May 25, 2014
Little Manatee River SP
Wimauma, FL
We enjoyed one of those lovely lazy days.  Well I did.  I sat outside enjoying one of my favorite pastimes-a marathon crossword puzzle session.

Monte has trouble sitting still-he always needs to be doing something. 

Today he emptied out half of the items in the basement

 so he could do an inventory and rearrange things. 

I made Monte one of his favorites for dinner-pork chops,

 mashed potatoes and carrots for Monte and broccoli for me.

May 24, 2014
Little Manatee River State Park
Wimauma, FL
We spent a delightful evening at a dinner party hosted by good friends of my parents in Port Charlotte.

Catching up with my sister-in-law, Margaret 

 

Me with my big bro, Jon 

Me and my sweetie, Monte 

Our hosts, Wolfi sitting next to me and his beautiful wife, Helen across from him. 

What a feast-I was already full after the cocktail hour.  I should have paced my self because homemade manicotti was served next followed by chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli.  Oh my!

We didn't get any pics of dessert that included homemade peach cake made by a fabulous baker, Ruth and my sister-in-law's homemade carrot cake.   

When Wolfi and Helen arrived home a week ago they found this little cutie in their driveway.  He had a collar on with a leash but no ID.  Over the course of the week they did everything they could think of to find the dog's family including taking him to a vet to see if he was chipped and putting a "found dog" sign on their mailbox. 

No luck-but something happened that they hadn't foreseen--they fell in love with the dog and decided to keep him. 

While we were eating, someone rang the doorbell and left a flier about a lost dog.  We could tell that both Wolfi and Helen were resigned but heartbroken about having to give up the dog.

May 23, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

Wanting to get a break from the lingering smoke, we spent a few hours out of the park shopping at Harbor Freight, Sam’s Club and Walmart.

When we got home, Monte tried out one of his Harbor Freight purchases, a dial gauge angle finder. 

  It should come as no surprise that he has the nickname of Mr. Gadget!

May 22, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

The smoke was still quite thick outside so we continued to keep the door and all the windows closed.
This is the slow season so up until this point my shifts at the Ranger Station had dragged because there is just not much happening. But today there was a lot more activity and the five hours went by swiftly.

I had used the park’s bike to get to the station but I left it there so it would be available for rental over the weekend. I was going to call Monte to pick me up but I decided to walk instead taking more pictures of the prescribed burn aftermath.

 

Monte spent part of the day addressing the steering issues with the tractor. 

 Monte removed the ball joint from the control arm to repair steering.

 

Job completed-steering working properly.  Hopefully there will not be any more issues with the tractor so Monte will be able to complete cutting the overgrown trails next week.

May 21, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

Several times through the night we were awakened by the sound of trucks entering the compound to fill up with water. There was a crew up all night monitoring the hot spots.

While I worked my shift in the Ranger Station, Monte assembled the tools he needed to fix the brake lines on the tractor.

To access the brake cable he had to remove the emergency brake.

Monte discovered the cable was not attached to the brake bracket. 

He reattached the brake bracket.

When the tractor was finally working properly, Monte began cutting the overgrown trails. He managed to get quite a few trails cut before losing steering control. What?

Yep, he discovered that the steering arm had come off of the stationary bracket.

When he called one of the rangers to come pick him up Monte learned that the tractor had steering issues in the past.

 It was late in the day so the decision was made leave the tractor in the field and deal with it in the morning.

I had biked to the Ranger Station. On the ride home I stopped at a few locations to take pictures of the prescribed fire aftermath.

 

 

 

May 20, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

We had been warned that there was a prescribed burn scheduled to take place near our complex today if the wind conditions were favorable.

The following is an excerpt taken from the US Forest Service Website.
The Forest Service manages prescribed fires and even some wildfires to benefit natural resources and reduce the risk of unwanted wildfires in the future. The agency also uses hand tools and machines to thin overgrown sites in preparation for the eventual return of fire.
More prescribed fires mean fewer extreme wildfires.



Specialists write burn plans for prescribed fires. Burn plans identify – or prescribe – the best conditions under which trees and other plants will burn to get the best results safely. Burn plans consider temperature, humidity, wind, moisture of the vegetation, and conditions for the dispersal of smoke. Prescribed fire specialists compare conditions on the ground to those outlined in burn plans before deciding whether to burn on a given day.

 

 
The trucks began arriving around 10AM.

The crew held a meeting to discuss the procedures and went over the map of the area to be burned.

They suited up and took off.

In the meantime, Monte backed the brush hog into the garage as far as he could so he could work on the tractor without being in the direct sun.

One of the rangers had mentioned to Monte that the parking brake on the tractor was not holding. 

 Monte cleaned all the debris off the area around the brake lines. He discovered that the brake line cable was not attached to anything on the right side. He removed the brake line, pounded out kinks in the metal jacket that covers the cable passing through the jacket. Once the cable was moving freely, Monte lubricated it.

  He then attached the cable to the proper brackets and rerouted the brake line to the left side. And then reattached it on the left side and adjusted the cable. The brake is working properly now.

 

When a car pulled into the compound that Monte didn’t recognize he went over to investigate and discovered the driver was here to take blood samples from the resident chickens. WHAT?

It seems that there are four or five chickens living in the park whose sole purpose is to get bitten by mosquitoes. The chickens are usually kept in another area of the park but due to the prescribed burn were moved into our compound.

Blood samples are taken twice a week to test for West Nile virus.

I was sitting outside when I noticed some smoke off in the distance.

  Within a half hour the smoke had gotten so close that I retreated inside to close up all the windows.

Monte began spraying water on the roof and slide toppers as ash got closer to our location.

At one point the ash was so heavy it almost looked like rain.

 

I stayed inside the rest of the day but every time Monte opened the door to come in or go out we were assailed with the acrid stench of thick smoke.
All evening we could hear trucks entering and leaving the compound.