@Don Harris, the fishing will be phenomenal upon refill for a couple years , then the bell curve kicks in. They drained one here twice for dam repairs and it got better both times 

11 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Don Harris, the fishing will be phenomenal upon refill for a couple years , then the bell curve kicks in. They drained one here twice for dam repairs and it got better both times 

Good to know!

This is the Palatka boat ramp where all the Elite series professional bass fishermen put their boats into the St. Johns River for the tournaments there.

 

 

 

Me and my fishing partner hit the river this afternoon 

5 minutes ago, Motoboss said:

Me and my fishing partner hit the river this afternoon 

Nice. Your pups built like a mini Albino Rhino.😁

5 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Nice. Your pups built like a mini Albino Rhino.😁

Yeah he’s a mini piglet!

 

I volunteered for a shift at the Minnesota State Fair today.  When I was done, I walked around for a few hours.  Ate some fair food, watched some cattle judging, went through the sheep and horse barns, and checked out the DNR fish pond.

 

 

Garden harvest last night.  Grew these from seed, planted them the second week of May.

 

I like the smaller cherry versions and my wife likes the big bulbous ones.  Should get some more before the season is over.

 

 

I hope you won't mind a little hidden history in a long post along with my subject for my photo for today.

 

These images show the northeastern watchtower of Castillo De San Marcos Spanish fort built in St. Augustine, Florida. This tower is called the tower of St. Charles in English and San Carlos in Spanish, and has a very interesting history that I have never found inside of any U.S. history books because NO ONE on this side of the Atlantic knew its true and real history because none of the scholars, authors and researchers had access to the original documents until about a decade or so ago when the handwritten log books of Admiral Menendez were found in Spanish archives and finally translated into English and published in north America for the first time.

 

Now we know its true history and story, but it still has not made its way into our history books here.

 

Modern scholars, researchers and historians settled onto an idea they invented while trying to look back on history. Many books will tell you that Admiral Menendez "fell back" to this location after the battle with the French at the mouth of the St. Johns river was blown apart by a hurricane.

 

This perspective is not true. Not even close to what the log books can now tell us.

 

Its a long story, but the log books tell us Admiral Menendez chose this spot first and then went north to fight the French to kick them out of Florida because he did not want any witnesses around for what he was about to do for the Spanish crown. Admiral Menendez even slaughtered some 300 Frenchmen stranded by the hurricane starving and walking north to St. Augustine. Admiral Menendez headed them off and executed them one by one with the sword on the Southern end of Anastasia Island. Archaeologists are still looking for that exact spot where this slaughter took place.

 

But this tower was placed in this specific spot to the inch and angled just so and constructed as a double tiered watchtower. The other 3 watchtowers, one on each corner of this fort are all singled tier towers. Only this one, the tower of St. Charles had a special job for some 272 years. And its secrets existed in only one place- the handwritten log books of Admiral Menendez as written by his on board Jesuit priest. Its an amazing story! And it all revolves around one word- GOLD!

 

This tower was NOT built here to protect the Spanish crown's hold over Florida. That was not the issue. At stake here was all that gold, silver and jewels the Spanish were raiding and looting all across central and South America and the Caribbean Islands. It was taken to Havana, Cuba where it was melted down and weighed and loaded onto Spanish galleons for the voyage home.

 

Ships were loaded with the treasure and sent to St. Augustine as the last stop before trans Atlantic voyage of the gold fleets which Admiral Menendez oversaw for his entire naval career not just working for the crown, but related by blood and in business with the crown of Spain to get as much of the treasure home as was possible so he and his family could take more for themselves.

 

And that is the secret behind this tower. People who come here from all over the world to walk through this fort and see this tower are never told its true history. Its time we Americans corrected our history books!

 

Do you know if a man fell asleep on watch in that upper floor he could be executed on the spot? This tower was very important to Spain for nearly 300 years! 1500's to early 1800's.

 

When you stand next to this historic watchtower, look down over the ramparts and observe the cannon placements below and hot shot oven standing there. From cannon pivot point (center balance of cannon) to rear aiming wheel track, some of those cannon placements have upwards of 18 feet between pivot and rear aiming track. How large would those cannons have been?

 

Admiral Menendez placed cannons here that could shoot red hot cannon balls all the way out into the Atlantic ocean over 2 miles out! He wanted to blow enemy ships out of the water long before any of them could ever get within range of this fort and the gold it protected anchored behind Anastasia Island.

 

This spot was so important to him that this fort was constructed about a half mile from the closest freshwater spring they could drink from known as the Fountain of Youth. It was more important to put the fort on this spot than over top the spring.

 

This was no fallback position. This was specifically chosen but that is another long story from the log books of Admiral Menendez. When you approach this tower those who know get the chills. Goosebumps. The hair stands up. The most important spot in Florida history is this tower and its precise location and angle of construction. Precise in every detail.

 

I always thought the gold ships left St. Augustine and headed north to use the Gulf Stream to power those ships back home. Not so says the log books. Admiral Menendez had other plans. His gold ships left this harbor and headed due east straight into the Atlantic ocean heading for the Azores to re-supply and pick up security ships there to cover the treasure fleet on its last leg home to Spain.

 

The WatchTower of St. Charles in English and WatchTower of San Carlos in Spanish.

 

When the U.S. Army arrived in St. Augustine in early 1800's to begin chasing down the Indians, they used this fort as base of military operations and renamed it Fort Marion. At that time Army engineers drew up detailed blueprints of this fort and this tower is listed on those blueprints as the tower of St. Charles.

 

 

 

That one window seen below looks in one direction. The ONLY direction a sentinel was to continuously look. No other way should he look. Only through that one window off and on for 272 years!

 

In the following drone video you can see why Admiral Menendez chose this spot and situated the fort at a precise angle and placed the tower of St. Charles so a sentinel could look out between the northern tip of Anastasia Island and the island to the north of it. That channel is where the ships loaded with gold came and went through. This tower watched that channel to prevent enemy ships from slipping in through that channel.

 

Admiral Menendez chose this spot because that one channel along the entire eastern Florida coast was the only channel deep enough to get ships loaded with gold in and out at low tide. The only channel from Jupiter north to here.

 

Modern historians theorize he was going to place the fort at mouth of St. Johns river but no way to defend it there and that the French forced him to fallback to this position. Not true. He wanted to get his ships loaded with gold behind a barrier island to hide them from pirates, English, French, and other enemy ships sailing up and down the coastline. He did not want his gold ships seen from the ocean. And he wanted a way to protect them loaded with gold. And this was it.

 

This drone captured the same exact view a sentinel in that tower would have seen. A straight line from tower window through center of channel to ocean. This is carefully planned strategic defensiveness at its finest right here! There is NO WAY any fleet of a dozen gold ships loaded down with treasure could be protected at mouth to St. Johns River at anchor preparing for trans Atlantic voyage. Admiral Menendez's engineers did a lot of work measuring every channel along Florida coast before choosing this one. The only channel meeting their requirements of moving fully loaded ships in and out at low tide. Any other location would not have worked.

 

https://www.shutterstock.com/shutterstock/videos/3805694467/preview/stock-footage-st-augustine-florida-old-city-landscape-with-historical-fort-castillo-de-san-marcos-national.webm

 

Take a look at what this tower oversaw below. Look at the humans against the wall and judge the size of those cannon placements and keep in mind that from pivot to rear aiming track is only half the cannon's real size. The tiny little cannon sitting on ground on right side does not fit those larger cannon placements. Admiral Menendez was not playing around here. No one was coming in through that channel when he had a dozen galleons loaded with gold anchored there. Along that northern wall are even more cannon placements.

 

Sometimes this tower is referred to as the "bell" tower because some think a small alarm bell may have been hung in there over the sentinel's head to raise the alarm.

 

Can you imagine 450 years ago a sentinel in that tower ringing the bell and yelling out "Ships! Load the cannons! FIRE!" And then all those cannons turning loose on that narrow channel? What a sight and sound that must have been! There were no ships back then with cannons large enough to reach this fort from the sea, but this fort could reach them before they ever tried to make it through that narrow channel. Suicide channel for any who dared come after Spain's gold hidden behind Anastasia Island. The tower of San Carlos was always watching.

 

 

3 hours ago, gim said:

Garden harvest last night.  Grew these from seed, planted them the second week of May.

 

I like the smaller cherry versions and my wife likes the big bulbous ones.  Should get some more before the season is over.

 

 

Nice!

We used to plant way to much to keep so I scaled down to cucumbers, a couple beefsteak and cherry tomatoes, my Wife’s favorites and easy table fair.

3 hours ago, Motoboss said:

Nice!

We used to plant way to much to keep so I scaled down to cucumbers, a couple beefsteak and cherry tomatoes, my Wife’s favorites and easy table fair.

I was inundated with cucumbers the last two years. Had to give a lot away and ate one every day for a month. This year we don’t have that many of anything so we’re just eating it fresh when it’s available. My garden isn’t that big either.

 

Last year we tried a pumpkin plant and it completely took over the garden, blocking out sunlight to other plants. And we only got one pumpkin about the size of a volleyball. Ain’t doing that again.

We had the same experience with cantaloupe!

1 minute ago, Motoboss said:

We had the same experience with cantaloupe!

Any type of squash or melon will do that....pumpkin is a type of squash.

Yes

Just a “burst” capture I kind of liked from last weekend.

Bull Elk bugling at Cataloochee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

@Don Harris, at my old job we were contracted to remove all the bat guano from the Caldwell house and Palmer house in catalooche. So we were dressed up in PPE and scooping that nasty mess all day for a week. I came Out of the attic all sweaty and dead tired, walked out of the house and into the yard. I pulled off my respirator and all I could think of was how badly I wanted to spit because I had guano all over me. I’m standing there just spitting on the ground and look up and there are massive elk all around me 😂. I climbed up onto my boss’s truck and onto the ladder rack to get away from them. Even saw two lock antlers and sparring . 
 

 

 

That was in March 2017

 

heres me planking next to some bat crap 

 

and here’s the amount of crap we removed on day 1 

 

55 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@Don Harris, at my old job we were contracted to remove all the bat guano from the Caldwell house and Palmer house in catalooche. So we were dressed up in PPE and scooping that nasty mess all day for a week. I came Out of the attic all sweaty and dead tired, walked out of the house and into the yard. I pulled off my respirator and all I could think of was how badly I wanted to spit because I had guano all over me. I’m standing there just spitting on the ground and look up and there are massive elk all around me 😂. I climbed up onto my boss’s truck and onto the ladder rack to get away from them. Even saw two lock antlers and sparring . 
 

 

 

 

That one in the photo was standing about 20 yards from me sitting at the base of a big oak tree. I had my tripod all sprawled over me and if he'd wanted me he had me. There's not many things as majestic as that valley when bulls are bugling everywhere.

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

at my old job we were contracted to remove all the bat guano from the Caldwell house and Palmer house in catalooche

I’ll bet you miss that job. 😁

Here's another from that trip.

19 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

I’ll bet you miss that job. 😁

The grocery bill skyrocketed once he was no longer hauling a live trap full of dinner home every day. 😂

Not the fluorocarbon I want to be messing with.

I gotta reline my weedeater to. I can relate. And then have to use it. Ugh.

 

These are some of the Richard Petty collection of career cars... Concours D'Elegance Amelia Island.

 

 

 

 

 

I love weedeating