The Dinner Party

We just held our first dinner party in our new home. The guests were Sandra and Gary Fenstemaker. Initially everything went very well with dinner being served on our new dining room table on our new dishes and with new silverware (actually stuff that was stored in the basement). We served our best wine, Oak Hill by WalMart, 2010 vintage.

But then things turned bad. The chicken was over cooked and the Semolina Bread didn't rise so we had more wine to wash it down. The twice baked potatoes came out good - lets toast to that and the new salad with watermelon and Feta cheese was tasty - let me open another bottle.

It was a great evening.

More Home Repairs

For some reason Polly didn't like the Zebra stripes painted on the lower half of the master bathroom wall. So she sanded and smoothed them out with a coat of primer.

She then found a wallpaper that matched her sea shell theme for that bathroom and,walla, the Zebra stripes are now only a memory.

Out front was a big statuary which at some time had water flowing down it. Upon disassembly it turned out to be a faulty pump. Home Depot provided a replacement which apparently was too powerful since when I hooked it up it shot water from the statuary to the sidewall. I added a clamp to the output hose and finally got it to flow from one pool to another. Inside the garage was a timer which we didn't know what it was for. After fooling around with it a while it turns the fountain on and off a predetermined times. Now it goes on at noon and off a dusk.

The last is a Florida plumbing education I just received. The water for the house is provided by a submersible pump down at the bottom of a drilled well. But on the surface there is small air backer storage tank, then another very big tank, another surface water pump and another air backed storage tank. What in the world is all this for. Well, it turns out that the ground water in this area has a lot of sulfur dioxide gas in it and smells like rotten eggs. So the submersible pump pumps the water up to the first air backed tank. The water than goes to the big tank which has a spray head it the top and the water is spayed at atmospheric pressure which allows the sulfur gas to escape and go its on way into the air. Now the water is a zero pressure so they need another pump and another air backed tank to pressurize and store the water for home use. Wow. With that and a couple of filter systems you can actually drink it.

Bush Gardens

I saw an ad that said Florida residents could get one year pass for Bush Garden for less than the cost of a one day. That sounded pretty good especially if everyone that came down to visit could also use them. So I signed up on-line for 2 tickets and we went up to Bush Gardens in Tampa. The on-line printout brought me to a Kiosk where I scanned the bar code on the printout and out pops two one year passes - great - they didn't even check if Polly had any Florida ID. So now we're on our way in and to enter the gate you have to scan your pass - no trouble - but than you have to put your finger under another gadget that scans the finger print and stores it with the ticket ID. Shot down - nobody else can use that ticket - there goes the scheme of letting everyone use it. So it just the two of us with a year pass and Polly doesn't like any of the rides.

So it's a pretty park and not crowded this time of year. A Chia Lion and butterflies greet you.

We took the aerial car ride to get to the back half of the park - you can see the enjoyment of the ride on Polly's face.

The roller coaster ride has a free drop of 100 ft, splashes through a small pond, takes a right angle turn and rolls upside down.

It was in the 90's when we were there and the only animal that was upright was this silver back. The rest of his family was sweating it out.

The birds in the aviary were active.

Polly was trying to teach the Flamingos to stand on one foot.

Myakka

We went to the Myakka State Park which is centered around a huge lake that feeds the Myakka River. The park has an airboat and a tram ride which we took. The airboat isn't the type you imagine since it's top speed is 10 mph.














But it takes you out in the middle of the lake

where you see alligators galore

Some pretty big - the distance in inches from the nose to the eye gives you the length of the gator in feet - This one is about 9 feet long.














The lake is only 8 feet deep at the center so the shores allow plenty of room for all types of birds and the gators don't eat them - This is a Great Blue heron.















The center of Florida used to be all prairie like this but man stopped the annual burning and trees and palmetto came in.














They also had a tower (192 ft tall) and a sky walk. We did it but in the 90 degree temperature it wasn't worth it.














Polly is really affected by the heat. After we did the tower the buzzards kept following her around.














The Myakka is down near Saratoga so on the way home we decide to take a look at the Sarasota Beaches. Never found them but came across this big statue with a wedding couple having their picture taken in front of it. Reminds me of that famous newspaper picture at the end of WWII.

Furnishing the Florida Home

It surprises you when you get a second home how much stuff you have to get. For instance, to put my new license plate on my pickup truck I needed some washers. Back in Voluntown I have a big jar full of washers. Down here I have to run to Walmart and buy a bag of washers. A wind storm broke a big limb off a live oak tree. Back home I'd call up Wayne and borrow his chain saw. Down here it's off to Home Depot and buy a chain saw. The list goes on and on from a Barbeque to beard clippers but I complain too much so here are the purchases we made so far for furnishing the house.

First is the living room. We got a full sized couch with a pull out bed, love seat, side chair, two end tables and a coffee table. The couch is on back order so we wouldn't have it delivered until we come back in October. Recognize the two lamps, one was in the living room of the cottage and the other was in the basement.

The dining room has a nice table with eight chairs and a serving buffet. It is lonesome and needs something else - we're hoping for inspiration at one of the estate sales that we go to.

Bedroom has been furnished with the basic components - bed, two dressers and two night tables. Still needs blinds (should be in this week and wall hangings - hopefully at an estate sale.

We got three chairs for the breakfast bar. I'm still trying to find all the ingredients to made some semolina bread.

The Lanai is outfitted with a table and chairs. This is where the screen room around the pool will attach on someday.

Laudry is operational.

Still looking for ideas on what to put in room next to the dining room - kind of thinking about a game room but don't have anything in particlar in mind yet - will take suggestions.

A Month in Florida

Polly and I are back down in Florida again. We decided to spend a month picking out and buying furniture and other necessities for our Wimauma House. This first blog is to make you aware of the different types of insects that you find during the hot months (its been in the 80's and 90's since we got here) versus the colder winter months.

On the way down we stopped overnight at my step-brother Walter and Marion's house in South Carolina. Sitting in their TV room which overlooks Lake Hartwell we saw a bunch of big bees (at least an inch long) fling all around and fighting with each other. Walter says he gets them every year and they are called Carpenter Bees. He took us out on the back deck and showed us why they are called Carpenter Bees. They were all busy drilling holes into the siding on his house. Very neat and round holes all about 3/8" in diameter. After that they lay an egg in each and seal it in with bees wax. He hasn't found anything to stop them (I found some sprays on the Internet that are supposed to repel them which I have forwarded to him).

Next are the Love Bugs. You can seem them flying all over the place in pairs connected back to back.

A lot of them died with a smile on their faces on the front of my pickup truck and mine wasn't cover with too many. Some semi's come in almost black with Love Bugs.

I cleaned up my trucks lincense plate by becoming a Florida resident.

And finally in cleaning up the leaves around the outside of our house, I apparently found a nest of red ants. They didn't hurt that much when they bit but the bite festers and itches for a week.

I poisoned them all.