Florida Parting Shots

If you  wonder why Sandra is not in too many of our pictures - it is because she  had to work - so we took our  side trips when she is working - to places she has already been.  This day we went to the bay and looked for specimens for the nature center and or Adam's aquarium.

I would often have to take my critters to Adam and ask "What's This?"  It was rather fun to hear him say he had never seen one of those...so we will take it home and look it up!  

We caught snails - hermit crabs - blue crabs (put  back)  green shrimp -regular shrimp -  clams (they actually have heads!) and a very active "blenny"  a carnivorous fish that can hide in a snail shell and jump out and eat stuff!  Do not put these in an aquarium with  creatures smaller than him....he will take them out!

We also caught long nose pipe fish,  but we put them back as they are endangered.

and in case you wondered...you do have to have a fishing license to capture stuff!

 Tahlia and Nancy played on the  shore and watched...(and took pictures) eager to see what we brought back

  a Crawdad..dad...or a prawn - we put him back too.

Ahh Beach

 We did make  it to the Beach one day...and had  some sunshine and mildly warm (60 ish) temps to enjoy a walk and shell collecting...just a few for the home aquarium.

The waves were pounding - and there were a few guys trying to surf - 

"Our Model Nancy posing on the beach runway displaying the new jacket for the year - stylish - casual chic - in the ever popular black with white highlighted zippers"

 These guys are Shark Fishing!  They planned to stay the night!

More Florida

This Way to Florida!

Adam gave us a tour of the Roy Hyatt Nature Center where he works

This is where kids get  a close up look at creation... a real close up!

 3 Blind mice....please thaw frozen mice in warm water....do not microwave..(not healthy)

 If you do have a mouse problem....you just need to get a snake!...I did not see if this snake got the mice  or not - there were several to feed...this one was most colorful.

 These are all in the reptile room

 Now there is a salad eater....

 This is the ocean under glass!   The Big Tank is 100 Gallon - and has various Ocean and Bay critters in it....Adam enjoys this as some days you just have to go the the  beach for work...or go fishing!  (sort of )

 This is the bird  bus - no birds on it - but  it looks into the woods where  there are multiple types of feeders

Thanks for lookin!

Christmas in Florida

Sorry about That...It has been awhile since we blogged - computer problems and busy...today is a snowy day in Michigan - so maybe we can catch up since we cancelled travel plans today.

We were Blessed to travel to Florida to see Adam and Sandra and Tahlia - in Pensacola Florida - here are a  few of the scenes we captured.

 Yes Sandra is ready to have another baby girl in March...maybe late February!

 Adam and Tahlia open gifts

 Adam got a frying pan....Cast Iron..the best.

He could not wait to try it out by making yeast for some good old fashioned Cinnamon Rolls!...he did however take time to properly "condition" his pan

 Tahlia got some trains and could not wait to play with them!

Right Away she knew it would be important to study realistic model railroading!

She Also Received a one Gallon aquarium....and she knew....

...It would be important to study "tropical fish" to know proper set up and what to put in it....

She chose salt water and we later went to the fish store and found a nice blue and yellow fish..."Dory"

She also had great fun with the musical art easel...as did everyone else.

More Florida will follow...or precede this post as Blogger is acting up

One other change

The Bedroom is also nearly complete as well and we are glad to be back in our own bed!

 This shows the old wallpaper - stinky carpet and former windows

This shows the new wood floor and walls and painted bed!

How is that for a change...or changing my outlook!

Soon after the cooler weather hit - we discovered what we wondered about.

Just how warm or cool will the sun room be when winter hits and the sun does not!

We found out by closing the folding partition and leaving a thermometer in there

Lets just say it was quite a contrast - even though there are three heat runs and return air in there - all that glass - even with storm windows on...just are not warm.

And besides all that - that folding curtain was just dark!

So for the last week I have been installing and trimming out a french door.

(I did have great help from my builder David)

Here is the transformation

Brown Door

New French Door!

(I will be listing the folding door on Craig's list if you are interested)

Apple Cider Time

November rains came in this week and it is very close to the end of harvest season.

Dale and Jan invited us over to make cider - so we gathered the "fam" and went out to their farm.  We had some great sunshine so it was nice to be outdoors

 Dale And Jan have a secret formula - the secret is the type of apple trees they have, although they planted them 50 years ago - they lost track of the type of apples they are...except for the delicious ones - which are obvious by their appearance....so they do not really know the apple type - just the formula by buckets of apples from each tree.

 The we rode the gater with the apples back to the garage,

 These Gaters can be dangerous - so Judah thought it best if he took the wheel

(note the warning behind him...these things are deadly)

 Then it is important to sort the apples - getting rid of spiders and snakes that may have snuck into the buckets or the apple trees!

 Dale has a homemade grinder to get the apples to the pulp stage.

The Pulp fills the bucket

Then it goes into the press

And Out comes the cider!

 You can even stick your finger in it.

 The we strain it into the jugs!

Don't you wish you had apples like this!