3/29/07 (Thursday): We're in the home stretch now--we'll be leaving Tiger Creek Preserve on Monday morning, heading for Mag and Wiley's house. We'll stay there through Easter Sunday and leave for Michigan Easter Monday morning. The good folks here at the Preserve are throwing us a going away party tomorrow--a barbecue. We're sure going to miss everyone!

We were back in Orlando last week. We did a lot of work getting our house ready for sale. There's still some more to do (mostly yard work and touch-up painting). It was arduous, but hopefully we'll be rewarded with a little jingle in our pockets. We'll be in trouble if it doesn't sell fairly soon, because we now have a monthly payment to make on our new RV. We'll pay it off in full as soon as the house sells.

I've made an adjustment to my camera that I hope will solve the problem with the too-big pictures. Click on a couple of these and let me know if it's better.

Just before we left, I had a visit here at the Preserve with Dave Almquist, an entomologist. He's the one I've been doing the beetle project for. We had great fun looking at all the beetles I'd found (some of them rather rare). In the picture on the right, he's sifting sand in the area where he found a pygmy scarab beetle, in hopes of finding a female. He also took me and Dot out for a little bug hunting.


I found this cute black and white beetle on the inside of a paw paw bloom. The paw paw bushes are in bloom all over the preserve. They in the fall, they have an edible fruit.


I think this green guy is an anole, but Wiley calls them chameleons. Whatever--I think he looks sort of like Geico's ghecco! Cute!!











This is me and my friend, Dot, at Heron Pond. Did I mention that I'm really going to miss the people I've met here?! Wiley built the wood duck house (in the background) in his spare time.








We see gopher tortoises out on the trail all the time, but this one came right out into our parking lot in front of the office! I think he came to say goodbye to us.









I saved the best news for last! This is us at Leisure Time RV in Winter Garden, where we just picked up our new RV. The folks here were wonderful--we felt so pampered! And the RV was immaculate and in wonderful working order. It was a great experience overall, and I can recommend them without reservation.






We pulled the Prowler right up beside the new Brookside and walked back and forth unloading the old and moving into the new. It was tiring, but it was probably the easiest move I've ever made. It only took about 1-1/2 hours. Everything is more or less put away now--just some shelves to build and hooks to install. We love our new home! I'll post some pictures in the next blog when we have it all set up and pretty. It is a little taller than the Prowler was, but it's the same length. We had no trouble hauling it with the truck.

I hope to be able to do one more blog before we leave, and then we hit the road for Michigan! Our new employers (Betsie River Campground in Frankfort, Michigan) will be there in mid-April, and we start work May 1. We can go a week early to look around if we want to. We'll have almost 3 weeks to get there, and I hope to be able to blog about all our experiences on the road like I did on the trip to Maine. Stay tuned for Joyce and Wiley's Great Adventure Part III--coming soon to a computer near you!

P.S. I almost forgot--just for you Uncle Ed--here's the pic of Julie with the scrub jay on her head. Flattering, don't you thing?!

3/19/07 (Monday): We had a very nice weekend in Winter Park, and now we're back home in Tiger Creek. Mag and Wiley have sold their beach house (which was in pretty bad shape) to a neighbor who is restoring it. The family has many wonderful memories of the time they spent in the cottage, so we were eager to accept the neighbor's invitation to visit and see how he's fixing it up. It looks terrific--bright and sunny--and he's even using some of the same furniture. It has a very 50's feel.


Julie and John came to visit us in Winter Park on Saturday. We had lunch at Wiley's favorite Chinese buffet in Apopka and then went to see if we could scout up some scrub jays. I've always seen the scrub jays when we go to Lyonia, but we've always had to walk on the trail before they come out. This time, they met us right at the beginning of the trail! They were quite friendly and we enjoyed their antics. They'd fly onto our heads and shoulders without any fear!

After our trip to the park, we went into town to John's favorite Oriental grocery store. John is from Indonesia, and this is the closest place for them to buy Indonesian food. They're having a visit with their children and grandchildren next week, so they were stocking up. The store was fascinating--a huge variety of foods I've never seen before. This funny looking fruit is a durian. It's supposed to taste absolutely wonderful, but before you can put it in your mouth, you have to get past its horrible smell. I don't think I'm brave enough to try it.

On Sunday we went out for breakfast and did a little gardening.








Then we headed home. After we cleaned the office we headed out to check my beetle traps. We hit the mother lode of beetles this time! It had rained while we were gone, and apparently that brings them up (they live in the sand). Ten of our 13 traps had beetles in them; many of the traps had more than one! The trap consists of a deli container buried in the sand up to its rim. The lid has a slit cut in it with a hole in the center. You push the lid down into the container and it forms a funnel. The bait cup is suspended over the trap with a wire stuck into the sand. The bait consists of dung (I'm using hog dung), molasses and yeast. So far, I've found Peltotrupes profundes (very rare), geotrupes (not as rare, never found here in Polk County before), and pygmy scarab beetles (also very rare). If you'd like to see pictures of these beautiful beetles, check out www.bugguide.net. You can search the site for the beetles I named above. The entomologist who got me started on this project is coming to the Preserve this week. I'm excited to be able to give him so many rare beetles!

That's it for another week. Stay tuned!

3/13/07 (Tuesday): I hope everyone hasn't given up on me! We've been very busy with listing our house for sale, helping Wiley's parents clean out their garage (so that we can store some of our stuff there), and in general winding down our stay in Florida and getting ready for our trip to Michigan. I can't believe we leave in two weeks!

I've also been busy preparing a presentation for our FL Trail Association meeting last Thursday. It should have been quite easy, but I kept losing the pictures and had to re-do it 3 times! As soon as I figure out how to do it, I'm going to try putting a link to it here.

Last weekend we had a visit from Fran and Richard, who were fellow workampers with us in Maine. They brought their huge motor home and parked it here. We had a great visit, the highlight of which was our visit to Bok Tower. Bok Tower is in Lake Wales, about 10 miles from here. It was built by Edward Bok, the editor of the Ladies Home Journal. In addition to the beautiful tower with its carillon bells, it has beautiful gardens and is a bird sanctuary. We were fortunate enough to visit during a fesitval and heard several concerts. That's Fran and Richard in front of the gates.


The gardens were just gorgeous.









There were fountains and gazebos and winding paths. We had beautiful weather, too.








We especially enjoyed a little room on a pond. The back wall was all glass. The birds (like this cardinal) and animals couldn't see us but we could see them quite well.




These nun's orchids were breathtaking.











They had ranunculus in many different colors. This yellow one looks so sunny and bright.







This swan looks very peaceful and lovely, but you should have seen it go after Richard's shoes! Vicious!!







Today, a co-worker took me and another volunteer to a preserve near here to see baby great horned owls. We found the nest, but the babies must have been asleep. We couldn't see them. Wiley and I will go back and check them out at sunset when they should be active. While we were walking in the preserve, we saw this moth on the ground. I've never seen anything like it! It looks like a piece of Native American pottery! I'm going to try to get it identified.

Tomorrow I'm monitoring scrub jays (probably for the last time). We're done peanut training them and will now attempt to band them before the nesting season begins. I'm going to miss them!

Our eagle families are growing up. They're about ready to fledge (fly away). I hope I'm still here to see that.

Tomorrow we leave right after work. I'm taking Wiley Sr. and Mag to Mayo Clinic for Wiley's annual check-up. Then we're going to meet Julie and John for lunch on Friday. The weekend will be devoted to emptying our attic and moving our stuff into the newly cleaned garage.

We're expecting delivery of our RV on 3/23. We'll transfer our belongings from the Prowler to the new RV on the lot and then come back here until 3/31, which is our last day. We've got our route to Michigan planned.

I hope everyone has a great week, and I'll blog again soon!