THE Random Chat Thread - AKA "The RCT" - No shirt or shoes required - Open 24 / 7

Morning folks
Hope the warm sun heals what ails you this fine day.
Got the annual plant sale at the local high school.
Maybe I will see what they have there for the gardens.
 

pepperj said:
Oh you guilt stricken lass. Bet you have your little pinkie toes crossed when you wrote that. 🤣
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Ha!!! Indeed i do 😆 xx highly recommended you buy all the pretty plants Peps!! 😆 xx another Iris for inspiration…. 😍



IMG_7002.jpeg
 

Hand made bahamian finch trap. They used these to catch finches and cardinals that were sold to passing ships. Most of it is there even though it was crushed from being buried. This would date to the early 1900s
 

Blak bart said:
Hand made bahamian finch trap. They used these to catch finches and cardinals that were sold to passing ships. Most of it is there even though it was crushed from being buried. This would date to the early 1900s
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I love the info that I gain on this site. I had no idea about finch traps. Very interesting fact. Thanks B Bart👍🏼
 

Mackaydon said:
Mornin' all,
The sun finally came out in Southern California.
I feel elated, just like Noah must have felf when he opened the Ark after 40 days and finally seeing the sun.
Don in (sunny) SoCal
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Almost makes ya want to go for a swim /soak don't it?
:laughing7:

Quite dry here. For May , surprisingly dry. I don't recall the last rain....been a while though.
The smell is almost dry hay outside. The loud scent from the Russian/Autumn olive in the distance letting up a little and the dry grasses and such's scent getting through.

Might go mow on the hunting property later. Lots of Russian olive out there. Bees should be on it by now.
A dozen or less miles away but another world in terms of soil and ecoclines.
Only mowing to reduce warm season grasses seed vitality on paths and one small area of open ground near my rye patch to encourage native and volunteer forbs more..
 

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So now we are not allowed to bring conch meat home from the bahamas. We are allowed to bring the shells home though. I was able to get some real gem quality shells.....heres how it works now for me.

Locate the shallow beds where the young just formed conchs live, find the big ones in there prime, and dive them up. Most times it's just shallow water wading/snorkeling. Freeze them solid in my bait freezer for a couple days. Next let them completely thaw out, and gently remove the conch. Clean, skin, and prepare the conch for dinner. At this point the shell is 100 percent clean on the inside, and the shell is ready dry in the sun. A few days kills the grass on the outside, and the shell can be rinsed and the inside can be oiled and waxed. Now it's ready for sale. The hard part is getting it back to the states without chipping it or damaging it !! The big ones from the deep dives very rarely are this perfect, and are often worn or damaged from the reef. The key to collector quality specimans is to get them from the soft grass beds before they migrate to the deep. The one I pictured is probably an A++ quality piece with only the most minor of defects, and a prime speciman.....the only higher rating is A+++.
The serious collectors will be in a bidding war for this type of quality.....not sure how high the price will go for these, but 100$ a piece is possible for a large fully developed and protected A++ queen like this !!.....even higher if it is deemed an A+++ !!
 

These are a few of the better shells my wife found last week at St. Pete. She found dozens of other very nice shells as well. Another crazy shell collector. No Queen Conchs but the Junonia shell is very rare. Me, I sit under an umbrella reading and enjoying the dozens of cute butt flossies walking around.
Screenshot_20230527_103933_Photos.jpg
 

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