Update March 28, 2007

Hi everyone, and greetings from sunny Hudson, Florida! The weather has been dry and clear blue skies with temperatures reaching the eighties almost every day now!

Our progress continues and I have some new photos below of our latest villa being raised onto it's garage.  I will soon be posting photos of the next concrete patio and garage being built on the waterfront (we'll probably start forming the patio this week) and also some really nice photos of the resident Manatee from our newly installed boat dock.

These gentle animals are amazingly friendly and inquisitive! The cool spring water feels nice on the feet and the Manatee will sometimes even nuzzle your toes. Our Manatee encounters are strictly as observers though, and we never initiate contact with these rare and endangered animals. These photos were taken just a few days ago.

The Manatee seem to enjoy riding piggy-back as they glide past the dock just a few feet beneath the surface. The water depth around our dock is in excess of 9 feet at mid-tide and within several feet of the dock drops to 14 or 15 feet deep, so the Manatee have plenty of room to move about freely.

I'm not kidding when I say they're inquisitive!

That's Scott  removing the axles from the modular home in preperation for the lift. The home is hanging from the crane at this stage.

It's starting to rise! Note the crane operater and ground crew's expert handling of the home in tight quarters (there are trees on both sides, you can see the one on the far side at the bottom right of the pic, beneath the modular home).

Moving into position is a tricky process that requires the coordination of everyone, but these guys make it look easy.

Nearly there! After leaving the ground, the home has to pivot ninety degrees to it final position, all of which is done by manpower from the ground handling crew.

Just a few more feet! The view from below is a something to see at this stage of the lift!

My camera's battery died after this photo, so I didn't get any photos of the final setting of the home but it looks great! I promise to take some more photos of this unit after the deck is up and post them for you to see. There are new photos on the Hudson Springs main page of the interior of this modular home. This floorplan is called the Sierra Two and is really stunning so check it out.