Back from our vacation

 

We just got back from our vacation to Key West. We stopped at Cathryn and Bryan's farm for a couple days to see the sights around in the Florida panhandle. The first stop was the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola and the lighthouse across the road from it.

The view from the lighthouse was wonderful. The pamphlet said there was 177 steps to get to the top of the lighthouse and they were also numbered, so you knew how many you had left to go, and how far you had already come.

Pensacola beach was pretty. The water was cool, but not that bad. We both waded around.

The next stop was DeLand to see some friends. We were parked in Jay and Debbie's driveway. We took the kyacks to the St. John's river by Blue Springs and saw some manatees.

We also visited the Kennedy Space Center. It is a very interesting place.

Then we headed down to Collier-Seminole State Park near Naples and took an airboat and swamp buggy tour of the Everglades. There were alligators present, of course.

This guy was about 6ft long and not in any kind of a hurry. 

Lots of mangroves, too. These are red mangroves and will eventually cover the everglades according to the guide.

From there, we went on to Key West. It was a nice place to visit, but has gotten heavily commercialized. 

There are still a few banyan trees around. I've always thought they were cool looking trees.

We visited Marco Island while we were there, too. It was just a couple miles fron the campground, with a nice beach.

Our last stop on the way back home was in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Home of Jack Daniels' distillery. I have visited it a couple of times before now and it keeps getting bigger and better. We stayed in Tims Ford state campground just a few miles away for this part of the trip.

Camper stabilizer feet

Allen and I started to swap out all the motors on the camper leveling feet on Friday. There were 2 extra motors in the camper when I got it. We put the first one on and it worked well, so I ordered 2 more so I could do all of them.

When we tried to put the second one on, it had a dead short in it and wouldn't work. I called the RV place and amended my order to 3. They all came in today and we got them put on. 

This one has the new mounting bracket that I fabricated out of an old lawn mower blade. The old motor had broken the shaft and the bracket was long gone. It bolted up and fit, so all is well.

 The camper now had all 4 motors on and working well. We tested them and I greased the mechanisms. We're heading out on the first trip of the year in less than 2 weeks.

Spring is coming along

This is from a couple of weeks ago just before Natalie painted it. It's now a pale green, matching the front of the dining room.

I turned the garden over yesterday, but ran out of daylight before I got it planted. First thing this morning, I got that part done. There are 2+ rows of onions planted here.

And the rest of the early plantings are also in. We have 2 kinds of lettuce and spinach, too. It will be another month before the warm weather stuff goes in.
 

Toys for summer

 I picked up a pair of kayaks to take with us when we go camping. We rented some last year and liked them, so now we have our own. Hurry up summer!

Couple of warmer days

It finally stopped raining for a couple of days and turned nice, so I finished cutting up the tree that came down in the pasture and got it put on the burn pile and lit it Sunday morning.

I also got rid of the leftover cardboard from everywhere and a bit of scrap lumber from the bedroom window project. It was enough to give the fire a good start.

 It burned until very late that night and still was showing orange coals into early morning.  There is virtually nothing left now, except ashes. Time to start a new pile.

First attempt with the smoker

My new smoker arrived last Thursday. I got it assembled and burned in. Today I tried it out with a big brisket. I used two different rubs on it. 

 Both seasonings tasted very good, and both were very tender and juicy. A very tasty dinner tonight.

two chairs done

 We finished up two of the four chairs this week. The old chair is on the left and refinished one on the right. The back now matches the table and looks nice. Two down and two more to go!