Tiggerdad's chasing squirrels at the Fort! Nov. 14-23

[The Fans]

Thank you for the beautiful TR, TiggerDad.

We are looking forward to going to the Fort in May, but your pics and details make me want to book for Christmas break, too. Never been to WDW to see the holiday decorations.

Have a glorious day!!
Deb

 

[Teamubr]

This the offending vehicle and trailer?

I'm impressed you can drive with the awning out like that. The one time I tried it, things didn't go very well.

Must be one of those new, fancy, electric ones.

j

 

[jbrostek]

Glad you had a great time, loved the pictures, now at 40 days till departure.

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

I'm impressed you can drive with the awning out like that. The one time I tried it, things didn't go very well.

Must be one of those new, fancy, electric ones.

j

And with the steps out HAHAHA!!!

 

[tiggerdad]

That pic was in 2012 just before we pulled out for our first trip to the Fort.

That's the old awning. New one on it now, the original did not survive the monstrous storm at Fort Wilderness last time and cost me about $500 on the insurance deductible to have it replaced. It is electric, but I like the stability of the old style awning more.

If I leave it out, I find that the motorists that I pass appreciate the shade and the steps out make it easier for them to get in to use the restroom and something out of the fridge.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

I see a tractor. Do you farm?

This the offending vehicle and trailer?

 

[ilovedisneymm]

50 days until departure for us. How long you staying?

Glad you had a great time, loved the pictures, now at 40 days till departure.

 

[tiggerdad]

I see a tractor. Do you farm?

Yes and no

My mother's side of the family has made their money in fish hatchery. They raise and sell bait fish for fishermen. Quite a large operation with lots of ponds. To help keep the grass down on the dams, my uncle got into cows. That meant bailing hay for the winter. He eventually got his own equipment to bail his own hay, and when I was about 12 he got into bailing hay for the public. Which is what I did every summer through high school and college, ran a tractor 12 hours a day, 6 days a week...and I loved it. When I got done with college I continued to help them during the summer and eventually bought my own haying equipment and continue to bail hay for people in the community even though I don't have the first cow or horse myself. I just enjoy running the equipment. My true profession is a nurse practitioner in an emergency department...with a really good summer tan

That tractor is my JD 2355, the only tractor I have that isn't Massey Ferguson. Was raised on Massey and have been satisfied the entire time.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

We and by we I mean hubby farms. Corn, beans and bails all summer long for our cattle farm. He use to custom bail but got out of that a few years ago. Now just for our cattle. Thus why we go to Disney in January. It's the only time he is not in the field.

Nice JD!

Yes and no

My mother's side of the family has made their money in fish hatchery. They raise and sell bait fish for fishermen. Quite a large operation with lots of ponds. To help keep the grass down on the dams, my uncle got into cows. That meant bailing hay for the winter. He eventually got his own equipment to bail his own hay, and when I was about 12 he got into bailing hay for the public. Which is what I did every summer through high school and college, ran a tractor 12 hours a day, 6 days a week...and I loved it. When I got done with college I continued to help them during the summer and eventually bought my own haying equipment and continue to bail hay for people in the community even though I don't have the first cow or horse myself. I just enjoy running the equipment. My true profession is a nurse practitioner in an emergency department...with a really good summer tan

That tractor is my JD 2355, the only tractor I have that isn't Massey Ferguson. Was raised on Massey and have been satisfied the entire time.

 

[tiggerdad]

Let's get some pics in here shall we?

I have debated on some park pics and will include a few, but we are mainly here for the camping so I think I'll keep it focused that way. Sorry if any of these pics are repeats...

First of all, some of you were requesting the available channels that you can get at the Fort. At check in I just happened to remember to ask the CM to give me a copy. I tried taking pics, but they just blurred, so I scanned it, but that was a PDF, so I then snipped it into pics, which ended up taking three pics. Sorry, I'll try and find a better way, but for now here you go:







Here are some additional decorations pics I had as well







and then there was site 1640...



Yes, that's right, there are rope lights to form a path to lead you through the mountain of inflatables...







and we're still going...





Folks, I am not even showing you a third of the pics I have of this site. It was inflatables, on top of inflatables, being used to support other inflatables.
When I was taking pics she told me to take a lot, because she was going to have to start taking it down the next day. Apparently she had been inspected more than once and told to make some changes to get within the rules. She originally had all the trees wrapped in rope lights, but those were taken down. The neighbors had complained about the lights, so she was told she had to take all the bulbs out of the inflatables, or she had to take them all down. Apparently, her side of the story was that she had been visited 4 days in a row, by 4 different people from Disney, telling her 4 different things. She said she came to the Fort each year and had a huge setup each time, but this time was different. Not really sure, you know every story has 2 sides, but she was bitter about it.

I did notice 2 days later, when we pulled out at 1:00am that they were all still up and going. I was told the decorations on all sites had to be turned off by 10:00pm. I guess she was being defiant to the end. If anyone is there now, take a look and see if they are still up. She told me she had only put up half of what she had brought...

and you guys thought I was bad...

 

[tiggerdad]

Here are some pics of how the decorations had changed since we arrived.
Here was the Meadows interior decorations when we got there


and this was after about 4 days



Tomorrow I'll post up some more pics from around the campground and over towards Wilderness Lodge...

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Bit much? Umm....no. I see nothing wrong with it at all.

Some might call her a bit of a hoarder but I like to think she is just showing her Christmas Cheer for all to hear, I mean see, I mean get blinded by.

Good for her for standing her ground.

Go rebel hoarder of xmas blow ups. Go!

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

MAN!!! She must of had a cargo trailer to haul all them inflatables to the fort and a small fortune in extension cords and power strips.

 

[jbrostek]

50 days until departure for us. How long you staying?

Be there the 4th through the 17th. And hopefully less issues then last winter when I broke down at midnight in nowhere NC. But those issues have been addressed.

Tiggerdad (edit) - thanks for the update of the channel lineup!!! If you have it as a PDF, email it to me, I can host it and share a link.

 

[tiggerdad]

Medic - thanks for the update of the channel lineup!!! If you have it as a PDF, email it to me, I can host it and share a link.

Send me a PM with your email and I'll send it to you

 

[tina.tina]

Hmm. I wonder if it's a different Mickey or if they just change his clothes....

 

[tiggerdad]

Looked like the same one, just dressed differently. The really amazing thing was that it was like 24 hours and this resort went from no decorations to everything except the Christmas Tree was up. The tree went up the next evening.

 

[jbrostek]

Thanks to Tiggerdad and one other Credit from WDWMagic Forums This is now a nice clean PDF of the 2014 known Fort Wilderness Cable Channel Lineup

Download and share it. Share here if you get any updates or the channels get rearranged and it can get updated.

 

[KristinU]

Thanks for the great TR, Tiggerdad!


And on the inflatables, man she has a lot of $$$ tied up in them! I just bought a Minnie and Mickey and that was enough $ for me. No wonder she stands her ground with them, I would too if I had that much invested!

 

[tiggerdad]

The morning before we left I went out exploring after I returned the golfcart. I was depressed about missing the opportunity to meet Emperor Scupper and I had drank a lot of Snowmedic's donated coffee...


so I had lots of energy and went out walking. I found the trail behind the Trading Post after I discovered the new resting place of the old wagon that used to sit out front. This trail leads around to a no longer used beach and eventually back to a canal and into the 300 loop.



Looking across the lake towards Cinderella's castle from this beach. Notice how from here Discovery Island does not obstruct your view of the castle. I think next time I might sneak around here and watch the fireworks just to see how they look from here.


At the end of the beach was an old dock and cabin



Just to the right of the cabin was a mechanical spillway to control the water level in the canal behind 300 loop and I believe that is the infamous Bat House. It was quiet up there this morning, I guess they had a crazy night and were resting up.


I walked around to mine and Ed's old home on the 400 loop and found the Squirrel Mafia hard at work...


There was also a report of an accident at Disney as well...


I think I'll finish up tomorrow with a run through the Meadows store and take a look at the things available in there.