Busy at Ordway

It's hard to believe that we have been here for 3 weeks already. The other volunteer couple, another Bob and his wife Pam moved in the same day that we did. They are fun people and I enjoy working with Bob. Ordway is still a great place to be with deer and turkeys all along the roads.

There are also many smaller creatures here too like the little fence lizards. We even had one in the motorhome the other day.

Last time we were here I had to work 4 days a week. This time they changed it to 3 days a week, so I usually go back over to the other place across the road and run the backhoe 1 or 2 days a week.

One afternoon this week our job was to check out 4 canoes that hadn't been used for a few years by paddling them around the lake. The weather was calm and about 70 degrees so it was an enjoyable task. 

Last Saturday we went to a nearby get together of vintage camper owners. They had them open for display so we wandered around them for awhile. I forgot my camera so I had to use the phone for pictures.

Yesterday we went to a state park near here for a Yesterdays Festival. Vintage military displays, old cars and tractors, historical items, cannon firing and tram rides. The weather was great and we enjoyed it.

On the way, we stopped at a farmer's market and Janice was feeding a goat wrapped in a sweatshirt in her arms.

Christmas and More

One morning we spotted this guy outside the motorhome. It was a coral snake, one of the most poisonous snakes around here. Very pretty but with the neighbor kids running around here, we decided it was best to kill it.

There was a fence in front of the motorhome, so we decorated it with rope lights and ornaments and added a christmas tree. It still seems a little strange to have christmas decorations and green grass

Christmas day was spent at home with just the two of us.

Santa was nice to me and brought me a drone.

There are quite a few things to learn about operating this drone and I am still working on it.

It seems to take pretty good pictures and video.

On January 3, we moved over here to Ordway-Swisher where we will be for three months. We have the same campsite as last time.  The weather has been cold this week with overnight lows below freezing. This is white sand in the picture though, not snow.

This is the view behind the motorhome.

Our work trucks parked in front of the motorhome

They are in the process of setting up a laundry/storage building across from our motorhome. It will be nice to have a laundry here, but I don't know if it will be done before we leave.

Busy Week at the Church

This is a man known around here as Frank the Baker. We met him and his wife at Mass last time we were here and he told us an amazing story about how his fishing boat capsized several miles off shore and he and another man were rescued after several days clinging to the overturned boat. Another one or two (I can't remember all of the details) didn't survive. He was head of the bakery department at several Publix grocery stores and started baking on his own after he retired. He sells his wonderful pastries and bread at a local farmer's market on Saturdays. I enjoy listening to his many stories and I really enjoy eating his pastries.

On Tuesday night we went to Mass to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We started in the parking lot with a procession into church across this beautiful sand painting on the sidewalk. 

After Mass there was a celebration in the parish hall with much singing and dancing and food.

 Our favorite was the Dance of the Old Men. Young kids were dressed as old men with masks and walking sticks and danced like old men. They really made it realistic.

This is one of the plants here, even the leaves have thorns.

Trip to Lakeland, FL

Our trip down to Lakeland went very smoothly. We drove down Monday at a leisurely pace mostly on back roads. We passed near Orlando and from there on we saw a high population of RV parks, some of them were very high end and some not so much. We were able to stay at the window installation shop and plug into 50 amp service there and they made us feel very welcome and comfortable. On Tuesday morning they installed the new windshield before lunch. Mike and Sarah, some friends from Saylorville who have a winter residence about an hour from there came over and we went out to lunch together and spent the afternoon visiting. We thought about doing more sightseeing down there on Wednesday and come back Thursday, but we both wanted just to get back to our quiet spot back here. We took a different route home and we were glad to be back here again. This is the driveway coming into our campsite here. Yes, that is all white sand with a little clay spread on top of it in spots.

This is our spot here under a big live oak tree on the edge of a pasture.

I really like these big live oak trees here, they remind me of the burr oaks back home.

 Many big trees like this were toppled around this area during hurricane Irma.

The pasture next to us is ringed with trees, some still standing and some down from the storm.

Thursday and Friday I spent out on the back hoe again, clearing brush and trees. I really enjoy my time spent doing that.

We have to watch when we open and close motorhome and jeep doors here, as we have been invaded by little tree frogs like these.

In my last post, I promised pictures of the cane press here on the property. It hasn't been used for a few years. The cane is fed between the big rollers and the juice collected at the end of the tin spout. The big branch attached to the top is used to rotate the rollers. 

There is a cane kettle near the press.

Yesterday I went up to the Waldo Flea Market and looked around for awhile, and then did a little shopping at WalMart. Our TV tuner had died, so I picked up a replacement TV and mounted it last night. I still have to rebuild the frame that goes in front of it. Today after Mass we visited with some of the friends from church that we met last time we were here.

Cane Boil and Fiddle Fest

Today we went to Gainesville to a Cane boil and fiddlefest. It was held at a historic farm area at a nature center there. What is a Cane boil? It is the process where they harvest sugar cane, shown growing here and turn it into cane syrup.

The stalks are cut, the leaves stripped off of them and the stalks are run through a cane press to squeeze the sap out of them. The sap is boiled in a big cane kettle that is heated with a wood fire. He is boiling about 50 gallons of of sap here and it will make about 6 or 7 gallons of cane syrup. They were serving home made biscuits (baked in a wood fired cook stove) with the syrup on them. Tasty!

What is a fiddle fest? Around the grounds were several small groups of musicians playing bluegrass type music. We wandered around for awhile listening to them.

There were also demonstrations of spinning and weaving.

Reed and Liam would have enjoyed the blacksmith shop with its operating forge.

Janice enjoying some music.

There is a cane press and a cane kettle here on the property where we are parked that is no longer in use, I will try to get some pictures of them because I didn't get a picture of the press today.

Monday we will be driving down to Lakeland, FL, about 3 hours from here to get the windshield in the motorhome replaced. It developed a large crack from bottom to top while we were in Georgia. They will replace it Tuesday and we will return on Wednesday hopefully. I have been enjoying the "work" here, operating a backhoe clearing several acres of brush and trees.