BOBF Pt. 2

There were so many awesome birds that I had to make part two and let you see how creative God is!

BOBF Pt. 1

The Big "O" Birding Festival was held last weekend in Hendry Co. and I thought I'd see what it was all about.  Birders (those who watch birds) from all over flocked into Clewiston to roost at the host hotel.  Tours stretched all over Hendry and Glades Counties and began early in the morning.  Seminars were in the afternoon and special presentations or more tours were in the evenings.  It was four full days of birding (see how you can conjugate that verb).  Some of these pictures are mine, some are from other sources but they all show what an abundant number of species there are in this part of Florida.

BIG CYPRESS SHOOTOUT

The Big Cypress Seminole Reservation is located in south Hendry County. Besides a terrific Seminole museum and the Billie Swamp Safari, the tribe produces many events throughout the year.  One of those is the Big Cypress Shootout, that re-creates the Seminole’s struggle and sacrifice to remain in their homeland and features authentic weapons, soldier and warrior attire and tactics typical of the Second Seminole War.
The three-day event also includes music, Seminole food, Seminole and pioneer artisans,  tomahawk throws, primitive archery competition, authentic Seminole and soldier camps, venomous snake shows and alligator wrestling.  “Period settlers” from around the country will hew wood, iron and silver crafts and depict trading techniques from the Seminole war era. As the pictures below show, it was a great historical afternoon.

Did you know the Seminoles were the only Indian tribe that didn't sign a peace treaty with the United States?

CITY FARM TOUR

The Hendry Co. Extension Office produces a City Farm Tour several times a year. I got on the bus recently and got more than a bushel & a peck of information about agriculture in the county. 

(The captions tell the story).

The tour started at Mobley Plant World in LaBelle. These are watermelon plants.

This machine puts the seeds into the soil, then into the white planter containers in background of picture.

After a windshield tour of Duda Farm Fresh Foods' crops, the tour headed to Alico Ranch, where we saw modern day cowboys! Yee Haw! Those are cattle they're rustling.

One of the cowboys and his canine assistants.

Onto Southern Gardens Juice Plant. It was a windshield tour, but they let us off the bus to sample their handiwork!  Most of their juice is sold under the Kroger brand, or Tropicana or Minute Maid.

After a drive through Clewiston, a steak lunch was served at the fairgrounds by the

Hendry Co. Cattlemen's Assoc. These great group of folks can cook for me anytime! Yum!

After lunch (did I mention how tasty it was?) we drove into the sugar cane fields to watch the crop being harvested. See a prior post for more details about this but notice the birds that follow the machinery.  It's lunchtime for them as they find dead bugs, mice and other critters that got caught in the burn off process before the mechanical harvesting begins. Mmmm, it's a BBQ!!

Last stop on the tour was at C&B Farms Organic & Specialty Vegetables.

The farm grows 36 different vegetables and herbs. Particular specialities include oriental vegetables.

I'd highly recommend this tour because as you're learning about agriculture, the guides give history of the area, plus you ride across many miles of the county seeing the diverseness of the land. 

It was time to get off the bus, but before heading home, the Extension Office presented everyone with a bag full of fruits & veggies from the different places we had visited.  I'll remember this tour until the food runs out.

FLW

There have been more boats than usual in Hendry this week. It's the WalMart FLW's kick-off tournament season right here in Hendry Co.  It's a four day elimination that started with almost 400 fishermen (Pros paired with Co-Anglers). The field narrows on Day 2 to 40, then whittles it down to 20 on Day 3 and winners announced on Day 4. The pairs head out of the lock at Roland Martin's Marina early each morning and weigh-in later in the day. It was exciting seeing 160 boats head out into Lake Okeechobee and seeing each fisherman weigh in their catch to see if they continue on.
The hotels, restaurants and streets certainly have been full this week, accounting for the grins on business owner's faces.

Everglades Boogie

The annual Everglades Boogie was held at the Clewiston Airport this weekend.  It's presented by SkyDive Air Adventures that invites folks from all over to come and, well, jump out of planes all weekend.  There were dozens of jumpers when I stopped by.  They jumped in different formations, styles and heights.  I'll let the pictures do the talking, but it was spectacular seeing 5-10 skydivers filling the clear sky with color.

One last thing, the smoke in some of the pictures was sugar cane fields being burned off, not an accident.