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.