Swamp cedar and driftwood

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

I managed to find a fair amount of this stuff growing right along the tidal
flats next to the salt water. I went at low tide and spotted a number of
long dead pieces in the mud and took a few pieces home which look pretty
good. 
Being so wet here, most stuff rots. Desert or very dry areas(Chapparal are
especially good areas to find wood) have better wood in many cases.
But in the Estuaries the wood is actually quite good, very dense, no rot,
pre wetted, etc.
I found a mother load of cedar in a place called...don't laugh..Crackertown.
Camo, 30-06 on one shoulder, beer in the other hand and hunting dogs (all
ten of them). The guy had a huge amount of the same wood I have in my tanks.
I'm pretty sure this is where the old codger got his wood. He had about 2-3
acres of it. They use to make pencils out of this wood, a nice red colored
wood, rather dense, neat roots systems, a bit like Redwood. Nice guy.

I found my "live base rock" but it was a bad place for macro algae, nothing
but eutrophic greens and encrusting greens on the rocks, mud everywhere.
snails, crabs etc and lots of tea colored Saltwater, big old fish(Grunts,
mullets etc)... saw some pretty good looking fillets about 3-4 ft long,
angry seagulls (and lots of Herons, Ibis, Egrets) after the scraps.

On the way back I had always been meaning to stop off the road many times
but finally did it this time. I'd seen many plants growing in road side
ditches in most places here. I hopped out and found a bunch of Ludwigia,
Myriophyllum, Sag chilensis(?) and a few others doing great, even after the
30's F weather most nights. Spatterdock, Echinordorus, Prickleweed,
Moneywort etc all die back pretty good over the winter, most of the plants
keep going though. Pretty surprising really. I like this Sag. I think it'll
go in the large 75 gallon tank later.

Regards, 
Tom Barr