Finally worked my way through weeding the garden. It took 4 days, 2-3 hours per day. I start before 9AM and hang it up by 11AM – totally drained. This is down on your hands and knees pulling weeds up by the roots. I keep a 5 gallon paint bucket beside me to collect the weeds and then dump that onto the compost pile. After this marathon weeding event, the two compost piles are loaded. Loaded means 3’ x 6’ x 5’ – 90 cubic feet. That will shrink down as the new stuff deteriorates but it’s getting to be a monster job turning it. I’ve never had this much compost at one time and I may have gone over the top. It’s been alternating hot and wet for the past couple of weeks which aids the decomp but still…………….

I did a mildew check on the dock after painting a few boards with bleach. Compared to the Wet and Forget soaked area and find both to be performing about the same. Supposedly the regular bleach is fast acting whereas the Wet and Forget operates continuously for months. We’ll see. It’s actually looking pretty good. I spend quite a bit of my time on the dock – reading, playing with the laptop, and fishing since it’s always a few degrees cooler than up at the house.

The garden is really suffering this season. It’s either cool and very wet or very hot/very dry. The poor plants are totally confused and struggling just to stay alive. The bumper crop are the sunflowers – which was an accidental planting. Maybe somebody was trying to tell me something.

I dodged a bullet the other day with an annual visit to the eye doc. Last year they told me I was going to need cataract surgery sooner rather than later. He said “you’ll know when it’s time”. Well no little bird told me I needed them so I went to this meeting expecting to hear it was time. Nope. It was a new doc and he said I probably had another year before it would become a problem. Now if the urologist gives me the same kind of slack……………..

I hit the beach Monday after dropping Nancy off at the bridge club. I really expected to last only a half hour or so before the heat knocked me over but was pleasantly surprised to find a nice light onshore breeze, probably 10 degrees cooler than on the mainland. The surf was quite moderate so I could stand about knee deep in the water and just enjoy the whole thing. Even caught a couple of fish. What more could a guy want.

I think the Wet and Forget that I sprayed on the dock is starting to work.  It was really deeply mildewed and I had my doubts as to the effectiveness of W&F as compared to bleach.   This is less harsh and reacts over a long period of time as opposed to instant reactions.    The wood is definitely getting lighter and is no longer black black.   I think I’ll wait another week or so and then give it another dose.   I also painted a couple of badly mildewed planks with bleach and will compare the results over time.  I used regular bleach and not “outdoor” bleach so it may not work as well.  We’ll see.   

After the memorial service for Bob on Thursday, we decided to go home through Sanford and avoid the mess on the interstate.  It was raining to add misery to the drive so we decided to take a break at Celery City Brewery in downtown Sanford.   We’d been there once before quite some time ago and remembered that they had an ok snack menu to go along with a really large selection of brews.   We ordered a cheese plate along with a blood orange wheat beer for me and a Tomoka blonde for Nancy.   We each had a beer and then we decided to order another blond to split (since it was still raining a little).  Just as we were getting our stuff together to leave, the bartender brought us two more which we hadn’t ordered.   Turns out a young fellow standing beside us had bought us another round.   Just to be nice he said.   Turns out he’s a nurse with a wife and a 3 year old daughter and we had another nice 20 minutes.   I had him drink one of the two he had bought and we split the other one.   We ended up getting home just before dark.  

My routine has been nominally the same for a couple of years now regarding our trips to Palm Coast.   Nancy plays bridge there Mondays and Fridays with an occasional Wed thrown in.   I drop her off and then go to the beach to fish.  That involves going over the Dunes bridge and paying a $2 toll from the mainland to the beach.  There is no toll on the return.   On this last trip there was a sign saying you could buy 10 trips for $10 which sounded good to me.   I went into the office to buy a pass and the guy asked me how often I went over the bridge.  He then said I should get a regular pass based on my level of activity.  I had always seen people flashing passes but thought it applied to residents of Palm Coast, Hammock Dunes or all of Flagler County.  None of which applied to me.  Turns out a residence requirement was a figment of my imagination and I could buy trips for $0.25 using Express Pass.   So I bought $20 worth, 40 trips.  They’ll email me when my balance gets low.  How sweet is that!

Nice Father’s day event at Toms.   He smoked/grilled wings and ribs to compliment some really great sides created by Tina – along with a spectacular dessert.      

I painted the top of the old picnic bench. Nancy wanted it red, I wanted it white so we compromised and made it red. That side area on the dock had really gotten heavy with mold but I never paid much attention to it. That’s the area that Simon popped through last month and where Johnny did the repairs so a part of it looked new while the majority was ugly. I decided to try to correct that by first taking a paint/grill scraper to attack the really heavy mold and following up with an anti-fungal spray, Wet and Forget. I’ve used that stuff for years and it does work and requires a minimum of physical labor. You just mix it with water in a spray bottle and dose it. That’s it. The mold/mildew dies off gradually as opposed to overnight so you just have to have patience with it. That’s my strong suit so I’ll go sit on the dock everyday and look in on it. If nothing happens in a month or so, I’ll try bleach. I’m debating with myself whether to paint/stain the area when the mold is gone.

The awning guy came by and installed the recovered units – good as new. There not exactly the same color but close enough.

The report is in and May was the hottest/driest May on record for Florida. I didn’t remember ever having it like this and the published numbers agree. But it finally broke early in June and the rains came down. We’ve had several storms blow through in the past week that dropped 2+” of rain. So now the upper 90’s have dropped back to the lower 90’s and the humidity has gone from 30% back up to 80% where it’s supposed to be. I notice it dramatically in the lake where the level was dropping quickly but starting rising again last week. The forecast is for more rain all this week.

If I buy a genuine Hawaii’n pineapple, cut the top off, replant it in Florida – is the resulting fruit a Florida pineapple or a Hawaii’n?

We attended a memorial service for an old friend yesterday. We met the Sloboda’s back in the late ’60’s when we lived in Altamonte Springs. Bob was 88 and succumbed to lung cancer. He was a Marine so was accorded a military service and the playing of Taps. Very moving. Bob loved the lake and was up here for a few events so we’re going to plan to throw one with Dottie and their kids – all of whom live in Florida.

I pulled off the greatest magic trick ever. Turned eggplant into sunflowers. I guess it’s remotely possible that I mixed up the seeds but how likely is that? I guess it’s also possible that I’m growing eggplants that are 6’ tall. Time will tell.

Another lake water rescue. The same girls that lost control of their pontoon boat a few weeks ago did it again. I just happened to be sitting at the computer and looked up at the lake and saw the boat drifting by. We had just experienced a brief rain and wind event and I guess they lost control. I watched for a few minutes to see if they figured out anything and then walked down to the dock and yelled over to see if they needed any help. They did so I dropped the jon boat into the lake, powered over to them and attached a line. The wind had calmed so it wasn’t too difficult go get them back to their dock. They seem not to understand the concept of charging their battery. Their mother was paddling a kayak out to help but not sure what she could have done. “Thanks again Mr. Joe for rescuing my daughters.”

We tried a new brewery (to us) in Ormond on Friday after bridge and after our regular trip to Moonrise Brewery. It’s called, not surprisingly, the Ormond Beach Brewery. It was located in a warehouse park and difficult to find but we persevered and finally found the door. It has a nice outdoor beer garden and was rockin’ and rollin’ when we got there. I liked it, especially the strawberry wheat beer, but my bride was not as enthused. We left just as a band was cranking up – knowing it would be hard on the ears. Moonrise is a bit more “intimate” and Nancy has found an oatmeal brew she likes. We tried the nacho’s there – really good if a bit spicy for Nance.

We had a great Saturday. I hooked up with Tom and we fished the Tomoka River. He’d been fishing it for the past couple of weeks with great success so we broke one of my cardinal rules and went fishing on a Saturday. It was fine – not much river traffic and great fishing. The Tomoka is fun because it connects to the intracoastal – salt water – but goes far enough West to change over to fresh water. So we catch both salt water and freshwater fish. We caught largemouth bass and snook this time and saw a few rolling tarpon. Nothing too big but plenty of action. We also had a manatee encounter with one literally bumping the boat – that’s alway exciting. While we were doing our thing, Joey came up to the lake and took Nancy shopping in the Daytona area. While here, he mowed the yard – saving me from doing it in the current heat wave. Got the dock ladder finished and Joey helped me get it back in the lake. Gave it a small trial by stepping down a few steps -seemed very sturdy and party ready.