All posts by QueSehraFarm

another greenhouse roof

Wednesday, February 19th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

Cleo does her morning yoga
Cleo does her morning yoga

Three chickens had died in the “POW” coop, one at a time, over several days. They had food and water, the other chickens seemed healthy – as had the ones that died, up until they turned up dead.

We had been thinking maybe there was some kind of toxic weed that certain hens had ingested when we moved the coop, but Meredith had a different theory – a venomous snake, sleeping in the warmth of the nesting boxes. It made sense of many aspects of the mystery, so we armed ourselves with snake killing implements, donned high boots, and headed down to the coop to examine the hay of the nesting boxes.

 

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However, when we cleared out the hay, ready to kill the baby rattlesnake or whatever other slithering culprit we might uncover, there was nothing there.  I still think the poisonous snake theory is a winner though – and while we didn’t find a snake, it’s been warmer at night since then, and no more chickens have died, so perhaps the snake has moved on …

For the second time on our honeymoon, we were tapped to re-plastic a greenhouse roof. Last time had been at Chastain Farms in Alabama, where we’d added a second layer of 5mil plastic over the top of the existing, holey layer of plastic.

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This greenhouse again had a layer of shredded plastic, but this time we would be ripping that out and replacing it with sturdy sheets of corrugated clear PVC.

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We added some 2×4 bracing to screw the panels on the northern side of the greenhouse and got it all up pretty quickly, but ran into complications on the southern half. We needed to add two sections of 8 foot crossbeams, and we’d exhausted the meager scrap lumber pile. Worse, the 8 foot long panels were too short to cover from peak to low end – even without the drip eave we wanted to include, and without the overhang we’d planned on including on the peak, over the top lip of the northern slope.

Fortunately, there was some steel roofing material left over from the outdoor kitchen they’d recently built. So we cut it down to the right length, and folded it into a peak to go over the top of the greenhouse, providing the extra length we needed to roof the southern slope as well as a flap to cover the top lip of the northern slope.

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Halfway through the project, the landowner (Liz rented her corner of the land from an orange grove farmer) drove up in his tractor to ask if we wanted the wild pig he’d just shot. He brought it over minutes later and left it in the shade of a live oak, to await Liz’s return from her morning errands.

 

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It was a HOT day, and we had no shade to work in, so we were getting good and toasted working on the roof. The dogs hid out inside the greenhouse in the shade while we sweated and swore through the second half of the project.

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Finally, we were done – everything lined up, supported, secured, and looking awesome. We picked up the tools and posed for a victory photo with the finished project.

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The other WWOOFers were still working in the garden when we finished, but we’d put in our hours for the day and were sun-roasted, sweaty, and on the verge of getting cranky.

So we threw together our bags, threw the dogs in the van, and rolled out to go back to our beach on the Saint John river, driving well over the speed limit down the open road, westbound through the wildlife refuge, watching the sun and the temps heading downward.

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We made it just in time to enjoy a solid hour of hot sunshine and swimming in the river – floating along with the languid current, awed by the strange beauty of swaying Spanish moss and clusters of cypress knees.

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We hit the Frosty King again on the way back, and got back in time to help make dinner for the crew, along with the GIANT SPIDER in the sink.

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when life gives you oranges

Tuesday, February 18th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

washing salad mix
washing salad mix

 

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fiercely pulling rutabaga
fiercely pulling rutabaga

 

dumping veggie-rinse water into the field drain
Liz & Kristin dumping veggie-rinse water into the field drain

preparing mashed rutabagas for dinner
preparing mashed rutabagas for dinner

 

test batch of fresh orange marmalade
starting a test batch of fresh orange marmalade

sunset from the hammocks
sunset from the hammocks

new WWOOFer Michelle the French-Canadian
laughing with the new WWOOFer Michelle, the French-Canadian
(while Dawn applies cream to the bad case of poison sumac that plagued her forearms)

northbound riverflow

Monday, February 17th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

Another day off – another day of exploration in nearby nature! We decided that the ocean shore nearby was too full of people, fees, rules, and such baloney. So we decided to head west, inland, away from the coast. We both looked at Google Maps separately, and we both picked the exact same spot without knowing it – a little beach on the Saint John River, within a patch of wilderness named the Hickory Bluff Preserve.

We took a meandering drive toward it, pausing to probe down several dead end roads and trails more fit for an ATV than a car.

finally, a wild pig sighting - a momma pig leading a train of 4 or 5 piglets across the road, duckling-style
finally, a wild pig sighting – a momma pig leading a train of 4 or 5 piglets across the road, duckling-style

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Widget watching
Widget, watching

 

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We arrived to find an empty parking lot and a couple of trailheads – we took the blue trail, toward the river – going first through a dry, sandy palmetto wilderness, and then, as the trail dropped down slightly into the river valley, a gorgeous cypress and live oak forest, with softly swaying curtains of Spanish moss bringing a fantastic atmosphere.

We were both already in love with the place by the time we got to the river, and found a perfect, private beach on the shore of the wide, undeveloped stretch of river – which weirdly flowed from the South to the North, unlike every river I’ve known.

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Occasionally, the quiet birdsongs and wind through the trees were interrupted by a passing speedboat – but even this was perfect; each boat made a wake that came splashing to the shore – and Cleo is obsessed with chasing such waves. The sandy shore was ideal for her to dash along the water’s edge, chomping and stomping at the cresting waves (compared to the shores of Lake Superior, for example, where on many shores sharp rocks cut up her pads).

 

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Cleo quickly made the connection, and when the water was still, she would stand and look imploringly up and down stream, waiting for another boat to appear and bring the waves for her.

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a cypress knee taller than Gabe
a cypress knee taller than Gabe

 

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When the sun went down, we reluctantly left our little paradise, and headed back to civilization.

The drive-through at Frosty King was a perfect way to end the day out  with delicious homemade ice cream in a waffle cone.

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Kristin, amazed by the power and glory of her Sea Salty & Sweet / Dark Chocolate Orange ice cream
Kristin, amazed by the power and glory of her Sea Salty & Sweet / Dark Chocolate Orange ice cream

armadillo hunt

Sunday, February 16th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

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Sunday and Monday are days of rest on the GFO farm, so we decided to do some exploring, after getting the morning chicken-chores done – and finding a mysteriously-dead hen in the nesting box at the “POW Camp” coop.

Once we got off the farm, we started our day at our favorite local coffee shop – the surf themed Chuckyta’s in New Smyrna Beach, where we got caffeinated and studied some aerial imagery up of the nearby wildlife refuge, finding some interesting-looking backwoods roads to nowhere, where we’d be likely to find neat things and be able to let the dogs run off leash without any other pesky humans around.

drawbridge blocking our exit from New Smyrna Beach
drawbridge blocking our exit from New Smyrna Beach

When we got into the refuge, we quickly discovered that almost every trail and sideroad were blocked, with signs saying the Area was Closed. After much probing we discovered a promising looking, gated sideroad that lacked such signage – only saying that motorized traffic was prohibited. So we parked on the side of the road and hiked in with the lunches we’d packed, finding a nice sandy spot in the woods to sit down and eat.

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Once we were filled up with sandwiches, leftover food from the Valentines day event, and fresh tangerines, we hiked deep past another of the Area Closed signs, finding ourselves in an interesting post-wasteland environment – scrubby palmettos and local plants, sandy areas everywhere, studded with strange assortments of rusty metal, beaten up plastic, and broken glass.

Given that we were on the “Space Coast,” near the Kennedy Space center and Cape Canaveral (we could hear weird explosions occasionally) we entertained the theory that we were in a NASA landfill, where old shuttles and such had been dozer-crushed to pieces and buried in the off-limit sands.

obviously a piece of the Challenger
obviously a piece of the Challenger

We collected fragments to bring home and decorate with for a bit, but soon got quite distracted by the force that had been bringing all these bits of buried debris to the surface for us to find – the army of armadillos that were all around us, feasting on the ants that lived everywhere beneath the sands.

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None of the four of us had ever been around armadillos before, and we didn’t know what to expect when we came upon the first one.

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After getting close and not getting an aggressive response, Widget threw caution to the wind, and gave chase.

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The armadillo didn’t seem too concerned, and mosied over to safety in the palmettos.

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armadillo burrow with a palm frond dragged partway in
armadillo burrow with a palm frond dragged partway in
dogs checking out the burrow
dogs checking out the burrow

 

Widget running through the woods like a crazything, hunting armadillos
Widget running through the woods like a crazything, hunting armadillos

P1090503dogs finding another armadillo on the trail

dogs finding another armadillo on the trail
wild oranges!
wild oranges
look closely and you can see it squirting all over Gabe's shirt
look closely and you can see it squirting all over Gabe’s shirt
Widget in 'time out' after refusing to listen in her armadillo-hunting frenzy
Widget in ‘time out’ after refusing to listen in her armadillo-hunting frenzy

 

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When the sun started setting down to the treeline, we headed back to the car, finding a radar missile defense station down a nearby Area Closed spur.

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We got back to the farm and went to the chicken coop, intending to bury the dead chicken as Liz had asked us to do via text. When we arrived, the chicken in the roosting box was already buried … but a different chicken was dead on the ground nearby, again without any obvious signs of trauma, and with no sign of predatory invasion.

We texted Liz the news, and buried the new mysteriously-dead chicken.

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post-party

Saturday, February 15th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

Today we cleaned up the remnants of the party event, did tons of dishes from it, refilled the giant water tank with a pump, and hung around the farm.

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It was Alex and John’s last day, so we bid them adieu, leaving the newly-named BugNaRug trailer to Dawn and Erykah.

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Kristin & Gary (Liz's man) refilling the water tank
Kristin & Gary (Liz’s man) refilling the water tank
Dawn & Erykah move a marble slab
Dawn & Erykah move a marble slab

 

Kristin, Widget, & Cleo chillin'
Kristin, Widget, & Cleo chillin’