Hickory Hammock Dec. 2017

Hickory Hammock is an <a href="https://baboowaba.blogspot.com/2016/12/hickory-hammock-equestrian-campground.html">old favourite of ours</a>. We drove in to find the place empty. So strange as last year it was quite busy. We even hoped we might see some of the same people as last year. The new host came to introduce himself. I think his name is Tom. Having a conversation with him turned out to be quite difficult as he is quite deaf and doesn't seem to read lips. The host last year was quite a character and where his trailer was parked was full of junk. Now the place is clean with no remnants of all the garbage and apparently, the previous host is now in prison for drug trafficking. It takes all kinds to make a world!

During the weekend the place filled up more with hunters and partyers. There was music still playing loud at 2 am but of course, the host wouldn't hear any of that being deaf and all. The next morning we were woken up by gunshots that sounded so close it made one wonder if someone was being shot at. Then the airboats start running. Not such a quiet place anymore!

We did meet two lovely couples: Rhonda and Jeff from Tampa, Florida and a nice young couple from Nova Scotia, Sam and Thomas. Thomas works from his trailer through the internet. He does computer animation for a company. Yes, cartoons! Apparently his work is mostly super heroes.
We had parked the trailers so our doors would face one another. Our awnings almost touched creating a very nice shaded area for us to sit and talk. Sit and talk we did a lot of since there isn't much else to do. Unless of course you decide to paint your fridge which I did one day after painting some Christmas decorations I had bought. It breaks the monotony of all that wood!

I did a distressed look in a soft aqua colour.

Glen and Michelle saw an armadillo but I didn't. We did see a few Gopher Tortoises, even one in her burrow (or hole)! We could hear Barred Owls at night calling to each other and then another kind of owl which we think was a Screech Owl.

Gopher Tortoise

Tortoise in her hole. We see her back end. Hard photo to take as the hole was quite deep and dark.

This is the hole. Notice the footprints leading to it.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

The cows that reside in fields located on each side of the entrance road are beautiful and always fascinate me. They live in such a natural environment with natural shade provided by the large live oak trees and water in the form of ponds. A lot of cattle egrets are always seen following the cattle wherever they go.

We walked the trail where last year we could pick wild delicious grapefruits but were told that a lot of citrus fruits were knocked down by hurricane Irma so we didn't find any.

The grapefruit tree.

The large open area across from our site turned into a great place to let the dogs run and play.

We enjoyed our time there but the days are so short at this time of the year that it made for very long dark nights. We would feel like going to bed at 7:30 pm! Thank God I had downloaded quite a few movies on my tablet!

In the morning branches were adorned by beautiful dew covered spiderwebs that looked like sparkling decorations.

Meanwhile, Sadie the Greyhound was forever trying to get comfortable in her x-pen. She dug the hard ground until it became a soft bed of soil. Then, she kept rearranging her "bed" and would end up in quite funny positions.

Some kind of yoga?

Have I dug to China yet?

I leave you with a few more pictures that show our stay at Hickory Hammock.

The stables

A beautiful Live Oak tree.

The outdoor shower. Cold water only.

The outdoor shower from the outside.

Mounting block with hitching pole.

A nice area for picnics and group camping.

Gulf Fritillary butterfly

We revisit Peace River

The Peace River Campground was entirely flooded by hurricane Irma earlier in the Fall. It had to close for a while as the water totally covered the campground up to the highway. I was a little bit apprehensive before getting there as we had no idea of the present conditions.

We found it to be exactly as we remembered from <a href="http://baboowaba.blogspot.com/2016/12/peace-river-preserve-thousand-trails.html">our time there last year</a>. A lot of work had obviously been done! The deck floor of the office/lounge building seemed new and branches had been collected except a few left off which were picked while we were there. A fence that had fallen was also quickly replaced during our stay with brand new lumber.  The only thing different was that all of the lower part was closed because there was no electricity there yet. We still had no problem finding two sites side by side to accommodate both us and Michelle and the empty lower part was a great place for Sadie (Michelle's Greyhound) to have a good run!

The joy of running.

OK. Now I'm done.

The free internet at the lounge was very good as always. Too bad it is so close to a major highway because we really like it there. We love sitting on the hanging rocking benches on the large veranda.

Because Glen was still hoping to get a dog for himself (he doesn't consider Cheeka a real dog and she is truly my dog even though she loves him very much), came upon the dogs put up for adoption at the local shelter. There was one young female that had such a kind face that she really pulled at my heartstrings. A few days went by and when we revisited the site it was mentioned that she was running out of time. This was a kill shelter! We decided to go see her and I'm sure you guessed that we couldn't leave her there. The adoption fee which included a heartworm test, a spay and rabies vaccination was only $45. The clinic where the spay was done is a low fee spay clinic which offers spaying or neutering for both dogs and cats for $35. We see quite a few ads here in Florida for low-cost neutering and vaccination. I'm sure it helps with keeping the strays to a more manageable number. While I was there, a man brought in a cat in a trap cage to have it neutered. He was asked if he wanted the ear notched to show that it had been done to which he agreed. At that price anyone can afford to pay for a stray's neuter. What a great thing to do!

So Ally came into our lives and fit right in. MeMe is still a bit shy around her but we make sure she gets personal petting and playing time with us during the day. Ally sleeps in a crate at night which gives both MeMe and Cheeka a good night sleep with us in bed. Cheeka loves having a wrestling friend and boy, do they wrestle! We try to keep the hard playing outside and so far it seems to work. Ally is a mixed Cur. Curs are widely used in Florida to hunt wild hogs. She is around 1 year old but still very puppyish. She's been very clean in the trailer and doesn't seem to want to destroy anything of ours. She is a sweetheart and we're already totally in love with her after barely 2 weeks of owning her.

Ally with her ears taped so they lie well later on.

Really? Is she staying?

The girls have bonded.

Glen is finally happy! 

While at Peace River there were numerous Christmas activities, especially for the kids. Michelle and I attended a show given by a husband and wife duo who both sang very well. They also incorporated some jokes and changes of costumes during their act. The man had recorded all the music and did play along either on the keyboard, a guitar or a ukelele. It was highly entertaining and made us break in song several times when they sang old Christmas favorites. The act was called One More Time and I greatly recommended you go see it if they are ever at a campground where you're staying.

The weather was hot and sunny for the first week which encouraged us to use the pool but it then turned colder for the second week (we even had to have the furnace on!). It made us a bit nervous about leaving for a free campground for a week since we would have no means to heat the trailer through the night.

Michelle and I sewed up some curtains for two of her windows. The fabric was a bit stretchy and we were not working in the best conditions which means they were not very straight. Thank God it's only a trailer and we were able to hide the flaws by clipping the rings a bit lower in some areas. The top of the curtains are hidden by a valance so overall, they look pretty good. I also made a native-like hanging with feathers collected on the beach at home and here in Florida on the trails. I hung them on a branch I found on the beach along with some weird-shaped shells. I like it and I now see my decor going more towards the South Western style. I'm just missing a skull with horns and a cowhide rug!
Sadly we had to leave the park for our one week out of the Thousand Trails system. We went to Hickory Hammock which was only one hour away.

Stay tuned for our stay at Hickory Hammock.

Hairy Woodpecker

Ibis at the river.

This little squirrel came every day to get peanuts from my hand.

The alligator was at his/her usual spot.

Lower Hillborough Oak Ridge free camping

After spending two weeks at Winter Quarters Pasco, we now had to be out of the Thousand Trails System for one week. So we looked at the map and found Oak Ridge which is an equestrian campground provided by the Southwest Florida Water Management District that was only 25 minutes from where we were. We booked it and then decided to go see it.

Upon arrival it seemed nice enough - good road in, a nice large clearing with some shade, picnic tables and fire pits and a pit toilet. There was a young couple camping there and it looked like they had been there a while.

We decided to take the dogs out for a walk. The first thing we saw was this huge grasshopper with a striped bum - half grasshopper, half bee? We all started snapping pictures of it and, because we were so focused on this insect, Michelle stepped right on a fire ant hill. The ants invaded her shoes and her legs. I got some on my feet but I was wearing sandals which came off easily and I was able to sweep them off my feet quickly before getting too many bites. Michelle, on the other hand, had to unlace her shoes, remove her socks and then try to sweep them off. She got a lot of bites and was suffering the consequences immediately. Oh dear! For such small insects, they sure cause a lot of discomforts!

Michelle with her dog Sadie and of course Cheeka had to be in the picture!

Eastern Lubber grasshopper.

Michelle then decided not to camp with us at that site. She went on to a full-hookup facility near our next stop and we spent the week practically having the place to ourselves.

We explored the many trails surrounding the area, even getting lost one day which had us walk for about 1 1/2 hour. Thank God there was a lot of shade! We finally made it back to our trailer tired and thirsty.

Yep! We're lost!

A horse tree!

Not all the trails are well defined.

Zebra Longwing butterfly

The prairie

A tree with decorum

The pines in the forest surrounding us were definitely planted as they all stand in straight lines.

Oddly enough there weren't many birds around. We had the visit of one lone vulture who walked around the grounds looking for bits of food left by other campers. Unbeknown to her, Cheeka had already vacuumed the place of any food available. I had to pry a meat bone from her mouth three times. And she doesn't give up easily!  I also spotted a bluebird and a woodpecker.

Eastern bluebird

Downy woodpecker

While walking the trails we rarely heard birds and didn't see any wildlife. There were pockets of bird chatting where it seemed many had congregated but as soon as we continued walking we were accompanied by silence. There was evidence of wild hogs rooting for food in many areas but we didn't see any.

The hogs really turn the soil!

These free campground always have water available but it's normally not potable. We use it to flush our toilet instead of using the water in our freshwater tank. The well was equipped with a hand pump (we hadn't used one of those in a long time!) and the water coming out didn't look bad at first but it yellowed more and more with time. It was quite disgusting.

Cheeka enjoyed the freedom she gets at these places as we can let her go free even though we're supposed to keep her on leash. But really, when there is nobody else in sight what is the problem? MeMe also enjoyed her time outside but she suffered from diarrhea most of our stay there. Most of her accidents happened on the carpet in the bedroom so guess what our next reno will be? We will be replacing the carpet very soon with flooring that is easy to clean.

There was a vet clinic only minutes away so I went there to buy some I/D prescription diet for intestinal disorders but they wouldn't sell it to me without examining the cat. So I went to Walmart which was about 1/2 hour away and found some fresh refrigerated cat food with just chicken and pumpkin. I kept her on that for four days but it resolved the problem within one day. Phew! I was glad we didn't have to pay for a vet visit only to be told to feed her a bland, easy to digest diet. There was also a Publix grocery store, a medical center, and a Shell gas station at that same location. It was nice having everything so close by even though we felt like we were in the wilderness.

Are you feeling better?

I love you!

We would definitely return there as the campground doesn't seem to be used that much for camping. The trails are used quite a bit by dog walkers.

We are now back to having full hookups with all the amenities of a Thousand Trails campground at Peace River which we stayed at also last year.