Out and About

BLUES BASH at the Ranch,  March 15 - 17, 2019

The Paul Nelson Band will play Sunday March 17 for Blues Bash at the Ranch

By: Jessica Williams
Hernando Sun Writer

A bit starstruck, I had my first interview for The Hernando Sun with the Grammy-Award Winning Guitarist, Paul Nelson, this past week.

He phoned this little ole’ newspaper writer in Hernando County. We talked about his exciting, upcoming appearance at the Blues Bash at The Sertoma Youth Ranch in Brooksville, this Sunday, March 17, among a few other interesting things.

Carman, an icon in Christian music, will be making a rare appearance in Brooksville on March 8th at Grace World Outreach. 
   

Carman has sold over 10 million albums, has 15 Platinum and Gold records and holds the record for the largest concert at Texas Stadium in Dallas with over 71,000 people in attendance.  Carman was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2018. 
   

by SUE QUIGLEY
HERNANDO SUN WRITER

Art. It’s an expression of creativity or imagination and spans all aspects of our lives from the visual and literary arts  to music, theatre, dance and film. Art enhances everything we do through avenues like fashion, architecture or books just to name a few. 

“One of the ways we encourage, promote, and support the creative arts in our county is the annual Art in the Park event,” said Hernando County Fine Arts Council Projects Coordinator Jan Knowles. 

Buford Springs is nestled within the Chassahowitzka swamp with no easy access to it. It is possible that this spring is the second largest divable cavern after Wakulla and is just one of many natural springs found at Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) has current plans to reduce the impact on the wetlands and make this spring more accessible via a boardwalk. This spring is a popular dive site and has been for over ten years, but accessibility to the spring was a challenge.

UF / IFAS School of Forest Resources & Conservation along with other conservation organizations and forestry-related agencies held an annual Flatwoods Fire and Nature Festival on Saturday, January 26 in Gainesville, FL.

If you happen to be an Olive Grove member, you have been welcomingly busy these past couples of weeks. Dede Davis, owner of the Olive Grove, located in Brooksville has been growing olives trees as well as offering events, workshops, and entertainment for over five years. “We do all sorts of workshops, arts, and crafts,” Dede said. “It's not always me, and sometimes other people have things to offer too so we try to bring that in as well.”

Olive Grove runs two season workshops, one in the Fall and one in the Spring.

Spring previous workshops included:

“Welcome to Upicktopia,” owner Dan Ebbecke said as he greeted his customers.
Ebbecke has been farming in Hernando County since 1996. He began with just one acre of blueberries which has grown throughout the years into a large 56-acre u-pick farm offering a wide variety of berries for customers to select.
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Strawberry season traditionally starts in late November and with the cultivar varieties and implementing different planting techniques, berries have the opportunity to fruit even into the early summer.

The Boy Scout Preserve is a little over 20 miles south of Timber Pines.  The property was acquired by Pasco County Environmental Lands Acquisition and Management Program in 2010.  Boy Scout Preserve, once a camping ground for Boy Scouts of America, is now a conservation area and preserves eighteen acres of ecologically sensitive habitats. Surrounded by the Lower Coastal Watershed, between Wigwam Creek and Big Bayou this is a prime location for wildlife viewing, birds in particular.

by ROCCO MAGLIO
Hernando Sun Writer

This year marks the 39th Annual Brooksville Raid reenactment. The raid commemorates the  1864 Civil War raid of the Hernando County area by the Union army. The purpose of the Brooksville Raid was to disrupt the supplies that were coming from the region to support the Confederate army. Some of the targets of the raid were local cattle herds, crops, and a salt works.The raid did not burn the major settlements, but the homes of prominent citizens were burned and their crops and cattle were taken.