Christmas on the Land

We will finally spend Christmas at the Panhandle property. Being there will give us some good ol' Christmas spirit!

Ready to return

Looking forward to the next trip up to the property. When can I find time to get there? Scheduled to work every Saturday puts a wrench into our plans.

Sunday we were relaxed and took a walk to the front of the property for a wonderful sunset.

Sorry this has to be read backwards. At least I keep trying to use computers......

We got the animals settled in and tried to set our new site up before it began to get too hot. It was great to be there but would have been a bit more enjoyable if the heat was not so intense.

We finally seen our metal cabin

Just before dawn on Saturday the 4th we arrived at our new campsite.

need to see the property

Please let us get to the property and see our new building....purchased, now paid for and NEVER seen!!!!!

Our home in the Panhandle arrived on Friday

The concrete slab was poured early May but the wait was over for the arrival of our metal building. Friday the 18th our building arrived in pieces and was put together. The next wait is to see our building! We will be screening the concrete slab to enjoy bug free evenings! Hope to send pictures with our smiling faces in front of our hard top tent soon!!!!! Thanks to David and Cindi our neighbors for all their help on Friday.

FNPS Annual Conference

On Wed. the 19th I headed to Tallahassee for the 30th Florida Native Plant Conference. Could not travel that far and not make a short visit to the Jackson County property. Drove and walked around the property picked a few flowers, fern, and grass seed heads to have as decoration to the hotel room and headed back east to Tallahassee. Met up with my roommate Sid Taylor and it was the start to seeing many friends.
Thursday was my field trip to St. Joseph Buffer Preserve; pine forest with rare wildflowers and then off to the beach track with a fire tower, concrete dock, and an Indian mound of conch shells. The plants were fascinating and the coral beans were spectacular. The ride back included at stop on 65 and 20 for astounding pitcher plants and other common eye jewels. The reception was on the 22nd floor (all windows great views) of the State Capital. It was a pleasure to catch up with members and meet new ones too!
Friday was class day with the key note speaker talking about plant blindness. I purchased 2 new books and 2 calendars. The evening was a trip to Tall Timbers for dinner and fun.
Saturday was more classes and lots of treasures from the silent auction. I skipped out on the last social event for dinner with 3 society friends at Cool Beans Restaurant. I was nice to have dinner with people not seen very often and the food was very tasty. (smart move from previous years paying too much for banquet food).
Sunday was getting up early to take a shower, finish last minute packing loading, get a bit of breakfast, check out of hotel, and get to the civic center for last field trip and final good-byes to people not on your trip. It was then off to Thomasville GA to see ancient long leaf pines. The trip ended on time at 1:30pm and I headed back to Marianna. Spent 2 hours walking the property, sitting in the tree stand watching butterflies and birds wondering how anyone can sit still to hunt, cleared some tree debris out of fire lanes and marked some trees to save hopefully from a mulching process to clear out some sand pines and turkey oaks to replant with long leaf pines. I then spent the evening with my good friends / neighbors Cindi and David Steward.
Monday I enjoyed breakfast with Cindi and David, took a much too short tour of the yard and was on the road at 8am. It was back to Davenport at 1:20 and out the driveway with the maintenance trailer at 2:30!

Looking forward to next year when it will be in Orlando at the Maitland Sheraton.

property

On Sat. we arrived at 8:25 pm after an 8 hour drive that should take 6 hrs. thanks to northbound spring break. We got the tent up, filled air mattresses, made the beds, and then got the camp fire going and started enjoying our time. The sparkling stars are incredible away from city lights, and so was the hooting of owls. Daytime gave the joy of waking with the sounds of birds chirping including the goobles of wild turkeys. We worked on clearing fire lines while loving the sights of blooming dogwood and the find of a large stand of native pink azaelas. Joe loves driving his jeep and after getting 1/2 of the fire lines cleared he sent me off for a drive because we no longer had to duck limbs and go over dead tree debris. We cooked 2 nights on the camp fire and was sad on Tuesday morning that the large firewood used as hot coals could not remain for starter but a small morning fire was made to burn out the coals. (water is limited since we carry it in). We did our last wash up from water taken out of the coolers..brrrrrr, it was cold however over our stay the dogs love it as drinking water!
It is now back to the life that pays for that property and dreams of retirement to become a hermit with hopes of visitors who need a nature break.

Kit Kat the cat
Lakota the wolf
Dot.Dot the dog
Buddy the parrot will be posted soon