***Click on the title, above, or the thumbnail photo, left, to open this album.***
Hi folks! Sue, Bruce and rat crew are located in Lake City, Florida. Lake City is in north Florida, near the junction of I-75 and I-10. We are about one hour north of Gainesville, between Tallahassee and Jacksonville.
Date(s): Updated Sept. 16, 2009. Album by Bruce Strand. Photos by Bruce & Ralph. 1 - 58 of 58 Total. 18881 Visits.
1 Sue is holding UKC GRCH Windys Blackjack @ Spring High (Jack is now retired). She was born and raised in Parsippany, NJ and graduated from Parsippany High School and Rider College, Trenton, NJ. She is a retired Morris Plains, NJ elementary school teacher and moved to Boynton Beach, Florida in 1996 to help her ill father after a 25-year teaching career. She has interest in and has owned and shown quarter horses and American Saddlebreds. In addition, she has owned and shown several antique and classic cars. Her parents had moved to Boynton Beach in 1975, so it was a home away from home already, and an easy transition to come to Florida.
2 Bruce joins Sue and Jack. Bruce lived until age 12 in rural Huntington next to Wix's potato fields (home of the famous "Long Island Potatoes"). His family moved to Boynton Beach, Florida in 1960. He attended Seacrest High School, Palm Beach Junior College, US Navy Class "A" Electricians school in Davisville, RI and then off to Japan with the Navy CB's as a Telephone Equipment trouble shooter and military SP. Upon return to "The States" he became an FPL lineman, FPL cable splicer, Palm Beach County Bridge Electrican, and had his own business as a welder, metal fabricator and machinist in Boynton Beach for many years. He has one son who lives in West Palm Beach, FL. Sue and Bruce left Boynton Beach and moved to Lake City in January, 2005.
3 Here is our location - Lake City, Florida. Lake City is about 70 miles west of Jacksonville, and about 100 miles east of Tallahassee. We moved here from Boynton Beach. Boynton Beach (Palm Beach County) is about 350 miles south, on the east coast of Florida, between West Palm Beach and Delray Beach.
4 Small meadow on the east acre.
We have four acres. Our property is about 200 feet wide road frontage, and 1,000 feet deep.
5 Morning haze on pines and oaks, and weeds, weeds, weeds galore.
But wait !...........>
6 And after the new sprinkler / fertilizer injection system, it's grass galore.
7 With a bad drainage problem that continually eroded and made a terrible ditch it was a real hassel.....before the new road>
8 And now things are smooth on the ride here and new fence will keep the kids out of the road.
" Laverne's kid goats, that is "
9 An ideal path for a morning walk.
10 Even more ideal now with a new road.
11 "And that's the way it was," as Walter Cronkite would say.
12 To the main gate and past the corn crop.
13 The main entrance had many natural speed bumps ( roots ), with a mixture of roots, sand and some spotty grass. Hang on if you go over 5 mph!
14 Now there is a main gate, lamp posts, and smooth ride to the C & S ranch house.
15 The little pony shelter back in the woods.
16 We had this old fat guy re-build the pony shed and it took him a while but we were happy with the end results.
17 Yes, the little pony shed has been just about been rebuilt from the ground up to be our chicken coop and tack room.
18 An 8 ft. chain link fence and new gate were added to keep the chickens home and the foxes and coyotes out.
19 The 14' high-roofed pole barn measures 32 X 38 feet. It sits behind the 4-car garage that we now know will hold 7 or 8 vehicles!
20 The first trip up with the Dodge truck & car trailer was on Saturday Nov. 13, 2005 and now there are two Mercedes diesel sedans tucked into the SW corner of our "car barn". (Ralph, in lower right, oversees the operation.)
21 Bruce made the second trip to Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005 and brought the Corvette up. Looks like there is more room in this garage than we thought!
22 One of the two mobile homes on the front acre. We will be converting this one into our lounge and rest area from the summer heat, as we tend to the garden. So far we have lots of things popping up (along with the weeds!) Butternut squash, corn, string beans, wax beans, zucchini squash, yellow squash, cantelope, watermelon, eggplant, over 100 tomato plants, 50+ green pepper plants, hot peppers, strawberries, 50+ giant sunflowers and, last but not least, pumpkins.
23 Another view of our lounge and break area. A lot of our success with everthing so far has been from much help from our wonderful neighbors whom we think of as family now. We look forward to many years of shared enjoyment with these wonderful folks. How lucky can you get!
24 Donna and Dutch put a lot of time and effort into creating this beautiful waterfall in the garden. We hope to keep it just as lovely as they did. P.S. Did not happen! We prefer the numerous frogs that have taken up residence.
25 Wrought iron arches and white brick paths add special touches to the flowerbeds in the dappled sunlight. The main residence mobile home, situated on the third acre, is in the background.
26 The Dodge truck and trailered Corvette are dwarfed by the tall trees. This pasture is on the second acre.
27 This is our Columbia County road 252A, aka SW Koonville Ave., between SW Pinemount Rd. and US 90. And it is usually just this quiet.
28 Here is the back of the veggie garden, looking south.
29 The tortoise pen is next to the veggie garden. If Happy times it right, he'll get a sprinkling too as the garden gets watered.
30 Here's a little pumpkin growing rapidly.
31 Summer Squash also growing rapidly.
32 A nice zucchini squash ready to be picked.
33 Beans, Beans, Beans, a one row harvest.But wait,there's more! Lots more.
34 Which is older, the oak tree or the Plymouth Fury? The tree isn't talking...but the Plymouth is a 1960, making it 50 years old.
35 The dog exercise yard, looking south.
36 View of dogs' house along south side of fence line.
37 Looking south to hidden entrance (on right before new road was put in).
38 Looking west to (hidden entrance) on right.
39 Down Home BBQ at what Sue calls my RED NECK GRILL. "Love it!" View Comments...
40 Our 06 spring garden is off to a great start with lots of corn, beans and squash along with hot peppers, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, bell peppers, kolrabi, eggplant and herbs, and a good bunch of sunflowers for Woody our African Grey parrot.
41 Summer squash will be on the menu, along with zucchini bread.
42 More beans and tender young eggplants.
43 Fresh picked corn, MMMM-mmmm, so much more flavor than store bought!
44 Wow did the garden ever grow (06) and notice the old scare crow we put in the corn to get rid of the crows.
45 "Good Pickin's" June 19th / 06 A quick walk through the garden produced (no-pun) some yellow squash, a mammoth zucchini, plum and Bigboy tomatoes.
46 A " peachy deal" We stopped at a fruit stand here in town to buy peaches. I noticed a box set aside with peaches and tomatoes in it. I asked what are those and the girl said they were damaged .......how much I asked.......$3.00 ....It's a deal. I was going to get them for our land tortoises and discovered at home they are nearly perfect! About 75 peaches and 10 tomatoes. What a deal! / We did it again next day ...got 2 bushels for $12.00! Almost all good!
47 Four gallons of blackeyed peas from the '06 summer garden so far and they are still producing though slowing down, thank God. Hopefully next year we will have an operational pea sheller on the propety.
48 ~THE WINTER GARDEN~ 2006-2007
Jackson & Perkins roses line the front of the garden. See the neat rows of cabbages, collards, four varieties of lettuces, onions, garlic, Brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower.
49 A freeze warning and the freeze: this is how they get the name "Iceberg Lettuce" and "Cold Slaw"
50 More "Cold Slaw"
51 After the freeze, the broccoli is doing very well........NO PESTICIDES USED HERE....NO ECOLI IN OUR SALADS!
52 And more broccoli.
53 Fresh broccoli ready to make a few gallons of " cream of broccoli soup" to freeze for later date.
54 A nice fresh head of lettuce.
55 All doing well after the freeze.
56 Cabbage, onions, garlic, red lettuce, iceberg lettuce, romane lettuce, butternut lettuce, ( reminds me of the lover's salad "lettuce alone" ) collards, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts in background. The mulch is our own pine straw, raked up from the front lawn.
57 A young cabbage, no head yet, just pretty leaves.
58 Global warming starts in Lake City! Yes, it gets hot here in the summer but this was only one day out of the whole summer here and the benefits far outweigh the bad points here in the country.
Our thermometer stand is an old Oak tree that is got to be well over 50 yrs old and almost three ft in diameter!
Hello Grandma Sue! Can you believe it? I am two years old today!
Love You, Brielle - Donna, Sat, 20 Jan 2007 9:23AM
Hi, Bruce & Sue. WOW, looks amazing. You've really been busy!!Keep up the good work. I'll show it to Ed next time I'm online when he's awake. It's midnight and he's out for the count. Bye... - Eileen Del Rosso, Sat, 4 Nov 2006 9:05PM
What a beautiful place!Pogo will love it too!He'll be happy camper with the rest of your dogs!!!(10/13/05) - Halina Zalewski, Thu, 13 Oct 2005 3:40PM
Enjoyed meeting the both of you yesterday. Can't wait for new family member. House and grounds are VERY nice. - Ed Wagner, Sun, 6 Mar 2005 3:39PM
It's so beautiful there. I bet the dogs are soooo happy! - Julie Bollman, Wed, 16 Feb 2005 9:42AM
