Welcome to Scuttlebutt Farm, since you are here I presume you wanted to know more about who we are.

First off, my name is Mark Carroll. Like many small business owners (even though I am not one at this point), I manage the activities at Scuttlebutt Farm to include the website, coordination with local neighbors and such. Additionally, I garden and care of our livestock and some of our pets.

I joined the Navy as a young guy, retired from that life in San Diego, and moved, not to the mountains but to Scuttlebutt Farm where I expect to live to be no less than 150 years old. Hopefully, I will get to meet many neighbors over the course of my residency.

My wife LaDonna is very involved in Scuttlebutt farm and it’s activities, perhaps more on her later. We have been married since 1988 and we have three adult children who reside in the Hampton Roads area.

So, why did we call it Scuttlebutt Farm?

In total we maintain almost 4 acres, which is a lot of work and we are still adapting to it. After 23 years in the Navy. I wanted to get away from being told what to do all the time, or telling others what to do. Until you have sacrificed your freedom, perhaps you never really understand what it means to be free. In my case I wanted some freedom to determine how I live. I thought after my military career that I wanted to buy a piece of property, build a large fence, and tell the whole world to kiss my ass! When I retired from the Navy in 2010, that was the plan.

As I developed an affinity for nature and natural processes , I began to heal finding rejuvenation in learning to grow plants. Through dirt or soil therapy, I determined that my initial plan was not sustainable, secure, or what I desire for my family friends or myself. So, I looked inward at who I want to be.

I want to be secure and confident in my relationships with nature and mankind. Security does not come from large fences, it comes from valued neighbors and beneficial relationships as well as knowledge and skills which can never be rescinded, stolen, or outlawed. Really it comes from what you know within, to include how to create or recreate it, if or when desired or needed. Okay, enough of this philosophical deter.

What is a scuttlebutt?

In the Navy during the times of sails, the work was hard and the down-time limited. The modern Navy has that in common, but back then, when sailors took a break, they had little to do but hydrate and talk. Note that some may have consumed water, but grog or watered down rum was very popular. Rum or other liquids like water were stored in Scuttles or Casks. When a break was permitted the butt end would be tapped and used to dispense drink. Hence the word Scuttlebutt. Note, sometimes it was not necessarily the butt end, it just seems most likely where the word originated.

So what about gossip? Yes, gossip is also referred to as scuttlebutt. When you are confined on the deck of a ship drinking during a break without a cell phone at sea, what is there to do but tell stories? Many times stories were dramatically embellished to curry the favor of your shipmates. Perhaps Sailors were at one time some of the best storytellers. Though water fountains on ships are still called scuttlebutts, there is little time to gather and tell stories there in a passageway and there are a lot more options like soda, energy drinks, etc, so water and the scuttlebutt are much less central to a modern Sailors life.

Are we there yet? What does that have to do with the name Scuttlebutt farm? Prior to buying my first house I determined that Scuttlebutt Farm should be a place “Where people come together, to Learn, Grow, and Share the Joy of living”. I had no idea what it would look like, but our description of what we were looking for or perhaps through divination by our realtor, the first location we looked at, introduced us to what we now know as Scuttlebutt Farm.

We hope to bring more people to this location to learn about plants, to grow there knowledge, and to share the Joy in life. We should have started a guestbook or log of visitors when we purchased this property in 2017. Perhaps 2025, late, is better than never.

Our website like this one is still under development, but located here Scuttlebutt.farm

We will start an online guest book for visitors in 2025, but it will include only those who visit.

Additionally, have an interest in family research and assist with Researchfamily.net