Hi Folks,
I have recently joined this site and am tickled to death at how wonderfully helpful everyone is. My husband and I bought a 38 acre junkyard in the middle of the Everglades. It was the only way we could afford our dream.
A good part of the car parts are gone but it will be years before we have that area pristine.
We want to retire so bad! That is...my husband does. I am a freelance web designer so I can work as long as my brain and fingers function. My husband has very bad vision and other health problems, not to mention an extremely stressful job. We want to basically come up with a plan to have our new property (which we lovingly call the farm) pay for itself.
So far we do weekends out there. It's hot and buggy but we sweat our heinies off trying to make progress of our dream. Our dream is an exotic fruit grove and tilapia ponds, fishing worm beds and of course me whacking away on the keyboard. My husband's personal desire is a fruit stand on the main highway.
For about 6 or 7 years, we have been growing exotic fruit seedlings at a double-lotted townhouse in Fort Lauderdale, with this other property only being a dream.
We have both had cancer and my recent treatment devastated us financially so we were extra excited to find this property with owner financing!!! It wiped out Mike's 401K but we don't care. We both just hit the 50's and can still work hard to achieve our dreams. By the time we can retire (5-10 years?) hopefully the fruit trees will be our bumper income.
The farm is just East of Chokoluskee which is a huge fishing area so we think we might be in a gold mine area for fresh produce for the local restaurants. We hear that the area is going very upper income which sucks for the locals but I have been drove out like that before and know the program--taxes fly and you have no choice but to leave. That is how my last "country dream" was shattered but this time we are in like Flint- all the property around us is government preserves.
Any-hoo...we are trying to get things going out there (have had the property 2 months now). My husband gets depressed and feels defeated at times for the amount of work we have. Either we clean up junk or we fix things up for ourselves. We planted 2 shade trees near a delapidated trailer that we are spending weekends in so that we can get some shade going...maybe next year? I try to pull my weight with the work but am just not strong enough for alot of it. There is just so much to do! For now and for our future. We can't even start planting the fruit tree groves until we dig trnches for higher tree elevation and for runoff. That means we have to hare a backhoe. Ever try to dig mud? It's very heavy and your feet suck down so you can't even turn around to throw your shovel-full. I am trying to dig a small pond by hand in a marsh for the banana trees to outline. That is, as I pull out the auto parts.
I have attached pictures of the front of the property, what we are dealing with. Keep in mind it isn't all that bad--the back 20 acres is virgin. We haven't even seen it yet. That will be where our future home will be. We can't build until we sell our Ft Lauderadle home. Any $ right now for farm progress will be in scrap metal.
This weekend was extra hot! I have been saving up to buy a new computer to put out there but instead we used the $ to buy a 10hp chipper but it's really a mulcher. We need to get the compost piles going! This is our first piece of farm equipment. My husband is expecting a bonus soon and we hope it is enough to get a DR weed and brush mower. Back to the mulcher.. we really put a bruisin' into the Floriade holy and it sure makes nice mulch! My back is killing me! Cool tho- we got ahead.
We also planted a mango and a sea alomnd tree to give us shade near the trailer. We had to use a jackhammer to break thru the coral but then it was fine. We hope to plant one large fruit or shade tree a week.
We are home now in Fort Lauderdale- the dogs are exhausted from partying all weekend "as far as they could go" and I am about to do the laundry!
