Living Our Dream

Citrus Tower

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, June 20 to Monday, June 25, 2018

Shortly after we arrived in Florida last fall, Paul started to notice some occasional discomfort in his lower left abdomen. It gradually got worse until one day he noticed the tell-tale bulge of a hernia. He was able to put off surgery until after we had gotten moved into the park model and had gotten the most important projects done by using a support belt to reduce discomfort. The belt worked very well, but it was itself somewhat uncomfortable, especially with the weather warming up to the 90s here in Florida.

With the more important of the park model projects almost complete, we visited a surgeon by the name of Dr. Jonathan Yunis who runs the Center for Hernia Repair down in Sarasota several weeks ago. Dr. Yunis has extensive experience with hernia repairs, and he specializes in laparoscopic surgery using robotic equipment guided microscopically. This method results in minimal discomfort, more rapid healing, and fewer physical restrictions following surgery. The only physical restriction was no driving for three days, no repeated sit-ups (not a problem), and no lifting of more than 20-30 pounds for a few weeks.

Following the initial exam, we scheduled the surgery for last Wednesday morning (June 20). It was outpatient surgery so Paul was back home the same day. We're happy to report he is doing fine and recovering nicely.

Although there was minimal discomfort following the surgery, it was a good excuse to relax a bit. On the day after the surgery (Thursday), Paul bummed around most of the day and took a long a nap. At 5:00, we went to a cookout and pool party at the clubhouse to celebrate the first day of summer. Everyone brought their own meat to grill and a dish to share. There was thunder and lightening all around so everyone wisely passed on swimming, but the showers passed us by so we were able enjoy our time out on the patio.

Paul can't sit still for long. Knowing this, he saved a couple of less strenuous projects to work on post surgery. On Friday, two days after surgery, he felt well enough to tackle the first project, which was to install new electrical outlets for the under-cabinet lights he had previously put in. The new outlets are inside the upper cabinets and will keep the wires for the lights out of sight. The work required a little stretching and climbing up and down a step stool numerous times, but there was no heavy lifting or real exertion. Paul was tired after he finished, but otherwise felt fine.

Paul mowed the grass on Saturday, and after another nap, we went to an early dinner at Acapulco Grill. Acapulco Grill is a family-owned Mexican restaurant in nearby Zolfo Springs. It isn't anything fancy, but the food is pretty good and its reasonably priced. We tried to go there last year, but when we saw the sign in their window saying they didn't take credit cards, we changed our minds because we didn't have much cash with us. We have been wanting to try them ever since. This time we were prepared with extra cash.

Acapulco Mexican restaurant

This is the first Mexican restaurant we have ever been to that didn't serve complimentary chips and salsa. They were available for $2 so we got a basket to munch on while we studied their extensive menu.

Dinners at Acapulco range in price from around $8 to $12. We both decided we were interested in Acapulco Burritos (chicken or ground beef burritos smothered in red sauce and cheese). However, the dinner includes three large burritos plus beans and rice. That sounded like too much food so we decided to order one dinner and one a la carte burrito and share everything.

Margery with her burritos

The service was fast and friendly. The food was pretty good, but not nearly as good as our favorite Mexican restaurant Pancho's Villa in San Antonio, Florida. However, Acapulco is about 2½ hours closer than Pancho's.

In our last post, we mentioned the numerous rain showers we have been having late in the afternoon and early evenings and the rainbows that resulted after the showers passed by and the sun came back out. Another thing that frequently develops as the clouds clear are beautiful sunsets. The next photo shows one that we had Saturday evening after we got back from Acapulco Mexican restaurant.

Sunday evening sunset

After a quiet Sunday, we continued in relaxation mode on Monday by driving to Clermont, Florida, to do a little sightseeing. Clermont is the home of Citrus Tower, which is a 226' observation tower that was opened in 1956 as a tourist attraction and as a tribute to the citrus industry centered in the Clermont area. The tower is built from 5 million pounds of concrete reinforced with 149,000 pounds of steel. The cost to ride the elevator to the glass-enclosed observation deck is $6 per person.

Citrus Tower

Selfie at Citrus Tower

It was said at the time the tower was built you could see over 17 million citrus trees from the top. Due to devastating freezes in the 1960s and 1970s, most citrus growers moved farther south. In spite of the fact many orange groves are gone, Clermont has continued to grow and prosper. You can now see housing developments, strip malls, and restaurants from the tower.

View from the tower

Another thing you can see from the tower that wasn't there at the time it was built is Disney World, which is is about 15 miles to the southeast. We could pick out a couple of landmarks using the camera's zoom feature.

Disney's Contemporary Resort (right)

Dome at Epcot (Spaceship Earth)

Citrus Tower has impressive 360º views of the surrounding area; but it isn't a major attraction, and it isn't worth a two-hour drive all by itself. The other reason we drove all the way to Clermont was to have lupper at OakWood Grill. We love the ribs at OakWood, and we went to the one in The Villages all the time when we used to spend winters at Blueberry Hill RV Resort in Bushnell, Florida. Now that we are in Wauchula, the closest OakWood Grill is in Clermont.

OakWood normally has a special price of $13.99 for a whole rack of ribs Sundays through Wednesdays. However, for the month of June, their special price was $11.99. Therefore, with June almost at an end, we combined a stop at Citrus Tower with lupper at OakWood to take advantage of the extra-special price for ribs.

OakWood Grill

Margery had slaw and mac and cheese for her sides, and Paul had slaw and lima beans. Everything was yummy!

Paul with his rack of ribs

With our bellies full, we headed back to Wauchula for an evening of TV.

Miscellaneous Activities

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, June 1 to Tuesday, June 19, 2018

It's been a little longer than usual since our last post. It's not that we haven't been doing anything - it's just that we've been doing a lot of little things that are hard to write about on their own so we waited until we had a collection of them.

We'll start this report by going all the way back to Friday, June 1 when we went to the Red Barn Flea Market in Bradenton. The Red Barn is mostly indoors, but there are some outdoor vendors. Most of the indoor vendors sell new merchandise while the outdoor booths sell mostly produce.

View down one of the aisles in the indoor market

In addition to produce, a few of the outdoor vendors sell plants. One plant we have long admired is called Desert Rose. Desert Rose isn't really a rose - it's a succulent from Africa that typically has a bulbous trunk that frequently has gnarled, protruding roots making it look like a bonsai plant. The flowers of the Desert Rose range from reddish pink, to pink and white, to white, and even yellow. Desert Rose makes a good container plant, which is a good thing because here in central Florida and northward it isn't hardy. It can't tolerate temperatures much below 40º for very long so it has to be taken indoors on cold nights in winter.

There were a couple of vendors at the flea market who had Desert Roses. We found a plant we liked and decided to take it home.

Desert Rose

A couple of days later, we were in Lowe's and found they also had Desert Roses. The ones at Lowe's had double flowers so we couldn't resist buying a second plant since the first was a single-flower variety. We also bought a couple of decorative pots at Lowe's, and Paul re-potted both plants a couple of days later.

Closeup of Desert Rose with double flower

While meetings and formal Co-op activities have been suspended until next fall, the summer residents participate in a number of less formal activities like Taco Tuesday at the Main Street Grill in downtown Wauchula (three tacos for $3), gatherings at the clubhouse once a month for ice cream and cake to celebrate birthdays for the month, 'Whine Before Dine' on the patio beside the pool every Thursday (bring your own drinks plus a snack to share), and more. We also had a Memorial Day ceremony to remember our service men and women who gave their lives for our country, and we're planning a pool party for the 4th of July. Not only do we participate in at least some of those events, Margery helps plan many of them. She also makes all the posters and signup sheets.

While most of the bigger park model projects are done, Paul had been busy with a number of smaller ones. One project he recently completed was to convert the LED can light over the kitchen sink to a pendant light. We weren't able to find a light we liked so Paul made one from a basket we got at Hobby Lobby and a light socket kit from Lowe's. He glued the woven strands at the bottom of the basket together so they wouldn't unravel when he cut a hole for the light bulb socket. He painted the basket a light aqua color to go with our kitchen decor. While we don't need the light in summer since the window by the sink faces west, it will be nice in the winter when it gets dark early.

New pendant light

Another project was to install roll-out shelves in the hall closet for our printers. The roll-outs enable us to reach to all the controls and all access doors on the printers so we can load paper, use the scanner, change ink cartridges, clear paper jams, etc.

Roll-out shelves in the hall closet for printers

Other recent projects include installing water filters (particulate and taste/odor) and the water softener from the RV into the park model water system, installing under-cabinet lights in the kitchen, transferring our satellite dish from the temporary tripod mount to a permanent mast set in concrete, and making a clear plastic deflector for the AC vent in the bedroom. In addition, Paul does occasional weeding around some of the common areas in the Co-op, and he continues to work around the retention pond clearing weeds and plant debris.

In addition to the Desert Rose plants mentioned above (those will remain in pots), we had collected several other shrubs that needed to be planted outside. Enlarging our main landscape bed to accommodate the new plants made it a little bigger project, and since the plants were doing fairly well in their original containers, Paul put off that project until last Friday when he outlined the extension to the bed so he could figure out how much edging and river rock mulch he would need.

Paul laying out the expansion to the landscape bed with rope

Paul started removing the sod from the new section of the landscape bed on Monday morning. Later in the morning when it started to get hot, Paul got cleaned up and we headed to Sebring to buy the edging and river rock. We also made several other stops in Sebring before heading to Dee's Place for a late lunch of half-pound burgers. Yum!

Paul was back outside bright and early on Tuesday morning to beat the heat. He borrowed the Co-op tractor to haul away the sod he had removed.

Getting ready to load the sod to haul it away

After he leveled the area and outlined the bed with the new edging, Paul set the plants into place, covered the area with landscape fabric to keep weeds down, then spread the river rock mulch. The Ixora shrub to the left will get clusters of bright red flowers, and the bougainvillea will get bright magenta flowers. 

Finished landscape bed

Even before the official start of summer, the weather here in central Florida has certainly been summer-like. Daytime temperatures have been in the upper 80s and lower 90s for at least the past month, and humidity is fairly high. In the summer, there is at a brief shower almost every afternoon, and we have started to experience those. We are treated to frequent rainbows after the showers pass by and the sun comes back out.

One of several recent rainbows

The rain also brings out the tree frogs. We can frequently hear them on damp, dewy mornings. One was clinging to the outside of our sliding glass door one evening after a rain.

Tree frog on our sliding glass door

Well, that's about all we have for now. Stay tuned for our next post.

Adventures in Arts and Crafts Part II: Creating a Seashell Display

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, May 28 to Monday, June 4, 2018

Once we had purchased our seashells from Richard's Seashells in Lake Wales and we had picked up some additional craft supplies from Michael's, we were ready to tackle our seashell decoration project for the bathroom. We also had the glass apothecary jar we had gotten from Michael's and a couple of wine bottles from one of our neighbors at the Co-op.

We decided we wanted to extend the aqua color accents we used in the bedroom to the bathroom so the plan was to incorporate that color into the seashell display. Unfortunately, although seashells exist in a variety of colors, aqua isn't one of them - at least it's not a color that we could find. Therefore, Paul decided to try to dye a few shells to include in our display.

He found a number of tutorials online that said you can use Easter egg dye. Since Easter is over and egg-dying kits aren't currently available, the tutorials also said you could make your own egg dye from food coloring, vinegar, and water. They said gel food colors were more effective because they were more concentrated so we stopped at Michael's in Sebring after church on Sunday (May 27) to get some gel food coloring and a few other supplies.

We started the seashell project the following Monday. Paul used a recipe given by one of the tutorials he found online and mixed ½ cup of hot water, 2 teaspoons of vinegar, and some of the gel food color. He soaked several of the shells in the mixture for 15 or 20 minutes then put the shells on paper towels and newspaper to dry.

Dying seashells using home made Easter egg dye

Unfortunately, the color came out very blotchy. Also, even though Paul mixed blue and green to make a nice shade of aqua, the smooth-textured shells looked more blue than aqua.

Blotchy appearance of dyed shells

Paul spent much of Monday trying to dye shells, but was unsuccessful. On Tuesday, it was on to the next part of the project. We used Krylon sea glass paint on some of the bottles and vases we previously got at a thrift store and used to decorate the living room and kitchen. The results were excellent. However, the sea glass paint has a matte finish, and Paul decided he wanted the bottle we would use in the bathroom display to have a clear tint.

There are several methods to tint glass on the internet, and the easiest method uses a product called Mod Podge, which is an all-purpose decoupage medium. Mod Podge is milky-white, but it dries clear. It's also water-based so it can be tinted with food coloring. Mod Podge is available in both gloss and matte. Matte would result in more of a sea glass look so we used gloss.

Paul mixed the blue and green gel food coloring into about two ounces of Mod Podge to get the desired aqua color.

Mixing color into the Mod Podge

A little water can be added to make the mixture flow better. He poured the mixture into the bottle and swirled it around to coat the entire inside surface before pouring out the excess.

Swirling the color around the inside of the bottle

Paul held the bottle upside down over paper towels for about 5 minutes to drain out as much of the colored Mod Podge as he could, after which the bottle went right side up into the oven at the lowest setting (170º).

Bottle in the oven

The instructions said it would take about 20 or 30 minutes at 170º to dry the color, but it took almost two hours. Afterward, we decorated the bottle with some raffia and a couple of starfish.

Finished transparent bottle

While the bottle was in the oven drying, Paul painted some of the leftover Mod Podge mixture onto several smaller shells and air dried them. The textured shells didn't look too bad, but brush marks in the thick Mod Podge mixture still resulted in a blotchy appearance on the smooth shells.

Since neither the home made egg dye or the Mod Podge mixture were successful at coloring seashells, it was on to Plan C. Paul spray painted several shells with the aqua Krylon sea glass paint we had on hand from painting the vases for the living room and kitchen. Since the sea glass has a matte finish, Paul sprayed a coat of gloss clearcoat over the sea glass paint, and viola! We now have glossy, seashells with a uniform aqua color.

Shells sprayed with Krylon sea glass paint and gloss clearcoat

Last Thursday, Paul filled the apothecary jar we had gotten at Hobby Lobby with shells. He started with a layer of sand on the bottom, then began arranging the seashells.

Placing seashells into the apothecary jar

Jar filled with shells

Paul put the apothecary jar and the aqua-tinted bottle on top of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but it didn't quite look right. It needed a third element to balance things out.

Last Monday, Paul took another, taller wine bottle and painted it with Krylon sea glass paint. After the paint dried, he tied on jute twine in a fishnet pattern.

Tying jute twine in a fishnet pattern

We finished off the design with a small starfish and sand dollar.

Finished fishnet bottle

The next photo shows the finished display on the medicine cabinet.

Seashells on the medicine cabinet

With that project finished, it was on to other things. Stay tuned for our next update.

Adventures in Arts and Crafts Part I: Gathering Supplies

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, May 25 to Sunday, May 27, 2018

With the completion of the gutters and downspouts, we turned our attention back to decorating the park model. Florida is synonymous with beaches, but we're located in the middle of the state so we didn't want to decorate our park model like a beach house. However, we did want to try to incorporate seashells into our decor somewhere. Since there is a good bit of space above the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, we thought that might be a good place to use shells. They would be visible, but out of the way so the more fragile shells wouldn't be easily damaged.

On one of our recent trips to Hobby Lobby to look at baskets for the living room and kitchen, the decorative glassware was on sale 50% off so we picked up a 19" tall apothecary jar for the main part of our shell display. It fits nicely on top of the medicine cabinet.

The next step was to get some seashells to put into the apothecary jar. On Friday, May 25, we scheduled a trip to Winter Haven, which is a little over an hour to the northeast of Wauchula, to stop at Richards Seashells. Richards sells shells from around the world plus a number of beach-related, decorative items. We were fascinated by the variety of shapes, sizes and colors of the shells.

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Just a few of the hundreds of varieties of seashells available

Paul checking out a seashell

The store has bins of more ordinary varieties of shells that you can sort through. Some of those can be seen in the two photos above. Those shells range in price from $.50 to about $10. There are numerous shells that are more rare, more fragile, and more expensive ($20 and up) that are displayed behind glass.

Fragile shells of spiny oysters - $20 to $40 each

In addition to individual shells they also have bulk bags that cost about $6 to $15 depending on the types of shells in the bag and the size of the bag. After we selected a number of somewhat showy, but not-to-expensive individual shells, we picked out a medium-sized bag of bulk shells to use more or less as filler.

We usually try to plan a meal out any time we go on an excursion like this, and this time was no exception. Margery found Ovation Bistro & Bar located right down the street from Richards.

Ovation Bar & Bistro

Ovation is a somewhat upscale restaurant. Their dinners range in price from about $14 to $30, and their sandwiches cost about $9 to $13. However, they have a special lunch menu good Monday through Friday until 3:00 with a flat price of $8.99 that includes many of their sandwiches, soup and half a sandwich, and several entree salads. We planned our arrival for before 3:00 so we could take advantage of the lunch specials. We also had a coupon for a free Margherita Flatbread (mozzarella, fresh basil, tomatoes, pesto and balsamic reduction on flatbread), which was delicious.

For lunch, we ordered a pulled pork sandwich and a brisket sandwich and shared them. Surprisingly, we both liked the pulled pork better than the brisket. Neither was very smokey, but the pork was moist and tender while the brisket was a little dry. Although sandwiches on the standard menu are served with your choice of a regular side (baked beans, green beans, broccoli, baked sweet potato, baked potato, garlic mashed potatoes, wild rice, French fries, or coleslaw), sandwiches on the special lunch menu come with house-made kettle fries. The kettle fries are dusted with smokey, barbecue-flavored salt. They were excellent.

Paul with our pulled pork sandwich

In general, Ovation is a little pricey, but the lunch specials are fairly reasonable. The special menu includes several other sandwiches that sounded interesting so we would definitely go back as long as we could get there before 3:00.

We made another stop at Michael's a couple of days later to pick up more craft supplies we would need for our seashell project. We'll tell you what we did with the shells in our next post.