End of the Prairie and Start of the Marsh

Thursday we had a nice Volunteer/Staff luncheon with lots of good food and deserts. One of the rangers brought in pulled pork and it was really good. He said all he did was carry the crock-pot, his wife did the rest. Charlie, who bakes as relaxation, made bread sticks and sponge cake. We were stuffed, but did do one more painting project in the afternoon.

One of the other volunteers had constructed a big box for recycle bins to go in. We painted it to match the rest of the park. We didn’t even get out our ‘painting clothes’ to handle that job. Friday was just a catch-up day, a few last minute things. Judy helped make new car passes and Jon painted the plastic covers he made last year for over four of the lights in the bath house porch/laundry area. Whenever the astronomy groups come in they always covered these lights with red cellophane. Last year the plastic covers were installed with the red cellophane, but after a year it had degraded and the lights were full of bugs. This year we are trying red paint on the Plexiglas with red plastic paint.

Worked on getting things packed up on Saturday and then went into Okeechobee for our last time. We went back to Cowboys for a Valentine late lunch, did some grocery shopping and church then back to the prairie for the last time. We had showered and settled in for the night. Then Lilly announced company, several rounds of visitors. It was other volunteers stopping by to bid us farewell.

Sunday’s drive was easy but oh the traffic lined up for the race at Daytona. We did not have any problems and sailed right through. When we arrived, we found that the site that would be ours for the next 6 weeks was occupied. They put us done by the boat launch where we dry-camped for the night. It was early when we arrived so we took a drive up to Fernandina Beach to see the sights, pick up a few groceries and get a bite to eat. With no power, we were in bed reading by 8.

This is where we spent our first night at Little Talbot Island. The environment here is quite a bit different than what we are used to. So many trees!

While we waited for our site to vacate, we took Lilly for a walk on the short nature trail. We had only gone a short distance on the walk when we saw a lady and a young girl (maybe 5 or 6) coming toward us with two big dogs. The lady pulled the Shepard mix dog off the trail but the little girl could not handle the chow mix. It lunged at Lilly and got Judy in the mix. She was pulled down on the ground wrestling the dog. Fortunately no one was hurt.

This is the marsh at low tide. This marsh (called Myrtle Creek) separates Little Talbot Island from the mainland of Florida. You can see a bridge way in the background that links Little Talbot to Big Talbot.

This is near high tide. Notice that all the high ground spots are now covered.

We met with the Volunteer Coordinator (Ranger Brian) and got some information as well as gloves and shirts. We will report to the maintenance area about 7:30 in the morning

Last Week on the Prairie

We spent about 6 hours away from ‘home’ on Sunday. After church we toured the “Speckled Perch” festival grounds and vendors. Okeechobee has a 5 block grassed mall/park in the center of town. This is where they hold various outdoor activities. The “Speckled Perch” is actually a crappie - have no idea why they call them speckled perch. Apparently it was a very plentiful fishing the lake, before it began to dry. It’s up nearly 4 feet from where it was last year. Enjoyed a good lunch at a new BBQ place in town and did some grocery shopping. Stopped at the Goodwill store and picked up a ceramic bowl Judy needs for some sort of sour-dough bread starter she is working on. Monday will be the first day to pull from the starter and bake some bread.

Well this Monday in the park has been renamed “Stuck Monday.” First one of the rangers got his truck stuck in the south side of the park. Then the AmeriCore worker got his ATV and trailer stuck in a slough along the south fence line. Well, we joined the group too! On the way to the Audubon area (the east side of the park) we met up with Charlie on the road and he asked what we were doing. We told him we were putting in the new trail intersection markers and then going north to put in the final marker along the fence line. He said we “should have” no problems driving the road through Seven Mile Slough. He was wrong! We made it to within 150 yards of our goal when we hit it. The water was not the problem; it was the mud, swamp grass clumps and palmetto roots. We were finally ‘rescued’ after over an hour. Turns out that if we had been able to go another 25 feet we’d have made it. Oh yes, the bread was great.

These are the trail markers we have been installing.

Tuesday was spent checking out and cleaning up the 6X6 ranger. I now know more about a Polaris Ranger than I really need to know. The undercarriage was full of mud and grasses.

Amy came up in the afternoon and spent the night. With the last of our apples from home, we enjoyed an apple pie after cooking ‘brats’ over a fire. Wednesday we went to the big culverts and saw 13 ‘gators sunning. Amy said she had never seen that many gators in the wild before. We took a short hike and saw scat from what we think is a coyote, picked some oranges from the wild citrus trees in an old homestead hammock and spotted two deer.

Can you see Amy in her camouflage outfit?

The two deer we spotted were bucks lying in the high grass about 30 yards off the trail. One of the bucks is affectionately named “one horn” by the park staff, and you can see why. They just laid there and watched us move past them. Here they are.

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.

Cold Week

Sunday we went to see the re-enactment of the battle of Okeechobee which was fought during the Second Seminole Indian War. It was interesting and here are a few pictures taken during the re-enactment. The Seminole’s have never really signed a ‘peace treaty’ with the United States.

After the show we went to a local seafood restaurant for an early dinner. One of the ‘famous’ dishes is deep friend pumpkin bread. It’s good and unusual.

It rained most of Monday but we did manage to take advantage of a brief window of now rain drops to complete the trim on the shop building. Only thing left to paint there are the doors and we are not sure how Charlie expects to do that job. They are all metal doors (including 4 metal roller garage-type doors) and brush or roller applications would show. Ah well not our worry. It drizzled most of the morning and then broke for about 3 hours and then started up again.

For the past two days we have been out in the 6X6 Ranger scouting primitive camp locations and removing old fence posts. Spending six hours in the outdoors with 12 to 15 mph winds certainly tires us out. We’ve been to some locations that few folks ever visit in the park. Yesterday we were out in the northwest area following what we thought was the correct mowed ‘road’ but realized something was a miss. Glad we had the gps units and radio with us! Called in to the office and gave the intern our coordinates and she was able to tell us about where we were on the park map. We have been working with her to mark and verify areas for the creation of a new map for the park. Below is a satellite view of the park area, hopefully you can see all the various ‘roads’ in the park.
Today we saw a number of armadillo as well as turkey and deer. While eating dinner, a one antlered buck walked right by the back of our camper. The one antler he had showed 6 spikes.

Wednesday night we had to disconnect the water as the temp was to drop….and it did. Paul the park biologist noted that the weather gauge on the prairie near the visitor center showed a low of 19! That’s right 19 degrees in Florida. We tried to do some more trail work on Thursday, but after 3 hours we stopped. It was just to cold and windy. Temperatures are two warm up on Friday and more on Saturday so we may put in extra hours to complete our trail work.

Still Super Bowl Week

Thursday we enjoyed a potluck luncheon for volunteers and park staff. Lots of good food and friendship. The main course was lasagna made by one of the park staff and the park manager’s wife. We enjoyed it all, including all the deserts (carrot cake, cherry pie, dump cake and double rich chocolate cake) but still had to go to work after lunch. We wanted to finish up the outside walls of the shop building, which we did. We’ll take a few days from painting to do trail work before going back to do the trim. At the luncheon, Charlie (Park Manager) gave us a topographical aerial map of where he would like an additional primitive site. He also said that hogs had routed up the area of a site we marked last year and he could not find it. Fortunately we kept the GPS coordinates and will look for it to remark it.

Here is an interesting picture of a wood stork, and endangered species, which appears to have found a home in the park. They are hoping that they will develop a rookery on the preserve.

I know we mentioned the coyotes earlier and we have seen tracks along the road when we ride in the mornings. Here’s a close-up of a pair.

These appear closer to the gator, but they were taken from a safe distance.

These pictures were taken by a couple we met the first week we were here. They come here often and she is really into photography.

It rained part of the night and most of Friday Morning. According to Paul, the park biologist, we got a little over an inch in 12 hours. That’s a lot of rain for now as this is not the rainy season. You could see how it greened things up and there is more standing water. When it cleared in the afternoon we worked on the short nature trail. Relocated several trail markers and put in a couple too as well as trimmed so the markers could be seen. Did break a post hole digger handle trying to cut through the roots of some scraggly brush.

You can comment on the pictures on the blog.

Super Bowl Week

Had a quiet weekend as the campground had a number of astronomers here. There were all sizes of telescopes and some with cameras attached. They generally stay up late so they sleep later in the mornings. Did our usual Sunday church and shopping and returned to handle the ‘blue-boy’ empty job before we had desert. One of the other volunteers had made a sour cream raisin pie so we all gathered for desert and story sharing.

Monday we started putting the paint coat on the maintenance shop. We worked until nearly 2 and by then it was so hot that the paint was drying too fast. The bike ride home was a bit of a challenge after climbing up and down ladders, but we made it. So far we’ve ridden about 120 miles, most of it too and from the shop area for work.

This is a picture of what our site looks like from the prairie behind us.

On Wednesday we made the hour plus drive to Sebring to get the bad tire replaced. We had been emailing the area sales manager for Denman tire and he told us where to get one. Was expecting to pay for it and then get reimbursed, but when the Tire Kingdom manger called the Denman guy, all we had to do was sign and drive away. This was the tire that lost tread on I95 in Georgia. It never blew (was still holding 62 lbs today) but you can see from the picture, the tread did let go.

Anyway had a good day in Sebring and took care of a few errands and it was a different drive than that long run to Okeechobee.

Another week has past

Sunday was a quite day in the park even though all sites were occupied. Think everyone was worn down from the long weekend and the chill of Friday and Saturday nights.

Monday we headed for the shop area to work on the kiosk again. It was a beautiful sunny day and a bit warmer than the past few days. We started working on the base color and finished that in record time and decided to work on the balance of the trim. Worked straight through and finished it all. Already got several complements on how good it looks.

About noon the wind began to kick up so by 2 when we were ready to head home it was pretty strong out of the west/southwest. The 3 miles from the shop to the turn west towards the campground was rough, but that last 1.2 miles was a chore. It was the hardest ride we’ve ever made.

On Tuesday we just drifted around a bit. Judy worked on the drapes for Amy’s music room and Jon did go to the shop for a bit. It was really too cold and windy again to paint and it looks like Wednesday will be a repeat. Just after lunch and the swearing in of the new President, Judy saw a Caracara next to the trailer. The ‘Crested Caracara’ is a rare bird in this area. It’s mainly found in Mexico and some parts of Texas. I got a couple of shots through the window and then went outside to get a few more. Here is a picture of two cleaning a campsite.










The next is of a turkey vulture. Did you know that the turkey vulture is an endangered species? It is and for a very round-about reason. Here is one sitting on a dead cabbage palm across from our site.










On Wednesday we took it easy as it was too cold to paint so we surveyed a nature trail that Charlie (park manager) wants us to clean up. Need to repaint some markers, move a couple and put in some too. We will also have to trim the prairie grass growing up around some marker posts. Then we headed Fort Pierce for some shopping and late lunch. Didn’t get back home until nearly sunset.

Thursday - BRRRRRRRRRRRRR it has been very cold here for four days. We were to start painting on the maintenance shop (finishing the priming before painting the back and one side) but it was too cold to start in the morning. We did ride over about 10:30 and managed to complete the priming of the east end and then rode home about 3. We did have a treat for lunch today. With the fresh oranges we picked on Monday, Judy made a half batch of the Smithfield Inn orange cookies. Boy were they good more body and hunks of orange than the ‘mixed’ ones. She had to mix them with a fork as we don’t carry a mixer.

Couple of astronomers moved in for the weekend, even though there is still a crescent moon. We’ve had some beautiful sunrises but it has been too cold to go out and try to get a picture.

Friday we finished priming the maintenance shop with Kilz. Now we have to ‘paint’ the east and south sides and do the trim too. May not get it all done before time to head on.

This is Jon dong some prime work. A community service worker had started the job but his hours were completed before he finished. He left the hardest part, the trim priming and the indentations in the T-111 siding. The siding was very dry and really absorbed the paint.

On the way home we rode our bikes up to 7-mile slough to see if any ‘gators were out. This is a sign at the slough.

We found 14 of various lengths resting in the afternoon sun. Guess that they too were glad to see the sun and some heat.


Can you count them? Could not get all of them in one picture.

Next week will try to add comments a couple of times so the blog wont be so long. And oh yes, you can comment on the blog if you want and if the pictures are small, just double click on them to make them larger.