Spring

Spring seems to have arrived here. Although many things here have remained green throughout winter, it is getting much greener now.  Here are a few pictures of some of the typical roads here that I travel around on during the day.

A little bridge in the distance.

The view from the bridge.  This is near the end of the big swamp here.

One of the projects here that another volunteer and I have been working on is a small property that the station has recently purchased to gain access to a highway from a remote corner of the station. It was a small greenhouse/nursery operation with a home in the middle of it. The previous owner had planted a lot of bamboo on the property and it was out of control. Most of it was 10 to 20 feet high and growing too thick to walk through.  We have been cutting it with loppers and a saw blade equipped weed eater and stacking it.  When we started, you couldn't see any buildings, only a road through it to the highway.  We are almost done now. This is the house that was originally completely hidden. About a week of work went into being able to see a part of it.

On the right is the road to the highway, the rest of this ground was all bamboo.

We found this nice gazebo after a little cutting

A nice little tiki hut with a covered stage in the background.

There is a nice office in the middle of  the grounds. The other volunteer and I have had a great time discovering new things as we uncover them

A small strip of bamboo left to cut.

A clump of bamboo stumps left. These will have to be dug out to keep them from re-sprouting.

With the rain and warm weather the last few days, it is starting to grow back. All of the green spikes in this picture are new bamboo shoots.

This is the last vine covered green house wall.

Here are a couple of pictures of the bamboo pile, I should have had someone stand next to it to show its size. I had the tractor loader all the way up to stack the top layer. It's about 10 feet high and 20 feet across.

Another project here is an invasive plant called ardisia crenata. It grows in damp areas like the swamp here and crowds out the other plants. All of the green plants in these pictures are ardisia.  

Right now the berries that it produces are ripe. Each one contains a seed and the seeds have a 99% germination rate. Therefore it is important to remove as many berries as possible.  After the berries are gone, we try to pull the plants also.  A full day's work will produce about four gallons of berries. They are trying to avoid using weed killers as much as possible in this swamp area.

The squirrels here love to eat the pine cones and leave the core.  Janice and I thought that it makes them look like a little palm tree.

Tomorrow morning we are going to try to pick up a rental car to use while the Jeep is repaired. The other party's insurance company is moving very slowly on taking care of things.

Accident

Today on the way back from town, Janice was waiting for an oncoming truck to pass in order to make a left turn. The driver in a car approaching from the rear was apparently not looking and ran into the back of the Jeep without applying the brakes. The oncoming truck took to the ditch to avoid the Jeep and was able to drive away.

The front of the car.

The back of the Jeep

Gotta love heavy duty bumpers. Janice is fine, rode to the hospital in an ambulance and got checked out.  Sounds like she will be a little sore for a few days. The back of the drivers seat broke and laid down flat into the back seat. The bumper pushed forward into the Jeep and did some damage.  Tomorrow we will try to get a rental car and find a body shop for the Jeep. Hopefully we can get it repaired before our scheduled departure date. The couple in the other car were badly shaken up and were taken to a different hospital.

Planning Ahead

    After a heavy rain or wind here, someone has to drive all of the interior roads here to check for downed trees and limbs.  Normally the station is broken up into four areas to be covered by four people.  There are about 75 miles of interior roads and the way they are laid out, you have to do a lot of backtracking to cover them all.  Last Thursday, most of the workers here were gone, so I got three of the four areas to cover.  Janice rode with me in order for her to see a little more of the station.  We covered about 70 miles (10 to 15 miles per hour limit here).  It was a nice day, spotted several groups of deer and some turkeys and stopped to move several branches.
    We are making plans to leave here on March 30.  That is longer that we had originally planned to stay, but we are enjoying our time here.  We will then travel to Carrollton, GA for a couple of weeks with Janice's mom.  As the weather warms up, we will work our way north from there.

Forest Fire

A forest fire went past our campsite this afternoon. Maybe I should explain that it was a prescribed burn that was planned and controlled. As I have explained in a previous post, they do prescribed fire training here. One of the training teams did a burn across the road from our campsite today. It was interesting to watch.  They walk through and set the fire using drip torches.

The fire gradually spreads across the ground.

The roads around it are carefully watched with several of these units ready to put out fires if necessary.

This is taken from our campsite, the fire was right across the road.

After the fire, the area under the trees is much clearer and new grass will spring up in a few days.

Interrupted Morning Commute

After a rain storm here, we drive all of the 72 miles of  roads looking for fallen trees and limbs on the roads.  On the way to work this morning, there was a tree blocking my way on the main road.  It was too big to move with the tow strap, so I took a detour and let them come out with a chain saw and cut it up.  Then I got to move the pieces out of the way.

This is the new tractor that I am enjoying using.  Note the nice log mover on the front.

The view from the drivers seat.

Some of the controls.

And down the road we go.

Log in the grapple and ready to move.

Sure beats cutting them up into small pieces and carrying them by hand!

St. Augustine Again

On Monday we went back to St. Augustine.  This time we went up to a factory outlet mall area north of town.  We were looking for some Corning Ware dishes to replace some that fell out of a cupboard and broke during a small mishap on the way to Florida.  We found some there and also went to a Camping World store there.  A couple of years ago, we had found a Camp Chef two burner stove at a rummage sale in Bismarck, North Dakota.  It had little use, was very cheap, and came with a double width griddle and a carrying case.  Since then, I installed a tee on the motorhome propane tank and a long hose to operate it off of the motorhome.  Camp Chef makes a grill box for it, and Camping World had one in stock.  Early birthday present or late Christmas present for Bob.

The grill box.

The grill box on the stove.

Ready for food!  Hmm, what to cook first?

We just got a new tractor here at the station for moving logs after they are cut, looks like it will be a lot nicer than the old one.

We have been eating a lot more of the oranges from the trees here.  I think that they are almost done now. Sure will miss them, I don't think that I have ever had any as good as they are.