12 April 2011

Worm Gruntin' Festival

12 Apr 2011--This past weekend Cathy and I went to Sopchoppy, FL with Cathy's sister Brenda to see what was happening at their annual Worm Gruntin' Festival. (Sorry, Brenda, somehow I didn't get any pics of you--haha). So what is Worm Gruntin'? For those of you who don't know, believe it or not, people go out in the woods and basically "hunt for worms". They drive stakes in the ground and then use a flat piece of metal to grind on the top of the stakes. The grinding makes a vibrating sound deep in the ground that the experts believe leads the worms to think a mole is coming after them (a mole eats about 20 worms a day). In order to get away from the mole the worms rush out of the earth, where the hunters gather them up for sale. The lady and man pictured here were actually at the festival and they gave the demonstration mentioned in the posted schedule of events. This is what they do for a living!!!!! FYI: did you know that a worm has 16 hearts? That's why they live even when you tear them in half to use as fish bait!



For you city folks, this is what a mole looks like. Although they appear to have eye slots, they are blind...they live in the ground so they have no need for them. They are considered a pest to folks around these parts because they also eat the roots of vegetables, etc., that people are trying to grow. They are absolutely hideous, don't you think?



I don't know how I missed getting Brenda in these pics, but here Cathy and I try a little "gruntin'", to no avail! These guys did better showing their kids how to do it. When you do it right you can hear the vibration.



It seems like there are a lot of bikers at every festival of this sort that we go to, and of course we have to have the confederate thing and a little God stuff thrown in. The whole "proclaim YOUR southern heritage" thing sort of irritates me; makes me wonder if they ever consider that a black person may be reading that sign. And then the "Fear God" group was interesting. This guy was ranting alongside his dutiful wife and kids.




The trees down here are beautiful, especially if you are comparing them to anything you might find in Texas. They grow incredibly big!!!



This is how they do the gruntin'. I think you can hear the sound if you turn up your volume.



Cathy and I have had to cancel our summer east coast tour due to unforseen events, so it will probably be a few months before we can get to that again. Right now we are on our way back to San Antonio, so we will be posting anything interesting from there.

4 comments:

  1. Hard to know what to say about such an "interesting" place ????
    Regardless, it is interesting to see how other people live or make their living.
    That bucket of worms was ???? not being a fisherman it is hard to appreciate. I have gone fishing a few times and liked it but never have had to put the worm on myself.
    I do wonder how someone came up with this method for catching them???

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  2. U DIDN'T SAY WHETHER U GOT ANY WORMS, i DIDN'T SEE ANYONE DIGGING THEM OR DO THEY JUST COME OUT OF THE GROUND.

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  3. In the forest, because the ground is so much softer than where we were, they come up by the droves. They said the husband usually has to stop gruntin' so he can help the wife gather up the worms.

    They said a few worms came up earlier in the day where we were, but because the ground is so hard-packed from all the people walking on it, they didn't get many. Cathy and I haven't mastered the art of gruntin' yet, so we didn't get any!! haha

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  4. Brenda said...

    Was not the best festival ever, however there were a few belly laughs especially when you were making fun of the poor little girl who burned her hands on that stupid tool.

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