THREE RIVERS AREA — Friends of the birds, they are. Debbie and DeWayne Jolly of Calico Rock’s Jollywood Farms are committed to preserving the nature found on their 40 acres, but the birds have brought them unexpected joy. Through the couple’s handmade suet box feeders, they are promoting awareness of the bounty found in the Ozarks woods and hills and encouraging others to nurture their fellow two-winged friends.
The farm turns out crops during the warm months, but, as in all things the Jollys endeavor, the task of farming revolves around conservation.
“We’re turning a lot of our land that was cleared back into natural grasses, and we are also re-planting trees,” Debbie said.
But the discovery of the birds has been a surprise blessing, she said.
“Oh, my goodness, I’ve seen birds I’ve never seen in my life living here,” she said. “We have literally hundreds of humming birds although this past year the numbers have declined.”
Some of the varieties common on their acreage are tanagers, Baltimore orioles and water birds.
“The water birds fly over because we’re close to the river — not road wise but as the crow flies,” she said. “Once, an osprey got one of our chickens.”
Surrounded by national forest on three sides, their property is an oasis for the birds. With a view of Sugarloaf Mountain from their window, the Jollys enjoy watching the birds who visit.
“I have thistle seeds for the goldfinches and a dish with sunflower seeds for the juncos, cardinals and finches, but the suet boxes feed the bluebirds and the different woodpeckers such as the Hairy and the smallest woodpecker in North America, the Downy,” Debbie said.
The suet box feeders have become a hit at the local farmers market. DeWayne uses his carpentry skills to reclaim Ozark cedar downed on his property during the 2009 ice storm, and Debbie came up with a suet recipe to include with each feeder sold.
“We were without power for two and half weeks, so it’s nice to be able to use some of that timber. He’s built some birdhouses, too, but he hasn’t included those in the product line yet,” Debbie said.
Those Kodak moments at the birdfeeder have inspired her to create notecards from the growing collection of photos she’s taken of her small, winged visitors.
The lifestyle they envisioned when the Jollys moved to Arkansas five years ago is a hard row to hoe.
“The land is rich in beauty, but the people are poor,” Debbie continued. “We’re really off the beaten path, and it’s hard for people to live here and to survive with the economy like it is.”
Still, they are in love with the area.
“We were living on the South Carolina coast at the time we traveled to Arkansas to see this one piece of land, and we didn’t know how we were going to make it work, but we fell in love with the land as soon as we saw it,” she said.
DeWayne, a cabinet and furniture maker, and Debbie, a home health nurse with experience in the film industry, have worked hard at trying to make a living off the land and become self-sufficient, she said.
Selling the suet feeders and the notecards helps them to diversify, and that’s the key to self-sufficiency, especially during the winter when there’s not a lot going on,” she said.
DeWayne keeps busy with his woodworking, and his emphasis, besides the suet feeders, has been benches also made from the felled timber.
Although the farming genes skipped a few generations, both Debbie and DeWayne claim their families were never far from the tilled earth.
“His family always kept a large garden,” Debbie said, “and my grandparents inspired me. I visited them every summer and ran in their fields.”
Farmer Debbie knew she’d be happiest with her hands in the dirt.
“I’m proud there’s not been any chemicals on our soil,” she said. “They always say do what you love, so that’s what I’m trying to do. I have a love for native plants, and people are very interested in that right now because they want to plant something they know will survive and thrive.”
In addition to her vegetables and herbs, she keeps 26 hens and two roosters and supplies a steady stream of eggs to local customers with the help of Cleo, a black lab who helps her corral the hens so she can collect the eggs.
Always up to learning new farming tricks, Debbie has added red pepper seed to the chicken feed.
“It really does warm them up and improves production during the wintertime,” she said.
Around town her eggs are prize possessions. She can’t put her finger on the oddity of producing triple-yolked eggs, but the first time DeWayne cracked a big egg in the skillet, out popped three yolks.
“Mostly, we have a lot of double yolks,” she said. “We wish we knew which of the hens lays the triple yolks, but folks around here really love the novelty and the fact that our eggs really sit up nicely.”
Debbie has a stock pile of organic pesto she keeps in her freezer, made from her summer herbs.
“And I have some dried red pepper,” she said.
Future plans include renting out a bunk house to nature groups and birders who sometimes travel great distances for the chance to “tick” or check bird varieties off their search list.
Jollywood Farms affords the opportunity for visitors to revel in the bounty of the Ozark Mountains where Debbie and DeWayne Jolly are featherless members of the flock.
To see more on Jollywood Farms or to place an order, check out their page on www.stonecountyfarmersmarket.com, e-mail Debbie at jollywoodfarm@gmail.com or call (870) 214-1953.