Halloween at PVC 10-12-2019

Here are some pics of the Halloween party for 2019.  The weather was GREAT and it looks like there were a little over 100 people.

Kathy Burnett - literally IN FB Jail at this time.  30 day sentence. LOL

RIP Patricia Ori

Saddest day of my life.  September 14, 2019.  My sweet Mother, Pat Ori, passed away today.  She would have been 95 in 3 weeks.  We will all miss her with all our hearts.  She was a wonderful Mother and Grandmother and Great Grandmother.  I will miss our "Ladies Day Out" lunches at Olive Garden and Panera's.  I'm so happy to have been able to take her to the Symphony in Jacksonville for about 3 seasons.  We also saw "The Rockette's" Christmas Pageant there one year.  I miss you Mama.  I hope you found your parents and brother and my Dad.  And your dog Peggy.  Rest In Peace beautiful lady.   I love you with all my heart.

Time to leave Jacksonville...

Time to go away.  From Jacksonville that is.  After living in an apartment for a year we have come to learn that we hate apartment living!  Thump,thump,thump is the noise from the people who live above us,  there are screaming kids next to us, and trying to avoid other people walking dogs when we walk ours, etc.  AND the raised our rent $150 a freaking month.  That's insane.

So at the end of this month we are undergoing another adventure in our life.  We are moving out of FL and are going to stay in GA.  While we are in GA we'll start looking for places to live in TN to closer to the grand kids.  Here we go....  :)

End Of Season, 2018

Well, the end of the season for 2018 has arrived ( The "season" ends on 10-31 and starts again on 4-1 the next year) so we winterized the cabin and camper and headed back to Jacksonville for the winter.  While we are in Jax we'll update all our prescriptions, go to the dentist, get eye exams, etc.  You know - old people stuff.

We got a lot of work done this year:
1) Re-plumbed the cabin because the old existing PVC piping was just starting to crack easily and there must have been at least 5-6 small leaks at several joints.
2) Decided to build a deck!  We found ourselves tripping over loose  stepping stones, there were low spots on the ground where water accumulated when it rained, and it was just plain ugly to look at.  We were both very happy with the finished result and are glad we decided to have the deck built.

3) I bought a Blackstone griddle that I love to cook on.  I'm still in a learning phase, but we've had chicken wings, burgers, Philly cheese steaks, hot dogs, etc.on it and everything turned out great. 

Wings on the Blackstone

I cooked a couple of steaks on it and while they were OK, I prefer to cook a steak on a really hot cast iron skillet to get a good sear on the outside.  The griddle just doesn't get hot enough.  So.... NEXT year I'm going to buy myself a decent gas grill with a sear station on it!

Projects for next season is to wrap my plumbing with heat tape in case we want to stay there when it's cold, stain the deck to weather proof it, get a new grill and maybe, just maybe look at replacing  the plastic windows in the cabin with real glass windows.

Halloween at PVC. 10-20-2018

Today was the Halloween gala at PVC and the first one we have been able to attend because we usually head home before October 20th. This year we were determined to stay long enough to actually experience fall AND attend the party.

How it work:
The "gala" is a progressive party at four different campsites or hosts.  Everyone decorates their golf cart and dons a costume and meets at the 1st hosts camp site at 6 pm.  The hosts provide food and drink for everyone, people bring a dish to help with the party and the drinking part is optional. :)  After the 1st hour, we all go to the next host for more food and drink, then the next and finally the 4th where coffee and desserts are served to those left after 3 hours.  LOL.

I had no idea how hard the hosts had to work for this event and was truly impressed.

Kathy and I made it through the 1st three hosts, but had to call it quits after 3 hours.  I'll just blame it on old age.    Here are some pictures...

Half of the carts that showed up.

Steve and Kathy as "Sick and Tired."

Our 1st host, Terri.  Serving up some delicious food! 

Party on the deck at the 1st host.

Party around the fire ring at the 2nd host.

Deck Renovation Sept. 2018

 Time to build a deck to cover hose ugly red concrete paver blocks.  The blocks weren't installed correctly and they have become very wavy on the ground.   And when it rains,there are puddles everywhere.  It's a bad trip hazard that we don't want to deal with.   So... we decided to cover the pavers with a 692 SF wood deck.  Luckily a few neighbors wanted a BUNCH of pavers for fire pits, BBQ stations, etc. and THEY were the ones who hauled away most of the pavers.  It took about two weeks to clear the area.  The first step was to remove the rusted out fire pit,then remove the front steel "Horse" tie-ups.  The horse heads will be saved and reused once the new deck is completed. I tried to save the Wood Hollow grill station ( from Home Depot) that was left here by the sellers, but once I started to take it apart to remove it, it was just TOO rusty.  Besides - I bought myself  a new Blackstone griddle which I love cooking on ( think of a Japanese steak house cooking station) and I had a smaller gas grill up on our deck outside the screen patio.

Before paver removal.

Day 3: Archway, cast iron horses and some concrete steps removed.

Rusty Fire Pit Gone.

Tried to save the fire pit, but it was too rusty to be moved.  Had to take it apart and trash it.

Paver removal in progress :)

The lumber arrives and the work begins.

LOTS of lumber!

The deck framing was built with 2x12's.  Everything is pressure treated lumber.

Day 2 1/2: The front half is done.

Deck is complete.

Closer view

Finished with the entrance. 

More Cabin Renovations...

Yesterday we started to re-do the outdoor space on our lot. The first order of business was to remove  all the 12"x 12" concrete pavers that were located all along the front of the trailer, in front of the arbor, etc.  Just WAY too many pavers for our taste and also they were installed by just setting them on pebble gravel in lieu of packing sand and gravel which would have been the correct way to do it.  The pavers were all uneven and had spaces between them from ground movement. 

Before 8-2018

Work in Progress

Almost done!

The worst thing was having to pick up those concrete block one at  a time and rolling them on a dolly ( 5 at a time) to stack them behind the cabin.  Never know when one will need some concrete blocks later on!

July 4th at PVC

July 4th 2018 at PVC.  Our cart all dressed up for the parade around the park this coming Saturday.  LOL.  We had burgers and hot dogs at our neighbors place ( Catherine and Mike) for lunch with  bunch of other folks!

Kathy B. sitting in our cart.

Kathy with her "race horse"in her hands.  Kind of a fun game to play as old farts that we are.