Reptiles, Birds and Giant Rodents 02/18/21

Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, Florida

The word of the LORD came to him:  “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.  He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.”  Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD and He credited it to him as righteousness. ~ Genesis 15:4-6  There are two things of note here.  First, God reminds Abram of the promise He made to him back in Chapter 12.  The second, even though Abram initially showed his impatience in waiting on the Lord’s timing, in the end, this time he believed the Lord, and this belief is credited to him as righteousness.  If you ever wondered how the Old Testament era people were going to get into Heaven without the saving grace of Jesus Christ, this is it.  Just as we must believe Jesus and Who He is, those before Jesus must also exhibit true faith and trust in God. I wanted to look at a few words a little closer, and here’s what I found:

Believed = The Hebrew word used here indicates trust in the Lord

Credited = to impute something to someone; i.e. to lay into the account of someone

Righteousness =  God accepted Abram’s trust as proof of his devotion  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. ~ Hebrews 11:5

By the way, did you know that there are more than 8,000 stars clearly visible on a Near Eastern night?  And that no one knows how many stars there actually are, but in our Milky Way Galaxy alone there are roughly 300 Billion!                 

As I write this on the 22^nd, it seems like sooo much longer ago than just four days!  It feels more like two weeks.  I don’t really know why, but it does.

Did you know that you can donate old sheets and/or blankets to rescue shelters?  I learned that working – not at the veterinary office – but when I worked at the sleep center about five years ago. 
We bought new sheets the other day, so I went through the old stuff to see what we could part with, found a cat rescue and called, and today, we dropped them off before we set out on today’s adventure.  Susan seemed happy to receive them, and the multitude of cats gracing her front yard quickly disappeared when we pulled in the drive.  Bet her neighbors love having all those cats roaming the neighborhood . . .

This day found us kayaking on a very twisty three-mile portion of Arbuckle Creek.  We kayaked this when we were here in February, 2018 and enjoyed it, so we thought we’d try it again.  We had to find it first.  There was some scenic driving involved, with many square miles of orange groves hosting thousands of trees – most of which hadn’t been harvested yet.  We kept our noses busy sniffing the air, but there was no sweet orange blossom smell.  ☹  I wish someone would explain to me why you can’t buy candles or body lotion or perfume that smells like orange blossoms. It is one of the most wonderful smells!  So good, I wouldn’t be surprised if Heaven smelled like orange blossoms!

How do they pick oranges, anyway?  There are some tours around, but not near us.  So in lieu of an actual tour, here’s what I found on the web:

As has been tradition for hundreds of years, oranges are typically picked from the orange tree by hand. Workers lean ladders against the tree, or stand it up near the tree, and climb to the top to pick the oranges from the tree branches. Once removed from the tree, oranges are placed into canvas pick sacks which typically worn over the torso of the body. Up to 96 percent of all Florida oranges are harvested by hand using this traditional method.  – gardenguides.com

Maybe some day we’ll take a tour and get some first-hand knowledge.  😊

I also got curious about just how many oranges Florida produces every year. It’s pretty astounding when you see the numbers!

Citrus has been farmed commercially in Florida groves since the mid-1800s. The first citrus was brought to the New World in 1493 by Christopher Columbus. In the mid-1500s one of the early Spanish explorers, most likely Ponce de Leon, planted the first orange trees around St. Augustine, Florida.

Florida’s unique sandy soil and subtropical climate proved to be ideal for growing the seeds that the early settlers planted and have flourished ever since. Today it is a $9 billion industry, employing nearly 76,000 Floridians.  And research shows that for every acre of mature trees, 16.7 tons of oxygen is produced per year.

In the 2018-19 season, more than 430,000 acres of citrus were grown in Florida between October and May, producing 77.3 million boxes of fruit (there are an average of 88 oranges per box). Of the citrus harvested,  90 percent was processed into juice and the remainder was sold as fresh fruit. ~ excerpts taken from flcitrusmutual.com, and visitflorida.com

Near the end of our drive, a pickup passed us with a bumper sticker we thought was creative, “C’mon man!  Say it isn’t Joe!”  Clever, regardless of your political convictions.  😊

Eventually, we found our launch pad and took off amidst bombs going off and jets flying overhead.

Don’t worry.  It’s not as dramatic as it sounds.  But I am telling the truth!  This river runs alongside a U.S. Air Force Installation and it sounded like they were practicing today.

This is the same river where, last time we ran into a stick underwater and it punctured our blow-up kayak.  It was a pretty high stress time, let me tell you!  Not only were we (mostly me!) concerned about sinking, but once the ballast was out, our behinds were sitting really low in the water, and it made it hard to paddle and navigate, forcing us both out of the boat at a few low places, but fortunately, the water was deep enough to accommodate us most of the time.  Then there was also the potential for alligators . . . 

Obviously, by the grace of God, we made it back home.

There were numerous sightings of various birds today, but they almost all took wing when they heard or saw us approaching.  Let’s see how I do with a list, now that it’s four days later . . .

Great, Little Blue and Night Herons

Great and Snowy Egrets

Ibis

Spoonbills

Hawks

Crows

Vultures

Kingfishers

Wood Storks

One we have no idea what it was

And a variety of tiny ones

There were also turtles, dragonflies, and of course, a few alligators.

Here’s what we DO have pictures of:

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One the drive home, as we’re salivating over our upcoming dinner plans, Blaine spotted this squirrel that was so huge, he stopped the Jeep and took a picture of it!  Turned out to be a Fox Squirrel.  Because they’re so big, they weigh about three pounds, making them three times heavier than the Gray Squirrels we’re familiar with.

Dinner tonight was the long-awaited Vincent’s Pizza.  We LOVE this place!  Even after all the pizzas we’ve had over the years, this place is still our favorite.  I have no idea why.  They have crust, sauce, pepperoni, sliced sausage, green peppers, onion and mushrooms and cheese on their supreme pizza, just like everyone else, but there’s something about their combination that is over the moon!  Plus, if you dine in, you get free dessert.  😊

Once we got home and put the three pieces we had left in the fridge, we felt we needed to walk.  It was good we did, because over by the store, we took in the intoxicating scent of orange blossoms! 

And then, just around the bend at the CCC Museum (which is closed now due to Covid), we had an up-close and personal encounter with a red-shouldered hawk!

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We also stood amazed as we looked at the area where they did a prescribed burn when we were here last.  It’s all overgrown already, and is probably in need of another burn.

Thus ends another day in the life . . . .