This is the biggest spider I've ever seen at our house. (e:mike), what do you think? It's probably an inch an a half and it's been living on the window for a month now.

I never finished writing about Jabe Pond. (e:uchina) came up to visit us and it was a lovely trip. She wrapped us in a magical tarp while we layed in the sun, all the way until night, when we watched the stars and listened to the bros across the pond.

Said tarp

Giving (e:yesthatcasey) a piece of her mind















Head first into networking

Head first into crazy






What an amazing day. I loved how the light looked so tropical when the sun started heading down.

On the last full day, (e:paul) and I hung out on the beach. I decided to use the $60,000 I spent on a civil engineering degree and build a reinforced sand castle, to one up my old minnow resort (e:joe,59355)

Before we started, there was so much soap foam on the beach. How do people not realize that soap doesn't just disappear, especially in a pond like this?



I started by taking some moist sand and forming the first layer, with sticks for reinforcement. Then I took pine needles and laid them on top of the first wall. (I only remember this technique because my old professor Gasparini was obsessed with it - a French engineer came up with a lot of theories building sand castles )




Then I put the second layer on, doubling the height. I realized I should have put a door in, so I tried to carve one out and reinforce a header with some sticks. It's not the greatest, so next time I'll build doors and windows right into it.



Nearby was an abandoned minnow condo project. It's full of dead caterpillars, it really put a damper on the sales.



The last step was decking it out - I asked MFA (e:paul) to decorate it eyetalian style, but the sun was too intense for him.
So I tried my best. You can see the result in his post (e:paul,60206). The castle was named "Schloss Frosch am Meer" or the Frog Castle on the Lake.

Then I took a frog and let him loose in his new castle. He wasn't too happy about it, but at least he was able to escape alive. That's the least an engineer can ask for.

Loon Landing is by far the best island in all of Jabe Pond. It's the biggest, it has lots of diving rocks, a mini forest with trees in all stages of development and much more. Unfortunately you can't legally camp on it due to overuse (although pretty sure (e:paul) and (e:terry) used to), but it's nice to visit.

I took a kayak ride over by myself. From the island you can look out and spy on almost every other pond hangout. I watched (e:uchina) and (e:paul) play on the beach. I saw the bros fishing and drinking at theirs, and I saw people just paddling around the pond. I drank my beer, danced to John Denver and got naked deep in the woods. It was amazing.

There's so many islands in the Jabe pond, and the pond itself is huge (151 acres ). So there's a lot to just swim around and take in.

You think there would be a lot of wildlife in a remote place like that, but I think the pine forest really stifles a lot by keeping the water so acidic. It's clean, but there isn't a ton going on.

These caterpillars kept dropping out of the tree on you. A lot of times they were already dead - I'm not sure if they're just lebensmude or if there was some other purpose to them pelting you.


The best places to see animals were on the rocks on the islands. Near our beach, snakes sun themselves in all the little crevices. You don't notice until you've disturbed them and they're slithering away.







Of course there a ton of toads, minnows and frogs slithering around in the day. Surprisingly there are very few mosquitos. There are, however, a ton of crayfish to creep you out when you swim at night.

The wildest thing you'll ever experience at Jabe is the pack of dadbros that convene every labor day weekend. They have their own society across the pond. Maybe one day we'll have to investigate it.