Living Our Dream

Red Barn Flea Market

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, February 17, 2017

We had been hanging around the co-op for the last few weeks because of the work that was being done by the contractor on our concrete. About the only time we went anywhere was to go to church on Sunday and to run errands. However, we did make time on one of our errands earlier last week to stop for a late lunch at Dee's Place in Sebring. We both had half-pound burgers ($7.09 without cheese, $7.59 with), and they were delish!

Ready to dig into our half-pound burgers at Dee's Place

With the pouring of the concrete finally complete last Thursday and with the forms not scheduled to be removed until the following Monday, we finally had time on Friday to go somewhere other than Walmart or Lowe's. We headed to Bradenton to check out the Red Barn Flea Market.

Since we left relatively early for the flea market anyway, we decided to stop on the way for the breakfast buffet at Miller's Dutch Kitch'n located only a short distance from the flea market. All our regular readers know how much we like the breakfast buffet at Der Dutchman Restaurant in Walnut Creek near where we stay for the summer. There is also a Der Dutchman Restaurant in Sarasota that we went to last November shortly after we got to our new site in Wauchula. Miller's has a menu similar to Der Dutchman, so we decided to give them a try.

Miller's Dutch Kitch'n

The breakfast buffet at Miller's isn't quite as extensive as the one at Der Dutchman. Miller's had scrambled eggs, pre-made omelets, grits, oatmeal, French toast, fried mush, home fries, pancakes, sausage gravy and biscuits, turkey sausage, bacon, cottage cheese, canned fruit, and fresh cantaloupe. Even though the buffet at Miller's isn't quite as extensive as Der Dutchman, the price is about the same on weekdays ($8.99) and $1 more on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Margery enjoying her breakfast

Miller's claim to fame, however, and the real reason we wanted to try them is they have pie on their breakfast buffet. They had coconut cream, banana cream, chocolate cream, peanut butter, rhubarb, apple, blueberry, egg custard, and more. The pie was pretty good so we each had three pieces (they're small).

Pie on the breakfast buffet

Overall, the breakfast buffet at Miller's was pretty good, but it wasn't quite as good as Der Dutchman in Sarasota. In our opinion, Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek is even better than the one in Sarasota so Miller's comes in third.

From Miller's we headed to the Red Barn Flea Market. The market is open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. during the winter. There are both indoor shops selling new merchandise and outdoor booths with new merchandise, plants, produce, and used items. We headed to the outdoor area first.

Outdoor flea market area

We were hoping to find some used, reasonably-priced garden tools in the outdoor section, but the first area we came to had mostly produce.

Produce area

The produce area is quite large, and there was a wide variety available. The quality of the produce looked good, but the prices seemed a little high. Maybe we're just spoiled by the "mom and pop" produce stand we usually go to in Sebring that has very reasonable prices.

In the outdoor area around the corner from the produce we finally came to some vendors with used items.

Outdoor area with vendors selling used items

Unfortunately, no one had any garden tools so we headed inside. The indoor section is made up of a maze of rather cluttered aisles.

One of the aisles in the indoor section of the flea market

We walked up and down most of the aisles. Margery did find a small leather purse she had been looking for, and Paul found a new wallet to replace his old one that is starting to fall apart. The prices for both items were very reasonable.

From the flea market, we made a quick stop at Sam's Club to pick up a few items. Then we headed back to the co-op to relax for the evening.

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Two Projects - One Small and One Big

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, February 13 to Monday, February 20, 2017

Back in January, we wrote about replacing the old 8' x 10' shed that was originally on our site with a new 10' x 12' shed. We have been using the folding metal step we normally carry in the 5th wheel for the shed ever since the new shed was delivered.

Temporary folding metal step for the shed

Once the shelves were installed inside the shed and the skirting was installed on the outside, Paul got busy building a permanent step. There's not a lot to it - it's just a box made from treated lumber that's screwed to the base of the shed. Paul used composite decking for the top surface because composite decking is more stable than wood decking. He used regular wood decking for the step he built for the shed at Blueberry Hill, and it cupped upward because of moisture from the ground being trapped under the step. The color of the composite decking is a pretty good match for the color of the shed don't you think?

New step completed

Now on to the big project. We have been wanting to enlarge our concrete parking pad ever since we first arrived at the co-op last fall. The way the original concrete was poured, they left a 4' by 12' rectangle in the back corner that was unpaved. That's where our 5th wheel tires should have gone, but since there was no concrete there we had to park the 5th wheel 3 or 4 feet closer to the shed than we wanted to.

Original concrete

Since the RV was parked so close to the shed, we originally wanted to enlarge the concrete before we replaced the old shed with an even bigger one, but most of the concrete contractors wouldn't return Paul's calls. One actually did come out and gave us a quote, but when Paul asked for references, we never heard from him again.

Since we were having trouble finding someone to do the concrete, we decided to go ahead and order the shed hoping we would eventually find someone to do the concrete. Our neighbor two sites down also wanted to get some concrete work done on his site, and a few weeks ago he finally found a contractor that seemed to be conscientious and reliable called M. & E. Precision Construction. The price we got from M. & E. looked pretty good so we and our neighbor both gave him a green light.

In addition to adding the missing rectangle to the back of the parking pad, we also decided to widen the driveway to give ourselves more room to get in and out of the truck without having to walk through the wet grass when we went somewhere early in the morning.

Narrow driveway

Last Monday, the contractor began preparing our neighbor's site and our site for pouring concrete. Working off and on over the next few days, they finished the digging and building the forms on both sites.

Forms in place for widening the rear of our parking pad

Forms almost complete for widening the driveway

Last Thursday was the big day. The contractor finished putting the finishing touches on the forms in the morning, and the first of two concrete trucks showed up around noon. They began pouring our neighbor's concrete. Then it was our turn.

Pouring our concrete

Working concrete is back-breaking. Not only is the stuff very, very heavy, but you're also under a time crunch to get it all poured and smoothed out before it starts to set. The crew worked their tails off until after 5:00. Even though they were all young guys, they looked like they were beat at the end of the day.

On Monday, the guys came back to remove the forms. We still have to fill the along the edge and plant some grass to finish it up. We'll be parking the truck off to the other side for another week or so to be sure we don't accidentally drive on the new concrete prematurely.

New concrete along driveway

It will also be at least another week before we can move the RV over onto the new concrete that was added near the back of the site. We can hardly wait.

We have been hanging around the site for most of the last week and a half because of all the work that was being done. After the concrete was finally poured last Thursday, we took a drive to Bradenton on Friday. We'll tell you what we did in our next post.

Bok Tower Gardens

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, February 6, 2015

Bok Tower Gardens is a tower and garden located in nearby Lake Wales. It was built in the 1920s by Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies' Home Journal. Paul visited there when he was a kid on vacation in Florida with his parents in the 1950s. We also visited Bok Tower back in 2013.

We have been seeing azaleas blooming in people's yards here in central Florida as we travel about. Since the garden at Bok Tower has a good many azaleas, we were hoping a lot of them would also be in bloom when we made a repeat visit last Monday.

Admission to the garden is $12 for adults. Pinewood Estate is adjacent to Bok Tower, and combo tickets are available for $20. Pinewood is a 20-room, Mediterranean-Revival mansion built between 1930 and 1932 as a winter home by C. Austin Buck, who was vice-president of Bethlehem Steel. The foundation that operates Bok Tower Gardens purchased Pinewood in the 1960s. We visited Pinewood back in 2013, so we decided to skip it this time and just visit the garden to see what might be in bloom we didn't see last time. Click here to read about our 2013 visit to Pinewood Estate.

Edward Bok and his wife spent winters in the upscale community of Mountain Lake Estates near Lake Wales. Bok decided to purchase land adjacent to Mountain Lake Estates known as Iron Mountain where he enjoyed taking evening walks. He wanted to preserve Iron Mountain as a bird sanctuary.

Bok hired famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, Jr. in 1921 to design and build a 50-acre garden which would become his bird sanctuary on Iron Mountain. Bok also built a 205-foot tower on the highest point on the property. The tower was completed in 1929 only a year before Bok's death. He is buried in front of the door to the tower.

The tower is called the Singing Tower because of its 60-bell carillon. There are 30-minute daily carillon concerts at 1:00 and 3:00.

Outside the Visitor Center there are a number of attractive container plants. An interesting one was an ornamental pepper.

Ornamental pepper plant

Ornamental peppers

We started our tour in the Visitor Center where there are displays about Edward Bok's life and about the building of the gardens and tower. About 4 million pounds of Georgia marble were used in the construction of the tower. Another major component is coquina, which is a compressed limestone-seashell composite rock from Florida.

Margery checking out some of the info on building the tower

The tower itself is not open to the public, but there is a scale model in the Visitor Center that shows some of what is inside the tower. The top third of the tower is where the bells of the carillon are located. The roof over the bells is designed to deflect sound outward into the garden.

Scale model of the tower

From the Visitor Center, we headed out into the garden. The area surrounding the Visitor Center has a good many flowers in bloom.

Flowers near the Visitor Center

However, as we began walking up hill toward the tower, flowers became less frequent. Along the paths up the hill, the garden relies on leaf color and texture for interest.

Leaf color and texture add interest

Toward the top of the hill, the garden is more shady and somewhat jungle-like.

Shady path through the garden

The tower itself is in a clearing at the top of the hill.

Bok Tower as viewed from the south side

The moss-draped live oak trees that surround the tower are reflected in the colorful ceramic tiles on the grills that cover the openings at the top of the tower where the bells are located. Exotic birds fly among the branches of the trees, and there are monkeys at the bottom. Click on the photo below (or any photo) to enlarge it.

Ceramic tiles covering the grills at the top of the tower

There are great views from the top of the hill on the south side of the tower. You can see orange groves stretching off into the distance.

View of orange groves to the south

The door on the north side of the tower is made from teak and is covered with brass panels that depict Biblical scenes of creation. Bok's grave is in front of the door.

The grave of Edward Bok in front of the brass door of the tower

As we headed back down the other side of the hill, we finally passed a few azaleas in bloom, but it was far from the spectacular peak bloom we were hoping to see.

A few azaleas in bloom

For some reason, we just can't seem to get to any botanical garden at the right time to see azaleas in peak bloom. We have tried at Bok Tower and Rainbow Gardens in Florida, at Callaway Gardens in Georgia, and several times at Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama. The warmer weather in the south seems to spread out the bloom time of the azaleas making it less likely for a single, spectacular peak blooming period to occur. It also doesn't help the flowers are very delicate and are easily knocked down by rain or wind.

We stopped to see the Edible Garden located near the Visitor Center. The Edible Garden contains fruits, herbs, and vegetables.

Margery in the Edible Garden

Next to the Edible Garden is the Hammock Hollow Children's Garden. This 2.7-acre garden has places for kids to climb, dig, create, and discover. The entrance has a mosaic walkway made from pebbles.

Mosaic walkway made from pebbles

There is also a pebble-covered snake that forms a sand box.

Pebble-covered snake surrounding a sand box

One of the walkways passes through a faux canyon lined with nozzles misting water that looks like smoke.

Walkway through a faux canyon

At the far end of the canyon is a giant spider web that kids can climb on.

Giant spider web for climbing

By the time we finished our tour of the gardens we were hungry so we decided to try the Blue Palmetto Café located in the Visitor Center because it gets pretty good online reviews. They have soups, salads, sandwiches, and wraps for lunch as well as a few breakfast and snack items. Salads range in price from about $7 to $11, and sandwiches and wraps are about $6 to $10.

Margery had a turkey wrap with provolone cheese and cranberry mayo ($8.75), and Paul had a turkey and smoked Gouda sandwich ($8.95). Sides are extra. Unfortunately, they must have had a busy weekend because they were out of most of the sides, and the delivery truck hadn't yet arrived. Fortunately, the sandwiches themselves were both excellent.

Margery with her turkey-cranberry wrap and with Paul's turkey-Gouda sandwich in the foreground

After our delicious lunch, we headed back to the co-op. Since we weren't able to order any sides with our sandwiches, our tummies weren't quite full so we decided to stop at Maxwell's House of Fruit in Avon Park for dessert.

Maxwell's in Avon Park

We heard about Maxwell's from a number of people at the co-op. Maxwell's is a citrus packing house with a little country store where you can buy fresh citrus fruit, jellies and souvenirs; but their real claim to fame is their orange soft-serve ice cream. They also have vanilla, but hardly anyone gets plain vanilla. Most people get either orange-vanilla twist, which is what Margery had, or plain orange, which is what Paul had. Both were fantastic! The orange-vanilla twist tastes like an orange creamsicle, and the straight orange tastes like frozen orange juice.

Now our tummies were full, so we headed back to the co-op to relax for the evening.

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Solomon's Castle

Wauchula, FL - Event of Tuesday, January 31, 2017

We have been wanting to visit Solomon's Castle in Ona, Florida, ever since we first heard about it several years ago, but it was over two hours away from where we previously spent our winters at Blueberry Hill RV Resort. Our move to the SKP Florida co-op last fall put us only about 30 minutes from Solomon's Castle, so we definitely had it on our list of things to see this winter. In fact, we planned to visit Solomon's Castle with Roger and Paula when they stopped by on their way to Lakeland a couple of weeks ago. However, we ended up going to the Cracker Trail Museum instead because Roger and Paula arrived later in the afternoon than originally planned, and we were afraid we wouldn't have enough time at the castle since it is farther away and since it closes earlier than the museum.

Since the castle was still on our minds, we decided to head there last Tuesday. Solomon's Castle is a gleaming, 12,000-square foot, 3-story structure built by artist Howard Solomon. Admission includes a guided tour of the castle and costs $12.50 for adults (cash or check only - no credit or debit cards). Solomon's Castle is open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. They are closed Mondays, and they are closed the months of August and September.

Solomon's Castle

Howard Solomon, who passed away just last August (2016), started building the castle in 1972. The exterior of the castle is covered by used printing plates from the newspaper in Wauchula. The paper used the aluminum plates in their offset printing process up until about 6 months ago when they switched to digital printing.

Howard was a sculptor who liked to make things from discarded materials like car parts, bicycle gears and old oil drums...and from used printing plates. The castle has a museum on the first floor displaying some of his work. Living quarters that were used by Howard and his family are located on the second and third floors. Howard's widow recently moved out of the castle so parts of the second floor are now included in the tour. Overnight accommodations are available in the Blue Moon Room on the third floor.

Howard himself used to occasionally lead tours when he wasn't busy working in his shop. Howard didn't take himself too seriously as evidenced by the fact the tour consists of a continuous string of puns and jokes.

The first work visitors see right inside the door of the museum is called "English Barrister." The hair of the wooden statue is in ringlets that the tour guide says are made from curly maple.

"English Barrister" with hair said to be made from curly maple

Also in the first room is a metal sculpture of a fish whose title is "The One That Got Away."

Metal sculpture titled "The One That Got Away"

Another example of Howard's humor is "The Tortoise and the Hair," which consists of a tortoise shell (actually, the shell is probably that of a sea turtle, but we can allow for artistic license) with a wig hanging out from below.

"Tortoise and the Hair"

There is a motorcycle made from parts from a corn planter. The title of this work is "Evil Kornevil."

"Evil Kornevil" made from parts from a corn planter

The jokes continue with a series of faux guns. The one at the top of the next photo has a clock set into the stock and designed to kill time.

Faux gun with a clock set into the stock (top) designed to kill time

Another gun with a square barrel is called "Square Shooter."

"Square Shooter"

There are over 60 pictures made from painted wood pieces in the museum. Most of these are a little less tongue-in-cheek, but are still pretty whimsical like "Jack and Jill" shown below...

"Jack and Jill"

...and like the portrait Howard did of himself.

Self portrait

There are several animal sculptures like a giraffe made from coat hangers...

Giraffe made from coat hangers

...and an elephant made from oil drums. The tusks of the elephant are manatee ribs and the toenails are seashells.

Elephant made from oil drums

Although Howard Solomon did attend a trade school for a while after he was expelled from high school in the 10th grade, he was largely self-taught. He seemed to have an innate ability to make things. The first thing he made as a 4-year old child is a car and trailer that is on display in the living quarters of the castle. The car and trailer are only about two inches long. The wheels are made from pieces Howard cut from one of his mother's wooden knitting needles. He made the car and trailer using only a razor blade. One might wonder what his mother was thinking giving a 4-year old child a razor blade, but she must have been able to see his natural ability to work with his hands.

Car and trailer made by Howard at age 4

One interesting fact we learned on the tour was that all of Howard's designs were in his head. He never made sketches or put anything on paper.

On the grounds there is also a 60-foot replica of a 16th century Portuguese galleon that serves as the Boat in the Moat Restaurant. A 4-story lighthouse and an outdoor patio bring the total seating capacity of the restaurant to around 250 people. After our tour of the castle, we were hungry so we decided to give the restaurant a try.

Boat in the Moat restaurant

Since it was a beautiful day, we opted to eat outside on the patio that is located beside the moat.

Patio seating for the restaurant

The restaurant has sandwiches that include potato chips and one side for $10 to $11, lunch salads for $9 to $10, and hot entrees with one side for $10 to $13. Like the castle itself, the restaurant is only open until 4 p.m. and it does not accept credit or debit cards either. There is an ATM machine available in the gift shop next to the courtyard.

Margery had a Reuben sandwich with spinach casserole as her side, and Paul had a corned beef sandwich with potato salad.

Margery showing off her Reuben sandwich

The sandwiches were good, but not terrific. Specifically, the corned beef on both our sandwiches consisted of round slices of pressed corned beef lunch meat rather than real, deli-style corned beef brisket. The sides, on the other hand, were excellent as was the atmosphere. There was live entertainment (a singer with guitar) and the surroundings under the shade of a big, live oak tree on the patio were very pleasant.

After lunch, we walked down the road a few hundred yards to see Howard's workshop. The shop isn't open to the public, but we could see some unfinished works still on the back porch.

Unfinished works on the porch of Howard's workshop

Also down the road is a replica of the Alamo built by Howard.

Replica of the Alamo

To finish up our visit to Solomon's Castle, we followed the short nature trail that leads from behind the castle to the parking lot.

Margery on the nature trail

Part of the trail follows Horse Creek.

Cypress tree along the bank of Horse Creek

We really enjoyed our visit to Solomon's Castle. The tour with all its puns and jokes was a lot of fun, and it was amazing to see the creativity exhibited in Howard's many works of art.

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Cracker Capers

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, January 25 to Sunday, January 29, 2017

Every year the SKP Co-op has a 5-day event called Cracker Capers that consists of fun, food, and fund-raising. The event was held January 25th to the 29th this year. The name for the event comes from the fact the co-op is located right along the old Cracker Trail that we told you about in our last post.

Cracker Capers kicked off last Wednesday evening with a spaghetti dinner followed by music and dancing. We decided not to go the dinner because we had just eaten out the day before at Giovanni's with Roger and Paula. Not only that, but Paul doesn't dance because he has two left feet.

Thursday was game day with shuffleboard and corn hole tournaments outside during the morning and early afternoon.

Some of the group playing shuffleboard

We signed up for corn hole. Although we didn't do very well (we were eliminated in the first round), we had fun. In the photo below, Margery is demonstrating how to control your throw after it leaves your hand with your tongue.

Margery demonstrating how to control your throw with your tongue

There was a break in the games at noon for a soup and salad lunch. The games continued in the early afternoon, and they finished up just in time for a late afternoon performance of the Glad Hatters. The Glad Hatters is a Vaudville-style troupe of senior citizens who perform under the umbrella of a community theater in Sebring called the Highlands Little Theater. The Glad Hatters sing old, and we do mean old, songs and perform humorous skits. Even though the skits are a little corny, some of the gags were hilarious. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

Glad Hatters performing an old time song

Several members of the troupe performing a skit

The festivities continue on Thursday evening with Casino Night at the clubhouse featuring games like penny-ante poker and Black Jack. We aren't big fans of games of chance so we skipped Casino Night. Instead, we went out to eat. We liked Giovanni's so much when we were there two days prior with Roger and Paula we went back. This time Margery had a small pizza ($7.99) with sausage and mushrooms ($.50 extra for each), and Paul had an Italian sub ($6.99). Everything was delish!

Early on Friday afternoon, awards were presented to winners of the games of the previous day. The awards were followed by an auction where members bid on food items (mostly baked goods) made and donated by other members. Proceeds of the auction go to the activity committee, which uses the funds to help make improvements around the co-op and to offset some of the expense of various dinners and entertainment events. Since the auction is for a good cause, bids tend to go up pretty high pretty fast.

We made and donated two batches of hickory-smoked mac and cheese for the auction. We were pleased the mac and cheese sold for a good price.

Auctioning off one of the two batches of smoked mac and cheese we donated

The co-op's big yard sale was scheduled to start bright and early on Saturday morning. The activity committee collects items donated by members and stores them until the time of the yard sale. They call it a yard sale even though it was held indoors because up until last year, it was held outside. Last year, they moved the sale into the clubhouse at the last minute due to threatening weather. Having the sale indoors worked so well, they decided to do it again this year.

Paul stuck around after the auction to help set up for the sale. There was so much stuff! Fortunately, there was lots of help, and it only took about an hour or so to get all of it out of the various places where it was being stored and into the clubhouse.

We headed down to the clubhouse on Saturday morning to check out the sale and were surprised by the large turnout. The committee obviously did a good job of publicizing the event to the community and to neighboring RV parks.

Good turnout for the yard sale

One of the more interesting items for sale

Paul got excellent prices on several garden tools at the sale. We passed on the plastic skeleton.

The finale to Cracker Capers was Big Bingo on Sunday evening. The co-op has bingo every week, but Big Bingo has significantly larger pots thanks to a contribution by the activity committee. We don't enjoy bingo so we stayed home and relaxed.

After a very busy week, we're looking forward to getting back to a routine, getting back to our projects, and possibly doing some sightseeing. Stay tuned.

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