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!