check out those vests.

conrad loves GPSing road signs!

this is what we work with everyday...what an expensive little bugger

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our doublewide and Mable = heaven.

see, we work. in the pouring rain while getting attacked by mosquitos

the wild conrad does work.

roof frame of a bird blind (not for hunting..) we built. thank you.

conrad and crystal love nature walks.

gator.

gator.

badger 4.1 loves the days inn and route-95

Street Signs Are Complex.

Day 21 of Round 2: We have gotten into a groove in terms of our new project...finally. Our sponsor, John,  is awesome. He is an AmeriCorps NCCC alumni...so he knows the drill. We are working with the Public Works department of Gainesville helping them take inventory of their street signs = we walk around all day with fancy GPS systems recording every sign we see. Now, for those who arent so hip to the signs...there is a lot more to say, the average STOP sign than you think. For example...the material: is it engineer grade? or prismatic material?..both having different reflectivity... (so drivers can see them at night..) There are many different sizes of signs...24x24?..9x30?.. And the poles they are stuck to? Yep, is it 10ft or 12ft? U-channel or square? So...all of that junk has to be recorded and we are the suckers that got the job. It's actually not that bad, we get to spend the entire day outside - allowing me the perfect opportunity to work on my super sweet suntan and who doesn't love a good 6mile walk everyday? Apparently Gainesville loves their weekends because they recently moved to 4day/10 hour work weeks meaning on Friday's we will be working with the Nature Department...i think tomorrow we are building a roof for a bird viewing house? We'll see how that goes. 

Our housing is actually quite spacious. We are living in a double wide in a park called Boulware Springs...there is 15 miles of trail behind our house and a natural spring with turtles. Gainesville gets all of their water from natural springs and it was one of the main reasons the University of Florida built their campus here. The spring that is behind our house is nasty so, no swimming but one of the weekends we are down here John is going to take us to some springs that we can swim in and float on. One of the trails from our house leads to a pretty radical places called Payne's Prairie...which is a wildlife preserve. On Monday we went an walked the trail hoping to get a glimpse of wild horses, alligators, bison and many birds. The only thing we spotted was a ton of giant stinky alligators..and baby alligators! Everyone escaped with all of their limbs. (i'll post some pictures) The only downfall to our housing is that we had to bring all of our own furniture = cots. I hate cots. Cots hate humans. I got an early birthday present though!..a fabulous air mattress! (thanks mom & dad) 

So far things are going pretty well! This is a great project and we are pretty bummed we are only here for the month of June. Gainesville has a lot to offer in terms of history and things to do. I'm definitely looking forward to taking advantage of that and just have a good time! (John is pretty big into making sure we have fun too so, it shouldn't be a problem!) 

Peace&Love