Stay in Florida

Stay in Florida

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Here is Roger. It was pretty chilly (50 degrees) Saturday morning, October 27, so we were all bundled up and hunched over to stay warm. Roger is a long time fruit picker and has given me some good advice. For example, they don't pick t he fruit when it is wet as the skin gets all plumped up and bruises when you pick it (your fingers leave bruises). However, when it is dry the skin is tougher. Also, it rained all day on Friday and then turned chilly (and dry), but we still can't pick f ruit as the ground is thoroughly soaked and the loader/tractor/crane/truck for the loaded bins would cut into the ground and hurt the roots of the trees. Doh! No work until Monday. That turned out to be just perfect as it allowed me to spend Saturday r esearching local health clubs where I could shower (it was too chilly to want to have a cold shower at the beach). I stayed overnight at Bally's in West Palm Beach and exercised (and showered) in the morning.
Here is my car where I normally leave it at night at Carter's Grocery after they close. You can also see Roger at one of the picnic tables where I have my breakfast (if it is warm enough and the squeeters aren't so bad). Also in the for eground is my new (yellow) fruit picking bag. Roger sleeps in his truck which is in the background. After midnight on Oct 29th, the County Sherriff (police by another name) knocked on my car window at Carter's Grocery. They just checked my ID and were pretty nice about the whole thing. Didn't ask me to move on or anything. After four days of no work (due to rain and mud and such) we had work on Oct 29; with a high of 72 degrees and I felt much better (there was a nice breeze).
My friend on the crew, Aina (?), who had given me good advice last time was no longer with this crew (drats, other than Louis he was the only one who spoke much English), but I got to drive the loader about 30 miles to the new grove. It was just off of US 441 about 10 miles North of Okeechobee. I seem to be the only crew member other than Louis (the crew leader) with a driver's license. It was about 60 degrees then and the loader has no windshield. At 60 MPH it got a little chilly. I will bring my coat next time. I again only got two bins in about three hours, but with less help on the last (so we could all go). Louis asked me back again tomorrow so I joined a local gym (Barbell's for $45 for one month). It is in a nice but failin g mall, Orange Blossom Mall. Too far from the coast I guess, but quite convenient for me. Here is a picture of the outside of the mall at 5PM at Barbell's entrance.
Here is the entrance to Barbell's. It is pretty small with only exercise equipment (no exercise classes) and the showers aren't in great shape, but it is close and cheap.... The groves have drainage ditches/roads between each row (wide enough for a loader, of course) and they all feed into a 'canal' (or larger drainage ditch that always has some water in it). We often wait at the end with the canal and one day some of the other guys in my crew found a little alligator which was about n ine inches long. They held it by the tail and looked at it for a few minutes before throwing it back into the 'canal'. They all speak Spanish and some speak a little English. The crew leader, Louis, speaks pretty good English and runs the loader before (setting out the bins), during, and after we pick.
This is the interior of Orange Blossom Mall at 5PM. It is quite deserted and a little spooky (and sad, too).... Roger explained that they have too many crews right now as we are only picking 'packing' fruit where you only pick the large fruit and leave the rest. It gives a better price ($6.50 versus $5.50), but is a real pain as you have to look at each fruit and leave about half behind. In the next couple of weeks they should start harvesting juice oranges which you can pick when wet and they are not so particular about size. Then we should be able to work longer in any case as there will be more work for everyone. That will be just perfect (once again) as it gives me time to build up to this relatively intense physical labor and I really don't need the money in any case.
I must have a perverse sense of beauty, but often I point my camera down as I am getting set for a picture (or after one) and see some odd images. Here are my jeans.... On October 31, we met at Circle H as we had left the loader their l ast night. We drove to a local grove and were mostly set at 9AM when there was a light shower. Drats. It had all dried and we were ready to go at 11AM when some real rain started. No work today, it was an unschedued holiday. I was going to do my laun dry anyway. Grapefruit trees (and I presume all citrus fruits) have thorns, similar to but not quite as bad as a rose bush. So, when picking I wear long pants (jeans), boots, a long sleeve shirt, gloves (knit), and socks cut off with holes for my thumb and finger (to protect the gap between my shirt and the gloves). They get real dirty real fast so I needed to do my laundry and will probably switch to doing my laundry once every week or so instead of every two weeks or so and just do one load instead o f two.