Abe's Farm

Saturday, May 22nd;

This time we were ready. The bags were packed. Snack foods, bottles of wine and water were stowed. The trailer tidy. Everything that was going with us was piled outside waiting for Abe and Frances to arrive. We had a long drive ahead. North through Daytona and on to I-95 up through Florida, Georgia and into South Carolina. Then we would turn north east on SR 26 and finally to SR 77. The farm is in Chester County, South Carolina. The closest big city is Charlotte, North Carolina.

Abe did most of the driving but the women took over the front seats for the stretch through Georgia. That was my turn at the wheel. It must have been OK because we noticed the fellows were napping in the back. We made good time and pulled into the farm about 5:00 PM. We did not plan to stay but gave the tenants a heads up that the landlord was in town!

We took a hint from my friends Jane and Larry. We had stopped at the Tourist Information Center when entering South Carolina and picked up all the coupon books they displayed. Leaving the farm, we headed for the Richburg exit on the highway which appears to be a center for travel stop hotels. Pulling out the coupon books, we compared deals for the motels at this stop. They were considerably cheaper than the best prices on line. We looked them over and picked the one we thought would suit us best. It worked! We got two rooms and settled in for “Happy Hour”. It was nice to relax and visit while we decided on a plan for dinner.

After dinner it was my job to pull out the clothes I had packed for the farm walk. This time we were determined not to be eaten by mosquitoes or horse flies. We did not plan to collect any ticks. Both Dan and I had long pants, long sleeved shirts, sports socks and walking shoes. I took some heavy duty poison and sprayed the clothes at all the openings - neck, waist, cuffs at the wrist and ankles, tops of the socks and shoes. There - let that dry until morning! Then shower myself thoroughly to clean off my skin where the spray may have landed. We turned in early. It had been a long day.

Sunday morning we got up, got an early cup of coffee and got ready for the day. We decided to go across the street for a “southern” home style breakfast. Dan and I stick to our toast, egg and sausages but Abe and Frances enjoy their egg and ham biscuit often served with grits. This morning there was a local specialty on the menu, livermush. Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it? We had to know - what is livermush??? The waitress did not know. No one seemed to know how it was made. The cook solved the problem by cooking us a slice to try. It appears to be a pork liver and cornmeal meatloaf that is sliced thick and fried. It actually tasted fine! I like beef liver but I found the pork liver to be a bit strong.

We got our walking clothes on and headed back to the farm. Abe was given the farm by his grandfather when he was only 17. He has had it for almost 70 years. Abe opened up his trailer and got the water and power turned on. Frances swept the deck and settled in a rocking chair with a book to enjoy the day. It is lovely and quiet on the property.

Tenants, Patsy and Ronny, live in the main house and keep the farm running. They have horses, dogs, geese, chickens, pigs and a good vegetable garden. Two very old dogs came to make their presence known. They did not want to get to close but they barked enough to alert their owners to strangers in the yard. As we walked through the farm yard we saw Patsy confidently wheeling the tractor around to bring a bale of hay down to the pasture with Ronny riding behind.
Abe’s main crop is pine trees. Dan and he have taken pictures of them in one particular spot at intervals since they were planted. It makes a good comparison. They have grown to stand far above Abe this year. It is almost time to thin them out, harvesting some for fence posts and allowing the remainder to grow to their full size.

Walking with an entomologist, you are bound to notice bugs. I kept trying to get a good picture of a may fly but could not get it to sit still within my range. We examined spittlebugs spittle, trying to find the larvae hiding inside. We disturbed a fire ant hill and saw how they pull the eggs high up in the hill to keep them safe from moisture. We found an amazing bee condominium. Unlike the usual beehive, it appears to be made of mud that has harden to rock and is built on the ground. There were many entrances or exits and we stood and watched a number of bees enter. What are these bees? They appear shaped like a medicine capsule, black at either end with a golden brown middle.



Leaving the new trees we walked along the stream under the old growth forest. Here it is clear and easy walking. Abe told us where his shower had been, a natural waterfall where the level of the stream dropped over some rocks. We saw the “bath”, a gentle drop to a deep pond. Not so deep this year as the water level is really low. There was a “spring house”, a small building used to store milk, butter or other foods needing refrigeration. It is built over a spring, and the water of the spring maintains a constant temperature inside the springhouse throughout the year. Unfortunately the brush had grown so thick we could not make our way through to see it.
We came back to the farmyard on the same side of the fence as the horses. Hmmm, that is a challenge for me but we made it to the gate safely so I could enjoy them from a distance again. At one point I did become separated from Dan and Abe and made my way back to the farmyard on my own. It seemed to take longer than it did when we left but I could hear the geese so I knew I was headed in the right direction. This time I came out behind the barn and turned toward the trailer. I found a dog house in my path. As I passed it I saw a dog in the dog house secured by a heavy chain. I looked at the dog. The dog looked at me. We both began moving at the same moment. I moved quickly and he sped up. How long is that chain???? I made it! I settled down to a sedate stroll. Anyone looking?

Patsy and her daughter had joined Frances on the deck and the ladies were having a good visit. I joined in. I learned about butterbeans (like small lima beans I am familiar with) and another brown bean that is related to black eyed peas.


The day went too quickly and I was reluctant to leave this peaceful place for the busyness of the highway stop. On the way back we drove through Chester. That is a lovely little town, the red brick buildings give it a warm glow. On a Sunday afternoon it is closed up and quiet. It would have been nice to see it bustling and busy but our time here is limited. On an earlier trip, Dan and Abe had spent an interesting time in the government buildings here researching the history of the farm and managed to trace it back through a number of owners. The original house was still standing when Dan first visited but it is all gone now and the space has been claimed by Patsy’s vegetable garden.

We returned to the motel and cleaned up, changing into clothes more suitable for the weather. Then we headed out again to explore the area. Foolishly I left my camera behind. We went down through Richburg to Great Falls. Great Falls looked to have been a vibrant town at one time. Springs Industries had textile mills there making the “Springmaid” sheets I remember. The mills are falling down now and the town seems poverty stricken. There is a hydroelectric dam still functioning that created the industrial area it had been. Now there are a number of boats and fishermen using the lake for recreation.

We found our way back to the motel and went across the street to the Front Porch for a “family style” dinner. I had southern fried chicken and all the vegetables or sides came in separate bowls so you could eat as much as you liked. I am afraid I left a lot as the portions are not designed for me. For dessert we shared a coconut custard pie - not coconut cream pie. That is really good and I have found a recipe so I can have it again!

Dinner over we sat and visited in the pleasant evening air. Looking down I notice my ring looked strange. The diamond was gone, leaving an empty solitaire setting. Isuppose it may become an interesting pebble on the forest floor.

Tomorrow - Charleston!

Space Shuttle Atlantis

Friday, May 14th

This was possibly the last flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Twelve Oaks Days

We are half way through our time in Florida already! Each week begins, the days fill and are gone almost before we know it.

We have settled in to our life at Twelve Oaks RV Resort. We have the awning out now shading us from the heat of the sun and giving some shelter when the afternoon rain showers come. The potted herb garden Abe created for me has grown noticeably and we have used both the garlic chives and the basil already. Across the street one neighbour has moved on and the lake is now visible from our patio. There is a pleasant little deck on the waters edge where we can sit if we have the time. From there we can see the lilies floating on the surface in great rafts and the water hyacinth adding colour to the shoreline. The old Live Oak trees around us are festooned with long Spanish moss. The cement decks around the swimming pool are baking in the heat of 96 F. (35 C.) afternoons. The water has warmed so that an afternoon swim is a pleasure.

Both Dan and I have had numerous lunches and dinners with friends. I have stopped in to the office and caught up with my old team there. Dan met up with some of his video-making friends. We have both gone out with the Chinese cooking class alumni. We spend time with our friends Abe and Frances. Going out with them in groups or on our own. Often just enjoying their home and garden.

We had a nice day with our old neighbours, Dave and Kathy. They are still trying to fill us up! Kathy’s parents live on an adjoining property and between the two cooks we had a marvelous Sunday dinner. We enjoyed walking the familiar garden and talked all day. When we were leaving Jeff, who lives across the street, came out and recognized Dan in his white socks and sandals. “White Socks! Is that White Socks????” We continued our neighbourhood visit in the driveway.

It was sad to hear the old Mount Plymouth golf course has closed. It was built in 1923 and was once part of a well known resort hotel property. Al Capone was reputed to have played there. Pieces of the marvelous gardens can still be recognized in the overgrown areas of the village. The golf course wound through the neighbourhood unfenced and added to the beauty of the place. Now, while some locals are maintaining the course nearest to their homes, some of the greens are going untended.

We were invited to Doyle and May’s to pick Jaboticaba - “Brazilian Grapes”. It is a fruit that grows directly on the trunk and branches of the tree. We managed to fill our buckets in no time! That gave us time for a nice visit with this wonderful couple. Once home again, I made a batch of jelly from the fruit and had enough left for two pies. As an experiment, I used an old Concord Grape pie recipe from the 1930’s and substituted the jaboticaba. It made a very tart and tasty pie.


I had a “pie making” weekend! Glennys and Steve were having a barbeque for 20 or more on Saturday and I took an apple pie for Steve. What an event! In the heat of a Florida day, Steve was manning a professional “Hog Cooker” trailer parked in his front driveway. He had ribs, chicken, sausages and potatoes all on the go in the huge tank. Glennys had all the “sides” under control in their magnificent new kitchen. A number of people brought desserts. What a feast! With all the tables laid out on the expanded deck the groups were able to mix and mingle with no difficulty. It was a perfect Florida evening cooled by the breeze off of Little Lake Harris.

Sunday we planned a corned beef and cabbage dinner with Abe and Frances. For that I made the experimental Jaboticaba pie. Abe has huge cabbages and interestingly shaped carrots coming out of his garden at this time of year. He also grew “Indian Tooth” corn that a neighbour milled for him. Using that cornmeal, Frances made cornbread baked in a skillet just as her mother had done. Dinner preparation was put on hold while we went and had a visit and a glass of wine with said neighbours. Retirement makes days so flexible!

Monday was one more jaboticaba pie for the tasting table at the Topical Tree Fruits Club of Central Florida meeting at Leu Gardens. We have managed to fit two club meetings into our visit which gave us the opportunity to visit with still more friends. There were other jaboticaba on the table - fresh and in a coffee cake Phyllis had made. We will be lunching with Clyde and Phyllis later this week to catch up on the goings on in their lives. Clyde is the author of “The Banana People”, a lively description of the people who worked for the United Fruit Company in Central America while he was there.

We have the occasional quiet day on our own and spent one walking the nature trail in the Wekiva Preserve just down the road from Twelve Oaks. We did not see any wildlife on this particular day though there can be Florida Black bear in the area. We did see the tunnel of a gopher turtle but missed getting a picture of the resident.

Last Friday we went out to the Space Coast to watch what may be the last lift off for the Space Shuttle Atlantis. There were a few other people who had the same idea! We packed a picnic and left home by 8:00 AM. When we got to Titusville there were already long lines to get into some parking lots. We drove through town and watched for a good spot. We decided on a private piece of empty property where the owner was making his taxes by charging $10.00 a vehicle to park on the waterfront for the day. It reminded me of the east end of Vancouver during the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition). We picked our spot and planted our chairs to save it. We each had a book to read, our picnic and our cameras. Dan and I took turns keeping the sun off with a big golf umbrella. There were interesting people in the groups around us. They were all ages from small babies in carriers to the elderly struggling across the uneven ground. Some were local and some from far away. Lift off was right on time and by 2:30 PM we were on the road home. We stayed in that spot, barely moving, for an hour and a half! We finally made it back to Twelve Oaks by 5:00 PM.

This weekend we are heading to South Carolina to see Abe’s farm up at Chester and then on to explore historic Charleston.

Dan and Abe Go Fishing

Thursday, May 6th;

Just noticed the dates are out by one day on my watch.

Abe arrived at 9:00 AM. We packed up and left.

Elaine is going shopping with Glennys.

It took us an hour to get to Titusville. We bought some bait, drained it and headed to the Cape.

They are putting a new bridge along side the old one. It will not need to have a lift to let sail boats and other large craft through. Then there will be no need to stop the traffic. We were stopped by water traffic and by the construction. We waited 10-15 minutes before continuing again.

Our next stop was to find information on paying for the park. We went into the service center where Abe bought a lifetime pass. It is good for him and 4 others. Now we’re legal. We went down the road past all the parking lots and tried the beach at the last one. Ooops, it is the nudie beach. There are too many people. Abe wants as few people around as possible so there will be no conflict with casting.

We went back the way we came two parking lots, park and unload the fishing gear and camera stuff. There was no one on this section of sand. It was warm, very warm. Abe started fishing.

While the line was soaking, Abe went looking for sand fleas. He uses a handmade scoop of coarse mesh to comb the surf line in search of the little buggers. Only finds one which was placed in the bait bucket along with the bait shrimp. He checks his line and finds that it has been stripped. Rebait, cast out and this time monitors the rod by holding it. Before long there is a bite but he waits too long. A miss! Reel in, rebait and cast out again. It is not long before he has a fish. He brings in a small croaker. It goes back. Try again. After a while he brings in a hammerhead shark. That goes back. He rebaits his hook, casts and this time pulling in a whiting.

If the clouds were not so ominous we would have tried for more. While we were fishing the clouds had been forming to the north of us. By now they were even talking to us. We don’t want electricity to power us - no thank you!

A black fellow is just setting up when we are leaving and I ask him about the clouds. He thinks there is not much to them. What do I know? We lug all our stuff to the car. As we are leaving the other fellow shows up in the parking lot. He has decided to leave now too.

We drove back to the mainland to scout for a place to watch the shuttle launch next week. There seems to be a number of spots at small parks that would be suitable. We will have to be there early to find a space to park and to get a clear shot of the launch site.

We end the day by going to a Mexican place for a late lunch. It pours rain while we eat. Abe drops me off at 4:00 PM and Elaine is not there. She finally shows up around 7:00 - again!

Party in the Panhandle

Friday, April 23rd;

We had an invitation to join Abe and Frances for a trip to Madison and Monticello. We never say no to an adventure! They picked us up at 9:30 on Friday morning and off we went across State Road 46. We side stepped across our old favorite, Wolf Branch Road, with all the beautiful horse farms to reach SR 441 and on to Interstate 75 heading north to I-10 where we turned west to the Panhandle. This is a familiar route! We are doing in reverse the trip we completed just two weeks ago.

By lunch time we were getting close to our destination. We stopped for fuel and lunch for ourselves at a convenient Wendy’s. Then went on to check into our hotel at Madison. We settled in to two comfortable rooms at a Days Inn and headed out to a farm on the outskirts of Madison.

Abe’s son, Steve, owns the farm where he raises thoroughbred race horses. Dan had visited the farm when we were living in Florida and had helped to build a new shelter for the horses. I met Steve when we went to Tampa Bay Downs to see his horse, D'Artagnan's Spirit, run in a race there. The big events of this weekend are Abe’s grandson, Patrick’s, T-Ball game and Patrick’s sixth birthday party.

We had lots of time to visit before the T-Ball game so Patrick showed us around the house demonstrating many of the toys we were unfamiliar with. It does not take long to get out of touch with the current characters! We toured the grounds as well looking for the horses in the upper pasture who eventually came to see if these visitors had anything good to share. We watched Pride in the home paddock looking for signs of her approaching motherhood while Abe and Steve prepared a more comfortable bed for her in the foaling shed. Big excitement! But nothing doing while we were there.



Then Patrick got into his uniform and it was time to go. I had not been to a T-Ball game before. The community sports park was very impressive. The parking lot was full and there were a number of activities under way. For us, it was fun watching such young players learning the basics of baseball. Some things are universal among the very young learning team sports - a little competitiveness, a little confusion, some lack of concentration, some daydreaming and the occasional moment where everything works as it should. It was a lovely warm evening for families to be sitting together in the sunshine cheering on their little ones. I don’t think we won but I can’t be sure. It did not seem to matter!

We all headed for a local Mexican restaurant and had a good dinner. Lots of food and conversation. After dinner Steve’s wife, Mary, walked me around the corner and pointed out shops I should see. It was the only opportunity I had to see the town of Madison. It looked like a place I would have liked to explore but our days were full this trip. Maybe another time… We headed back to our hotel for an early night.

After breakfast the next morning we drove out to a park on the Suwannee River and went for a short walk. Even in Canada we learned Steven Foster’s song in school. Who would have believed then we would actually see the river? The park was beautifully kept with nice cabins and swings to sit in while watching the river go by.

We headed to the birthday party in plenty of time. We visited and watched the young people swim and play. Steve manned the barbeque. Mary and the older girls controlled the kitchen. There was lots to eat! The highlight was a piñata full of party favors. The children, youngest to the oldest, took turns hitting it with a bat. It was the oldest that caused the first crack but the youngest who managed to open it up. Then everyone scrambled to put as much as possible into their brown paper bag while parts of the piñata became party hats.



When the party wound down we moved on to Abe’s brother’s farm in Monticello. Another lovely little town in the vicinity. We walked the farm enjoying the afternoon visiting with more family. There are acres of pecan trees in spring green and azaleas blooming at the end of the drive. There is a nice little fishing hole with an elegant old wrought iron chair for the occasional fisherman. A local man did drive in, set himself up on the chair and caught a bass while we were there. We were going to stroll through the woods but ran into ticks almost immediately. Abe got one, I got two and Dan won with a total of three. No more woods that day!



We decided to go and buy a bottle of wine, order a pizza and go back to the hotel for a leisurely dinner. That is when we found you could not buy wine in Marion County - there are dry counties in Florida and this was one of them. We decided to drive back to Steve’s for a pre-dinner “Happy Hour”. Mary kindly loaded a basket with a bottle of wine and goodies for the evening then invited us in to join them for another visit around the pool. Impromptu visits are often the best. We certainly thank them for all of their hospitality!

We heard the storm coming in during the night. A gust of wind hit our hotel room hard enough to shake it. It continued to blow but did not actually start to rain until the car was loaded. It would have been wise to leave then and hope to outrun it. We were traveling with Floridians and they did not seem concerned so we stayed as we had arranged the night before.

We met the whole family again at a local restaurant for breakfast. In the south there is a tradition of the “Community Table”. We did not know about it. We just saw a large table near the TV showing news of the storms to come and the tornado disaster in Mississippi so we moved up to watch while we waited for the rest of the family and our breakfast to arrive. Apparently that table is reserved for significant locals only. Mary and Steve had not been invited to use it before and may not be again! They joined the clueless Canadians on this occasion. The locals left. Apparently it was time for church. That put us on the heathen list as well.

We finished our breakfast said good-bye once more and headed south for home. This time we planned to stay off of the Interstate and to travel more slowly on the older highways to see the area. It was a lovely drive. There were many farms in the area, cattle, horses, crops of various kinds. I saw my first tobacco drying sheds leftover from earlier times.

In time the rain caught up to us. Then it got heavier. Then it got too heavy to see the road. Abe pulled over and stopped in someone’s driveway. Not likely they were going anywhere! The rain was thundering down on the car. The wind appeared to be coming from all directions. Then it hailed! Suddenly it was calm and bright again. Had we just been through a small tornado?


We began to drive but soon caught up to the storm. Now there were trees down on the road. We pulled into a parking lot and waited until we were sure it was safe to go on. Finally we stopped on the outskirts of Ocala for a late lunch. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Oh, oh… The lights of the restaurant flickered and the satellite signal for the television failed. The storm had caught up to us again. The service was slow and we took our time over the meal. By the time we were ready to leave it was over and we drove the rest of the way home in sunshine.

I told you it would be an adventure!