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Published: January 31st 2010
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Hello hello from Florida, again. I’m in Pinetta, Florida at Serenity Acres Farm. I arrived here on the 18th of January, but before that, I spent about three weeks in RI, Boston and Captiva, FL. It was so nice to be back in Florida after spending two weeks in the freezing, icy, snowy cold of New England, although seeing family and friends was well worth it. My trip to Captiva (an island off the west coast of FL) was awesome, as I got to spend five days with Theo, Tiina, Hank, Karin and John on the beach. Theo and I drove in from Miami via Alligator Alley where the alligators can easily be seen lounging in the swamp on either side of the highway- no big deal. We stayed with Tiina and Hank at their rental house right on the water where we witnessed dolphins swimming and tons of beautiful birds all over the island. Unfortunately, we were there for the end of the cold-snap in Florida that had been going on for the past two weeks, but we didn’t let a little cold stop us. Theo and I swam in the 50 degree water almost every day, which, while
freezing, was really refreshing, ha! Between bike rides around the island, lots of cooking and eating, card playing and napping, it was an excellent stop to make before heading to the farm.
The farm is about 35 minutes south of Valdosta, Georgia and between Tallahassee and Jacksonville, otherwise known as the middle of nowhere. Between the highway and this farm there are more farms and not much else. Side roads are not paved and stores, restaurants and other non-residential establishments do not exist within about thirty minutes of here. The farm itself consists of the main house, cabin, barn/garage, stables, trailer, tack room and animal shelters grouped together at the head of the property, overlooking the additional acres of pasture land. Wayne and Julia own the farm and live here full time, while opening up their home and property to up to five wwoofers who live in the barn loft or the trailer. The farm is transitioning to organic, with Wayne and Julia’s dream of converting it to a full organic goat dairy some day. On the property there are fifty free range chickens, fourteen goats, one goose, three horses, three cats and five dogs. Twelve of the fourteen
goats are female, with five (or possibly six) of the ladies pregnant and due between March and April. There are plans to have more geese this spring, with hopes of finding a White Chinese Gander for the lady goose who is here now.
My average day is as follows: I wake up at 6:00am (BEFORE the sun rises!), put on my work clothes, rubber boots and head lamp and head out to do chores. I meet Eric at the stables where we call in the horses, feed them their grain and hay, then load up the cart with feed and hay for the other animals. Once we have fed the goats and chickens, we refill their waters and begin the endless task of scraping up goat poop! Their poop is everywhere, all the time - and endless supply for my scooping misery! By the time morning chores are done the sun has finally come up and we can remove our head lamps and head into the house for breakfast around 8:00am. Breakfast and lunch are usually a fend-for-yourself meal, but sometimes we do group breakfast of fresh eggs or waffles. Yesterday, after almost two weeks of collecting, we had
goose eggs for breakfast! “Goose”, as we call the goose, of course- lays one egg every other day, so by Saturday we finally had six eggs to fry up over-easy. The eggs are twice the size of chicken eggs, have a super hard shell and have a richer, creamier taste than chicken eggs.
Between morning and evening chores (which start at 5:00pm and consist of the same tasks as the morning), the day is free. I take walks with the dogs - Bella, Radar, Jake, Big John and Jackie - around the property, pet the horses, read and most importantly, nap! There are several projects going on here, so there is always the option of working when I’m not napping or putzing around. This week we are finishing up a week long effort to convert the loft in the barn into a wwoofer living space. It went from an unfriendly, ply-wood space to a beautiful, homey crash pad! Last week I learned how to wire electric outlets, stain wood and power-sand. We painted the floors, walls and railings with a beautiful green/gray color scheme, built a queen-sized bunk bed and finally set up the room to look like a home.
Soon the loft will be equipped with internet, TV, a couch, table and other home-like amenities. Currently, Eric and Pete, the two guy wwoofers, are staying in the loft while Abby and I are staying in the trailer.
Other than working on the loft, we can work on setting up the fencing in the fields, which are now split into six different pastures for the goats. Last week Eric and I got stuck with the two dirtiest jobs on the farm! We spent several hours cleaning out both chicken coops. That involves shoveling out all the hay and poop, then scraping the crud that builds up out of the individual chicken boxes and refilling it all with fresh filling and hay. The next day we did the same thing for the two goat pens! It’s pretty smelly but they look so nice now that we are finished that we spent plenty of time bragging about our job well done, haha!
This gives you a brief idea of what’s going on here, but a lot more has happened in the past two weeks. I am learning a lot about animal care, from remedies for upset goat tummies (baking soda),
to how to prevent chickens from eating their own eggs (more protein). I’m hoping to learn to ride horses while I’m here, with lessons from Julia and their friends Renee and Tommy who live down the road. The intention is to stay here until mid-March, as the first baby goats are due around then and I’d hate to miss out on babies. Until then, we’ll be working on the daily chores, putting up fencing, sprucing up the loft, milking goats, making cheese and bread, cooking and of course, scooping animal poop. xoxox
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Margaret
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Thanks for the update!
This actually sounds like a nice life, enjoy the warm weather! I love seeing all the pictures.