Tuesday morning we left the Famcamp at 9:30 for the drive to “the prairie.” This time we took the Leroy Selmon toll road from just a few miles outside the gate to near Route 60. That cut a miles and time off the trip and we had very little traffic. We pulled into the park a little after 1:30 and spotted two volunteers painting the front gate sign – the one we had painted last year. Stopped to chat with them and found out we were the “hail” part of a “hail and farewell” potluck that evening.
After getting setup and checking in at the office we had an enjoyable first evening meeting the other volunteer couples and getting acquainted. On Wednesday morning we went to the office to see what Charlie had in store for us. One of the other volunteers had suggested to Judy that she heard we would be painting Charlie’s residence. Anyway Charlie walked in and after some pleasantries gave us several tasks to start off our month. Painting his residence was not among them even though Judy said that if he had any big projects for us we would like to get started now. First is to make new burn markers and then to check the other trail markers we had done in years past.
We went back to the Greystone packed lunch and got on our bikes for the ride to the shop. Our first task is to make a complete set of burn markers and to complete a set that has some missing. A burn marker is a five inch section of PVC pipe that has a letter stenciled on two sides and reflective tape at the top and bottom. In the top opening is a block of wood so that when the marker is placed on a metal post it stays up. They use the posts to mark the sections of the area they are burning.
We spent most of the day finding all the materials and tools (stencils, tape, pipe etc.) and then cutting the 5 inch sections. Thursday we assembled, and painted the markers and put on the reflective tape.
Here Judy is fitting the blocks into the top of the pipe.
These are the finished markers.
We were done when Charlie drove up and asked us to go to burn area 6 and pick up the markers there. So we got in a Polaris 6X6 and started out to pickup the markers. The markers surrounded a burn they had done over two weeks ago. The burn area encompassed nearly 1800 acres! Here is one picture of the area. You can see the green coming up all over the blacked areas.Thursday three couples from central Ohio arrived. We were invited down to chat with them before dinner. One is a retired Ag prof from Ohio State and he is very much interested in getting a buggy ride over the weekend. They are from the Dublin area near Columbus and had been on the west coast of Florida since early January and were slowly working their way back north.
A ‘buggy’ ride took most of Friday. Jen, a ranger, took eight volunteers out for a buggy tour and a side trip from the usual tour into an area that they are planning on burning. We saw wild hogs, lots of birds, a few ‘gator, deer and even a zebra! The ranch to the east has a number of exotic animals on it. Normally the buggy tour is a two hour trip – for paying customers – we were out from 8:30 until a little after one.
Here we are taking a break in the shade while on the long buggy ride.
Judy and Jen, the ranger leading our tour, are talking about plant life in the hammock.
Saturday we were going to work on lettering the new “Trail Closed” sign but alas – no red paint. Sunday was our big day. The long drive into Okeechobee - we had forgotten just how far it is! After church, grocery shopping and filling the Ram it was that long drive back.
On Monday we decided to drive to the shop rather than ride as it was chilly and windy. While Judy worked on her sign, Jon gathered materials and tools to work on the main gate. The yellow is faded and it needs to sanded in spots (rust) and then repainted. As there is no power nearby, we loaded up a generator to run the grinder. While unhitching the trailer from the 6X6 Ranger, Jon ‘pinched’ his thumb so that ended the work for Monday. Tuesday it was very very windy but we managed to get the new “Trail Closed” sign put together and finished sanding and prepping the gate.
On the way to the shop we spotted these Sandhill cranes in the pasture next to the main park road. Sandhill cranes mate for life. They seem to be hanging out in the pasture along the road to the shop
Because of the high winds predicted for the next three days, there will be no spray painting. The gate project will be on hold for a while. Charlie says the 4X4 Ranger should be back so we will do some trail work until the winds die down. This is an old live oak that was pushed over many years ago by the winds or a hurricane, but it still kept growing.
We asked Bruce, one of the rangers, to bring over from the shop area some items we will need on Wednesday to work on the mature trail. It is shorter loop trail through a nearby hammock and because of some dead live oaks (sort of an oxymoron) the trail had to be re-routed.
It was a late and a bit frustrating start to Wednesday, but we did get moving on the trail with a wheel barrow, post hole digger and extra posts. It was a two wheeled model and that made the pushing a bit easier. We re-located several existing markers and put in some new ones to mark the rerouted section. Judy and one of the other volunteers pulled a lot of brush into the old pathways to serve as a barrier. While out there we also looked at a foot bridge over a now dry slough. It is too narrow to take the mover over (no one thought to measure the width of the mower before construction). Charlie had suggested that we move the posts over an inch and a half on each side to make room. After looking at it we decided the most cost effective way would be to move the bottom scuff board (a 2x4) in inside the posts. It means a lot of cutting and re drilling and screwing, but much easier than digging out and moving posts.
On Thursday we just messed some. Put some arrow marks on several of the posts in the nature trail and hauled the old temporary posts to the shop. Charlie has agreed to the relocation of the scuff boards so now we have three tasks to work on: finish painting the main gate; move the scuff boards on that 40 foot bridge and get out on the prairie and fix the intersection markers. All of these jobs are dependent on the weather and us getting some transportation. Alas the 4X4 Polaris Ranger is to be picked up from the shop Thursday afternoon – we shall see.
Yes, we still do see plenty of gators. The first week we arrived you could see the tail draggings from when one crossed the road on the way to the equestrian area. Jon was ridding his bike and saw the trail and then the gator walking along the ditch at the edge of the road. They look different when up on all four legs.
It did arrive….the 4X4 Polaris is back and is ours to use. It was lunch time by the time we gathered what we needed to do the bridge (tools and screws) and gassed up the ranger. After lunch we started on the bridge. The first board took us a while to figure out but we got the scheme down and did two more sections before the drill batteries went dead.
Friday night we had a real thunder storm roll through and it rained very hard for several hours. The campground had a number of tenters (a group of Seventh Day Adventists) and some of them did get wet. The campground dryer saw a lot of action.
It was a bit difficult cutting the 2x4 small pieces for supports using the circular saw so Saturday Jon went to the shop to use the table saw to cut supports pieces. He cut 30 pieces and then used the drill press to pre-drill two holes in each for the deck screws. We found that the original 2x4’s had been put on with a mixture for phillips and torques head wood screws – had to have two different drivers to take them out. This is Jon cutting one of the 12 foot 2x4’s to fit between the support posts.We finished the weekend with a drive to Palm Beach Gardens to visit Jo. She is getting along good after her surgery. Judy made a big pot of Olive Garden’s cream of chicken gnocci soup and Missy had made a deep dish peach cobbler. On the way home we stopped to pick up a few groceries and as we drove out of Okeechobee it started to rain. It rained for several hours. Not a hard rain but a good rain for here.
As Judy took Lilly out for her morning walk on Monday, several campers were gathered at the front of our RV. She came back to say that three Swallow Tailed Kite had landed it the live oak behind us. Here are several pictures. Apparently it is mating season and at least one of them is a male. We have seen them flying in the distance but never up close. They are a much larger bird than expected.
We finished up the bridge on Monday. We were taking a break near lunch time (the drill batteries needed a charge) when Gary, a fellow we had volunteered with here several times stopped by for a visit. We had a nice long visit and shared a desert Judy made. After Gary left we finished up the bridge. On the right below is the “after” side and on the left the “before.”
The next project on our agenda is to finish the main gate. We had prepped it earlier but had to wait for a calmer day to paint. The park has a burn scheduled Tuesday (about 150 acres) so the winds are down and we can try to paint.
As we were driving to the shop we passed a ranch vehicle on the property next to the park. Being friendly we both waived. While we were scraping the old reflector tape off, the pickup drove up and out jumped a lady who introduced herself as Zena Thomas. She had on an old straw cowboy hat tennis shoes. She had just been out moving her cattle from one pasture to another. Her property borders the main road into the park on the west. She said she had stapled turkey feathers to a couple of posts she wants her grandson to replace. She thought the city folk would get a kick out of seeing them too. Judy had a long conversation with her. She has lived on that land 79 years!
After trying with the Wagner electric gun and then spilling a pint of paint we settled on using the air spray gun to paint the pipes. Because of the drying time and the instructions on the paint can, we had to clean up the air gun for lunch – another fun chore. By 2 we had finished the painting and applied the new reflector tape and headed home!
The burn went off and Jen (one of the rangers) earned her certification as a “Burn Boss” so now she can supervise prescribed burns. They are way behind on needed burns so are hoping to get many more in before summer.
We will next start on trail and intersection markers but that is for the next chapter.
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