Farm Festival

Michelle and I stopped at a farm and forest festival yesterday morning here in Gainesville. Michelle is a sucker for these things. I guess that I am too, but it's because you always end up learning something interesting - definitely simple - about the ways things used to get done before all of the 'wonderful' modernities we now take for granted.

They had many of the standard old-timey demonstrations, such as basket-making, rope-making, bowl-making, sheep-shearing, etc. along with hay rides and bluegrass music. But the take-home thing this time came from old white people dressed like Seminole Indians. Actually, they were part Seminole and they knew a ton about local plants and making a comfortable living here in Florida...in the summer...without any modern amenities, which is really fantastic when you think about the modern Floridian lifestyle.

So first, did you know that there is still a group of Seminole (Miccosukee) that can claim full sovereignty within the borders of the United States? They were never completely defeated by the U.S. military. They refused to take Andrew Jackson's trail of tears to Oklahoma and they have been at 'war' with the U.S government since 1812. About 3500 now live in the Everglades and live as a free nation. Basically, they never signed a treaty and they don't live on a federally-owned lands.

Second, we learned how to make a low-impact fire with four pieces of wood that can boil five containers at once!

Third, I learned that wormwood is an effective insect repellent (even on ticks!), which is probably the most immediately useful piece of information....

And they had little baby lambs!

This sheep is not being slaughtered even though the look on its face suggests otherwise.