2/6/07 (Tuesday): It's been another great week here in the back of beyond. I can't believe how fast the time flies. We had a pretty typical day today. We usually get up around 6 or 6:30 (Wiley gets up earlier than me) and have a leisurely breakfast and watch the news on TV. Then I go into the office (no one comes in until 9 AM, so I have the place to myself). I check my email and handle any personal business over the phone. On Mondays and Tuesdays Wiley and I work on projects together in the morning--trail maintenance, painting, running errands, cleaning the shop, or whatever we're asked to do. We have an early lunch together in the RV and then I go into the office to relieve the office manager from 12:00 to 2:00 and Wiley finishes up any projects we started. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, Wiley does more of the same kind of maintenance projects and I monitor eagles and scrub jays in the morning and work in the office in the afternoon. We usually quit by 2:00 or 3:00. We clean the office after hours on Thursday night when we're going to Winter Park for the weekend or on Saturday morning when we're staying home. In our spare time, we like to explore the local area, hike the trails, fish (Wiley), relax and read on the patio (me), canoe on the Peace River or some local creeks and go to the beach (Vero Beach is the closest). In the near future, we hope to go to Ft. Myers for a long weekend, visit the Bok Tower Gardens. We also hope that some of our friends will come visit us here. It's a great life--we both feel very relaxed and happy.
Last weekend we stayed home and ran errands, cleaned the RV and took a short hike at a nearby preserve called Hickory Scrub. It's a small preserve, but it's quite beautiful scrub and some of the wildflowers and rare plants were in bloom. We also saw an eagle. Wiley looks like he's asleep on his feet in this picture, but he really was having a good time. This is pretty typical scrub habitat--lots of snow white sand and low-growing herbaceous plants. You're pretty likely to see scrub jays, gopher tortoises, indigo snakes and a variety of rare animals that are endemic to this inhospitable terrain.
Most of the plants are not impressive looking, but very rare. This scrub rosemary smells wonderful!
The scrub bay smells good, too. It's similar to the bay leaves used in Italian cooking. (I told my niece it was a spaghetti bush!)
This little pink flower is no bigger than a dime, but looks just like a hibiscus! I'm not sure what it's called--Wiley says the seed is like a cockleburr.
This little bird's nest (about the size of an apple) was hung from some reeds near a little lake.
Today we decided to change our new RV order to a different model. It looks much the same, but weighs a little less and has some features that we like better. Now we're hoping that we'll get it in time to head off to our next assignment in Michigan on April 1! Keep your fingers crossed for us.
Stay tuned for more of our continuing adventure next week!
Katelyn's Girl Scout troop sold cookies over the weekend. I'm already done with my first box. Those things should be outlawed--they're way too good!
On Sunday, my mother-in-law treated me and Katelyn to a cruise on the Winter Park lakes. It's a cool way to spend an hour. The little pontoon boats cruise around three lakes that are connected by canals and you get to view the wildlife and see lots of neat mansions. The college that I graduated from (Rollins) is on Lake Virginia and I got to see it from an angle I'd never seen before.
I've been doing a lot of work in the office lately, organizing supply cabinets and setting up databases, so it was a pleasure to go out eagle watching today. We have two nests that are active and three that are not. There are 2 eaglets on one nest and I think there are eggs in the other.
