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.

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.