Ocala National Forest

The azalea bushes have been blooming around here for the last few weeks and the best ones that we spotted were in the Melrose cemetery up the road from us.

Pink is the most common but there were several other colors too.

One day I spotted this unusual moth down in the swamp here.

Off to work to move some downed trees to make room for a fence.

This dead tree near our campsite looks like a piece of modern art to me.

On Friday we drove down to the Ocala National Forest to drive on some of their Jeep trails. Janice liked the slogan on this sign.

Much of the National Forest was similar to what we see here at Ordway.

The young long leaf pine trees look like giant bottle brushes.

A gopher tortoise in the road!

He pulls in his head and covers it with his front legs.

We stopped at one last lake and then headed home.

Micanopy

Saturday, we drove down to Micanopy (pronounced Mick-ah-no-pee).

 It is a small town about a half an hour from here with a lot of antique, art, flea market type shops on the main street. They said that the film Doc Hollywood was filmed there. We hadn't been there before and we really enjoyed our day. We got there at lunch time so we had lunch at an outside table at The Old Florida Cafe.

They had a really good musician playing guitar, harmonica, and singing while we ate.

And of course no classy outdoor restaurant is complete without a large flamingo.

Flamingos seem to be common there.

I had to include a picture of this sign.

As usual, we were a couple of angels.

For many year, I have admired this tool box built by Gerstner & Sons in Dayton, Ohio, but at $1,895 for a new one it is a little out of my price range. (Actually a long way out of my price range.}

What does this have to do with Micanopy you might be asking. Well, sitting in front of one of the flea market type shops was this little gem. Older model, made by the same company and waiting for me to come along and snap it up.

With some new felt lining and some finish restoration, it should be as good as new.

Usually about once a week on one of my days off from Ordway-Swisher here, I go back over to the property where I was working before we moved over to here and do some more tree clearing with the backhoe. It starts out looking like this picture.

And ends up looking like this.

This is how we refuel the backhoe there when it needs it. Hand pumping it out of the barrel.