So Much to See in Shafter

Surprise!! I do own a tea cup and I actually have tea in it, and I still have Flat Susan with me. SO, we are linking up with Elizabeth of Altered Arts for T stands for Tuesday. A weekly trip around the blog block to see what everybody has in their cups, glasses or what ever they are drinking out of.  This is a spiced herbal tea, that I picked up at the store, now everybody knows I am a coffee drinker, but this sounded good.  A little bit on the sweet side for me, but I have enjoyed a couple cups of it in the evenings. 

Since last we had Tea, I was super busy getting the Playhouse loaded and all the BBQ stuff gathered to make it to Lancaster, CA for an other competition over the weekend.  More will be posted about that later this week.  But I did grab my camera on one trip into Bakersfield, so I thought I'd share some of my stomping grounds with you, and what some of the things this area is known for.  So grab a cuppa and stroll along with me.  (Actually I drove LOL)

This place is about a 1/2 mile from my house and is quite well know for supplying living caterpillars, butterflies and insects to anywhere in the world.  There is even a bug-museum inside.  It is a well visited place for school field trips, and is really fun on the inside.  I took my oldest GD (when she was the only GD we had) and we really enjoyed it.  About 12 years ago the painted the building and added LARGE wooded bugs to the outside.

For more information do a web search for Insect Lore, Shafter, CA and check it out.

This area is mainly agricultural, so what do we grow here?

Almond orchard just around the corner from Insect Lore.  Almonds were harvested last month.  They have these small, low riding machines that look like they have pinchers on them, that grab the trunk of the tree and shake the nuts off them.  Then they sweep them up with a different machine.  Between the shaking and the sweeping the dust in the air is horrible, not to mention it gets on everything inside and out!

Right now they are cutting hay, this was down at the next road.  In the background they are taking an OLD almond orchard out and chipping up the trees, I'm gonna miss that orchard as I drive into town.

Grapes are grown a lot in this valley too.  They used to dry them in the fields for raisins, but I haven't seen much of that in the recent years.  I think most of them are shipped out now.  A couple of vineries have popped up here, but I have never been of one of them. The grapes come off before the almonds are harvested.

Cotton is an other BIG crop here too.  This has been defoliated and is almost ready to pick.  They spray a defoliant on them to turn kill the leaves and plants before they run the pickers to harvest.



Pistachios...MMMMMMM.  They are about the last thing harvested.  These trees still have nuts on them, they are those brown looking clusters hanging down.

And then there are these all over the place.  They used to paint then to look like bugs, but not so much anymore.  They have started putting in some new style ones, but I didn't get a picture of one of them.