Birding, Fishing, and Getting ready for our First Show of the Year

The last week in January has been crazy busy as we are preparing for our first show of the year. Still we found time to go birding in Lamar and fishing on the south jetty in Port Aransas.

Renita and I finished cleaning the dust and tarnish off of our sterling silver jewelry. Its really easy as we use some basic chemistry. Its summed up in the metal activity series, but I will forego an explanation. The solution we use is 1/2 cup baking soda, one tablespoon salt, stirred in a glass container in really hot water, (you can clean a single piece of silver in a coffee mug with a tablespoon of baking soda, a /14 teaspoon of salt, NaCl and a piece of scratched aluminum foil).

Then we submerge a piece of aluminum in the bottom of the glass container after we have roughed up the surface with a piece of course sandpaper. Finally, we place each piece in the solution making sure that the silver touches the aluminum plate.

It happens really quick as the sulfur tarnish is removed off the surface and redeposited on the aluminum. If you use this be careful if the gem contains copper minerals and don’t use the solution if your jewelry contains several different metals, (it has no effect on gold- or gold-filled wire). It only takes about two hours to clean all of our jewelry pieces, but the rest of the day is taken in replacing all the price tags.

It’s always a good day when you go birding to Lamar. It’s only a ten-minute drive and we can usually spot whooping cranes. That day was no exception. The usual black bellied whistling ducks, rosette spoonbills, redheads, and sandhill cranes also dominated the area.

We didn’t see anything unusual and did not spot any night crowned herons, but the whoopers were really close, (do you see all four), and any day you see this endangered species is a special day.

Dave, from an earlier post, asked Terry and I if we wanted to go fishing with him at the south Jetty in Port Aransas. Finding a great parking space, we began the trudge to the fishing spot. If you ever walk out on the jetty, its really dangerous when wet so be sure to watch out for dark wet spots as many people are injured when they slip on them.

We got to our spot and the fishing left a lot to be desired. It was still fun watching the huge ships pass through the channel. There were also several dolphins and green sea turtles who seemed to be a little slow with the cold temperatures. The fish did not cooperate, and we left with only one keeper, a seventeen-inch sheepshead.

Tomorrow we set up in our rv park hall and so it will be an early day. It’s a good practice show for our multiday shows and lets us inventory what we need to make for the summer. I always wonder why time flies by so fast and we are both amazed how we ever had time to work. If only we had retired earlier!

Clear skies