Farmers in Florida

We get off the farm so rarely together that I thought I’d share a few photos. When we spent the holidays in Florida with my sister and brother-in-law, we didn’t do Disney World or Epcot or any man-made places. We pretty much stuck to nature, which I guess isn’t surprising. 

We went sailing one afternoon with Sandy and Rick. Here’s the Head Farmer at the bow of the boat, watching to make sure we don’t hit any crab pots.

Here’s the Backup Farmer actually driving the boat (oops, I mean piloting!):

Here’s my sister and her hubby:

Their neighborhood was all decorated for the holidays. The big thing in this area are inflatables—Santas, snowmen, nativity scenes, elves, etc. They are inflated on timers. During the day they’re allowed to collapse. In the evening they all rise up like ghouls and take shape. Here’s a deflated one. Cracked me up. During the day the whole neighborhood was littered with deflated beings:

The coolest part of our trip was visiting Blue Springs State Park, a manatee refuge. It’s a 1/3-mile long spring-fed creek that feeds into the St. Johns River. Because the water is warm, the manatees come here to survive the winters (they can’t take water much colder than 65 degrees or so.) They rest and warm up in the spring, but must venture out into the St. Johns every day to find food.


We saw turtles…

.

Alligators…

And of course, manatees. Here’s one coming up for air:

It was such a lovely place. Those gray shapes are manatees hanging around the bank of the creek. 

The heated water is incredibly clear, since it’s coming from a gash in the earth. The gash itself is only about thirty feet by ten feet.

But get this. The crack descends130 ft into the earth, and is riddled with caves. 

Apparently people actually strap on tanks and descend into this gash in the earth.

Suddenly farming doesn’t sound so crazy.