Busy Bee

Today was a very full day.  It started out with some office work.  I worked on finishing up some projects that I had going and revisiting scheduling discussions from yesterday.  I did some more paperwork for a new hire and prepared forms for signatures.  The morning really flew by.  It was lunchtime before I knew it.  When I returned from lunch, I headed over to our sign storage room.  It needed some work and I am preparing a big sign order so I wanted to make sure that I wasn't ordering any signs that we already had.  I organized all of the signs according to their topic and labeled the shelves.  I also pulled out the unusable signs and made a stack for recycling later.  I hope the signs stay this way for a while.  It is really pretty easy to look for a sign this way.


When I returned to the office after the sign project, I had more paperwork to track down.  I spent some time with our newest ranger to get his paperwork all squared away.  Once I was done with things at the park, I headed out to our distant properties.  The bulkhead at Katie's Landing is almost ready to be poured.  Things are really coming together over there.


I found my way to the Fechtel Tract of Lower Wekiva River State Park today.  It was one of the properties that I toured with my Manager a couple of weeks ago.  I saw so many different places that day that they all sort of blended together.  It was nice to make my way out there on my own to learn the route.  While I was at Fechtel, I had to take a routine water sample from the well.  I have to do another one tomorrow morning and take them both to the health department to be analyzed.

The edges of the service road into Fechtel were covered in a sea of yellow.  There were SO MANY Prickly Pears and they were all exploding into blooms.  They were beautiful.


On the way out of the gate, I stopped to admire a few more flowers.  I see these purple Ruellia often.  They are also called Wild Petunia.


There was also a Grapevine nearby.  Its new growth was showing off some beautiful colors in the evening sunlight.


With the water sampling complete, I made the long journey home.

Thought of the Day  #44
Managing properties that are so far away from the main areas of the park is very challenging.  There are two gates to the Fechtel property.  One is to enter the property from the road and one is set in much further and leads to the primitive horse camping area.  The property is just too far away from anything for a staff member to have to go there to open and close the gate every morning and evening, so the first gate stays open.  Unfortunately, that can attract people who are up to no good.  There are usually a few beer bottles or cans to be found.  The inner gate has a combination lock that changes monthly.  When campers register at Wekiwa to camp at Fechtel, they are given the combination and help themselves to the facilities.  A ranger visits the property once or twice a week to maintain it, but we rely heavily on volunteers for the majority of the property management.