A Serendipitous Weekend

 Have you ever been faced with what you perceive as a boring weekend?  That was what I thought as John and I packed for a weekend in Farmington, Mo.  His sister Carolyn lives there, and our main reason for going to that town was to visit with her.  Farmington is John's childhood home, and we have visited that town many times over the years- that was where his parents lived until they passed; his sister and some of her family currently live there.  Needless to say, we have seen all there is to see in that small town.  

On Saturday, after we had arrived, his sister informed us that she had recorded a television show which she thought John would be interested in.  After the program started I quickly became engrossed with it.  It was a story about Clint Harp, a woodworker from Texas, who is featured on the show "Restoration Road" (found on the Magnolia Network).  His interest is in restoring old buildings, and he was informed about an old granary, built pre-Civil War, located in Uniontown, Mo.  That town is in southeastern Perry County, Missouri.  The history of the building was that it was built by a German Saxon immigrant.  Uniontown was settled in 1839 by people from Thurigia, Germany.  By the way, the town was originally called Paitzdorf until the Civil War when the Union army had an encampment there.  Hence the name of Uniontown.

Apparently there was some interest in dismantling the granary, moving it to St. Genevieve,Mo., and  building a  cabin out of the logs.  Below is the final result.

No, that was not how the granary looked, it does have a similar shape- the logs were numbered so they could be easily reassembled.  However, a couple of the top beams had to be discarded because they had rotted, and new pine wood logs had to be cut and hand hewn.  Windows and a porch were added.  Also new chinking was needed between the logs- back in the day clay, dirt, silt sand and lime were used.  Today it is made with an acrylic elastic compound.  The door of the granary had a special marking on it, carved there by the immigrant farmer.  Historians call it a hex, s symbol placed there by farmers to protect the grain.  It could have had a religious meaning or perhaps was part of some black magic.  That door was saved in the restoration and used as the door to the bathroom in the log cabin.  An antique door was found for the front door, and surprisingly, the new proprietor had a key in her pocket which fitted neatly into the lock!  It all just came together very well for the new building, even its current location. The porch of the log cabin is pictured below.  The television show did display the interior of the cabin- quite a cozy place!

 Sunday, of what I thought was going to be our boring weekend, we drove south from Farmington for a drive through the countryside.  At our lunch stop in Perryville I suggested that we drive further south to Ste. Genevieve and look for the log cabin.  Fortunately the Welcome Center was open and we received directions to the cabin.  We found the cabin, the sign outside of it indicates it is the Sassafras Creek Cabin ( is a bed and breakfast facility).  This little adventure taught us something else.  We have been to St.Genevieve before, knew that it is the oldest European settlement in Missouri, settled by the French in 1850.  It is an interesting town to walk in, as it has kept many of the older homes.  What we learned this time is that the town now has Saint Genevieve National Historic Park, located near the Sassafras Creek Cabin.  Clint Harp mentioned in the television show that the French built their homes vertically, and he showed the Green Tree Tavern as an example of that architecture.  Within walking distance of the cabin we saw that building.  According to the national park brochure it has been dated to 1790 using dendrochronology.  The Janis family built it and used it as both their home and a tavern and an inn.  It is pictured below.  What an interesting weekend we had!  There are other older buildings, which have been moved to this national park, unfortunately nothing opened for viewing the day we were there.  We hope to return!

 

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

 This was another interesting place which we visited during our second week in Florida.  It is within Fort Myer's city limits, and is over 3,500 acres of protected wetlands and uplands. It received its name in the early 1900s when travelers in wagons on their way to Fort Meyers would get stuck in a low swampy area (known today as the Slough).  When that happened they knew from experience that it was six more miles to town.  By the way, a slough is a forested wetland with slowly flowing freshwater.  A boardwalk was built over the slough in 1991, and is 1.2 miles in length.  Walking it we passed the largest body of water, called Gator Lake.

There really is a gator in the above picture!   We also passed by Otter Pond, and stood there for awhile looking for otters, but none made an appearance.

What did surprise us was a large water snake, hanging out in the water near the boardwalk.  We also saw a fair number of turtles, anhinga, herons and egrets.  Pictured below is a black-crowned night heron.  I was so pleased that I spotted him, he was a bit hidden.

My next picture here is of a sign I noticed by the bathrooms.  It sure gave me a chuckle!

Our last adventure in Fort Myers was an air boat ride.  In the past an boat ride meant a certain amount of time sitting quietly in a bayou or swamp looking at the wildlife surrounding us.  The air boat ride this time had only the purpose of giving us a wild experience; zipping among many mandrake groves at a rapid speed.  I did not appreciate it at all and felt sorry for the wildlife we were frightening.  And there were two other air boats near us also going at that speed!  Once we even got drenched with a big splash of water.  As we were leaving the boat later I saw a great blue heron sitting quietly in the water.  In the Slough I saw a quote which said: "Falling in love with the earth is one of life's greatest adventure" (Steve Van Matre wrote this, an environmental activist).  I have found, in our travels, that seeing any creature in its natural habitat is an awesome moment for me.

 

Our Second Week in Florida

 All of our family returned to their homes after Christmas, but John and I drove south to Fort Myers, were we took up residence for a week.  We had spent one winter there about 10 years ago, and now had plans to revisit some of the natural areas we had seen before.  There was one exception to that plan, and that was Myakka River State Park.  It has a mailing address of Sarasota, which places it about northwest of Fort Myers.  This park is one of Florida's "oldest and most diverse natural areas", according to the park's brochure.  The Myakka River flows through the park with miles of wetlands, prairies, hammocks and pine lands.  Besides the river, there are two shallow lakes here which attract many wetland creatures.  We saw quite a few of them, and spent a very enjoyable day at this park.

At one of the lakes we saw a large number of pelicans and maybe wood storks hanging out.  Unfortunately we were a good distance away from them, any good identification of them was consequently quite difficult.

Shortly after we were in the park we stopped near a bridge to check out what a few people were staring at.  An alligator was lying in the warm sun, near him were a few water birds.

Mayakka State Park has a canopy walkway and tower, part of which is pictured above.  It is necessary to climb 70 feet to reach the walkway. I just had to take a picture of John once we arrived at the top. I could not help but appreciate the fact that John seemed to climb that distance upwards effortlessly, not bad for a man who just turned eighty!

The next day we revisited a favorite park of ours, which is Corkscrew Swamp.  Unfortunately there was a dearth of animals and birds.  We did see what looked like a hawk up in the trees, however it was all white.  A park volunteer explained to us that it was a red shoulder hawk and that some birds in Florida loose their coloration during the winter months.  

One wonderful feature of Corkscrew Swamp is the old growth forests stretching back 5,000 years.  Pictured above is the Calusa tree, host to the endangered Ghost Orchid.  John and I were fortunate to see it blooming on our first visit to this swamp.

We left this park disappointed that we had not seen the birds and alligators here which we had seen in previous years.  But wait!  What was that sound rustling above us as we walked to our car?  Can you make out what that is in the picture above?  As best we could figure out it was a racoon.   Corkscrew swamp had not totally disappointed us!