Gone Fishing

 I have a To-Do List that's about 5 years long. But as I was attempting to do some cleaning off the back porch and carport, it occurred to me, again, that there's a 2-car-garage size of wasted space above the carport that would make some great storage space for things like our camping stuff, coolers, boxes of jars. Probably even Rubbermaid tubs of household stuff.  I don't think it'd be much different out there than it is up in the attic. Except more room.

The house wasn't originally built with a carport, it was added later, and whatever Do-Do bird did it, used interior 1970's pecan wall paneling for the ceiling. Years and years of wet/dry weather later, the stuff is just crispy. It was peeling apart in layers, or letting go and half falling down. We knew we'd have to replace it eventually, so I said, tear that crap down and let's make some storage space.

So yesterday we worked on tearing that nasty old paneling down (I wish it wasn't ruined and could have been re-used as faux planking in the house, but it was just a disaster).

And up in there, was some strange hodge-podge of nailed together boards and scraps of plywood. They weren't holding anything up, so I'm not sure what their purpose is, or was. But they are nailed within of their lives, and J's going to end up having to cut them out, after nearly flinging himself out of the rafters trying to pry the wood pieces a part.

I told him he should go on to the home-building store and buy 1" plywood sheets that we can use for flooring up there, then he can stand on them to work on cutting out the weird nailed in scrap stuff. So he did (and holy cow, plywood is freaking expensive these days!) and me and Kev shoved them up, while J pulled from the top while trying not to fall out of the ceiling.

Amazing how what seemed to be a fairly simple job - laying some floor on some joists to make a storage area - turned into such a dangerous, nerve-wracking adventure.

We could only get two of the sheets of plywood up until he is able to cut some of the boards out, but at that point I had had enough. I was exhausted and he was hot, and anyway he had to work all night and needed a nap, so I called it off for the day.

He worked on the ambulance all night, but it wasn't too busy, so he came in this morning ready to work on the project some more. But not ready like, excited to get at it, or like it was his project he was anxious to finish. More like a dreaded chore he didn't really want to do, but if it'd shut me up...

But I'm not a slave-driver and I didn't want to feel like he was forced into doing something he didn't want to when he was tired and achy from yesterday's work.
So I said, it's Wednesday, reckon they (Georgia DNR) stocked the creeks?

He didn't know, but said he knew a place that wasn't too hard to get to, but hard enough that not a whole lot of others go there, so there might be some fish.

So he threw our bikes in the truck, we packed our backpacks, grabbed his pole, and off we went.

We drove to a place along our local walking/biking trail, the Silver Comet trail (I got to calling the Silver Comic trail and now it's a habit I can't stop, lol).

I thought this sign at the trailhead where we parked the truck was funny. It actually warns drivers to watch for bicyclers and walkers, but on our particular adventure, J had said we'd have to bike part of the way and walk the rest, so it looked like this sign was saying, bike, then walk.

We rode for just under 2 miles.

Then walked a lot shorter distance.

He didn't tell me we'd be crossing the creek. He just tromped through with his shoes on, but I didn't want wet, soggy shoes so I took mine off and waded across. It was sandy on the other side, like a private little beach. #BarefootInNature
(But next time I'll take along some flip-flips because my poor feet aren't as tough as they were when I was a youngun and ran the summers barefoot.)

J says trout aren't smart, but after he snagged two of these, the others stopped biting the hook. We went to a different place and he caught two more, and the others stopped biting. Tell me they don't know what's going on.

It was a gorgeous day, warm but not hot/humid, clear, sunny, blue skies. Birds singing, and a bunch of other noises nature makes.

I just love water.

Small water-spill coming down creek. Love the sound of a rushing creek.

After the fish quit biting, J was ready to go home, so we were walking back out and I saw another trail and asked him where it went. He said he didn't know, he'd never been down it. So we went down it, and found this. It's not a real waterfall, coming through a man-made tunnel, but it sure sounded like one.

It was good to get out, away from all the stuff needed doing at home, into nature. J says being out in the woods relaxes him, and he enjoys fishing, plus he caught dinner for himself and the guys at the fire station the next day.