Quick 'Friday'

Today was 'Friday' for me.  Wednesday is the end of my work week as I have Thursday and Friday off.  I am looking forward to Thursday, not just because its my day off, but also because its supposed to start warming up again!  I am anxious to thaw out, turn off the dripping faucets, and have visitors coming to the park again.  My day flew by today because I had several things to do.  I didn't want to stay late on 'Friday,' so I kept up a steady pace to get done on time.  I didn't even take the time to take my morning walk.  I did have some leftover photos from yesterday morning that I can share though.  I don't want you all to miss out on frost photos, hopefully this will be the end of Frosty Florida.




While I did the paperwork this morning, I talked to my coworkers about a plan for the day.  They checked over the park and reattached some boards on the spring dock that were loosened by the flood water.  I headed over to Ichetucknee to get water fountain parts to repair the issue that I found yesterday.  When I returned with the parts, my coworkers helped while I replaced them.  Aside from one hose that had to be reattached twice, all went smoothly and the water fountains are back in operation.  Our next task was to head over to Adams Tract with the chainsaw to get the last few big pieces of the three dead trees cut up and split.  Our awesome volunteers had talked nicely to the grumpy old log splitter and gotten through all of the pieces that were small enough to split.  On our way there, we saw a couple of birds that caught our attention.  One was close enough to try to photograph so I got a couple of pictures of it.  They were Killdeer.  Killdeer are really funny birds, they nest on the ground and have an unusual way of defending their nests.  They will walk away from their nest and pretend to be hurt with their wings bent as though they are broken.  This makes them look like easy prey so they can lead a predator away from their nest.



While we were at Adams Tract, we adjusted the idle on the log splitter to make it not quite as grumpy.  We were able to get another truckload of split wood added to the stack.  Nothing is left of the three trees aside from one big stump piece that eluded us once again.  Our chainsaw decided to quit before we were ready.  We also had planned to take the log splitter back to the park that it belongs to, but the hitch on my truck had been switched out without my knowledge, so we were not able to do that.  It worked out best that way though because just as we were ready to leave Adams Tract, I found out that someone from our district office was on his way to Troy to go through our property inventory.  We got back in time to eat lunch before his arrival.  It didn't take long to walk around the park and verify property numbers on our tractors, mowers, large equipment, and buildings.  Everything was as it should be.  When he left, I joined my coworkers near the river to take in the scenery a bit before I headed home.  The turtles were again enjoying the sun.  This pile up reminds me of Yertle The Turtle.