FILLMORES IN HURRICANE COUNTRY

Yes, we just had a hurricane in Florida.  Our first, and we survived well.   The men boarded up our windows (we only have two in our tiny place), as well as most of the windows on other cinder block houses on the ranch.  People living in wood frame houses were encouraged to evacuate.  There are 70 homes on the ranch, so it took a lot of plywood, plus they were working all day in a pre-hurricane rain storm.
















Through the night we heard the wind howling and noticed a persistent scraping noise on our roof.  The next morning Bruce went up on the roof....notice the trees...the wind was still blowing pretty hard.  We had tree branches scraping the roof, which Bruce cut down.  No damage was done on the roof.  We lost power and water for about 6 hours, but it was restored quicker than for the residents on the coast.

The first thing we noticed was a lot of tree branches down, and "lakes" everywhere.  This picture is in front of the Visitors Center, and it is normally a beautifully manicured lawn....with no water on it.  This is the same "lake" where we found an alligator the next day. You can see that the water was up to my knees.













This is the gator that was in the lake above.  We called two cowboys and they came to move the gator to a more appropriate spot....like a canal.  The first guy went into the water and grabbed the gator behind the head with his bare hands, and dragged him to the bank.  The gator was thrashing around, trying to flip out of the cowboys hands, and beating him with his tail.  So the other guy held the tail down, while a third guy used his foot to close the alligator's mouth, then used duct tape to secure it.







The gator was put into the cowboy's truck with the duct tape securely in place, and we made a short trip  down the road to the canal.

Once there, they put the gator on the ground and rolled him onto his back.  If you stroke the gator's tummy, they will relax and almost fall asleep.












The tummy feels like soft plastic, and the paws were softer than a dogs paws.  It was pretty cool.  Once the photo shoot was over, the men positioned the gator on the bank of the canal, peeled off the duct tape, then stood back.  The gator took several steps and slithered into the canal.  He's just a little guy but it was soooo exciting.

Some of the cowboys here delight in catching 2 or 3 foot alligators and planting them in peoples bathtubs.   I'm not up for that one!





On that first Saturday and Sunday following the storm we answered the call to help with hurricane clean-up crews.  We got our nifty yellow "Helping Hands" shirts that the church issues, and wore them proudly.  I had two people stop their cars to ask where the yellow shirt people were from, and I let them know we were from the church.  We went up the following Saturday and helped again.  We always came home tired, dirty and grateful that we were protected, healthy, and able to help out a few people with our efforts.











One Saturday (Pre-hurricane) we went to a Sea Turtle Wildlife Preserve where we were able to watch five hatchlings crawl off to the sea.  They will come back to this very beach in 25 years to lay their own eggs....if they survive the predators out there.



















We most likely won't be here in Florida to greet them when they get back.





Bus tours are always interesting.  One day we experienced a mini cattle stampede when we encountered 25-30 cows who were out of the pasture and running down the road on the bus route.  The missionary driving the bus simply stopped and let the cows run around us.  Our tour patrons were thrilled with the experience.  On the tours we occasionally get large groups (the bus holds 24) or maybe only 2 people will come.  I have learned that I should have studied harder in my German classes, and Spanish and Chinese would have also been good choices.  Some people are mainly interested in finding gators, and other want the nitty-gritty information on the cow breeds, types of grasses or general operation of the ranch.  It pays to be prepared. I am also becoming more familiar with identifying birds, turtles, turkeys and some snakes.





Just another picture of me trying to clean out the same pond again...this time on the banks instead of using the man-lift.  I was with another couple and we worked quickly because we knew there was an alligator spotted living in the area.  We got away unscathed, except for a nasty spider bite.  I think we are done trying to clear out ponds for our gators.  They are on their own now.






We had a wonderful Zone conference with our Mission Directors out of Salt Lake.  After touring the mens building projects and the women humanitarian projects we were individually interviewed by our Director.  While waiting for our turn to be interviewed, we all sat around and did some "stuffing 'n stitching" on bears and fleece balls.  Even the men got involved, and that made the event all the more entertaining.  Elder Fillmore (the former engineer) was heard explaining the "First Law of Blind Stitching" to our resident electrician (which is to hide the knot)  It was great!

FIGHTING GATOR INFESTED WATERS

Near the end of July we traveled home to Utah so Bruce could attend his 50th High School Reunion, and to celebrate the 24th with family members.  Shellie's family, Melinda's family and Rachel traveled from far-away places to join in the fun.  Jill was preparing to leave for another year in Jerusalem, so this was a perfect opportunity for us to bid her farewell at the same time.

While in Utah we watched the 24th of July parade in Spanish Fork with Bruce and his classmates riding the hay wagon, waving, while half of his posterity screamed hysterically from the side of the road.

Katie also hosted a baby shower for Rachel, which was well attended.  This picture shows my five daughters that were on hand at the time; Shellie, Katie, Rachel, Melinda and Jill.    Rachel is due on Halloween, so I will attend one more baby event before our mission is over in March.

The week passed way-too-quickly, then Bruce headed back to Florida while I drove up to Twin Falls, Idaho, to spend a week with Jan and her new baby boy, Quincy.  I only saw her oldest son Edward for a day, as he was heading out on a week-long fishing trip with his Grandpa Allan (without his dad), and other family members.  But I got a lot of good "Grandma time" with the baby and the other two boys.

Frederick Superhero

Roger Superhero

From Idaho I drove back to Utah, said a quick farewell to the Craigs, Browns, and Judds, then caught a plane to Kentucky to spend a week with Stephanie in anticipation of their new arrival.  Even though little Justice didn't arrive until four days after I left, I still got a lot of good "Grandma time" with the other kids and cooked up a storm.  I took the older kids on our annual "Adventure" down to a remote creek with great rocks for climbing on and smooth rocks for skipping.

Getting to the creek is half the adventure

Some parts were pretty steep

Zeal on large rock

I arrived back in Florida a day before Bruce went in to have knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus.  He was up and around the next day, and back to work six days later.  He was even up in a man-lift tearing siding off a house that week.  The day after surgery we went to visit a non-member acquaintance in a neighboring town that we have been fellowshipping.  Our neighbors in Utah planted a good seed while vacationing in Florida, and we have been trying to nourish the seed while we are here.  We have had two visits with this lady, and another one is planned.

Because our ranch is the flag-ship ranch of the church, they train good men then send them to management positions on other ranches.  As a result two families moved recently and we lost our Bishop, one of our Cub Scouts and one of our Sunbeams.  We have become pretty attached to "our kids" here, and it is sad when their families leave the ranch.  One week, due to football practice, only one of our cubs was able to attend our meeting, so we armed ourselves with rakes and hoes and set out to clear a trail leading to Eagles Lookout Trail, which leads to a remote waterway near the Ranch Visitors Center.

One fun adventure was trying to clean out the noxious water hyacinth from a drain canal where we usually see an alligator on our tour route.  Not wanting to get too close to the canals edge, we commandeered a man-lift after hours and lowered ourselves out over the water to snag the plants with long poles with hooks on them.  Sad-to-report, two weeks later the hyacinths were again clogging our view of the gators...just not as bad...yet.

Bruce weed-wacking on bank while we work over water

We also enjoyed having Bruce's niece Rebby and husband John visit for a couple of days.  The men fished, the women worked on humanitarian projects, and we were daring enough to go out for alligator tail (main meal was hamburgers).  The alligator meat is tough, but not as bad as chewing on a garden hose.

Rebby and unripe grapefruit

Bruce enjoying his gator meat

Meanwhile, the men have finished one house and are working on the next one, while also doing the emergency calls, like a leaky roof and a backed up septic tank that needs to be pumped out.  Bruce was thrilled to have that job over with.  Bruce also notices random repairs that he takes on, such as fixing barn doors and supplying ranch families with can rotators.

Deer Park house near completion

Deer Park house in April

Current house two weeks ago

One final note; our son Mark is currently out to sea on his assigned nuclear submarine, so please keep praying for our servicemen.

Yikes! There's a 7 Foot Alligator Under Our Bed!

When you live in Florida you may see alligators almost anywhere.  Not to worry about the gator under the bed...there is a rope around it's neck and it's made out of 2 pair of pants, and stuffed with an old discarded comforter.  It's all part of being Cub Scout leaders.  We put together a one day Cub Scout/Webelos event held at the Ranch Rodeo Grounds.  We did knots, para-cord bracelets, fire building, cooking 2 meals, making catapults, swimming, skits and awards.  The alligator made it's appearance during the skits when we had an Alligator Race.  The alligator was under a box with a rope extending out front and held by an older scout.  After the appropriate "hype" (nice name for an untrue story), the race began with the scouts racing for their lives.  One poor 8-year old didn't have his shoelaces tied (can you imagine that), and he tripped, falling to the ground.  The alligator climbed right over him but left him unscathed.  The alligator is waiting patiently under the bed for it's next sighting.

The down side of the Day Camp was that Sister Fillmore got a nasty spider bite on her ankle.  It popped the following day and is still in the healing process.  (You may not want to show the kiddies these pictures because they are gross!)

 Two weeks later we had a Cub event where we planned to visit a religious site, a historical site, pick up trash at the beach (while swimming and having fun), and recycling our trash.  (4 requirements passed off with one event)  Well, after we left the historical site the rain descended so we didn't get to do the garbage, the beach or the recycling.  Not to worry....we went to an ice cream shop instead and had cones and sundaes.  The historical site was our closest neighboring Ranch that used to run it's own railroad tracks from a town called Deer Park, where they harvested timber, to the east coast of Florida where they ran a saw mill.  Not only did the saw mill provide lumber, but it also generated electricity for the city of Melbourne.  The train had the only bridge over the river at the time so they would charge $1 per car to transport them over the river.  When the mill burned to the ground years ago, Melbourne was without electricity for 2 years!  The owner took us on a tour using his swamp buggy, which was a treat for all of us.

Camp Nephi, an Aaronic Priesthood event occurred in June, which used many of the Ranch facilities.Around 1,000 scouts and leaders from the area converged on the Youth Camp and engaged in a variety of activities.  The Senior Elders were asked to build a 30 foot boat dock reaching out over a swamp to give the boys access to commercial airboats what were brought in to a nearby lake.  They used old pallets screwed together to make the boat dock, with the pallets stacked 5 deep near the end.  It was tricky working in the swamp, but fortunately the gators weren't hungry at that time.

The Senior Sisters used our trusty tour bus to transport Deacons and lunches from the camp to the swimming hole for two days, so we got to see a part of the action.  After Camp Nephi was over our bus smelled like wet boys and leftover sandwiches left on the bus.  A little Febreze helped a lot.

Yes, Nephi had BIG muscles!

The Elders had quite a number of urgent projects this past month (besides the boat dock), including a home with a quick turnaround in residents requiring carpet removal, new baseboards and paint.  Another house needed a quick bathroom make-over including a new tub, new plumbing, electrical work and enlarging the room by 1 foot.  This led to ripping out a wall, framing a new wall, dry wall installation, painting, etc.  Now about the old rusty tub that needed replacing...when the men took out the old overflow and drain (the pipe that goes down), they discovered that the pipe had rusted off long ago and every drop of bath water had been draining right onto the ground for who-knows-how-long.  None of these homes have basements due to the high water table in Florida.  Now we know why the grass looked so green out back!  They had to get a jack hammer and remove (then replace) the concrete floor around the tub and toilet pipes....all within a 2 week deadline when the new family was scheduled to move in.  Whew!

Other projects the Senior Elders were working on included painting a different house, replacing old air conditioner units, laying tile, and other housing emergencies that arose this month.

Meanwhile, Sister Fillmore has been doing more sewing (including the alligator), and made a fleet of cars, trucks and tractors for the ongoing humanitarian project.

Truck with Deseret Ranch brand on it....the Beehive Bar

 Just a few of the many makes and models of cars.

The thrill of winning and the agony of "de Fleet"...

We are entering our rainy season (over 55 inches of rain in 4 months) so it could rain at any moment, (which it does), and there is lots of it!  Did we mention that we lose about 1% of our cattle herd (80,900 cows, calves and bulls) to lightening strikes each year.  Florida is the lightening capital of the Unites States.

I think we're having way too much fun out here!

The Beginning of Hurricane Season

Sandhill cranes like to hang out around our front door.  There are two parents and two babies.

They are aways hoping to get a few bread crumbs.

Sister Fillmore's big event for May was flying to Arizona for a week to spend time with baby Naomi Temple and her family.  Naomi is Melinda and Ephraim's 5th child, our 40th grandchild, and weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds.  She is as beautiful as can be.

Owen is a wonderful big brother

Linus with sore nose

Grandma cooked,  had special bonding time with grandkids, helped Melinda recover, and got to chill out.

Back at the ranch we power washed our 4-plex, had a barbeque with the other Senior Missionaries (experiencing "No-See-Um" bites first hand), and went sightseeing at Bok tower.  It features a carillon tower on the highest hill in all of Florida...a whopping 385 feet above sea level.  (Nearly got a nosebleed at that altitude)

Scrubbing our humble abode...notice my cool cowboy hat!

On one missionary excursion we took the bus out to see how a new reservoir is taking shape.  Unfortunately, the bus got stuck in the fine sand. Fortunately we were rescued by a nearby tractor.

The Young Women sponsored a fundraising Dinner/Auction/Talent Show.  Elder Fillmore made some can rotators to auction off and Sister Fillmore shared a new talent.  Having been inspired by daughter Rachel, she played a nose flute.  The audience was amused, after getting over the shock of seeing a green thing hanging out of her left nostril to restrict the air flow.

Ann playing a stirring rendition on the nose flute.

Bruce making can rotators

As for the Ranch work, Elder Fillmore and the other Elders finished roofing one house, while putting down a floor in a renovated firehouse.  While working inside the house Bruce discovered a Mockingbird nest in the rafters above a bedroom closet.  He removed the nest and relocated it at a neighbors house.

After work hours Bruce and another Elder fixed two sagging gates on the ranch.  The soil here is sandy because they have NO gravel or rocks.  It's nice for digging post holes, but tough for securing gates, so there are a lot of sagging gates.

As the month rolled into June, Katie and her family came to visit.  We enjoyed 3 days of activities, including the beach, Gatorland, an airboat ride, horseback riding, going to the swimming hole, and the bird rookery.

Fun at the beach until we realized that
almost everyone got fried!

Ranch swimming hole.  We got some super action shots of the kids swinging on the ropes, jumping off high dive platform, and shooting down the slide.

While at the swimming hole we discovered a ball with ominous teeth bites in it.  Yes, a 2-foot alligator was lurking in the water but kept out of sight.

Katie and Family in the Ranch Visitors Center

We have had a lot of rain the past week, as a tropical storm just passed by to the north of us.  So far, no hurricanes.   That's all the news for now.  Stay tuned until next time.