It was another beautiful day in south Florida. The team went to church together today and again received a warm welcome from the pastor and congregation. It seems to be a resilient congregation. Maybe you have to be resilient to live in the keys. Looking at most of the church building you would not realize it had 4 feet of storm surge from Hurricane Irma. The sanctuary looks nice but other areas still need some work. We hope to be able to do a few things for them soon. We had a quiet afternoon, getting ready for our Sunday night meeting. The meeting went well and we are all ready to go back to work in the morning. Hope you all had a great weekend.
Today was a relaxing day. We did some work around FRED and then went to the Big Pine Key Flea Market across the highway. There were noticeably more people there today than last Saturday. Everyone says traffic is just going to get worse as we move toward January when all the snow birds arrive. Today we spent a little more time shopping but just left with food items. We bought some mangrove snapper on the recommendation of our homeowner Dennis. He was a commercial fisherman in years past. We pan seared the fish in a little butter and lime juice and it was very good. We will probably buy more while we are here.
The Big Pine Key Flea Market is open on Saturdays and Sundays.
There are about 6 rows of booths about 100 yards long as well as some vendors on the outside of the booths. It has been here 37 years.
As in most fleas markets, there is an eclectic array of vendors, like a few produce stands …
… jewelry vendors …
… plants and wind ornaments …
… and hardware vendors. You have to search through a lot of stuff to find what we would call real bargains. But it was still fun.
The fresh seafood vendor recommended how to cook the mangrove snapper.
Just a little lime juice, salt and pepper and dredged in flour.
Cooked about 3 minutes on each side
Some of the produce we bought
New team in place
We also welcomed Kathy and Larry to the team today. We are thankful for their safe arrival and look forward to working with them over the next several weeks. We had a really nice rain shower this afternoon that gave us a much appreciated break in the temperature. It went from 84, down to 77 in about 30 minutes. Nice. While we were out walking around after the rain, some of the Key deer that hang around every afternoon made their appearance. Interesting, when Elaine got out of her car and rattled a bag of corn chips they came over wanting to be fed. We saw a video last week of a deer stealing a bag of chips from a picnic table. We did not feed them but they were sure hopeful. It was another good day. Remember to pray for all the pastors preparing for services tomorrow.
We awoke to another rain during the night and today was humid and gray, threatening rain most of the day. Our morning began with sad goodbyes with the Gene and Carolyn. We so greatly appreciate all they have done to begin the Florida project and lead for 10 weeks. A HUGE thank you to them for their hard work. See you down the road, dear friends.
We met with Jim, the construction coordinator, later this morning and he brought us up to date on what our areas of concentration should be through the holidays. We also learned about some work he would like for us to do for Big Pine UMC – some upgrades to the building and sound booth. The rest of the day was paperwork, laundry, walking and relaxing. Another good day in south Florida.
The sound booth is one of the areas needing some work in the church.
We awoke to rain on the roof this morning. Would have been nice to fall back asleep but we did the adult thing and resisted the temptation. After the early morning rain passed by we had another beautiful, sunshine filled day.
After devotion, we all headed back to Dennis’s house to do the final drywall work in the kitchen and living room. Our first job this morning was to help Dennis herd Bucky the Key deer out of his yard. Dennis has some lush foliage and beautiful flowers in his yard and the deer really like it. We actually helped Dennis encourage Bucky to go visit someone else about three times today. Otherwise, we were finishing drywall all day. Mid afternoon, Gene set up the texture machine and taught us how to use it. The plan is that we will prime the ceiling Monday morning and then as soon as the primer is dry we will texture the ceiling. We would love to get the kitchen and family room textured Monday.
Some of Dennis’s beautiful flowers
And Bucky who likes to eat them
We have to say goodbye to Carolyn and Gene tomorrow. We so appreciate all their hard work leading this disaster rebuild for the past 10 weeks. We all went out to dinner tonight at the Big Pine Rooster. The food was really good but the fellowship was even better. So we are at the end of our first work week. One down and a lot more to go.
We have seen manatees in a canal near Dennis’s house several times this week.
There were more Key deer outside our RVs this evening. For an endangered species they sure are plentiful around here.
It seems to be a resilient congregation. Maybe you have to be resilient to live in the keys. Looking at most of the church building you would not realize it had 4 feet of storm surge from Hurricane Irma. The sanctuary looks nice but other areas still need some work. We hope to be able to do a few things for them soon. We had a quiet afternoon, getting ready for our Sunday night meeting. The meeting went well and we are all ready to go back to work in the morning. Hope you all had a great weekend.
RVing With a Purpose 