A couple of folks asked if I was going to ever post again.   I didn’t know anybody was really tracking it so here goes.

We’re here for 20 years now and things are reaching end of life.   This month we had an A/C semi crash; an attic fan died; and a lightning blast that took out the controller for the well pump – so we were out of water last Friday night.   The repair guy for the A/C assured me that the unit was in good shape and way better than any new one I could purchase.  We never went without A/C.   Several service people have told me the same thing – new A/C units are maintenance headaches – just not as good as the old ones.   $250.    Ditto the attic fan.   I had it replaced by a friend who operates a home repair business.   $250.   The well guy was here first thing Saturday morning and we were only without water for only a few hours.  Brand new controller which he assured me was better than the old one.   $300.    But the drama from the lighting strike was not done.   We got home from Nancy’s bridge game on Monday with a few things to put into the shed.  I noticed a puddle under the chest freezer and quickly figured out that there was no power.   I tracked it down to an extension cable that was fuse protected.  The fuse worked and once I reset the breakers, the freezer was up and running.   There were still frozen water bottles that I put in all the freezers to protect against exactly what happened so none of the food had thawed out.   $0.   The interesting data point that comes out of this is that the lightning strike was about 5PM on Friday and I found the freezer thawing on the following Monday about 5PM- so the stuff in the freezer was still viable after 3 full days and the ice bottles were still frozen.

On the positive side – this year’s winter/spring garden produced prodigiously and the summer goodies are off to a great start.   Our new  neighbors are definitely into eating from the garden and have actually started another one.   Our winter successes included all the standard greens – kale, collards, lettuce, spinach, and chard. Kohlrabi was outstanding plus fennel which I had never tried before; roots including beets, turnips, carrots and radishes.   Prior attempts to grow beets and turnips have been less than successful.   Not so this year – for whatever reasons.   And somehow I nursed along several bell pepper plants so we had a steady stream all winter.  The summer stuff is looking good so far but it usually does this early in the season.   Lots of zucchini type squashes.   They usually start well but have trouble handling our heat and humidity.   Lots and lots of tomatoes.   Same comment.   What’s looking good so far is a surprised squash crop – acorn and butter nut.   We eat those varieties from Publix and throw the seeds along with the skins into the compost pile.   Sometimes, they actually sprout and I move them from the compost pile to the garden.   For whatever reasons, this year they are doing exceptionally well.   The real surprise crop are the beans – bush and pole.   I planted one small row, a 10’ long, 3’ wide space using a variety I had never heard of but sounded interesting.   Wow!   Between us and the neighbor we are eating more than you would think we could and they just keep coming.   As a closer, since this has worked out so well with the new neighbors, I ordered the seeds for next fall.