critters
This is a good illustration on why it’s better to slow down if you want to see more wildlife. When you are scooting along and wildlife sees you, it stops what it’s doing to see what you are doing and may even hide, until you pass on by. But if you are slowed down and even stopped, it will eventually continue what it was doing, especially eating as that’s what wildlife does best and the critters don’t like to miss out when the eating is good.
It usually only takes a few minutes for wild critters to return to what they were doing if they haven’t left the area because you scarred them off.
I continued on up the river to this stop and sat for a bit.
There were some geese sitting quietly in the water across the river from me.
I continued on up the river past his spot which I call Eagle’s landing.
I made it up to this spot, which I call the Muskrat nest area and sat for awhile before heading back down the river.
I paddled along here and you can see the fog down by the town of Jenner, trying to sneak in.
Otter’s log is just past here. I pulled in behind it and got out of my boat.
To shore for berries
I went to shore looking for berries to eat. I walked along this trail which I call Poison Oak Alley for good reason. It goes up along the river.
I wanted the check the thimble berry patch to see if there were any ripe berries to eat.
I found a few red ones, but not many, so I looked around for some little blackberries and found some of them to eat.
Eventually I put my boat back in the water and headed on down the river heading in for the day.
I passed by this lone tern resting on the gravel near the upper end of Penny Island.
From there I paddled across to the boat ramp and took my boat out of the water and went on home for the day.
Worked on my car
After a nap, I went outside and popped my car’s hood to check out a bad ground on my water temp sensor that makes my car run rough when it’s cold. I cleaned up the connection and tightened it down good and hope that will cure the problem.
Worked on Tom’s tractor
I then got my brother’s old Ford tractor to work on. I needed to drain the gas tank to install a new fuel filter bowl and shutoff valve under the fuel, so I set this up to drain the gas out of the tank. It’s sorta plugged up and is draining real slow, but by tomorrow I hope it all drains out so I can finish the job.
And we worked on John’s Honda 90
I was expecting John to come by with his Honda 90 he just purchased to have me help him work on it. It seems a lot of gas was leaking out of the carburetor.
I had John take the gas valve apart first and we discovered where the off was on the valve. And then I had John take off the carburetor so we could take off the bowl and check out the float and float needle to make sure they were working well. John had to take the carb off four times until we got most of the leak stopped. I think he needs a new gasket, but it’s working good enough for now to use it.
We worked on John’s truck
We next looked at his steering in his big Ford truck as there was a part that needed put back in place. John climbed in on top of the engine and did the work while I supervised and we got that job done too.
Sampling plums
We cleaned up and then I took John around my yard sampling all the plums that were growing in my yard which are staring to all ripen up.
John went on home and I took it easy for the rest of the day.
And that was my day.