The Frog Whisperer and Thorny Lemons

February 4, 2016


We are sitting in the RV waiting for the next big El Nino storm front to roll through. The last one was a week ago, so we actually got a break from the two-a-week storms. In between our volunteering duties last week, we slipped over to Naples on the Gulf Coast to see Greg's 95 year-old Dad. Since it was close to a three hour drive we stayed overnight.

El Nino Storms rolling across the prairie

We had a nice visit and dinner out with him. The next day the last big storm was starting up, so we made a quick visit to Trader Joe's to resupply our groceries. Now I don't feel so deprived anymore out here in the sticks! It rained all the way back as we traveled the country roads to Kissimmee Prairie. Luckily road engineers in Florida wisely create big drainage ditches on the sides of the flat roads to handle most of the rain.


Our state park was a different story. The long crushed shell road into the park was washing out creating water filled potholes. The road into our campground was underwater and sites in both campgrounds were flooded. The “lake” behind us rose even higher and in the midst of downpours and darkness, the equestrians showed up for the weekend. Lots of big fancy horse trailers with RV type living quarters in them and at least 15 horses. Imagine their disappointment to learn that the trails were (still are) underwater.

The waterfront view from our RV

Horse campers to the left and right

Horses heading out on the one "dry" trail

Play the "find the road" game on the way to your campsite

On the back trail in the swamp buggy

Finding a dry spot for a lunch break

Heading home just before sunset

We've had a couple warm breezy days, but it is raining now and tomorrow the campgrounds fill for the weekend. Saturday evening is a big celebration when the preserve is officially designated a dark sky area by the International Dark Sky Association. It will be the only place in Florida so designated that has very little light pollution from the cities. On the few clear nights here we have enjoyed the brilliant stars and the Milky Way. There is a small glow to the north from Orlando, but not enough to interfere with telescope viewing with our volunteer resident astronomer and others who come here to camp out on our astronomy pad.

Perfect conditions for growing frogs and gators

Bored horses waiting for another ride

Water-filled ditches everywhere

Saturday is all hands on deck since we have no way of knowing how many people will make the long drive out here to attend. Unfortunately the latest weather forecast calls for rain, which will put a literal damper on the festivities. Once again, thank you El Nino for drenching the dry season on the prairie.


I am continuing to enjoy working in the office. It's fun to interact with our visitors from all over the US and Canada. Greg is still on invasive plant duty, but started a new project today building shelves in the rental bike shed. He will be doing bike maintenance when Bruce and Darlene move to their next volunteer assignment. They were due to switch places with a couple at another park on the Atlantic coast this week, but the other campsite is under 8 inches of water and the trailer can't be moved. Everyone is stuck where they are until the water subsides. With more storms rolling in, it might not happen!

We've been enjoying the alligators, and variety of birds this week. A pair of nesting red-shouldered hawks has been swooping past our campsite as they are chased by the crows. A crested cara-cara spent an afternoon on a post at the horse paddock. I missed getting a picture. Greg spends a lot of time using his bird call and frog sound identifying programs on the computer. We are surrounded by massive amounts of frogs who tune up at sunset and make it hard to sleep. The species that deeply croaks “Greg, Greg” every night really annoys him. They wake him up at night and he thinks someone is calling him. Ranger Jason joked that he was surprised to know that Greg speaks frog. Guess he's the “frog whisperer”!

Red Shouldered Hawk

Baby Gator enjoying the warm sun

The other volunteers turned us on to feral fruit. Orange and lemon trees were planted by cowboys at the cowboy camps. The trees have gotten wild, but some still have good tasting fruit. Others, not so much. We got some not so good oranges, and good, but crazy looking lemons. The lemon tree actually has thorns on it! We haven't figured that one out!

Picking lemons next to the abandoned cowboy bunkhouse

Gnarly lemons from an old tree

We've been here a month and have less than two months to go. This has been a good choice. It's a pretty laid-back, stress-free place. The rangers and the other volunteers are a great bunch and everyone gets their jobs done, but enjoys the beauty while they work. Now, a little less rain would be nice...