Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

I was thinking more about what there is to see in the ocean (in the proper places) compared to a deep lake. Kelp, pretty colored fish, etc. Once you are under in the ocean you aren't affected by the wave action though you do need to be mindful of rip currents if they occur in the area. Best to just avoid those places!

My dive in the lake was on the General Bulter - a sail powered canal boat that went down in 35' of water 300' outside the Burlington breakwater Dec 9, 1876 when the steering failed. All 4 aboard made it to the breakwater (boat probably struck it then floated a distance while sinking) and were rescued. It wasn't discovered until 1980, though I'm sure in the late 1800's plenty of people could tell you where it went down. The fact that the wreck wasn't discovered for so long tells you how NOT clear the water is. You can't see much of the G.B until you are almost on it and then only a small amount at a time. I think it was found via sonar searches. There a plenty of Revolutionary War and later wrecks in the lake.

 

[greybeard]

I was thinking more about what there is to see in the ocean

Ships...lots of old ships.
"There are far more ships at the bottom of the ocean than there are sailing on the surface of the ocean."

yo ho ho it's a pirate's life for me.....

 

[greybeard]

in a large body of water 90% of the fish are only in 10% of the water....

Sometimes. On a volume to volume comparison, it certainly be true. IOW, the water any fish displaces by it's own presence is pretty small compared to the size of the whole body of water. Multiply that cubic volume of displacement by the total volumetric size and numbers of fish and it's still relatively small compared to the acre/ft of the lake.

It's much like saying 90% of the world's birds spend their time in less than 10% of the air. Of course they do..there's trillions of cubic feet of air in the atmosphere and really not all that many birds comparatively.

Same with crawling/jumping insects compared to total land mass.
All 3.5 million Americans can fit in a 3.5 mile x 3.5 mile square and all 7.3 billion of the Earth's population will fit in a 16.8mi x 16.8mi square. That is a square smaller then NYC.
Yep, the entire human race will fit in that tiny square but they wouldn't stay there.


However, it is also a proven fact that in any large body of water, fish spend 90% of their time in open water and only 10% of their time in the shallows where cover is (and where their small prey is) and exactly where the catchable (bigger) fish are going to be is dependent day to day on different conditions..and time of day.

The reality is, that the easy to catch fish are in 10% of the water, where 10% of the fishermen congregate to catch 90% of them.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Hope the weather doesn't hammer ya up there....
Are they calling for any rough stuff to affect ya?

 

[Bruce]

Nah, it is going south of us. Not much south, but enough that we will get < 1" of snow if any at all.

Not much going on here, I've been posting little things on other's journals when appropriate. I did get the gas trimmer out and start clearing the old rusty chicken wire fence around the pond. Can't get the rusty wire and rotted wood out if I can't get to it I want to collect all the old metal I find on the place so I have 1 trip to the recyclers. And I keep finding more. DW and I tromped around the perimeter of the fields on our snow shoes a few weeks back (when we had snow) and I spotted some rolled up field fence just past the NW corner of the fields. Couldn't get it out since it was frozen into the ground. Also found more old hot wire and pulled what I could but again some frozen in.

I went back out last week after the snow left and it had been above freezing some. Still couldn't get the old field fencing free but found even more junk. Looks like part of a metal bed frame with some springs, some small pieces of fencing, a rusty milk can (~5 gallon??) some really old rusty barbed wire. I got most of that out but the milk can and the BW, it is really brittle and breaks off rather than pulling out of the ground where is was frozen in. So I have to go back when it warms up even more. Of course that also means it will be soggier getting there. I did get (I THINK!!!) all of the old hot wire free. But then I've thought that a couple of times already.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Glad to hear it isn't bringing ya grief to deal with. We pick up shards of glass eveywhere around here....I think in the past somebody used glass bottles and stuff to shoot for targets. It seems when we have heavy rains there is more brought to the surface or is uncovered with the water washing out the mole/vole tunnels.....

 

[Mike CHS]

Once we get the bulk of the junk we are currently working on getting rid of I'm going to fence around the ditch to keep the sheep out of it. No end to the broken glass.

 

[Baymule]

Our place was covered with trash too. Old trash and new trash, the people this was repo'd from never had trash service and threw everything out on the place. No wonder they couldn't pay the mortgage with all the beer bottles and beer cans laying around. The old trash is from probably 50-60 years ago and is mostly glass shards and metal bits.

Good luck Bruce on getting all you can get picked up and cleaned up. In times past, it was acceptable to have a burn barrel and dump it out on the property. It was acceptable to fill in holes and gullies with all manner of trash and cast offs. The problem now is, we don't want trash on our property and we work hard to clean it up. We politely offer a coffee can to people who smoke to put their butts in.

 

[greybeard]

In times past, it was acceptable to have a burn barrel and dump it out on the property.

I still have one and use it a couple times/week. The problems arise when people burn types of plastic that will only melt or don't tend their trash fires and it doesn't burn completely and they end up dumping out partially unburned raw wet garbage on the ground. I've been using the same drum for nearly 2 years now and it still isn't 1/2 full of ashes. Glass and metal go to the county compactor so they can bury it in a big hole for the garbage to become leachate to get into the ground water for future generations to deal with in spite of what they may claim. Liners, do not have a 'forever impermeable' life. EPA will tell you the same thing.

I've been on lots of farms and ranches from here to West and South Texas and don't personally know of a single one that doesn't burn their own household garbage and much if not all their farm related garbage.

 

[Bruce]

Burning trash wasn't such a big problem before plastics and styrofoam were invented. Now there is a WHOLE lot of stuff that shouldn't be burned but some folks just don't care.