Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Party Boat

One of the nice things about GTMO is the MWR Marina. You can rent the GTMO Queen for next to nothing and have a splendid party. The view is not half bad either.





Friday, April 17, 2009

Stub

Notice something missing?

This is Stub. Yes, that's really her name. She hangs out at Marine Hill where Jerry works. I see her almost everyday. Someone ran over her tail a few years back.


She's normally laying in the grass, in the middle of the road, or under someone's car. You would think she would learn, but no. 


She's giving me attitude now. Shaking her head at me and telling me to back off.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sunday Stroll

Here is our debut walk with Nala's backpack. Dogs wearing backpacks have a job and will act less crazy.

Normally Nala would pull until she passed out. Wearing the pack actually worked and she was pleasant to walk. She carried her own water and bowl. Look how proud she is.





This is a Pygmy Owl. They are really small. About the size of a dove.


While walking back to the house we saw a group of buzzards off in the grass. Jerry being the male that he is had to go and investigate. This is about a 7 foot boa. A tasty treat for the buzzards.


It's defiantly spring in GTMO. Even though it's very dry these wild trees have started to bloom and my sneezing has begun.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Antique Bottle Hunt

There are areas in GTMO where antique bottles wash up on shore and get buried in the mud. Many residents spend every weekend hunting for such bottles. We have been here almost a year and have never gone. It was high time to find out what all the fuss was about. 



These are dead Mangroves. I had lots of luck finding bottles in this area. I had to get out my stick and dig them up.


Every now and then there would be one right on the surface.



I love this piece of coral. It looks like brains. And look, an old Cuban beer bottle sitting right next to it. Lucky me. 


I have never seen a cactus like this. It was so strange. It looked like a weird tree. Anyone know what it's called?

Yikes, a giant termite mound. I have only seen one of these. It was on National Geographic. You know the one. Where the villagers knock over the giant termite mound and start grabbing the termites and biting off their heads.  Tastes like chicken. I like chicken but will pass on this mound. 


I hit the jackpot with this bottle. We were walking back to the car and I saw just a speck of purple sticking out of the mud. It was in an area with lots of broken purple glass. I almost walked right past it but something told me to stop and investigate. I began to dig it up and was delighted to find a perfectly intact purple bottle. With the help of Google I learned that this bottle did not begin its life purple. Apparently, manganese was added to glass to make it clear. Over several decades and exposure to the sun the bottle becomes more and more purple. Purple glass is very desirable among collectors. For those of you scratching your heads manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It also has the atomic number 25. 


I could really use some help from my readers. On the bottom of my bottle are the initials ET. I have done several searches and google has really let me down.  I can't find this company anywhere. The bottle has air bubbles in the glass and the seam where the glass is fused together does not go all the way to the top. I have been told this helps you date the bottle. Everyone seems to think it's old. 

We found about 30 antique bottles on this hunt. I will post pictures when I get off my lazy bum and clean them up.