Christmas with Judy

Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: Lo 40F / Hi 70F (4C / 21C)

It’s a-blowin’ outside again! There was a strong wind advisory through 6:00p, which has now been lifted, but the winds must not have gotten the message — looks like we’re going to get rocked to sleep tonight!

We also had some strong downpours mid-morning from a storm moving in from the west. But that didn’t last long, and in its aftermath we had sunshine and warm temps. We even managed a nice 1½-mile walk during a lull in the wind. And that was the extent of our fun today. We spent the rest of the day at home, checking things off our back-burnered projects list.

I might not have anything fun to report for today, but that’s OK — I have lots to write about anyway.

You see, Judy (of Travels with Emma) was kind enough to invite us to join her for Christmas dinner at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR) Volunteer Village! We must have been communicating telepathically as her invitation came just after I had checked the map for distances to see if we could run up and visit with her while we’re here in Jacksonville.

Two silver-haired ladies a-rockin on the porch of the Chesser Island Homestead.

Our Christmas Day unfolded with us following the directions Judy had emailed me. Good thing we had them, as Ms GPS simply could not locate the street address for the refuge. Since the ONWR was closed for Christmas, Judy met us at the gate for maintenance employees and took us over to the volunteer village first where we met Barry and Bill, a couple of her fellow-volunteers.

We follow Judy’s directions (blue arrows) to Okefenokee, but let Ms GPS dictate
the return (red arrows) — 142 miles (227 km) . The short red squiggly line is the
route of the personal tour Judy gave us at ONWR.

All together now — “Erin can’t resist photographing a mural when she sees one.”
Mui happened to spy this one as we were driving through Folkston, Georgia
and stopped without having to be asked to do so.

Those of you who have already had the pleasure of meeting Judy know that she is as delightful in person as she is on her blog. And she’s a dynamo to be sure; her recently-developed hip problems may have slowed her down a bit, but she’s still full of energy and enthusiasm for what she does.

Judy’s invitation to us included a drive along Swamp Island Drive and a visit to the Chesser Homestead. Nothing like a private tour on a refuge where we were the only ones wandering around — as Judy would say, “cool beans!” Our wildlife sightings were limited, though we did see several birds flitting about; a sapsucker that stood still for a photo op; an alligator that Judy referred to as “momma” peeking her nose out of the water; and a zillion palmettos and towering pine trees, as well as new-to-us pitcher plants making a comeback after being chopped up by an overzealous mower last spring.

Left: Hooded Pitcher Plant
Center: Sapsucker — look at how well he blends in with the bark!
Right: Parrot Pitcher Plant

Our next stop was at the Chesser Island Homestead, which was built by Tom Chesser, one of the nine kids of Sam and Sarah Chesser. They are all descendants of W.T. Chesser who, in the 1800s, settled the island that now bears his name. Tom and his wife, Iva, raised their seven children at this homestead, which, in addition to the house, includes several outbuildings — smokehouse, syrup shed, chicken coop, corncrib, and hog pen. Having read about the homestead on Judy’s blog, we were thrilled to have a chance to visit it in person — and have the place to ourselves to explore the nooks and crannies one might not be able to take the time to check out otherwise.

I’ll let the photo essay and captions tell the story. (All photos post-processed in Sepia, which I think fits the mood of the place and the period of time better than color photos.)

Tom Chesser, and a carpenter who owned a tractor-operated sawmill, built the house in 1927.
Note the big yard, which is free of trees and vegetation; this was on purpose to reduce
the danger of fire and minimize the number of insects near the house.
The original shingle roof has been replaced with a metal one (as a fire deterrent).

Built of yellow pine and cypress, the construction of the house — which consisted of
3 bedrooms, a parlor, and a front porch — was completed in 21 days.
Note the heartwood blocks on which the house sits. Heartwood is resistant to decay;
the blocks here are at least 100 years old.

The furnishings in the parlor are accurate for the period when Tom Chesser and his
family lived here; but none of it is original to the house. The holiday decorations are
from the “Christmas at the Chesser Homestead” Program (more about it here in Judy’s blog).

The only furnishing original to the house is the stove ; it was too heavy to be taken out.

Mui — the cook in our family — is fascinated with the kitchen, which was an add-on to the house.

The house was initially built with just three bedrooms; two side bedrooms were Later
added to accommodate additional children. Pictured on the left is the master
bedroom; the story goes that the children had to climb through the window to the
right of the bed (top right) to get to their bedrooms (bottom right) — no sneaking out at night!
No, we did not have to go through the bedroom window; a door was later added
for easier access to the side bedrooms.

Detail shots from the bedrooms.

The back porch, with its bathing facilities, was a later add-on to the house.

The syrup shed is the scene of the annual “sugar cane boil” event; Judy tells the story in this post.
Clockwise from top left: the shed; the sugar cane mill; some of the household items used
on laundry day; and the big vat in which the sugar cane juice is boiled down to make syrup.

It sure was fascinating to get a glimpse into the life of the Chessers. While life back then was simpler — no electricity, and definitely no techno-gadget complications — people had to be quite hardy to survive and eek out a living from the land. Not sure how we would have done under those circumstances.

At Judy’s encouragement, we left her to enjoy a bit of quiet time on the porch while we went for a 1-mile walk on the nearby trail. Short our walk might have been, but there was plenty that caught our attention along the way.

A variety of shelf fungi.

Christmas dinner commenced around 2:00p and was a veritable feast, with a most-delicious ham provided by Judy, and side dishes and desserts provided by everyone else. We tried our best to put a dent in the amount of food on the table, but there was so much — both variety and quantity — that I don’t think we did too well on that score.

We hated to eat and run, but we wanted to get home before dark, so we bid Judy adieu around 4:00p — but not before accepting a jar of sugar cane syrup that Judy generously shared from her stash. I see pancakes for breakfast in the near future.

We allowed Ms GPS to pick the return route home. She opted to take us back on rural roads instead of the freeway — always a better choice when it comes to seeing quirky things of interest … like a rusty old truck that was decked out for the holidays! It was a photo op that was simply impossible to resist — and I didn’t ;-)

Ms Garmin’s preferred route took us across the St Johns River by ferry — our second time riding it in the short time we’ve been in the area. The bonus this time was a gorgeous sunset, which we would have otherwise missed — most definitely worth the $6 fare. (I think I said the ride is less than 10 minutes the first time I wrote about the ferry; make that 5 minutes or less.)

In addition to these three, I posted one of my favorite sunset shots in our Viewfinder blog if you wish to check it out.

And that’s a wrap for Christmas Day … and Boxing Day (as today is known to our friends in Canada).