How high is the lake? Right now in mid June it’s about where it was last November after the hurricane season, in particular after Faye, the wettest hurricane on record. It’s about a foot lower than the highest I’ve seen it since 2004 when we had two quick hurricanes – Charlie and Francis. Not sure but I think that was in Sept 2004. For sure this is the earliest I’ve seen it this high. Don’t need a hurricane this year. And the water is warm – pushing 90 – so even the wimpiest swimmer will love it.

Did a flight test on the new surf rod. Tina’s folks are in town and her dad wanted to try his hand at surf fishing again this year. Last year during the blues season, we had a pretty good day and he wanted to try again. So he, Simon and I hit the National Seashore south of New Symrna. I brought 3 spinning (reel) outfits and one bait caster. I rigged Simon up with my lightest outfit so he’d be comfortable using it; John got the other spinning outfit with the new, 12′ rod. John’s not an experienced fisherman and casting in the surf with heavier weights and long rods is not the easiest to learn so I figured I’d just do the casting and let him do the catching. We had some early action with sharks and John decided he wanted to do his own casting. I had guessed he would cast off to the right so had him move about 50′ to the right of us. As predicted his first cast went way to the right – maybe 100′ down the beach and 10′ into the ocean. I gave him some observational input and he tried again. This time it went nearly straight out in a line drive maybe 150′ into the surf. That was a plenty good cast and more than adequate to catch fish. I told him that with a little more arc, it would go farther but that he was just fine as he was. He wanted to try again and on his third try he launched a perfect arc and the bait sailed out a good 100 yds straight and true. I was amazed. From that point on he would cast each time straight as an arrow and 100-120 yds out. Honestly, I know I couldn’t get it out that far. John’s a big guy and has just natural, perfect timing and technique. One thing I know for sure – the rod is a real beauty and I won’t be able to blame the equipment if I can’t launch the long ones. Of course, I caught most of the fish so kept some semblance of dignity! Both Simon and John hooked what were probably large sharks only to have the leaders cut just above the hook. Simon got a small whiting while I managed a small shark and a nice whiting. I think on our next trip I’ll be facing fierce competition.

One week report. I mentioned that I had sprayed some Cutter Backyard to ward off the mosquito outbreak. The stuff was advertised to last 8 weeks and after one week, it still seems to be holding up. I walked down to the dock at 8 AM in a short sleeve shirt and shorts with no repellant on my exposed parts. Not one bite. We had picked up another container to give it a second dose just before the party on Sunday along with another Cutter product – backyard fogger. But after the early morning run, no need.

Good news – I finally read about something Congress is looking into which needs action. We’ve noticed that when watching TV, the commercials are way, way louder than the shows. I thought it had something to do with all that switch over to digital crap. You have to have the remote control constantly in your hand to adjust or mute the sound at each of the increasingly numerous commercials. So I was pleasantly surprised to read that a couple of legislators are putting together a bill to limit the sound level of commercials relevant to the regular programming. Of course the broadcasters are saying that no legislation is needed and they’ll take care of the problem themselves.

Did I mention that the mosquitoes are absolutely ferocious? That doesn’t begin to describe it. We’ve had 23” of rain in the past 3 weeks and the mosquitoes have blossomed. The last time I recall seeing and interacting with this many (in Florida) was back in the 50’s living on the beach. (Note – the all time, hands down winner in the fierce mosquito world is Pelican Lake in Utah. It’s in a class all by itself and not to be confused with regular mosquito problems. At Pelican you have to be careful not to choke on mosquitoes when breathing), I remember back then you could get an attachment for your lawnmower that would turn it into a fogging machine for insect spray – probably DDT. I also remember jeeps that were equipped with fogging equipment that totally enveloped our house – and occupants – in the vapors. And low flying large planes – C-47’s – that flew 50′ over the houses and sprayed an oil over everything in it’s path. Our cars were oil soaked almost all summer long. I’m sure everything that was done back then is illegal now. My Dad and I went fishing most Saturday’s in the early morning. He would turn on a light around the back of the house as soon as we got up and then we’d eat a quick breakfast. The back light attracted an incredible number of mosquitoes including those that normally would have been on patrol around the front side of the house. We would then run the 200′ from the front door to the car having totally outfoxed the blood suckers. Naturally we had screen doors but the mosquitoes were so thick at times that you couldn’t see through the screen. I think we’re left with wimpy solutions like burning citronella candles or those coil things. But I’m going to try something from Cutter – an old name in mosquitoes terror control. This is a product in a plastic container that you attach to a hose and spray the infested area. One $10 bottle supposedly covers 5000 SF. It also says it lasts 8 weeks but I really have my doubts. I did a 1 hour test – sprayed an infested area and then went back in an hour to see if I was attacked. It passed with flying colors. I did a 24 hour test with a short sleeve shirt and no mosquito repellant at the worst, early morning time. Still holding.

For now, instead of wearing shorts, sleeveless shirts and flip-flops, it’s long pants, long sleeve shirts, socks, boots and DEET on all exposed body surfaces. If I had one of those hats with a built in bug screen, I’d be wearing it.

Got my dry spurt and finished staining the dock. What I had left was just about 400 SF. It took 1 gallon of stain and only 1.5 hours to roll. Last time I did it two years ago it took more like 4 hours and a stiff back for a week. So I ended up with 2 coats on the swim deck which is in full sun and 1 coat on the portion under roof.

I got my combination birthday-father’s day present yesterday. A new surf rod. A couple of years back I picked up a cheap 12′ rod which is about 2′ longer than I feel comfortable casting but which is sometimes necessary to really loft a 100 yd cast into a strong sea breeze. But the cheap rod is thick and heavy. So heavy that it totally wears me out holding it, reeling in, and casting. So I’ve had my eyes open for something half the weight or less and spotted one a few weeks back at a small tackle store in Daytona. I wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger considering it was way beyond my “rod” budget. I’m ok spending a couple hundred dollars for a reel but start to twitch when a rod price goes over $50. But considering my advanced age, my pending birthday, father’s day and receipt of the Obama gift check – I went for it. I gave it a few casts from the dock and can consistently hit 3/4 of the way across the lake – I’d guess that’s a 100 yds, give or take a few. But I still need to christen it in the surf soon. I’m thinking this week if the rain will cut me a little slack. The rod is designed for casting 4-7 oz which is exactly the range I need – especially when casting a finger mullet for bluefish into a 10-15 knot wind.
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Car Talk. I’m wondering how the demographics will break down on future car sales. The lib’s will be split now between “anything not made in the USA – preferably a Prius” and GM; Conservatives will be pretty much tied to Ford. And for sure Ford picks up the Dodge Ram truck crowd. No true truck guy is going to drive a Fiat Ram and I’m having trouble visualizing any American driving – or fitting in – a Fiat. The great move was Penske buying Saturn. How could you not trust a car backed by Roger Penske? A Chinese Hummer? Please, spare me.

The big rains triggered my biannual fix-up the dock project. The entry way to the dock is a parquet like surface using cutoff 2”x rough cut lumber from the original dock construction. The 16” rainfall did a nice job of undercutting the blocks and left it pretty much in a mess. I’ve had to redo the entry way twice now and it’s a pain in the butt so I decided on something a bit more permanent this time. So I got 80# bags of concrete that are designed to be used as is – just put the bags down and soak. 80# bags are much heavier now than they were a few years ago so rather than do the entire area I did the higher wear areas and the places that washed out several times over the past 5 years. That took 9 bags. Over top the bags I put a layer of sand and then the parquet blocks. It’s finished off with a bag of builder’s sand to fill in the gaps. It took two days to complete since I just took my time and tried to do it without killing myself. I’m happy with the end item – looks ok and much more stable.

And since we had a 3 day dry stretch forecast and I had a gallon and a half of deck stain left over from the last stain job a couple of years ago, I decided it was time to put on another coat or two. First step – power wash. I hadn’t run the water pump or the power washer in quite a while so had fingers crossed that it would all work the first time. It did after resolving a couple of cockpit problems. The last two times I stained the dock I brushed it on. That was really tough on the back so I decided to roll it this time. Much, much easier and it looks every bit as good. Turns out I had enough stain for two coats on the sunny outer dock but I needed another gallon to do the section under roof. That’s when the run of good luck ran out. I use a really good Cabot stain. The first time I found it in a specialty paint store in Longwood. When I decided to do it the second time, that store was closed but we found it now at Lowes – Val Par, the Lowes brand paint, bought out Cabot somewhere along the line. Nancy dropped by Lowes to get another gallon and found out that the stain base from which our color is derived is “heavy” as compared to medium and clear and that Lowes no longer carries the heavy base. Luckily a Lowes store in another city does carry it and we were eventually able to pick up another gallon to finish the job. Alas, by the time the logistics hurdles were cleared, so was the dry weather and part of the deck remains uncoated until we get another few dry days in a row – tricky in Florida during the summer. So I satisfied my urge to paint by putting water sealer on the wooden dock furniture.

Finally I give the path through the woods to the dock a new layer of palmetto mulch. I do that a couple times a year. This go round used 2 large piles of palmetto fronds on the order of 100 CF each. I get that much or more just going along the path and around the driveway cutting out dead or yellowing fronds and ones obstructing the path. That much chopped mulch loads up the 75′ pathway about 6” deep. If I didn’t clear out the palmetto’s along the path, within a year there’d be no visible path. I like the symmetry of using the overgrowth to cushion the pathway.

And the rains brought another problem that I found out after the fact. I haven’t used my main boat in a couple of years but had it well covered with a tarp, the drain plug open, and a bow up attitude so it would drain. The wind and rain apparently ripped the tarp and the boat loaded up so quickly that the support holding up the bow sunk into the sand such that it wouldn’t drain. This boat is a dual hull boat so both the inner and outer hulls filled with water, leaves, branches and problem squirrel droppings. No way I could easily lift it to drain so I had to employ jacks and boards to progressively get it up and draining. And I’m guessing there were 1000 pounds of mosquitoes living there too. The mosquitoes have never been so bad here. Bad enough that I have to drink a gin and tonic every now and then to fight off malaria. Seems to be working. That was just the beginning of it. Anybody who lives in Fla knows that if you let something sit in the same place for more than 6 months, it will start growing. In this case it was turning furry. And the nice woodsy spot where I had it parked had it’s eye on the boat too. It took an hour to cut away the vines and bushes that had wrapped around it. So what looked like a simple tarp replacement turned into a full day of cutting, chipping, and power washing.

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I had some trouble making this post because somebody hacked into my blog and screwed it up. Why the hell would somebody want to do that? Anyway, Tom fixed it and moved me up to the latest and greatest release level. If it happens again, I think my blogging career will be short lived.
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I don’t get what the big deal is on moving the prisoners out of Gitmo. Seems logical to me that they should go to a prison in Illinois. I think Joliet is a Fed penitentiary already housing some really bad guys.

You know the old saying about counting chickens before they’re hatched. How about don’t count your corn before it’s picked. Turns out that 16” of rain and wind at 25 mph is not a good thing for corn. I mentioned a potential problem with storing all the corn – problem solved. Total rainfall out of this week’s storms – 16” Very impressive and greatly appreciated- well half of it was greatly appreciated. We got less rain from many hurricanes and this came without all the power outages and downed trees. It was just steady, Seattle kind of rain – days without sunshine. I run out between storms and check the garden. So far the only visible casualty is the corn but unless the water drains rapidly once it stops coming down, I anticipate much more in the loss column. They interviewed a potato farmer on the news and he estimated his losses at $500K. I’m guessing my losses won’t reach that level but then again, I don’t have crop insurance.

The lake is now open for swimming and diving off the dock. I threw some fish feed off the dock and the bream attacked voraciously so maybe that bodes well for the bass. I estimate it’s up about 2′ from where it was last week.

Another thing that impressed me was the fact that my neighbors – the skiers – were out skiing almost continuously all week. They must have some big tournaments coming up or are practicing for a new reality show. A couple of times when I was young, I got caught skiing in the rain and remember it was like skiing through a nettle patch. It wasn’t something you wanted to do for very long but these folks were voluntarily hitting it hard all week.

I was pleased to note that the garden drained fairly well and never really puddled up or left the goodies in standing water. The importance of that is that last year when we had the horrendous rains, much of the garden sat in water for days and it killed off a good bit of the residents.

bad sleep, clock radio, weather alarms.

I do think I know why all the rain. It’s not the rain dances, not global warming, not climate change. A few months back I canceled my flood insurance since it never floods here. Now I’m thinking that act of defiance has brought on the rain. My first call this morning will be to the Insurance company to get it reinstated. That should stop it. I need to appease the rain gods.
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So what am I missing? The gov’t takes over the auto companies and gives themt to the workers. Isn’t that classic Socialism/Communism? Sure glad I bought Ford stock a few months ago. And does it come as a surprise to anyone that the most liberal of the left coast states is officially a basket case? If the fed’s start pumping tax money into CA, does that mean the fed’s own CA or visa versa? I love it that the voters in CA voted down adding new taxes so now we’ll watch the state add new “fees” regardless of how the voting went. Is there another recall vote in the making? Will the Terminator be terminated?

Finally some rain. It’s been ultra dry since last November and the lake is down 4′ from the high at that point. We picked up 5 1/2” between 8PM Sunday and 8AM Tuesday with the forecast for that kind of rain all week long. Maybe I should have planted rice. The summer pattern has started.

I mentioned a few posts back that the corn in the garden had been nailed by some bugs. I estimated that maybe 30% of the crop could be history. Looks like I was wrong. The corn seems to have grown right through it and is now topping 6′ tall with tassels and ears starting to form. Two weeks ago it was under 4′ so you can literally see it grow. I started with roughly 100 plants and assumed that would be reduced to 70 or so with an average of 1.5 to 1.75 ears per stalk. That got me to slightly over 100 ears. What I’m seeing now is more likely 90% survival and the average well over 2 per. In fact I’m blown away by the number of stalks showing 4 ears. Some of the tiny ears already have silk poppingout. We’re still weeks away from actually eating some but things are certainly looking up. Two weeks ago I was writing the crop off and thinking I was done trying to grow corn; now, not so sure.

The other interesting thing is that the corn stalks are not uniform in size. That’s been the case from the get go but I assumed that the runts would either go through a growth spurt and catch up or just die off. My theory is that the difference in size has to do with location – some areas have more compost underlying than other areas. Just a theory. But the small stalks are getting tassels the same as the big stalks and sprouting little ears as well. So it’s more a time thing than a size thing. Don’t know if small plants will have small ears or what. This is a new variety – new to me – called Brocade from a grower in upstate NY. It’s a bicolor, extra-sweet variety. Last year I planted 3 different varieties and think perhaps that resulted in a less than spectacular crop. Corn pollinates by the wind and having 3 different varieties in such a small space might have created pollination problems. In a few weeks we’ll have all the answers. Except 1 – what the hell will we do with all the corn. Our freezer is already full of veggies and it’s only mid May.

Turns out that certain varieties of Woodpeckers are migratory. All of a sudden we are loaded with giant, pileated Woodpeckers. No mistaking the difference between these guys and the garden variety we have all year. They are huge. It’s hard to judge a bird’s body size but they are at least 2′ top to bottom. Bright, bright colors. Red head, white shoulders, black body. Aside from the size, the colors, and the banging noise, you can’t mistake the style of flying which is totally different than other birds – except for Kingfishers. They look like missiles sailing through the air- a series of quick wing flaps then cruise. Nothing really graceful about it but very distinctive. And if you can’t see them, there is no mistaking the sounds. Really noisy with a loud, cacophonous sound. If you’ve ever seen a Woody the Woodpecker cartoon, the creators did a fair job of recreating the sounds.

And I guess Whippoorwill’s are migratory too. No sounds all winter and then one evening you hear the “whip poor will” at sunset. I was sitting out last night and between the whippoorwills, the woodpeckers, and the owls – it was surprisingly noisy. I guess it’s not so quiet here but much mo betta than cars, horns and sirens.

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Can anybody think of anything more stupid than pissing off the CIA? I’m really enjoying watching Nancy Pelosi digging herself in deeper and deeper. And I’m also happy to see the Pres getting more realistic regarding dealing with the bad guys in Guantanamo. My fear was that he had dug himself into a big hole with no good way to deal with the situations but it looks like he’s not too rigid or proud to change course when the facts on the ground are different than he thought.

Well I saved Jane Neal. A little background. When we moved to San Antonio back in 1976 our next door neighbor was Jane Neal. She lived with her daughter and quickly became as close to us as family. Jane had a really special angel wing begonia that she had grown for years. We took some cuttings and between us and Joey, kept the lineage alive ever since. We refer to the plants as “Jane Neal”. We trusted Jane with the boys when I took Nancy to the hospital to have Chris and she gave Joey his first driving lesson – I think he was 13. Jane passed away way too soon back in about 1980 but we all feel like we’re still connected with the Begonia. Unfortunately in the several freezes we had this winter I thought we had lost all the ones we had and was hoping that Joey’s had managed to survive in the slightly warmer weather where he lives. The loss really hurt. I felt terrible because I should have remembered to bring it in or cover it but it had survived freezes in the past and I was just negligent. But this week I was walking in our jungle down by the lake and I spotted the familiar angel wing leaves. No mistaking the shape and color. I carefully cleared away the brush and sure enough, a potted plant with several nice strong shoots popping out. I apologized first then brought it up to the house, gave it a big drink, some new potting soil, and a dose of special fertilizer. Looking good Jane.

I was fishing in the lake out of the poke boat earlier this week. The poke boat is a kayak like craft that is very light, agile, and operates just fine in a few inches of water. I can move along fishing in the stealthiest fashion, usually with pretty good results. There was a slight breeze moving me along so only occasionally did I have to dip the paddle in for a bit of steerage. I was about 30′ from the shoreline and popping my Devil’s horse into every nook and cranny. I glanced up ahead to see what was coming up and noticed something move on a beach area about 100′ ahead of me. It looked about the size of a raccoon, maybe a little bigger, and the coloring wasn’t quite right – too much red. It spotted me when I got to within about 50′ and just loped off into the underbrush. I was almost positive it was a bobcat. About that time I saw a second one another 100′ up the beach. He spotted me a little sooner than the first guy and just as casually moved off into the brush. I can’t tell you how rare it is to see a bobcat but to see a young pair was really exciting.

On that same poke boat adventure, I found a canoe. It must have drifted away from shore on the other side of the lake. Very unusual – it was a 10′ aluminum canoe that had been jerry rigged to sport an electric motor on the rear end and a battery. It was pushed up against some tree and taking on a little water from waves. I was able to drag it out and brought it over to the beach on our property and then start calling around the lake to see if it had an owner. All the people I called are of the wealthy variety so I was pretty sure it didn’t belong to any of them but perhaps one of their farm hands. I told them all that I was pulling it up on the beach to keep it safe but if anybody found the owner, to let them know. It sat there for a few days but was gone today so I’m guessing it’s back home safe and sound.
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Bye bye Chrysler! Think about it, Chrysler will be 55% owned by the UAW; 35% by Fiat, the perennial auto basket case of Europe; and 10% by the Fed’s. I get a mental image of a Board of Directors that includes folks from the Dept’s of Energy, Labor, and Transportation; the EPA, OSHA and who knows what other Gov’t organization. I’m guessing 2 years absolute max before Chrysler just evaporates away from America. It’s been in the cards for quite a while but what I hate is that by going totally against the law by nuking secured creditors, the Fed’s have probably sealed the fate of GM as well. I can’t imagine conventional financing sources – commercial paper, bonds etc – will be available to GM. I think it will take a bit longer for GM to close it’s doors because they have plenty of assets – such as foreign owned auto companies – to unload, but eventually they fade away too. To me that says Ford will be the only viable American car company. The big problem for Ford is that they have quite a large debt load and plan to pay it down the old fashioned way – with money. That’s going to make it tougher for them to compete initially for cost structure reasons but in the long run, they’ll have access to more financing. That will enable them to make the tough decisions along the way. I never owned a Chrysler product so have no personal attachments but it’s going to be tough for me in a world without Pontiac.

The garden survived while we were away- in fact it thrived. Before we left I stripped all the snow peas and figured that was that for the season. Not so – the bush was loaded again. I picked another couple pounds of snow peas and then pulled the plants even though there were still a few blossoms. That’s the last of the cool weather crops. Zucchini and bell pepper bushes were also loaded with pickable veggies. The remarkable thing about the peppers is that I’m picking from bushes that were planted last July and are loaded with new peppers and blossoms. I nursed these 2 bushes through a few freezes but had no idea they could actually last this long. I’m wondering if this is typical or if I somehow ended up with a super species. Some critter attacked the corn plants but there are still a good number looking good. Some are 5′ tall and sporting top silk.

I was a bit concerned because it hasn’t started raining yet but the heat is coming on. Our famously high humidity just hasn’t happened and we’re typically now in the mid 30% range – for Florida, that’s desert levels. I have a couple of battery powered sprinkler timers but there are still lots of things that can go wrong. So I breathed a sigh of relief when all was green and much of it double the size pre-beach.

A couple of years ago I picked up a couple of the battery powered sprinkler timers at Costco. I was surprised to find they were from Bountiful, UT – actually they are marketed by Orbit in Bountiful but manufactured in China. After a year or so, a couple of the solenoid units crashed but they were replaced quickly with just a phone call to Bountiful. A couple of months ago both of the control heads failed. I called Orbit to see if it made sense to send them back for repair and was told that they had a 6 year warranty and would just be replaced. Now that’s what I call a warranty. I’m guessing these units would hold up well in Utah but year round operation in Florida is a tough assignment. I learned to seal up all holes and crevises because it took bugs only a few days to find their way inside the unit and a month or so to totally fill it with nest material. And the internal battery contacts rust over with our pervasive humidity. This time around I’ve engineered a container for the control head to give it another level of protection so maybe I can nurse the new units along for a few years.

Planted some Okra. We had fried okra as an appetizer the other night so it seemed like a good idea to bring it home to the garden/kitchen. Tried some last year but no luck. I forget exactly what happened but this year will be totally different, I hope. I picked an award winning variety – Red Cajun – and will leave nothing to chance. I use a fishing line called Cajun Red and it works great so the Okra will surely be a hit. So far I’m amazed that several seeds germinated in just three days.

So far so good on the nematode control. We started picking zucchini which I’d planted in an old firepit. I planted the same variety in that same spot last year and the nematodes nailed it within a couple of weeks and even those plants that survived did poorly. I stoked up the soil there with compost for the winter crops. That crop started out good but then the rabbits got them and those that survived did poorly. Stoked with more compost and planted the summer stuff in late March along with all the nematode remedies. Everything has grown really great and we’re picking squash on a daily basis now. I’m not ready to declare victory but it’s light years ahead of where it was this time last year so I know I’m on the right track. Also noted some small green tomatoes and loads of blossoms on several plants. I think I have 6 different varieties going at this time with the first to produce a variety called Solar Fire developed by UF to deal with the Florida heat and humidity. I had surrounded all the tomato plants with those Guardian Marigolds which have grown really tall and strong. No flowers yet but they are already much bigger than I had guessed and in most cases actually taller than the tomatoes. I just know the roots are down there nailing nematodes.

Great week at the beach. The fishing was awesome; the catching was lousy. We had persistent east winds from the time we got there until the Thursday before we came home. The strong winds created strong rip currents, big waves, and stirred up the sand for low visibility in the water. On thursday the winds slacked off and I managed to catch a few – some whiting and a couple of small sharks. Lots of sun and I was a crispy critter after the second day.

I’ve become friends with the guy who lives next door to the place we rent on the beach. He fishes so we spend a fair amount of time together on the beach. Up until last Nov., he had a great dog that was mostly German Shepherd. Roxie was really old but loved to run in the surf and was really a pleasure to watch. She died right before we came last Nov. and you could tell Mike was fairly broken up about it. Well this year I spotted a new dog on his porch. It was colored very similar to Roxie but more of a husky look to it. Turns out he got it as a rescue dog and couldn’t resist that it looked so much like Roxie. She’s only a year old so still a pup with all the energy that entails. On Thursday I was fishing low tide. There was a trough running parallel to the shore and then a sand bar on the other side of the trough. The trough was about 30′ wide and the outside sandbar, maybe 150′. At high tide the trough was not visible so the trick was to cast into it for the most action. At low tide you waded across the trough and onto the sandbar to cast to the deeper outside water. I was doing that and landed a bonnet shark that was about 30” long. Nothing remarkable about it at all. I unhooked it and put it in the trough. There was a runout a few hundred yards down the beach so I figured the shark would follow the current down to the runout and back to the deep sea. Instead, he decided to cut across the sandbar where the water was only an inch or two deep. Bad move. He made it about halfway when Skylar, the new dog, spotted it and bound across the trough onto the sandbar and nailed the shark. I wasn’t sure how that was going to go but it became obvious that the shark was no match for the dog. He would grab it and toss it in the air and eventually worked it back to the trough. I thought that would change the odds in the sharks favor but the dog leaped right in after it and grabbed it underwater. The trough was about 3′ deep and the dog was maybe 30” tall so he was having to swim from time to time. But in the end he managed to drag it up on the beach and finish it off. Bonnet sharks are bottom feeders so they’re not much concern for people and there has to be a jillion of them so I wasn’t broken up by the loss of the shark. In fact I was kind of impressed with how the dog handled herself. Mike said Roxie did the same thing and then ate the sharks. He said he would pass up any fish Mike caught except for the sharks. I found that to be interesting that both dogs operated the same with respect to sharks. Must be something instinctive.

Two new restaurants to report on. One is a little shack called the Taco Shack – a tiny place with a very limited Mexican menu and only outside eating on a couple of picnic tables or take out. Tom had alerted me to the quality of the fishg taco’s so we gave it a try. He was right – excellent. We ate there twice – first day we had shrimp taco’s and fish taco’s; next time I had nacho’s. Very fresh ingredients. On the way home we always stop at an Italian Deli in Palm Coast to pick up sausage and other deli goods. We asked the lady who runs it if she knew of a good place for breakfast. She steered us to Strathmore Bagels. It’s a big, Jewish New York Deli and restaurant – breakfast and lunch. Incredible bakery along with it. Nancy introduced me to something call Bialys (not sure of the spelling – sounds like bee al eese). Bialy’s are a very thin round roll about twice the size of an English muffin. I had never heard of them so stuck with the traditional bagel. Big mistake – the bagels were great but her’s was way better. What I like about them is the crust to bread ratio is very high so if you are more into the crust than the soft stuff – which I am – they are perfect.

One thing for sure, we eat good at the beach. The Flagler Fish Company was awesome as ever. We missed happy hour at Rossi’s though – too much else to do and we just ran out of time.

Off to the beach for a week so the next update will detail the incredible catches from the surf.
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We have another gator in the lake. George called me the other night to come see it. He was feeding the fish and turtles from his dock and up popped a mall gator. Small means maybe 2′ long or so. Really too small for a belt but possibly a wallet. George plans to catch him and transplant him to some other lake. I could tell by the way the gator was eyeing George’s miniature dachshund that he needs to do something before they become best buds and the gator invites him out to dine.

Boy, this home gardening thing is getting a lot of press these days. I guess lots of people are giving it a try with seed sales up 30-50%. It would be interesting to find out how many starters end up finishing even one season. I think most will come to the conclusion that it’s cheaper to buy veggies than grow them – from a start up position. I read an article in the WSJ that said the “average” backyard garden saved $600. Not sure how big an average garden is or where it’s located. Another piece on a morning TV show said that the return on $50 in seeds was $1200 in veggies. Not sure exactly what crops that included but in my own experience, that’s a low estimate if you’re growing lettuce or carrots. A $2 pack of lettuce seeds must be at least 1000 seeds. You do the math. And with lettuce you can cut a head and in a few weeks, it has regrown another. A $2 pack of broccoli nets 200 or so seeds. And with each broccoli plant, you get at least 2 meals counting the main head and the follow on shoots. In Florida, we basically eat out of the garden 12 months a year – that would be a salad and one or two veggies with each meal. Part of the trick is selecting varieties and scheduling plantings so that you have a more or less continuous supply without overdosing on any one item. I need to do a better job of that for sure so I’m putting more focus on that aspect now that the basic growing techniques are behind me.

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We don’t have cable or satellite TV – old fashioned antenna TV. We were happy with the reception and the analog channels but when they switched over to digital, we were forced to get a set-top box that converted the digital signals for our old TV. It was an improvement in picture quality and in the number of channels that we received. Before digital we got 5 channels nominally good; another couple that were watchable sometimes. With digital the channel count went up to 30 or so. Of course we still only watched the same ones we’ve always watched so the added channels added nothing to our viewing. On Wednesday we turned on the tv and found that channel 6, the CBS channel, was gone – no signal. I figured it was some technical issue with the station but it did persist all day long. We had lost signal once or twice before and I had found a family of wasps had set up a nest around my antenna amplifier which caused the signal to die. No problem since I killed of the critters. So I assumed that this was another insect invasion. I went out the next morning prepared to spray the gear but it was clean as a whistle. Hmmmmmm. Called the neighbor and he too was sans channel 6. So I called channel 6 and talked to a tech weenie. Turns out they had previously been operating on a temporary frequency and had switched over to their final frequency. He said they had broadcast that changeover all day. I said that was nice but if you couldn’t get the channel, them broadcasting the info was kind of stupid. He said, oh yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyway, to fix the problem I just had to reset the channel search. Interestingly when I did that, I got channel 6 just fine but in addition, we now had 45 channels including channels from as far away as Palm Beach and Jacksonville. I guess these are channels that have switched to digital since we did the initial channel search. Of course we still watch the same channels we’ve always watched.
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Politics
I guess if we’re charging towards socialism, it makes sense to suck up to socialist and communist countries. I just hate seeing the pres getting punked by these two bit players around the world. This kum by yah, why can’t we all be friends crap is ok for France but please, give me a break. Can’t you just visualize the terrorists licking their chops as we reel in the CIA. Is it my imagination or is Obama becoming an embarrassment?

Soo many people haven’t asked for a garden update – so here it is.

Aside from the particular crops that change with the season, the attack critters change as well. While not yet in full aggressive mode, they’re making their presence known and I’m ready for the countermeasures. I’m not yet breaking out the traditional heavy chemicals – malathion, Seven dust, and the like – but rather trying more eco friendly approaches. Some examples:

Yellow sticky strips. These are bright yellow 5” x 7” vinyl strips that are coated with some super sticky material. I can say for sure they are incredibly sticky and you don’t, don’t, don’t want to get them on your hands or clothes. It works on the fly paper theory that the insects are attracted to the bright yellow and get caught in the glue. I bought 2 sets which comes with 3 metal stands and 10 sticky strips. I think in the future I’ll be able to make my own using something called tacky foot and wide strips of plastic that come come sherbet containers painted yellow. I’m going to build a couple and put them up against the store bought version and see if I have the trick. I might also try some other colors – maybe red will capture some tomato lovers.

Cut worm collars. When you transplant young plants to the garden there’s evil creatures lurking beneath the soil that come out at night and bite a ring around the base of the transplants. They love tomatoes in particular. So you do the transplant and come out the next day and see the playing laying over dead with the leave end cut away from the root end right at ground level. If the plant makes it a week or so, chances are it’s home free. My approach has been to grow spares and play a replant game. This year I’m putting collars around the plant at ground level. I’m trying two different collar approaches. I have a roll of velcro about 3/4” wide so I cut off a piece about 4” long and wrap it around the base of the plant. Nancy has some quilting material that looks to me like mylar which she uses to make patterns. She made me a dozen or so collars from that. So far I haven’t lost anything in two days using either collar.

Oil spray. I picked up something called Pyola oil which is a mixture of plant oils that must be really bad tasting. I actually tried it last year to no avail but I got it late in the season and perhaps it works best on small plants or earlier in the season. The manufacturer has written such a great brochure that I feel compelled to try it one more time.

Radishes. I read that if you plant radishes around cucumbers, the cucumber beetles will leave the area. My cucumber plants are a few inches tall so I totally surrounded them with radish seeds. I also sprayed them with oil.

We’ll see.

The transition from winter to spring crops is going well. We’re still picking snow peas, lettuce and celery. And plenty of swiss chard which has been incredibly productive all winter and shows no signs of crashing. Within the next two weeks we should be picking the first of the yellow squash, green peppers, and onions. A couple of weeks after that the green beans, more varieties of squash, and the cucumbers will start. The corn is up about 10” and looking pretty good. I am trying a new award winning acorn squash called Honey Bear and have been amazed at the progress. Within 3 weeks there are actually baby squash and blossoms. Another new try is something called New Zealand spinach. It’s not new, just new to me. I think it’s not a true spinach but supposedly a direct replacement that can tolerate lots of heat and humidity. My track record with spinach in this garden is spotty – poor to fair at best. Last year I tried a vining spinach called Malabar that did really well but which people either loved or hated. It tasty pretty good to me but the leaves were thick and leathery and a little slippery inside. Nancy was not wild about it. Also trying a melon I had good luck with in Utah. Last year we tried watermelon and cantaloupes and it was a disaster. Very few melons but they took over the garden. These new melons are shorter vined and produce a miniature melon similar to cantaloupe. They’re called Minnesota Midgets. So except for a small patch that I’ll plant in beans in a couple of weeks, I’m 100% planted out and in full protect mode.

And I learned another “don’t”. When you thin out Elephant Ears, don’t throw them in the compost pile, even if you run them thru a chipper. Turns out that any piece that’s still alive, no matter how chopped up, will regenerate into a new plant. So I’m now digging out elephant ear plants as they emerge in the garden. They work hard at developing roots before they put out any green above ground. When one pooches out the ground, it’s very tiny but the root can be down 8-10” and already forming a big bulb. I have a feeling this is going to be a problem all summer long.