Movin' to the 'Glades!

I feel so excited to now be a member of this site! My husband and I live in Fort Lauderdale, FL with the idea of retiring to the west coast (of FL), growing exotic fruits. For years we have been making seedlings for our future and then this past 6 months (6/04) we found our dream property! We don't have alot of $ so this was a dream come true! We found a 38 acre abandoned junk yard in the Everglades for sale. Keep in mind that the government usually buys up all available property or the developers get it for future use. We were soooooooo lucky! The front 15 acres is scarey but we will clean it up.
We thought we could jump in there and start planting out future....WRONG! There is the rainy season and most of the property stays wet- not good for fruit. So we decided to also have Tilapia ponds and use the excess dirt for elevating groves and the gorgeous rocks to sell to offset costs. This is all great but we used all our money to buy the property. We will be doing one thing at a time.
To give you background info- I am a cancer survivor and am only 18 months past treatment. I had breast cancer and after treatment, I flunked my first mammogram which of course made me crazy. I am on strong drugs that make me sick but I'll tell ya- I love being alive and my last test shows that my new spots are shrinking! Me and my hubby's priorities have changed. We just want to live off the land in peace. We no longer care about material things. We want to enjoy our lives and Fort Lauderdale is a snake pit. We can't wait to move to the "farm"! It would be rustic living, to say the least! Having 5 dogs, we will never be able to sell our townhouse until we move to the farm. I am a web designer (http://www.cyberageous.com) so I can work anywhere that there is a phone line. As for the hubby, he will have to commute the 80 miles or stay here with family. He can stay at our home while he fixes our home up for selling.

We get out to the farm (on weekends) and were immediately humbled by the water and coral rock. We aren't sure where to go from here. We are planting a few test trees but other than that we are trying to do reseach. So far our best bet is to build Tilapia ponds and use the fill for raising the orchards. Trenches for irrigation will help also. Being that we spent every thing we have on obtaining the property, it will be a slow progress.
It's sad- we have at least 50 mango seedlings, 50 assorted guavas, 25 carambola, 25 avocado (including Hass& SlimCado), at least 25 Carambola, and several sea almond...........Chinese Grapefruit and others, I have one keylime tree (true seed) and am just planting the seeds.Oops and Cherimoya. Being in a tropical environment, we can pretty much grow any "true seed" tropical. We also have several varieties of banana. Since we aquired the property, we have had one hurricane after another but if cancer can't beat me down, mother nature can't either.
I welcome any advice and I will also try to share what I have with fellow hurricane victims and then the enthusiasts of anything I have!
I am big on karma and believe that the more I can share the more will be shared with me!!!

cyberageous
Welcome from Pakistan.

i have no idea about the stuff you want to grow but i wish you good luck. you sure know what you want and thats half the battle. welcome to daves garden from upstate new york

Welcome from Iowa. Sounds to me like you know exactly what you want out of life and I commend you on that and for being a cancer survivor. Can't wait to see pictures of your place and I wish you lots of luck with all those seedlings. I love tropicals, but in Iowa we have to drag them in and drag them back out. For some reason, they don't deal well with snow and ice and I'm getting so I don't either. Hope you are enjoying Daves Garden and I'm sure our paths will cross on this site from time to time. Again welcome.

Hi cyberageous, welcome from the high desert country of downstate Utah. Couldn't be further from your gardening problems but I'll bet we'll find something to talk about here at Dave's. If nothing else, check out the Weather Forum hurricane thread on Jeanne.

I'm curious, were you unaware of the underlying wetness problem when you got the land? Or is it just that it won't quit raining all over Florida this year? ~Blooms

Hello and welcome,

Funny how priorities can change in the blink of an eye. So glad you found your little piece of heaven in Florida. Restoration can be a very enlightening and a very frustrating process. So glad you are in for the duration and taking it piecemeal. That's really the best way to go as you don't get overwhelmed. I am looking forward to seeing many photos from you of your property and what you will be doing to it.

A long time ago someone sent this to me and I saved it these past years for no special reason other than some day I hoped I'd get a chance to share it somewhere. I'd like to post it for you. May all of us here at DG run through a lot of rain together. I have no idea who the author is as it came in an e-mail-

Rain

This is an account of an incident recorded by a young man who works for CenturyTel in Monroe, Louisiana, while shopping at Walmart one day. She must have been six years old, this beautiful, brown-haired, freckle-faced image of innocence. Her Mom looked like someone from the Walton's or a moment captured by Norman Rockwell. Not that she was old fashioned. Her brown hair was ear length with enough curl to appear natural. She had on a pair of tan shorts and a light blue knit shirt. Her sneakers were white with a blue trim. She looked like a Mom. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the tops of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. Drains in the nearby parking lot were filled to capacity, and some were blocked so that huge puddles laked around parked cars. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Walmart. We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I get lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child come pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day. Her voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in. Mom, let's run through the rain," she said.

"What?" Mom asked. "Let's run through the rain!" she repeated.

"No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied.

This young child waited about another minute and repeated her statement.

"Mom, let's run through the rain."

"We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said.

"No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her mom's arm.

"This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?"

"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, He can get us through anything!'"

The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes. Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.

Now, some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

"Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain.

If God let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said. Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes ... through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads on the way to the car, perhaps inspired by their faith and trust.

I want to believe that somewhere down the road in life, Mom will find herself reflecting back on moments they spent together, captured like pictures in the scrapbook of her cherished memories. Maybe when she watches proudly as her daughter graduates or as her husband walks their daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. She will laugh again. Her heart will beat a little faster. Her smile will tell the world they love each other.

But only two people will share that precious moment when they ran through the rain believing that God would get them through. And yes, I did. I ran too. I got wet. I needed washing.

I hope you all still have time to run through the rain.

Lauren, all right - now I've got tears in my eyes, thank you.

I am overwhhelmed at the warm hospitality that I am getting from you folks! I hope you don't mind a general letter. I am a little burnt out with this hurricane stuff we are having here in Florida and this is a time that I wish my seedlings would sprout legs and walk themselves back out to the garden after being brought in the house for the third time in 4 weeks. This is the Fort Lauderdale saga- lots of mess! We went out to the farm (formally known to others as the junkyard ) to clean up there but there wasn't any new damage.
Someone asked if I knew the land was wet when we bought it. Yep! Sure did! But we have a plan- We hope to dig Tilapia ponds and use the dirt for fill to raise the orchard beds. A few ponds just for the beauty of it all would be nice. Also, we will dig trenches between the tree rows and use the fill there also to raise the beds and provide runoff. There are so really beautiful gold landscaping rocks too that we hope will be plentiful when digging so we can sell them to offset our cost. Right now we are living from paychecck to paycheck. I am a freelance web designer (cyberageous.com) so I have been slacking a bit with work. I have had so much to do to prepare for the hurricanes. Then of course, I am soooo excited about our new property that I spend way too much time researching tropical fruits on the net (for true seeds) and propagating them and of course the more I grow the more I have to take care of. We live in a townhouse with a double-end lot but we are totally overgrown here! I am afraid to take too much out to the farm yet because I'm not there everyday to tend to them. The alligators are numerous and we aren't fenced. I am afraid to stay there by myself because my dogs love the water (& mud) and could get in trouble easily if I didn't watch them evey second! I would never get any work done.
We plan to get a huge crusher truck out there hopefully by December, sell the scrap metal, Then go full speed ahead for planting and fencing- as $ permits. Right now, everything we want to plant, has scrap metal near it and would be squished by the crusher. The crusher
s are all busy for the next few months with the hurricane debri. It will give us more time to pull the cars out of the swamps. There's campers, boats, trucks, a crane, tractors,trailers, motor homes all ready to crush! I mean bewildering amounts, not to mention tires--1000's of tires! A friend offered a suggestion for the tires. Build a long high hill with them, cover them in dirt and seed. Use it as a gun and archery range! We are only into out 3rd month there. We also hope to line the driveway with sea almond trees and start getting animals to come back, other than turkey voltures- which really mind their own business and keep the snake population down.
I took this picture yesterday of our future "farm mobile", lovingly named Jethro. We were told it's a 1954 6 wheel drive army truck. It runs now too!
The trick out there is anything you drive into the woods and swamps must have an electric wench and a boat anchor so you can pull yourself out of the mud. Even the ATV's have them. We learned the hard way!
So thanks again everybody for all of your support and interest! I will keep you up on our progress.

Welcome, cyberageous!

I have actually been in and through Immokalee many times as a youngster growing up in south FL. You have a wonderful adventure ahead of you.

Welcome from southern missouri.... I know you will love it here at Daves. OMG, Did you say gators???

You may want to take a second look at the tractors and stuff you plan to crush... Then look at ebay... You might be surprised what old tractors will bring on ebay. You may be able to raise extra funds selling some of that old stuff ... Just a thought... I wish you great success with your farm. I am sure we will meet again somewhere at DG's.

Really? GATORS???

Welcome from Arizona...although I am in Tenn, after attending the KY Round Up....decided to not go to FL due to the storms. I love the Coral Springs web site you did. Jo

The alligators scare me to death. One was by the mailbox and I threw rocks at it to move and it was even attacking the rocks! They are very aggressive and don't seem to be scared of anything.
Thanks for the tip about Ebay- that's a good idea..not that I know what anything is for tractor parts. I'll give it a try tho!
Also,
Thanks for the website compliment. I plan to do one for myself to cover my new life and what it's like out there. It really is beautiful. I have so many sites to do for myself! I also want an exotic fruit recipe site to promote our future orchards. Maybe I can have an online mail order business. I make a mean pot of gator gumbo!

Cyber,

I do not blame you for worrying about the gators. I would not like living with them! Is there such a thing as gator proof fencing? Can ya fence them OUT of your place?

I know someone who is into tractors. He says that someone might want them and pay you to take the whole lot off your hands. It might be worth checking into. If you want to send me pics or post them here, I will have him look at them and let you know what he says. He would know if they can be salvaged or used for parts. You can also call an antique tractor dealer and have him come look at them. Then you could decide if you would get more for them as scrap (crushing) or by selling them whole. Actually, scrap prices are high right now. Just be careful to CYA (cover your assets)!

Starr

That's alot of help, Starr. Next weekend I will go there and take pictures of what I can get to. The front end loader is in thick brush- I don't think I can get any pics of that yet. This is all new to me and I really appreciate your help!

Cyber,

Absolutely no problem at all. If I can help in anyway, let me know...

Blessings,

Starr

Cyber, sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you. But also sounds like it all will be worth it in the end!
Welcome from Tucson AZ Binky :)))))

big okie welome hope to se you posting and hope you love it here i do
tazzy =patty

I am very excited to be here- What a bunch of great folks!!!!