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.

Worked the last couple of weeks on spiffing up the dock.  Painted the whole thing in three sessions, each session with a gallon of deck paint.   Really looks nice.  Then I focused on the jungle around the dock.   Looks better than new.    I had several yard art items that I had set up down there and had grown into the landscaping over the years.   I retrieved them, gave them a good cleaning and put them back in their places.    The other task was to improve the path between the dock and the neighbors on both sides.   We had a wind storm a few weeks ago that brought down a ton of leaves and pine needles.   Joey and Mark raked those up into large piles along with needles on the roof and in the gutters.    Then I top the path with the needles.   I’m about 3/4 of the way finished – waiting for another storm to bring down a finishing load of debris. I’m going to try to keep up with it this time so it doesn’t get back into the jungle mode – forest path ok, jungle trail not.

The garden is producing prodigious amounts of veggies and the new neighbor is a good picker.  Gretchen is a vegan and not shy about harvesting greens.  And she’s still bringing over vegan desserts – this week a loaf of banana bread, still warm out of the oven.   The weather has been perfect with no need to cover or water.  It’s cool enough to hold the bugs down.  Lovin’ this global warming.   I’ve started second plantings as an area is harvested so I’m really space limited right now.  On my third round of turnips which turned out to be the surprise crop of the season.   They’re nice to grow because they germinate in only a couple of days and then are ready to pick within 2 months so if I plant a row or patch monthly, there’s a continuous supply. It’s also a nice crop because you can eat both the root and the greens.  We’ve always mashed them with carrots but this year tried using sweet potatoes instead of or in addition to the carrots.   Really tasty and nutritious. 

The weather has been perfect for the garden – cool evenings, mild afternoons, loads of sunshine and an occasional light rain.   The plants are under no stress and the bugs are mostly gone.   We’re picking turnips, lettuce and herbs – rosemary, basil and parsley.   A few wild cilantro plants popped up and are now residing in the herb section.   I grew some cilantro from seed a couple years ago and they have propagated on their own ever since.   Before Christmas we should be harvesting greens including spinach, swiss chard, and Kale.   The tomato and pepper plants are loading up with fruit but it’s always a game with the weather – will it freeze, how deep a freeze???

Still no spec’s to amount to anything from the dock.   I hit it a couple times a day just to make sure and have several rods complete with spec gear ready to go on a moments notice.  

After repairing the dock, (thanks Mark) replacing rotten planks with new ones, I decided it was looking strange with so many generations of planks side by side.  It needed a paint job so I decided to attack that one on my own.   The first step was to scrub it down with strong soap and bleach to kill off any mildew.  That’s a down on your hands and knees with a scrub brush kind of job.   Sounds easy enough but I forgot how caustic the mix was and really burned my hand.   It started blistering, with blood and swelling.   What a mess.   I called Olivia in Knoxville for an emergency consult.  She was in a class but answered immediately.   She prescribed putting it in an ice bath and coating it with hydro cortisone.    Two days later the swelling is way down but still painful.   I added raw aloe to the treatment and plan to tough it out for a couple days.   I checked with the pharmacist at Publix and he said the same thing as Olivia.  I wasn’t checking on her, rather checking on him.

I bought a gallon of deck paint – not the cheapest- and dedicated most of the day to painting.  I got it about 90% complete before running out of paint but that’s easily corrected and it looks so good that I’ll just continue on and do the outside swim decking as well.   It’ll take another gallon to do all that.  I decided to jump on the job because the weather is absolutely perfect – mid 70’s, 50% humidity and no rain in the forecast.

Had a very busy weekend starting with the dock.   We’re having holiday company and I anticipate some time spent there so I wanted it to be “freshened”.   That meant repairing/replacing some rotten deck planks.   Joey and Mark came up on Saturday and attacked it with vigor.   To start I walked around pressing down on suspect boards to determine whether or not they needed replacement.  I pressed one and went right through.  So I was down on the dock with my leg dangling into the lake – so the job was properly blooded.   We ended up replacing a dozen or so rotted planks with no more happenings.   So the dock is ready for company.  Thanks guys.

Later that day, I was in the tub cleaning up and Nancy was asleep on the couch when this crashing sound occurred.   It sounded like a tree had fallen onto the roof – hit hard then shifted down the roof.   I got out of tub and walked outside to see where the damage was and Nancy went out the front to do the same.   Nothing.  Then she found that the crash was inside in the laundry area where a cabinet had ripped off the wall, stopped by the dryer and the power cable I have connecting the house with the portable generator.   Of course the cabinets were full so the appropriate mess was made.  After trying myself to deal with it, clearly it was nothing I could handle myself so I alerted Tom and Joey that we needed emergency assistance.  Tom was already scheduled to come up Sunday so he said he’d come up earlier than planned and between us, we’d get the cabinet removed.   And that’s what happened.  It took us about an hour but we got it removed and ready for replacement.   Joey/Mark are going to look for a replacement cabinet and install it.   No rush on that.  The back of the cabinet is/was fiber board and I guess, over the years, it absorbed moisture and just gave it up.   The wall looks just fine so it’s only a replacement job, not a repair.  I think if it hadn’t been for the generator cable stopping the crash, it would have damaged the utility room doors and possibly the clothes dryer.

But best of all – Baby Bay visited!    He (and his parents) stayed overnight on the way to Tom’s Thanksgiving day party.  He loved the garden and the lake and being carried by his nana.   He’s tiny but has a big voice to grow into. We’ll be hooking up with them later today for the Thanksgiving celebration. Should be a great day with all the grandkids on hand.

The garden is full!   Between mature plants, seedling transplants, and seed beds there’s virtually no open planting space.   The last addition was a 2’x10’ row of beet seeds and another 2’x6’ row of carrots and radishes.   Also used the last of the fall compost pile.   A few weeks back it was full – 3’x3’x6’ – 54 cubic for the math challenged.  Now it’s doing its’ thing in the garden.   I always have two compost piles going with all new stuff going into one while the other cooks.  At this point I have one that will cook for the next 3 months and one just getting the first inputs.   That one will be the fall load for 2022. 

I had troubles with a few things last year but those items seem to be doing just fine this year.   For some reason I just couldn’t get a decent spinach crop last year.   Had trouble even getting seeds to germinate and when they did, the plants never produced.   I compensated for that this year by planting more seed but have been surprised by how many popped out and are going gangbusters.  Last year I had good swiss chard which made up for the poor spinach but it looks like this year both the chard and the spinach are off to a great start.   The first run of turnips proved so good that I planted another patch.   The lettuce likewise was not all that great last year but off to a strong start this season.   One thing I did differently this year was not growing much at all during the summer.  It was so hot and buggy that I decided to give it (and me) a rest.   Perhaps that is why the new stuff is doing so well.   I have 6 Fennel plants going.  Never grown them before but they look healthy.  In the herb dept, nice basil, rosemary, and parsley.

The vegan lady brought us over some new dessert a few days back.   This time it was a chocolate tuxedo cake and a pumpkin-cranberry cake.  The tuxedo cake is a feature at the Costco bakery but not the vegan version.   Both full vegan, both full delicious.   Her cakes are really dense and moist as opposed to dry and airy.  I think this is going to be interesting when the garden is putting out at peak.

Getting close to spec season.   It’s gotten cooler and that usually triggers action.

Our new neighbor is turning out to be an interesting character.   Gretchen is a serious Vegan and baker.   In Jersey she owned a vegan bakery for 10 years and has a fairly strong on-line presence on the subject now.   You can check it out at http://www.gretchensveganbaker.com.   On Utube it’s wwwutube.com/c/GretchensBakery.   Her last entry was for an apple upside down cake which is incredible.    The other night she knocked on the door with 2 pieces.   She explained that she makes stuff for her shows and needs somebody to eat up the left overs.   Would we please mind?   and if it get’s too much just tell her we’re being overloaded.   So far that’s not a problem.  Although she’s a dessert specialist, can’t wait to see what she does with the garden veggies.   She picked some turnips this week and commented on how tender and delicious they were.   We’re always had way too much coming out of the garden but I’m thinking maybe that problem is solved.   

I think I’m mostly over the last kidney stone attack.  It totally plugged me up which led me to an emergency visit to the urologist for a catheter.   My day to day rhythm was totally messed up as I tried to keep my system flushed.   The doc prescribed a med which caused me to lose stability and nearly pass out several times.   I quit taking that and have had no problems since.   Bad week though.

Got some good stuff popping in the garden now.   The weather has cooled so my winter stuff is now surviving.   The Swiss chard is looking great with over a dozen healthy looking seedlings in the garden.  Also I tried a row of spinach and it looks like that seed is germinating just fine.  It’s always marginal with spinach seed which doesn’t have much of a shelf life.   I soaked the seeds overnight before planting and that seems to have done the job.   Also put in the first fennel plants.   Never grown them before so really don’t know what to expect.  I read a caution that they may deplete the soil around them of nutrients causing other plants to have problems.   I’ll keep an eye on them.   Cabbage coming along fine and expect we’ll be eating some before the end of November.  Tomato and pepper plants looking mostly good with plenty of blossoms.   It’s always nip and tuck to bring in a crop before we get any frost.  I keep hoping for global warming to kick in but so far, looks like Pierson is out of the loop.

The garden is taking shape for the season.  Planted seedlings of cauliflower, broccoli, kale and swiss chard this week.   The cabbages, peppers and tomatoes I put in last month are mostly doing well whereas the earlier planted squash and cucumbers are being routinely consumed by the critters and becoming fodder for the compost pile.  I only planted those on hopes of a cooler season but, if anything, it was hotter and more humid than usual.  I’ve also planted a few seeds for a new crop.  Trying to grow fennel.  Nancy uses fennel in her tomato sauce and it’s not alway easy to get.  Never tried to grow Fennel so not sure what to expect.  It’s a fairly fast crop, 50-60 days so may be ready before any frost.  

And, another option surfaced regarding gardening on the neighbors property.   Still no complaints from them but the neighbor on the other side, the Ashcraft’s,  suggested that I plant a garden on their property.   I really wouldn’t relish starting over from scratch but it is an alternative that I hadn’t considered.  Brian and Amy Ashcraft have decided to fix up the old double wide on the property they inherited from their Grandmother, May, and move in.  They (Amy) had considered tearing it down and building a new place but instead they (Brian) opted for the renovation and adding a large, steel shed for his business.   He’s going to open some kind of handyman business.  Their plans include building a nice dock and a new ski boat so I think my garden would be secure there for as long as we’re here.

Have had basically zero interface with the new neighbors except for a 5 minute chat at the garden.   Clearly there will be no immediate problem with the garden.  They are way too engaged with the house to worry about anything in the yard at all.  Gretchen confirmed that they are vegetarians and planning to start raising chickens since eggs are such a big part of their diet.  I’m just proceeding as in the past, assuming they will be eager eaters when my Dazzling – Blue Kale and Bright Lights chard turn on.   Maybe I’ll be able to barter eggs for Chard.

We found a new (to us) Chinese restaurant.   It’s in South Daytona and showed up in a survey as the best Chinese restaurant in Volusia County.  We were in Daytona and decided (actually Nancy decided) to give it a try.   We had looked it up on a Maps program a month or so ago and had a rough idea where it was but I really had my doubts as to how difficult it would be to find  on a high traffic, 3 lane each way kind of road – buried in a commercial shopping area.   Since Nancy can’t see, I was fairly sure I’d be wide open trying to navigate the traffic while looking sideways for a Chinese restaurant sign buried in a strip mall. We didn’t even know which side of the road it was on or exactly what the name of the place is.  I did know another good place in the general area so had it in mind that we’d go there when the Chinese exercise proved futile.  As it turned out, I happened to look in the right direction at just the right time to spot a sign way off the road.  We were, of course, in the wrong lane and I had to navigate a U turn but we actually found the place.    Really good and I’m sure I’ll be eating there a lot more than I want. 

Well, it looks like the sale of the garden (AKA  the house next door)  is going to happen.   Barbara has to be gone by 10/9 and the new folks are scheduled to move in on the 11th.  I may get a cucumber or zucchini but nothing else.   The garden is really looking good this year and I hope they either agree to share it or at least farm it actively to take advantage of the high quality soil that I’ve built over the last 10 years.   It’ll be about 75% planted out by then.   Another loss to be dealt with as new neighbors move in is the burn pile.  As with the garden, we share a large burn pile where we both dispose of tree and brush trimmings.   Doesn’t sound like much but you’d be surprised just how much “tree litter” we deal with.  Up until now, this has been a good thing since the wood ash adds nutrients and mass to the compost piles – so eventually ending up in the garden.

I was more than a little proud of the gators almost beating Alabama.   From here on out, “almost beating” doesn’t get it.  I was hoping that the Jag’s would show up with a winner this season rather than pulling up the rear as usual.  So far, not so good.   Ditto the Dolphins.   I’ve never been a Buc’s fan but …………….

We’ve had lots of rain over the past week.  I’ve dumped the 6” rain gauge 3 times in the past week and the lake is the highest we’ve seen for several years.   It’s about 6” from overtopping Barbara’s dock.   The good news is that we’re past most of the hurricane season with no signs of anything to worry about.   Some of the green bean plants in the garden are looking shabby which I suspect has to do with excess water.   Their roots are probably deep enough to be in saturated soil – great for rice but not so great for beans.

UPDATE

Met the new neighbors – Frank and Gretchen.   He looks like a “Frank”, she doesn’t look like a Gretchen.  They come to Florida by way of NJ.   Very close to where Chris lives – within 15 minutes.  The guy’s parents are from south Jersey, near Philadephia – how weird is that!  Look to be in their 50’s, look Italian, and the wife is a vegan – crazy about greens.   They definitely plan to use the garden on a mutual basis.  Ditto the burn pile.   It just so happens that I burned it out this morning.   I think this is going to work out OK.  So far, so good.

Well, it looks like the sale of the garden (AKA  the house next door)  is going to happen.   Barbara has to be gone by 10/9 and the new folks are scheduled to move in on the 11th.  I may get a cucumber or zucchini but nothing else.   The garden is really looking good this year and I hope they either agree to share it or at least farm it actively to take advantage of the high quality soil that I’ve built over the last 10 years.   It’ll be about 75% planted out by then.   Another loss to be dealt with as new neighbors move in is the burn pile.  As with the garden, we share a large burn pile where we both dispose of tree and brush trimmings.   Doesn’t sound like much but you’d be surprised just how much “tree litter” we deal with.  Up until now, this has been a good thing since the wood ash adds nutrients and mass to the compost piles – so eventually ending up in the garden.

I was more than a little proud of the gators almost beating Alabama.   From here on out, “almost beating” doesn’t get it.  I was hoping that the Jag’s would show up with a winner this season rather than pulling up the rear as usual.  So far, not so good.   Ditto the Dolphins.   I’ve never been a Buc’s fan but …………….

We’ve had lots of rain over the past week.  I’ve dumped the 6” rain gauge 3 times in the past week and the lake is the highest we’ve seen for several years.   It’s about 6” from overtopping Barbara’s dock.   The good news is that we’re past most of the hurricane season with no signs of anything to worry about.   Some of the green bean plants in the garden are looking shabby which I suspect has to do with excess water.   Their roots are probably deep enough to be in saturated soil – great for rice but not so great for beans.