See Hes

Day by day events on our farm can be turned into some cartoons
(sorry if I posted some here already but I cannot find them back)

7 Stray dogs adapted and what ever came on our farm and stayed forever.
Rod Steward (his hair style gave him the name) was even brought about 20 Kilometers away because he is a loose cannon, but only two days later he was back at his favorite spot

We have on our 8 acre permaculture farm now 7 dogs.
Not the class breeds but all have a story no race breed has to tell.
 
Strays killed in the first year almost 20 chickens in one go and there are 3 packs lurking around owning a territory of 25 Squarekilometers.

Lucky me I grew up near a trainings field for police and guard dogs so the lingo is not a book with 7 seals for me.

1st I had to choose some dogs and the best way to see is feeding them. If a puppy defend her/his food even against the alpha male or bitch that is a dog I want off the street.
Scooters with side cars are the top dog bribe. Start feeding them beside the scooter and later in the side car, then make a few turns and watch the tails wiggling after just two rides.

2nd take them home and teach them playful.
Give their boundaries and intro them to all farm animals.

One of the dogs was due to be BBQ'd by a nut case and I bought her of him for 2 USD. This dog turned out to be a genious.
15 Minutes were way too short for learning and she always wanted learn more tricks.
Now 16 month old she takes matters into her paws.

"Seven (named after the store we found the guy and her) bring the chicken back!"
and she will herd the escaped chicks back into the paddock never bites but love to hit them if they playing stubborn with her paw.

Raise alarm
"The pack comes!!" ...and 7 dogs will storm without hesitation towards the strays which meanwhile gave up their territory around our farm.

They are some characters but little seven is just special.
The day she came on our farm she was the law, the toy and the scallywagg in black.
She loved from the first day to stick to me and is always this kind of happy.

Therefore the answer to the topic.
Stray dogs give me the most pleasure despite they are more challenging to teach but eventually will be great guard/farm dogs.

Picture 1 Seven (from eleven) 8 weeks and picture 2 16 month old and her habits in human words.

Beside yard long beans we grow over here in Thailand also winged Beans which are more demanding regarding soil temperature.
If you seed them when the soil temperature has reached 20 degrees celsius (68 F) they should germinate readily but 20 degrees is a minimum.

Wait when the soil is wet and cold until the time is right, seed them direct into the soil because this is always the best option for strong developing plants.
Winged beans hate to be transplanted.
If your season is too short then seed them in pots in a shelter and transplant them when they reached 10cm but don't wait longer.

We started also away from our new permaculture farm

Planting, seeding , growing,
let the strongest plants/crops survive and the dying plants be the fertilizer and mulch.
Thats the start of permaculture and will build your soil for your arrival.

Now we talk about the harvest.
Remember when you were a kid. The fruits from the neighbors were the best and of course we have always chosen the safest places where you didn't get caught.
So it might be not you who is harvesting your fruits/crops.

Here in Thailand stray dogs are abundant
(when there is no stray dog sleeping in front of the slide door to enjoy the cool air that passes with every customer of the store, then it's not a 7/eleven in Thailand)
so we gained trust of 5 nice fellows, all some kind of character and color and after the first visit on our turf they happily stayed.
We trained them a bit into the do's don't do's and now they are thankful members of the farm and no chicken or fruit gets nicked anymore.

If this helps and how to manage this in your place I can only leave to you.

The leaves should be in level with the water surface and the styrofoam should be on top floating after giving it a good steer,
hence easy to skim the major part off.

It's recommendable to get rid of it as it is bad in all ways for the soil and plants.

Hi Jodie,

Sorry to hear about your failed relationship but that should not be a point to give up.
It only makes you stronger.
I moved from Germany to Thailand and started 2021 a Permaculture Food Forest of 8 Acres only.  
(I got a thread here in the forum with my doings)
But in Thailand I also learned another thing after a broken relationship of 25 years.
The way of thinking here.
"tomorrow I go for 25 years in prison or my husband/wife left me in the afternoon..."
They will sleep the same day peacefully and tight like every other day...
They have much more of a "It is what it is" mindset than we have.

20 Acres is quite a house number for a single person, but if your ex has managed it remember the good and the bad chores he had.  
You got a running system so see where the efficiency is lacking and where the work input is literally a waste of time.
But stay aware that sometimes low efficiency is beneficial.
Example: for labor intensive crops you will always fetch a higher price so even these take a lot of your time it might be worth to keep them.

Are you now a full time farmer or still working in a regular job?

If people ask for a plant ID I always recommend to add the location.

Passiflora edulis var flavicarpa (up to 4" fruit size) or the invasive Passiflora laurifolia (Water Lemon, up to 2" fruit size) comes to my mind...

The answer what you can plant is easy but also bears one mistake many do.

The right approach is what would I like to eat (or family)
Then know how the tree canopy will develop and where are spots with shade or dappled shade in the future.
(I was is Pasadena once and it's warm in Summer with relatively fair winters, hence things grow faster than in the north)
Last is to know can your chosen plants grow in these conditions and even better if they are companion plants for your fruit trees.

A complete guild or single guilds make no difference beside all nutrients and water will probably better distributed to the benefit or all trees and plants.

If you not touch (control) the spot a guild creates by itself (not so neat arranged and sure not the plants you want. But definitely its a guild too)

One thing you need to make sure that you not raise the soil around the planted trees as they may struggle and in the worst case they eventually die, because the roots are too deep.

Mother nature's solution should be found in your "woods".
Check what's there and what has died over the time.

A fallow piece of land will develop.
1st the pioneers like nitrogen fixer and ground cover like grasses
Small trees getting platend by all kind of animals (squirrels, bird dropping...) and one day they will outgrow the pioneers and grasses, that's your forest.
Because mother nature always creates a forest as final product. You are just fitting it into the forest you want.

Nice one!

After 3 years having Chickens we cut the amount from 300 all way down to 30 birds and give our 2400 sqm (25,900 sqft)  paddocks a complete makeover and implement all lessons learned.

Especially our Barred Plymouth Rocks are egg eater so some roll out boxes need to be made.

We want make most things needed by ourself and this idea is based on words, an old farmer tought me als school kids were still allowed working 12 hrs in their holidays.

Boys, you see all the bits and pieces behind the shed?
These make a successful farmer like I am.
These bits and pieces were worth a try but ended as failed projects.

so here we go.
The first Project will be a safe coop and with fenced outside feeding terrace.
Yellow lights keep Mossies at bay (Lemon Balm and Lemon Grass failed..
Locked against theft (we lost about 20 over the time)

...and to follow the topic, a chicken pit (they call it here in Thailand)
I believe that this coop under shading trees with deep litter bed shoots two brids with one bullet.  Compost for the food forest and even more happy chickens in a more comfortable accomodation.

Efficient and a clever reuse of difficult waste I must admit...

...and you haven't got venomous spiders where you live, do you? For them it must be a 5 Star hideout.

just as an add as most people don't know the difference:

You bite it and you give up your ghost = Poisonous
It bites you and you give up you ghost = venomous