Journal Entry #8

 This week's journal blog was my own independent field trip to the "roots" of our required reading A Land Remembered.  My husband is from Ft. Pierce, Florida and after we read this book together, it really opened our eyes about the things we have seen and taken for granted and never really thought about.  

 All around Fort Pierce, Lake Placid, and Okeechobee there are TONS of orange groves.  My husband is a native of the area and was showing me where there were old groves that have either died or the owners no longer were tending to the grove.  I thought there were a lot of orange and citrus groves, but not nearly as much in comparison to what used to be there. 





Also in Lake Placid, as many people may know, is a headquarters for Indian River Orange Juice!

Tropicana also has a huge distribution plant in Lake Placid as well. 

Not all of the groves were oranges, some were nectarines, clementines, and other assorted citrus. 






We passed several distribution trucks loading oranges and citrus and picking them off the trees.  I didn't know that most fruit has to be picked well before it's actually ripe to give it optimal time to ripen before it spoils. 

 This was one of the saddest things about the drive down to Lake Okeechobee.  The destruction, or should I say, continued destruction of the natural land. 

While yes, it might be more convenient to have 4 lanes for traffic to Lake Okeechobee, it is very devastating and harmful to the natural resources and beauty of this frontier land.  

 The dump trucks were bringing in load after load of sand and gravel and dirt to fill the embankments along the highway.  They were flushing out the natural water and drying the water sources so the expanded roads could be built.  One the left side of the car, as seen in these pictures, the natural landscape has already been destroyed.  However out the passenger side, the jetty's alongside the road were still lush and full of greenery and wildlife. 

 Note the color of the water along the "new" road.  After more construction, any plant and wildlife will either be killed or not be able to drink from the water.

 These homes are similar to what I pictured to be "modern day" cottages for the farm hands such as Skillet, Frog, and Bonzo.  These were very small and simple cinder block homes.  Almost every cattle farm we passed by was surrounded by these little buildings for their workers.  While the style may have changed, the principle behind these homes has remained. 

 The tree coverage that cows used in the 1800's and now have diminished drastically.  Now many cattle have to crowd around small shade areas. 

 Also cattle are now commonly marked with ear tags instead of branding like in A Land Remembered, we did however see some cattle that were branded with the owner symbol. 

 This was Lake Okeechobee.  Behind me was the dyke that was talked about in the book after the hurricanes.  The pictures here don't really give it justice!

 The sawgrass is VERY sharp!  I was not sure if this was actually sawgrass, then I touched it...it was :)

 I was very saddened to see the amount of pollution around the lake.  If our society keeps up its wasteful and careless ways, we won't have these beautiful landmarks to visit. 

 Lake Okeechobee

 Here is some sawgrass in the lake.  I can see how riding through this on a horse would be very painful especially at high speeds.

 Here is a better view of the dyke as you pull onto Lake Okeechobee. 

 This sign was right outside Lake Okeechobee.  These two places were referenced in our book. 

 A hammock of trees...not exactly what type of hammock the McIvey's stayed in.  They typically were cypress trees, these were palm trees.

 A distributor picking up a shipment of oranges from one of the many groves. 

 Oranges!

 The way the groves are lined, really reminds me of the vineyards I visited in Field Trip #3

 Here is a railroad track.  This may have been part of the tracks that were being built throughout the book. 

 Cattails.  We looked all along the turnpike for these things are could not find them! Finally at our lake house in Lake Placid, there they were :)

Just outside of Fort Pierce is an official Indian Reservation.