Under Destruction (oops, I mean construction)

As many of you already know, we are living in a small apartment that is part of a Family Housing apartment complex at the University, while my husband is working on his PHD.

The university has decided it is time to do some major work on the pipes and grounds here this Summer, which is making this a not at all pleasant place to live.

First there were the loggers:

These were the beautiful old pine trees we could see out our living room window




And the temporary plastic safety fencing went up everywhere, making it much more difficult to get in or out of the apartment. This picture was taken the day that we had trouble getting back into the apartment to change Blaze's clothes after swimming class.


As you can see, I wasn't really exaggerating when I called them loggers. They've had a portable saw mill in the parking lot for several days now, turning those logs into boards.


This is what the little hill in front of our apartment looks like now:


and we are not the only ones. Trees were cut down all over the complex


Blaze and I saw this board next to the portable saw mill and decided that it was the face of the Lorax, who is sad because so many of his trees have been cut down.


Then the digging began. We've been referring to these as giant gopher holes.


The point of the pits and trenches everywhere, is that they are replacing the underground gas pipes.


This meant that for two days last week we had no gas. To make up for that, everyone who lives here was invited to a free Vietnamese Cooking Night in our common room. The problem was, everyone who lives here really showed up. They've had special meal nights in the past, when the gas was still turned on, and they never had much of a turn-out, so that's what they were expecting this time, too.

Dinner service began at 7:00 p.m. and we didn't get there until 7:15, so we were pretty far back in the line, but there were at least that many people behind us, as well.


By the time we got to where the food was inside the building, this is all that was left

I've been calling it "my dinner of sorrow", but really mine was not as sad as Blaze's, because he doesn't like shrimp, or DH's because he says all he got was a piece of shrimp with an extra helping of sorrow.

When we got home from swimming today, this was waiting right outside our living room window.

We had a notice on the door warning us that there will be no gas tomorrow.

Blaze has a positive way of looking at all this, though. He says that the men want to protect us. The trench they have now dug across the front of our building, is a moat to keep us safe and to catch all of the rainwater we've had this week.

Down on the Farm Bento

I only made one bento lunch all last week, but I was very pleased with how it turned out. This was my first time trying this technique for making a hard cooked egg look like a hatching chick. The eyes are brown mustard seeds, which stuck to the egg yolk with just a tiny drop of water, and the beak is a bit of carrot.



The chick would be great for a Springtime or Easter breakfast or lunch, but I used it to make a farm themed lunch, with a pepperoni pig.

My Sunscreen Malfunction

This is my bad joke for this week.

Just like the celebrities who have wardrobe malfunction, it came off and I turned bright red (rim shot please).



I really did get terribly burned while canoeing. Everybody seems to have a different bit of advise for sunburn. A woman at the park yelled at me to cover myself with vinegar. My husband swears by Aloe. What do you do to treat your sunburns?

Blaze's First Camping Trip Part 2

It was a dark and stormy night...

It was a good test for the water-tightness of our new tent. Lightning lit up the sky, thunder crashed, and the rain poured down so loudly that I was practically yelling to be heard as I read Blaze his bedtime story. Blaze was a little scared, but I reassured him that we were safe in our tent.

Blaze woke us up very early the next morning and we were able to watch the sunrise. The shy was a clear blue. Everything was was wet and glittered in the light.











Checkout time at the campground wasn't until 1:00 p.m., so we were able to go play for awhile before we had to pack-up and go home.

One last swim:






One last walk in the woods:




A little elf house next to the trail:




Even a little time to explore independently, thanks to a set of walkie-talkies.


Then it was time to take down the tent, which went much more smoothly than putting it up. I'm really glad we had this chance to practice with the tent before our longer camping trip, which is coming up in less than a week.

Scenes from Blaze's First Camping Trip, Part 1

Our trial run at camping with Blaze was a huge success! It was a new tent and we had a little bit of trouble figuring out how it went together, since the instructions that came with it were not very detailed ( we took very detailed photographs as we took down the tent, so we can put together our own instruction manual ), but we got it all assembled before it started to rain Friday evening. Blaze loved the tent because it has a little dog room at the back and he decided that was his private bedroom.







The Alexander Springs Campground in the Ocala National Forest really was the perfect place to go for a first experience with tent camping, because there was a nearby spring for swimming, canoe rental, and hiking trails.

We had a drizzly rain Friday night, but we woke up to a hot, sunny Saturday.

Alexander Springs, always cold water, even on the hottest of days:




Canoeing:








The water was so beautifully clear that we were able to watch the fish swimming around the canoe.


By the time we returned to camp in the late afternoon, the firewood had dried out and we were able to have a wonderful campfire and dinner.

Popping popcorn:




Blaze has expressed an interest in learning to cook recently, and he had plenty of opportunities this weekend. He was able to make popcorn, roast marshmallows and hot dogs, and bake potatoes.








We were able to sit down for a nice candle lit dinner, using the shell candles that Blaze and I made a few weeks ago.




Blaze said that his favorite part of the whole trip was sitting by the fire talking.



Our fireside time was cut short though, by thunder, lightning, and a sudden downpour of rain.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Ocala National Forest

We're back from a weekend camping in the Ocala National Forest. Here is a slideshow of the interesting creatures we saw on our camping trip:

In addition to these animals, we also saw a small black bear ( the first wild bear I've seen in Florida ), but I didn't get a picture of it.

More camping pictures to come...