Otter Creek fishing...no luck, but fun.

Kentucky fishing licenses expire at the end of February, so I decided to take mine out for one last spin yesterday.  I went to Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area, since it had been a very long time since I had been out there, and it’s one of my favorite spots to be outdoors.

I parked at the end of the road that leads down to the area near the Blue Hole, and hike from there. I headed downstream first, and fished in spots I could get down to the water. The banks were steep and slick with mud, so I had to find gullies that I could descend through and gravel bars to fish from.  Fortunately, there are quite a few of those.

The first spot I fished in, I got a couple of good hits on a spinner.  The second hit, I could see the fish in the water, thrashing; it looked great, certainly a respectable size fish, but it threw the hook.

The first spot I fished

After that, nothing. I fished as far down as the old stone remains of a mill, which was a beautiful spot to fish, but there was nothing doing.  It was hard to decide between changing lures or moving to a different spot, but since fish had hit my white spinner, I stuck with that, and occasionally switched to a second rod that had a cream-colored curly tail jig.

In the mill ruins

This time of year, one is likely to only catch trout or smallmouth in a creek like that (the trout are stocked). However, there are plenty of spots that would be good in the future to look for largemouth, catfish, and various species of sunfish. There were lots of nice little pools alternating with rocky riffles.

At one point as I was walking, I saw four deer standing in the creek ahead. I moved as close as I could, taking pictures, before they bounded off.  The deer were still far away and hard to make out in the photo, so I circled them in red.

White tail deer



At mid-afternoon, I moved to the old boat ramp area on the Ohio River. I baited up with some chicken livers, thinking that a couple of days of milder weather and sunshine might have prompted some channel catfish to move in shallower to feed, but I had no bites.

It was a nice place to hang out, though.  From that spot, one can see five or six miles of river.

I spent quite a bit of time watching the Indiana side. Upstream, on the opposite bank more than a half mile away, I could see two people.  They were tiny dots, and they were there the whole time I was. I tried to figure out what they were doing. They were climbing up and down the bank, walking all around.  At first I thought that maybe they were playing with a dog that was just too small to see, because their wandering around was just like the behavior of someone outdoors with a dog. However, I don’t think they had a dog.  Maybe they were looking around for artifacts washed from the bank, or collecting driftwood.

A tug, the Donna Rushing, came dramatically into view pushing 24 barges around the upriver bend, and I watched it get farther and farther away. Miles downstream, I could see another one, tiny with distance, approaching, but I left before it drew near.

The Ohio River, near the boat ramp. I've painted down here a few times, too.

Bed and Breakfast - black and white drawing

 Here is the small house portrait I completed last week. It's 6 x 9 inches.  It's a bed and breakfast, and the business owner wanted a horse featured, since the area used to be a horse farm (and home to a Kentucky Derby winner.)

Sepia cowboy

Books

 

 

I recently finished "Shades of Grey" by Jasper Fforde, which I borrowed from my brother.  I was not sure what to expect from it. He had described it to me, and I had read the book jacket, so I knew it was a strange, somewhat comedic story set in a the far future when a person's social standing is determined by what colors he or she can see (everyone, it seems, has some degree of colorblindness.) 

 

Kevin had been recommending the book to me for years, and I'm glad I finally read it, because I really enjoyed it.  It was very strange and imaginative, yet at the same time grounded in recognizable details of daily existence. 

 

There are two more as-yet-unwritten books planned in the series, and I look forward to them.  I guess I should also try Fforde's other books; Kevin likes them, too, and so does my friend Loraine.

 

I am now reading "A Feast for Crows," the fourth book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin.  I'm almost half way through it, and I can see why most people think it's the weakest book of the five books so far written (two more are planned).  Yet I am still quite enjoying it. 

 

It fun the way Martin takes what is on its face a clichéd-sounding fantasy story scenario (huge fictional Medieval-style kingdom full of conspiring nobles who go to war with one another, paying little attention to the silly tales they hear of an ancient evil coming back to haunt them, while meanwhile a young princess across the sea marshalls a barbarian army…etc etc.) and then populates that story with interesting, believable humans.  I think that's the central conceit of the story: What if a typical sprawling epic fantasy didn't have real heroes and villains, but instead had the sort of people that existed in Europe a thousand years ago?  Which is to say, there is a lot of death and dismemberment, bad mistakes, horrifying predicaments, and brutality. 

 

There isn't much magic, and some of the humans are worse than what few monsters show up.  It's pretty grim, but there are still sympathetic characters that I root for and hope will make it to the end, and even many of the bad guys become more understandable as they are fleshed out.

Stolen artwork -- recovered!

One of the owners of The Comfy Cow called me today to say that a lady had called him to say she had my drawing that was stolen last February. He gave me her name and phone number.

 

This evening I called her, and then went to her apartment near the river in New Albany.  She gave me my drawing, in great shape and undamaged except for some stains on the backing board of the frame.

 

She told me that up until the middle of last summer, there had been some teens, eighteen or nineteen years old, living in the apartment behind hers (She didn't say so, but I think she meant it was a boyfriend/girlfriend).  Last June they had a big fight, and the place was trashed.

 

The landlord told this lady that he would knock off some of her rent in return for her going over to this apartment to clean it out. She found my drawing on the wall there, liked it, and hung it up in her apartment.

 

Then, yesterday, she and her roommate were watching "Antiques Road Show" and saw them discussing artwork appraisal.  They looked at my drawing on their wall and wondered if it was worth anything.  My name is on the drawing, so they Googled me and found my web site, on which I have the drawing listed as stolen with a request to contact The Comfy Cow with information.

 

So she called The Comfy Cow.

 

I am very grateful to her and to the owners of The Comfy Cow; I never expected to get the drawing back, especially now that a year has passed.

 

 

Winter croquet

It's been goshawful cold this past week, but just before the current cold spell set in -- and after things had dried out from several days of rain -- we were able to break out the croquet set the girls got for Christmas.

I tried to set up the stakes and wickets at the distance noted on our rules sheet, but our back yard wasn't quite wide enough.  It was only short by a few feet, really. However, I think next time I can make it appreciably smaller just to make things a little less demanding on small-framed croquet beginners. It took quite a lot of poorly aimed whacking to get the balls around the whole circuit.  The unanimous verdict, however, was "Fun!"

January hike

I'd been wanting to for a couple of months, and finally yesterday I was able to get out to explore a rather secluded wooded area here in Jefferson County.  I was hoping to find some old house or building sites for metal detecting, but I also really just wanted to hike in the woods.

The woods are large enough that I had to hurry to get to my goal (a structure I could see in satellite photos, on a ridge far from the road) and back to the car in three hours.  I only saw a fraction of the area.  There was no real danger of getting lost, since I knew from maps what I would run into in any direction, and there's a creek that runs through the middle that leads right back to the road near my car. However, once in the woods, it was hard to figure out exactly where I was or where I was in relation to the structure I was looking for.

I finally found it--I'll probably post a photo of it later--and there wasn't much to it. It looked like an unfinished building foundation, post-1970.  I think there are other very old building foundations or cellar holes nearby, but I didn't spot them; by the time I got to the area, I was getting tired and I knew I had to turn around to head back.

I used trails as much as I could, but I also headed directly though the woods every once in a while. There were ATV trails as well as poorly defined trails that looked like there were made more by deer than humans. The edges of the woodland were a tangle of weeds and thorns that were a little hard to navigate, but once I got a little farther in the understory was open and easy to traverse.  After the heavy rains of last week, the spring-fed stream that ran through the middle was noisy and pretty, but still small enough to hop across (there were a few pools that looked like they might even be big enough to hold catchable fish, although I don't know if the water level stays high enough.

There were deer hoof prints everywhere I looked. A few sandhill cranes flew over while I was out, but I never saw another human.

Foods Mark doesn’t like to eat:

Last year my blog post quantity dropped quite a bit. I’m not sure why. For 2013, I will work harder at writing about more things that don’t matter and no one cares much about, just because, dammit, I have made a commitment. Even though I actually haven’t made a commitment.

There aren’t many foods I don’t have any interest in, and even fewer that I truly dislike. And I’m not talking about things that are actually bad—poorly cooked food, things that aren’t actually food, etc.  I’m talking about foods that are commonly bought or cooked or served around here.

It’s actually hard for me to think of things to put on this list. Here are a few:

Eggplant: I’ve rarely had eggplant, and I can eat it, and I actually don’t mind eating it too much. However, eggplants themselves sort of weird me out.  They are purple and look squishy, and I just don’t trust them for some reason.  I don’t think I would ever intentionally order an eggplant dish, and would only eat an eggplant dish if it ended up being set in front of me and there just weren’t any other polite options.

Semi-wet chicken dishes: I like baked, fried, and grilled chicken. I also like chicken in soups or stews. However, there is a disappointing category of chicken dishes right in between those. I’m talking about baked chicken dishes that have a heavy sauce, in which you have a chicken breast that is all wet and slimy, sort of sitting in a puddle.  In these dishes, the sauce is always flavorful but runny, and the chicken itself has an unpleasant texture and not a lot of flavor.  I can eat this, but I can never figure out why someone would choose to fix chicken like this when there are other methods.

Overly earthy bread: As the years have passed, we’ve moved to increasingly healthy bread, with varied whole grains and less sugar. I’m fine with it, even though I do usually enjoy lighter breads more. A few times, though, we have had some brand of bread (and I can’t remember what brand it was) that I swear had twigs and gravel in it. Too far. Yuck.

Some internal organs and parts: I think I’d be willing to try most of the ones that people often cook and serve, like kidney and liver, and maybe even heart and tongue. I wouldn’t be excited about the chance, but I’d try it just to see if I like it, if the opportunity arose. However, pig brains and pig feet will never be on my list of potential candidates.  There are probably other things like that, but I’m not going to spend time trying to think of them.

I guess that’s about it. Maybe I’ll think of something else later.

Mural section - completed

 Last night I finished this first section of the wall. This is an art & craft area of a children's play room.  The next section will feature a large tree.

More work on the mural

I worked on the glue bottle today, and it is mostly done.

Mural progress

I worked on the mural for a few more hours last night. The Crayola box is pretty much done; I am pleased with it.

Year's end

 I haven't blogged much lately. I've either been too busy, or not had a lot to say--but mostly, too busy.

The girls have been taking music lessons, and the first photo comes from the night of a piano recital. There were some fine refreshments.

Christmas was great. Kim and I spent so much time trying to get stuff done and, like every year, we were up very late wrapping gifts and cleaning. This year we actually got done before 3:00 a.m. (though not by much), which I'm not sure we've managed before. The girls had a lot of fun on Christmas day, and I really enjoyed family coming over. By the time Christmas morning arrived, all the hard work was done, and we mostly hung out all day long. It was very pleasant.

There was a tiny bit of snow Christmas night, but we didn't get anything worthwhile until the 28th. We got just about three inches at our house, enough for some front yard sledding and snowman building. Also, snow penguin building.

Three and two

Mural work in progress

The green "grass" was already there.

Parking lot fog

Yesterday morning

At the game

We had to look down between our feet to watch the game, but at half time we were able to move much closer.

Squirrels!

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Thumbnail sketch

 Preparing for another house portrait...

Site-hunting

Once again, I’ve been spending some time cross-referencing features on an old map, satellite photos of the same area as it exists today, and a park map.  I’m looking for places to metal detect, but the detective work involved itself is lots of fun for me.

The area I’m looking at is near the old farm buildings in my last post. The 1879 map, of which I show one close-up here, shows four different home sites in the woods. I think either A or B closely corresponds with the bird’s-eye view below it, in which you can see some kind of building remains in the trees.

 Here's is a broader view of the area, on which I drew a circle around the location of the site above. I think the house sites for A. Drescher, Stephen Jones, and W. Ellingsworth are close by in the trees south of the circle.

I really want to check out this area, and plan to go as soon as I get the chance. It won't be quick: this spot is about a mile through the woods from my parking spot to the southwest. It's hard to find the time. I have two art projects, plus Christmas planning, and family weekend events. I also need to clean the gutters, clean the house, and finish off the mowing and raking for the year. I'd love to go out there this weekend while the weather is decent...we'll see.

edited to add: I just realized I drew the orange circle in the wrong spot, a little too far NE.

Old Farm

Here are some snapshots of the old farm area I was poking around in recently. I metal detected there for a short while one day, and went back and poked around the place with my friend Gregg on another day.

Metal detecting, I only found aluminum cans, nails, and a hunk of melted lead.  It's one of those situations in which I feel there must be some interesting stuff there, but there is so much junk in the ground that hunting for it is very frustrating.  There are lots of cans, and also coal, which often makes my detector ring.  Also, it has the problem that I've often encountered in farm fields: much of the ground just seems to make the detector ring for no reason at all, like it's heavily mineralized, or full of buckshot, or something.

There are a number of small ponds on the property, but I don't think it's likely they hold fish--they are small and mossy (mossy in the summer, at least.)  However, I haven't found all the ponds yet, and there are barns and other structures I haven't looked at, including shomething that shows up in satellite photos that might be some kind of dam or mill spot on a nearby creek.  There are also lots of woods and fields, and I'm interested in going back to explore some more before it's developed into the new parkland.

The tobacco hanging in the barn wasn't there the first time I visited, or at least, I'm pretty sure it wasn't.  Gregg and I tried to figure out whether it was still good. Much of it was extremely dry and crumbly, more desiccated than we thought would be useful, so I don't know if anyone is coming back for it. I'm completely ignorant of tobacco farming.

Marina on the Ohio River - pen & ink

 

Here is the last of the house drawings I've been working on for the same customer (the first they got through a charity auction bid, and after that they asked me for three more.)  I had to get the last three done by Thanksgiving, and I made it just under the wire.  This was finished last Friday night, and I delivered them yesterday.

They wanted the marina side of the house drawn, which presented a bit of a challenge: How do I make it a house drawing, but still do justice to the great view of all the boats?  Well, I had already done the front side of the house in an earlier drawing (the back of the house is towards the marina.)  I felt that freed me up a little to make the boats more dominant, but I still wanted the house clearly visible and to stand out a bit, even if it was in more of a backing role.

I find that each drawing presents its own set of challenges and tough decisions. There were plenty in this one, but the two that seemed to stand out the most to me were how to handle the water (consistent, flat pen strokes to emphasize the plane, or more varied strokes to give more of a sense of "shimmer" and shifting light? And, how do I shade the large white areas of the boats?

This drawing is 11 x 15 inches, drawn with .05 and .1 Sakura Pigma Microns, a .1 Staedtler Pigmentliner, and a .03 Copic Multiliner.

This might also be the first pen and ink drawing in which I used a straight edge for a notable portion of the inking. I used one to get straight lines on the rigging.

Games

 

 

I have too many hobbies. To make matters worse, my brain always seems to be trying to add more to the list. I don't have the time or money, really, to treat even one hobby with the attention it deserves.

 

Fortunately, they take turns rotating to the front of my brain. Metal detecting is always floating just off to the side, waiting to jump on an opportunity, but it's not an obsession right now. Coin collecting mostly stays on a back burner, where I stir it and watch it but mostly keep it out of the way until later. Gardening has been at a lull for quite a while now.

 

The thing that is stuck out in front right now is board games.  I don't even play games!  I've always had an interest in challenging games (ones that involve strategy and planning and interaction). Yet I rarely play them, except with my daughters, and they aren't quite at my game level yet (though they are rapidly getting closer).  This is mostly due to a lack of time.

 

Probably the main reason I've been thinking a lot about games lately is that I've been listening to podcasts of The Dice Tower (http://www.thedicetower.com/) and some affiliate shows, in which people just sit around and talk about games (game reviews, game mechanics, game aesthetics, theories, anecdotes).  Over the past few weeks I have spent many nights up late working on my sort-of-hobby, sort-of-profession of ink drawings. While doing this, I've alternated between listening to the BBC World Service and The Dice Tower podcasts.

 

It has really whetted my appetite for obtaining and playing more games.  It sounds like the well-reviewed train-themed game Ticket To Ride is a popular game for playing with friends and families who aren't really into lots of board games, so that is on my very short list; it might be a good one to try to break out with various family and friends when we get the chance.

 

I'm also very interested in Pandemic, a cooperative game (in which the players, instead of playing against one another, are working together to try to beat the game); X-Wing Miniatures, a Star Wars space combat game that a lot of people seem to like; various war games such as Julius Caesar; Tichu, a card game that my friend Travis said he and his friends are getting a lot of mileage out of; Carcassone, a tile-laying game that we played with the Sparkses and which I really enjoyed; and there are a lot more.

 

I think I'll focus on setting aside a little more time to play, and  plan on very slowly building up my game collection (many of these games are fairly expensive, with $40-60 being the typical range for new store-bought boxes).

 

Fortunately, some of this itch is scratched by occasional, irregular roleplaying game nights with friends.

Two more houses

 

 These are 11 x 15 inches. These are the first two of three for the same customer; I am working on the third and plan to have it done this week, if I can keep my eyes propped open with toothpicks while I work late at night!