The trees are the first item.  They are being strangled by creepers and needed to be professionally pruned and taken care of.  I had no idea what this involved but it is not a job for the faint of heart.  These folks traipse around at the top of trees wielding chain saws and rakes, cleaning off dead branches, pruning and removing moss.  You know that lovely, romantic moss that drapes from southern oak trees?  Well apparently it is very bad for the trees and they don’t do well when draped with moss.

The workers are secured by ropes and safety harnesses, but it doesn’t look too safe to me.

They seemed to be waving at us, they certainly let in more light and that created an aura around them…..very cool.

Even the oak trees in the front got the treatment…

The landscaping around the house has been left to nature and nature has done its thing and everything was overgrown, rubbed bare and we decided that landscaping would be our first task.  We need to get a “feel” for the house before making any changes but the landscaping needed to be done.  So here are some views of the gardens BEFORE we started work.

The 200 year old oak trees were being strangled by these vicious creepers…the look tropical and attractive, but they kill trees.

Overgrown and needing some TLC…..

He owns two crab licenses which is rare because the state of Florida is not issuing any more crab licenses.  Mike has been crabbing most of his life and when he couldn’t make our welcoming party he brought over a dozen of his favorite friends for a crab boil.  Was Sandy happy or what!!!

After boiling the crabs Mike showed Sandy how to clean them and that is an art. Crab is delicious and fresh crab even more so…getting the crab meat out however is no mean task. But it was worth it…