Hello family and friends!! I got the pine straw down a week and half ago with no mishaps or run-ins with any flora or fauna in the process. However, there was a baby copperhead on my brother's front walk yesterday evening that neither of us was brave enough to kill. We are such cowards. I have no idea how we will cope with the discovery of our intruder, regardless of what it turns out to be, if we can't even handle a snake the size of a spaghetti noodle, albeit a poison one.
I've checked into the weather on the days that I've been tracking the cigarette theft. The following dates are what I have so far: July 13th, blustery and light rain, a full moon; August 27th, overcast and windy because of Hurricane Irene, 1 day before the new moon; a big "maybe" on September 21st as the wind was strong, also raining, so I didn't really count the container being turned over and the cigarette missing on that occasion, also a waning moon; and then sometime between Oct. 20th-Oct.26th, it was raining when we left for vacation that week, it was overcast until Saturday, also a waning moon. The only common denominator I see here is cloud cover that would make it extremely dark.
I need to track this more before I can definitely say that the weather has anything to do with the circumstances. I am starting to anticipate another visit so that I can see if the intruder will be put off by the pine straw. I figure if a manicured lawn doesn't bother them, certainly pine straw won't be a hindrance. I will keep the weather in mind because the view for where I am planning to put the camera may be obscured by a wet window. I may need to think of some alternative positions and/or possibly a back up camera of some sort in the hollow tree across from the deck.
The taping is going miserably, in my opinion, but I tend to get bored easily. I am still having a hard time adjusting from the old fashioned tape recorders to the new digital ones that go all the way back to zero when you rewind, I hate that. So far, I hear owls, and crunching leaves, my cat pitching a fit to come inside, and trains, lots and lots of trains going by on the track across the river. I believe I liked the Sony brand better than the Olympus I exchanged it for but the Sony had no way to transfer audio to my PC without me actually taping on the computer. The quest for a good digital recorder for under $100.00 continues and the wait continues.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Much Ado about Nothing
I called the SC Department of Natural Resources on Thursday to discuss what might be walking down by the river that could knock over trees. Amazingly, I found out we have bears that wander through the green belt in downtown Columbia. Who knew?? I've never seen a bear where the rivers converge downtown but I suppose it's possible. It seems the bear population in South Carolina has exploded over the last 15 years. There are now 1500 bears above Hwy. 11 and 600 over by Myrtle Beach in Horry County. They tend to follow the river basins down into the lower part of the state, especially the males at this time of year. Evidently a bear was sighted twenty miles north of me on the Broad River earlier this summer. A bear supposedly made it all the way to Lexington last year, meandered over to Orangeburg, before heading back to North Carolina in the fall. The biologist I spoke with thought I was very fortunate to have had one walk by, but I believe that is a matter of opinion. Just this year eighty bears were harvested during our ten day bear season. That doesn't sound like they knocked a very big dent in the bear population of South Carolina.
The tree incident may have nothing to do with what took the cigarette a week and half ago, or any other time prior to leaving the bigfoot magnet standing up under a plastic cover. My plans are starting to take shape. Bigtex recommended ground cover to get the culprit used to it before I buried the pressure pad for the camera set up that he will be sending shortly for surveillance. I bought a couple of bales of pine straw today to use over by the air conditioner and around the bushes thinking it would look more natural as that is what is used by the landscaper. I can't wait to test out my stealth abilities crawling under the decks dragging my pine straw bales with me as I try to be discreet tomorrow. Bigtex says the sasquatch are a lot smarter than we give them credit for and they must not see me laying out the straw. I'm dubious, but at this point, I think being super cautious can't hurt even if it feels and sounds ridiculous. I'm waiting for the neighbors to go to church before I do this simply because I can't think of a logical explanation for why I would be under their deck, should they discover me there, on my way to my brother's deck. I hope I don't run into a water moccasin in the process.
I took Steve Kull's and Stan Courtney's advice and bought a recorder. I don't think it's going to work for what I want to use it for so I will be taking it back. However, I did try it out and got an extremely loud barred owl call the first night of recording at around 1:30am, so loud that I nearly dropped my coffee cup. I had placed the recorder in one of John's potted plants with the display side down in the pot with the microphone sticking up above the lip of the pot. In my opinion, the bird had to be sitting on the deck for it to have picked up so clearly on the recorder. If it had been in a tree I believe I would have heard it as I sleep with my window open. There was a lot of footsteps which could be the deer herd that comes through here between 10:30pm and midnight. It was either that, or leaves blowing on the deck. I was very pleased at what I could hear on the recorder as I was concerned about the white noise caused by the rushing water of the river. That about sums it up for what I've been doing the past two weeks. The roller coaster highs and lows are a little hard to take but I think if I keep questioning things, rather than connecting dots to other wrong dots, I'm on the right track.
The tree incident may have nothing to do with what took the cigarette a week and half ago, or any other time prior to leaving the bigfoot magnet standing up under a plastic cover. My plans are starting to take shape. Bigtex recommended ground cover to get the culprit used to it before I buried the pressure pad for the camera set up that he will be sending shortly for surveillance. I bought a couple of bales of pine straw today to use over by the air conditioner and around the bushes thinking it would look more natural as that is what is used by the landscaper. I can't wait to test out my stealth abilities crawling under the decks dragging my pine straw bales with me as I try to be discreet tomorrow. Bigtex says the sasquatch are a lot smarter than we give them credit for and they must not see me laying out the straw. I'm dubious, but at this point, I think being super cautious can't hurt even if it feels and sounds ridiculous. I'm waiting for the neighbors to go to church before I do this simply because I can't think of a logical explanation for why I would be under their deck, should they discover me there, on my way to my brother's deck. I hope I don't run into a water moccasin in the process.
I took Steve Kull's and Stan Courtney's advice and bought a recorder. I don't think it's going to work for what I want to use it for so I will be taking it back. However, I did try it out and got an extremely loud barred owl call the first night of recording at around 1:30am, so loud that I nearly dropped my coffee cup. I had placed the recorder in one of John's potted plants with the display side down in the pot with the microphone sticking up above the lip of the pot. In my opinion, the bird had to be sitting on the deck for it to have picked up so clearly on the recorder. If it had been in a tree I believe I would have heard it as I sleep with my window open. There was a lot of footsteps which could be the deer herd that comes through here between 10:30pm and midnight. It was either that, or leaves blowing on the deck. I was very pleased at what I could hear on the recorder as I was concerned about the white noise caused by the rushing water of the river. That about sums it up for what I've been doing the past two weeks. The roller coaster highs and lows are a little hard to take but I think if I keep questioning things, rather than connecting dots to other wrong dots, I'm on the right track.
Making Sense of Nonsense
I've always believed that bigfoot existed because my father had a sighting when he was ten years old and several other family stories, that on hind sight, could be attributed to bigfoot. However, bigfoot was something that existed out in the remote wilderness, my frame of reference for their habitat didn't include urban and suburban areas. Until the last few years, my interest went as far as watching the occasional documentary about bigfoot until I moved to my present home here in South Carolina.
It wasn't too long before it dawned on me that many odd things happen when living on a river. I had never been lucky enough to be able to buy a place on a body of water. I was thrilled to find my condo with the magnificent view of the Broad River on the outskirts of a small city back in 2008. No scenic vacation spot that I have since visited equals what I have in my own backyard. That said, the strangeness begin my first night in my new home.
Do I have proof that bigfoot is behind it all? Does anyone ever? Usually not enough to convince the world, but after the last few years, I do have enough proof to convince myself. There is a small community of researchers and enthusiasts doing their very best to try and prove to mainstream science that this creature exists. Far be it for me to think I can accomplish what no one else has been able to do in decades, but I'm going to give it whirl. I might make an ass of myself in the process but it won't be the first time. We can all have a good laugh at my delusions and epic fails along the way.
Proof began to arrive for me on October 26th, 2011. My brother, who happens to be my neighbor, had been having a visitor that raided his ash tray on his deck for cigarette butts for well over a year. Each time the ash tray was moved, butts were scattered everywhere, and his storage room door would be open. Sometimes a pile of duck down would be left, or beer pull tabs, once a lovely red glass star shaped planter. After he received the beautiful planter this past July, I decided to leave this visitor a whole cigarette. The cigarettes would be missing but you were never certain whether an animal or the weather was responsible.
I continued my game and like clock work every 3-4 weeks, the bait would be taken. The last gift of tobacco was left before we departed for a trip to Pennsylvania to check out our first Bigfoot/UFO conference. This time, I decided to leave our visitor a sign. I placed a bigfoot refrigerator magnet on top of the clear plastic cover over the cigarette. When I checked the offering after we returned, the cigarette was missing, the magnet was placed with a smaller clear plastic cover over it and standing upright. Now I knew without a doubt that an animal or weather was not responsible for taking the bait. Something with fingers arranged the magnet and covered it as the magnet was not designed to stand and was balanced on uneven deck boards. I already suspected that it must be something unusual since the deck is a good six feet off the ground with no ground access. In order to get to the ashtray and storage room door one would have to reach over the air conditioning unit and around through the deck banister to reach the door knob. It just did not seem likely that a human could do this without making a lot noise in the process. Then I found the prints on the beach and along the river on my hike the next Sunday.
So thrilled as I was by all of this, I reached out to some of the researchers in the community for advice. Knowing something with fingers is sneaking up to your deck at night is not very reassuring regardless of who or what it is, at this point it was time to get a little more aggressive. It has taken almost two years for this creature/person to develop a habit for visiting. I don't want to do anything in the process that will scare it off while trying to figure out what he/she/it is exactly. I'll probably only have one shot at this and I have to get it right the first time. I feel like I'm planning to go to war although no weapons will be involved, the only casualty will be trust. I will keep you posted as the project evolves.
The Wednesday after my hike my brother had an unnerving incident shortly after lunch, I had come home but left to go back to work. He went out on his deck a little after 1:00pm to water his plants when he heard stomping and huffing coming up from the river bottom. Then trees began to crash, at this point every dog in the neighborhood is barking. So my brother tried a whoop. The tree smashing stops, he tries another with no result. Next try was an owl call and what or whoever it was returned another owl call in answer as it continued south down the river. It couldn't have made it very far as there is a construction crew rebuilding a bridge south of us. My thought was that our visitor was caught between us and that activity, forced to wait it out until nightfall. At the time this did not occur to me as I raced down to the river bottom to get my pictures of the damage, my proof that none of this was our imagination. The first photo is a suspected footprint found on the game trail, then pics of several broken and damaged trees, followed by what I thought might be a hand print. Then a log that was freshly rolled over. Maybe this creature was looking for termites or grubs, I don' t know. All I can say is these trees were intact when I walked there Sunday, we've had no storms or floods, you be the judge:
It wasn't too long before it dawned on me that many odd things happen when living on a river. I had never been lucky enough to be able to buy a place on a body of water. I was thrilled to find my condo with the magnificent view of the Broad River on the outskirts of a small city back in 2008. No scenic vacation spot that I have since visited equals what I have in my own backyard. That said, the strangeness begin my first night in my new home.
Do I have proof that bigfoot is behind it all? Does anyone ever? Usually not enough to convince the world, but after the last few years, I do have enough proof to convince myself. There is a small community of researchers and enthusiasts doing their very best to try and prove to mainstream science that this creature exists. Far be it for me to think I can accomplish what no one else has been able to do in decades, but I'm going to give it whirl. I might make an ass of myself in the process but it won't be the first time. We can all have a good laugh at my delusions and epic fails along the way.
Proof began to arrive for me on October 26th, 2011. My brother, who happens to be my neighbor, had been having a visitor that raided his ash tray on his deck for cigarette butts for well over a year. Each time the ash tray was moved, butts were scattered everywhere, and his storage room door would be open. Sometimes a pile of duck down would be left, or beer pull tabs, once a lovely red glass star shaped planter. After he received the beautiful planter this past July, I decided to leave this visitor a whole cigarette. The cigarettes would be missing but you were never certain whether an animal or the weather was responsible.
So thrilled as I was by all of this, I reached out to some of the researchers in the community for advice. Knowing something with fingers is sneaking up to your deck at night is not very reassuring regardless of who or what it is, at this point it was time to get a little more aggressive. It has taken almost two years for this creature/person to develop a habit for visiting. I don't want to do anything in the process that will scare it off while trying to figure out what he/she/it is exactly. I'll probably only have one shot at this and I have to get it right the first time. I feel like I'm planning to go to war although no weapons will be involved, the only casualty will be trust. I will keep you posted as the project evolves.
The Wednesday after my hike my brother had an unnerving incident shortly after lunch, I had come home but left to go back to work. He went out on his deck a little after 1:00pm to water his plants when he heard stomping and huffing coming up from the river bottom. Then trees began to crash, at this point every dog in the neighborhood is barking. So my brother tried a whoop. The tree smashing stops, he tries another with no result. Next try was an owl call and what or whoever it was returned another owl call in answer as it continued south down the river. It couldn't have made it very far as there is a construction crew rebuilding a bridge south of us. My thought was that our visitor was caught between us and that activity, forced to wait it out until nightfall. At the time this did not occur to me as I raced down to the river bottom to get my pictures of the damage, my proof that none of this was our imagination. The first photo is a suspected footprint found on the game trail, then pics of several broken and damaged trees, followed by what I thought might be a hand print. Then a log that was freshly rolled over. Maybe this creature was looking for termites or grubs, I don' t know. All I can say is these trees were intact when I walked there Sunday, we've had no storms or floods, you be the judge:
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