Our Last Week in Florida

Last Saturday the other volunteer couple, Bob and Pam, left for the season. The station had a nice pizza lunch for all of us on Thursday in appreciation of our help. They were great neighbors and I really enjoyed working with Bob. We hated to see them leave but hope to see them again someday.

I got a few pictures or us on Easter Sunday when we got home from Mass.

One of our favorite things to do here was to just drive around the station and enjoy the peacefulness.
Janice liked finding gopher tortoises and making them pose for the camera

One of the scenic lakes here on the property. We spotted a couple of alligators in this one.

There are a lot of flowers blooming around town here also. I'm not sure what these are but I liked them.

These bushes have an interesting flower like a bottle brush.

I found this bright copper colored bug on the back of my neck the other day.

Yesterday was my last day of work here. One of my tasks was to drive a Polaris Ranger fire unit out to where they were cleaning up after a prescribed burn and bring back a four wheeler to the maintenance shed. Tough job out riding the trails in this nice weather!

We had a great winter here, working with great people outdoors in a beautiful area. We hate to leave and will miss it but we hope to return someday. On Tuesday we stopped in to say goodbye to this couple. Truman took care of the property that the station is on plus another fifteen thousand acres that all belonged to Mr. Swisher before it became the research station. I first met him the when we were here three years ago when he was still working part time for the station. We would always stop to visit when we ran into each other. I treasured these visits as I always learned something. He gave me the opportunity to come down here in November and stay on some of his property near the station and work on removing trees with a backhoe while we were there. I truly enjoyed the work, but more importantly I was able to resume my visits with him each day. We were invited into their family for Thanksgiving day, a day of thanks to God, and family and food. I look forward to returning to see them again.

We left this morning and are headed north. Stopped for the night in the Albany RV Park in Albany, GA.

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.