I feel like I’m a real photo journalist now, I have my new Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW backpack that carries my camera, battery(ies), USB cables, memory cards, camera filters, lenses, etc wherever I go. In the past week I have been given to take a some decent shots; last Friday morning on my way to the sky was cloudy but the sun’s rays were peering through like reminded me of being beneath an old dock lit by beams of sun shining down through its cracks. When I arrived to work I was able to snap a few shots of this scene overlooking the Penobscot River. This past weekend I was able to photograph a couple of my friends playing football and a curious young Green Frog and butterflies.

I just returned from the Orono Board Walk, I thought it would be an excellent day for a walk/photo shoot and I was right. One of my “Slices of Heaven” is walking under a canopy of Coniferous trees with a light and cool breeze making its way through the leaves only giving evidence of its presence by its rattling of the leaves and scent of sweet pine wafting over your body as the golden sun’s rays descend through holes of the canopy where the occasional Chickadee, Robin and Sparrow sing amongst the groaning of an old Birch tree as if protesting against the breeze.

The Bible is right, if this is what I perceive as bliss, I cannot imagine what God has in store of us Saved, as stated in 1st Corinthians 2:9 “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

David and his family, one of my co-workers, invited me to their home today to celebrate “Cinco de Mayo“. David was grew up in Mexico and moved to the US in his twenties, he’s been a good friend and I’ve enjoyed pr acting my Spanish with him and learning how to cook Mexican dishes. We ate Guacamole dip, chicken sautéed in chocolate mixed with pepper and tortias mixed with cactus, peppers, onions and cream cheese.

Later in the day I installed Microsoft SQL Server 2005, IIS, ASP.NET and Community Server 2007. I’ve wanted to learn ASP.NET which is a Microsoft based server-side web programming language. I am going to be attempting to convert JKOgden.net over to ASP.NET on my dev server at home.

The weather has been fairly cool this spring although the trees are finally starting to bud and the grass turning green. I purchased bird feed for the feeder that mom had given me for Christmas along with a Golden Finch feeder that hangs on the outside of my bedroom window. The birds found the feeder last Saturday morning which was nice to wake up to them singing.

I now have a DVR from Time Warner, I have been wanting this for awhile now; it’s coming in very handy as I have many shows scheduled to be recorded and different days and hours of the week.

Today Nate and I set out on our unpremeditated kayak trip. Our goal was to set sail at the Pushaw Lake dam where the lake is eventually drains into the Penobscot River, but of course we did not want to take the whole route as it would have been nearly an 8 hour trip, so we would end the voyage at Old Town where Pushaw Stream emptied into Stillwater River.

At noon we arrived to the dam and set out on the water, the weather was perfect for kayaking, mostly cloudy skies with patches of blue and cool breeze. The steam was much bigger than I had thought it would be, with water at the depth of 10-11 feet and widths up to 100 feet, with those measurements there’s very little current to help you along. We saw a fair amount of wildlife, mostly of my favorite reptile, the Turtle. At one of the bends in the stream the water became very shallow and muddy shore was littered with tree stumps, this setting is a particularly favorable habitat for turtles as it provides an area for laying eggs, feeding, mating and basking in the sun. At this point I had considered tipping myself over because I had decided to not bring my camera with me. We let the current move us around in this area so we could observe the Painted Turtles going on about their lives, everywhere you looked you could see them on logs as many as three per log basking in the sun. I was actually able to capture one of them; he was roughly 2 years old and probably has never seen a human before. We counted 20 turtles on the trip, which may seem like a lot, but considering that the trip was almost 10 miles it was minimal. We also saw many Kingfishers, Herons, two Eagles and a dead baby Beaver.

Near the end of our trip our backs and legs very getting soar, so I decided to dock on a very thick clay bank to stretch. As I was stretching I looked down and became curious with the clay and started to play with it, this was a mistake as clay can be very slippery as I soon found out. My entire backside was covered in clay, I smelt like Swampthing. I took my jeans off and paddle the rest of the trip in my boxers. That event was appeased by the next bend that I-95 passed over; I have never been underneath an interstate on water before so it was interesting. I waved at a gang of motorcyclists that acknowledged me. Being under the highway was interesting, I would have thought there’d’ be visible vibration but there was none, the noise was incredible. Ten minutes later we were at the end of our trip which took 5 hours in total.

I purchased a kayak from Old Town Canoe today, it’s a Loon 100. It’s roughly 10 feet long and has plenty of space for me. The material of the kayak is very strong and flexible, if I hit a rock in the water the material will bend but not break. There’s a waterproof cargo bin behind the seat which will house one of my survival knives, flashlight, clean shirt and a book (maybe an extra Bible) just in case anything happens. I purchased the kayak which was discounted due to some very minor scratches, a life jacket that you cannot tell you’re wearing it and a matching paddle.

Later in the afternoon Nate and I went kayaking on Pushaw Lake, the wind was pretty steady causing decent sized waves. I’m glad that I researched on which kayak would be best for me, I decided to purchase one that had a keel- the keel came in very handy today. We were out on the water for a few hours; we explored one end of the lake that turned into a swamp that a few beavers called home. At some point I’m going to head to Old Town Maps to find out if they have any type of kayaking guides for local rivers. In the next few weeks me and a few other co-workers plan to kayak down a river that is unknown to me at this point, I’m sure we’ll have a good time.

Here are some photos that were taken on August 11th : Loon in the water, Me in the water, Me in the water 2.