THIS & THAT….

Getting ready to head….

back over to HL soon…the camp host there is also a Mobile RV Tech…and he is  going to caulk my roof….I have a leak..and hope he will take a look at my awning…

Big old beautiful live oak tree …Sherry has turned me into a tree hugger…but no one to take my pic so you just have to believe me…Florida and all over the deep south is full of big old live oak trees…in all kinds of twisted shapes…another interesting tree is the banyan tree…neighbor here has a very old one in the front yard…I am going to take a pic of it ….the leaves don’t look so good…I want to get the pic before something happens to it…it could be just because it is winter…but I don’t remember of it looking like this last year…I will take pic and show…

A dock at the campground …..it was a few sites down from mine…there are sites in front of it…but I never seen any boats there… farther down the lake not at campground …but can walk there….is a boat ramp…

Dell and I fished off the dock a few times…here is Dell baiting her hook…or her line of hooks??…One of the rangers joked around about her line of fish hooks…wondering what she was trying to catch…guess she had a line of 6 hooks on…lol…it was quite a fun time joking about this,…

After the cold first week…the second week was nice warm weather…but the fog set in each morning and we could never see a sun rise…so I just took pic’s of the lake and fog…

On a foggy hike…

Another day less fog….this hike around our lake was fantastic doesn’t this look like typical old Florida… but I never made it around the lake…about 2 miles…due to the back thing…but did go at least 1/4 mile or a little more each day…

And the rest of the story….

I am still trying to rest and take it easy so my spine and back will heal….it will never be cured but my goal is to be functional…so there is not much going on around here…last week end there was an air show at the Melbourne International Airport…the Blue Angels were there…dads house is only a couple miles from the airport so we had a front yard seat…it was ok…to over cast to see good tho…I started back with the church ladies painting some Christmas ornaments for their Bazaar in the fall…first time I have been able to sit much and do anything…so last Thurs. I went to Jo-Ann’s and took a quilt block class…they are doing a wall hanging …I missed the first two classes but think I can make them up well enough…well my plans for PA and north travels this summer are back in the Jell-O bowl….you know plans made in Jell-O…I will tell you more when I know more…again dad perked up when I told him I wasn’t going north…he is doing much better started doing more again…sometimes I think he wants to get rid of me for a while..lol…like just as much as I need to get away…all for now thanks for looking and come back soon…blessings to all …G&M

SAT … DUTCH OVEN COOK OFF

People dropping…
their DO pots of food for our big pot luck on Sat. at the cook off…this is just part of the very long table that would be filled with tons of food…some made with DO’s and some like mine not…I made a big bowl of Pistachio Salad…it must have been go because they ate it all…that is Carolyn taking a pic of the food also…

One of the deserts in the cook off….

I forget what this is maybe a chicken dish…but I wanted to show you the liner they sometimes use in the DO’s….

And the dish below is one of the main dishes in the contest….all the cook off food was included in the pot luck…we all paid $5 (Ins. for the cook off) and took a dish…and ate & ate & ate some more…all we wanted…

Below some off our group starting to fill plates on the first go-round….

I had more pic’s of everyone sitting around eating and chatting but some how they are lost….we had a great time and I think it peak the interest of a few that we might see some DO cook pots in our future GTG’s…I know I will be on the look out for a nice used one…I had so much fun and enjoyed this GTG I cant even begin to tell you how much…I also have more about Hardee Lakes to share hope I can remember it all…lol…all for now thanks for looking and come back soon…
blessings to all G&M

THE BIRDS…..ROBINS

The birds….

Have returned here on the northern migration..The stop here to eat the little blue berries on certain palm trees…

The birds that I speak about are Robins!…. love the Robins…they are my home birds…like all the Ibis I see here in Florida…the counter part for me is Robins,..They fly around here by the hundreds …pecking at the berries…they only stay here for less than 24 hrs. so in order to see them you have to be in the right spot at the right time…

And these black birds seem to follow them up north…because they come at the same time but I have never seen them  eat palm tree berries…they always forge on the ground…I think that a Judy told me they were Cow Birds…

One reason I think they stop here is because of the bird bath with fresh water…when I realize they are here I always make sure the bird bath is full and clean …the first year I watched them for most of the day…they seem to have pecking order even for taking a drink from the BB…they sit along the fence top and wait their turn…when one or two leave then a couple more will fly down to drink….

And the robins will chase away the black birds until they have had their fill…only then can the black birds come and drink…this was so funny to watch…I see in this pic below there is one lonely robin standing his ground but not enough to chase the others off….remember there are hundreds of these birds and it takes a long time….for them all to get a drink…

Then just as fast as they came in a flash less than 24 hrs. they are gone again…if you are not around at the right time you will totally miss them…one thing I read about there stop here and other places to feed on the palm tree berries…was in the news paper I think…anyway the berries make the drunk!!! yes you read it right…drunk…maybe that is their endurance for the long flight… well they are long gone now…do have some good news …after going to the doc on Monday he scheduled a appointment for an injection later on in the month  and gave me a special belt to ware around my buttocks…and low and behold my pain got so much better that I will cancel the shot if this keeps up next week….I will post more about my camping at HL later when I am here with nothing to b log about…so off now to get something's done before it gets to hot…spring got skipped here and we went right in to 80 and 90 temps of summer…thanks for looking and come back ….blessings to all G&M

LIZ AND THE DUTCH OVEN….

The day we arrived…

That evening we all went to a Dutch Oven demo…and Liz won a Dutch Oven give away…Vickie and Dave put at the demo…I did not get a pic of it…but you will see it among the coals in pics below…Liz decided to cook a long cooking dish in it to take to the DO pot luck on Sat. night…she decided on Indian Pudding from her New England roots….below is a pic of lighting up the charcoal bricks…very nice fire rings at this park..

And next is the pot ready for the coals…I think she told me that it would take 4 or 5 hrs. to cook…

Then she put the right number of coals on the bottom and the set the pot on them and next put the correct number of coals on top…don’t ask how many…I don’t know but when you make a dinner in a DO the receipt will tell you how many according to temp. it is to be cooked at…

It was a nasty rainy day that Sat. and she had to make a tent for the coals in waiting and the coals on the pot…we used foil worked out great…

The rain had just started up at this point as you can see..(it got worse) watching left to right Soos, Carold (she and Bob stopped in for the day but the rain chased them away)next to her is CArol and Carolyn…she had people coming and going all day watching the “pot boil” so to say…

And below TA-DA…the finished product..and it tasted great…and I have decided that I would like to get a DO pot and try my hand at this fun thing…I like to cook and this would be great…we filled the slow cooker today with the pork chop, sweet potatoes , onion & apple recipe that Liz had posted on the forum and I think that would have been good done in the DO…but Liz took her pot and left for another camp ground…

And the rest of the story….

I sill need to post about the DO cook off and the pot luck …and other things we have done…we only left camp a few times…much of the first 5 days were cold and rainy…and it was hard to do anything… yesterday Thurs. we took an all day trip to Paynes Creek Historic State Park….and to a Roadside America Attraction…Solomon’s Castle…I will post on those also…today is just a laid back lazy day doing most to nothing…Carol did show us how to use a Wii and Dell and I worked on fixing our fishing poles…because we lost our lures yesterday…in the weeds not because a big one got away…There are only 5 of us left…I have to leave tomorrow because of a Doc app. on Monday but the last 4 will be here until Wed. and of course Liz will be around as she is at a TT campground just down the road…. so thanks for looking and come back soon…blessings to all G&M

HARDEE LAKES….DUTCH OVEN DEMO

One Wed. evening…

Vickie and Dave our host for this Florida GTG…did a Dutch Oven demo…they cooked us a pork loin and sweet potatoes in one DO and pineapple upside down cake in one…to show us the difference in the DO’s…below Dave is showing us the different DO’s in size and depth and what you use them for…you can cook just about anything in them…even fry eggs for breakfast…

Me like other people thought you dug a hole in the ground and filled it with fire …well not so…you can do that ..but with so many campgrounds and other public place have banned ground fires other things have been adapted to make a DO fire pit…below Dave is using a metal fire table…I am sure it has a name but I cant remember every thing

Below is a pic of the finished meal…it was delish…it took about one hour to cook …pork tender loin was very tender and the sweet potatoes were perfect…nice and creamy…

Some how I deleted the pic of the pineapple upside down cake that they made also…if I find one I will post it later…as I have more to post about the D O cooking,,,Liz won a 10in. Dutch Oven…and on Sat she cooked in it for the pot luck supper…much fun…I will post about the D O cook off and the pot luck…despite all the rain and dreary weather we have had a great time…thanks for looking and come back soon ….. blessings to all G&M