I had/have a total of 13 tomato plants about ready for transplant to the garden.   I held off until I was fairly sure the latest storm threat was not to be and started with 4 Early Blue Ribbons.  Three of the four made it overnight so I’m going to do another 4 tomorrow.  The one that didn’t make it was victim to the feared and dreaded cut worm.  The aggravating thing about that is I had put collars around each tomato to avoid cut worms but someone one fund a breach point and did the deed.   I also decided to try starting seeds in the house for more Swiss chard and kale.   That was a couple days ago and still no signs of germination.

Got a windfall on my path to the dock restoration project.   We had lunch in Deland one day at a Chinese place.  Nothing exciting there but I noticed a pile of local penny saver newspapers that had been removed from the stand and were awaiting pickup.  I grabbed a giant stack and used them on the path.   That put me at least a week ahead of schedule and I’m now down to the last 20′.

We went to a wedding Saturday in Pierson.   I think we were the only ones there without credentials going back at least 2 generations.  Most were agriculture folks with roots in the fern business.  The only people we knew were the bride and groom and his mother.  It was in a very small country church of the Lutheran persuasion with a local piano player and wedding singer.  I think Chris could have played better but her heart was certainly in it.   There was a very nice meal afterwards in the meeting room – really southern country featuring fried chicken, collard greens, Mac and cheese, green beans and meat loaf.  Corn bread of course.   I wasn’t hungry but put a couple pieces of fruit on my plate to avoid the wrath of my bride.  The bride and groom were probably in their 50’s so there were grandkids running around – stealing the show.   The bride, groom, and the grandkids were whisked away back to the house party in a horse driven carriage.  A nice touch.   We didn’t attend the after party but I’m sure it was in keeping with the official affair.

Spent today on the beach after the near miss storm while Nancy played bridge.   The tides and waves ate up a little more of the beach but all in all, looks like it survived with only some sand and berm erosion.  It was way, way too rough to even think  about fishing so I just walked a mile or so to survey the damages.

My path restoration project – from the end of the driveway circle to the dock – is about 3/4 finished. About 25’ (out of 100’ ) left. I use newspaper as the base, then palmetto fronts over that and overtopped with pine needles. I get 3 newspapers, if you count the two local rags as newspapers, so I have a steady source yielding maybe 10 linear feet per week. The storm helped quite a bit in terms of bringing down pine needles so it will be relatively easy to finish it off in the next couple of weeks. My target is the end of the month and that looks achievable.

The garden is still in a semi inactive mode, a couple of cucumber plants, a couple of zucchinis and a few pole beans. These are all survivors of the storm, 6” of rain in one week with minor garden flooding and then a week of hot and dry. They look ragged but I’m doing my best to bring them back to health. The seedlings I started in the house are all doing well so there’s hope for a good conclusion. I might have mentioned reading an article about a guy that grows swiss chard and says they aren’t bothered by heat. I seriously doubted it but decided to plant a few seeds anyway, just for grins. Well they popped up – 6 plants. I made sun shades for them using palm fronds. I decided to very carefully remove 3 of them from the garden to yogurt cups that I brought onto the porch where I can totally protect them from the weather. Heartened by the fact that they even germinated, today I planted some Tuscan kale seeds and another variety of chard. Last season’s Tuscan kale handled the sun and heat until early June, by which time all the other kale had long since burned up. It would really change the complexion of the garden and the dinner table if these greens really can handle the heat.

The storm raised the lake level a few inches but it would take another 8-10” to overtop the dock. Tom bought a new kayak that was reportedly stable enough to allow standup operation – like a paddle board. He brought it up the lake but it was too late to try it so he just left it here. Joey helped me get it in the lake – too heavy for me to deal with by myself and I gave it a maiden voyage and fishing trip. I really had my doubts about standing up in it but decided to give it a try. I put my rod on the dock so nothing would be lost when I dumped it. Lo and behold, I was able to stand up. I was a little wobbly but after a few minutes stabilized – me not the boat. So I went back to the dock, retrieved my rod and tested the fishability. Bingo, got a nice bass – the nicest in quite some time, on the order of 5#’s. I still like my poke boat better for it’s lightness and ease of use but no doubt this new one is a more serious fishing platform.

It’s Monday noon and we’re starting to see just a little pick up in the breeze. Nothing beyond normal but all day yesterday it was dead calm. Yesterday we had a few rain storms pass over but not much – 1/2” total for the whole day. The action should start picking up tomorrow if you believe the party line. That’s only a week off from the projection last week. Can’t help but feel sorry for those poor folks in the Bahamas with the storm just parked right on them with really fierce winds and heavy duty rain. We get an update regarding the path every 6 hours starting at 5AM and it’s been nearly stationary for a few days now. If and when it turns north will determine what it does to us. All the current info looks like we’ll skirt the worst of it and maybe only get tropical storm winds and 6-8” of rain. Joey is much closer to the coast and further south so among us, he’s likely to see the most action. That’s amplified by the fact that he has a major house restoration going on and a boat being built in the back yard. My sister is in the same area as Joey.

I have the dock stuff fully tied down and anything that can fly, put away. I tried something different this time by using a 50’ water hose to tie down all the dock furniture.

Nothing to report from the garden. I transplanted my tomato seedlings over to individual small plastic yogurt containers and have them in the house. They made the first 24 hours without a single loss. That’s better than expected since usually a couple can’t take the shock. So right now I have 12 tomato plants in the queue. Only 5 green pepper seeds have germinated but those usually take a week longer than tomatoes so there’s still a possibility of a few more. None of the herb seeds I planted have germinated. Those have an expected 10-14 day germination cycle so we’re still ok on those. In the main garden, all the rain we are expecting should help unless it’s enough to cause flooding. You just never know and there’s plenty of time for corrections as necessary. There are a couple of good sized eggplants that could get hammered by the wind.

Nancy’s getting a little nervous and jerky since they cancelled the Monday bridge game and it’s starting to look like the Friday game may go the same way. Missing two or three games is really cruel and unusual punishment.

It’s Friday, our normal bridge/surf fishing/brewpubcrawl day.   Except we have this storm looming over us.    I figured that the fish would probably be biting big time – stocking up before the storm arrives – but no go.   It’s crowded in Publix with people stocking up last minute so why not the fish in the surf.  The surf was definitely fishable and I gave it about a half hour to prove itself with big, black clouds looming over my back and the distant rumble of thunder in the air.   So I decided to head back to the mainland and wait for Nancy at the library.   Hence this afternoon post.   

I think I have the dock area fairly well tied down.  The boat is tied up to keep it from swinging and the poke boat is tied up in the jungle by the dock, face up to fill with rain.  I cranked up the generator the other day to verify that it was operable – started on the first pull.   I had loaded up all the gas cans at the start of the season, in June, so I have almost 20 gallons on standby.  We tried to fill up the car yesterday but the gas stations were either mad houses or already out of gas.  How crazy is that.   So I got up early this morning, about 6AM and headed for the local filling station.  It was still busy at that hour but within 5 minutes or so, I was back on the road heading for home.  So both cars are full.

We don’t have (yet) a family plan to get together to ride it out but that may happen depending on the path as of Saturday night or Sunday morning.   Tina left for a vacation in Utah before the storm possibly surfaced so Tom may come up here or we may go there.  Joey is coming over tomorrow with plans to help me finish up and then take Nancy shopping.  Olivia is working Sunday night but I’m not sure what after that.   All of this will jell as the weekend passes.   I’m hoping it all just goes away – cross the state down around Miami and then head west into the gulf.   But I don’t get a vote.

Ever hopeful, I planted more seeds in the garden.   If we just get reasonable rain, the timing will be great for seedlings.  If we get a deluge that floods the garden………….     By my reckoning, a foot of rain will put George’s dock under; a foot and a half get’s us.   That’s all in the realm of possibility.  The lake is higher than it should be for this time of year to start with.   The seedlings I germinated inside have been growing outside, still in the original seed starting soil.  Tomorrow I’m going to transfer each one to it’s own pot and bring them in the house to ride out the storm.  That looks like about a dozen tomatoes.   It really doesn’t matter much for the fall garden since there’s plenty of time to start it all over again if necessary .

Friday was fun. Nancy came in first at the bridge club – second time this week – so she was in a good mood. We decided to retry the brewery in Ormond instead of Moonrise in Palm Coast, mainly based on the food truck we saw last time but didn’t get to try. This is a hard to find brewery, way in the middle of a warehouse with very small signage to get you there. I had a strawberry wheat beer and Nancy had the Ponce Blonde. We sat at the bar instead of a table and met some really interesting people on both sides of us. We were early for the food truck but decided to wait it out. Great decision. The menu was really interesting and we selected Jambalya egg rolls and a grilled cheese brisket sandwich. There were at least 10 items on the menu that sounded great so it was really a “throw at the dart board” selection process. No doubt we’ll be back.

The first of the newly planted seeds to pooch out were the cucumbers. I planted those on the 15th and they popped up on the 23rd. Interestingly, I planted two varieties and both germinated on the same day. Nothing to be seen from the beans, carrots, or squash. The tomatoes I planted inside started germinating on the 25th, less than a week. Nothing from the green peppers but those generally take 10 days to 2 weeks. On the 25th I planted herb seeds inside. That includes parsley, cilantro and Basil. Parsley takes almost 2 weeks whereas Basil is similar to tomatoes. No idea on the cilantro.

One more garden tidbit – I read in the local paper that you can grow swiss chard this time of year if you provide shade. It can handle the heat (supposedly). That’s counter to everything I knew and I normally don’t even consider planting seed until late fall. I have some seeds so I think I’ll go ahead and try.

We have a storm heading towards Florida and it’s already having an impact – the surf was really nasty – big, frequent waves with strong north to south currents. I didn’t bother even trying but went instead to my intracoastal alternate, Washington Oaks State Park. It’s a pleasant place to wile away the hour and occasionally catch a fish. Got a surprise this trip when I spotted a substantial gator cruising along just offshore. I often see manatee there and thought that was what I was seeing but in a few minutes it became obvious that it was an 8’ gator. I saw a family visiting the park with 3 or 4 little kids heading right toward the spot where the gator was lurking about 50’ from shore. I alerted them and they got to see it from a safe distance.

The other storm related tidbit is that a generator becomes a big part of the survival gear. I have one that’s been reliable but not used very often – a couple of times a year. With gasoline engines, it’s always hold your breath time when you crank it up after sitting dormant for a while. Not having a truck any more is also a concern if the generator needs service. I decided to try to start it before the storm and was pleasantly surprised when it started on the first pull. I have plenty of fuel on standby so I’m electrically ready. That probably means the storm will not impact us. If I had trouble with it, for sure the storm would head directly here.

I’m designating August 15 as the official start of the fall garden.   I directly planted bush beans, 2 x 12′ rows;  pole beans, 2 x 8′ rows; carrots, 1 x 15′ row; cucumbers, 8 x mounds with 3 seeds in each mound; and zucchini squash (Dunja), 6 mounds with 3 seeds in each.   All in all that’s a lot of seeds but some of it is old seed and germination rates are unpredictable so I over plant and hope for the best.   It’s also a bit early and maybe too hot but I’ve got the seed so why not take the chance.  Worst thing is that I have to replant.  I also started some seeds in the house.  These are plants that simply couldn’t handle the outside conditions yet.  That would be tomatoes, green peppers, and herbs – parsley, Basel, and cilantro.   I’ve never grown cilantro so this is a special request from a neighbor.  I planted 4 different varieties of tomatoes – paste, cherry, and two regular round types.   I’ll have a handle on the success in about 10 days.   All the other winter stuff such as cabbage, kale, and broccoli won’t happen until mid September with cooler weather.

Had a fun day yesterday.   A couple days ago I broke a tooth.  The dentist had been predicting doom for this particular tooth for about 2 years and would have pulled it long ago.  It wasn’t bothering me so why go thru the pulling just for aesthetic reasons.   Anyway it broke a few days ago and was hanging on by a thread.  I toughed it out for a couple of days to see if I could get used to it or it would tighten itself back but that was not to be so I called and got an appointment for the next day.   He pulled the broken piece out without needing any tools – I knew that would be the case and had been tempted to pull it out myself  but he said the root had to come out too and it was a long one, well anchored.   He numbed it and pulled it out with a special gripping tool.   Lots of blood but no pain.   I’m supposed to keep gauze there until the bleeding stops.   All that was yesterday and I’ve had absolutely zero pain and haven’t bothered getting the pain med prescription filled.  It has continued to bleed but I’m sure it will eventually stop or I’ll just run dry.

This is Friday so I took Nancy to bridge an headed for the beach.   The tide was almost high so that’s good but the fish tables were saying fishing would be quite poor.   The tables were right plus there was some serious storm clouds with lots of rumbling so I shortened that part of the day.  After all these years, I’m starting to get a slightly favorable attitude towards those tables.

 

 

The lake is higher than it’s been in years and being mid August, we still have plenty of rain potential for the next 10 weeks. I’m slightly concerned as opposed to way concerned.

I have a very large pine tree that has/had several really big limbs that hung over the screen porch. The tree is quite healthy but we do get some severe storms and it’s well within the realm of expectations that the limbs would come down and destroy the screen. Barbara, next door, contracted with a tree service to go through her property and remove all the dangerous trees, limbs and brush. She was quoted an excellent price so I decided to bite the bullet and have them come over and do my tree so long as they were already here. They quoted what I considered a reasonable price so they started here and finished up in a couple of hours. I had them leave the branches on the driveway instead of carrying them away as they normally do because I had plans for the pine needles. That job has turned out to be a little harder job than I expected and will probably take a month of so to get it all cut up and moved. I’m fixing up the path to the lake and the area along the lake in front of the dock by laying down a thick layer of newspaper covered with palmetto fronds and then pine needles on top of that. This time of year I can only dedicate a couple hours a day to outside labor so this particular task is splitting my time between preparing for the fall/winter garden and the dock project. I’m booked solid “working in the dirt” until the end of September for sure.

I’ve been making good progress on the garden and as of today, have weeded 100% and tilled about 20%. Both compost piles are fully loaded with weeds. To scope it, the garden area weeded and tilled is 1200 SF, about 30’x40’ and the compost piles are each about 120 CF, 6’x8’x3’high. I’ll turn the compost piles weekly and it all should be ready for transfer to the garden by mid October, weather depending. My plan is to start some fall plants in the next week; probably a few tomato plants, green peppers and cucumbers. I’m also going to plant a row or two of carrots – much earlier than usual but some seed I planted as an experiment in May did ok. Meaning the heat didn’t seem to bother them.

Had an interesting trip to the beach. I was going to be fishing mid tide, falling and right on a “Solunar minor”. There are, major and minor feeding periods and according to the theory fishing is best two hours on either side of a major and 1 hour on either side of a minor. As described in earlier posts, the fishing has been exceptional so I was anticipating a lessor day. Whoa, got a bite within the first 5 minutes and it stayed steady that way for the couple of hours I fished. All little whiting. Then I got a bite, set the hook and was met by really solid resistance. Enough that I knew it was something substantial. It didn’t move much so I’m thinking big shark who didn’t know he was hooked yet. Then it came loose and I reeled in, disappointed but still excited. When I got it in, there was a complete fishing rig tangled up in mine – pyramid sinker, hooks, swivels etc. I have lost several similar rigs so this was giving me back one. I cast again and 5 minutes later was reeling in again with something extra on the line. Now I cast about 250’ so that’s a lot of reel cranking and it gets tiring after a few casts. Another rig tangled in mine. It was technically different but still had a pyramid weight, swivels and snaps. On both rigs the hooks were broken off. So for the day I netted half a dozen whiting and two rigs. What are the odds that two successive casts about 250’ from shore would yield a rig?

The lake is higher than it’s been in years and being mid August, we still have plenty of rain potential for the next 10 weeks.  I’m slightly concerned as opposed to way concerned. 

I have a very large pine tree that has/had several really big limbs that hung over the screen porch.  The tree is quite healthy but we do get some severe storms and it’s well within the realm of expectations that the limbs would come down and destroy the screen.  Barbara next door contracted with a tree service to go through her property and remove all the dangerous trees, limbs and brush.  She was quoted an excellent price so I decided to bite the bullet and have them come over and do my tree so long as they were already here.  Done.  It took an hour or so and a high bucket to get the guy up to the higher branches but they all came down without a hitch.   My plan now is to take the pine needles that came down and load up the path to the lake.  That should take a couple of days and maybe a little “son” muscle for the big branches but I think it will be easy enough.

Back to the beach to keep the string of good fishing days alive.  This was a different day weather wise and tide wise.   It was hot and clear as compared to mostly cloudy on the days I had success.  The tide was about midway to high and rising.  I changed my rig to a simple one hook style, different than I had been using.  I thought it would get less tangled and thereby increase the amount of actual fishing time.   First cast, one minute into it and getting the first bite.  It was like that for the next 2 hours – rarely more than a couple of minutes between bites.  Once again I experimented with the fish bites and was equally successful on shrimp, sand flea and squid.  And again the fish were mostly small whiting with a couple of sail cats thrown in.  The only thing that has been different these last few trips than for quite a while before is that I put new line on the reel and the line was a completely different color – bright yellow as compared to the “camo” green I had always used.  If anything I was concerned that the new line would be too visible and scare the fish.  Now I’m wondering if the line is actually attracting some positive attention.

 

We stopped by the hospital to see if Wilma’s condition had changed.  She’s now in hospice with a poor to zero diagnosis for recovery.  We were with her when the stroke occurred and with her in the emergency room and visited her every other day since.  She did show some level of memory the day after but very little and not for a few days now.  Nancy will really miss her.

Had a great visit with the SC Yearta’s. Brian is having a retirement party from the Daytona Beach Shores PD and family is coming in from SC – combining a vacation with a celebration. They were here for two days enjoying the lake, catching fish, and getting lessons in quilt making. I had a ripe pineapple on a plant and held off harvesting it until the girls got here then we picked it, cleaned it, and ate a few slices. Delicious.. Brian’s retirement party was a blast. It was catered by 4 Rivers Barbecue and attended by perhaps 150 people, family and co-workers. Clearly he was a well respected law enforcement guy in Daytona Beach Shores even including a 5 year stint with the FBI. The chief of police hosted a “Roast” and we heard lots of stories surrounding his career. I’m guessing he’ll be employed in a law enforcement role in short order. I think his speciality was financial crime.

That was followed by a great day on the beach. Nancy moved her Friday bridge game to Thursday since the retirement festivities begin on Friday. I had doubts about the surf fishing due to what seemed to be a nasty weather forecast. I dropped her off at the game and headed for the beach with a 90% chance (in my mind) of a wash out. It was really black and nasty looking but not a drop fell. The tide was almost dead low and the So-lunar showed a feeding major at 1PM so I decided to give it a try. Wow, it took about 5 minutes to bring in the first fish and it was steady action until I had to quit at 3 to pick up Nancy. We finished off the day with the peel and eats at Sky Jackers.

Now here’s what’s interesting. Yesterday after dropping Nancy off at bridge, I went back to exactly the same place to fish the surf. The tide was just the opposite and we were no where near a So-lunar peak so the fishing should have been lousy. But it was just as good as the previous trip. I experimented around a little with fish bites. I had started out with my favorite – sand flea flavored bites then switched to shrimp. Same great results – a bite within 5 minutes of every cast. So I decided to try something totally different – squid. Still plenty of action. So the take away from all this is if they’re biting, tide, so-lunar tables, or bait don’t matter all that much.

Some bad news. Our friend Wilma, Nancy’s original bridge partner in Crescent City, suffered a serious stroke a few days ago. She had been carried to the ER at Flagler hospital on Sunday but released later that night. We went over Monday for Nancy’s bridge game and we went by her place to see what the hospital visit was all about. We went to her apt and found her sound asleep so we decided not to disturb her but to come back later that day after the bridge game. We did and found her still asleep, apparently not having moved. We woke her up and she went to the bathroom but didn’t come right out. Nancy checked on her and found her slumped over and non responsive. We called 911 and they responded in about 10 minutes. We spent several hours with her in the ER, basically unconscious. They admitted her and we came home. We went back today, Wed, and found her in about the same condition as when we left and learned that she had experience a major stroke in the brain. Nancy was able to get some intelligent responses from her but she’s clearly in bad shape. When we left today, they were talking about hospice. Not good.

For whatever reason, I’ve attacked the jungle by the dock. It’s now about where I had it 12 or so years ago. Slowly but surely a variety of vines climb into the trees and brush to eventually weave a solid, tight wall of green. I’ve been going at it slowly due to the excessive heat but this week we got a giant break with a cold front bringing us rain and cooler weather. Cool in this context means afternoon temps in the low 90’s; morning temps in the low 80’s. Overcast with an occasional light shower. Perfect for me to go at it non-stop for a couple of hours in the morning. Plenty of sweat but no fatigue. I’ve already done quite a bit more than I had planned. Pulling the vines is a little addictive and what starts as a 10 minute plan just goes on for a couple of hours. An occasional dip in the lake helps. I think I’ll keep at this for a while as long as the weather permits and then have a truck load of fill dirt dropped off in November. That will allow me to fill in some of the holes in the jungle a few wheel barrow loads at a time. Slow and steady instead of the marathon filling I did in the past. Believe it or not – it’s a relaxing no brainer. I keep a couple of fishing rods on the dock in the go mode and if I hear some splashing while pulling vines, I just stop and make a few casts.

I recently read that yellow glasses are beneficial with early stage macular degeneration. I’ve had that for several years but really not noticed much difference in my vision -very slow and not likely to ever be a big problem for me. I broke my current pair of sunglasses and decided to try yellow tinted ones. As soon as I tried them on in WalMart, I noticed things looked clearer so I bought a pair. The label said good for night driving so last night I tried them watching TV. Believe it or not, I could see the TV better but it felt weird sitting in the house with sun glasses on. I started wearing them today and noticed right away that everything looked clearer. So next time you’re in a place with sun glasses, try on a pair. I’m sure it’s not the same for everybody but right now, things seem brighter.

The Grand Marquis started acting up yesterday – running rough and idling at a high speed. The mechanic I use is also a neighbor on Purdom so I just drop the car off at his house and he drives it into his shop in Deland and then back again when he comes home. I knew it needed a tune up – if for no other reason than it’s never had one. It’s a 2006 model so you can do the math. Well he did a complete tune up along with changing all those parts that need occasional change – fuel filters, PVC valves etc etc. What actually caused the rough running and idling problem was a vacuum hose that had been eaten by squirrels/rats. Several wires were also gnawed on. This is the same problem I had a couple of times with the truck and the Toyota. For a while I was checking under the hood occasionally but stopped that for some reason. What Jerry said was that I needed to get a few dryer sheets, e.g. Bounce, and tie those up under the hood. We also had for quite a while put a net bag of camphor balls in the carport under the cars but again, for some reason, just quit doing that. So I need to kick up my game on dealing with the jungle critters. Speaking of which, another double wasp hit this morning. Really, really hurts. This is a variety that’s really tiny but has the sting of it’s largest brothers. I got a bag of ice on the spots, took a benedryl and it reduced the swelling quickly. I think the quick application ice is the key.