Back in September of 2019, Archie asked
me if I would walk the property with him.
I agreed and plans were put in place. Mr.
Hager and I walked part of the property that
day and even ventured out to the adjacent
state-owned land, and found a path cut by
the biology team that manages that section of
land behind the ranch.
One of the things I remember from that
exploration was the fact that hogs walk the
same path, and they like fi ddler crabs. Mr.
Hager and I found several remains of fi ddler
crabs that probably were eaten somewhere
else, and then later placed where we found
them by natural causes. Another time, we
discovered where the forestry team had to cut
the fence to get the equipment back there
during a fi re some years before, so a large
wire fence gate was built. The state later cut a
fi re lane between the farm and their land.
Over the next few weeks, Mr. Hager and I
worked alongside several others, including a
man named Robert who is from Arcadia. He
is a fi rst-generation Mexican-American who
can make a palm tree in the middle of a cow
pasture in Placida look like it should be on a
golf course. One time I asked Robert about
his love for the palms and he said, “It’s like art
to me.” I understood exactly what he meant.
The palms looked fantastic after Robert
shaped them.
We all worked very hard together, cutting
all the pepper trees down by hand and
laying them on the ground so they could get
ground up. The land slowly started to look like
an “Old Florida” prairie again.