Well, it was my idea of gentle mudding, but I might have gotten a little carried away. My knee improved a lot overnight, so I decided I’d go for a paddle and check out the low tide. I arrived at the water while the tide was still going out, and hadn’t yet gotten low enough to reveal any good mud. I didn’t want to make the mistake I made yesterday, and arrive late to the party.

Since I was early, I paddled to my more distant spot and picked up trash along the way. After arriving at the mud, I paddled back up the creek to fetch a long piece of timber that was hung up along the bank. I floated that log back to the place I had selected, and dragged it across the mud to a spot where it could reach from one bank to the other.

The log was really long and unwieldy,  so I picked it up over my head and pitched it across the abyss. Did I mention that I might not have been as gentle on my knee as I should have been? Once I had the log in place, I walked across on it, and it broke when I was almost all the way across. Fortunately, the log was long enough that I could still span the gorge with what was left of it. The second time I set out across, it broke on the other end, but I still had just enough to maintain my bridge, and it held my weight the third time I tried to walk across.

I made it the entire way across, but where is the fun in that? I turned around to do it again, and this time I managed to fall into the mud. I climbed back on the log and fell into the mud again, just for good measure. None of this activity was doing my injured knee any good, but it seems to have survived the ordeal.

I got cleaned up and put away my cameras, but there was no sign of the tide coming back in, my knee was holding up alright, and I wasn’t cold, so I returned to my bridge to do some bondage over the mud. At that point, the cameras were off, and I was just enjoying some erotic play time. I explored several different ties before the tide was encroaching on the mud and I knew I had to get back to the office. By that time I was so horny the cold water didn’t even dampen my enthusiasm. I got cleaned up for the second time, and headed back to the office.

So, in a nutshell, I got two mud trips in a row. That was a treat, even though things didn’t go perfectly. I had to go out today, because I was committed for the entire weekend and by Monday the low tide would be moving into late afternoon. The midday sun is just enough to offset the effects of the cool water; later in the day, it can be a challenge to stay warm.

The high water persists, and the mercury is dropping. Starting Tuesday, it’s supposed to clear up and maybe we’ll get a week of dry weather. The way it’s been, I’m not holding my breath.

I went out on the creek on Friday at low tide, and the water was easily 24 centimeters higher than it should have been. Then we got another 2 centimeters of rain on Saturday, and I went back out today (Sunday) for a paddle at low tide, just to see what it looked like. It was similar to Friday; maybe even a little higher because of the recent rainfall. Everything is so saturated now, I’d expect the creek to stay high for several more days, at least.

I’m going to find some mud to play in before winter, even if I have to mix it myself. My biggest fear is that this year is a harbinger of things to come. I know I have had months of frustration in the past with catching a low tide, but this entire year has been very wet and the tides have been really unpredictable. I guess I should be happy that I finished my Making of a Mud Movie movie. It wasn’t easy to get the last couple shots I needed. There were days when I had 20 minutes to shoot before the rising tide covered the mud.

In case anyone is concerned, the storms didn’t really have much impact where I live. We got a lot of rain, but just enough to be a major inconvenience. We didn’t get the flooding that South Carolina got.

I’m going to find somewhere to get muddy while the weather is still mild. I’m really anxious to shoot something awesome, so stay tuned!

The sun came out today for the first time in a week. Sadly, the forecast is for rain the rest of the week. With the higher than usual tides caused by the closer than usual moon, and all the rain we’ve been having, I’m afraid it will be at least two more weeks before I’ll be able to go mudding in the swamp. I may do something in the back yard when it stops raining long enough.

Recently, I renewed my ambition to create a deep mud pit in the woods behind my house. This has been a rainy summer, so the ground has been super saturated. While poking around, I found a spot where the ground beneath the tree roots is spongy. I’m hoping I can dig deep enough to make it interesting, and back-fill the hole with peat and maybe some sawdust. I would love to have a pit where I can go completely under with little to no effort.

This has been a slow mud year. I hope everyone is doing well. I finished my first draft of my making of a mud movie, movie. I’m trying to figure out the sound track, then I’ll have to release it. My biggest problem is I still don’t know how to release it. I lost a major source of income, so I hate to give away a fine piece of work, but I really want lots of people to see it, and that means I’ll have to give it away. I’ve considered giving away a low resolution version and selling the full resolution version. That didn’t work well when I tried it in the past, and Clips4Sale is not an efficient way to handle donations, since they keep 40%.

Stay tuned. I’ll have to work on something this week. I won’t be able to shoot because it will be raining, nonstop. Thanks for dropping by. Sorry there isn’t much going on.

This picture is the epitome of the past few weeks, for me. If we’re not getting a deluge that floods the creek for days, we’re getting showers almost daily that make shooting nearly impossible.

Apparently, the moon is not passing directly overhead, so our tides are just lame. I haven’t actually looked at the moon, lately; mostly because it’s been too cloudy. However, our tides are separated by 40 minutes day-to-day, rather than the normal, which is closer to 50 minutes.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I’m going to venture out on the creek this afternoon to see if the tide is low enough to expose some good mud. If you don’t hear from me, soon, it means; a) I got rained out or the low tide was pathetic [again], or b) I got eaten by an alligator, finally.

I chased an alligator up the creek the last time I was out. It kept going under and resurfacing, but it left a trail of bubbles when it went under, so I was able to paddle along with it. I shot some GoPro video every time the alligator surfaced, but the wide angle lens on the GoPro makes it almost useless for anything more than 10 feet away. I got really close to it, once, but as soon as it realized it was surfacing a few feet from me, it did a 180, kicked up some major turbulence  in the water, and disappeared. It was a pretty good sized gator.

Oh well. Wish me luck for this afternoon. If I get some mud and don’t get eaten, I’ll have an update!