Living Our Dream

Cracker Trail Museum

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, January 24, 2017

When we were in Pittsburgh for Christmas and Paul was having lunch with his former co-workers, he found out one of them was planning to be in Florida with his wife for a week in January, so the guys made tentative plans to get together. A couple of weeks ago, Paul got a text from Roger saying that he and his wife, Paula, would be passing through Wauchula last Tuesday. We made plans to do a little sightseeing when they stopped by and then to maybe grab a bite to eat before they continued on their way to Lakeland that evening. We haven't done much sightseeing since we've been in Florida this year so it would be a welcome break.

Unfortunately, high winds on Monday postponed their plans for an air boat ride until Tuesday morning, so they arrived at the co-op a little later on Tuesday afternoon than planned. We had scheduled a visit to Solomon's Castle located in nearby Ona, Florida, but the castle closes at 4 p.m. Therefore, we went with Plan B, which was to go the Cracker Trail Museum in Zolfo Springs because the museum is only about 5 minutes away and it is open until 5. After chatting a while, we headed to the museum.

The Cracker Trail runs east and west across central Florida and was used by pioneers in the early 1800s to move cattle across the state to ports on the Gulf and the Atlantic Coasts. The trail runs from Fort Pierce on the Atlantic side to Bradenton (called Bradentown back in the day) on the Gulf of Mexico. The road on which the SKP Co-op is located (State Route 64) is part of what was once the Cracker Trail. We first encountered the Cracker Trail last year when we visited Manatee Village in Bradenton. Click here to read about that visit. The name "Cracker" comes from the crack of the whips of the cowmen as they drove their cattle.

Beginning in 1987, a group called the Cracker Trail Association began a ride of the 120-mile trail on horseback. The ride takes 9 days with overnight stops at various ranches along the way. Up to 250 riders participate in at least a portion of the ride.

The Cracker Trail Museum is part of Pioneer Park, which is run by Hardee County. The park also includes a campground and a wildlife refuge. We didn't have time to visit the wildlife refuge, which sits at the far end of the park along the Peace River, so we'll have to go back someday.

The museum isn't very big, but the admission is only $2.00 plus tax ($2.14 total), and they do have some interesting artifacts. The museum consists of two rooms, the smaller of which has household items such as furniture, cookware, sewing machines and looms.

Room with household items

The larger room has artifacts from the early days of Zolfo Springs and Wauchula.

Larger room of the museum

The larger room is dominated by the tanned hide of an 11-foot alligator.

Tanned hide of an 11-foot alligator

As if the 11-foot 'gator isn't big enough, they also had the skull from a 14-footer.

Margery checking out the skull of a 14-foot 'gator

"Zolfo" is the Italian word for sulfur, and that's where Zolfo Springs gets its name. In the early 1800s, a crew of Spanish and Italians who were coming down the Peace River searching for phosphate came across a spring in the area that smelled of sulfur.

Wauchula gets its name from the Indian word "wa-tu-la," which is the name for sandhill crane. Wauchula was originally settled to support Fort Hartsuff, which was one of many U.S. Army forts in Florida during the Seminole Wars in the mid-1800s. Wauchula later became the seat of Hardee County and was a center for phosphate mining, cattle, and citrus. It was also once known as the "Cucumber Capital of the World," but citrus and watermelons are much more important today.

The museum has displays of fossils from prehistoric sharks, camels, horses and mastodon that once inhabited the area. Most of the fossils were collected from the banks of the Peace River.

Fossilized mastodon teeth from the Peace River

In addition to the fossils, the museum's collection includes Indian artifacts and items representing early businesses, ranches, and residents of the area. One interesting item is a reproduction of Florida's first flag. The flag never became the official flag of the state because of the controversial motto.

Reproduction of Florida's first flag

Outside, there is a small collection of old buildings. There is also equipment such as a sugar cane press and a sugar kettle, an old pump from a phosphate mill, and a mobile irrigation device. The outdoor display is dominated by a wood-burning locomotive that was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Co. in 1914. The 2-6-2 locomotive was donated to the county by Kervin Revell who used it in his crate mill in Wauchula.

1914 Baldwin locomotive

The outdoor display also includes a cabin built in 1879 by W. H. Hart. The cabin was relocated to the park in 1979 from its original location elsewhere in Hardee County.

1879 Hart cabin

We have been doing research into local restaurants ever since we first go to the co-op late last year, and Giovanni's Main Street Kitchen is a place that gets good online reviews and that was also frequently recommended by fellow co-op members. It is located close by in downtown Wauchula, so that's we headed for dinner after the Cracker Trail Museum.

Giovanni's Main Street Kitchen

Lunches at Giovanni's range in price from $6 to $11 and include hot and cold subs, pizza and pasta dishes. Dinners are $9 to $16 and include a number of Italian classics such as ravioli, chicken Parmesan, linguini with clam sauce, and lasagna. All entrees include the soup and salad bar. Paula had Chicken Marsala, and Roger had Tilapia Bella Napoli, which is a tilapia fillet covered with shrimp, mussels, clams and squid served over pasta. Their meals looked amazing, and they both said the food was delicious. We shared a pizza with sausage and mushrooms. The pizza was baked in a wood-fired oven. It was also yummy.

After dinner, Roger and Paula continued on their way to Lakeland and we relaxed with an evening of TV. We needed to rest up for a big, multi-day event scheduled to start at the co-op the next day. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

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Shed Project: Install Skirting

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, January 17 to Monday, January 23, 2017

After finishing the shelving and flooring inside the shed, it was time to turn our attention to the outside where we wanted to install skirting around the bottom of the shed to give the shed a more finished look. On Tuesday around noon, we headed to Lowe's in Sebring to pick up the materials for the skirting. Afterward, we stopped at the Olympic Restaurant in Avon Park for lupper.

Olympic Restaurant

The Olympic is a Greek-themed restaurant that serves some Greek dishes, but they also have things like Reubens, burgers, steaks and pasta. Sandwiches and lunch specials range in price from around $6 to $10, and most dinners are about $10 to $15.

Margery had a fried cod sandwich with onion rings ($8), and Paul had a gyro with potato salad ($8). The Olympic gets generally good, but somewhat mixed reviews online, and we can see why. The flavor of the fish sandwich was good; but the sandwich wasn't very big, and it was made from several small pieces of fish that kept falling out of the bun instead of one nice big piece. The onion rings are house-made, not frozen, and they were quite good.

The gyro tasted okay, but it needed more meat. Not only that, but it was served with lettuce, which we had never seen before on a gyro. Although the lettuce added a little crunch to the sandwich, it seemed like they were using the lettuce mostly as a filler. The potato salad was pretty good, but we've had better.

Gyro - lots of lettuce, but only one layer of meat

When we got back to the co-op after our trip to Sebring, Paul started assembling a new toy he would be using for the installation of the skirting. Before heading to Pittsburgh for Christmas, Paul bought a Delta table saw. He has been using his 7-1/4" circular saw mounted upside down under a piece of plywood as a makeshift table saw. However, since we had the new, larger shed on order, he thought it might be nice to have a real table saw again.

We'll leave the saw here in the shed when we travel north in the spring because it is too big and too heavy to carry with us. Paul was hesitant about leaving a table saw in the shed over the hot, humid Florida summers for fear the table would rust; but since this saw is a portable saw, the table is aluminum instead of the cast iron typically used for table saws.

In addition to the aluminum table, another thing Paul likes about the saw is its folding stand with wheels. The downside to having a folding stand is it has lots of parts that have to be assembled.

Paul assembling his new saw

Assembly complete

The upside to the folding stand is it makes it easy to wheel the saw outside. When folded, the saw also takes less floor space.

Table saw folded

Paul decided to use plastic lattice as skirting rather than the mobile home skirting he used for our shed in Blueberry Hill. One reason for that is the relatively large openings in the lattice will do a better job of providing good ventilation under the shed that will help prevent moisture buildup during summer rains.

Paul started by cutting the sheets of lattice in half lengthwise to make smaller pieces that were easier to handle. He then trimmed each strip to the proper width.

Trimming one of the lattice strips

Although the large openings in the lattice will improve air circulation, they will also make it easier for critters to get under the shed and take up residence. Therefore, Paul decided to put aluminum screen behind the lattice to help keep critters out. He used a hot soldering iron to melt little dimples in the plastic to tack the screen to the back of the lattice. That way the screen won't sag over time.

The photo below was taken before the job was complete, but it shows what the skirting will look like when it's all done a couple of days from now.

View of skirting

In between working on the skirting, we took breaks to attend meetings at the clubhouse, to do chores, to run a number of errands, and to do a few other things. One of the breaks we took was to drive down to Captiva Island last Friday. Captiva Island is a little over two hours away and is located next to Sanibel Island off the coast of Fort Meyers. The reason we went there was to meet with friends, Barb and Kent. Margery was in a Bible study with Barb years ago in Pittsburgh. Barb and Kent subsequently moved to Oklahoma, to Arizona and to Illinois, but Margery and Barb stayed in touch over the years. Barb and Kent sometimes come to Florida for a week or two in the winter, and we try to meet up them whenever we can. This year, they staying on Captiva Island, so we went there to spend the day with them. We had a good time catching up.

Another break we took was to do some sightseeing. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

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Shed Project: Install Shelving and Flooring

Wauchula, FL - Events of January 11 to Monday, January 16, 2017

It took several days after we had gotten the materials for the shelving and flooring for Paul to find the time to get started on the installation. We had a couple of meetings at the clubhouse to attend, several errands to run, the final electrical hookup to the shed to complete, and a few chores to do like dumping our holding tanks and recharging our water softener.

Paul was finally able to get to work on the shelving last week on Wednesday afternoon. The back wall of the shed has a nominal length of 12 feet so Paul decided to install the shelving in three 4-foot sections.

The first step was to move everything stacked on the floor by the back wall to the other side of the shed.

Stuff stacked by the back wall of the shed

The second step was to install the vertical support tracks. After the supports were in, it was a simple matter to mount the shelf supports at the desired height for each shelf and to then snap the shelves into place on the supports. Paul got all the shelves up on Wednesday, but it was too late to even start trying to figure out where to put things so he called it a day after taking some photos of the progress.

Shelving installed

Freeway had his annual checkup at the vet on Thursday, so Paul didn't get anything done in the shed. We're happy to report Freeway is in excellent health.

On Friday, Paul started to load the shelves adjusting shelf heights as he went. The shelves are more filled than they normally would be because we unload some things from the storage bay of the 5th wheel while we're in Florida to make them easier to get to. Even so, everything fit with a little room to spare for future needs. However, we still want to sort through all the stuff and weed out things we will probably never use, but that's a project for another day.

Paul loading the shelves

Once Paul got as much stuff off the floor and onto the shelves as possible, he moved the stuff that was left to the back half of the shed and started filling screw holes and joints in the front half of the floor in preparation for the installation of the vinyl flooring. He used a Portland cement-based filling compound.

Patching screw holes and joints in the floor

After all the screw holes and joints were filled on the front half of the floor, Paul applied a coat of sealer/primer on Saturday morning. The sealer/primer is supposed to improve adhesion. Paul then started in one corner and began the process of laying the strips of vinyl flooring after lunch on Saturday. It was a process of peel...

Peel...

...and stick

There was a bit of cutting and fitting in the area of the doorway, but the rest went fairly quickly. There are, however, a couple of things that aren't quite as easy as the "peel and stick" name of the flooring makes it sound. For one thing, the backing paper sometimes rips without being completely peeled off. You then have to hang on to the sticky vinyl strip with one hand without allowing it to touch anything while trying to get the peeling process restarted with the other hand.

Speaking of the sticky adhesive on the back, that creates a problem of its own because when handling the strips, it is unavoidable that you will have to touch the sticky adhesive. When you do, some of it will transfer to your hands. Then when you position the strips down on the floor, some of the adhesive on your hands will transfer to the front surface of the flooring. Fortunately, it can be satisfactorily be removed with mineral spirits without damaging the finish.

Minor problems aside, the installation went fairly well with Paul being able to get the front half the floor done on Saturday afternoon. We ended up just relaxing on Sunday afternoon. We had planned to watch the Steeler/Chiefs game, but the game was postponed until evening because of ice storms in the mid-west. The performance of the Steelers wasn't stellar, but they managed a narrow win primarily due to errors by Kansas City.

On Monday, Paul moved all the stuff that was sitting on the floor in the back half of the shed to the front half and started patching and filling the back half. Filling and patching the back half went quickly not only because of the experience Paul had gained in doing the front half, but the front half was actually more like 2/3 instead of half so the area left to do in the back was smaller. Paul got the patching done and the primer applied before lunch.

After a lunch break that gave the primer time to dry, Paul started laying the vinyl strips in the back of the shed. This also went more quickly than the front half, and the floor was done by 4:00.

Flooring complete

With the shelves and floor done, it is time to move on to other things. Stay Tuned.

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Gathering Supplies for Shed Improvement Projects

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, January 3 to Sunday, January 8, 2017

The first improvement Paul planned for the new shed was to install vinyl flooring. He put one-piece vinyl sheet flooring in the shed we had at Blueberry Hill, and it made it much easier to keep the floor of the shed clean so he wanted something similar in our new shed at the co-op.

Last Tuesday, we stopped at Lowe's in Sebring to look at their vinyl flooring. After noting the styles and prices of what they had available, we headed to downtown Sebring and stopped for a late lunch at Dee's Place.

We loved the half-pound burgers at Dee's Place when we had them a few weeks ago, and we were hungry for more. This time instead of each of us getting our own burger however, we decided to split a half-pound burger ($7.59 with cheese) and a Philly cheese steak ($6.09). There were two reasons for that. First, we both like Philly cheese steaks and really wanted to try the ones at Dee's, but we were both still hungry for one of their burgers. Second, the half pound burgers are very filling, and the Philly cheese steak isn't quite as big.

Paul with our Philly cheese steak

The burger was as good as we remembered, and the Philly cheese steak was delicious, too. We had it with the optional fried peppers and onions, and it was very flavorful.

We had previously checked out various types of vinyl flooring from a number of sources so after checking to see what Lowe's had, Paul finalized his choice and decided on peel-and-stick vinyl planks from Lumber Liquidators. We originally went to the Lumber Liquidators store in Brandon a couple of weeks prior to look at flooring; but on Friday, we decided to go to the store in Plant City to make the purchase. The reason for going to the store in Plant City to buy the flooring is Plant City also the location of Parksdale Market. Plant City is in the heart of Florida's strawberry growing region, and Parksdale Market has delicious strawberry shortcake and strawberry sundaes during strawberry season. Strawberry season runs from the beginning of January until early April.

Parksdale Market

Margery had strawberry shortcake, and Paul had a strawberry sundae. The shortcake is topped by soft-serve ice cream and a huge mound of whipped cream and the sundae is served in a long plastic boat.

Strawberry shortcake (left) and strawberry sundae

Paul was originally planning on wood shelving for the shed. Since he planned for the shelving to have supports running all the way down to the floor, he wanted to install the flooring first. However, after buying the flooring on Friday afternoon, we happened to talk to another fellow here in the co-op who recently got a new shed and installed wire shelving. Paul had dismissed the idea of using wire shelving because it is more expensive than wood; but after talking to the fellow who had put in wire shelving, Paul decided the benefits of being quicker and easier to install and of being adjustable were worth the extra cost. Since the wire shelving has no floor supports, it made more sense to install the shelving first because the shelves will help get things off the floor to make installing the flooring easier.

Following the decision to switch to wire shelving, we stopped at Lowe's in Sebring after church on Sunday to pick up the components. Unfortunately, after an extensive search by store personnel, they found they were out of the proper length wall supports we needed in spite of the fact their computer said they had plenty in stock. Therefore, we went across the street to Home Depot because they carry the same brand of shelving. Wouldn't you know, Home depot had the uprights, but they didn't have enough shelf brackets. Not only that, but the shelves themselves were a little more expensive at Home Depot than they were at Lowe's so Paul only bought the uprights at Home Depot then headed back to Lowe's to buy the shelves and brackets. By this time, all the late church services had let out, and the store was very crowded. Paul waited to check out almost half an hour because they only had two lines open and all their self-checkouts were closed. Of course, they finally opened another checkout line when Paul was almost up to the register.

After a frustratingly long morning, we headed back to the 5th wheel to watch the Steeler/Dolphins playoff game. We missed some of the first half, but our frustrations of the morning were eased by the fact the Steelers won.

We'll tell you how the installation of the shelving and flooring went in our next post.

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A New Year and a New Shed

Wauchula, FL - Events of December 32, 2016 to January 6, 2017

As usual, we didn't do anything on New Year's Eve except stay home and watch TV. We didn't even rent any movies this year, but instead watched recorded shows which had accumulated on our DVR while we were in Pittsburgh for Christmas. We did manage to stay up until midnight, but we both went to bed soon after.

We mentioned in an earlier blog post that we had ordered a new shed for our site. While we were in Pittsburgh for Christmas, we got a call saying our shed was in. We decided to donate our old shed to the co-op instead of selling it ourselves so as soon as we got back to Wauchula, Paul contacted Ken from the co-op who would be overseeing moving the old shed from our site. We scheduled the old shed to be moved on Thursday and the new shed to be delivered on Friday.

Paul was worked on removing all our stuff from the shed on Wednesday morning when some of the the guys who were going to be moving the old shed stopped by to reconnoiter. When they saw Paul had already removed the skirting, the tie-downs, the electrical hookup, and that the shed was almost empty, they decided to move the old shed that afternoon instead of waiting until Thursday.

The guys came back after lunch, jacked up the shed and inserted boards to use as runners and pieces of pipe to use as rollers under the shed. Paul pitched in and helped where he could.

Jacking up the shed to insert boards and rollers underneath

They had to angle the shed a bit to clear our landscape bed then roll the shed across the patio. Margery pulled in the slide to allow more room to maneuver. We then rolled the shed down to the front of our site toward the street.

Rolling the shed toward the street

Once the shed was in the street, they hooked up the tractor...

Hooking up the tractor

...and dragged the shed down the street and around the corner to the maintenance area.

Bye-bye old shed

The plan was to store the shed next to the maintenance area while they tried to sell it. They must have placed the online ad right away because as it turned out, the first guy who looked at the shed at 7 a.m. the following morning bought it and hauled it away that afternoon. We're happy the shed sold so fast and that they got a good price for it. The proceeds from the sale will be used for the co-op activity committee.

Since the guys removed our old shed a day early, we called the place where we bought the new shed to see if they could move up the delivery to Thursday. They initially said they couldn't because they already had other deliveries scheduled for Thursday. However, they called late Thursday morning and said their other deliveries were going much faster than anticipated, and they could deliver our shed right after lunch.

Backing in was a tight squeeze since the new shed is bigger, but they did a good job. Once again, we pulled in our slide.

Backing in

After they got the shed backed in, they lowered it off the trailer. The trailer tilts and has rollers, so getting the shed off is easy. A winch allows the shed to slowly roll off the trailer.

Lowering the shed off the trailer

After the shed was on the ground, they raised it with a jack and inserted sections of plastic pipe under it so they could roll it back a little farther and then slide it sideways a foot or two to the proper position. Once the shed was in the right place, they removed the rollers, leveled the shed with blocks and shims and installed the tie-downs. Tie-downs are required because Florida is hurricane country.

Installing tie-downs

Installation complete

The new shed is 2' wider and 2' longer than our old shed. The bigger size doesn't allow much room between the shed and the 5th wheel, but we plan to add a section of concrete on the opposite side of the 5th wheel to allow us to move the trailer over a little and give ourselves more room on the shed side. We wanted to have the concrete done before we got the new shed; but when we had trouble getting contractors just to return our calls, we decided to go ahead and order the shed anyway. The good news is one of the long-time co-op residents and past president of the Board of Directors put us in touch with a contractor who has previously done a lot of work here in the co-op so we will hopefully be able to have our parking pad enlarged in the not too distant future.

After the shed installers left and before Paul started loading everything back into the new shed, he took some photos of the inside. The shed has pressure-treated floor joists, a pressure-treated plywood floor, steel studs and steel roof trusses. Termites, which can sometimes be a problem here in Florida, should never bother it.

View of shed interior

Except for a couple of items Paul temporarily left in the basement storage compartment of the 5th wheel, he got everything back into the shed by dinner time. Now the real work will begin because Paul has a list of improvements he wants to make to the shed. We'll be telling you about some of our improvements to the shed in upcoming posts. Stay tuned.

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