Monday, February 17th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

Another day off – another day of exploration in nearby nature! We decided that the ocean shore nearby was too full of people, fees, rules, and such baloney. So we decided to head west, inland, away from the coast. We both looked at Google Maps separately, and we both picked the exact same spot without knowing it – a little beach on the Saint John River, within a patch of wilderness named the Hickory Bluff Preserve.

We took a meandering drive toward it, pausing to probe down several dead end roads and trails more fit for an ATV than a car.

We arrived to find an empty parking lot and a couple of trailheads – we took the blue trail, toward the river – going first through a dry, sandy palmetto wilderness, and then, as the trail dropped down slightly into the river valley, a gorgeous cypress and live oak forest, with softly swaying curtains of Spanish moss bringing a fantastic atmosphere.

We were both already in love with the place by the time we got to the river, and found a perfect, private beach on the shore of the wide, undeveloped stretch of river – which weirdly flowed from the South to the North, unlike every river I’ve known.

Occasionally, the quiet birdsongs and wind through the trees were interrupted by a passing speedboat – but even this was perfect; each boat made a wake that came splashing to the shore – and Cleo is obsessed with chasing such waves. The sandy shore was ideal for her to dash along the water’s edge, chomping and stomping at the cresting waves (compared to the shores of Lake Superior, for example, where on many shores sharp rocks cut up her pads).

Cleo quickly made the connection, and when the water was still, she would stand and look imploringly up and down stream, waiting for another boat to appear and bring the waves for her.

When the sun went down, we reluctantly left our little paradise, and headed back to civilization.

The drive-through at Frosty King was a perfect way to end the day out  with delicious homemade ice cream in a waffle cone.

Sunday, February 16th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

Sunday and Monday are days of rest on the GFO farm, so we decided to do some exploring, after getting the morning chicken-chores done – and finding a mysteriously-dead hen in the nesting box at the “POW Camp” coop.

Once we got off the farm, we started our day at our favorite local coffee shop – the surf themed Chuckyta’s in New Smyrna Beach, where we got caffeinated and studied some aerial imagery up of the nearby wildlife refuge, finding some interesting-looking backwoods roads to nowhere, where we’d be likely to find neat things and be able to let the dogs run off leash without any other pesky humans around.

When we got into the refuge, we quickly discovered that almost every trail and sideroad were blocked, with signs saying the Area was Closed. After much probing we discovered a promising looking, gated sideroad that lacked such signage – only saying that motorized traffic was prohibited. So we parked on the side of the road and hiked in with the lunches we’d packed, finding a nice sandy spot in the woods to sit down and eat.

Once we were filled up with sandwiches, leftover food from the Valentines day event, and fresh tangerines, we hiked deep past another of the Area Closed signs, finding ourselves in an interesting post-wasteland environment – scrubby palmettos and local plants, sandy areas everywhere, studded with strange assortments of rusty metal, beaten up plastic, and broken glass.

Given that we were on the “Space Coast,” near the Kennedy Space center and Cape Canaveral (we could hear weird explosions occasionally) we entertained the theory that we were in a NASA landfill, where old shuttles and such had been dozer-crushed to pieces and buried in the off-limit sands.

We collected fragments to bring home and decorate with for a bit, but soon got quite distracted by the force that had been bringing all these bits of buried debris to the surface for us to find – the army of armadillos that were all around us, feasting on the ants that lived everywhere beneath the sands.

None of the four of us had ever been around armadillos before, and we didn’t know what to expect when we came upon the first one.

After getting close and not getting an aggressive response, Widget threw caution to the wind, and gave chase.

The armadillo didn’t seem too concerned, and mosied over to safety in the palmettos.

dogs finding another armadillo on the trail

When the sun started setting down to the treeline, we headed back to the car, finding a radar missile defense station down a nearby Area Closed spur.

We got back to the farm and went to the chicken coop, intending to bury the dead chicken as Liz had asked us to do via text. When we arrived, the chicken in the roosting box was already buried … but a different chicken was dead on the ground nearby, again without any obvious signs of trauma, and with no sign of predatory invasion.

We texted Liz the news, and buried the new mysteriously-dead chicken.

Saturday, February 15th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

Today we cleaned up the remnants of the party event, did tons of dishes from it, refilled the giant water tank with a pump, and hung around the farm.

It was Alex and John’s last day, so we bid them adieu, leaving the newly-named BugNaRug trailer to Dawn and Erykah.

Friday, February 14th Green Flamingo Organics Oak Hill, FL A full moon, Valentines Day (our first as a married couple!), and the day that Green Flamingo Organics was having their big Princess Bride/dinner event for their CSA members; we worked a 12-hour day helping make it happen:

Thursday, February 13th
Green Flamingo Organics
Oak Hill, FL

We picked up the pieces and got to work harvesting and prepariong for the dinner/movie happening the next day …

A predator had broken into one of the chicken coop in the night and killed two chickens, so Kristin and I patched up the hole it had torn, adding a new roost for them while we were at it.