If you're looking for a graceful old mansion with tall, white columns at Weeks Bay Plantation, you won't find it. The scenic property just west of Magnolia Springs is a lot of things, but it's really never been a "plantation" in the traditional sense.

So while it's not historic in an Old South manner, the place has made a lot of history of its own since the year 2000. That's when Tynes Stringfellow, a native of Mountain Brook, Alabama, took ownership in part because of his love of water skiing, of all things. Besides having many acres of farmland, the so-called plantation is also home to a 10-acre spring-fed lake that he says is quite conducive to the aquatic sport he has loved since he was a teenager more than half a century ago. And it's actually what brought him to this area in the late 1970s, long before he discovered the enchanting acreage adjacent to the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and decided to make it his own.

"I came down with some friends, and I skied with them, and we went up and down these rivers, and there wasn't anybody," Tynes recalls. "There were only two houses on the Magnolia River, and there were about four or five on the Fish River. You could ski from one end to the other, buck naked at night, barefoot if you wanted to."

Once he relocated here, he started a business, Jubilee Landscape, Inc., that continues to prosper after 46 years. Back then, he says, there was one other landscaping company (owned by Wayne Lambert), and it took five dollars and a driver's license to get the permit required to become a landscape contractor in Baldwin County. He figures there's probably just a small handful of landscapers in the area that haven't worked for him at one time or another.

Many know Weeks Bay Plantation for the organic blueberries it has produced for years, and also for the many musical events it has hosted. With the lake as a backdrop, a wooden stage faces a grassy slope that serves as something of a natural amphitheater in a pastoral setting. After the Blooms & Brews Spring Fest last month, visitors have another opportunity to enjoy spending time on the grounds at the Essential Rhythms Music Festival coming up this Saturday and Sunday. The two-day event is designed to raise awareness regarding mental health issues. Its musical lineup includes The Krickets, Paw Paw's Medicine Cabinet, Nerf the World, John Hart Project, Destiny Inbound, Chris Spies & Quantum Mechanics, Brynnevere, Matthew Jacquette, Molly Thomas and the Rare Birds, Tensaw Jones, and East L.A. Fadeaway.

Tynes and his wife, Heather Rothstein, are big-time music lovers, so this is one of their favorite ways to open their property up to others.

"We're both kind of live music junkies," Heather says. "We chase the Red Clay Strays everywhere, and whoever's playing within a two-hour radius, we'll jump in the car and go see them."

Her passion in part stems from her own family history. Though she grew up in Louisiana and Texas, she descends on her mother's side from the Normand family of musicians that performed regularly at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear from 1941 to 2000. She's a singer who performed regularly in New Orleans, as part of the band Category 5 and other acts, at such popular venues as Famous Door, Bourbon Street Blues Company, and Razoo.

If you're there for the music festival, you might be able to sample some of the blueberries that Weeks Bay Plantation is widely known for, but that's kind of up to the birds. For many years, the farm grew tons of organic blueberries and shipped them to retailers around the state, but that changed when grocers and other buyers began sourcing cheaper organic varieties grown in Mexico, says Tynes. They've grown other crops over the years, including tomatoes and organic hemp, but have maintained 1,500 blueberry bushes to make them available to the public on a "pick-your-own" basis. Unfortunately, huge numbers of birds also find the sweet little fruits irresistible.

"It's been like an apocalyptic bird takeover the last few seasons," says Heather. "It started with the cedar waxwings, and then came the crows." They've taken many different approaches to tackling the problem, she says. One of them, which worked well for a while until the birds got used to it, was a loudspeaker system that played the frightening sounds of eagles and hawks. As other defense measures, they have flown kites to try to ward off the hungry birds, as well as mannequins dressed in bright colors and a motion-detecting sprinkler system.

"We've tried everything," she says. "I've even been out there at 4 a.m. with my dogs trying to run the birds off. I can't describe what it's like to get so many phone calls and have to tell people I'm really sorry I can't open up for business because the birds have eaten our crops. For two to three years, I've had to do this. It's devastating."

A two-story grain silo on the property serves as their office, and a smaller one houses the laundry facilities for guests at the four Airbnbs on site. One is a converted Airstream trailer that's recently been renovated, two are quaint cabins, and another is a two-bedroom rental called the Lake House.

 "It offers a birds-eye view of the lake, and when it hasn't rained for a while, it's crystal clear, and you can see so many fish," Heather says. That would include lots of largemouth bass and some crappie, as well as a tarpon that Tynes believes must have been stocked accidentally by an osprey or eagle passing overhead. "At night, you can hear what I call the frog symphony," says Heather. "We've actually had people come out and record them because of all of the different species that you can hear."

Besides the fish and frogs and all the different kinds of birds flying around, guests may also notice the jump ramps in the water as well as the buoys that outline a slalom course. Tynes never got that love of skiing out of his system. In fact, he has continued to race competitively in regional championship tournaments, often bringing home trophies, ribbons, and medals. He's found that the conditions on his lake are even more conducive to the sport than those of the mostly deserted rivers that drew him here from the Birmingham area long ago.

"The pH in this water, for some reason, is perfect for skiing," he says. "It's so fast behind the boat, yet in the turns it's slow."

People driving along U.S. 98 past Mary Ann Beach Road often see the sign pointing the way to Weeks Bay Plantation and will turn down the road in search of what they figure is a famous local tourist attraction. There's no gate at the end of the driveway, so they are welcome to come and have a look around, even if no one is there, and many people do.

Lately, they may see another sign, the one that's offering the place for sale. Depending on what happens, this could mean the closing chapter of a story that spans a quarter-century of Tynes' life and the last eight of Heather's. When he bought the place, it was 112 acres, and he has downsized over the years through various transitions.

"First, it was Red Roof Landing Farms, which was a tree farm, and then we survived three hurricanes in the same year, and then we started L.A. Berry Farm," he says. "Then it was in 2011 or 2012 that it became Weeks Bay Plantation. That's when we planted 20 acres of blueberries, which were 13,870 plants, and now there are about 3,000."

But even though it's on the market, they're not planning to give it up entirely. In fact, Tynes says, he just recently ordered another thousand blueberry plants. They're of a variety that ripens earlier, before the intense summer heat that tends to zap a lot of the fun out of picking them.

"There are 46 total acres, and I want to keep 16," Tynes says. "That would include our office and the Airbnb stuff and my one little field, so I can maintain my little blueberry business. And whoever buys it can have all the blueberries they want to eat."