Road Kill Yummies

They are harvesting the cabbages in the fields behind our cabin. When the trucks pull the wagon loads down our road to the packing shed, leaves and cabbages fall out. When we go on our morning 4 mile walks, we take bags and pick up cabbage leaves for Wilbur our pig and from time to time whole cabbages from the road for us humans--hence road kill cabbage. When Robyn and Ron were here, we enjoyed many a delicious road kill cabbage meal--yum, yum. Here's a reenactment for the camera of the collection from today's walk.

Kannas Kumming

This weekend we had a great visit from Ron and Robyn on their way to their condo. They came to check on the workmanship on our log cabin. They say we passed. Of course we had to visit the beach and Joe's and Sage's families had to come have some Mexican food fun with them. Summer even decorated a cake--her special skill. This cake was for Mary's birthday.

More dance floor recycled

Our quest to "use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without" continues as we add finishing touches to our log cabin. We've been recycling the dance floor for Chrissy and Debbie's wedding as shelves. You've already seen the various closets and book shelves. The latest recycled sheet of plywood finished up the mudroom/laundry room and converted a wardrobe that formerly housed a TV in Joe's condo to shelves to hold t-shirts, work clothes, swimming suits, and pants. In the mud room notice too the drying rack with socks that folds out from the wall like grandma Buckley's.

Visit from the frozen northland

Chrissy decided to come warm up in Florida from frozen Minnesota. Here are some of the adventures:

They fed cows and horses and rode the horses...

played in water on the ranch and at the beach...

helped to launch stranded turtles that were being relocated from Cape Hatteras in North Carolina because the water had suddenly become too cold up there and hundreds were washed ashore...

organized balls and sport equipment...

installed a light in the storage area under the stairs...

had picnics and bonfires...

and had lots of fun eating and playing with Wilcox and Thompson cousins.

They finished off by helping Victoria and Tatum celebrate their birthdays.

They are now back in Minnesota ice skating and skiing.

Backpacking with the boys

The scout troop decided they wanted to do the backpacking merit badge, which includes 3 three-day trips of at least 15 miles each, and a week long trip of 30 miles. On Saturday we had the "warm up" hike of 7 miles with full packs along the beach to see who was really serious. Then we left at 5 a.m. Monday for Myakka River State Park near Sarasota for the first three day hike.

Here we are checking the maps and starting out the trek.

The trail was swampy at times with some wildlife. The baby alligators were hidden away in the swamp water so well that we couldn't get a good picture from the bank and no one wanted to get in the water for a closer shot. The snake may be a pigmy rattler who has just swallowed his meal. Some saw a bear in the brush just after dark. Needless to say, they saw the importance of hanging up the food in a bear bag at night to keep the night critters away.

The first day we hiked for 8 hours for 14 miles with rest stops every couple of hours when we found a spot of shade and a wide spot in the trail. Sometimes when I would lie down on my backpack to rest, one of the boys would come over and ask this 74 year old, "Are you dying?" lol. I told them "Thompsons are stronger than that. I'm just pacing myself!"

Everyone was told to carry enough water for at least two days since there would be no water available until the last night. The leaders all carried 8 liters of water but the boys thought that seemed like too much so only brought 2 liters each. That means they ran out on the first day. The leaders shared their water and then we showed them how to purify swamp water so we could make it through the next two days. I don't have a picture of the last filter stage, but you can see that the water looks like watered down Dr. Pepper. It had the taste of mushrooms. The last two days we filtered water for 10 two liter soda bottles each day for everyone to have at least two liters of drinking water to carry plus some extra for cooking to keep 6 scouts and 3 leaders hydrated.

Do these look like happy campers? You don't see me by my tent the first night as I was so exhausted at nightfall (5:30 p.m.) that I crawled in my tent and immediately fell asleep for 13 hours. The second night our campsite had an old fashioned well with a hand pump. I put on my swim suit and did a wash down in the cool water while grandson David pumped the water. I was immediately refreshed and ready for the last day of hiking. The well water had to be treated too. Everyone thought the swamp water actually tasted better even though the well water was clear!

Here we are at the end of the hike. Because of which campsites we were able to reserve, it was going to be a 35 mile rather than the required 15 hike. But with short cuts that the patrol leaders identified on the map, it was only 28.7 miles according to the pedometer that one of the leaders carried. The park rangers warned us to stay on the hiking trails, biking trails, and roads because otherwise we might be wrestling gators, snakes, wild pigs, and bears while walking chest deep through the swamps. We found lots of traces of all of these animals along the trails. The scouts now know how to read a map to find the most efficient and safe route through the wilds of Florida.

Since this was a "winter" hike in Florida, it was only in the low 80s in the day and 60s at night--hot enough for me to sweat 10 lbs of water in spite of drinking 6 liters each day and cold enough to get chilly at night if I hadn't brought dry night clothes. Everyone is excited and ready for the next hike, which may be in the mountains of Georgia or Tennessee during spring break--perhaps even in the snow. Can Florida boys do that?

Merry Florida Christmas

In sorting through our things, we found our collection of bells. We now use a nice loud cowbell to call everyone to eat. The grandkids especially like bell ringing duty. In good Pavlovian style, I now get hungry as soon as I hear it.

Last year on Christmas eve, we moved into our log cabin so we didn't get to do our traditional Christmas Eve caroling. But this year we surprised the neighbors that we have visited with during the year with our lovely carols and a plate of warm cookies and banana bread.

One family was hosting a "low country boil" (clams, mussels, shrimp, oysters, potatoes, corn on the cob) for their extended family. They run the feed store that we visit every week so we know them quite well. They said they had prepared way too much food so they sent home a large plate filled to the brim. We decided to have it for breakfast. It was delicious. I didn't need the cow bell this time to get me ready for breakfast as I had dreamed about it all night.

Oh, yes, the records say that this was the warmest Christmas day ever for Bunnell! Too bad that I don't have my pool yet.

Grandma's Christmas Time

Everyone knows that grandma LOVES Christmas, and especially Christmas decorations. However, with missions, travel, moving and house building, she hasn't been able to get out the Christmas things and do "her thing" since 2009. But not so this year. When we unpacked the shed a couple of months ago, she found all the lights and decorations that she has saved up through the years. This past week she has gone crazy seeing how a log cabin looks when filled with Christmas cheer. Besides lights, ribbons, music boxes, toy Santas, reindeer antlers and garland everywhere, she has put out an extended Christmas village, all our manger scenes that we have collected in the many countries we have lived in, plus our Hungarian hand embroidered table cloths. We are ready for visitors who need a good dose of Christmas cheer.

Merry Christmas!!