End of a Cold Week

Well, Friday was a bit warmer than Thursday but not by much and the wind was pretty strong out of the North. Using GPS points we relocated one trail marker that was in the wrong location (park folks had put it in 2 years ago) and put in an additional marker. Because a couple of ‘roads’ were mowed that were not part of the trail system, we had to cut down brush and use debris to block the ‘roads’ that aren’t trails. They use mowed pathways to mark and separate the areas of the park for burning zones.

We decided to reward ourselves with a trip to town as Judy wanted to get her hair cut so we enjoyed a good Mexican meal. I know we both looked strange as with our red faces – windblown not sun burned.

This is one of the many owls in the park.

Saturday we decided to mark a 1/3 mile path from a mowed road to a foot bridge through a slough. Charlie had this on our list of things to do. Well we tried to do the best we could but it was tough going. First we had to cut our way through an old barbed wire fence and then work our way around a swampy area. Then we ran into an area of palmetto about 4 feet high. Too thick and tall to hack through with a brush axe and line trimmer. We managed to find our way to the foot bridge and most of the path follows an active animal trail (they know the way for sure). We spent 6 hours out and were bushed when we got in. We drove 40 miles in the prairie, from the time we left our camp site until we return the 6X6 to the pump house and never left the park!

One advantage or our long day was that we found a big citrus grove. We were able to pick about two dozen grapefruit and some oranges. However, these oranges were not as good as the ones near the camping area. These trees were 30 to 40 tall and the grapefruit tree was loaded. If it weren’t so far to drive, we’d try to return and pick some more.

There are so many deer this year.