Category Archives: Okra Paradise Farms

Half way between Atlanta and Orlando and all the way to paradise!

Four roof trusses 2024-01-01

Update 2024-01-09: Steel Roof on Wood Trusses 2024-01-09.

Previously we saw the roof trusses multiply from one to two.

They doubled again to four, and then leapt on top of the plates.

[Four roof trusses on the ground and on the plates]
Four roof trusses on the ground and on the plates

What next for these engineered products?

-jsq

Turpentine Afterburn 2023-12-22

Two things I had never seen before: a turpentine catface burning, and a guide metal for a McCoy turpentine cup.

[Catface burning, Turpentine guide, Nail that held the cup, the loblolly pine tree]
Catface burning, Turpentine guide, Nail that held the cup, the loblolly pine tree

This was during and the day after our prescribed burn of December 21, 2023.

Also, this catface was on a loblolly, not a longleaf pine.

And since it was hacked into the tree during the Great Depression, in the turpentining that paid off the mortgage on the farm, in the 85 or so years since the tree had grown out around it, yet left the actual catface exposed. Continue reading →

Prescribed burn 2023-12-21

Update 2023-12-29: Afterburn 2023-12-22.

We got the band back together!

[Pyromaniacs, prescribed burn, pine tree wedge, Blondie the Fire Dog, burned turpentine guide]
Pyromaniacs, prescribed burn, pine tree wedge, Blondie the Fire Dog, burned turpentine guide

Thanks to Abigail Barzallo for sending two helpers for this prescribed burn.

Here’s a video.
https://youtu.be/aEDwt6zVVgY

Those who do not live in a fire forest like ours, and who do not understand prescibed burns, please read this, Prescribed Fire, Longleaf Alliance:

Frequent, low intensity, and often large scale, surface fires were the dominant factor in shaping the longleaf pine ecosystems across the historical range. This frequent fire regime, over generations, selected for longleaf pine’s fire-resistant attributes.

Prescribed fire may be the best management tool that we have for attaining range-wide restoration and management of longleaf pine ecosystems. Increased frequency of fire leads to more diversity and abundance of grasses and forbs; seasonality of burn also plays a role but is secondary to frequency.

This wedge that I cut out of a deadfall pine tree that morning to get it out of a firebreak was fascinating to the helpers.

Max counted 92 rings. I counted 80. How many do you count? Continue reading →

Old maps of north central Lowndes County

Some old roads from a century ago are still in the woods in north central Lowndes County.

[1917 and 2023 maps compared]
1917 and 2023 maps compared

On this 1917 soil map of Lowndes County, Hambrick Road runs east from Hagan Bridge to Cat Creek Road, as it still does today. In the center of the map, running south from Hambrick Road, is an old road that I keep open in my woods. The other day we used a bit of it for a firebreak in a prescribed burn.

[1917--hambrick-road-loco-soil-map]
Soil Map, Georgia, Lowndes County Sheet, Record ID cmf0373, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1917, in County Maps, Surveyor General, RG 3-9-66, Georgia Archives.

The house marked just north across Hambrick Road from that old road is still there. That was probably Fisher Gaskins’ house. I will ask his descendants.

That old woods road is between two creeks that are still there: Redeye Creek to its west, and Toms Branch to its right. They both end up in the Withlacoochee River floodplain.

Toms Branch is just east of the east part of Quarterman Road. Most of the rest of that road was already there in some form or other, although the south part of it, that currently runs straight east and west, did not run like that.

And notice all the other roads that are no longer open to the public. Continue reading →

Cast Iron Cookery Wall 2023-12-17

Gretchen has so many cast iron pots and pans that they’re hard to find in drawers and cabinets, so we’ve taken to hanging them on walls.

[Cast iron on the wall and behind the wood stove]
Cast iron on the wall and behind the wood stove

Here she is admiring the result:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk2OxkA4UvzMy9YWoMkxRsDgmVDgoX6v&si=jIqUJQekM7Z6bKKp Continue reading →

Caught one possum 2023-09-07

Trapped one possum.

[Blondie and the possum]
Blondie and the possum

There are more under the house.

Now to set the trap again.

And maybe the dogs can catch some.

The ones we trap, we take far enough away they won’t come back.

We can bring you some, if you like.

Fair warning: they eat insulation from electrical wires and cause shorts.

-jsq

Hurricane Idalia and aftermath 2023-09-02

A few scenes from during and after Hurricane Idalia.

We had many deadfalls, but no property or personal damage. So we were much luckier than many others.

[Deadfalls, power lines, cooking, rainfall]
Deadfalls, power lines, cooking, rainfall

This still just looks like heavy rain, but the video shows the wind was blowing. Idalia’s eye went a few miles east of us, but those were probably still 60 mph winds from the north. Continue reading →