Snow Birds in Cedar Key

We decided to pretend we are snow birds and spend a few weeks full-time in Cedar Key. It is a delightful change of pace and we are getting as much, or more, done on our cheese book project as we were at home. Of course, I have been falling behind on the project to re-paint the doors and windows onto the porch. Oh well….

Each day we have taken a longish walk around town. We tried to walk out on the island toward the Museum. But there is no leash law here and having loose dogs chasing after our leashed one wasn’t much fun. So we limit ourselves to downtown. Even if we walk from home to the far end of the island it is only 2 miles or so in either direction. Downtown, we meandered into a 2.5-mile route that takes in most streets, up one and down the next. It lets us note of the funky houses, and look for cool yard art.

We look at the ducks on the Gulf, visit the people fishing on the pier, chase all the feral cats … only one of us finds that very exciting … look at the sailboats, fishing boats, and kayaks going by, and watch the ospreys, skimmers, pelicans, and collared doves. Feral cats actually are about as exciting as Cedar Key gets, which is part of why we like it.

On Friday, I went on a Ranger led paddling trip to Atsena Otie, the closest island and only one with full public access. All the islands in the area are part of the Wildlife Refuge. It was a nice paddle over to Atsena Otie and back, and a pleasant walk on the island. The mosquitoes are not out yet. Saturday we’ll do another kayak trip on a couple of creeks with a Friends-of-the-Refuge group.

There is a yoga class in town now twice a week, so I have been going to it. And, last night we went to Tony’s Seafood because we’d gotten hungry for clam chowder and fried oysters, walking by the sign every day. Nice.

Judging by license plates, Cedar Key is full of real snow birds, not pretend ones like us…Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maine, Alaska, Washington, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana. Happily, unlike them, we are not here to escape from snow. It is nice to have the island quite full of people. When we walked today we noticed that most of the places have “no vacancy” signs out. We’ll post some photos showing what we’ve been doing over here.
Our house

Working on the cheese book

On the boardwalk to Cemetery Point Park, a stone's throw from our house.

At the water's edge when the tide is out.

In town, where one local in this red state is ready to "impeach Obama."

A more friendly local wishes us all good fishing

Funky houses and buildings

Jake meets new friends

The Gulf of Mexico, as seen across the bow of Peg's kayak. And,the kayaking group with the Ranger.

Birds we saw on our walks.

Inauguration Day

We thought we’d go to Washington for the Inauguration. We bought tickets to take the Virginia Rail Express from Fredericksburg, near Pam’s house, to Union Station. Knowing that we would not be able to be close enough to see the swearing in platform, we figured that just being there with all the other Americans would be the real experience anyway. Meg, Pam and James, and Russ and I all planned to go.

But as the time drew closer and it became clear that the temperature would be far below Florida standards, we reconsidered. In the end, we chose to be able to see the ceremony and hear the Inaugural address, over being there to swell the crowd.

Russ and I went to a gathering here in Gainesville to watch with a mini-crowd. But the feed was via the web, and the site went down at the critical point. So, having had a great potluck lunch, we joined all the others in rushing home to watch on TV. We didn’t stop watching all day. No regrets. What a wonderful day.

Happy New Year

The day everyone flew home after our Family Christmas, we started a renovation project. We replaced the old sliding glass doors in the living room and master bedroom with French doors and got new windows in the living room to match the new doors. At one point during the week between our first and our second Christmas celebrations, we had a whole in the living room wall that was 7’ x 12’. Good thing it is warm in Florida in December! We like the new look.

We had a quieter second Christmas celebration. We took a little walk and cooked a great lamb roast. Our tree and decorations made the house look pretty. We were happy that the holiday stretched out for so long.

To start the New Year, we went to San Felasco Park and walked the 4.8-mile trail. It was a perfect cool day. The sun shone on the long leaf pines and the Spanish moss in the wonderful way that makes them iridescent. Of course wee ate collard greens and black-eyed peas for good luck. And, we started thinking that we may return to Spain and hike another section of the Camino. Time to start training again.

ARNOVA, Thanksgiving, Family Christmas

I attended the ARNOVA meeting a few weeks ago in Philadelphia. I have been going to the annual meetings of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action for decades, every since I started in university fund raising and teaching. This year I even participated in the Friday Night Bash and, as you see in the photo, won a NoBell Prize for my spoof on non-theory. My little Liberty Bell award is now hanging on our Christmas tree. In was a cold, lovely few days in the City of Brotherly Love. I skipped some sessions and walked to Independence Hall in the snow one afternoon.

Thanksgiving has come and gone.
We smoked a turkey in the backyard in Gainesville, hiked on our favorite trail, and spent a few days in Cedar Key. There was certainly no snow. It was warm and sunny.



Last weekend we began our Christmas celebration. Meg, Pam, and Pam’s friend James came for four days. We trimmed the tree, hiked in the woods, visited Micanopy, had a wine and cheese tasting session on the porch, ate smoked salmon, smoked pork roast, tamales, and fig cake, and generally just laughed and talked lots. It is very nice to have Christmas start early and last for two weeks instead of a day or two.

Cedar Key Weekend and Novel Writing in November

Cedar Key was particularly lovely this weekend. The weather was coming down from a high of 87 degrees on Thursday, on its way to a low of 32 degrees tonight. The breezes were strong and balmy. No special events brought crowds to town, so it was just the few lucky wanderers who stumble upon the place when they are on their way someplace else, have a bit of extra time, and a lot of curiosity.

We saw a wood stork on the wooden driveway that stretches from the causeway to the house on the little island just before you get in town. A magnificent bird like that deserves to look regal. It did. The osprey that likes the tree near our house was there when we arrived.

Later we sat on our breezeway. Tortilla chips, salsa and cold beer at hand, we listened to the Florida football game on the radio. We don’t have television there. In fact the radio comes in only with aluminum foil on the antenna, and the antenna touching the screen door…but it worked fine for a game with a score of 56 to 6.

After the game and dinner, we took Jake for a stroll downtown and on Dock Street. We tried to get him to walk in the water at the city park beach, but he wanted to chase feral cats instead. The moon was big and made all the cats glow in the dark, I think.

It was a nice way to top off the week. Russ finished the first draft of his new novel. In the photos, he and Jake-the-Muse are working in his office at the computer. He is participating, again, in the National Novel Writing Month. Participants write a 50,000-word novel in November. He wrote his first one in 2006 and second one last November. It takes about a year after he has the draft to get them polished and published, but November seems to be the most fun part. Although he does get worn out from all that imagining and the other photos, he and Jake are resting in a yoga relaxation pose, trying to get their shoulders loose from all the typing. You can order the novels that are already out by going to his website www.lighthallbooks.com.

Beyond the Adirondack Crescent

Last Tuesday, Russ and I did a presentation about our cheese project for Prime Time, a program at Santa Fe College here in Gainesville. About 25 people attended. We talked about how we decided to start researching "The New American Cheese", what we have done so far...our visits to museums, cheese conferences, cheese festivals, cheese farmsteaders. We were a bit surprised by how much we have already learned, and how some it was quite different from what we had expected. For example, we have yet to meet anyone who went into the cheese business because they loved cheese...but several have did because they loved the animals. And...who would guess that you could carve the skyline of Chicago out of cheese?

We ended the presentation with a sampling of six American artisan cheeses. That may have been the part that made us a hit and got us asked to do another presentation in the spring...that time about our Camino experience.

Back to Prague

I visited Prague again last week. There is a post and some photos on Peg's Prague Blog about my experiences.

To hear a recording of Czech folk music from the "Get Out the Vote" rally that we attended on Old Town Square, click here.

A Camino Presentation

On Monday October 13, the day after my mom would have turned 92 and two days after Aunt Pat turned 88, Russ and I did a presentation about our Camino experience. (Notice Carol, Vic, Karen, and Aunt Pat's party hats in the picture from the birthday celebration.) We talked to the Gainesville chapter of the National Association of Retired and Active Federal Employees.

It was great fun. People asked a ton of questions about what we brought, what we wore, where we stayed, what we ate…about our packs and our gear. Their feedback on our photos was wonderful and we totally enjoyed the experience.

In the photos, you will see that some of the Narfians, like Barb, even tried on our equipment.

A Clam Farming Presentation

Last Sunday, after the Nature Coast Birding and Wildlife Experience, our Gainesville Slow Food Convivium came to Cedar Key for a presentation about clam farming by Leslie Sturmer from the Multi-County Aquaculture Extension Service. As we've mentioned in previous posts, the Slow Food group has visited several local farms, and clam farms fit the pattern in their own way.

When net fishing was banned off Florida's coasts, Cedar Key fishermen began clam farming. Cedar Key is now one of the premier producers of farm-raised clams in the country.

Of course, clam farms aren't quite like vegetable farms. The farmers start with a lunch-bag size sack of thousands of seed clams. They hold them in a nursery table through which they pump a continuous flow of Gulf water until the baby clams are big enough not to slip through the net bag in which they are then staked to the bottom of the Gulf in the underwater farms that the farmers lease from the State.

In a year and a half or so, the very heavy bags are harvested full of grown clams!

Pretty nifty farm visit, which was followed by an spectacular clam feast and Pot Luck dinner at our Cedar Key house. We had about 35 people in our little house, and, as you might imagine with a bunch of folks who believe food should be slow, good, clean, and fair...wonderful pot luck treats.

Cedar Key's Annual Nature Coast Birding and Wildlife Experience

Last weekend was the annual Nature Coast Birding and Wildlife Experience in Cedar Key. On Friday, we participated in the afternoon Native Plant Walk on Atsena Otie, which is the island just off the coast of Cedar Key where the town used to be until the Great Storm of 1899 washed it away and killed almost all the residents. Before the storm, there was a large factory on Atsena Otie where the Eberhard Faber company made slats from the native cedar trees. The pencils were hauled the short distance back to Cedar Key by barge, loaded on trains, and shipped around the country.

After the Great Storm, the factory was never rebuilt, people resettled on the bigger island of Cedar Key, and the major industry was the making of brooms from palms. Actually, Cedar Key was a thriving community until the railroad diverted to Tampa in the late 1920s. Until then, it was a major port for trade with Cuba and Latin America.

In fact, in the 1930s, my Quinn grandparents came here from Rochester and took a ship to Cuba to celebrate their 25th Anniversary. Nine months later, my uncle Mike was born...so the story goes.

Anyway, back to last weekend. The highlight of the hike on Atsena Otie, as usual, was the mosquitoes! We took a boat over and were immediately swarmed when we got ashore. Along the beach, it was only irksome. But inland, it was amazing. Having been there several times before, I wore long pants and long sleeves, and had a hood as well as a hat. I suffered less than the others. The legs of one woman in the group, who was wearing shorts, were covered with little black mosquitoes. Most of our group of about 12 went back by the beach, but those of us who continued had a great walk with Colette Jacono, our guide. Her enthusiasm for the plants practically overcame the annoyance of the mosquitoes ...practically

Friday evening there was a clam feast and a presentation about bird migration. Really nice. Saturday, another Native Plant hike, with few mosquitoes, an equally enthusiastic group of learners, and equally dynamic presentation by Colette. In the evening, Jake's veterinarian, Dawn Miller, brought a dozen or so birds of prey from her sanctuary to show to the 30 or so attendees. And we had another delightful dinner. Very nice, even though there were so many events that we had to skip the bird walks and boating trips, and the kayaking, in favor of plants and feeding the mosquitoes. The photos show Dawn with a hawk and two of the attendees, Peggy and Jennifer, with a small Great-Horned Owl.