Month: January 2018

Saturday, January 13, 2018

This is second Saturday for NOMADS. It didn’t get as cold last night as predicted and was 61 when we got up this morning. However it was down to 58 by 9:00. Never got any warmer and was down to 54 at 5:00. It was another gray day with an occasional break of sunshine that was always very short lived. The forecast doesn’t look good for folks north of here so y’all be careful and stay warm. Be sure to check on your neighbors and family.

This morning we hiked rather than biking, back out the East Central Regional Rail Trail to the eagle’s nest. Just after getting on the trail we spotted another nest close to some condos. Strangely it appeared to have a Great Horned Owl sitting in the nest rather than eagles. We met someone on the trail that lives in the condos and she said one of the pair of eagles that was there the last few years died and the survivor has not returned. We did some research and found that it is not unusual for Great Horned Owls to take over eagle nests. They have even been known to run the eagles off at times. We like owls almost as much as eagles so it was cool to see that today.

A little further down the trail we saw a pretty Cooper’s hawk. He was perched on a limb right beside the trail and just sat there and posed for us. Nice.

When we got back out to yesterday’s eagle nest we didn’t see anything. We had almost given up when one of the eagles started calling. A short time later one was again on a branch above the nest. We continued to watch and eventually the one on the nest perched on the edge of the nest for a minute and then flew away. It returned a little later and again went down into the nest, we assume to sit on eggs. That time we were able to see the top of her head above the nest. The other eagle, we presumed the male, continued to be on guard on a branch above the nest. A fun morning bird watching. Love the eagles.

After returning to FRED, we prepared a late lunch of Instantpot meat loaf and mashed potatoes. A good recipe. We will have meat loaf again for lunches this week. We also juiced our key limes that were given to us yesterday and made a key lime pie. It’s still chilling in the refrigerator so will have to let you know later if it was good. Hope so. Otherwise we did a some laundry and reading.

Late afternoon we took another walk, this time around campus. We were told by Laura and Jo that they had seen a small alligator in one of the ponds. We found it. It is small but we suspect that if he doesn’t move on somewhere else before he gets much larger, the Children’s Home will have to have him relocated. However, it’s Florida. If there is a little pool of water there will be a gator there at some time. Don’t forget to be in prayer for services tomorrow and enjoy your time of worship.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Today was another nice warm day. The high was 79. However, the cold front is coming through tonight. It’s raining now. Our high tomorrow is predicted to be 53. Oh well, 53 is a lot better than what our northern neighbors are experiencing. We understand it is snowing at our house now and its currently 28 degrees – and that’s in Alabama. Thankful we are in Florida.

Since this is NOMADS Saturday, we elected to sleep a little late and then Max fixed us a wonderful breakfast and while eating we totally changed our plans for the day. The forecast had changed and it looked like the rain was not going to arrive until after 3:00. So, we decided to do some bike riding today while it was warm rather than waiting until tomorrow. We road a portion of the Spring to Spring bike trail and then road the East Central Regional Rail Trail end to end. Today we did a total of 18.4 miles. It was a very scenic, quiet and relaxing ride. Beautiful area. On the return ride we met a couple from Chicago and they pointed out an eagle’s nest to us. It is a large nest. There was an eagle perched on a limb above the nest and we are guessing the other half of the couple was sitting on the eggs. We hope to go back out the trail tomorrow with our good camera and tripod and see if we can get some better pictures.

There are a lot of geocaches along the trail, but we only took time to find three.

After our ride, we went back to FRED and rested a while and then after a late lunch we headed into town to run some errands and buy some groceries. We found a local produce and meat store that was interesting. They had all sorts of ethnic items and good prices on produce.

We also rode over to Sanford, FL, on the opposite side of Lake Monroe from the Children’s Home and did some shopping over there. They have all the big name stores there and lots of people.

We returned home and plan a quiet evening watching a movie. Hope everyone is staying warm.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Yahoo! It’s the weekend. Today was a gorgeous day. The high was in the upper seventies and after the morning clouds burned off we had beautiful blue skies. Some of the team may have even gotten a little too much sun today. We have had two weeks of more clouds than sun but today was what you hope a winter day in Florida will be.

It was another really busy day for the team as we completed more tasks. Ruth and Anne went back to the gray house off campus and worked to finish there because the new residents are suppose to move in tomorrow. The Children’s Home owns several houses within a few blocks of their property and use them for various things at different times. The house we were working on will be rented by a new professional employee and house their family until they decide exactly where they would like to live. Another one we will be working on next week will house some young ladies that are about to age out of the Children’s Home and will be entering the independent living program. We have been painting trim, patching some holes in the walls and touching up the paint. Today the final tasks were painting the front door and garage door. We completed that about mid afternoon then spent a couple of hours cleaning things in the house and all our painting supplies.

The base painting in the children’s cottage we have been working on this week was completed by Bob, Carol and Connie today. The fence is nearing completion. There is one section where the new fence will tie into an older fence that will be completed next week. The privacy screen is almost completed as well. Mike and Chris, when they were at a stopping place on the fence worked in the Chapel taking out a wall.

Max and Mark were back at work on the pump house today.  They completed the roofing today. It is looking good.  Laura and Jo helped Max and Mark when they were off the fence project. Terry and Kathy are running everywhere making sure we all have all the supplies and materials we need. This is Terry and Kathy’s first project leadership and there are doing a great job! We really appreciate their hard work. We have accomplished a lot this week.

Now everyone is off until Monday.  Chris and Laura are off to St Augustine to do the tourist thing. Some are just planning to hang around here and rest. We plan on doing some biking as well as laundry and grocery shopping. We all need some rest. We will see what else we can get into over the weekend.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

It started raining about 3:00 this morning. Never heavy rain. Usually just more like passing showers. But it was wet off and on until mid-afternoon. And it was warm. 61 when we got up this morning. Currently it’s 8:00pm and its still 72 outside. We are suppose to have a “cold front” coming through this weekend and the local weather guys are making a big deal about it. The graphics say “Brrrrrr” when the high is 53 Sunday. Since we have four team members from Iowa, they are getting a real laugh out of it all.

It was another busy, busy day of work on all the different projects. One project was completed. Bob, Connie and Carol completed painting the beauty salon. We will try to get pictures of the completed project sometime, but since we are all scattered out all over campus it’s hard to get pictures of everything. This is a 14 member team and we are working in small groups. Ruth and Laura worked in the cottage again this morning and that project is close to completed. Only need to paint some base in the living room. The kids were getting out of school early this afternoon so we couldn’t stay on that project today. Kathy and Anne worked on the trim at the house this morning. When they arrived at the house they were greeted by a flock of turkeys. That was strange. We expect to see a flock of turkeys at home but not here in the middle of town. We are accustomed to seeing sand hill cranes here but not turkey. Anne and Ruth worked on the house this afternoon. All the base has been painted, nails, screws, etc have been removed and holes patched. Tomorrow will be working on touching up wall paint, washing and painting the front door and garage door. Max and Mark continued work on the new pump house at the water treatment plant. That project is coming along nicely but that will not be completed until sometime next week.

The fence project is really moving along. Mike, Terry, Chris and Jo made good progress today. This afternoon Laura, Bob, Carol and Connie began placing the privacy cover on the completed portion of the fence.

Tonight we all had a pizza party, with salad and key lime pie. Everyone ate too much and we visited and had a good time. Really good team, working well together and accomplishing a lot in three days. We are all tired tonight. Tomorrow is NOMADS Friday!!

Joshua update. There had been incredible improvements in the last 48 hours and Joshua was discharged from Children’s Hospital late this afternoon. He still needs our prayers but is so much better. Thank you all for your prayers and concern!