Living Our Dream

More Miscellaneous Activities

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, June 26 to Sunday, July 1, 2018

After a relatively quiet weekend and our trip to Clermont last Monday to see Citrus Tower and have lupper at OakWood Grill, Paul was ready for another project. The addition of gutters and downspouts to the park model was so successful at stopping the waterfall by the door when it rained, Paul decided he also wanted to install a gutter and downspout on the door side of our shed. Since we get thundershowers almost every afternoon, and since some of them pop up rather unexpectedly, Paul was tired of running through the shed waterfall as he scrambled to put away tools and materials when a storm popped up while he was working on a project outdoors.

The shed is a lot smaller than the park model, and since Paul didn't see the need to install a gutter on the back side of the shed, the work went rather quickly. He got an early start on Tuesday morning to beat the heat and had the gutter and downspout completed around noon.

New gutter above the door of the shed

Margery had an appointment for a pedicure in Avon Park on Tuesday afternoon. Paul got cleaned up and went along. After dropping Margery off, he drove to Lowe's in Sebring to return some unneeded components from the gutter project. After the returns and the pedicure, we headed to Maxwell Groves in Avon Park. Maxwell's has delicious orange-flavored soft serve during orange season (fall, winter, and spring). In summer, they switch to key lime soft serve, which we have been dying to try.

We arrived at Maxwell's around 3:50. Although they're supposed to be open until 4:00 in summer, their door was locked. Fortunately, there was still a girl inside. When she opened the door she appologized for closing early, but she explained there had been no customers for the last 3 hours. She let us in to get our key lime soft serve.

Key limes have a somewhat subtle flavor so the lime soft serve was good, but not nearly good as we were expecting. The orange has a much more intense flavor, and it's very refreshing; but at least we got to try the lime and satisfy our curiosity.  It's a good thing because the girl said business has been so slow the owner had decided to close for the rest of the summer starting at the end of the week. If we hadn't gotten the lime soft serve that day, we would have had to wait almost another year for another opportunity.

Margery with her key lime cone

Instead of late afternoon, our daily thundershower didn't occur until early evening on Tuesday. The sky was just starting to clear as the sun went down resulting in some very dramatic lighting in the clouds.

Dramatic clouds at sunset on Tuesday

On Wednesday morning when Paul took Freeway outside, he was greeted with more unusual clouds. It was shortly before sunrise, and there was a brightly lit cloud circle. Paul found out later the circle was from a rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center that had occurred about 20 minutes earlier.

Brightly lit circle of clouds

We previously had someone from Chariot, the company that manufactured our park model, come to address a number of things on our punch list like patching a few small cracks in the drywall, replacing a cracked piece of wood on the hall closet, replacing a couple of soft-close drawer slides that weren't working properly, and repairing the grout between the tiles on the kitchen back splash and bathroom shower. There was one thing they couldn't do at the time, however, and that was repair the bathroom floor. Many of the tiles were loose, and the grout between almost all the joints was cracked. The worker who came to do the other repairs determined the whole floor needed to be replaced because of all the loose tiles.

In addition to having to replace the entire floor, the job was further complicated by the fact the tile manufacturer had discontinued the tile used on our unit shortly after our unit was built. The factory didn't have any of the original tile left so we stopped a few weeks ago in Lake Wales at the RV dealer who sold us the park model to look at their samples of the new tile. We actually liked it much better than the original. It took them a week or so to get the tile from the factory, then they scheduled a flooring company from Lake Wales to replace the bathroom floor last Thursday.

When the workman took out the old tile, he said the reason so many of the tiles had come loose is the factory didn't use enough thin-set cement when installing it. The cement is spread using a notched trowel, and the amount of cement is determined by the size of the notches in the trowel. Apparently, whoever installed our bathroom floor must have been new because they used a trowel for wall tile with small notches instead of a trowel with larger notches.

Another thing the tile installer did while he was waiting for the cement for the tiles to set so he could proceed with the grout was to install our shutters. We were supposed to have shutters on the front and south side windows, but they were on back order when our unit was built so it was shipped without shutters. They finally got the shutters in and sent them with the tile installer. It's hard to believe how much more finished the outside looks with the addition of a couple of fake, plastic shutters.

Without shutters

With shutters

The tile guy got the bathroom floor done all in one day. We were able to use the bathroom right away, but we were instructed to walk softly because, although the cement and grout had set, it would take about 24 hours to develop enough strength for normal use.

We decided to have lupper on Friday afternoon at Wauchula Family Restaurant. It's nothing fancy, but the food is good and reasonably priced. We split a grouper dinner (lightly breaded and grilled) and a half-pound blue cheese burger. They were both delish!

We mostly puttered around over the weekend. We didn't have any definite plans for the immediate future, but we'll have another update when something develops.

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.

Running Here and There

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, March 14 to Friday, March 23, 2018

Right after we ordered the park model last fall, we started doing research into what kind of furniture we wanted to get. We looked at furniture online, and we stopped at a number of new and used furniture stores looking for ideas. Over time, we began to zero in on preferences for some of the major pieces we needed. With the delivery of the park model now only a short time away, we are finalizing our selections and setting delivery or pickup dates for larger furniture items we had previously ordered, plus we're buying some of the many miscellaneous items we will need. Paul also decided to design and build a pedestal bed and an end table himself. The bed is done, but we have been running around buying materials and hardware for the table.

Several weeks ago while following up on earlier research on TVs, we noticed that the model TV in the size we had been thinking about for the living room was discounted more than the other sizes of the same model at Best Buy. Then about two weeks ago we noticed the TV we were considering was no longer in stock at many Best Buy locations indicating the probable reason for the lower-than-usual price was that size was being discontinued. We checked online and found a few were available at the Best Buy store in Sarasota so we ordered one online and drove down to pick it up several days later.

On our way to Sarasota to pick up the TV, we stopped at a nursery in nearby Arcadia. Bougainvillea is a flowering shrub, but most varieties of bougainvillea get much too big for our small site at the Co-op. Paul recently learned about a variety of dwarf bougainvillea called 'Helen Johnson' that only gets 3 feet tall. Margery did some research and found a nursery in Arcadia that specializes in Helen Johnson bougainvillea so we stopped and picked one up for only $8.

Selection of bougainvillea plants at the nursery in Arcadia

From the nursery, it was on to Best Buy to get the TV. Afterward, we stopped at Der Dutchman in Sarasota for lupper. Der Dutchman is our favorite restaurant in Ohio's Amish Country, and the one in Sarasota is part of the same chain of 5 or 6 restaurants. This restaurant is located the Pinecraft section of Sarasota, which is an area where Amish and Mennonites from all over the country come in winter. 

Der Dutchman

We both had the salad bar ($9.29), which in addition to salad and all the fixin's, also includes things like ham salad, chicken salad, pasta salad, cottage cheese, two types of bean salad, and more.

Paul with a full plate from the salad bar

Because we used to frequently visit the Pennsylvania Dutch area in eastern Pennsylvania in our younger years, we grew fond of shoo-fly pie. Shoo-fly pie, which has a molasses-based filling, is popular mainly in eastern Pennsylvania so when we started going to Amish Country in Ohio we were disappointed we couldn't find shoo-fly pie anywhere.

Much to our surprise, Der Dutchman in Sarasota had shoo-fly pie on the menu the day we were there. Since Amish and Mennonites from Pennsylvania are among those who visit Sarasota, there apparently is a demand for it here in Florida. We were tempted to have a slice for dessert, but since we were too full from the all-you-can-eat salad bar, we instead stopped in the restaurant's bakery on our way out and bought a whole pie to take home. We had some later that evening and over the next several evenings. It was yummy smothered in whipped cream!

On Friday, March 16 we were running errands in Sebring so we planned to stop at Dee's Place for a late lunch. Sebring is famous for its annual 12-hour endurance race for sports cars, and it happened to be race weekend. We also happened to be listening to the Sebring radio station while we were driving, and they mentioned a number of vintage race cars would be parked around the traffic circle in downtown Sebring from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.

When we were first married, we belonged to a sports car club, and we followed Formula 1 racing and sports car racing. Therefore, since Dee's was only a block from the downtown traffic circle we decided we would walk down after our lunch of delicious, half-pound burgers to check out the cars and experience a bit of nostalgia.

Vintage Ferrari

Another vintage race car

Hot rod

There were more errands to run over the following week. The compact, stackable washer and dryer we were interested in were on sale at Lowe's so we stopped to order them. We also opened up a Lowe's charge account because it gives a 5% discount on all Lowe's purchases, which is better than the 2% cash back we get on our Visa rewards card, especially on such a large purchase.

We had previously gone to a lumber store in Lakeland to pick up some maple boards for the pedestal bed project. Paul thought he also bought enough for the end table, but a last minute change in the design meant the pieces he had left from the bed were just a little bit too small. Therefore, we headed back to Lakeland early last Friday morning to get more maple. The reason we went early was so we could stop at Fred's Market Restaurant for their breakfast buffet. We went to Fred's shortly after we first arrived in Florida last October for the lunch buffet, and we have been wanting to go for breakfast ever since.

Fred's Market Restaurant

Fred's all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet is $7.97, and they also have a one-trip plate for $5.97. The price is very reasonable considering all they have on the buffet. There are scrambled eggs, cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, link sausage, sausage gravy and biscuits, home fries, hash browns, cheesy hash brown casserole, fried chicken, chicken-fried pork chops, fried green tomatoes, cinnamon rolls, muffins, many kinds of fresh fruit, cereal, and more. The food was excellent. It was all fresh and delicious.

Paul with his first plate from the buffet - fried chicken, bacon, sausage, and a cinnamon roll

The breakfast buffet is only served until 10:30. We didn't arrive until 10:00 because we had to take a detour due to a road closure, and then we were delayed even more with road construction on the detour. Fortunately for us, however, they kept bringing out fresh supplies of food right up until 10:30, and they didn't actually start taking food away to get ready for lunch until about 10:40 so we had plenty of time to eat our fill.

From Fred's, it was on the the hardwood lumber store then back to the Co-op where Paul got to work on the table. We'll have more on that in an upcoming post.

Site Project: Enlarge Concrete Patio

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, January 29 to Saturday, February 3, 2018

Because our new park model will be wider than the 5th wheel, we wanted to add a little more concrete at the front of the patio so we don't have to walk on the grass when walking from the driveway to the patio. Also, a little bit of the rear corner of the park model will extend past the edge of the existing concrete, so we decided we might as well fill in a 2-foot wide strip at the back of the patio while we were at it.

Because the Co-op is located in a fairly rural area, we had a hard time finding a contractor last year when we wanted to enlarge the driveway and parking pad. This new job was even smaller so we knew we wouldn't be able to even get a quote unless we could join with someone else in the Co-op who had a much larger job. We didn't know of anyone else who was planning any concrete work so Paul decided to do the job himself, especially since the Co-op had recently purchased a cement mixer he could borrow. On the Monday after Cracker Capers that we wrote about in our last post, Paul started to dig out the areas where we wanted to pave so he could put in the forms.

Paul installing the form for the new concrete at the back of the patio

Paul borrowed the Co-op's tractor to haul away the sod and dirt he removed. He was careful to level the bottom of the holes to the desired depth of 4 inches. Too shallow meant the concrete might not be strong enough, and too deep meant he might run out of concrete mix before the job was done.

Leveling the bottom of the hole at the front of the patio

After finishing digging, hauling away dirt, building the forms, and installing rebar rods to tie the new concrete to the existing patio, Paul ran to the hardware in Wauchula on Tuesday afternoon to pick up 40-pound bags of concrete mix. The 40-pound bags at the hardware were actually more expensive than the 60-pound bags at Lowe's and Home Depot; but Lowe's and Home Depot don't carry 40-pound bags. Buying the concrete mix in 40-pound bags cost a little more, but it was worth it to Paul because he knew he probably wouldn't be able to lift that many 60-pound bags.

Paul borrowed the Co-op's cement mixer and got to work early on Wednesday morning. He was planning to do all the work himself pouring the front section on the first day and the back section on the second day, but when Paul was mixing his third batch of concrete, our neighbor from across the street showed up and just started asking what he could do to help. Pretty soon, another neighbor showed up and started pitching in, too.

The guys waiting for the next batch to finish mixing

Gotta love the willingness of RVers in general and of Escapees in particular to lend a helping hand. Although Paul was originally planning to do all the work himself, he's really glad the two helpers volunteered because all the concrete for both areas was mixed and poured, and the cement mixer and most of the tools were all cleaned up before lunch. Paul spent the rest of the afternoon doing the final finishing, doing the final cleanup, and then returning the cement mixer and other borrowed tools.

Paul using the edging tool

Paul knew mixing and pouring concrete would be hard work, but it was even harder than he anticipated. He was pretty tired by the end of the day, but not nearly as tired as he would have been if he had done all the work by himself as planned. Not only that, but the job was done in only one day instead of two. He is really grateful for the help. Next time, he knows to ask for help in advance if there are more than just a few bags to mix.

By last Friday, Margery had gotten over the flu and was almost back to her old self (except for a lingering cough) so we went out to Avon Park and Sebring in the late morning to do a little furniture shopping. We found a chair for the living room on sale at Turner Furniture in Sebring so we placed an order. When the chair comes in, Turner will store it for us until the park model arrives.

We stopped at Dee's Place in Sebring for a late lunch after furniture shopping. We each had one of their delicious Philly cheese steak sandwiches. Yum!

On Saturday, Paul removed the forms from the new concrete and filled in the dirt around the edges. The next photo shows the new section in the front.

Completed front section

So that brings you up to date on our recent activities. See you next time.

Site Project: Gravel Walkway

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, March 8 to Tuesday, March 14, 2017

It's been two weeks since our last post. We have been busy, but a lot of what we have been doing involves daily life here at the co-op and isn't very newsworthy.

We have gotten much more involved at the co-op than we ever did at Blueberry Hill. There are two reasons for that. First, Blueberry Hill has over 400 sites, and it was easy to be anonymous there. The co-op has only 126 member-owned sites, so everybody pretty much knows everybody else. Second, since we own a share of the co-op, we care about it. We want it to flourish and do well, so we have gotten drawn into attending meetings to keep abreast of what is going on and what changes are in the works.

One of the things that has been keeping Margery busy is the co-op newsletter. The person who was doing the newsletter decided to run for the Board of Directors at the annual meeting of the membership back in February (she won), so Margery volunteered to take over as editor. The newsletter editor is responsible for laying out the newsletter, printing it, and distributing email copies. She attends quite a few meetings of the various co-op committees to better understand what is being done by those committees so she can do a good job of editing newsletter articles.

Paul has been busy, too. He was already working on the Building and Improvements Committee when he was invited to a Landscape Committee meeting a few weeks ago. He ended up being elected co-chairman of the Landscape Committee. Most of the work of that committee is done for this year, but there are still a few things that need to be done in preparation for next fall. Paul has also been working on projects around our site. We have written about several in past posts, and there is another one described later in this post.

Another thing that occupies our time is running errands. Some are to pick up materials for projects, and some, like the one we took to Bradenton last Wednesday, are to shop for essentials. We stopped at Sam's Club in Bradenton to pick up a few grocery items then went a couple of exits north on I-75 to the Premium Outlet Ellenton to look for new shoes for both of us and for Margery to check out a couple of clothing stores. Anna Maria Oyster Bar is located on the other side of the interstate from the mall so we stopped for lupper after finishing our shopping.

Anna Maria Oyster Bar

Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Ellenton has outdoor seating, but we usually eat inside because it's usually either too cool, too windy, or both. The weather was very pleasant this time so we decided to eat outside. There is a medium sized lake behind the restaurant, and we have seen a 4 or 5-foot alligator along the bank before, and it was there again this time. There is a fence part way up the bank so the 'gator can't get up to the restaurant area.

'Gator sunning itself along the bank of the lake behind the restaurant

Margery had a fried clam strip basket ($8.99) with cole slaw and onion straws ($1.50 additional) for her sides, and Paul had a fried fish basket with cole slaw and boiled red potatoes ($8.99). Since it was before 3:00, Paul could have had all-you-can-eat fish basket for $1 more, but the four pieces that came with the regular meal were plenty.

Paul with his fish and chips

Paul started working on adding a gravel walkway in front of the shed shortly after we moved the RV over onto the new concrete several weeks ago. The first thing he did was to create a small pad in front of the step using some concrete pavers he found stashed under the old shed. Then a little over a week ago, he outlined the perimeter of the area with treated 2x4s.

Gravel area outlined with treated 2x4s

When the 2x4 perimeter was complete, Paul sprayed the walkway area with Roundup to kill all the grass and weeds. On Monday, Paul raked out the remnants of the plant material.

On Tuesday, Paul ran up to Walmart in Wauchula and got 24 bags of pea gravel. After covering the walkway area with heavy-duty landscape fabric, he started spreading the gravel.

Pouring out the gravel

Leveling the gravel

Finished walkway

We also picked up some sod at a nursery over in Sebring. Paul used it to fill in along the edges of our new concrete and to patch some bare spots behind the rig adjacent to the new gravel walkway. We'll be watering the sod daily in the hope it will take hold by the time we leave in the spring and fill in even more over the summer.

It's nice to have clean gravel by the shed to walk on in place of the weeds and bare sand that used to get tracked everywhere. The gravel continues around the side and rear of the shed to provide a buffer to protect the lattice skirting from weed whackers and to prevent rain from splashing sand up onto the shed. The two uprights at the right side of the shed are treated 4x4s covered with PVC fence post material and are there to help protect the shed from the riding mowers. The one near the door is also provides a convenient place to attach a bungee to hold the door open when Paul is working outside.

With the gravel walkway complete, Paul moved on to yet another project. We'll tell you about it in our next post.