Folks;

Marcia and I very much enjoyed a 3-day weekend in FB and Orlando. We sat Connor while Mom and Dad went to a movie and a dinner. The big event of the evening was keeping up with him and his tricycle on our big walk around the lake. Connor is an unusual child, from my experience, in that at bath time he enthusiastically hops into the tub and asks for more toys. Once clean, he climbs into his pajamas then hurries to bed. He asks for his music box to play then orders the lights out and door shut. That’s it until morning (Sidney reports EARLY morning).

Marcia and I finished re-covering the east wall at FB with Hardy planks (mineral material…like cement) to stop the weathering and rotting on the original siding. Sidney had started the big project with me during Christmas. Additionally we patched some more spots on the roof and installed new 4 x 8 sheets of white lattice on the north porch. It looks really nice.

I just returned from a strawberry expedition in Egypt. This is the first on-site review of the results of our late 1990s work to establish an export strawberry industry. Farmers have made really big strides since those days and are shipping premium berries to UK, Holland, Germany and elsewhere. It is really satisfying to see that the work of the UF strawberry team (and others) has succeeded. Carter’s agreement in the Begin/Sadat Camp David Accord included strengthening the Egyptian economy to add stability to the government through development of a horticultural export industry (including strawberries, table grapes, Galia melons, French beans, artichokes, ornamentals and some other stuff).

While there we celebrated an NCAA football championship with the remainder of the Gator Nation. Go Gators!!

We have not seen any cold weather in Bradenton so far and miss the bedtime covers. We have cheated a bit though and run the a/c to pretend.

Jimmy