Well, I went out today, in hopes of catching a low tide, but the tide never got low enough for mudding. I was determined to enjoy my time on the water, so I paddled a few miles and did some exploring. I got wet, I got a little dirty, and I found a tiny creek that looked really cool. It’s too bad it didn’t have some mud nearby. I didn’t have a still camera with me; I was traveling light. I did have my small video camera, so I shot some video while I was exploring. The still frames here were taken from the video. Doesn’t the location look cool? Too bad there was no quicksand to be found there.
Changes to come
I’ve been researching plug-ins for making a WordPress blog (like this one) private. Just so you all aren’t too shocked, I’m warning you, now, that I might try out various privacy features here, just to experiment. I find the idea of having a members-only blog somewhat intriguing (remember when there were perks for patrons?). I’d have to make some changes around here, again, for that to be practical. So, for now, if you find yourself having to log in, or being locked out (if you have no log-in), don’t panic, it is only temporary. If you have a log-in, please try to log in, and let me know if you have trouble. Otherwise, there would be no benefit to the experiment! (The old contact form on the main site still works to send me messages.)
I’d also like to know if you members would be more likely to post your own stuff if the blog were a members only blog?
On a completely unrelated note: I should be releasing another movie soon. I’ve had a lull in production due to weather and seasonal tide variations. I should be shooting a few more movies before the end of the season. Then there may be another, long lull. Especially the way our winters have been the last couple of years. Decembers have been particularly harsh.
Categories: What about the Community?
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New users…
I temporarily suspended the user registration feature, as I’ve had a few suspicious registrations the last couple of days. For now, if you want to register, send me a message through the contact form on this site. Please include your user name and I’ll make up a password for you and e-mail it to you. You can change the password, once you log in.
In the future, I think I’ll just require that each new user fill in a little information about themselves on their profile; at least a first name. That will make it easy for me to find and delete bogus registrations.
p.s. I’m sorry if you recently created a log-in and I deleted it.
Categories: What about the Community?
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Swamping on Sept 3, 2011
Today was my first trip out into my swamp since the hurricane. I didn’t notice any major relandscaping since the storm. The tides are not very low this time of year, and today was no exception. I still took advantage of the low tide and enjoyed some deep, inviting swamp mud. I shot video, but the video didn’t meet my standards for commercial video, so I threw together a highlights clip and I’m attaching it to this post for everyone to enjoy.
Categories: Deep Mud Adventures, Inversion, Total immersion
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Drought update
My internet service has finally come back on-line, after Hurricane Irene. I’m not sure just how much rain I got here, but it rained for over 24 hours. Here is a photo of the pond, after the hurricane …
I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, as I lost access to the Internet for 4 days. As you can see in this photo, most of my trees are still standing. None of my buildings or facilities were damaged. I hope everyone else fared as well.
Categories: The Back Yard
4 Comments
Best Mudding Gear
Doug,
You have SO much experience out in the tidal mud maybe you can share your best mudding gear> ? You are bearfoot? so no surf shoe recos.? Any cock constraining rings, etc in addition to your hogtied ropes, etc.. If so, rubber, neoprene, etc… ever wear singlets?
any tools for digging in tidal muck? any recos on kayak gear for mudding?
I have been out doing similar escapades, but not with your frequency, which I applaud!
Always looking for new tips and insight.
Last… any way we can post pics of our muck romps to your site?
Mudsleuth..
Categories: General mudding
3 Comments
Drought update
I know most of you are here for my mud exploits, so I’ll keep this short. Although there has been some heavy rain in the area, my yard has only received a half-dozen or so brief showers that have served to keep the grass from dying, but that’s about all. Here is a photo of my pond. I would normally be swimming in this pond to cool off in the summer!
The pond on Aug 21, 2011
I’m still hoping for a tropical storm to bring me at least a few inches of rain. It will take a lot to bring things back to normal.
My next update will probably be to announce a new movie clip, unless I happen to have a mud adventure before then. There won’t be any good low tides for the rest of August and September.
Categories: The Back Yard
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Cammies and zipper briefs
I went canoeing today around 17:00. It was threatening to rain, so I packed everything in watertight containers. The trip was uneventful. The tide never got very low, so I didn’t really go mudding. I did do some exploring, and I set up the video camera a couple of times for some short clips. Here are some frames from the video. I’m not sure if the video will ever get published. It is nothing to get excited about.
Categories: Exploring, General mudding
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August 6, 2011
Today was another hot, humid day with a mediocre low tide, but I’ve been out in worse conditions. Heather Blake came along to keep me company and operate the cameras, which means I came back with some great still photos and some awesome video.
Heather hogtied me and I struggled for my life in the treacherous swamp mud (while she suffered in the intense heat, operating the camera). I had a pretty good time in the mud. It wasn’t one of my really deep spots, but I was tied up, so it didn’t need to be very deep for me to get completely covered.
Cleanup was uneventful. We packed up and headed back, since the weather was threatening to get ugly. We got rained on just a little before we got off the water. Getting rained on after mudding in the salt marsh can be a good thing.
Categories: Deep Mud Adventures
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Swamping on Aug 2
We went swamping, late on August 1, and early on August 2. Dolphin dropped in for a visit on the first, so we took advantage of the available low tides to play in the swamp. The tides were less than optimal, but we found a couple places to play. Our time window was limited to about one hour on each trip, but we avoided the midday heat, so it was pleasant, just getting out on the water.
We had Heather Blake with us, taking photos and shooting some short video clips. Heather took the photo shown here. She got out of bed at 04:00 so she could be at my place at 05:00 to join Dolphin and me for breakfast and head out with us at 06:00. We were on the water before the sun peeked over the horizon. It was pretty, but nobody should be out that early… nobody. Heather would probably agree.
The drought situation has not improved on the home front. I am hoping that Tropical Storm Emily will swing close to my coastline and bring a few inches of rain, but it doesn’t look likely. My pond gets lower and lower each day. It can’t get much lower before it will dry up completely and force the occupants to relocate or die.
Categories: Deep Mud Adventures
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