Micanopy, FL: Simonton Farm Final Night

It's the final night the kids have the farm to themselves and we're having BBQ pulled pork! While Sid and Susan were cruisin' the Bahamas we had a successful week here on the farm. We even got to go see the new James Bond movie (which was awesome!). On Saturday we'll be heading south to Ft. Pierce, FL to stay with Curt's grandpa Chuck. We're sad to leave the farm but looking forward to the next leg of our journey. And we'll be bringing our friends Danny and Kristel along for a few days until they catch a flight north. Let the adventures continue! Thanks to everyone who's been commenting, we love reading them all! Talk to you soon!

Micanopy, FL: Simonton Farm, Final Week

A View from the Top of the Pond While Feeding the fish

pecan, pumpkin, apple OHH YEA

Hey everyone, we hope you had a good Thanksgiving!  Even though Curt was really missing his family's traditional day of eating, we ended up having a great dinner here on the farm.  As always there were lots of people and LOTS of food.  8 different pies, 2 turkeys, some BBQ hog, stuffing, 2 types of rolls, homemade mac and cheese, cranberry sauce (homemade and out of the can), and soo much more! It was the first time we had leftovers for days!   The fact that we shared this traditional American holiday with some international friends who were experiencing Thanksgiving for the first time made it all the more special!  

Tomorrow, our hosts Sid and Susan are leaving for the same 4 day cruise that they convinced us to take. They must have talked it up so much that they convinced themselves too!  We're obviously very excited for them because cruises are so awesome, and we now get a chance to try our hand at managing the farm in their absence.  The farm will be left in the capable hands of Sid and Susan's 4 children; Linea, Sunne, Rowan, and Sidney and the WWOOFers Jesse, Adam, Peter, Kristel, Danny, Rafael, and ourselves.

Happy Chickens

We'll be leaving the farm next weekend after Sid and Susan return and we will miss all of our friends that we've made in the past few weeks.  There was certainly a lot going on while we were here and we can't wait to hear about all the other adventures and projects that happen to other Wwoofers with the opportunity to come live and work at Simonton Farm!

In a short synopsis of the tasks we were involved with, here is a little breakdown:

• We've had fun getting the garden into winter mode with the planting of potatoes, collard greens, broccoli, lettuce, radishes, and more! 
• We were able to get the garden greenhouses full of new tree cuttings (cuttings of trees that will then grow roots and be able to be potted for later sale in the tree nursery), planted date palms sprouts, re-potted older tree cuttings that had sprouted roots, and organized a puzzle of loose pots and planting material! 
• We helped with the maintenance of the pigs, chickens, goats, and puppy kennels: Feeding, puppy-poopy-scooping, bedding changes, playing/cuddling, etc.!
• We helped Peter with his ultimate A-Frame construction project and learned about some of his tricks-and-tips of the trade!
• We learned a lot about communal living involving a wide range of characters and personalities (6 Family member, 7-9 Wwoofers at a time, and a revolving door of friends). Cooking, cleaning, and conversations!
• And to finish things up, going back to a quote from our first blog post of Simonton Farm:

"Day to day life on the Simonton Farm manages to strike a harmonious balance between chaos and organization, planning and spontaneity, and work and relaxation."

Goats love hay

One side up on the A-Frame

The pig will eat almost ANYTHING and love it

COMMENTS welcome- Are people really out there reading this? If so, let us know!

We would like to propose a contest...the person with the most witty comment wins a postcard from our next location!

New pics on Facebook as well!

Micanopy, FL: Simonton Farm Picture Update

We've got some pictures from the cruise right here and there's also some pre-cruise farm pics that just got uploaded as well.  And for our ACW friends back in Vermont, below is an example of some terrible Caribbean screen printing!

And speaking of our friends, if you're out there in Internetland and are reading this right now we happily encourage you to leave us a comment.  Serious or silly, it'd be cool to know who's out there following us!  Thanks in advance to Teri Prestash and Fred Krawley!

Bahamas Cruise

We arrived home yesterday from 4 days of stuffing ourselves, sun bathing, exploring islands, and cruising on a big big boat! One of our favorite adventures was going to the royal carribean's private island in the Bahamas: Cococay, where we bushwhacked a little and found an awesome natural pool which we were able to enjoy all by ourselves in the sun! We also stopped for a day in Nassau Bahamas and had a day of lounging pool side on the cruise ship! More picture to come soon so keep an eye out!

We are back on the farm now in Micanopy and are excited for our hosts who also booked a cruise in a week! It's just that easy when you live so close to the ports!

Wait, WHAT? A Bahamas Cruise TODAY!

That's right, we're going on a cruise on THIS boat (the Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas)!!!  Our farm host Sid talked the cruises up so much that we decided we had to do it!  We're going for four nights to the Bahamas with our Dutch friends Danny and Kristel!  We got a reallllllllly GOOD deal because it was so last minute and Sid, Susan, and Adam have been giving us tips and tricks for the past week (ways to say no to all the extra things we get offered) ie: shampoo bottles filled with rum haha.  We're probably not going to have Internet on the boat so we may not get any blog updates until we get back but you can bet there will be a lot of pictures of us lounging around in paradise! Woohoo!!! Alright, here we go- a three hour drive to Port Canaveral then it's highs of 80's lows of 70's for the rest of the week! 

Micanopy, FL: Simonton Farm, Good afternoon

Just a little update today... There are now 9 Wwoof'rs on the farm which gets a little hectic trying to figure out what project we all need to get on! It also makes dinner time a large production having a total of 15 mouths to feed! There are two French boys now who don't speak much English but love to swing on the rope swing. Hopefully they'll get the swing of things (pun intended) in a couple days even with the language barrier. Well time to finish our weeding project now that lunch is over!

Micanopy, FL: Simonton Farm First Week Update

Well we've been here on the farm for a little over a week now with no updates which we know has made a few of you out there in Internetland a little nervous.  Don't worry, we haven't been abducted into a cult or sweatshop or anything like that, in fact quite the opposite, but we've been having so much fun that the time just keeps flying past us!  Day to day life on the Simonton Farm manages to strike a harmonious balance between chaos and organization, planning and spontaneity, and work and relaxation.  It seems to be the way life should be lived, work getting done in a timely but casual fashion.  And all this takes place in a tropical paradise that has a very temperate climate (at least while we'll be staying here) with little to no rain.  The only negative consequence of this climate are the 'creatures' that also live here; mosquitos, spiders, roaches, snakes, and frogs (among other things) but none of these have been as bothersome as we originally thought.  There are also plenty of friendly creatures too.  Chickens, quail, goats, a pig, and dogs, dogs, and more dogs!  

There's a pack of about 15 dogs that almost exclusively hang out on the porch of the main house, there's a smaller group of dogs that usually hang out down by the WWOOFer's area and then of course there's the puppies who live in several group pens in between the house and WWOOFer area.  The dogs certainly outnumber the people and that's no easy feat because there's always lots of people around too!  Our hosts, Sid and Susan, and their four children, Linnea, Rowan, Sunne, and Sidney have been welcoming, friendly, helpful, and entertaining!  The other WWOOFers and residents of the farm have been great too!  Jesse, Janet, and Adam are all from various parts of Florida, but Crystal and Danny are from the Netherlands, and Peter is from Oregon.  We hope we spelled everyone's names correctly!  It has been fascinating being around so many cultures and backgrounds, sharing experiences and stories.  We're even trying to learn a few Dutch swear words!

A typical day on the farm begins around 8:30 when people make their way up to the main house for breakfast.  When there's upwards of 15 people to feed, every meal needs to be BIG! And when big meals need to be made lots of coffee needs to be consumed!  By the time all the breakfast stuff and morning socializing has been taken care of it's usually around 10:30 or so and Sid and Susan discuss the day's projects.  Except for daily chores and long-term projects, daily work schedules can vary greatly which keeps things interesting.  The daily chores include feeding all the animals, milking the goats, watering plants, and cleaning out the puppy pens.  The big project currently being worked on is construction of a new building for WWOOFers.  Lunch usually occurs around 2 or 3 o'clock and is also usually a large communal event.  After lunch the work is either very casual or nonexistent depending on how much was accomplished during the morning.  Evenings are spent hanging out, relaxing, and preparing dinner which usually takes place somewhere between 8 and 9PM. The main house is always open and available to hang out in but the WWOOFers also have their own separate house down near the pond.  A short walk through Florida jungle connects the two houses.  It's been such an amazing time here that we can already tell it's going to be hard to leave.  Luckily we still have plenty of time left.  We'll try to keep the posts coming and get into some more of the specifics of what we're up to!  Until then, here's some pictures from the farm!