bizarre house west of homestead (interior, place, maps)

[cixcell]

awesome. i know someone who lives right by there who also grew up here. i will ask him for more details next time i see him. also have you ever seen the abandoned radio tower by chekika?
pretty creepy place with all the rat skulls
Hurricane Andrew Abandoned Radio Tower - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/94556645@N00/sets/72157600024780312/ - broken link)

[cixcell]

malevo: its a shame because that house you photographed really should be preserved. its fantastic. its so very retro futuristic.

[perry335654]

I think it once was a hippie commune.

[tallrick]

If they would sell it for a fair price I would consider buying it and fix it up to resell to a friend who can really use it! We know, however that Miami area property owners would prefer to let it rot than sell it for a fair price.

[cixcell]

Originally Posted by tallrick

If they would sell it for a fair price I would consider buying it and fix it up to resell to a friend who can really use it! We know, however that Miami area property owners would prefer to let it rot than sell it for a fair price.

this is true. maybe someday south florida will stop being dysfunctional enough to preserve these properties. there is a fascinating property in the keys too that was originally run by a retired engineer from chicago who set up a series of cisterns and pumps to irrigate the island to grow tropical fruit from southeast asia in the frost free conditions of the florida keys. he originally moved there to do 3D underwater photography of an offshore reef but caught the tropical fruit bug. i still wish i someone knew how the whole thing operated. now its essentially just a mosquito factory.

[tallrick]

Before moving to Key Largo I was trying to buy a home with a huge concrete packing house that was part of a former mango grove. It was located near the Tamiami airport with a junk yard next door. I had scraped together 100K to buy the place, but (of course) it was not enough. Funny because the entire property including the grove had sold for 65K back in 1970 and I was only after the 5 acre home and warehouse. It ended up sitting vacant for years till hurricane Andrew roughed it up, then sometime around 2000 the whole area was cleared and redeveloped for homes and commercial property. The last time I saw the place in 1998 it had been stripped of metal, graffiti covered and probably used for paintball. The shed was burned down. One part of the property is fenced off as a "protected natural area".

[tallrick]

Originally Posted by cixcell

this is true. maybe someday south florida will stop being dysfunctional enough to preserve these properties. there is a fascinating property in the keys too that was originally run by a retired engineer from chicago who set up a series of cisterns and pumps to irrigate the island to grow tropical fruit from southeast asia in the frost free conditions of the florida keys. he originally moved there to do 3D underwater photography of an offshore reef but caught the tropical fruit bug. i still wish i someone knew how the whole thing operated. now its essentially just a mosquito factory.

Is that the one on Big pine?

[Bjorn_Ironside32]

Originally Posted by malevolencea

I went the other day. Unfortunately, many vandals have beat me to it.

Abducted by Aliens - 08.16.2011 | Facebook

Creepy.

[perry335654]

If you see some goofy-looking people with antennas in their head, run like hell and call the authorities.

[cixcell]

Originally Posted by tallrick

Is that the one on Big pine?

thats the one. adolf grimal was the guys's name. hes sort of the a mystery man in the tropical fruit circles in south florida. lived sort of a hermit existence. he spent so much time on his own that it would take a few minutes for him to formulate an answer when you asked him a question because he lived life at his own pace. he used calipers when grafting and his grafts were of mechanical precision. ive been trying to preserve some of the trees on the property for a long time now but that cold front winter before last really did a number on them. there are a few trees there that are rare even internationally. one is from an unknown location in the philippines and another is from the jungles of borneo. fortunately there are a number of specimens in hawaii as well now. our climate is less than ideal for these special trees. there is also a forgotten tree i believe may exist at the kampong, a very rare fruit from the middle of the congo. not sure if its still there after that cold though or where it exists on the property.