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Good day everyone!  We are starting to get into the groove of the early mornings and days in the sun… just as we realize that our last day here is creeping up on us.   We woke up to the fog rolling in over the orange grove outside our window, which took no time at all to be burnt off by the morning sun.  Wednesday we were able to get the beam placed on the home.  I am not sure if I mentioned that the home is 1750 square feet and the beam is 50 feet long.  The Lull machine brought the beam in and most of us had to clear out of the area for safety, just in case one of the straps broke or something disastrous.  All went well and the beam was placed without issue.  Most of the day my task was to walk the perimeter of the house and ensure that all the nails were placed at 3 inches apart on the inside base, outside base and along all the wall panel joints… it took me all day to put the missing nails in place but now the home is one step closer to inspection.  The rest of the crew did high ladder work which is NOT my forte but Paul was up on ladders, doing stuff with the job foreman and enjoying learning new things about framing a house at this stage.

The picture below struck me today at lunch as we tried to find shade I looked up at the tree above us and the delicate spacing of the branches, needles and pine cones.  I thought it was a picturesque sight so I am sharing it.

Today, we took naps when we got back to the camp and “it did the body good”.  Long showers and dinner were in order and early to bed for sure.

Thursday started without the usual early morning fog and dew, we knew it was going to be a hot one!  The front porch beam and posts were placed and after lunch we started working on the roofing panels.  Before the panels could be hoisted up on the roof, the edge of the panel lined with the 2×6 needed to be nailed every six inches… that is 16 panels times 20 feet each and nailed on both sides of the edge… about 1280 nails total.  Half were done today by three of us while the others were doing roofing prep.  I got to do some measuring and drilling along with the usual hammering.  If we had thought of it, we should have measured our forearms and biceps before starting this journey!

We actually quit a bit early today because some of the roofers were getting a bit dizzy from the heat –  OK, you don’t have to ask me twice to leave the sun.   Fellow Care-A-Vanners gave us an ice cream treat this afternoon when we returned and it was VERY welcomed!  We went out to dinner with 3 others here at the camp and went to the Cowpoke Watering Hole complete with a cowboy musician on stage.  He was really talented with different genres of music and played the trumpet, sax, guitar and keyboard and sang pretty well too.   It was a nice evening out with our friends from Habitat.  We got back to the camp at 8:45 pm and all felt like little kids sneaking in after a late night out… but it is not even 9pm!  Past some of our bedtimes these days!

Tomorrow is our last day building and we hope to have the roof panels completed.  I will keep you posted J

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz – OK, I am up  –  is it 6:30am already?!  Starting the week and looking forward to closing in on the walls on the house we are building.  A day in the hot sun and some issues putting up the walls along the front of the house, so we had to back track and take 4 panels off the front and wait for the site supervisors to figure out the issues with the panels.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow!  We worked a full day and the supervising crew are wonderful, humorous and willing to pitch in wherever needed…I feel the love 🙂

After work and showers we went into Lake Placid to see some of the shops we missed yesterday BUT they were closed so we may not get the chance to roam through the quaint old part of Lake Placid.  So we went on to happy hour and socializing with the clan here in the campground and getting to know each other better.  I have to say, it has been a wonderful experience getting to know some folks who are full time RVers and have done Habitat builds, some have been doing this for years.  One woman has been at this camp since December and has been building since she arrived.  God bless her!

Tuesday came with some overcast skies and I am happy that the sun will not be pounding on us for a few hours.  A nice relief which lasted till mid morning and even included a couple cooling spritzes.  The best part of the day was when the last wall piece was inserted, glued and nailed – a great moment captured below.  We are all closed in on the sides now and have discovered the walls shade us for some of the day – YEAH!

Paul wanted me to make sure you know the Backgammon tournament is alive and well and he feels redeemed Paul 11/Carol 8.

I have some statistics for you about hammers and nails:

-We will go through One Hundred and Thirty POUNDS of 8 penny nails (I had to spell it out, it sounded more impressive)

-130 pounds of nails equals approximately Eighteen THOUSAND Two Hundred nails

– 10 swings of the hammer for each nail equals One Hundred Eighty Two THOUSAND swings of the hammer plus about another 50,000 swings for the times the nail was missed – holy cow!  Definitely a labor of love!

Barely able to walk to the showers, we were invited to a Fat Tuesday pancake dinner hosted by a fellow Care –A –Vanner that usually does this for a fund raiser for his church but he is with us so we got a bounty of blueberry pancakes for dinner tonight.  We all kept asking Dave if we could help, bring something, anything … but he was happy to host this by himself.  It made me think that sometimes we need to be able to receive other’s gifts.  It was a nice evening of socializing with our group, laughing and having some fun.

I leave you with this… “Life is a do-it-yourself project” – Think of yourself as the carpenter.  Think about your house.  Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall.  Build wisely, it is the only life you will ever build.  Even if you live it for only one more day, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.    Much LOVE to you all.

Hi all, Since we left home 3 weeks ago, we have felt that we are on a perpetual weekend… until we started building a house in the Florida sun! Now we can appreciate a real weekend to re-energize for the coming week.

Our Saturday started pretty leisurely, sleeping in a bit (anything past 6:30 is a bonus these days).  Our Team leaders, Linda and Bucky, asked us if we would like to join them on their outing to Sebring Raceway for a Seafood and Music Festival.  It was a really breezy, sunny day and it was nice to be out in the fresh air just chilling, and no hammers or nails to be seen.  There were crafters, food vendors, mechanical bull riding and live entertainment.  We ended up watching Jess Lee sing who is a really talented country artist.  She said she is on iTunes so if you like strong female vocalists, look her up!

 

On our way back to the Camp, Bucky took a side trip to Henscratch Winery.  Yes, it has hens and roosters running about and is an old fashioned country store/winery.  And Yes, Dr. Doolittle Dimmler was feeding the chickens and getting all of them to take food from his fingers.  The Camp we are staying at has 100 kids and counselors till tomorrow so we Care-A-Vanners are entertaining ourselves.

Sunday was also leisurely… to a point.  We biked into Lake Placid, which is “a town of murals”.  We found a multitude of amazing murals on walls, trash containers, bird feeders, almost everywhere you looked there was a mural, all different in size, subject and color palate.  Biking into town was a bit challenging and not the flat paths that were at the Keys.  Through town, we had time to spend peddling more slowly so we could find and appreciate all the art work.

 

A stop at CVS to get scripts and a couple things we needed for the next week and off to the camp we go.  We passed a local restaurant (one of the few open today) and had a LONG lunch break before we got back on the bikes.  When we returned to the RV, the awning is drawn up to account for unexpected wind and storms that frequent Florida so the thermometer read below:

Naps and showers were in order and getting ready for our day in the sun tomorrow.  Paul wanted to note that he saved a baby gecko in the shower today, trapped in the men’s shower stall and carried safely to frolic outside.

A total of 12.6 miles of biking today

After the promise of a nail gun today, we readily got back to work, only to realize there was no nail gun… unless you count the guns we are developing in our arms!!  I figured Paul and I nailed in over 400 nails this morning and using 8-10 swings on each nail (assuming I hit the nail each time I swung the hammer) well, that’s a lot of hammer swings for one morning, especially after hammering all day yesterday.  I got smart today and chose the shady side of the wall to nail :-).  Today we got to build most of the morning and had to retreat to the Camp at 11:30 to attend an exhilarating Safety Training at 1.  We did make some progress on the house and completed the left front wall, side wall and all but one panel on the back wall.

The main beams got delivered and we should really see some progress next week, weather dependent of course.

After the safety course we showered and had happy hour at the team leader’s RV – watching the camp being transformed and getting ready for 100 visitors tonight.  You know this is the afternoon that the sewers back up and all the washers are not usable – plumbers scrambling for parts and fixing pumps, etc.  Too much commotion for a Friday afternoon.

I also want to mention that the freezer pictures I posted the first day of the blog have been a Godsend and I have appreciated not having to cook when we return from a day in the sun digging sand and hammering nails… this baby has been working almost as hard as we have! Delicious meal every evening, well worth the advance preparations, for sure!

Tomorrow is a day of ‘rest’ when we plan on biking into town (about 5 miles) and touring to see what we can see.

We thought we would be working all day Wednesday but the Florida weather had other plans.  We worked through the morning in drizzle then around 11:30 came and the rain drops got bigger.  We did a lot of drilling (I am pretty good with a drill) and put the 2x4s down on the foundation which is where the walls will be attached… tomorrow?

Since it rained ALL afternoon, we took the time to catch up on our Backgammon tournament – current score Carol 7/Paul 6.  We also did some relaxing because Thursday’s forecast looks sunny and HOT!  The rain stopped and we went to one of the buildings at this camp and got a 8 person Dominoes game going – turns out each couple/player had their own rules so we settled on PA rules.  Nice evening with our fellow Care-A-Vanners.

Thursday ended up to be a full day of work and we did get some walls up so it is starting to take shape.  Paul nailed the wall joints on this baby A-L-L day long.  I did some nailing but I really stink at it (which was no surprise to me) but we prevailed and got the walls stable and added about 200 pounds of weight to the foundation with all the nails we used.   

Unfortunately the home owner was not working with us today to see the progress but I am sure she is driving by after work several times a week.  We worked all day in the Florida sun and it was 90+ in the sun.  I am working on my tan already and my knees are yelling at me as I try to climb the steps into the RV… but totally worth every second to know we are helping someone get a home that she has waited to materialize for 9 years.  Tyaka said she has NEVER had a home of her own, not even an apartment.  She is living with her sister and her sister’s 8 kids, some of which are being cared for by an aunt who had room for them.  By May, Tyaka and her 5 children will be blessed with this home made with God’s love.   Ahh, blessings are all around us if we take the time to look!

I am pooped and ready for an early bedtime  zzzzzzzz

Today we were supposed to start building but they poured the foundation of the house so we got the day off.  We started leisurely for the last time this week, walking to the pier after breakfast and watching the wildlife come alive on the lake. 

Once the Habitat volunteer leader arrived, we all got our orientation and some lunch and got to know each other a bit better.  The Habitat house owners need to put in a total of 400 hours with Habitat, in classes and also actual hands on building.  If they are not able to participate in the building, family members can assist as well.  The house we are working on is going to be owned by a single mother with 5 children.  She applied to the program in 2008 so this has been a long time coming for her and the family.  The children were 2,3,5,7 and 9 when she applied and now the oldest one is in his senior year of high school.  We also learned this home is being sponsored by Publix grocery chain.  Awesome to know big businesses give back!

After the orientation, we were able to take advantage of the lake and kayaks here at Camp Cloverleaf.  After finding our chosen kayaks, I noticed there were holes in the bottom of the kayak at which Paul said, “Oh, water will not come in there”, which I did not believe but got in anyway – and yes, we got soaked.  We kayaked for about 2 hours around the lake…Paul was looking for gators and once again, I was trying to stay far away from them.  At one point he called me over and told me he “heard a gator slithering into the water”…Yeah, I don’t buy it, but I paddled a little faster just in case!  We did catch an eagle hanging around by his enormous nest (picture below).  The lake was full of birds, herons and jumping fish.  A nice late afternoon adventure. 

We hung out and socialized with the other Care-A-Vanners and headed to an early bedtime.  Six thirty AM comes really early.  (Please click on the Care-A-Vanners link above to see the organization we have joined these 2 weeks.)

 

Tuesday we went to the building site.  We got to meet Tyaka, the homeowner we were working for and felt blessed that we could gather around HER foundation and do devotions this morning.  We spent the morning digging sand 18 inches down and away from the foundation so we could pull the cement forms out AND then we put the sand back where it was in the beginning.

There was a lot of shoveling from 8-11 am but thankful that the skies were overcast and that we were digging in sand and not dirt.   We took a break and were invited to a dedication of a Habitat home that was ready for occupancy.  We participated in the ceremony of a two bedroom home for a woman whose house had burnt down.  Habitat does not usually do ‘disaster relief’ but partnered with a sponsor who was able to make this happen for Miss Audrey who was ill and on oxygen.  It was in a very poor part of town but it was important for Miss Audrey to be close to her siblings and children who lived in this area as well.

Both Paul and I feel truly blessed to be here.

Since we got off easy today, we went back, showered and rested then did some kite flying (or flite kying as the Moore’s say it).  Early to bed tonight because I don’t think we will get a break tomorrow and will be working in the Florida sun till 3.  Love to you all!

Wow, day 14!  It feels like we have been gone so long but it has only been 2 weeks!  We started the day leisurely at the Lauer Resort and completely loved our time with our friends and got to see their daughter and grand kids while we were there.  Paul and I (mostly Paul) gave the RV a bath and it is shining like new, the sun glare will really stop the other motorists in their tracks!  Packed up our gear and then headed to the Canadian neighbors for a “Caesar” to celebrate the start of a new week, Canadian style.  It is like a smoother, less tomatoey Bloody Mary with more accouterments for garnish.  Thank you Dieter and Suzanne for a tasty treat and your friendly company.

A picture to mark the visit and a good bye to our friends and to Cape Coral.

The drive to our Camp in Lake Placid, Florida, was uneventful.  After driving for a bit, we felt like we were in Texas, driving through miles of dry fields spotted with cattle and no palm trees in sight, a very different view from The Cape.  After passing some Bear Crossing signs (yikes), we drove through a bazillion acres of orange groves… Ah, yes, we are still in Florida!  We came to Camp Cloverleaf which is a 4-H Camp and were greeted by Bucky, the team leader, who showed us where to park.  The camp is right on Lake Francis just north of Lake Placid, which is south of Sebring, which is north east of The Cape 🙂  Confused yet?  Here is the sunset tonight – I never get tired of the sunset.

Once there and settled in (oh about 15 minutes) we got introduced to some of the other volunteers and got the lay of the land.  Big roomy showers, real bathrooms, laundry, kayaks, canoes, all free of charge.  We found out that we are actually going to be working on a build in Lake Placid which is just 5 miles down the road.  We gathered dinner and did some relaxing and those of you reading this that know Paul prides himself in the strategies of Backgammon…I BEAT Paul in Backgammon…multiple times – running total Carol 4/Paul 3.  I haven’t played in years because Paul always beat me so it wasn’t much fun always loosing – Ha, the tables have turned!

Well, it looks like they are rolling up the sidewalks here and I have to make my posts quicker while I am here because I am using the hotspot on my phone so TTFN (TaTaForNow).

Total miles 1938.1(91.6 miles today)

THE Cape, well, I am not talking about Superman’s Cape… Cape Coral has been refreshing and relaxing.  The Lauer Resort is quite nice and complete with an endangered species, the Burrowing Owl.  Wherever they decide to nest is a protected area and no one can disturb it under the Florida law. 

While our friends went to work (yes, it is a 4-letter word!) we explored the area on our bikes, plentiful with canals and waterways.  After work, we noshed on crab legs, the Thursday night special at a local eatery; relaxed in the hot tub; and explored Naples on Saturday with our friends.  We had lunch in Tin City on the water and stumbled across an expansive art show in the local park in Naples, then drove to the Naples Pier to take a walk and watch the pelicans and dolphins.  It was too windy to be in the water, looked like rain in the distance but the rain never made it to Naples.

Two of the nights, we hung out in the neighbor’s “man cave” and enjoyed the company of two very lovely Canadians who spend about 4 months of the year in Cape Coral.  Lots of laughs and games – really stellar folks!

As I write this, it is time to get ready for another leg of our travels as we will be off to Sebring, FL for our Habitat for Humanity building.  We are setting sail to Sebring by noon tomorrow after a quick stop to get supplies for the next 2 weeks.

See you in Sebring!

On our way to Naples we stopped to switch drivers at a visitor’s center in Big Cypress National Preserve.  We decided to take Rt. 41 across Florida instead of the interstate and it was a much more pleasurable ride.  The wind was whipping though and the RV sail effect was evident…to bad it doesn’t act like a real sail and cut down on the gas consumption!  In Big Cypress National Preserve, we just happened to be there right before the ranger was giving a little talk about the gators.  It was really quite interesting and informative and we snagged the pictures below from the elevated deck.  This is as close as I want to get to these critters.

We headed toward Naples and called our friends to make arrangements for tomorrow’s visit and they graciously asked us to come a day early.  It is great to be at the Lauer Resort complete with pool, spa and friendly faces.  Ray and Linda used to live in our neighborhood and welcomed us northerners with open arms.  AHHH, a bit of home.

It is likely that I will post the next couple days together but rest assured we have arrived safely on the west coast of Florida.

Total miles1846.5

Happy Valentine’s Day from Key West!

I wanted to start out by saying that this blog does have some links in it so the underlined places we have been are a quick link to their website if  you want more information or are just curious.  Paul’s day started early with a Scuba tour to Looe Key where the reef has been protected since the early 80’s.  He didn’t get back till 2 so he had a really phenomenal start to the day.  Sightings were trumpet fish, barracuda, reef sharks, lion fish and another monster fish… 300 pound Goliath Grouper.  He had a blast with the 2 dives he did today.  Colors were wonderful, his partner was great and they saw tons of coral.  My day was slower to start, sleeping in and a lovely card and gift on the breakfast table from my honey, waiting to be opened.  After breakfast I took an 8 mile bike ride.  This was mostly to go back to the area where I spilled on my bike the other night, I wanted to take one last look for my sunglasses.  I believe there is a bird somewhere that scooped them up and is styling in my sunglasses.  Paul thinks he saw a bird with sunglasses but it kept running into things because the prescription was not compatible. 🙂  Once we had lunch, we did some maintenance on the RV getting ready for the next leg of our trip.  We took off to Key West in time to see the sunset over Smathers Beach and talked to Jeff who is holding the fort down while we are gone.  We walked along the beach and enjoyed our last evening in the Keys. 

Off to the grocery store to stock up for the next leg and back home to have a quiet dinner.  Grilled ginger chicken and grilled bourbon peaches, salad and some homemade honey wheat bread.  Dessert was homemade molten lava cakes with vanilla ice cream.  I challenge the other RVers to top that!  Happy Valentine’s day y’all!