Finshing up at Lakewood

It's Monday morning ... the sunshine illuminated the spanish moss on the live oaks and the red shouldered hawk called to her mate ... what a beautiful way to start a day.

We began our final week back at the mini-golf course where another three holes needed to be carpeted. The tee off pads are named by the fruits of the spirit. Annette wanted to photograph the first and ninth pads when she noticed the number nine pad was missing. A search of the area was not successful.

 

Numerous solutions for mounting the pads were discussed with the final decision being burning down the "grass" and then fastening them with liquid nails.

 

Annette and I were the first ones to try out the course.

Another morning and the final carpet job. Jim is sizing up the task ahead of rolling out over 70 feet of carpet and getting it glued and trimmed. Jim was giving instructions for the fellows spreading the glue and also needed the help of seven more helpers in walking the rug back.

 

After having built light boxes the first two weeks of our time here it was good to be able to install the final eight in the cabins renovated last winter.

It's definitely spring in Florida. We see it in the flowers begining to bloom, the sandhill cranes with their chicks and these snowbirds preparing to go back home.

The end of our six weeks have come and now it's time to say our farewells, pack up and head home
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Spending Time at the Mini-Golf Course

Monday, Agnes and Annette finished painting the final coat of paint on the foundation at the Oaks and then joined the crew at the mini-golf course where they were removing the old rug from the different holes. By Wednesday noon five holes were recarpeted. It was threatening to rain so we covered them with plastic because the glue is water soluble and needs five days of setting time.

 

 

There are always more "firsts" in your life. This astro-turf job is one of them. Jim and Bernie check to see if their seaming will look good.

 

Jim was really thankful for the willing crew working ahead removing the previous rug. It was a hard blister forming task to scrape and clean the course.
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During the rain Wednesday afternoon Jim cut the trim boards for the Oaks motel unit and installed these Thursday morning. Then after coffee we finished off  hole six on the golf course before the rain started again at noon.We then moved to another small project of rug installation in the hallway of a volunteer lodging at the camp.
This ends off a very busy week of rug installations with tired knees and achy muscles. We have four more work days left here and Darrel, one of the employees here keeps asking, "How long are you staying?"

 

The camp is normally quiet during the week days but on a weekend like this we witness the usefulness of the work we are doing. There are 400 people here, several groups of boy scouts in the campground, a women's group in the motels and a youth group in the cabins to name a few.

This is our last weekend at Lakewood Retreat. Our Friday and Saturday have been useful for getting a variety of jobs looked after - grocery shopping, oil change for the truck, tire pressures all checked. Now that we know where the good valencia oranges are, we picked two half bushel bags of oranges for juicing and hopefully some for taking home to share.

Florida Sunshine and Lots of Fresh Fruit

Our first time on the water checking out Hancock Lake. Last summer rains raised the lake level significantly after several dry years. This region is dotted with many small lakes due to the rolling landscape. The groundskeepers and our volunteer crew have been trying to remove some of the water hyacinth which creates large floating islands of vegetation. Depending on the wind these weeds can be deposited near the camps shore and dock and make access by canoe difficult.

Agnes and Annette have been painting all week. They finished the trim and door painting of the Cypress motel rooms that were renovated. After that they started painting the foundation of the Oak motel, first the primer and then the cream color to match the siding of the motel. It will probably take another day to finish all the coats.

 

Jim was thankful for Bernie's help this week at re-carpeting the Oaks. The four bedrooms had fixed bunkbeds to work around and they also needed the bed bases to be upholstered. Thursday the screened porch got its facelift with new carpeting. Tony our maintenance man comes up with more carpeting needing to be done. The mini-golf course may be next.

We live in citrus country and have access to this in season fruit and love it. Here at Lakewood our fellow volunteers have been scouting out the good orange trees on the grounds. Most look nice but are wild and very bitter. Dave and Carol came by Saturday morning with oranges they found that are very tasty. It was a great opportunity to try out the juicer we purchased the day before. So far grapefruit, tangerines and valencia's have been found on Lakewood's property.

What do you do on Groundhog Day?

Sunday afternoon Jan 27th. Jim gets ready to skype with family in Winnipeg and also enjoy the wonderful day outdoors.

Lakewood Retreat is a large facility - these signs direct guests to the various buildings. Magnolia and Pinecone are large meeting rooms, Cypress and Cedar are motels with 8 and 9 units each which also have meeting rooms. Oaks is a family sized 4 bedroom rental space.

This photo shows the Cypress motel unit and it was where much activity happened this week. The painting crew of Agnes, Annette and Fern repainted 2 units while Jim replaced the carpeting. Jim also measured up carpet requirements for the rooms in Oaks and the Mini-golf course. The fence shown here was completed  by the SOWERS group in the last three weeks.

Tony supplied the ladies with a pail of paint for the doors and trim, but when they opened it they where surprised to see Magenta instead of white - oops! he picked up the wrong can.

   

Dave and Bernie at their project of building a shelter for the fuel tanks.

So what do you do on groundhog day in Florida? Enjoy the warm sunshine - Why not pick fresh tasty strawberries. They made great smoothies for supper. Our small RV fridge is hosting 1 1/2 pails of wonderfull strawberries for the coming week. We will enjoy these with breakfast cereal, lunch salad and supper dessert. Who is coming to join us?

Friday night a number of the volunteer couples attended a fundraising concert for Lakewood Retreat by a Southern Gospel quartet - Archie Watkins and the Smokey Mountain Reunion.