I wish I had a before picture to show y’all. But I often get
my picture ideas after the fact. At least, we can say I’m focused on my work,
right? So, the picture I would have liked for y’all to see would be the piles
and piles of sawdust on the floor, on the tables, on the equipment, on the
chairs, on anything and everything inside the carpenter’s shop. One afternoon
when I was kind of caught up on my work, I volunteered to do some clean up. Most
fun I had at this work site. I
used a blower, a broom, and a rag to try to get the sawdust cleaned up. It’s a
pretty big shop and it was next to an impossible to get it all, but I rather
enjoyed trying. The good news (or
some would say the bad news) was that I could do it every day if I had wanted
to as we continued to make a sawdust mess and you could never quite get it all.
It is after all, a carpenter’s shop. J
With the picnic tables done and our “leaders” out sick, the timing couldn’t have been better for our spring break trip with our granddaughter. The trip we were all anxious to make. Three days at Fort Myers Beach with her Wisconsin cousins. Our daughter and family were happy to get away from the Wisconsin weather but our big day together on the beach and at the pool turned out to be a miserably cold and rainy day. Note the picture of the cousins “at play.” We did manage to do a little shopping and a stroll on the beach, but it wasn’t everything we had hoped it would be. Oh well, there’s always next year! We did manage to make a few stops on our almost four hour car ride home. Bill and our granddaughter did a zipline and I gave her a “ride” on an airboat. What can I say, I prefer to stay grounded!!! By the way, I found an affordable Airbnb for the three of us to stay less than a half hour from where our daughter and family were staying. We have had such good experiences with finding affordable and nice Airbnb’s. I highly recommend them.
I know I started this blog off with getting an early
start…and then the month just got away from me. (As it’s now already
April.) Following our three days away,
we had some volunteer hours to make up and we got to work on signs for the
forest. In past years, this is one of the main jobs the volunteers handle in
the carpenter’s shop. I, for one, have found that I really enjoy it. There’s a lot of measuring, drawing, and
painting…and I enjoy all three of those. Bill takes care of the cutting,
routering, and sanding.
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We did have some great times with our granddaughter this
month. We attended her fast pitch softball games twice a week (for it being her
first year, she is doing really well, if I do say so myself). She spent a couple nights with us
at the rig, we ate a lot of cookie cake (I even managed to get one on sale), we had a picnic at one of the
springs and did a
bit of frisbee throwing and diving at the springs (sorry, no pictures specifically of us…too
busy having fun). 
On one of those weekend days when we didn’t have our granddaughter, Bill and I took a trip to the most amazing Yard Art Emporium. We had driven past it a few times (on trips to see his son) and I begged him to stop. Here’s a sampling of what we saw.
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| Like my seat? |
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| Beautiful, isn't it. |
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| Seats flip up. |
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| It's a grill gun. |
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| All wood pieces. |
I
was able to make up some volunteer hours by working a Saturday morning for a
county run Tire Amnesty Day. Our location was used as a drop off point and I was
there to make sure people didn’t go where they weren’t supposed to; more specifically, to stay away from the lane by the fire station. As we have found
working in government, things aren’t as expected. Based on previous years, they
expected vehicles to be lined up outside the gate waiting for them to be opened
up at 8 a.m. There were no lines, and only a few trucks came through over the
five hour period. I got a lot of reading done and it was a beautiful day to be
sitting outdoors. I actually enjoyed it but felt bad that the turnout was so
poor.
Here’s another fun thing we did…NOT. During many of our
trips back and forth to ball games and into town, the AdvanceTrac error light on our car would come on (and go off, and come on again). We finally decided to call the
nearest Ford dealer and see what needed to be done. We scheduled a 9:00
appointment on a Friday to get it checked out and, hopefully, repaired. Come to
find out, our 9:00 appointment was with the service writer (not the technician)
as they work on a first come first served basis once we’d been processed
through our service writer. Would have been nice to have known that ahead of
time as we were both there for over five hours. Needless to say, we were just
thrilled to find out that a part needed to be ordered and we would get to
return another day. At least this time we had an idea of how things worked, so
against my preference, I set the alarm and arrived early to, hopefully, be
first in line. I also went alone so only one of us had to sit and wait.
Fortunately, the wait was cut in half this time – only two and half hours. I
sure am glad that I like to read and remembered to bring along a good book
(both times). That helped!
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| Love seaplanes & it's orange! |
Our decision to return next year for two months remains as
there were many pluses. The number one plus is our ability to be part of our
granddaughter’s everyday life. We also
love the church we found and I am definitely going to be more intentional in
getting connected there. Christian women fellowship is a necessity to my well
being. Just ask Bill and he will most certainly agree.
We departed the Ocala National Forest on Friday morning, March 29th which meant we missed
out on what I believe to be the annual volunteer luncheon held at noon the same
day. Had our initial volunteer paperwork been processed appropriately and
timely, we might have been notified of it prior to making our plans to leave
that same morning. Oh well, there’s always next year. If I sound a bit miffed, it’s only because
the lines of communication and the hierarchy and “it’s not my job” attitude of
several staff members, made it a little difficult for us to know what’s
what. I’m happy and thrilled to say we
are always excited to head off to a VMM (Volunteer Mobile Missionaries) project
but this experience has us even more grateful for what we have with this
organization and the places we are allowed to serve. HalleluJAH! & Praise the
Lord!
On our way to our project at Tall Timbers in Louisiana, we
took a few days to unwind and relax. Bill had wanted to go to the
Pensacola FL
and Mobile AL area to see some specific sites and I found a campground half way
in between that honored the Passport America 50% off price for an entire week
(we only wanted five days) in the south during snowbird season; somewhat
unheard of, at least, from my experience. PTL!!! Another plus, was it wasn’t just rows and rows
of RVs you could see from the road but it was nestled back in to a woodsy area
(nope, we’re not sick of trees yet) providing a peaceful and natural setting.
We made it to our destination, Robertsdale, AL by late
afternoon. Got all set up and took a walk through the park (Wilderness RV Park
for those of you who may want to know). Many of you are unaware of the ongoing
battle between Bill and I on the type of dog we would get, IF we were ever to
get one. He likes them big and I like them small. We both know that the way we
like to live life at the present is not conducive to having a dog, so I try to
get my doggy “fix” as we go from project to project. As we walked through the
RV park, Bill found a fellow Navy man to chat with and I was beyond thrilled to
find that he had my absolutely favorite dog, a Pomeranian. And to make it even better, little Toby had a
“lion” cut. Oh my gosh, I am so in love!!! Look at these pictures. I truly wanted to steal that
little guy.
While in the area we checked out a local brewery where I
actually found a few that I liked. That’s rare. And then we visited a friend who we hadn’t seen in over ten years
and had a nice visit. Look at the beautiful roses she sent home with me.What a thrill when she asked if we wanted to
go to church with her on Sunday. It’s so hard when you’re in an area for such a
short time to find a church. It was wonderful. Another powerful
service…PTL! So grateful for His
faithfulness in feeding our spirit.
Our trip in to Pensacola was a bit disappointing as we
couldn’t get on the naval base and it was such a rainy and windy day. We chose
not to care as we wanted to, at least, see the Veterans Park. So with heavy
jackets and an umbrella we saw what we came to see. There’s something very
special about each of these parks and we try to visit them in every city we
stop in. We took a ride along the coast on this dreary day and the sandy beach
with the green and brown poking through made me think of winter in Oshkosh in
March. The dirty snow with the green of spring trying to replace the brown (and
white) of winter. I suppose you had to be there to get my drift. J
We spent another hour and half going down into the U.S.S. Drum submarine. That was also amazing but a bit creepy. Way too confining for me although I do love to see how everything needed is made to fit exactly where it’s needed.
We departed the RV park about 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 3rd and safely arrived at Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center near Alexandria LA around 4:30 p.m. We thank God for all our safe travels and very minimal hiccups along the way and for all of you who continue to pray for us. May God bless each and every one of you.
Be blessed and be a blessing!
