Quilt Show
The Pine Needles Quilt Club will be having a quilt show on March 14th. This is a Saturday, it will start at 9:00 am at the Community center at Silver Lake Acres on 169th Terr. Rd. There will be quilts on display, quilts for sale and a quilt raffle. We will have many handmade articles for sale also. For more info call 625-2095
Fashion Show
The annual Fashion Show at St. Joseph’s will be held on Feb. 21, 2009. Tickets will be $10 and will go on sale as soon as we get them. If you plan to go you must get your ticket early. Our parish ladies will be modeling Bon Worth clothing. There will be a nice lunch with dessert and drinks. We will have door prizes. Please join the fun. For info 625-2095 mp
Chefs Corner
2 Minute Fudge from Peggy Turner
1 Bag chocolate creme drops 1/2 cup peanut butter 2 tablespoons butter
Microwave 40 seconds, repeat twice more, stir after each time. Pour into 9×9 pan, cool and cut. Quick and good.
Hunting Season
Small game hunting season is Jan. 5th to March 1st. Hunting licenses, management area permits, state waterfowl permit and/or federal duck stamp are required according to what you are hunting.
Spring turkey will be March 26-29th, April 2-5th, 9-12th and 16-19th. Discharging of a firearm within 150 yards of a recreation facility or residence is prohibited. For Further info call 732-1225
Eating Out
We have 12 places to eat here in the Forest: Country Girls, Jakes, Mom’s, Chinese, Maries, Antonnes, Snappy Tomato Pizza, Rogers Bar-B-Q, Lens’s Seafood, Subway, Riverside Cafe (at Wilderness) and Dam diner. Try one a week for some great food out here, no need to go to town.
Another Queen in the Forest 
The Quilt Queen is Viola Fish, a cute 5’1″ Forest resident. For years she has been making all sizes of quilts by the hundreds for those in need. Mostly through the former East Marion Homemakers, the First Ladies of the Forest Red Hat Society and now HELP Agency of the Forest and the Arnett Shelter.
A few ladies help her to tie/down and her daughter Carol Cunningham helps Quilt Queen Viola get her gifts delivered on time. The community Adults, Children and Infants Thank You!
PH
FAC RECAP
The past few months have been very busy for FAC, starting with the Haunted House we put on along with the Forest Eagles. They enabled us to offer the “House” free of charge this year. We give a sincere thank you to the Forest Eagles for all the assistance in building and performing.
From there we went right into the float for the Ocala Christmas Parade. Our float was a log cabin to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Ocala National forest, with Smokey the Bear on our float. We give a huge thank you to Jim Howell and Lester Pynn for all the hours building the framework. Martin Byrd and son Sam spent three or four more days putting logs on the sides, building a firework pile and laying carpet. A thank you to all of them for all their time. Also thanks to Frank and Debbie Brentlinger for pulling the float.
We rolled right into the annual Choral Celebration, an evening of Christmas music, cookies, hot cocoa and Santa Claus.
We are looking forward to a new year, new board and new ideas. Please join us the 2nd Monday at 7 pm at the Community Center. You never know who’s going to pop in!
White Buffalo Society
The White Buffalo Society will be celebrating their 25th anniversary with an outdoors in the wild celebration the first weekend of March. They will camp out and have drum, dance, songs, games and stories. A feast that can be cooked outdoors, their famous Stone soup actually starts with a medium size stone and each member adds an ingredient. It becomes enough to feed a village. Maybe the first Potluck?
Crafts will be hi-lighted for all ages and drum education and more for the young. WBS tries to have all the pow-wows attended by their members so the Spring schedule will be planned: water sports, games and canoe lessons. Those interested call Chief Two Ponies at 625-1402
Shower
The Alpha Center will be the recipient of a shower that will be held Jan. 24th from 3:00 – 5:00pm at St. Josephs Parish Hall. They will be accepting new or nearly new items for new babies and young children. Blankets, diapers, clothing etc. A speaker will be there to explain the working of the organization. For info call: 625-2095
Washington Trip
East Marion fifth grade Safety Patrol will host a flea market at the Community Center on Jan. 31 as a fund raiser for their trip to Washington D.C.
Meatloaf Dinner
St. Josephs of the Forest will be having a meat loaf dinner on Jan. 31st. The cost is $6.00. Everyone is welcome. There will be dessert and drinks. Please try to attend. For info call 625-2095
C.O.P.S.
First of all we want to thank everyone for their support. So many of you stopped by last month as we rang the bell for the Salvation Army to support their great cause and to tell us how much you appreciate the patrol as well.
We have been very busy. We are up to 78 volunteers and patrolled more than 9000 hours in 2008 for an average of about 800 hrs. a month.
Last quarter we had a welcome back barbeque for our winter patrol at Lake Waldena. We gave out tons of candy at the Trunk or Treat, helped with the Business Expo and the Choral Celebration for the FAC.
Our annual Christmas party was help at Forest United Methodist Church with a full house. We would like to thank all the area businesses who donated toys, food and gifts for the families we chose to help out and for the door prizes given at the Christmas party. It meant alot to everyone on the patrol.
The patrol also appreciates your voting Sheriff Dean back into office. He is our greates supporter and gives tremendous support to all the COPS units as well as the many other volunteer groups in Marion County.
To volunteer please call the Sheriffs office at 402-6040.
Choral Celebration
We had a great turnout for an evening of Christmas music. The area Churches that participated were all enjoyable. Silver Watch helped out for hours, our workers did a great job: Olga Cross, Di Lemon, Tony David, Ted Klebes, Lester and Madeline Pynn, Jackie Walker, Terry Taylor, Santa Clause and many more, including our emcee Ray Migatz.
The children all recieved a gift from Santa who was nice enough to visit us that night. Area organizations all donated dozens of cookies, we had hot cocoa and coffee and everyone pitched in to clean up. David Houk provided a new stage arrangement.
A Special Thank You
To our Forest Fire Department and Sheriff’s office for what they do for us everyday. We want to especially thank you for volunteering to go to area schools and special functions like the Trunk or Treat, Summer camps and the Business expo. Everyone loves to see the big trucks and official cars at our local events.
Library Groundbreaking
The groundbreaking for the new library was held Dec. 1 at 1:00 pm with many county officials on hand. Mr Niblock discussed the importance of the library in our area and introduced Barbara Fitos our commissioner, Julie Sieg who heads the library system, Mr. Payton a neighboring commissioner and pointed out several important figures in attendence. Greg Malak our librarian was present and added that the new library will be a source of joy to our community. The architectural drawings are on display at the FAC building and at the library.
Hints from Louise……
Lower your baby’s fever with a lukewarm bath. Rinse your canned veggies several times to remove salt and other additives.