Camping and work at Okatibbee

This past Friday and Saturday our environmental club headed over to Okatibbee Reservoir for two days of work and a one night camp out. We got there on Friday between 2:00-2:30 where we met up with Mr. Gary Hardin with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He demonstrated to us the proper ways to check and clean around a bluebird box. The job was to remove any limbs or brush that may be around the blue bird boxes, and also to remove the old nest.

In the steps of doing that; the first thing to do is tap on the box in case there are any flying squirrels in them. That way they don't surprise you when they come out when you open the box. Next we were to cut any branches or brush that may be around the box so the birds will have a clean entrance and exit. Most of the boxes did have old nests in them which gives hope that the blue birds are using the boxes that we replaced last year.

We finished checking the boxes around 4:30 so we set up camp and started a fire. That is a reoccurring theme with this group, fire. While some were getting the fire started others went fishing. Below you see Brad ready to catch a big one. I think Matt was the first to put his line in the water and as soon as he did, he caught a 3 pound bass. The next question he has was "Can we cook it?". Only if you clean it. We settled in and roasted some hot dogs and hot links over the fire, and when Matt finished fishing he cleaned and cooked his fish, then generously shared it with the rest of us.

We sat around the campfire sharing funny stories of all sorts, went for a walk, gazed at the stars, and returned to the campfire for more of Mr. Johnsons' entertainment. He demonstrated the magic of a fiery stick (refer to the pictures). We sat around a had a wonderful time laughing and listening to stories. Finely, 1... 2.... 3... we went to bed, some of us did. The others stayed up and talked for a few more hours. Now let me say; when the temperature is 25 degrees, there is a difference between going to bed and going to sleep. Everyone eventually went to bed, not sure how many actually slept. I did not.

Saturday morning we rambled out of bed, cleaned up, and headed over to Collinsville beach where we met back up with Mr. Gary. This morning they served us hot sausage and biscuits from McDonald's, with some OJ. A good breakfast before work. After students from a local high school came, we all headed over to Cypress Loop where we put out some Christmas trees and tied cement blocks to them. This is to help build fish habitat so the smaller fish can have some shelter. When we finished at Cypress Loop, our group headed back over to Collinsville beach where we put our more trees.

Some where we changed our focus from dragging trees, cement blocks, and tying them on; to putting them in trucks and hauling them closer to the edge so the many high school students would not have as far to drag them. We filled that cove area up pretty fast, so we started hauling them over to a cove north of the boat ramp.

Our first trip across that area proved to be wet (almost left ruts), so I came in about forty yards from there where I had very little problem. That is until I backed up to drop the trees off on the third run. Got just a little stuck, but not bad. With five people pushing, the truck came right out. Not the same case for the guy driving the OTHER truck. A big F-250, 4X4, tried taking the same route I did on my first run, yea the wet area. At first the truck was barely stuck, but that wasn't good enough. He didn't quit until the truck was nearly on the frame. Good laughs!

Well we ate, won some great door prizes donated by local businesses and headed home.

The entire trip was fantastic. Thanks to everyone that was there and a special thanks to Evan James for the pictures.