WE HAVE LAND!!!!!!!

(click on any pic to enlarge)
On August 15, 2012, God blessed us with the finalization of the purchase of 5 acres of raw Florida palmetto prairieland.  This has been a much-anticipated, prayed-for, worked-for, and hoped-for occasion!!!!  We thank God for directing us, helping us through the waiting times and the interminable dead-ends along the way.  In His hands are our dreams in one big bundle, so many of which are beautifully able to take wings by arriving at this stage!  We are joyful!!!  Please share in our joy!!

We stop and give Him thanks for His guidance, which has been very specific, and has been worth the wait.  We thank Him for this day of New Things, and offer the special prayer traditionally said when something new is being witnessed for the first time...

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu, Melech ha Olam, shehekianu, v’kiamanu, v’higianu l’zman hazeh.
Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sustained us, protected us and brought us safely to this moment.

We pray that no matter what happens from this point forward, that God will help us use this land for good, to bless others, and bring honor to His Name.  We want others to experience the peace and beauty of His natural world.  We want to see what new doors will open as we continue to learn and interact with nature, to continue in a simpler lifestyle, to live according to the Torah and to return to the forgotten paths.  I especially want to continue to learn the healing qualities of our native plants and rediscover available forgotten foods.

To pray, play, breathe clean air, and include others!

These pictures were taken in June.  This raw land will be developed minimally and responsibly, and enjoyed!  I hope to catalog in photographs and writings the different plant species here and to research their uses and needs.  There is little to no grassland on the property, so this will determine some of the ways we choose to use the land ultimately.  It will be altered, but not cleared in totality.  We want to maintain the regional habitat and work within its characteristics, not against them.

We are so happy that the land is high and dry.  It's hard to get a true perspective of distance and such in these photos.  The palmetto scrub comes to about waist or chest high.  There are a few mature pines, and many young ones here and there.  And lots and lots of open sky.  It's quiet enough to hear insects buzz, birds sing, frogs sing a chorus.  I can only imagine what the night sky is like (can't wait to find out!)

 

In the pockets where there are not tightly-bunched palmettos, there is such diversity of wild plants, it's going to keep me busy learning as many as I can!  Wildflowers are tucked everywhere, and there are plenty of signs of wild turkey, wild boars, deer, rabbits, and other abundant wildlife.

And, importantly to us, there is available electric already on the road!!!  This will help us transition ultimately from where we are to this more remote area more smoothly and is a nice option even though we hope to be self-sufficient enough some day to be able to be off grid if we want to or have to.  It's nice to have choices!

Another very important thing to us was to have direct access to the property.  That sounds simplistic, but through our past experiences (other posts, not this one) we learned not to take that for granted in Florida.  What the state real estate law is and what is actual land sale practice are still not always on the same page in the here and now in Florida.  This land is RIGHT ON the road with no need for an easement through anyone else's property.  YEEE HAW!!  In this area, there are not many power lines anywhere.  It was unusual to find one with electric access, especially one without other issues, too.  Can we say YAYYY, GOD???!!!

In rural Florida, environmental  restrictions and things classified as wetlands can render a property either encumbered by endless paperwork without a sure outcome or other complications that would mean it's not build-able.  We definitely wanted a property that could be built on without those  hindrances or uncertain outcomes.  We also needed to find somewhere that did not have very restrictive building codes.  We'd have preferred NO building codes, but we feel we can work within the ones in this area. 

And it really helped that we did not have to put our own road in.  That would have been an additional expense, and since we are pay-as-we-go-with-cash folks (and cash poor, but very determined!) it's GREAT that the road was able to be navigated and had been built and maintained by the neighbor who lived farther down it.  The same neighbor who had the original electric lines put in.  Give that man a gold medal!!
Running electric lines out here is so cost prohibitive it's the reason we had to pass by other properties nearby.
Again, YAYYY, God for helping us find this one!!!

No standing water in roadside ditches, even after two months of rain.  High and dry, baby!!  The other thing we wanted (notice how the list had a LOT of wants??) was a property that could be used for agriculture.  We didn't want one limited to a certain number of animals, or that could only be used for horses, and so on.  That's the rub where we live right now...we are in an area zoned residential whose covenants forbid any animals but cats and dogs (etc) to be kept, even though right across the street it's zoned for anything and we can hear the roosters crowing in the morning.  Sheer torture for a gal like me who has dreamed of keeping chickens!  I can have as many chickens as I want on this property, YAHOOO!!!!

There's the electric pole Jack was so happy to see!  It's also the boundary marker.  There'll be more pictures to come soon...my batteries were dead at the last visit (argggh) but that won't happen twice!

THANK YOU for those of you who have followed our journey at different points along the way, and for your encouragement.  For those of you who are newer here, we expected this to happen for us when I began the blog in 2007.  SO SO much has happened since then, and a lot of things happened that could not be put here lest in the telling it jeopardize our negotiations at the time.  Or just get too personal in public.  But there is much backstory that can now be told.  I hope to tell some of it if it's relevant now that we have land.  Suffice it to say, it's a dream I've handed back and back to God, time and again.  After all, life is in the Now, and it does not hinge on whether a person owns land or not.  The moment is so important and we can plan for the future and work towards our dreams, but we are only given today and have to make sure we actually LIVE in it.

So there was a lot of hope deferred and this blog lagged greatly in my times of shrugging off disappointment or just getting on with the everyday here.  Sometimes I just didn't want to keep repeating myself.  But THANK YOU, at whatever point you joined the conversation here, for hanging in there with us.  We'll continue forward just as we have been...a step at a time.

This is just such a JOYFUL STEP!!!!!!!!!!!!


YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Much love from our household to yours.  We make our Homesteads right in this moment and take them with us no matter what our location or situation.  It's a mindset and lifestyle, as varied and diverse as our individuality.  We look forward to continue learning alongside you.  Thank you for sharing in the happiness of our next new step!


Robbyn and Jack

Bermuda as a Medicinal Herb

2009 Purple hull pea crop amidst Bermuda.  Our own backyard episode of Survivor

Before you read any further, be sure to go to Michael Tierra's wonderful article over at his blog, where he recently wrote a fascinating article about Bermuda grass as a medicinal herb.  Is it any wonder that a plant so known for its hardiness, ergo weed, is a survivor plant honored in the East as a healing plant? Also known by its alternate name Durva, it's one of the Big Two, the second most "holy herb" in that locale's tradition.

I'm thrilled to know more about this subject!  I can remember a couple times in the past few years running across mention that the bane of my gardening existence, Bermuda grass, has actual beneficial uses in other areas of the world.  Here's the first brief mention I made (see point#12) where we first became aware of some of its uses.

Here's the 2010 post where I report on having tried it in smoothies and our first impressions.

We've been looking for uses for it for a while, but not focusing on it consistently.  We found other crops CAN grow right in it if provided a good enough headstart of clearing it out and putting down thick compost first.  There is no way to get all the runners out, so with heat and water, they come back.  But at some point of maturity, the planted crop, we've found, survives.  Symbiotic relationship, or simply tolerance?  I wonder if the Bermuda has any viable fertilizing qualities?? Or pest prevention qualities?

Our purple hull peas grew right alongside it this way till all were tilled right back under or mowed down when through with the harvest.  That was back in 2009. 

Such was our experience experimenting with growing okra the same year. 

And with moringa and calabazas the same year, pics here.

I'm not saying it's ideal, but as organic gardeners who do not use chemicals or pesticides, we don't have to be utterly defeated at the very prospect of the Bermuda war any more. 

The calabazas this year, when provided with a well-dug place for the initial plant, produced and produced with the vines growing right through heavy Bermuda (the roots have to have an initial well-dug and composted site for the main plant...the 10 foot long runners that branch off the main plant go right through thick Bermuda and try to put roots down.  I think, even though I might be wrong on this, that the untended vines were actually healthier growing through the Bermuda than the years we tried to keep them clear.  There were no borers noticed this year, and no fuzzy fungus rotting the flowers or new fruits off.


Since most of the wonderful herbs useful medicinally at some point in modern history have been (or still are) considered weeds in the West, clearly we have a lot of educating and catching up to do with the other hemispheres.  Here was my 2010 weed rant, in which Bermuda figured into a mention of "useful invasives"  and wherein I resolved to follow up on it more...um, ok, so I've been a little slowwww :-D


I'd like to verify that our variety of Bermuda grass is not the GMO variety killing off cattle.  If I can verify that, we'll be off and running with tinctures and such ASAP...and get some weeding done in the process.

Enjoy the read!

Want more Google rabbit trails on Bermuda's medicinal uses?  here are some:

Bermuda Grass the Wonder Herb


15 Uses for Bermuda Grass


More Medicinal Uses


And Even More...

Note:   Again, be aware there are claims the genetically-altered Tifton 85 strain of Bermuda grass is linked to recent cattle grazing poisoning.  Whether this is true or not, I would always go non-GMO with anything to be tasted or ingested, for safety's sake.

Second Note:  All precautions are relevant.  Anything I mention here or link I post to must be understood as anecdotal or opinion until YOU follow up with your own choices and decisions and additional research.  YOU are responsible for your own health and health choices.  Therefore, understand, I do not offer advice via my blog posts in regards to anything related to anyone else's health or health choices but my very own, for myself alone.  YOU should research all information thoroughly and proceed with extreme caution before undertaking to experiment with your own health foods and medicines.  Thank you!



~~Robbyn

June Calabazas

Volunteer calabazas grown right smack in a patch of Bermuda.  Does this keep the blight from getting to the blossoms?  These are about 3 - 5 lbs each.

Is the secret neglect, or sudden rains, or the fact that this is the third generation of seed from a fairly hardy survivor plant...or a combination of all the factors?

We'll let these dry out a bit and harden off in the shade of the back porch for probably a week or so, and then bring them into the house to store in a cool corner.  Minus the dirt and about two dozen fire ants or so...

What's surprising you in  your garden...or bermuda patch??

We Just Lost our Freedoms Today

We are not a democratic republic any more.  We are now a regime.  When a government enforces "protections" by taking away individual choice over the individual, it's a regime.   Look for the next freedom that will be mandated to disappear to be that of openly criticizing the regime or the right to oppose it.

Fortitude

I believe in community, especially being connected to the local community of faith and to others who work for positive changes in this world.  After all, being Jewish, at the very heart of keeping the Torah and God's commandments is a lasting optimism that despite how small or large the contribution, one person CAN change the world for the better...Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world.  It is a partnership with God Himself to transform what is in reach for the better, in ways we might never realize but that becomes a life richer with kindness and hope.

I wanted to state that as a preface for the statement that when walking that particular lifestyle of choice (it is a daily choice, after all), there are the lonely times.  It doesn't mean we're alone in actuality, in the big picture, or even in actuality in the smaller picture...our lives touch so many others we don't realize.  But there are times when the ones we love, our family or friends and dear ones, for whatever reason, just aren't there or can't be engaged as much as we'd like in a certain time period or moment.  There are lonely times, and sometimes lonelier as our daily choices remove us from the stream of life that seems to sweep the majority  along, but we're on a different path, it seems...a true definition of not being in the Main Stream.  Sometimes this is because of our lifestyle, especially for those who daily try to walk with God, when that diverges us not even by our own will, from others.  And sometimes it's just because in matters such as simplicity, or life differences, we feel a bit like throwbacks, a little displaced in time and mindset...and yet preferring to remain so for wisdom's sake, to keep our equilibrium, stick to goals, keep family and the day-to-day on track with simplicity and priorities.

Sometimes we just need encouragement when we FEEL alone.  I know I do, and I know I'm not actually alone, but connected to a large and wonderful community.  But I still feel alone at times when my choices keep me on a Path Less Traveled.

It seems our times are a testing ground for what is truly inside us, what "makes a man."  Integrity and morality, the true kind we need at the heart to guide our attitudes and actions to others and to continually re-create community and society, are at stake.  Sometimes it feels like stepping out of that quickly-moving mainstream is itself an act of resistance, or perceived as some sort of weirdness or rebellion.  But I am rambling now...

Anyway, I saw this short video tonight, and it was just what I needed.  And I love reading the Psalms.  I don't write that much on this particular blog about the role personal belief and the love of the Torah has to do with the other parts of my life, but in truth they are inseparable from the whole.  I don't want or need a soapbox, but I don't want to feel I can never put my thoughts about them here from time to time, either.  In all Jack and I strive to do or be in this life, at the very heart of it is God, and not in what most folks think of as "religious-ness".  We were caught up in groups in the past we're glad to have moved on from ourselves, but in the times in which we live, we need the truth of God's instruction and correction, and have experienced so much gratitude, provision, and blessing from Him.  We are nothing but grateful!

Here's a short video (no, it's not evangelistic ;-)) that encouraged me tonight.  The times in which we live DOES require choices and will continue to do so, and there is such a thing as right and wrong.  Here's to the times when the RIGHT choices put us a bit outside the main and we feel alone.  Those are times we realize everything hinges right back to that most basic relationship, for us, between us and God.  Just like it all started with God walking with man in His garden.

How grateful we are to God for His continued goodness to us, and for giving us instruction to walk simply from day to day...

Plants that Grow in Florida Summers

One of the challenges of living in SW Florida is that what is usually elsewhere a great summer growing season for gardeners is often, here, the "off" season of punishing temps and excesses of either drought, heat, or rain.  Florida's vegetable season is...most all other seasons!  That was hard for me to understand when I first moved here.

I saw a great list on the Lehigh Acres Edible Gardening Blog, a list of plants that DO survive our summers well.  Many of them are alternative or lesser-used (in modern times or in the U.S.) plants.  I was surprised to see how many of them we've tried over the years and found successful, even if we're not growing some of them this year in particular.

Here's the great list

Some of the plants listed there that we've tried before are

1.  Okra
2.  Sweet Potatoes
3.  Moringa (still going strong!)
4.  Pigeon Peas  (we planted them one year too late in season to have a harvest of actual peas...)
5.  Cherry Tomatoes (and how!!)
6.  Cranberry Hibiscus
7.  Malanga (still going strong, never have harvested)
8.  Nopal cactus (going VERY strong!)
9.  Basil (a great annual for us)
10.  Rosemary (ditto)
11.  Eggplant (got TALL and so so hardy)
12.  Chaya/Chayamansa (one of Jack's HUGE successes!)
13.  Tropical Pumpkins/Calabasa (got 4 about to harvest, more little ones on the vine)
14.  Cowpeas (one year we did purple hull peas, did great)

Of course this list does not include wild edibles or edible "weeds" such as Bidens Alba leaves and innumerable others.  And it doesn't include a lot of herbs, including Yerba Buena, one of Jack's favorites in the mint family.

Wow, we've tried more than I imagined!  Those are just plants from the Summer Survivors list...so many others grow as well, but do better in the other seasons.  

We'd still like to try several more from this list.  If you ever need a great source for alternative plants for not just Florida but many different climates, most of these and many others can be found over at E.C.H.O....they have online ordering and also have an on-site nursery with lots of herbs, plants, fruit trees, and unusual (usually edible) plants.

Got any favorite survivor plants that always seem to defy the weather extremes? I'd love to know them!

Rosy Camphorweed

Ah...found it!!  This was growing freely in the area we last visited in Charlotte county.  At first they look like "just a weed" and then you notice the fine, frosty-colored down-covered leaves and stems -- the soft mauve clusters of blooms embedded in star shaped settings, their clusters  rich with shadows of magenta.  So easy to walk on by unless you stop to look, and so beautiful upon closer examination.

I will continue my search and see what medicinal uses this plant may have.  There are different types of Camphorweed, also known as Marsh fleabanes and other names, and the different ones have different medicinal uses. At least one type is used interchangeably as an arnica substitute...is that exciting or what! Here are some at this site, though I don't know specifically what the properties of the Pluchea baccaris are.  I need to confirm the ones I saw are exactly the Pluchea baccaris

Yet!