Our little broody hen, Merica, proved to us that embracing her broodienss was a wise decision. Our broody hen was unflappable in her desire to become a mother to some chicks. Trying to break her broodiness quickly became a tiresome task that was totally unnecessary. There is nothing like watching a broody hen and chicks take off across the farm in search of fresh scratching ground. It is hard to name one scene that exemplifies the simple joys animal husbandry has to offer, but a broody mother hen and chicks has to be up there. A brooding hen has certainly proved to be a welcome addition to Must Bee Kiddin' Farm and now something we fully embrace. Our broody, Merica, proved to be a great mother with fantastic instincts. This is part two of Operation Mother Merica. Here we follow the broody hen and her chicks as they get a bit bigger. Merica shows us how keen her watchful eyes and ears are when it comes to her chicks. She's proven to be a great broody hen that can take a clutch of eggs all the way to chicks and get them off to a great start on Must Bee Kiddin' Farm. Operation Mother Merica: Part 2
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Yes, there comes a time when feeding hay becomes a necessity. Periods of drought are the typical periods most people can easily think of when it comes to feeding hay. But, sometimes the weather swings in such a manner that the economics of feeding hay during the green season makes sense also.
Whether it's seasonal or for holding animals for longer periods of time in certain areas, hay feeding is a fact of the farming life. At this time in our area of Central Florida most hay farmers are looking at the reality of a fourth hay cut this year. This weekend our county is looking down the barrel of a possible tropical storm or hurricane. Ummm, lots of rain either way. These conditions mean that moving our herd into a holding area and feeding some hay while we let the rest of the farm's forage rest and stockpile is a sensible decision. This means we can let the areas we seeded last year mature a bit more before moving the herd across them. It also means we can let the browsed woods soak up all that impending moisture and put a bit more leaf on. Goat farming with heavy browse calls for much different management than grass pasture management. With hay farmers looking at the reality of a fourth hay cut this before Thanksgiving, grass is plentiful and prices are falling. Economics 101; supply and demand Importing plentiful grass from off-site sources while letting our browse rest and stockpile seems to be the right call at the present time. Again, this is all good news for us at Must Bee Kiddin' Farm while the reality of tropical storm activity has hay farmers shaking their heads. Most of the hay barns are bursting at the seams with second cut hay, whole third cut hay lots still sit in the fields with no available cover. Now, all those round hay bales are getting wet with rain. Those rounds were horse hay, but since being kissed by rain are now cow hay. So, what's all this mean? Well, horse hay sells for $60 per roll and cow hay, $35. Yep, our goaties like their fair share of hay. At current prices...what my goaties want, my goaties get. Who needs Vegas when you're a farmer!?! But, Before We BeginThe last kids of the kidding season are on the ground so now it’s time to turn our attention back to land development and planning. We’re now in March and the time to get the annual plantings in the ground is at hand. In order to maximize our efforts and yields we’ve got to move from sketching to cementing out ideas as far as the overall farm layout is concerned. Must Bee Kiddin’ Farm is just over ten acres. Right now only one person works it full-time and a second joins in to help bear the workload on weekends. Ten acres may not sound like a very big spread, but when you consider that it’s undeveloped and densely wooded, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The best way to get past those feelings of overload is simply to just get working. Energy begets energy. Momentum over meditation! With that in mind, it’s important to have some solid action plans fleshed out. At this stage of the game major mistakes are pretty hard to make since we’re still pretty much in sandbox mode. As we’ve stated before, we’ve adopted the basic tenets and guiding principles of Permaculture in the development of Must Bee Kiddin’ Farm. At the center of Permaculture is a design plan that utilizes is zonal development. Permaculture design makes use of a five zone system and this drives the development and layout of the property. The zonal layout scheme Permaculture emphasizes helps with focus and keeps the thinking centered on the big picture. But, before even delving into any Permaculture zone planning we must pull back one frame of focus and look at the big picture. Before laying out any zones it’s best to chart the land concentrating on land features and the major weather patterns at play on the land. This picture illustrates the prevailing weather patterns by season as well as highlights the main topographical features on the Must Bee Kiddin’ Farm. This property picture is from 2013 and is accurate up to the time of purchase. Nothing had been done to the property or adjoining properties until the time of our purchase. The first, main feature of the farm is the fact that it’s pretty much a square. It aligns with the compass as the top property line is north, the right is east, the left west and the bottom property line is south. Thus the track of the sun is from right to left. As I’m writing this, today’s (3/1/2015) temperature was pushing eighty degrees (F). That being said, we just had an overnight low temperature in the low twenties less than four days ago. Subtropical means contending with hard freezes just about every year. This is why this weather and land feature map is important. In not only paying specific attention, but mapping the prevailing seasonal weather patterns and land features, extremes can be mitigated. In other words, if we pay close enough attention to the lay of the land and which way the winds blow we can use this to our advantage when it comes to land development. Microclimate identification and exploitation become critical for extending growing and increasing yields. The hilltop situated in the northeast corner of the property is the highest point on the farm. The section marked saddle is a ridge that runs to the southwest and joins with another hilltop that is situated on the neighbor’s property to the south. The elevation of that saddle is about ten feet with low spots in the southeast and, to a lesser extent northwest and southwest corners of the property. With cold winds blowing in from the northwest, the saddle acts as windbreak. Cold northwest winds are mitigated by that saddle and the southeast corner of the property becomes favorable for more tropical plantings such as bananas. The weather map also becomes important when deciding where forest stands need to be kept, thinned or bolstered. If cold winds sweep in through the northwest corner, that’s a good place to consider a plantation of longleaf timber pines to stand guard against Jack Frost’s devious notions and Old Man Winter’s bitter bite. On the flip side, thinning the southwest and southern lines becomes important. Being in coastal Florida means hurricane season is always a consideration. So there it is, Must Bee Kiddin’ Farm’s weather and basic topographical map. After mapping the basic landscape features and considering the prevailing weather patterns we’re now ready to get into the meat and potatoes land development plan. Developing this weather and land feature map was a pretty simple exercise, but definitely time well spent. In the next installment of the Must Bee Kiddin’ Farm development plan we’ll talk Permaculture zone development. //mr The third in a three part series of articles that will give you some insight as to why we chose this particular piece of property.
When chronicling any endeavor or adventure it’s always best to start at the beginning. This certainly holds true when it comes to establishing a sustainable farm in ten acres of heavily wooded Florida pine scrub. Property hunting certainly calls for some selection criteria. It also demands some soul-searching, vision and a very good sense of humor. The property hunt and how we finally settled on purchasing the land we did is as good a starting point as any. Here’s what made our latest purchase the right place at the right time. Elevation/Contour/Shape This criteria ties a bit back into the access criteria. Elevation in Florida is rare, but is important for all the previous reasons mentioned. Now, couple this with the fact that we wanted to stay coastal (within 20 miles of Gulf) due to sea breeze, and things start to fall apart. Fortunately for us there is a bit of undulation in our county that provides a bit of elevation for safety. While elevation in a potential hurricane is easy for most to understand, contour--not so much. With elevation comes some contour, but not necessarily a lot. Well, to understand contour as a criteria some local climate experience is necessary past the USDA growing zone guide. What if I told you that the area we’re in gets just as much (if not more) rain annually as Seattle, yet xeriscaping landscape design is still advised? Water conservation in our parts is reality. Capturing and controlling water so it seeps rather than runs is essential and contour makes that possible. The last criteria was the desired shape of the plot. We wanted to be able to easily subdivide the property into chunks for cultivation and eventually individual livestock paddocks. Badly misshapen lots often make for wasted space with costly perimeter fencing bills. Ultimately contour and usage will shape the internals of the property, but perimeter boundaries are easier to define and maintain when the overall layout is in a uniform shape. Square or rectangular property is just easier to define. Lastly, a square or rectangular property is easy to separate from the bordering properties (in our case, other heavily wooded and unmaintained lots) with fire lines and roads. In the pine scrub of Florida wildfires start quickly and run rampant through decades of dry branches and matted pine needles on the forest floor.//mr The second in a three part series of articles that will give you some insight as to why we chose this particular piece of property. When chronicling any endeavor or adventure it’s always best to start at the beginning. This certainly holds true when it comes to establishing a sustainable farm in ten acres of heavily wooded Florida pine scrub. Property hunting certainly calls for some selection criteria. It also demands some soul-searching, vision and a very good sense of humor. The property hunt and how we finally settled on purchasing the land we did is as good a starting point as any. Here’s what made our latest purchase the right place at the right time. Wooded/Raw The second major criteria we had for any potential property purchase was that we wanted something raw with plenty of trees. You know, a relatively untouched and wooded lot. Why? Well, several reasons, but primarily due to climate concerns. We are in a subtropical environment (USDA growing zone 9B) and the sun is very intense. The premium that shade offers is evident when driving past some of the commercial nursery growing operations. Growers utilizing acres of irrigation under shade cloth in order to protect young plants isn’t unusual. The natural shade wooded acreage affords calls for no major infrastructure investments other than some strategic trimming and clearing.
For us, selective cutting and clearing was something we were willing to invest time in doing. Creating “edge effect” through removal rather than planting and waiting just seemed like a better option. Gotta be thinking Michelangelo’s David here. No way is there room for anything other than a full piece of marble. No pre-shaped slab is going to do (hold that thought). On a practical note, wooded lots in our area are often undervalued and overlooked. Many potential buyers looking for acreage are horse-loving retirees relocating to a hobby farm with pasture. The last thing many of them can do is clear land themselves or waste precious time waiting for it to be cleared. Also, land clearing is expensive and a good way for capable people to save a bit of coin when starting out. So, concentrating on wooded acreage took some of the property competition (the overpaying horse crowd) out of the equation. Now, back to Michelangelo. Raw, vacant land was just about the only non-negotiable criteria. Why? Because we wanted to put ourselves in the best position to work WITH the land. We want to make sure we’re in a position to become the best stewards of our plot possible. Rarely is there a perfect piece of property, so why complicate things even further by having to accept a previous owner’s incongruous vision? Again, something that was just a non-negotiable in our view. So, with an untouched wooded/raw lot, the prices in our geography is more realistic and much less open to any bidding competition. With our fully wooded lot in the raw we’re also able to take our time or open things up full-throttle as we see fit. No wasted time repairing old buildings or broken systems. In essence, our full-sized marble slab is ready and waiting to be chiseled and shaped into our masterpiece.//mr The first in a three part series of articles that will give you some insight as to why we chose this particular piece of property.
When chronicling any endeavor or adventure it’s always best to start at the beginning. This certainly holds true when it comes to establishing a sustainable farm in ten acres of heavily wooded Florida pine scrub. Property hunting certainly calls for some selection criteria. It also demands some soul-searching, vision and a very good sense of humor. The property hunt and how we finally settled on purchasing the land we did is as good a starting point as any. Here’s what made our latest purchase the right place at the right time. Access Access is a major concern for anyone seriously hunting for a piece of property to farm or homestead. On our criteria list it was a primary concern. If you’re going to dedicate yourself to developing a homestead or farm on a scratch piece of land, being able to get to it as easily as possible is critical. Anyone that has ever shopped for any real estate knows the saying “location, location, location”; well, when it came to finding the site to build our vision the saying morphed to “access, access, access”. Access is such a determining factor that it can not only determine the property’s success or failure, but can alter the final geography of the purchase. After all, what good is that majestic mountain overlook or secluded bend on that river if your first purchase has to be new vehicles and timing your travel according to the latest weather report? That example may sound extreme, but it’s closer to reality than most people care to think. In this day and age of suburban sprawl, deed restricted communities and farmland scarcity, finding accessible land that’s affordable can be difficult. Also, when considering a potential property’s access there’s an amount of focus and leveling with yourself that has to occur. Yeah, that secluded cabin dream (delusion) may be really beautiful in the mind’s eye, but can you escape it in the face of a wildfire or hurricane? Better yet, can your invited guests easily and comfortably find you? Tropical storms that blossom into hurricanes with tidal surges are a reality in our subtropical area. Happy to say that our property actually has some elevation (rare in coastal Florida) and is located outside the tidal surge evacuation zones. That’s a huge factor when you consider livestock and other agricultural assets that cannot be moved easily for evacuation. Another critical access issue worth major consideration was that many lesser residential roads throughout the county are maintained by the individual property owners along those roads. Paved roads that lead past mailboxes at the end of secluded drives aren’t a reality for many county residents in the area. Some locals will tell you, “If you want that, go find yourself a deed restricted community”. Potholes and washouts are a reality and a major concern for many properties we visited. We visited properties that had swaths of spare carpet laying alongside the road not as trash, but as a community service for those unfortunate enough to get bogged down in sugar sand stretches. Other roads were so rutted that imagining pulling a trailer full of kids (baby goats) to auction or beehives destined for orange groves offered some much needed comic relief from the property hunt. The conversation one-liner, “Look at it this way, it’s affordable...and nobody will ever visit” went from punchline to property classification after the first week of serious searching. Purchasing new vehicles and repairing roads before even thinking about setting the first fence post started to hit home with us. Marketing livestock, selling farm-fresh products, going to town for supplies and hosting customers for on-site farm sales was more than just a consideration--it’s the business plan! It didn’t take long to realize basic property access does come with a price tag and quickly became a critical selection criteria once framed within our ultimate vision. With a paved county road and steady traffic within sight from the property’s road frontage, local foods such as pastured pork, farm-fresh eggs and raw honey straight from the farmer can easily become a reality for our county’s residents.//mr It's mid-July, in Florida, and it's hot. I must preface this though with a statement that Florida is not the hottest place we have ever dealt. We lived for many years in Arkansas, where triple digit temperatures, straight-up, no heat index were normal. Don't even get me started on the heat index... Florida is a different kind of heat - more along the lines of a jungle heat. If you wander into the shade, it's instantly cooler. If you sit down and put a cold water soaked bandana on your neck, it's instantly cooler. If you eat your weight in watermelon, you are instantly brought back to a cooler internal temperature.
You have to be careful, and you have to pace yourself. You have to know your limitations, and you have to know what you can and cannot do. You have to rest when you feel fatigue setting in and you need to stay hydrated. We worked for about 6 hours today with rest breaks totaling around 45 minutes. We sat in the shade, we drank Gatorade and ate watermelon. We brought enough water to last us twice as long as we were out there. We achieved our goal for today (clearing the West line) and decided to eat our sandwiches and take a little break before packing everything out. As I was inhaling the last bit of sandwich, I found myself staring off into the landscape. You know, that far off stare where your mind is completely empty and void of all thoughts. I finally heard a voice, "stay with me sunshine". Ooops! It was time to go home. A bit more water, a nice change of clothes, and a sweaty walk back to the car put an end to me. It was a pit stop at the ABC store, then straight home to the pool to cool off - gotta get back out there in the morning!! //tr There is something special about using hand tools. Sure it would be easier and quicker to rent the equipment or hire the workers to clear the land, but what fun would that be? In just one day using only hand tools we were able to clear away a path about 4 foot wide and 200 feet long. We are both extremely pleased with that.
It is an exercise not only in clearing the fence row, but in access. The property is thick with scrubby underbrush which makes maneuvering through it very difficult. The exercise in clearing the land is also one that will enable us to learn about our land. We will learn where the live oak stands are, where the trees we need to remove are, and where the bumps and depressions are. We can decide where we want to put meadows, gardens, and our home site. Yesterday we hacked and sawed and machete'd our way along the North boundary. Today will be much of the same. It's not easy, but strangely satisfying. The quote by Robert Frost: "The only way out is through" kept creeping into my mind to keep up the momentum. I love the feeling of accomplishment I am already feeling from just a mere 200 feet of open space. Only 400 feet to the pin! Did you hear the one about the couple who walked into a real estate office and put a cash offer in on 10 acres?
No joke there! That was us – May 22, 2014. We’ve been looking for the perfect piece of property for a couple of years now, and while we’ve found it a couple of times the factors regarding those had just never fallen totally into place. We came really close once earlier this year. So close in fact, the offer that was accepted was put in mere hours before we called to put ours in. If you believe in fate, then that wasn’t meant to be. Then The One popped up! To the normal person, it would appear to be a nightmare, but we are far from being normal people. We like distressed, difficult situations. We like chaos and occasionally uncertainty. We like to create a vision in our minds and bring that vision to reality through blood, sweat and tears. We love to challenge ourselves. We study, we dream, we create. We are the same couple who bought a distressed 1920’s bungalow that was crawling with drug addicts, roaches and filled with dirty diapers. Yeah, we’re that couple! We are the same couple that wanted to add a small koi pond in our backyard. The plans were never put on paper. That evolved into a more than 3000 gallon lake in our small, urban backyard of the above said distressed, now fully renovated bungalow. I’ve walked on the property only once. It was interesting in the fact that there is so much undergrowth that the sunlight has probably not sparkled on parts of the space for years. In other places a wildflower stands tall and proud in a chink of light that’s ripped and clawed its way through an opening of the canopy made possible by a falling pinecone, giving life and allowing growth. Reindeer moss covers the floor beneath the pines and oaks, making me wonder if an army of fairies take refuge through the night to rest after a long day of roaming the woodlands with the other creatures residing there. It was cool and moist among the live oaks and hot and dry on one edge. The bugs flitted about and the birds sang out to one another. Normal sounds are dulled as we walk further and further back along the property. I look out over places where I can see through the dense foliage and try to imagine what the future years will bring as we sculpt and chop and create. I cannot wait to walk this same fence line in a few years time listening to the dulled sounds again, but this time I will hear the roosters call back and forth with the goats and ducks. I’ll be able to see a potting shed peeking out in all its rustic grandeur, proud of the tiny seeds it protects before they are sowed into the meadows that will dot the landscape in between stands of live oaks. Imagination is going to have to sustain me, at least for a few more days while we wait with irritable impatience for closing day to arrive. There is always one more hurdle, one more piece of paper and one more hoop to jump through before we jump with both feet in and walk away into dense wood. Machete’s in hand, of course! //tr |
About UsIn 2014 a couple of 40-somethings decided to make a change. The purchase of 10 raw, pine scrub acres along Florida's Nature Coast started it all. This is that story. Archives
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