LAST FEW DAYS

OK the last few days found us in bushnell at an escapees park where have been before..we needed a few days to unwind from the build which we did...they have a heated indoor pool which we used every day and i must say that was nice and relaxing...

one day we went to webster which says they are the biggest flea market east of the mississippi beats me we don't often shop for flea's and we didn't even find any at the market but we did find strawberries-oranges-tomatoes-peppers and could have bought much more fresh veggies and fruit but our fridge is only so big and right now it is on the full side...lar threw a fit cause i said we didn't have room for strawberries and i just couldn't stand to see and grown man carry on as much as he did...ok only if you can find some room in the fridge...he did so now as yoju can see lar is a happy person...

right now we are in old town, fl (not maine) and tomorrow frank and cathy are to arrive then we will do some biking on the nature coast trail ...we ahve done it before and it is a nnice and flat trail ...like most of florida's bike trails...we will be here till sat and the n move on toward lousianna...we have to plan so we wilol be able to see the super bowl this coming sunday...i know everyone is anxiously waiting for it...

not sure who we are really going to cheer for might be the giants because our dear friend dave who just passed away was a very avid giantrs fan and we might just to honor him..but they did beat the bills several yrs ago..so then it will be the pats..

i do say let the best team...

RENUION GROUP

last night after work which was a short day due to rain our habitat firneds who we have built with before and as we call our renuion group decided to go out to dinner...some of them we have built with for the last 7 yrs and some we have met along the way and join our group...we were all there except for christine who has been sick these last couple of days...not sure if it is the flu--toooooo much heat---or what ever she was missed last night and i sure hope she recovers today as there is s kumqwuat festival gong on here in dade city today and she is involved in the quilting part of it...

it has been a good build and we got alot done and as every year it is hard to say good-bye to all our friends but then we all know we will meet again with out hammers andtools to help make a difference in someone life...

good bless..

LAST NIGHT BON-FIRE

it waas decided that our farewell dinnerd would be a heavy appetizers dinner..as most of you know going out with a large group to eat you just don't get to visit those who are sitting at the other end of the table so we all thought waht better way to be able to visit with al...

we invited somoe of the volunteers who come on a regular basis who live in other parks in the area...henry was one of them...he is from new hampshire but very near maine and has a new england accent...a wonderful man who is filled withmany stories so he became our story teller and wasin rare form for the dinner...we just had to have him stand up and tell us a couple more stories..

lar is with anna who got her house last year and came to tell us how much it has changec her life and her son's... waht a wonderul story...they had been living on a trailere that did not have a floor-water hade ecoli in it--glad we could have made a difference in their life...

then there is don (some of you know him from ithaca)..the day before he had to go to the hospitsl cause he cuit his pinkie with a saw and needed 7 stitches so he had to be honored ahhaahahha...he really did cut his finger look at his left had ...(not like a story several yrs ago)...

so today we move on...up the road a tad then later this week meet up with some friends from ithacca...some of you also know them frank and cathy darrow..the plan is to do some biking- walking-talking-eating-catching up on what ever there is to catch up on...oh also looks for some birds...as they are avid birders..

THURSDAY SECOND WEEK

this second week sure has been a scorcher...todday it has been 99 in the shade...sure makes the work hot and sweaty..

if you have never seen a hurricane clip this is what they look like...every stud that goes from the floor to the top has to have one on them...every hole has to have a special nail put into it..there are 2 different angles one solid one and also a half of one....the clips have to be put both on the top and the bottom..it is just s very time consumming job and some of the positions a person has to get into to put them in is something else...so for the last 2 days that is what i've been doing along with several other ladies...

lar is with a new home owner--so far the only one we have met

when it is hoit and sweaty out and maybe not drinking enough water this is what happens to a person...it is time to take a nap in theback seat...there rig is not here so she choose to nap in their truck...and some of ius are mad at her for not going in our rigs to nap and be in some A/C which wouldhave been much more comfortabel...i am not naming the person cause i don't want her to be made at me....

LADIES DAY OUT

YEWSTERDAY IT WAS DECIDED THAT THE LADIES needed a lunch out...so we all went to the local tea room for lunch...now this was like having tea with the QUEEN mother and we even wore our hats...(amyway some of us)... and an enjoyable lunch it was lasted more that the 1/2 hr that we usually get...oh well...

today was like july/august back home hot not as much humidity thou but hot...come 2pm i said i was only going to put in 2 more nails and quiting as i was really feeling the heat...but it was also time to quit anyway..so clean up we all did...some are really enjoying the heat but now lar and i...way to hot for us..we are drinking lots and lots of water..afternoon temps in the 90's and guess what tomorrow is suppose to be hotter...but then a cold front is suppose to come thru but by then we will be moving...

the last couple of days i have painted picnic tables that are around the campground and also the volunteer house..

BUT today we started hurricane clips....my favorite ahahahha...it is a good job as most of us have done it before and kinda have a feel for what to do and how to do it so it isn't a real chore...just time making sure all the holes line up and all the nial get put into the right place...we will know that if a hurricane comes thru this area the house will stay steadfast...

lar has been busy helping witth truses and tails...we aren't bored yet just exhausted by the end of the day...

thurs will be our final get together as some have plans for firday night then some of us will leave and some are gong to stay another 2 weeks...time hasd sure flown by..

DAY OFF

yesterday was a day of relaxation hahaha...so 14 of us decided that a bike ride would do the trick...os off we went to the withlacoochee rails to trails about 4-5 mlkes from dade city..it is about 50 miles long...so we all started out together and it wasn't long before there were long distances between the group...we have some that are very serious bikers and some of us who just bike for the heck of it...

we knew all this before we started and said we will jujst all meet back at the campground for th dish to pass dinner that was planned for 5 as syracuse was planying notre dam in basketball...we have a couple of couples from indy who you can imagine that are fans of notre dam...and if we go the chance to watch the game then so much the better...

anyway back to the bike ride someo of the group did 18--others 25 and 30 but of course the others did over 60...you can guess who might have done the 18!!!!!!

anyway back to the campground for a little lunch..then in a few hrs it would be time for the dish to pass...

so at 5 we all gathered for a pot luck and as most of you know there was more than enough and all was delicious..after it got dark some of us went to russ and peg'd rig cause they have a satallite and got the game as it was on espn....some of you might know who won the game ...norte dam had the priests down on their knees praying most of the game and they won..the first game of the season that syracuse has lost and for those of us who root for them hope it is the last...time will tell...

today we went to church with irma...2hr and 10 minutes we left ...amen..good music/singing..good message but long....

END OF FIRST WEEK

week one has now come to an end and we have seen much progress in all the houses we have worked on...walls up-siding on-house painted inside-tyvek on-new house outside walls up and sheathed--it has been a busy week and i has been warm here in florida...

it feels good to have come to an end of a work week...almost like when we were really working hahaha...

tomorrow the group is planning on a bike ride for those who want to join in ..we have a few that are serious bikers and some of us who just ride for the fun of it...but that dosen't matter cause those who are serious can start with us pass us then they can go as far as they want to then turn around and pass us again...then a pot luck after...sunday will be going to church with IRMA then maybe go to the famous PARKDALE for the famous strawberry shortcake (fresh) and of course after it will be football...time for the playoffs..

not sure who to cheer for....but may the best team win...

FIRST WEEK of WORK

THE FIRST WEEK IS ALM OST OVER AND WE SURE ARE EXHAUSTED... we are working on threee houses all at different stages...monday was martin luther's birt5hday so we had the day off then on tues it rained in the afternoon about 2 so we were told to go home after a quick clean-up...we were on our way to the truck and the sky opened up and poured for several hrs..a much needed rain for the area...

today thurs the team i was on was to tyvek the house and it was a job that took all day ...but it finally got done amen...

lar worked on hurricane clips that also took him all day and they were special ones and a job that was a one person job...

the weather has been warm needing a light jacket in the morning but by 10am it is time to strip down to a short sleeve shirt...

it is a good group of people to be working witrh..there are 6 couples we have worked with before and another are all new habitat people..a couple of single ones a good mix of people...

this weekend we are planning on a bike ride then a dish to pass gathering...fotball on sunday then back to work on monday...

BUSHNELL, FL

the campground we are now at has several citrus trees around the park...this afternoon while talking to the manager weasked about the trees and he said we cojuld help ourselves to what ever we could use...he didn't mean fill our rig with the fruit but enough for breakfast etc...so lar pciuked his pockets full of kumquats--then we picked several grapefruits and aranges...just enough for a couple of days..

also in the campground we have 3 sand hill cranes who seem to have made the park their home...they just wonder in and out of the rigs and pay no mind to us people...it is their home so we just need to stayh out of therir way..

it has been on the cool side so insteado of biking we areenjoying the heated pool...the last couple of days we have spent at least an hr in it...at home we would look outside and see snow but here just spanish moss coming down in the trees..

we hear that upstate has snow hope you are enoying it...

ANOTHER ADVENTURE

lar and lar gashing the suckers that we ate...i must say the fish were rather tasty not like i remembered as a kid and my dad would go sucker spearing then we ate them...the bones were in every bite you took but these by gashing them there were no bones...so we had to go south to find out how to do this trick...then of course the southern way is to deep fry them which also made them good but not for my cholestrol...but i ate them and enjoy them...
had a good time visitng with mem and lar and mem relatives...

of course you can see we really did go biking and it was good to get on the bikes and get some exercise and not riding in the truck for hrs...alls well..

oh heard that you are getting some snow back north...enjoy it...

COLQUITT, GA

today finds us in bainbridge, ga...what bring us heere are some of our habitat friends frm virginia who are here for a wedding and helping out a cousin get ready for it..bainbridge is on our way to dade city the way we are gong so we decided to stop by for a visit to see the area that they were raised and brought up...as we were driving along the road we get a call from mem who asks us if we have gone thru a twon called COLQUITT no we said then look up and see the sign for the town...mem tells us we really ogut to stop and take a walk thru town as it is the mural capital of the us...so of course we stop to take a look at all the murals and i mean there were on just about every building and each one had a story of it's own telling about what the pictures was all about...so a very interesting stop it was..we even saw how they used to dry peanuts..we didn't eat any cause i'm sure by now they aren't so good...who knows how long they might have been there..

tonight we have been invited to the cousin house for dinner...lasagne-salad-now who would so no to that...sounds good to us...

DAY AT THE SAW MILL

we stopped in beauna vista, ga to visit with steve white and help him out for a day or two with his saw mill...he runs a custom cutting saw mill...either you bring your logs to him to cut or just order what you might want and he cuts it up for you...so he put us to work..that's steve on his trusty tractor ---lar working the edger---ginger and i also using the edger while lar was busy helping steve with some really big logs...a very interesting operation...he will also ake his saw mill to your house if you have enough logs cor him to cut to make it worth his while...

FIRST VISITORS

are second night was in pigeon forge, tenn and we weren't set up but less that 5 minutes and here come some visitors...of course looking for a hand out and the only thing we had was some cheerios..they didn't seem to mind as lar had them eating out of his hand..wondeer do you think they have done this before...

that is us traveling along the highway...along 81

ON THE ROAD

we did get on the road on wed but not after looking for the cell phone for 454 min...when pasking i asked lar where the cell phone was and he wasn't sure so we looked...not that anyone has our number and no that we use it much we just like to have one in case of emergency...we finally decided that we could buy anotehr one...can you believe when picking up our coats low and behold there was the cell phone...then unhooking the electric from the house the cokrd was frozen enough that we could not wind it up to fit in in't storage space..so we had to warm that up ...

then we pulled out of the driveway finally on the road..stopped for breakfast...not going to stop there again..breakfast not so good...

then as we were going donw the highway lar notivced that the running lights we not on...and of course no wher to pull over until we got to a rest area..a couple of ladies trackedus down to tell us we had no running lights ..told them we knew it and that the plug from rig to truck has jiggled loose...pushed it back in so back in business...

oh another snaffo we bought a new device to be able to use wi-fi called a mi-fi 2000 or something like that..lar then tried to install it in one of the lap-tops 2 1/2 hr later hee finnally did it...amen...

up and out yesterday with out any problems..made it all the way to pigeon forge, tenn...

we are glad we hadn't taken off on tues as parking lots in winchester, va were ice covered...talked to a young lady who told us that they had lots of sonw and yuchy weather on tues so we were behind it...

yesterday oing down 81 we saw lots of snow along the road and could see where they had salted/sanded ...glad we weren't in the middle of it..

god has been with us...

enjoy winter we are...

on schedule is we have one...