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Follow rules for how long?


Until Friday when I begin working......I have to push the limits because in mid April I will not be able to frequently return to Pensacola and will have business obligations which will limit my travel.   I hope I can pour some concrete, get started on the seawall, and finish clearing trees, load the bobcat onto the dump truck on the new ramp we built, and back to Illinois working on the islands where I have a 10 x 20 concrete culvert being delivered to the islands for a new bridge, which will require a crane to unload the 5 sections.

2seaoat wrote:Follow rules for how long?


Until Friday when I begin working......I have to push the limits because in mid April I will not be able to frequently return to Pensacola and will have business obligations which will limit my travel.   I hope I can pour some concrete, get started on the seawall, and finish clearing trees, load the bobcat onto the dump truck on the new ramp we built, and back to Illinois working on the islands where I have a 10 x 20 concrete culvert being delivered to the islands for a new bridge, which will require a crane to unload the 5 sections.

Reminds me of the song DIZZY by Tommy Roe.

Now we're talking real wind on Thursday -- North 20-30 mph during the day, diminishing to 10-15 mph overnight.

We got to Metropolis at the Harrahs, and our routine is that I go sit down and play cards and my wife walks the dog and checks into a complimentary room. Well, they had no rooms and groups of people were sitting on the floor by the elevator waiting to see if a room would open from the reservations. We decided to immediately leave and drive straight through. I drove to the rocket in Alabama at 3am while my wife slept, and then she drove to Navarre. We dropped off the loaded trailer and the heavy floats slipped right off next to the boat launch and we will be buying lumber to build the work platforms for the seawall. Today was one of the most beautiful days, but we were asleep at 1pm and just woke up. Time to shop for lumber.

And here I was looking for any sign of you and the Mrs. at the New Yorker tonight. (Not that I really expected you to be there.) Glad you made it safe and sound.

After our six hour nap, we went to Walmart in Navarre and stocked up for three weeks. We got a great chicken which they put out by the check out lines at the end of the day, and for less than three dollars you get a delicious chicken which my wife picked up various mac and potato salads. I should never go shopping with her because I always spend about thirty bucks on junk food. I like to snack on cereal and we got a big box of kellogg Pops, and a box of cheerios. Busy day Friday as I am having one load of road clay, and we will be clearing land, building our work platform, and a shelter which we erected last year to store items. The roads look great, and the rye grass is simply beautiful as today was almost a perfect day. We finished a porch on an efficiency apartment we have added to the one rental house(in law set up), and we have this screened in porch which we simply left the back door open as we napped and it was delightful as the air was crisp, the humidity was great, and the breeze you talked about was splendid. Days like today are hard to replicate. We have the two kayaks down here now, but with it being near the high thirties I probably will wait later in the month to take a break from work and kayak the bayou. The views are stunning.

We have had some beautiful weather. 

I get the reduced chicken from Walmart....it makes for great chicken salad.

I get the reduced chicken from Walmart....it makes for great chicken salad.


That is exactly what the wife wants to do next week. She explained they prepare the chickens right before lunch, and if they do not sell them by seven, they put them by the checkout lines. I do not shop, so this was a new experience for me as this was a lemon seasoned chicken which was delicious and for less than three dollars quite the bargain. Our dog does not enjoy traveling in the car. When she got to the project she ran with the joy of freedom, as she runs free on the islands, and she was happy again. However, getting some of that lemon chicken tonight, she was really happy. We do not normally feed our dogs people food, as we believe our diets are not necessarily good for dogs, but she has become such a lap dog and sweetheart, that I have gotten bad slipping her human food. She was back to normal this evening, but she hates the 15 hour drive.....hates it. She will reluctantly get in the car Friday morning to join us in our work, but I must be cautious because she is drinking out of the ponds now, and a gator can get her before we could do a thing. As a kid we would throw a cherry bomb in a pond to clear it of snakes before we swam, and all the fish would be stunned and float to the top of the water. I do not know what it would do to a gator, but unlike my neighbor who is gator friendly, I do not like them around where kids are and dogs. The grand daughters are here in three weeks and the gators have to go. I will call to have them removed contrary to my neighbor who thinks they should stay.......my ponds do not need gators.....see ya.

2seaoat wrote:She explained they prepare the chickens right before lunch, and if they do not sell them by seven, they put them by the checkout lines.

I presume they're still heated, or refrigerated somehow? Hope not at room temp.

In an case that sounds like a great deal. We buy a Publix rotisserie chicken every Thursday to reheat and eat for Friday night's dinner -- a tradition started decades back in Connecticut -- but theirs are normally over seven bucks. Unfortunately, the big Gulf Breeze Wal-Mart is too far from us to justify the inconvenience of an evening trip down there looking for leftover chickens.

Glad you're all enjoying your arrival in hell so far.

Seaoat.....

Chicken Salad

Rotisserie Chicken 
Celery chopped fine
Red seedless grapes sliced
Slivered almonds

Remove skin and fat from chicken, debone and chop. Add celery, grapes and almonds.

Dressing 

Mayonnaise 
A "squeeze" of lemon juice
A tiny bit of chicken base.

Mix mayo with a little chicken base. Taste to adjust the base...so you don't get it too salty. 
Squeeze a little lemon juice into the mayo.
Mix the dressing with the chicken, chill and serve.

Suggest Publix Bakert 5 Grain Italian bread

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They keep them warm. It really is a deal. We are only a few blocks from the Walmart and it is quite convenient. I would buy this chicken again regardless of price, but to get that quality and flavor for a couple of bucks was great. I have developed a craving for walmart mac salad called Amish. We have not liked their mac salad and potato salad, but started getting the Amish brand. We have neighbors over on our deck and have brats potato salad and this mac salad and neighbors had to know my wife's recipe.......she said it was to drive to Walmart.....they now are addicted to the same. The Publix and Winn Dixie was where we shopped when we were on the beach, but since the Walmart was built we have been staying at our rental unit on mainland Navarre, and have a in law apartment in the house where we have furnished and spend the winters. We go out to eat way too much when we are here for three weeks each month, and this is a once a week treat we will repeat.

That looks great Joani... I'm saving that recipe.

PkrBum wrote:That looks great Joani... I'm saving that recipe.

It is good.....normally I roast chicken tenders to use.

We will try the recipe next week. I love the idea of the grapes. We absolutely over did it today. At one point, my wife just sat down exhausted as we were burning and chainsawing. I tore ligaments in my right elbow which is no big deal as it is swollen up pretty bad. This will force me to slow down and we will work on finishing some wood work projects which require some cutting and screwing some fence to the side of the structure. A nice slow down.

Ace wrap and ice.

Ace wrap and ice.


Now you have made me smile. I would look like a frozen mummy if I treated everything that hurts. Literally, everything hurts, and I will simply use my left arm more and grit my teeth. You get numb after awhile. I think our bodies shut down pain at some point. What works for me is getting up Saturday and knowing it will be a beautiful day, and I am alive to enjoy all the good and bad which would be boring if there was not just a little bit of bad. The project has become so beautiful that sometimes I just sit back in amazement. Now the seawall work will definitely not happen with my right hand and elbow not working, but I have three weeks.

It is not like I would expect you to actually do it. However,  the ace will help you work with that arm.

We had a really productive day with clearing the land. We were exhausted yesterday, and after hurting my elbow, I did not have high expectations. However, my wife leaned the cut logs against the car and I could carry them to the fire without bending. I did most of the chain sawing of the larger trees, and what we do so I do not bend is to cut the tree down from the six foot level. My wife will Sunday cut those down to about three inches where we hope setting the lawnmower deck at six inches will allow this area to be cut. We have been restarting the fire every morning from the hot fire the day before. Our trick is to soak our scraps of fencing in a five gallon bucket with diesel. We then build over the hot fire mound from the day before a box pile or tepee pile and put the kindling which is left over around the fire from the day before. we then after building our cut wood from today, insert all over the pile of wood the Diesel soaked wood. It starts and burns hot and we feed green trees all day and start to slow down around four PM because you do not want to leave a burning fire unattended at night. We are hoping we can start on the views of the bayou late sunday........I will try to take some more photos.

Does Santa Rosa County require a burning permit?

Does Santa Rosa County require a burning permit?


No. In some situations yes. I have gotten one permit on a project the first time I wanted to burn I thought they did because many say you should get one, but when I did on a project five years ago they acted like I was a fool. I even went to the fire department, and they said no. They tell you not to burn if it is too windy or too dry. We find a little bit of wind is good when you are burning green trees. On the first project I worked on I did no burns because we were surrounded by pines on Garcon Point, and fires have a way to get away on the Point. They were doing burns yesterday and the clouds of smoke were immense. The key is to keep your fire small.

The first time I called the blackwater forest people and was treated badly as if I was a fool. We had a hose at the point of the fire and it was a small fire. The firemen told me if it was a small fire you do not need a permit, even though it says a permit is required for land clearing. We simply call what we are doing as landscaping, and keep it small which keeps us within the exception:
The pile is less than 8 feet in diameter,

The Irony was that a meth dealer, who started a fire in his backyard which spread on Garcon Point tried to blame us because we had burned a month earlier. The fire chief called us and said this guy was trying to blame us, but the fire pattern clearly showed that he started the fire, and the fact he was calling us in Illinois cinched the deal. The guy made the front page of the PNJ in a meth sting, and has been in prison since. We have a few pines where we are at now, but mostly beautiful live oaks which are less of a fire hazard.

Well, one has only to ask Seaoat a simple question if one wishes to be entertained by his stories. (Seriously.)

As for the huge smoke cloud from the controlled burn you're referring to, yeah, we know. With a northeast wind behind it, it ended up crossing our island, then out to sea to the southwest. (I think that was actually Friday, not yesterday, not that it matters.)

if one wishes to be entertained by his stories.

I could go on for hours......that Methhead would have cars lined up going to his house from 1am to 4am. The police would have to be blind to the drug rings in Santa Rosa County. We really liked the neighborhood. I had four neighbors who were great people. When I could still drink we would sit around a picnic table and tell stories. They all complained about this neighbor dealing drugs, yet they did nothing. Eventually, my neighbor who was a pilot, moved to NC to be near his daughter, and sadly died about three years later. My next door neighbor got slammed in Dennis and gave away his house and moved to high ground in Milton. The gas station owner from Alabama, lost his leg to diabetes, and he quit coming to his Florida house. My favorite was originally from Kansas and he would watch the house when we were out of state, but sadly he is on his last leg with lung cancer, and just like that a great neighborhood was gone......houses remain.....the street still has the same name, but all the people which gave the neighborhood flavor are gone.

2seaoat wrote:if one wishes to be entertained by his stories.

I could go on for hours......that Methhead would have cars lined up going to his house from 1am to 4am.   The police would have to be blind to the drug rings in Santa Rosa County.  We really liked the neighborhood.  I had four neighbors who were great people.  When I could still drink we would sit around a picnic table and tell stories.  They all complained about this neighbor dealing drugs, yet they did nothing.  Eventually, my neighbor who was a pilot, moved to NC to be near his daughter, and sadly died about three years later.  My next door neighbor got slammed in Dennis and gave away his house and moved to high ground in Milton.   The gas station owner from Alabama, lost his leg to diabetes, and he quit coming to his Florida house.  My favorite was originally from Kansas and he would watch the house when we were out of state, but sadly he is on his last leg with lung cancer, and just like that a great neighborhood was gone......houses remain.....the street still has the same name, but all the people which gave the neighborhood flavor are gone.

That is sad Seaoat.

Joanimaroni wrote:That is sad Seaoat.

I second that emotion.