Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Swamp-noeing... a Perk of Living by a Swamp

So I've shared before, we live next to a swamp:)  Brian calls it wetlands... sounds a little better!! It's actually a part of our property so we affectionately call it "our swamp"... although we are totally aware that it doesn't actually belong to us;) We can "pretend", right?

We've had tons of fun wildlife here; turtles laying eggs, egrets, hawks, green tree frogs, lizards, love the hummingbirds and the dragonflies that are our constant companions!! They follow us everywhere and keep an eye on us:)

At the end of August, Grammie brought us a canoe. This canoe actually has a LOT of history in our family.... from giving away my brother's secret window escapes to being followed by our pet duck when my mom would canoe a creek where we grew up.

We were excited to finally explore our swamp in the canoe and see what was really back there;)
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Brian and Grammie took the "maiden voyage" in the canoe... just in case began to leak:) Not sure what they would have done if it had, maybe paddled harder to the shore;) ha hahaa
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They had a watchful audience from the woods. Watching every move. Calling out when they couldn't see them through the wetlands foliage! Waiting their turn!
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They came back safe and dry... so brave Grammie took out a few of the kiddos to teach to paddle and explore.
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And then Brian took two more kids into the back of the swamp.
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Even Nate and I got out there for a bit!! When he got in the canoe, Nate was very leery. But once he was away from the shore, he loved it!

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Once we got through some of the limbs, little islands and trees... it was gorgeous out there!! One part opens up and it is lined with Cyprus trees:) It had a Cyprus Gardens feel minus the alligators:) Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to waterproof my camera so I could take some pictures... they would be fun to have in the house!!

Brian went out again with Lydia and Grammie.... and they found some water snakes... a BIG one:) Ewww! And Brian brought all of is out to see the beaver dam... we had seen him a few times. And now we know why we have a swamp:)

Just another perk to living next to the swamp... I mean wetlands!!

Oh and if your wondering we do have mosquitoes but not as bad as some areas of our county that aren't as close to water as we are. I really think the dragonflies, all the different birds and family of bats that  zoom over our head at night helps with the mosquito issue:)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome!! I love kayaking and nature!!

Unknown said...

Awesome!! I love kayaking and nature!! I'm sure you all had fun

Jenny said...

I was thinking about the bugs, but I'm sure the bats take really good care of them! How cool that you live in such a neat place!