Beverly Hill's Blog

Posted by Beverly Hill

This past weekend we loaded up our kayaks and took a three hour drive over to Port St. Joe, Fl to try our hand at scalloping. I'd never gone scalloping before, and I'm even more embarrassed to say that I had never eaten them before either. But I knew I liked oysters and having done a bit of research, I was pretty sure I would like scallops.

It was a nice clear day when we arrived at St. Joseph Bay. There were already a few boats out in the bay, so we lost no time launching and paddling out to the the thick beds of eel grass where we dropped anchor, donned our snorkels and mask, and into the water we went. Gliding silently over the eel beds I was met with a variety of sea life; starfish, sea urchins, salt water catfish, lizard fish, and of course, scallops!

I gathered all of my scallops by hand without benefit of a net and can attest to quite a few small cuts where the shells pinched my skin. Next time I go I'll either wear gloves or have a dip net to help avoid that aspect of scalloping. We collected our limit within a couple of hours and then spent the next couple cleaning them. There's an art to it, and after a couple of hours cleaning you start to figure it out.

How did they taste? Awesome! There were worth every little nick and cut I endured and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'd heard that the scallops in St. Joseph Bay had a somewhat sweet taste to them and it's true!. They were absolutely delicious. Even better, my first attempt at cooking scallops seemed to come out flawless. They were perfect!

So if you ever find yourself in Port St. Joe during scalloping season, give it a try.

Posted by Beverly Hill

This past weekend I got to take a kayak down Econfina Creek and explore its hidden crystal clear springs.

We got a bit of a late start. We didn't actually get to put our boats into the water until 10:30. The people we were supposed to be meeting decided to cancel their plans, so it was just me, Kris, and a friend. The creek was up a bit due to recent rains, but still easy enough to paddle comfortably, and it wasn't long before we'd paddled into the first spring area.

We continued downstream to visit as many of the springs as we were able to find. There are 11 springs with 36 vents along the creek, and the highlight of the trip is a large spring system that has several vents. It is a great place to stop for lunch and a swim, which is exactly what we did. After about an hour exploring the spring, we set off for our pickup point at the Hwy 388 Bridge. Total trip time was about 4 hours.

If you'd like to visit Econfina Creek and explore the springs, contact the Econfina Creek Canoe Livery. Their information is contained in the link above.

Posted by Beverly Hill

The weather was literally perfect this last weekend of April, so we threw some gear in the back of the truck and drove out to Anderson Pond on the Eglin Reservation this past Saturday night so that we could test out our hammock tents before committing ourselves to a week of hiking on the Appalachian Trail. We tried this with a conventional tent last year and hit a few snags.

The first thing I have to say about the hammock tent is that it's amazingly light and doesn't take up any space at all. I picked out a couple of trees just a few feet from the water's edge and had the tent up in under two minutes. I added an inflatable mattress on the advice of another friend who said that it provided some stability, and laid back to enjoy, and I must say, it was awesome.

After a two minute set-up, we had time to kill doing other things like checking out the local hiking trail and finding wildlife to take pictures of. After an evening around a crackling fire I retired to my hammock tent and was again amazed. As I lay there swaying gently between the trees and gazing out across the pond I saw a shooting star through the mosquito netting. I rocked myself to a very restful sleep feeling as snug as a bug in her own little cocoon.

I can't wait to get out on the trail with this. I'm loving the idea of not having to look for level ground to put the tent on, or having to compete with other hikers for prime tent space. I'm loving my hammock tent.

Posted by Beverly Hill

When I first started researching model trains for a series of articles pertaining to model railroading, I naturally turned to Google, which immediately supplied me with over 27,000,000 hits. Then I decided on "why not go to the source?" So, with an address in hand I headed just a few blocks over to a local model railroading club and started asking questions there.

The Miracle Strip Model Railroad Club makes its home in a small building nestled between a Greek restaurant and a gas station in the small town of Shalimar, Florida. Inside of this building is a two-tier railroad platform complete with everything a train enthusiast could hope for. It's here that I got the opportunity to meet with the members of the club and get a crash course in model trains.

During our first meeting I watched as member Ray Follacchio demonstrated how to build a berm, paint it, landscape it, and craft custom trees for it. These techniques will appear in a future article. Other members were on hand to offer their knowledgeable advice and answer questions. I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to the club and its members for all of their help with this first article: Model Trains and Railroads.

Special Thanks to:

Bob Fretina

Bob Scheer

Ray Follacchio

David Brown

and to everyone else who assisted.

Thanks everyone!!

Posted by Beverly Hill

I got the opportunity to attend the 6th Annual Emerald Coast Writers Conference in Fort Walton Beach, Florida this year, and was pleasantly surprised by what I experienced, hence the article "What to Expect at a Writer's Conference."

If you're a writer trying to break into the industry, you can learn a lot at one of these conferences. I highly recommend it. I got to mingle and talk with agents, publishers, aspiring writers, and established authors. In fact, I became fast friends with one author who turned out to be from my home town, and I also made a number of new local friends at the conference.

It's also a great tool for getting your head out of a current project and interjecting it with some fresh ideas. There's a part in one of my works-in-progress novels that I've been stuck on for some time, and I now have the tools that I need in order for my hero to save the day. Yeah!

Posted by Beverly Hill

When I sit down and list out the number of hobbies that I've worked on, it simply amazes me at times. I attribute it to growing up as an only child in a largely rural community and needing to find ways to entertain myself. On the plus side, it not only keeps me from getting bored, but it really gives me a lot to write about.

I discovered woodburning when I was between the ages of 10-12. At that time all I had was a magnifying glass, and that is not the safest way to get into the hobby. You'd think that the transition to wood carving would have been a bit smoother, but having just started into wood carving, it's a lot harder than it looks. One thing's for certain, it's going to take me quite a bit more practice before I can claim to be good at it.

Rock collecting has always been one of my favorites. I'd plop down where ever I happened to be and just start looking for fascinating rocks. That's how I managed to find my necklace. In fact, it turned out to be an archeological find--an Indian trade bead. Trade beads where rocks drilled by the native Indians and used to make necklaces that they would trade for goods.

I still enjoy digging for rocks, only lately I've been ordering dirt straight from the mine and sifting through it in the backyard. Mining for gems by mail is what I call it, and I've found over 150 sapphires to date, some of which were good enough for faceting and setting. Faceting costs a bit, so now I've decided to get started in lapidary and work some of my own gems.

Geocaching is another fun hobby that I love. It takes the seeker to places they might never have considered and really gets the brain working out ways to solve the question of where might it be hidden?

Photography is a bit of a side hobby for me. I usually take pictures while I'm out hiking and don't plan to take specific pictures, unless I'm looking for a picture for my articles. The same can be said about model rockets. I've fired off a couple, but I don't seem to have the time to for them in my busy schedule. Too many hobbies perhaps? Maybe. I've only scratched the surface in this blog.

Well, I am off to research yet another new hobby. There's a pottery event downtown this weekend, and oddly enough the only thing I've ever done with pottery is paint it. Who knows, maybe I'll come back with a new hobby.

Until next time...

Posted by Beverly Hill

Looking back, I guess I've always enjoyed woodburning. I remember "borrowing" my mom's magnifying glass and going out in the backyard to burn images on planks of wood, which isn't exactly healthy for your eyes by-the-way.

I got back into woodburning, intermittently, about 10 or so years ago. I particularly like creating symbols, runes, ivy leaves, and dragons. I recently picked up a new woodburning pen that puts my old one to shame, and I'm enjoying getting back into the hobby.

Just this evening I burned a Quetzalcoatl practice piece that I modified somewhat from the original pictograph image And yes, I'm having to practice and relearn a lot of the techniques I've forgotten, but I'm still having fun with it. In fact, I like having a wide variety of hobbies. It keeps me from getting bored.

Posted by Beverly Hill

A few weeks ago I ordered two small gravel buckets from a sapphire mine in Montana so that I could have the experience of "digging for sapphires". It turned out to be a lot of fun, and not only that, I was able to find 129 sapphires of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. I mailed my sapphires in to be evaluated, and although a few were considered too small for faceting, two of my sapphires were exceptionally nice. My prize winner was a 3/4 carat deep pink sapphire. I'll put pictures up after it gets returned from faceting.

Since the sapphire bug has bitten me, I went ahead and ordered two more boxes of dirt, and am already patiently awaiting the arrival of sapphire gravel from yet another mine. I'm even thinking about starting my own garage lapidary hobby. But for now, I'm off to my day job. Have an awesome day everyone!

Posted by Beverly Hill

Yesterday I stopped by a rescue group in Fort Walton Beach called Save UnderDogs. They're actually based out of Destin, FL, but operate a store front in FWB. The reason for being there was to pick up heart worm medications for a wonderful little tripod (tripawd) dog that we are fostering for the group, but I guess I learned a lot more than I bargained for, as evidenced by this my article on How the Economic Crisis is Affecting the Pets.

The spokesman for UnderDogs, Terri Bondi, reported that for the first time ever, she'd had more dogs returned to the group in a single month than she had adopted out, one after three years of living with his new family. Terri suspects the collapsing economy and the fact that mortgage foreclosures are forcing people out of their homes. My full-time 8-5 job is in government and I can add that it's not just the foreclosures, but job losses and evictions as well.

Sadly, it looks like the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. With any luck, good people will keep these animals in mind and either donate to worthy causes like UnderDogs, or offer to provide one of these animals a forever home.

Posted by Beverly Hill

I ordered some sapphire gem gravel from a mine in Montana last week, and was tickled pink when it arrived. I'm one of those people that doesn't mind getting dirty. I've dug for crystals and diamonds in Arkansas, hunted for rocks & minerals in Arizona, and am getting ready to try my hand at panning for gold later this year.

I opened my box to find two nicely packaged and sealed containers (pails) of gravel. I popped the seal on the first one and ran my fingers lightly through the first inch of dirt and after a few minutes had already found 16 sapphires. Since it was late, I called it a night and planned to really get into it better on Saturday.

Saturday turned out to be a bright sunny day, perfect for gem hunting. I set up a table in the backyard, poured a bucket of water, grabbed a clear tray (the kind you pour paint into for rollers), hand strainers, and my bucket of gem dirt and headed out to the backyard. It wasn't long before I was finding sapphires.

It took about two hours to get through the pail. I'd estimate that the pail holds about 16 fluid ounces, but there were still thousands of pieces of gravel to sift through. I found close to 60 sapphires on the first pass. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm glad I bought a second pail. I'll probably work that one tomorrow, and then go back through both pails looking for missed gems.

So I'd say my first attempt at mail-order gem mining was very successful. I'd definitely recommend it as a fun activity that the whole family can enjoy. As a bonus, you'll can use the gems to create your very own unique jewelry. I plan on getting several of the ones I found faceted and placed in ring and earring settings. They also look good just sitting in a rock collection.