Bonus Adventures after ECHO Farm Work

The folks that hosted the Road Scholar program were so fabulous...they made sure that everyday we had some sort of special activity to enjoy. They were definitely from the school of all work and no play makes for a dull day! Anyway, we filled our evenings and early mornings with some pretty special stuff. Take a look and see if you don't agree.

One night we took a cruise on the bay at Fort Myers,

While waiting for the Captain to say..."All Aboard!" we watched a nearby fish monger clean the days catch...as well as a very interested egret looking for a handout

The bird is getting anxious...

it was so comical to see the bird slipping in the goo on the counter, but he was REALLY interested in the handout that he knew was coming

After eating he went back to his guard-post

Here is one of the many shots I got of a glorious sunset.

On another evening we went to Sanibel Island and visited the Bailey-Mathews Shell Museum I took a few shots of some pretty amazing stuff...

This octopus looked alive!

These are made by sailors sweethearts from seashells...presumably while waiting for them to return from their voyages

a group shot after a too-brief visit to the museum

from left to right: me, Glory, Kaye, Linda and Donna

Hey...we weren't the only ones who got to stroll the Sanibel beach at sunset

Another glorious sunset!

Wednesday morning we went to Arcadia Stockyards to see how cattle auctions are held. It was very informative but I could not see the whole thing and not feel really bad for the cattle...knowing where they are ultimately ending up. It was a very stressful experience for them and this operation is really cutting edge the nicest and newest in all of Florida. So I took a few shots of things that caught my eye

There were state of the are holding pen areas where the cattle are held, separately from other sellers cattle. These areas allow for funneling into the auction building holding /viewing section, which opens to another area where each buyer picks up their purchase. It was really quite an amazing operation, very well designed and civilized.

Here are a couple of long-horns waiting to be auctioned


Here area a couple of cowboys waiting for the auction to take place so they can get back to the ranch...I don't know what it was about this picture...I just had to get a shot of the spurs, I didn't know that I would get the point of two others shoes waiting for their cattle to be auctioned too

Here is the actual auction taking place. The cattle come in from the right side of the pen, when they enter the door closes, they are weighed and the auctioneer begins the process, the bids are made, the sale recorded and the cattle exit to the left. It all takes place in about 30 seconds!