May 16, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

 After what had turned into a week long project, Monte was finally able to get the blades off the brush hog mower to be sharpened.

This is the spindle to which the disc with blades are attached and secured with a large castle nut.
Monte took a ride with Chris, one of the Rangers, to check the wild pig traps. 

Chris brought feed bait for attracting wild pigs for capture.

Chris changing out the memory card in a wildlife motion sensing camera.
Spreading the bait on the ground, which is fermented corn and has an extremely potent scent.

This is damage caused by the pigs rooting in the mud.

A pig is captured and ready to go to the hog heaven in the sky.

Several Traps are set throughout the park to trap wild pigs.

 Service road on the boundaries of the park

Another trap.








Fresh rooting in the dirt indicating that pigs are active in the area.

This is the park mascot, which was put in the field by one of the residents of the housing community near the park boundary.

Another style of trap, empty.

You can see the size of this trap in which a ranger is inside.

This is a carcass of a pig that vultures have picked clean, about 1 week old.

Monte and Chris got out of the vehicle to examine further rooting marks in the sand, and looking at the sandy road out. Four wheel drive trucks are needed to go on this side of the park.

Monte needed a 55mm ¾ inch socket to reattach the brush hog blade disc back onto the spindle to the spindle.  Monte and Chris tried several stores and finally found one at a local auto parts store in Wimauma-yeah.

In the late afternoon we took a ride to Walmart to pick up a "few" items.

  On the spur of the moment I decided to buy a new bike. I have a mountain bike that I have found lately to be too uncomfortable to ride. Even after a short distance my back begins to hurt and the downward motion of holding on to the handlebars makes my palms numb. I was beginning to think my bike riding days were over until I rode one of the beach cruiser bikes that the park rents out. 
I did some research on line and found out that it would cost over $300 to get the same bike-no frills-one speed-no hand brakes.
I really like hand brakes and knew if I wanted to use the bike on a dirt trail I would need more than one speed so I opted to get an inexpensive bike that had everything I wanted.
I call my new bike the old lady bike because it has high handlebars. Unfortunately the particular model I like was only available in a shocking pink. I am excited and anxious to check out how it rides tomorrow.