Gateway Community Garden

Growing a bounty to serve others

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Carol Pappas
and Graham Hadley and Glenn Wilson

Much like the single seed planted years earlier that grows into the towering oak tree offering shade and comfort to next generations, today’s Pell City Gateway Community Garden thrives as an example of what dogged determination, a patch of dirt and a smattering of seeds can become.

In 2013, a handful of Pell City citizens envisioned a garden for their community. In that group were Merry and Dave Bise, Renee Lilly, Lisa Phillips, Kelly and Sheree Wilkerson, and other community volunteers. Taking root on the old Avondale Mills property, the garden on a quarter-acre plot was small, but productive – just like their dream. Early help came from Pell City Civitans, which provided the nonprofit status they needed for grants, and the City of Pell City, which provided the patch of earth they needed to grow their bounty, and it began to sprout.

Seven years later – in a new location thanks to St. Simon Peter Episcopal Church – and a growing army of volunteers, Gateway Community Garden is reaping the benefits of what it sowed by helping others.

Early mornings and late afternoons nearly all year long, you’ll find a group of “do-gooders,” city dwellers on a mission, toiling in the dirt, nurturing their crops to feed the hungry.

Row upon row tells the story of their bounty – potatoes, okra, squash, bell peppers, corn, tomatoes, butter peas and pinkeye purple hull peas in summer. Collard greens, cabbage, turnip greens, broccoli, sweet potatoes and more okra emerge in the fall.

Fruit trees and bushes abound – apples, blueberries, blackberries – a future dream now in its fledgling stage. An irrigation system is in place. A greenhouse, courtesy of Master Gardeners, has been erected. And on any given day when the sun is out, chances are these gardeners are, too, watching over their harvest like protective parents tending to their young.

Debbie Smith, a longtime gardener and board member, calls it “God’s blessing. It is always amazing to me that you plant a seed in the ground and get this beautiful plant that feeds others.”

Lisa Phillips logging hours

Her experience as a gardener is rewarding in the way she is able to use her education background to teach others how to plant, grow and harvest. She describes the end result – whether it’s someone enjoying the garden’s solitude and beauty or actually laboring in the soil as a “healing and restorative garden. It works on both ends.”

Worth Barham, project manager who fellow volunteers have labeled ‘CEO,’ agrees. “It’s a wonderful experience,” he said, noting that the whopping two tons of food grown there so far have made their way to good homes in the Pell City Christian Love Pantry, Pell City Senior Citizens Center and Lincoln Food Pantry.

“Everything is based on the wonderful volunteers we have,” Barham said. Bringing different skillsets to the organization, they have been able to write grants, develop an educational component, bring community organizations into the fold, design the garden’s physical future and of course, grow food for the needy. St. Clair Co-op has provided many of the plants. David Wadsworth brings his tractor to clear the ground for planting, and Master Gardener Tom Terry tills the soil.

“Without the grants we have received, we would not be where we are today,” Barham said. “Without our volunteers, we would have no organization at all.”

Lisa Phillips became involved early on – first as a Pell City Civitan, then as a gardener. In addition to the Civitans lending their 501(c)(3) nonprofit status to the fundraising effort, the club has provided access for the handicapped and special needs, like accessible paths for wheelchairs and lower tables for produce.

To be a part of it has been “a great feeling,” said Phillips. “And I think it has been great for the community.”

“I am awestruck at what we have been able to accomplish with a small group of folks,” said Linda Tutwiler, another board member. Volunteers only number a dozen or so on a regular basis. “I don’t think any of us envisioned what we could accomplish in such a short time.”

In 2017, it moved from Avondale to a 5-to-6-acre plot given to them to use by the Episcopal church across the street. And that is when the garden grew to its next level and beyond. First helped by a Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham grant and then a Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama contribution as part of its Sacred Places grant program, the garden began to really take shape.

Three years ago, Barham said, the garden grew 820 pounds of fresh produce to give to those in need in Pell City and St. Clair County. Last year, it was 3,600 pounds. Today, their harvest tips the scales at 4,000 pounds.

Nearby is a newly constructed nature trail. A handcrafted, oversized sitting bench underneath the trees welcomes one and all as a place for quiet reflection. A journal to record thoughts is there, as is a miniature reading library. Peace, tranquility and reflection are key to this sacred space.

A greenhouse is home to trees that grow Meyer lemons and will soon grow plants from seed. A shed painted with brightly colored sunflowers holds tools of the trade and a work log, where volunteers record their hours for grants.

On a Saturday morning in November, a group of Scouts marveled at gardener Laura Wilson’s lessons of how sweet potatoes are grown, how to pick a turnip or cabbage leaf. They ran through garden patches with prize in hand – a freshly picked turnip – with smiles almost as wide as they were tall.

They earned a badge that day. But more important, gardeners will quickly tell you, is they learned the value of growing a garden with your own hands and what it can provide in life – not just for you, but for others.

Renee Lilly, one of the founders, talked of the personal rewards reaped in those lessons for her and her husband. “It’s a wonderful experience for me. My husband is involved, too. It’s a great thing for the community, and I’m excited the word is finally getting out,” she said, encouraging others to join them in the effort. “It really does take a village.”

Tomato Time!

The next generation of Smiths have taken over running the family farm.

Chandler Mountain comes alive
in a sea of red at Smith Farm

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller

Photos by Graham Hadley

It’s tomato-picking time again on Chandler Mountain, the unofficial Tomato Capital of Alabama, where 800 acres of St. Clair County soil are devoted to this popular food every year. For several weeks now farmers have been pulling them from the plants, packing them up and selling them to distributors and the public alike.

Picking got off to a late start this year at Smith Tomato, a fixture on Chandler Mountain for more than 35 years. Cloudy days and excessive rain pushed back the picking, which usually begins the first of July, by a week. Coronavirus pandemic permitting, it will end with a big fall festival sometime in October.

“We’re only picking 1,500 to 2,000 boxes a day now, where we’re normally doing 4,000-6,000,” Smith Tomato co-owner Kista Smith-Lowe said in mid-July. “We pick every other day because it’s more productive. We get twice as many in less time because they don’t all ripen at once.”

Picking began on July 10, and they sold out of their Number One grade the first day. “The Number Ones have no imperfections, while our Number Twos have some flaws, but they taste the same,” Kista (pronounced Keesta) said. Distributors picked up 1,500 boxes, each weighing 25 pounds, that first day, but that’s far less than a normal day’s pickings.

The Smiths grow more than 100 of the 800 acres of tomatoes planted on Chandler Mountain each year. The exact amount varies because all fields aren’t the same size, and they rotate the fields. “We have about 200 acres all together,” Kista said. “We sell directly to the public and to distributors or middlemen, who then sell to grocery stores, etc., in Florida, Texas, Mississippi, even as far away as New York and Pennsylvania.”

Kista’s parents, Leroy and Kathy Smith, purchased the Smith farm 35 years ago from her uncle, who started growing tomatoes in the 1960s. The Smith kids have added to it and now have about 200 acres, plus some leased land. “We lost both of our parents in 2018,” Kista said. She and her two brothers run the place. Kista is in charge of bookkeeping and public sales, Phillip handles irrigation and fertilization and Chad handles spraying for pests. A crew leader answers to Chad. The Smiths were raised working with their parents in the fields, and Kista’s two daughters, ages 19 and 14, are already helping in sales, restocking and in the vegetable garden.

Their parents probably grew about half what the Smiths do now because it’s easier to grow tomatoes today than it used to be. “They had to do lots more field work by hand,” Kista said. “Daddy put quality before quantity, and that’s the way we were raised. I’m super proud of what he accomplished.”

Even though harvest time lasts only three or four months, tomato farming is a year-round affair, with only a couple of months off in late fall and early winter. The process begins in February when they work on the equipment. During March and April, they break ground. In April, they start planting, and from March to October, they’re staking, tying, setting fall plants out and picking. After each setting, all the tomato plants are staked and tied at least four times.

Buckets of hand-picked tomatoes are carried to trucks for sorting.

When October rolls around, the guys clean all the tractors and winterize the equipment. Their only down time is November through January, but even then, they might be placing orders. And that’s not counting the time they’re planting cover crops like hemp, wheat, turnips and other greens for winter, to put nutrients back into the soil. “Early in the year, we spend eight to 10 hours a day working this farm,” Kista says. “Four months of year, we have 14- to 16-hour days.”

The field process starts with plowing, using a machine that digs deep into the soil and brings it up in clods. Next comes fertilizing, using spreaders pulled by tractors. Then a chisel plow with gripper feet rips the ground and loosens it, and a tiller with rotating tines turns those clods into fine dirt. A plastic machine (that’s what they call it) pushes dirt into piles to form rows, puts down drip lines (plastic tubing, part of the irrigation system), fumigates, then covers the rows with plastic sheeting. “Our dad was the first farmer on Chandler Mountain to use a plastic machine,” Kista said. The fumigation chemicals go away in two weeks, before they put down the plants. A plant setter pokes holes in the plastic and drops water into those holes.

“Our migrant workers put the plants in by hand,” Kista said. “It’s much faster than machines can do it.”

The cost to grow tomatoes is about $10,000 per acre, and that’s before picking. It costs another $3.50 per box to pick, sort and grade them, so that’s about $7,000 in boxes and packing per acre. “We strive for 2,000 boxes of tomatoes per acre per season,” Chad said. “We have had as many as 3,000, but 2,000 is our feel-good mark.”

They wait until after April 15 to start planting to be sure they’ve seen the last frost. “We’ve had to pull up thousands of plants and re-plant due to a late frost,” Kista said. “Some companies put Styrofoam cups over them to protect them from unexpected frost, but that’s costly.” Even if the tomatoes live through the cold, it stunts them, and they won’t yield as much. “They’ll be fewer and smaller and more prone to disease,” Chad said.

Theyput about 400,000 plants into the ground each year, buying the seeds and having a plant grower raise them until they are about four weeks old. “We plant, stake, string and pick by hand, with a crew of about 50 people,” Kista said. “The tomatoes areprocessed in the field, meaning they are sized, graded and boxed there.”

“There’s so much technology now, andsome larger processors have machines that can detect size and grade the tomatoes,” Chad said. “Here, we used to have machines that graded them. We would put them on belts that had different sized holes in them. We went to grading in the field because it’s better production.”

Workers were picking about a third of their normal crop in mid-July, but sunshine and an upcoming full moon were sure to help. “A full moon when tomatoes are ripening is like 24 hours of sunlight,” said Chad. “It speeds up the process.”

“It’s very tiring but very exciting work,” said Kista. “Harvest is the most exciting time, especially when we pick more than ever for one day. Sore hands and backs, from picking, lifting, repairing tractors, planting are occupational hazards for us and the crew, too.”

Theyfight worms and insects that can kill the plants, like aphids and white flies, using insecticides and fungicides that are EPA-regulated. About a third of their chemicals are organic. Chad figures fertilizers and other chemicals and the plastic sheeting and tubing probably cost $400,000 per year. “Our profits may be four or five cents a pound after costs,” he said. “That would make us a good living.”

Your turn to pick

In August, when a field has only a couple of thousand tomatoes left, the Smiths turn it into a U-Pick farm, allowing the public to pick their own tomatoes at a cheaper cost than buying them by the box or basket. “It’s not productive enough for the migrants to pick at that stage, because they generally pick 5,000-6,000 tomatoes per day,” Kista said. “Their record is 8,000.”

They usually end the season with a big fall festival the first or second weekend of October, depending upon the Bama football schedule. “We grow pumpkins and sell those and cornstalks and other outdoor decorations like acorn squash and mums,” Kista said. “We have face painting and vendors who sell food and arts and crafts. Last year, we had close to 1,000 people show up. It’s hard to count because we don’t sell tickets. It’s free.” She said they aren’t sure whether they’re having the festival or not this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, but urged readers to check their Facebook page for updates.

Cucumbers, squash and other produce are also grown and sold on the farm.

Tomatoes aren’t the only vegetables (or fruit, depending on the definition you prefer) that the Smiths sell. They grow melons, cucumbers, green beans, yellow squash, zucchini and grape tomatoes, and they buy potatoes and onions, jams and jellies out ofthe Birmingham Farmer’s Market, to sell to the general public out of their warehouse. That warehouse is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, during tomato season. They’re on Loop Road, just off Gallant Road, in Steele. (That’s 4575 Loop Road, Steele, for your GPS.)

They get anywhere from 25 to 100 customers a day, who buy for home canning and cooking. Customers can also pick up a T-shirt or baseball cap emblazoned with the Smith Tomato logo. It’s worth a trip to their warehouse just to see all the signs and symbols hanging on the walls and from the ceilings, like Farmall tractor advertisements, old license plates and kiddie pedal tractors, including one Chad drove as a youngster.

Looking ahead, the Smiths are contemplating opening a diner in two or three years. It will feature fresh, home-cooked vegetables and some sandwiches and lots of tomato dishes. Then folks can make a day trip out of shopping for fresh vegetables and eating them, too.

Now that’s something to look forward to!

Follow Smith Tomato on Facebook and online at smithtomatollc.com.

Serrell Fleming Tractor Man

Tractors line Moody Parkway between Odenville and Moody.

Saving ‘ageless iron’ from rusty oblivion

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller

Photos by Graham Hadley

If you want to see a child’s eyes light up, put them on a tractor. Better yet, take them by Serrell Fleming’s house at 8701 Moody Parkway, between Odenville and Moody, where they will have almost three dozen tractors to climb on. They can turn the steering wheels, push the buttons and play with the knobs and gear shifts without fear of reprimand. In fact, the tractors’ owner encourages such behavior.

“I take the batteries out of most of them so kids can push all the buttons without starting up the tractors,” Fleming said.

Serrell Fleming showing off one of his vintage restored Ford Tractors.

Old tractors are, as one writer put it, “the antique cars of the farm,” which makes Fleming an antique dealer extraordinaire. He has been buying and restoring old and rare ones for 45 years, simply because he likes them.

For the past 25, he has lined them up in front of his house during major holidays and invited any with an interest to drop by.

His current count is 35 standard-size tractors in his display, plus a few lawn tractors and some children’s pedal models. He puts them in his front yard for at least a week around Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day. Many are decorated with American flags. During the Christmas holidays, he displays them for more than a month beginning in early December and extending well past New Year’s Day, decorated with lights.

He replaces the batteries and puts as many as he can find drivers for in the Odenville Christmas Parade. “All of them will run,” he said proudly. During the parade, he also pulls a flatbed trailer with child-mounted pedal tractors behind his pickup truck.

Cases, John Deeres, Minneapolis Molines, Olivers, Allis Chalmers models, Fords, Farmalls and Massey Harrises cover Fleming’s yard like wildflowers, their ageless iron shining under new coats of red, blue, orange and yellow paint. There’s even a pink one, a Power King that Fleming painted to show support for the American Cancer Society, even though the color is usually associated with breast cancer awareness. “I saw one done that way at an International show at the Coliseum in Montgomery,” he said. After his wife’s death from COPD two years ago, he dedicated it to her memory. “Her favorite actually was the Oliver 440, but she didn’t want it painted because it’s more valuable like it is,” Fleming said.

Passion ignited

Fleming’s tractor passion started with buying used ones and restoring them for his own use.

Later, he began selling them, then decided to become a collector.

He often finds out about them at tractor auctions like the one on RFD-TV on Tuesdays and has been all over Alabama and parts of Tennessee retrieving them. He finds most of them within a 50-mile radius of where he lives. “I don’t find them, they find me,” he said.

When he buys an old tractor, it’s usually in pretty rough condition. “Most are basket cases,” he said. “They have been welded on and patched up and rusted so bad. The (Ford 2000) Hi Crop looked like it had been in a junk yard. I have to disassemble them, strip them (of any remaining paint) and replace parts.”

He has no trouble finding parts, sometimes through salvage yards, sometimes through Steiner Tractor Parts, a Michigan-based company that makes reproductions. A retired sheet metal worker (Hayes Aircraft), he, too, knows how to make parts when he can’t find what he needs. “When it’s using oil and smoking, I have to buy a part,” he said.

Every nut and bolt, manifold and carburetor is color-coded like the tractors: blue for Ford, orange for Allis Chalmers, green for John Deere, red for International. When the U.S. had a more agrarian-based economy, farmers bought whatever brand their local dealer had, and dealers usually specialized in one brand or another.

Fleming’s grandson, Chad Brantley, helped him research information on each of his tractors online, printed that information, encased it in plastic sleeves and attached it to the respective tractors for visitors to read. “It keeps me from having to answer so many questions,” he said. But he doesn’t mind answering a few and loves to talk about his favorites.

Tractors 101

The Oliver HG 68, for example, is a metal tractor that was used in apple orchards in Tennessee because it wasn’t easy to turn over. The Ford 2000 Hi Crop is a favorite because it’s so rare and unique. “I only know of two others, one in Leesburg,” he said. “I looked a long time for this one.” He bought it in 2018 and he’s only its second owner.

“My grandfather, Cecil Smith, bought this tractor for me to drive when I was 15,” said Mike Smith, in the printed information attached to the tractor. “It has remained in our family solely from 1964 to 2018.”

Another favorite and his rarest specimen is the Oliver 440, one of only 600 produced. He also has a rare Minneapolis Moline, one of only 137 built. “Honestly, my favorite is the one I’m working on at the time,” he said.

Then there’s the John Deere 40 All Fuel, so named because it has both a gas and a diesel tank. The one-gallon gas tank got the engine hot, then you flipped a switch to use the 10-gallon diesel. “It’s not loud, it’s a beautiful sound,” he said as he cranks up the engine and listens to it purr. “It was practical. It didn’t have a water pump because they wanted it to run hot to burn the diesel.”

Parade of visitors

Fleming is with his display from daylight to dark, watching the happy folks examining the tractors. They come from all over Alabama and nearby states, having seen the Tractor Man on Fred Hunter’s Absolutely Alabama (WBRC-Fox 6 TV) or read about him on his daughter’s Facebook page (Janice Fleming Brantley).

Others just notice his display as they drive by on Moody Parkway. This past July 4th, he even had a couple from North Dakota who were in town visiting relatives and read about the tractors in a local newspaper. He doesn’t have any way of keeping a count of visitors, because he doesn’t sell tickets, but for this year’s July 4th, he gave away all 500 of the tractor-listing sheets he had printed. He gives away bottled water during the warmer months, too.

“I plowed my garden with this one,” he told a visitor who was admiring an Allis Chalmers G. The G stands for Gadsden, where it was made in 1944. Whitt Davis, age 21 months, climbed all over the G while his mom, Jessica Davis, and granddad, Ron Chamblee, watched. “He loves tractors,” said Ron, a Springville resident. “We have to take a tractor or lawn mower ride just about every day.” Ron restores tractors, too, but not to the extent of Fleming.

Serrell loves to talk about his tractors. He knows just about everything about every machine on his property.

Abel Hilliard of Woodville, 15, visited July 3 with his dad and brother. “Dadread about it online,” Abel said. “I think it’s pretty cool. Dad has an old Farmall that he’s working on, too.”

Fleming loves watching the kids’ faces as they play on the tractors and enjoys hearing their parents’ comments, too. “Parents thank me for putting these out for them and the kids,” he said. “They say they appreciate what we’re doing here. One guy left a message on my answering machine saying he saw the tractors but couldn’t get in my driveway.”

Fleming also said the display, which is stored in a couple of sheds behind his house between holidays, is really a family thing. His daughter lives next door, helps with traffic and posts notices about the display on her Facebook page. His son-in-law helps drive the tractors out and back into the sheds, and on off days, he walks the rows of tractors, helping Fleming answer questions.A couple of neighbors keep him company under his sun tent. “There’s no way I could do all this without the help of my family,” he said.

He pauses, gazes out at the rows of tractors and the smiling faces of the visitors, and a broad grin lights up his face. “I’m so glad the young people are bringing the kids,” he said. “Tractor collectors are getting older, and we’re losing the heritage of these.”

The Tractor Man is doing all he can to maintain that heritage.

ROOdy, Springville Kangaroo

Story by Scottie Vickery
Submitted photos

Thanks to an ever-growing assortment of goats, pigs, chickens and horses, there’s always a lot going on at Caren and Danny Davidson’s Springville farm. These days, however, the place is really hopping.

That’s because the newest addition to the family, a red kangaroo named ROOdy, has stolen the hearts of all who have met him. “He makes people happy,” Caren said. “He’s got a great temperament.” Couple that with the fact that ROOdy loves to cuddle, still enjoys a good bottle and rocks the diapers he wears around the house, and there’s no doubt about it. ROOdy is definitely a cutie.

So why did the Davidsons, who host farm day experiences and goat yoga classes at CareDan Farm, decide to jump in with both feet and get a kangaroo? The credit – or blame, depending on when you ask – is all Danny’s. “He’s always trying to come up with something different,” Caren said.

Caren and Danny Davidson on vacation with ROOdy

ROOdy, who has grown by leaps and bounds in the six months he’s lived with the Davidsons, was a surprise Christmas present to Caren from Danny. A mere 11 pounds when the 7-month-old arrived at the farm, ROOdy tops the scales at about 25 pounds now. He won’t be fully grown until he’s 2 years old, though, and by then the Davidsons expect he’ll weigh about 200 pounds and stand about 4 feet tall.

“Red kangaroos are the largest kind of kangaroos – and of course, we needed the largest kangaroo,” Caren said with a laugh. In fact, red kangaroos are also the largest of all marsupials, which are mammals that continue to develop in the mother’s pouch after birth.

A soon-to-be giant marsupial was the last thing Caren expected as a gift, which she received on Christmas Eve. “It was a total surprise,” she said. Danny handed her what looked like a red duffel bag and said it was her present. “I thought it was going to be a trip or something,” she said. “I started opening the bag, those ears popped up, and I screamed.”

Her first thought was that Danny had gotten her a rabbit. “Keep opening,” he told her, a huge grin on his face. When she realized she was now the proud owner of a baby kangaroo, also known as a joey, “it took me a couple of days to wrap my mind around it,” Caren said.

 

One busy kangaroo

He may be a marsupial, but make no mistake, ROOdy is no pouch potato. In his first year of life he’s worn a lot of hats – or at least he would have if it weren’t for those ears. Since coming to CareDan Farm, he’s served as a social worker, human resources assistant, teaching assistant, wrestling team mascot and television personality.

His foray into social work came a few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was watching the news and saw how people weren’t able to visit their loved ones at nursing homes,” Caren said. “ROOdy makes everyone so happy, I wondered if we could take him to a nursing home and wave to people from outside the windows to lift some spirits.”

Friends who had contacts at nursing homes quickly made it happen, and ROOdy was an instant hit, earning him a spot on a local television news program. “They loved it, and we loved it,” Caren said of the visit. “It was a happy thing to do in a time of isolation and sadness.”

Caren, human resources director for a Birmingham law firm, and Danny, an algebra teacher and assistant wrestling coach at Moody High School, both worked from home during the pandemic, which gave them plenty of time to bond with ROOdy and watch him try out his other roles. He was quickly fired from his human resources position after he started tearing up papers, but he had better success in the virtual classroom.

After all, Danny’s students had loved hearing about the kangaroo’s exploits well before Alabama schools adopted distance learning for the remainder of the year. “They kept asking me to bring him to school,” he said. “They even started a petition, ‘Educate ROOdy at Moody.’ “An unofficial mascot for the wrestling team, ROOdy even traveled to Huntsville to cheer on the athletes during a February tournament.

Once coronavirus hit, though, the kids were thrilled to watch him online. Danny hosted three to four 45-minute Skype sessions each day to answer students’ math questions and to see how they were progressing with their assignments. “I got a lot of participation because they knew they’d get to see ROOdy,” he said. “They got to watch him grow up, and it was a lot of fun for them. The parents’ reactions were hysterical. ROOdy’s a great teaching assistant.”

 

Kangaroo care

Since ROOdy joined the family, Caren and Danny have turned into students themselves, learning everything they can about caring for him.

ROOdy lifting spirits at a nursing home

“I’ve always been fascinated with kangaroos,” said Danny, who got ROOdy from a petting zoo in Louisiana. “When they’re born, they’re about the size of a jelly bean. They aren’t fully formed when they get to the pouch, and they’re there for about six months,” he said.

ROOdy was seven months old when he came to the farm and was in the “in and out phase,” spending much of the time in one of his manmade pouches and the rest of the time exploring his surroundings. He came from the zoo with two cotton knapsack-like pouches, and a friend of the Davidsons later made him some larger ones.

“At first, he stayed in his pouch the majority of the day and got out for playtime for three to four hours,” Caren said. “Since then, he’s been transitioning from the pouch and mostly sleeps there at night.” These days, ROOdy hops around the house and yard pretty freely. “He loves to follow us around,” Danny said.

ROOdy took three bottles a day when he first arrived and was down to a nightly bottle and cuddle on the couch by spring. The Davidsons order a special milk that’s formulated for kangaroos and is made in Australia, and ROOdy also enjoys timothy grass and a dry kangaroo food that’s similar to dog food.

His sense of adventure is as big as his appetite. A week after arriving, ROOdy joined the Davidsons for a planned beach trip with Danny’s family. “We had rented a beach house, and they didn’t list kangaroos as a problem,” Caren said with a laugh. “He stayed in his pouch and our nieces and nephews loved feeding him bottles. We put a harness on him one day so we could let him hop around the sand. He liked the sand, but he did not like the harness.”

The Davidsons knew ROOdy needed to be neutered early so he wouldn’t be aggressive, and they were shocked and relieved to find the solution just a few miles away. They learned that Dr. Paul Taylor, an associate at Branchville Animal Hospital, had a little experience with kangaroos, helping to provide dental treatment to one when he was at a clinic in another state.

Neutering a kangaroo was a skill he had yet to master, however. “I always say you should do something every day that scares you,” Taylor quipped, adding that he consulted with veterinarians in Texas and Maryland, both of whom own kangaroos, before performing the procedure, which went off without a hitch. Taylor said he will continue to see ROOdy at least once a year for a check-up and shots, and he’ll do all he can to help the Davidsons care for him.

While ROOdy seems right at home in the Davidson’s house, he’ll soon have a bigger place to call home. The couple, with the help of friends, fenced off two acres for him to share with the goats. “Kangaroos are actually very heat and cold tolerant,” Caren said. “In the winter, they just need a covered shelter and straw for bedding, and in the summer, they need shade.”

Danny, especially, is looking forward to introducing ROOdy to those visiting the farm. “If people love feeding horses, goats and chickens, I know they’re going to love feeding a kangaroo,” he said.

“Our animals are our family, and we get joy out of sharing them with others,” added Caren, who admits she fell in love with the best gift she never knew she wanted. “Who knows, once ROOdy has been in his habitat for a while, and we know that he’s happy there, I could see getting one more kangaroo.”

You can find more info at myfarmday.com

Wester Farms

Odenville home to four-legged world champions

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Mike Callahan
Contributed Photos

As horse farms
go, Wester Farms in Odenville doesn’t look out of the ordinary.

A 21-stall barn
houses the horses and their tack. Several horse trailers are parked nearby.
Huge round hay bales and several square bales are stacked in a slightly smaller
barn next door, along with bales of pine shavings to line the stall floors.

The usual farm
equipment is scattered about, such as tractors, horse trailers, a backhoe, a
telehandler with 40-foot telescoping lift, a skid steer with a fork and a
walk-behind loader that is used to clean stalls.

It’s not a
glamorous place, but it is home to two very glamorous horses who have set
records in the racking horse industry. When High Sword won the World Grand
Champion title in October, Cadillac by Jazz won the Reserve World Champion
title at the same show in Decatur. Roy Wester owns both horses, marking the
first time in the history of the racking horse industry that horses owned by
the same person took the two top spots at the championship show.

High Sword,
ridden by trainer Jamie Lawrence of Vinemont, was World Grand Champion in 2014
and 2015, too, making him the only horse in racking horse history to win that
title three times. Roy rode Cadillac by Jazz in the championship competition.

Both horses
competed in qualifying classes to get to the championship level. “These two
horses won separate qualifying classes prior to competing for the World Grand
Championship that crowned the world’s best racking horse at the 48th annual
Racking Horse World Celebration in Decatur,” he says.

Racking horses
are derived from the Tennessee Walking Horse, and most are registered as both
walking and racking. About 80,000 racking horses are in the industry’s national
registry, Racking Horse Breeders’ Association of America (RHBAA), which began
in 1971 and is located in Decatur.

During show
season, which is April through November, Wester works with the
horses four or five days a week. He participates in about 20 shows per season.
During the rest of the year, colts and unfinished horses are made ready for the
next season. He raises about 20 of his own colts and buys 10-20 more starts
that he trains and re-sells.

“It’s a lot of
tough work for trainers and all involved, a lot of late nights, and you don’t
get many days off,” he says of the racking horse business. “But I just love
it.”

At 70 years
old, Wester still mounts a horse from the ground, as opposed to using a
mounting block, because he has been doing it all his life. He confesses,
however, that he lowers the stirrups to mount, then raises them to their proper
length.

His two sons
show along with him, and his wife, Joan, goes to shows and cheers them on,
helps with advertising and is the wardrobe mistress. “She dresses me,” Wester
says. But she does not ride any more. Wester has a couple of employees that
help train and show, and some of the horses are trained by Jamie Lawrence.

As many as
24-30 horses occupy the farm at foaling time, which occurs in the fall and in
the spring. Only 30 percent of his foals are born in the fall, because it’s too
expensive to winter them. Wester’s horses go through 200 round bales and 2,500
square bales per year, along with 80 pounds of pellets and corn per week, as it
is.

“That does not
include 100 round bales for the cows and 22 horses we keep in Cherokee County,”
says Wester, who owns his and his wife’s family farms there.

Retired from
Arlington Construction Co. in Birmingham, for which he built 50,000 apartment
units, until last year, Wester showed as an amateur because he
does not train horses he does not own. “An amateur can show in any class, but a professional, who trains horses for
other people, can only show in the open classes,” he explains. “I get a lot of
people every month who call wanting me to train their show horses, but I don’t
do that.”

He has won amateur Grand Champion on Cadillac by Jazz three times and
the men’s amateur four times. “Jazz has won
more blues (first-place ribbons) in his career than any horse I have ever
shown,” Wester says. “He was also a world champion Tennessee Walking Horse in
Shelbyville prior to starting his career as a racking horse in 2014. He has
been showing since he was four, and he will be 14 next spring.”

Another one of
Wester’s horses, 16-year-old Tears, was the 2016 World Grand Champion racking
horse. “I rode him myself, and I won three amateur world championships on him
and three amateur world grand championships,” he says. “I have shown Cadillac
myself since 2015 and now train him here. Both Tears and Cadillac have been
winning all their lives.”

Wester got the
horse bug from his father, who raised Tennessee Walkers with S.W. Beech Stables
in Tennessee. “We didn’t show, we just got them ready, and they (the stables)
sold them for show work,” he says. “I deal mainly with racking horses on pads
with no action device, which is a requirement for the RHBAA World Grand
Championship.”

Some of his
stallions, including the two latest champions, go to Campbell Stables in
Cullman during breeding seasons (fall and spring). “They do our shipping and
breeding,” Wester says.  “We don’t
live-cover any mares at the breeding barn. It’s all through artificial insemination,
except for the stallions who stay at my barn (Spinzone, Tears and Gen’s Rocky
Road).”

Another winner
is now enjoying life as a pet for his granddaughter and a companion for mares
and their foals. The 15-year-old sorrel gelding is José On Call, and Roy won
the 2012 men’s show pleasure championship on him. That horse’s show career
ended when Wester’s 9-year-old granddaughter claimed José as her own. She’s 16
now, and José is still her horse.

“She just pets him and rides him, she
doesn’t show him,” Wester says. “I made a lot of money on that deal, didn’t I?”

Legacy Farms

An agriculture masterpiece

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Every morning, Jackie Gleason sits on her back porch at Legacy Farms in Steele, gazes across the rolling pasture, takes in the spectacular view of Chandler Mountain, and just breathes.

The day, no matter which one it is, promises to be a full one. There are animals to feed and water, hay to bale, two full-time careers to juggle and the usual whirlwind of ball games, practices and school events that come with raising two teenage sons. For most, it would be overwhelming. For Jackie and her husband, Philip, it’s just another day in paradise.

“It’s time consuming and there’s a lot of sacrifices, but it’s worth it,” Philip said. “I don’t see myself doing anything else.”

Voted Best Farm by the readers of Discover, The Essence of St. Clair magazine, Legacy Farms has a little bit of everything. The Gleasons breed quarter horses, cattle, border collies and red heelers while also raising a menagerie that includes chickens, ducks, turkeys, a goat, a Great Pyrenees, an ever-growing collection of cats including one with six toes, and a pig named Trump who was born on Inauguration Day.

While running a working farm is a full-time commitment for most, the Gleasons aren’t the type to put their feet up. Philip is a veterinarian at Argo Animal Clinic and a member of the Steele City Council while Jackie works full-time as a pharmacist at CVS in Jacksonville. Just to make things really interesting, she recently started hosting weddings at Dayspring, her family’s farm in Springville, and has 21 events already booked for this year. 

“I don’t think there’s a day we can just sit around and relax,” Jackie said. “It’s a lot of work, and at the end of the day you’re exhausted, but you feel like you got something accomplished.”

A way of life

Farm life was an important part of both Philip’s and Jackie’s childhoods. Philip grew up on 25 acres across the street from where the couple’s home now stands. Although Jackie lived in Gadsden as a child, she spent most weekends at her grandparents’ Dayspring Farm and grew up showing horses and Simmental cattle. The couple, who married in 2002, tried living in a subdivision while their boys were young, life on the farm kept beckoning. They eventually bought Philip’s family farm and some additional acreage and made themselves a home.

“It’s such a calming place,” Jackie said. “We tell the kids, ‘learn how to slow down.’ On your worst day, if you can’t go out in that pasture and walk around and feel a little bit better, I don’t know what else could help you.”

Today, the Gleasons work about 250 acres of land between the two farms. Philip breeds Angus cattle while Jackie’s domain is the quarter horses and dogs. Rece, 16, is leaning toward a career in poultry science while 13-year-old Cade can most often be found on a tractor. “Everybody has their role out here,” Jackie said.

Her first love is the horses. “I started showing horses when I was 3 and started breeding them when I was 13,” said Jackie, adding that she has two stallions, 11 mares and 10 to 12 foals on the ground each year. These days, her pride and joy is Top Side Secret, the 17-year-old grandson of Triple Crown winner Secretariat. “He is one of three grandsons left in the U.S., and his dad is the last living son,” she said. “He’s got the best temperament, which is rare for a stallion. He’s been such a great boy, and he’ll always have a home here.”

Philip said his focus is on breeding the best Angus cattle. “We want to produce that great taste,” he said, adding that 50-60 calves are born each year. “We’re a seedstock producer; we’re producing the genetics. All of the animals have a DNA profile and everything is done by artificial insemination or embryo transfer.” While some are sold locally, Philip sends most of his bull calves – usually 25-30 at a time – to Gardiner Angus Ranch in Kansas, which markets them.

“I start at 5 a.m., then go to work and sometimes I’ve been breeding cows at midnight,” he said. “It’s a lot of work and at times it’s frustrating, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Saying “I do” to weddings

Late last year, Jackie decided to add another business venture to the mix. Although she and her father still raise cattle at Dayspring Farm and many of her horses are there, she knows the farm will be hers one day and she’ll need another source of income for it. Since its wide-open pastures nestled between two mountain ranges make for some spectacular scenery, she decided it would be the perfect place for a wedding venue.

She held her first wedding last November and hasn’t stopped since. “There’s no way I could ever sell this place, so I decided to figure out some way to make it pay for itself. I didn’t think it would take off as fast as it did. Most barn venues are barns built for weddings, but here the animals wander up to the fence and guests get to pet them. I think that’s what the draw is. We take it for granted because that’s how we grew up, but not everyone gets to enjoy that.”

Creating a Legacy

That’s what the Gleasons wanted for Rece and Cade, and it’s the main reason they decided to move back to the farm. “It’s the best thing we could have done for the boys,” Jackie said. “They may never want to raise cattle and that’s one thing, but they’ve learned to appreciate the land, the scenery and animals.”

Not long after the move, the Gleasons were in church when the sermon focus was on creating a legacy. “We looked at each other and said, ‘That’s what we’re going to name the farm,’ ” Jackie said. “Our hope is that each of the kids will get one of the farms one day. If we are going to leave a legacy for them, we wanted it to be a different lifestyle, a peaceful lifestyle.”