Sunday Afternoon

My sister Rosalie has traditionally baked a fruitcake each Christmas for Dad and he always shared it with me. It always was delicious and I have missed it lately. This year my dear wife got the recipe from her and baked one for me.  It came out very well and we have be enjoying it.

Christmas was a quiet day for us, we slept late and then opened a few presents that we had gotten for each other. We talked to most of the kids on the phone, and both of us missed them very much, but we were glad that everyone was healthy and having a good Christmas.

Yesterday was laundry day, we decided to save money and do it here at Ordway this time to save money. They have one washer and one dryer up at what they call the Butler Building. Normally at the laundromat we use the large machines and do it all at once. Using the one machine, it took us 7 hours. It wasn't wasted time however because they have wi-fi at the Butler Building, so Janice could work on an online quilting class there. On the way there (about a 7 mile drive here in the station, 15 mph speed limit) we spotted a raccoon crossing the road and heading up a tree.  I couldn't get the camera ready fast enough to get a good picture when he was looking around the tree at us, but I did get this.

This afternoon we went out on the Polaris Ranger to take the garbage cans up to the north gate. Whenever we do that we usually spend some extra time exploring the station and checking the numbered poles marking the intersections to see if they need paint or repair. We spotted a pair of Sandhill Cranes who let me take their picture.  For more information on these large birds, click here. They have some resident pairs here and some that migrate through.

 On the way back, we spotted several deer, but only one who stopped for a picture.

It's really hard to believe that we have been here for eight weeks already!  We are enjoying our time here very much.

A Few Critters

We are done with shopping, the decorations are up, presents are wrapped and we are ready for Christmas. We had a potluck Christmas party here at noon on Friday. It was in the cabin that I had put pictures of on here with Janice on the porch. Plenty of good food there.  Janice made her foil potatoes and onions and a pecan cobbler.  Nice to have some informal time with all of the workers here. I went to the mall in Gainesville on Saturday to finish my shopping. It was packed of course, but I think that all of the Christmas music and displays helped me to get into the Christmas mood. We picked a few more oranges yesterday, they are still delicious. Here are a few pictures of the critters that I run into here. They call these fence lizards, I see a lot of them on fence posts when working on the fences.  They have pretty good camouflage. Can you spot it in this picture?

How about now?

I was driving along today and this guy was right by the road.  By the time I got the camera out, he was leaving.  He was about 8 ft long.

They have a lot of fox squirrels here, They are much bigger that the squirrels at home.  They will run away in a hurry, but they usually stop part way up the tree and look around the tree at you.

They call these walking sticks, the big one is a female and the little one is a male and that's all I'm going to say about this picture.

Merry Christmas to everyone.  Wish we could have you all here with us.

A Little Walk

I had a little friend on top of a post that I was stapling wire to the other day.  Scorpions are real common here, they like to hang out under the bark on pine logs that you pick up.  It sounds like they have a nasty sting but I hope to avoid it.

Janice and I walked down to the cabin by the gate today and picked a few oranges. Sure is nice to be able to pick them fresh from the tree and they taste great.

The cabin near the front gate is used by students and others some times when they stay here. Most of the time it is empty, so we used the front porch for a little while to enjoy our oranges.

We are both having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit without snow.

A Quick Visit to St. Augustine

We have been looking at some attractions over at St. Augustine which is about 60 miles from here. Yesterday we had to go over to Palatka to pick up a delivery at Staples,  Palatka is about half way to St. Augustine, so we went on over there to do a little scouting around. We drove through the historic downtown area and then went out to Anastasia State Park. We had a little lunch at the park and checked out the beach there.  This was my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean since about Jr. high. Hasn't changed much from the way I remember it.

There were some nice flowers blooming under the walkway to the beach.

We went back downtown, but they were having a big celebration there and it was very crowded and traffic was bad, so we headed home. We will for sure have to go back some day. On the way back through Palatka, we spotted Florida's oldest diner. It is an actual railroad dining car. Who could pass up a place like that? Certainly not us, so we stopped for supper.  I had to try their famous black bottom sandwich.  Click here for more information about this.

A quiet Sunday here, we took our trash up to the North Gate (about a ten mile round trip) on the Polarus Ranger this afternoon.  It was a little cool here today.  Tomorrow we are supposed to get some new neighbors, another volunteer couple will be joining us.  We are looking forward to meeting them.