Latest News from Sunny Florida

April started off well with April Fools Day.  For those who know us well, it was a great day with lots of fun surprises.  It's always good to be in a new environment on April 1st because you have a fresh audience, and you can reuse some of the old tried-and-true tricks with the unsuspecting recipients.  A good time was had by.....most.

These are real flamingoes, not April Fools Flamingoes

We received church callings as a couple, so we teach the Sunbeam class of 3 year olds, which is a great experience.   The day we were sustained in church we thought we'd drop into the classroom to meet the kids, but to our surprise, they threw us into the classroom without a manual or any hint as to what the lesson was supposed to be about, so of course we "winged it" and got along fine.  We didn't raise 10 kids for nothing!

Sunbeam Class

We are also Cub Scout Leaders working with the Wolf and Bears, which comprises ages 8 and 9.  In the three weeks we have been serving we have carved soap with pocket knives, taught Ultimate Frisbee skills and hiked to a bird rookery.  Fun, fun and more fun!

Before Hike, during drizzling rain

Middle of hike, right before deluge, with 1/2 mile to go. One of the dads is a Wildlife Biologist for the Ranch, so he went with us!

Elder Fillmore spent several weeks with the other Elders at the Ranch swimming hole.  No, they weren't swimming to get out of the heat, but they were replacing rickety wooden stairways, rotting platform boards and fending off the resident alligator who has been in the swimming hole since the rusted chain link fence was taken down.  Elder Fillmore has also been working on renovating some ranch homes with the other Senior Elders, which is his main purpose for being here.

The hand railing came next

The swimming hole had been partially drained for repairs, so normally water is everywhere...it is fed by a natural flow-well.

Speaking of alligators, Elder Fillmore made a Gator Gauge so one can determine how long an alligator is by looking at his head.  It was a gift for a departing Elder and his wife.  It works great...if you dare get close enough to a gator to stick the protruding pin into his nose.  

One inch on the gage equals one foot of the gator.  Gus' snout is 12 1/2 inches, and he measures 12 1/2 feet

The bucket is to keep the gator from chewing off your hand...remember Captain Hook?
A couple of comments from local cowboys include "You need a much larger bucket!" and, "I just shoot 'em then pull out my tape measure to see how long they are."

I have been busy with humanitarian sewing and crocheting.  This month I made a number of t-shirt dresses and pillowcase dresses, as well as adult bibs for care centers and school bags for kids.  I am so glad that I received a serger for Christmas that I can use along with my sewing machine.

In our spare time we visited the Kennedy Space Center, Gator Land and also a Serpentarium.

Kennedy Space Center

Elder Fillmore & Snake

Sister Fillmore and Snake

Gator Land

Mothers Day was great.  Elder Fillmore made me a shelf to go in our laundry area.  When you only have 450 sq. feet, you need all the extra storage you can get.

As far as service goes, we've helped clean the church twice, fed the full-time Elders numerous times, and participated in a Day of Service at the high school.  

We have been grateful for good health and favorable weather.   Did we mention how wonderful senior missions are!

View from an air boat ride through a cypress grove

First Month Was a Flurry of Fun

We arrived in Florida the end of February and moved into an empty cowboy house for two weeks, while the bed bug issue was resolved in our home....old mattress , old carpet and couch removed, everything sprayed, etc.  We are now in a 4-plex with 3 other missionary couples; two homes in front and two in back.  Each home is 450 sq feet,  with two shared laundry rooms.  Not much room, but it works.

Rachel and Trent visited the second week we were here.  They were on their official "Honeymoon", spending it with her aging parents.  We were flattered.  We went on an airboat ride, saw lots of cows, played with Trent's radio controlled boat, visited the rodeo grounds, and much, much more.  They spent a lot of "alone time" at Disney and the beach!

This is the Visitors Center is where the tour starts.  It is housed in a historic cracker-style home built in the 1800's and remodeled in 2000, so it has running water, toilets and air conditioning :)    I usually dress up for the tours (I wear sneakers instead of the Crocs, and try to brush my hair).    

 
















We generally start the tour at the big map which shows the scope of our 290,000 acre ranch.  It is 50 miles from top to bottom and 30 miles across.  That's a lot of land!







This is Gus, our Visitors Center main attraction.  Some years ago he was intimidating some of the orange pickers, so the security men had to find a new home for him.  He's pretty quiet and doesn't eat much.  Gus is 12 1/2 feet long.  Elder Fillmore added the hat for this photo.

This is the bus I drive for tours.  One day a tourist asked, "Is anyone driving this bus?"  Because I'm so short they can't see my head.  We always see at least a couple of alligators on the tour, as well as birds, turtles, ducks, and lots of cows.

Elder Fillmore works on rebuilding houses, fixing tools, and anything else that is needed. On the houses they totally gut the interior, block up old doors and windows and change the entire floor plan.   The finished product is amazing, with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a large family room, etc.

Recently he has also been helping out at the swimming hole, making sure things are safe for the Ranch families.  

We have seen two rockets take off from Cape Canaveral while standing in our own front yard.  One was a supply rocket heading for the International Space Station, and the other was doing experiments. You can see some of the cowboy houses across the street.  At the time of this launch we were living in the one with the big palm tree in front of it and the blue van in the driveway.

Mark and Cadence visited with their kids over Conference Weekend.  We went on another airboat ride, checked out the Ranch Rookery (bird wetland preserve), took a canoe ride at the Family Camp (which is on the ranch and where they stayed), shopped, walked around the Ranch Rodeo grounds and enjoyed Conference together.

Beau in a bucket with a bib (tongue twister)

We have been set apart as ordinance workers at the Orlando Temple.  We drive up every other Wednesday on our P-Days.  

One of the highlights of the month was attending and preparing for the Ranch Rodeo.  Elder Fillmore and the other Senior Elders helped groom the grandstands and walkways and mowed the parking lot.  The ranch cowboys, teenagers and kids did a great job with all the events, and it was a fun event.  All of the proceeds went to the Boy Scouts of America.

Our 39 grandkids pictures have outgrown the fridge door, so I found a lovely spot for them on the wall.  Four more grandkids will be arriving this year!  We saved a spot on the upper corner for Rachel's upcoming addition.   What a blessing our family is!

Stay tuned next month when we will discuss our new church callings, our "pet" Sandhill cranes, and explore more of Bruce's projects.

HEADING TO SUNNY FLORIDA

After being home for a couple of months for Thanksgiving, Rachel's wedding and Christmas, we visited each of our kids to say goodbye, as follows:

Melinda's car broke down after Christmas, so we enjoyed their family for an extra week in Utah while they got a new engine in their Sienna.









Jill lives in Orem, but is leaving in August for a year in Jerusalem..... for their third time.   Frank, Megan and Carrie are missing from the picture.












Katie is in Provo, but plans to come to Florida to see us with her family.  I asked her to take care of my Christmas cactus and it LOVES it at her home.  It has bloomed twice since living with her.  Abbie and Ken are missing from picture.

Grandma is playing along with the Craig kids on her mother's 100+ year old violin.








We visited Jan's family in Twin Falls, ID before making the long trek.  By-the-way, bear sausage tastes yummy for breakfast!  Evan is missing in the picture.

We made a trip to St. George, Utah to visit Rachel & Trent and to watch her perform in a variety show.

Rachel playing nose flute in show

Before reaching our eastern kids we stopped in Independence, MO and enjoyed the visitors center and Liberty Jail

Next stop was Bloomington, Indiana to visit Marcie and her family.  We were just in time for a big snowstorm. Our car was stuck in the driveway, so Grandma shoveled it out.







Heading east, we ran into Stephanie and her family in Kentucky.  The kids kept us entertained.

Grandpa and Verity

Going farther east we visited Shellie and her family.  We got to hear Weston give a talk at a baptism, watch Karly play basketball, and help Weston with a family project for a merit badge.  Busy day!

We scrubbed mold off the siding.  

Our last visit was in Goose Creek where Mark, Cadence and kids live.  Mark's training is nearly finished, then he will be on a nuclear submarine for real, serving his country.

Father and Son

 















Leaving South Carolina, we headed south to Florida, stopping along the way to replace our dying battery.  Stay tuned for the next episode where we will talk about a Rodeo, driving a bus, working in the hot sun and bed bugs.....yes, you read that right.

Leaving Sunny California for Wintery Utah

So we have completed phase 1 of our mission, which was serving on the Nut Farm in California.   We are headed back to Utah until the next phase, which will begin March 1st in Florida for 12 months.

The past 3 weeks were pretty crazy, as we had many projects to complete.  On my end, Sister Smith and I were given $200 and asked to plant flowers in several flower beds around the main office.  Where I come from, when November hits we are usually pulling OUT flowers before the snow falls, not planting them,  but oh well, we do what we're told.  I have no trouble spending someone else's money!

 I just hope they all flourish, fill in and look fabulous.  Unfortunately I won't be here to see the end results.

Another project I was involved in was scanning very large maps and building plans onto the computer so the original mouse-eaten copies could be pitched.  Some of the maps were pretty fragile and dirty, so they were a little challenging to feed through the scanner.  Although we got around 200 maps scanned while I was here, we only scratched the surface of the work that could be done.  

A third project came about when a company in Japan found 2 aspirins in their order of almonds, which meant that all production workers had to have the pockets taken off their work smocks so that nothing gets carried into the production areas.  So Sister Smith and I began the tedious task of unpicking the pockets.  The problem was that there were 150+ smocks, and the pockets are all sewn into the side seams.  It takes about 45 minutes to unpick each smock, so between volunteering at the elementary school, helping teach English classes to Spanish workers, scanning documents and planting flowers, we were unpicking smocks in every free moment we had.

But wait....that isn't all.  With Christmas just around the corner, the company puts together about 250 gift boxes for employees, vendors and some people in high places in Salt Lake.  Each large gift box holds a bag of walnuts, a bag of raw almonds and a bag of roasted almonds.  The nuts come loose in big boxes, so guess who got to scoop the almonds and walnuts into the bags and seal them up...yup, me and Sister Smith.  We had 2 of the production workers come in to help us which made the task go faster, and we had it done in a few days.  

In the meantime, Bruce and Elder Smith were working on the two garages.  The trusses arrived and the men were able to get them installed with the help of an extended fork lift.

With the end gables in place, they were prepared to put the roof on each garage.  For this project they were able to get help from two strapping farm workers who had experience walking on rafters while carrying 4X8 sheets of plywood.  

On his last two days on the job Bruce, Elder Smith and Elder Garner (who just arrived from Idaho) were able to get the paper on the roof and begin putting on the shingles.

Although Bruce will not be able to see the project through to completion, he feels good about the service and work he was able to perform while he was here.


We bid farewell to the many friends and co-workers that we have enjoyed the past four months, and are looking forward to new adventures in Florida.
Until then, we won't be creating any more blog posts.  We will be busy in Utah preparing for our daughter Rachel's wedding in December, and doing some clerical work at the Farmland Reserve office in Salt Lake.  Join us again in March!