1/31/07 (Wednesday): We had a really nice weekend in Winter Park with Wiley's family. I had routine doctor's appointments on Friday and Monday, and we had an appointment with the realtor on Saturday. We've listed the house for sale! We were quite pleased with the price the realtor thinks we can get for it. We have some concern that our current tenant might not cooperate with allowing us to show the house, but we came up with some incentives that we hope will ensure his cooperation. And even if he makes trouble for us, his lease runs out in April.

Mag's computer bit the dust on Saturday, so we've ordered a new one for her. It's amazing how dependent we've all become on computers, isn't it? Who would ever have thought that even we senior citizens would find them necessary parts of our everyday life?!

On Sunday we went back to Lyonia Preserve (where we saw the scrub jays on Christmas Eve) so that Mag could have the same experience.




















We had a great time on a cool, gray day!

Today I went out with my friend, Dot, to monitor the eagles' nests on the Preserve. We now have 4 nests, but we've never seen any activity on one of them (the new one that I discovered). One of the nests has two young, one has two adults who probably have either eggs or young because they stay close to the nest. One of the nests that had two adults who seemed to be incubating eggs has not had eagles on it my past four visits, although Wiley saw two adults on the nest yesterday. We're hoping they didn't lose their eggs/young. We should be seeing young by now. We've also seen two juveniles near one of the nests. You can tell they're juveniles because they don't have white heads or tails yet. They're very big and have the characteristic big yellow bill.

Here's a picture I took today. This adult was quite visible, and when it flew away, we were very surprised to see another adult in the nest. Usually you see only one on the nest and maybe another nearby.

Remember the pictures of lupine that I posted from Maine in early spring? Imagine my surprise when Dot told me she'd seen some on the trail! We went to have a look, and sure enough, there's a lot of it. It's early this year--the weather has been so warm.

That's all for today. Have a great week!

1/25/07 (Thursday): I just got an email from Julie. She's having trouble posting comments. She gets a java script error. The website has recently changed to a new format, but I've been using it all along (in beta version). I'd appreciate it if a couple of you would try posting a comment. I know that Uncle Ed posted one recently. Let me know if you're having any trouble.

We're painting the offices today. I was supposed to go watch scrub jays, but it's rainy and cold (for Florida, anyhow) today, and I doubt that we'll be going. Those jays are pretty smart--I think they're home watching TV on a day like this!

We'll be in Winter Park tomorrow through Monday. We have all kinds of appointments set up (medical, insurance, real estate). We're hoping for a nice day Sunday so we can have an adventure with the family.

I had a gorgeous picture of a mature eagle sitting on the edge of one of the nests I'm monitoring. I downloaded it from the binoculars, but I've lost it somehow. Darn!

1/21/07 (Sunday): My cousin, Candy, passed away Saturday morning. She was 51 years old. She was a lovely woman and I will never forget how kind she was to my father after my mother passed away. She will be mourned, but her life will be celebrated. God speed, Candy.

Last weekend, our friend, Troy, paid us a visit. He camped at a nearby campground (Lake Arbuckle) the first night and at Lake Kissimmee State Park for two more nights. He and I went out on the ATV looking for an eagle's nest I'd heard about, but we never did find it. I found it after he left, and it did have an eagle on it! (Sorry, Troy!) It was fun anyhow. We went to Lake Kissimmee after work the next day looking for him and ran into some FTA friends (Barbara, Catherine, Lou and Rachael and some others). We've invited them to come see us here at the Preserve. We'll give you the grand tour, guys!

I've been taking a new friend, Dot, on my eagle monitoring trips. She's a great friend of The Nature Conservancy and a dedicated hiker (6 days a week she's out here hiking our trail!). That's how I met her. This Thursday, I took her scrub jay monitoring with me for the first time. We had a grand time! All but one of the jays (in two families) came out to see us. They're so pretty and curious--it's hard not to try to make pets of them. They're very endangered, though, and it's sobering to think that if we don't save their endangered scrub habitat this beautiful creature could disappear forever.

This weekend we went to the RV show in Tampa and we bought a new RV!!! We're really excited. It wasn't a snap decision. We've been to see our financial advisor and considered all the ramifications, and the time seems right. We're going to put our house on the market, too. Although our tenants have worked out okay, their lease is up at the end of March, and we still have some of our belongings stored in the attic. We are committed to our new lifestyle and ready for this change! If and when we ever get tired of living in our RV, we will buy or rent a place. It's exciting and kind of scary at the same time, like all changes, but we believe the time is right to make the change now.

We've bought a 2007 Brookside from Sunnybrook, which is one of the three manufacturers we liked most. It's about the same size as the one we're in now (28.5 feet long), but it has a slide out in the bedroom as well as the living room, which gives us a little more space.
There's also more storage space underneath. We'll be able to pull it with our truck, which was a big consideration for us.



It has a large picture window (you can see it behind the two chairs) and solid wood cabinets throughout. The counters are Corian, and it has upgraded carpeting and tile. I'm not crazy about the upholstery on the couch, but it's a real Hide-A-Bed, and very comfortable (the fold-out bed in our current living room is not very comfortable for company). We like the light colored wood and neutral colors a lot, too.




We'll pick it up in mid-February. We traded in the Prowler. Didn't get as much for it as we'd hoped, but we didn't want the hassle of trying to sell it. This way, we just pull the Prowler up next to the Brookside and transfer all our belongings right in the parking lot of the RV dealer!


That's it for another blog--got to go make some dinner.

1/18/07 (Thursday): As promised, I'm going to try to catch everyone up on our happy, busy life.

We spent last weekend with Wiley's parents. On Friday, his mother and I did a little shopping. On Saturday, we picked strawberries at a local strawberry patch.

The picking is fun, but the eating is even better! Strawberries are at their best when warmed by the sun and eaten with a light sprinkling of the sandy soil they grow in. Yum!

We went to the Black Hammock Restaurant for a great seafood lunch. This place has been around for many years. It's right on Lake Jesup.





Of course, while we were so close, Wiley had to get in a little fishing. This pelican was very interested in what he might catch and kept up a vigil from a nearby perch.


When we got home, we made a delicious strawberry pie with the bounty of our labors. Also some homemade strawberry ice cream. Somehow I don't think our labors burned up nearly as many calories as we took in!






On Sunday, we drove out to Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge again in hopes that Wiley's folks would have as good a time as we'd had a few weekends before. The birds were not quite as plentiful this time (and there were no scrub jays), but there were lots of manatees. We had a great picnic lunch, too.
As I mentioned in my last post, we've made some exciting decisions recently. I'm turning 62 next month and will start receiving Social Security benefits. Our investments are doing better than we expected, so we've decided to buy a newer RV. We want to sell the one we have to someone who wants it for short vacations, because it was not built to withstand the rigors of full-time living. We're going to the RV show in Tampa this weekend. We'll probably wait and buy a used rig, but sometimes there are some very good deals at the RV show, and we know exactly what we want.

We're also considering putting our house on the market. Our tenants' lease is up at the end of March and the housing market in our area has not declined as much as in some parts of the country. We haven't made a final decision about this yet, but we've definitely decided that the full-time RV lifestyle is for us. We still have some stuff stored in our attic and we rented the house partially furnished, so it would be nice to get that taken care of while we're living nearby.

I just got word that my cousin, Candi, is in the hospital in very serious condition. She's just 51 years old. I hope everyone will hold her in their thoughts.

I'll post something next week about our adventures at the RV show. Keep those comments coming!

1/17/07 (Wednesday): Not much time for a big post today, but I just had to share this picture (taken with my new digital photo binoculars--thanks Darcie and Chris) of my newly hatched eaglets! This is the first time I've seen two on the nest. There was only one last week.

I'll post more soon. We've got lots of news. We're in the market for a newer RV. We're probably going to sell the house soon. More on all that later. Stay tuned!

1/10/07 (Wednesday): Wow--time just flies when you're having fun! Happy 2007 everyone! We're still having a blast out here in the back of beyond. Weekend before last we went to the Brevard Zoo and hiked the beautiful hiking trail here in the preserve. Both were lots of fun. Here area some pictures from the zoo.

Each animal's area had been decorated for Christmas. It took me a few minutes to see what was hung up with these stockings!








I call this shot "mackaw love"--they were facing head to tail and grooming one another. Cute!


This bird was in the aviary--the birds fly free and the people are in the cage. I think it's a kuckaburro (spelling?) from Austrailia.

We also enjoyed a kayak ride through the zoo exhibits led by one of the docents. It made it seem more like we were on a safari than in the zoo.






We realized that we'd been to lots of different places hiking and sightseeing, but we hadn't hike the 6-1/2 mile trail in our own preserve. So we took a morning and hiked it. It's a beautiful trail. We didn't see much wildlife, but their tracks were everywhere. We saw the prints of turkey, deer, feral hog, raccoon, possum, rabbit and many other animals. Here are some shots from our hike.

Here's Wiley in some scrubby oaks. I think they're probably fairly old oaks, but the nutrients are so few and there's so little rain that they don't grow very big.










This is some very typical scenery here in sand hill country. There's almost no topsoil, just white sand. I don't know how grass manages to grow here, much less trees! I've heard prairie land described as "big sky" country. This part of the world seems to me to have very big skies.








I thought this gnarled old tree made a very "artsy" picture.

Last weekend we had a BBQ at the boss's house for the incoming fire crew. There are four young people (three guys and a gal) who will be helping with the prescribed burns. One of the guys is an excellent cook. He prepared oysters in several different ways (including oysters Rockefeller) and mussels. We also had BBQ chicken. I made potato salad. It was great fun. We sat on the deck and had a fire (which it was way too hot for, but it kept some of the mosquitos at bay). What a super bunch of people we work with!

On Sunday we sent canoeing on Reedy Creek with two of our co-workers. My wrist and thumb held up just fine. It was much more fun than physical therapy, and probably more of a workout! The creek wound around through fairly high sandy bluffs. We didn't see any alligators or turtles, which seemed odd, but we did see a feral hog (and heard two more grunting in the underbrush). We had a picnic on the banks. Great fun.

Afterwards, Wiley and I went out in one of the ATV's to poke around and explore the preserve. We hoped to find an eagle's nest just off our property that someone had mentioned to us. We did find a nest (didn't see any eagles on it), but as it turns out, it wasn't the one we were looking for. We accidentally discovered a new nest on Preserve property! This is very exciting to everyone here. I'll now be including it when I monitor the other two nests.

Today I did my eagle monitoring. I've been taking Dot, a friend we met hiking here on the preserve, with me on these monitoring trips. What a thrill for both of us to find that our first eaglet has hatched! We actually saw one of the parents feeding it -- we could see the head, back and one wing of the little one. I'm still playing with my new digital photo binoculars. When I perfect my technique and manage to take a clear picture, I'll post one of my eagle families.

I've noticed recently that when I click on one of the pictures posted on my blog, it's too big to fit on the screen. Have any of you noticed that? I think it must be the new blogger.com. Maybe next time I'll choose a smaller posting size and see if that helps. I welcome your comments.

Tomorrow is scrub jay monitoring day. Also, we're having a luncheon to say goodbye to the intern who's leaving us at the end of this week. So, goodbye for now from a couple of happy campers!