Picked the first zucchini yesterday and transplanted jalapeno seedlings. Those are really late because the first batch was destroyed by a rogue critter, most likely an armadillo, who dug them out of the starter bed. The real bothersome part of that is the ones which were ripped up were a hard to find variety called Telico which has been a top producer for us and that I’ve grown since I started gardening in Utah. I talked to the guy at the seed company and he assured me that Fuego will be just as good-we’ll see.

The first corn row planted, 3/24, is now topping 5’ and and putting out the first ears. According to my data, it’s an 83 day crop which calculates to harvesting June 15 but, to me, it looks like some will be coming earlier. That of course assumes no natural disasters.

My green juice drinks have decidedly moved toward fruit in season with nice strawberries and blueberries joining the greens and grains into the Nutribullet. Nancy found a U Pick place in Crescent City where she plays bridge and stopped to load up. The berries are $3/pound if you pick them; $3.50 if they do. Guess which option Nancy took. She bought $20 worth which we split into freezer bags to feed the bullet well into the summer. She’s back up in Crescent City today and I have a gut feeling she’ll stop and drop another $20. These berries are not as good as those we picked in NC last summer but certainly good enough to load up the freezer. As far as the green part of the drinks go, the swiss chard is playing out rapidly as is the lettuce but the kale and collards are holding up just fine. I’m guessing I’m good through this month on greens. In the next couple of weeks I expect to be popping in a few cherry tomatoes and green beans and maybe a cucumber.

I’ve been drinking the veggie goop for lunch almost a full week now and you’re probably wondering if I’m noticing any changes. Still no green showing in my skin tint or hair. Everything seems to be working as intended so no obvious negative side effects. I always feel ok so no obvious positive side effects either. I haven’t gained or lost an ounce and my blood pressure is the same as it’s been for months/years. It does make me feel good to be using so much greenery that would have otherwise gone to waste/compost in the garden. So that’s something anyway. If I were paying a dollar for every swiss chard or kale leaf, I might feel abused.

Heading up to Tom’s for Mother’s day festivities. We all agree, right, that your wife is not officially your mother. I think where it gets confusing is when the kids are too young to buy nice presents and the hubby makes up for that. The kids actually hand the gift over and get all the oohs and aahs while the father hides in the shadows. But when the kids are out on their own, the hubby officially steps down and no longer has any business buying his wife a mother’s day gift, right? We can all agree on that can’t we? Yeah, I thought so; just checkin’ to make sure.

As soon as we got back from the beach I tried out the Nutribullet. Although the book that comes with it is loaded with recipes, I immediately struck out on my own. It looks like basically you fill the container halfway with greens and the other half with veggies, fruit, berries, nuts and grains in more or less whatever mix turns you on or is available. The first one I made used Tuscan kale and Swiss Chard as the green half and cut up mixed melon chunks, grapes, and pineapple. I filled it with water and cranked it up for about 10 seconds. Looks nasty and, according to my bride, tasted like it looked. I drank it and with my diminished sense of taste, had no trouble with it at all – not good, not bad. Nancy thought the watermelon flavor overwhelmed it so I made another to her specs. Same greens but added a banana, an avacado, some melon chunks but no watermelon; some blueberries and a spoonful of shelled sunflower seeds. Then we used almond milk in place of water. It tasted pretty much the same to me but was much, much thicker – like a thick milk shake. Nancy wasn’t wild about that either and suggested replacing the greens with chocolate ice cream.

On day two, I mixed up another one for lunch. Nancy passed and opted for a fried ham sandwich. In the new one I switched to collard greens and swiss chard for the green half; a carrot cut in chunks, stalk of celery, also cut in chunks; some blueberries, half a banana, and wet it down with almond milk. I could definitely, but faintly, taste the carrot but otherwise it tasted the same. The good news for me is that I can basically mix anything and it’s drinkable and fills me. Day 3 was a breakthrough when I actually prepared one that (I thought) tasted good – maybe “good” is a stretch but certainly not objectionable. This one used broccoli raab leaves, romaine leaves and about half a leaf of curly leaf kale. To that I added a carrot, half a banana, a dozen or so blueberries and a handful of some fruit, nut and fiber muesli (in place of sunflower seed). I topped it off with a spoon full of honey. I was going to add a stalk of celery but ran out of room. I’m told that adding chunks of lemon and/or apple is a good thing to do so those are on the shopping list. I’m also thinking ahead of what this will mean to the jillions of cherry tomatoes already shaping up on the vines. Ditto cucumber.

So far my skin hasn’t turned green. That’s a good thing. I’m guess a photo of my innards would show a completely green inside. My next blood test is in July so I’ll get a good color check then.

Temps now consistently at 90 for the daytime high so I’m moving into full summer mode. That means no long pants, sleeveless shirts, no socks, all outdoor work done by 11AM and a cool off dip or two in the lake.

I haven’t mentioned my smart shave juice in quite a while. I quit keeping track of it about 9 months ago when I hit the halfway point. I’ll probably finish up the tube by the end of this month so it lasted 1 1/2 years and I estimate 175 shaves. I think I have 3-5 tubes in reserve so it’s possible my stash will outlast me.

The boys formed up here Sunday morning to help me deal with the downed trees before we headed up to the graduation. Within a couple of hours, it had all been reduced to burning embers. The largest tree to fall was at lakeside right on the property line between our place and George’s. It’s now a potential nesting area for fishies. Removing it really changes the look of the waterfront, opening it up quite a bit.

We got out of Barberville by 1:30 for lunch at Pearl’s Barbecue in Micanopy. Tina, Olivia, Julia and Simon met up with us there for a total of 9. I was afraid we’d overload the place but it was handled perfectly. Tom ordered family style with platters of ribs, chicken, beef brisket and plenty of sides. It seemed unanimous that the food was exceptional although Simon held out for the sauces at his favorite in Gainesville, Adams Rib. I guess he’s just a bit too young to appreciate how fine Pearl’s really is. The graduation was at the basketball arena, that would be the SEC championship Gator O-Dome, for those not up on sports trivia. We did the obligatory family pictures with Si in his cap and gown. One thing different in the regalia are the decorations on the miter board/hat. It’s become an art form. I think my favorite were a couple of dentistry students sporting large caste teeth balanced on their head. Another good one was a Botany major with a flat of flowers on his. We spent a half hour or so working on Simon’s at Pearl’s. He concocted an outdoor scene with a camping site in a grassy field in the mountains. Another thing different since my last graduation event (I missed Tommy’s in Missouri) was that the event is streamed on the internet so Tommy in Chicago and Chris in New Jersey were able to watch the entire proceedings on their computers while comfortable at home. Since the cameras are positioned right on stage, I‘m sure they actually had a better view than we did. Our game plan was to leave the dome as soon as Simon Walked and we had our fingers crossed that event would happen early on. Wrong – he was among the very last to get his diploma so we didn’t get out until 9 PM and home until 11 so it would have been after midnight for the boys. Olivia had an 8AM AP test appointment Monday morning so we were hoping she’d get home in time to get plenty of rest. If she did, it had to be via sleep in the car on the last leg of the journey.
We attend her graduation from Lake Mary High later this month and then have a year or so break until the next semi-scheduled event – Tom’s UCF graduation with his PHd.

I noticed that the pole beans have blossoms. I went back to the garden journal and saw that I planted them 6 weeks ago and they’re supposedly putting out beans in 3 weeks. That seems so quick but I never cease to marvel at how quickly things happen in the garden.

It rained all day Friday so no beach activities at all (for me). Nancy decided to bring in some Chinese food after bridge so we didn’t even eat out; most of the places we eat are big on outdoor eating anyway. It was still raining when we got up Saturday morning so we just packed up and scooted. Including a stop for breakfast and a $200 shopping spree at Publix, we were home and unpacking the car by 10:30. We have the whole process so organized now that we can pack or unload the car in under 15 minutes.

I was anxious to see the total rainfall in our gauge and wasn’t surprised to see it at 3.5” with more on tap for the day. We ended up Saturday night with 4” total for the week. There was a major tree branch down on the porch and the dead bay we knew had toppled, missed the house by only a few feet. It must have been hidden from view behind some living trees or I would have cut it down long ago. Joey, Tommy and Mark will be up here tomorrow morning, so I’ll just wait for the able bodied assistance to clear out the debris. Down at the lake things weren’t quite so good. I lost the top of a cooler and both covered boats had taken on a fair amount of water. No sinkings or anything that drastic but still, more water than I would have expected. I guess the wind must have been blowing hard out of the west and perhaps some lake wave action broke over the transom. Alls well though and I suspect my cooler top will show up later down at the end of the lake. A large dead bay tree that George and I had been debating whether to chop down or let nature take it’s course is no longer up for debate. It’ll take a bit to clean that one up but it’s mostly in the lake and hopefully will attract plenty of fish in the future.

The garden really grew in my absence. Almost all of the broccoli raab were over the top – blossomed out/bolted. The spinach totally played out as did most of the romaine lettuce. Weeds galore but that was no surprise other than the rapid growth, no doubt due to the continuous rain and lower temps. The first row of corn planted is now waist high, the pole beans are over top of the lattice and the cucumbers are reaching the first level of the lattice. Barbara picked all the carrots from the second patch but there’s still an untouched patch of probably 75 to go. Loads of green tomatoes. The focus for the next couple of weeks will be using up the greens – collards, swiss chard, and Kale – in the new juicer. Fingers cross that the new, heat resistant lettuce varieties and the New Zealand spinach will provide greens for the machine all summer long. I’ll give a full report on how that works out in the next posting.

The reason all the boys will be up Sunday is for the trek to Gainesville for Simon’s graduation. At one point, a few weeks ago, it was hit and miss whether he’d come thru with Organic chemistry but he studied hard, aced the final, and scored 100% on a make-up test. Whew, glad we’re through that.

On Tuesday I hooked up with an old fishing buddy up towards St. Augustine and we fished the Matanzas River. Great day; Loads of large ladyfish, a few jack, a few blues and a spanish mackeral. That makes up for the poor surf fishing so far. After a reasonable start, all the surf has yielded is a couple of sharks, really sharklettes, a catfish, and a micro size whiting. It’s not for lack of trying. By day’s end, I’m totally worn out from casting, reeling in, and stalking the beach. The past couple of afternoons ended with monster storms which gave me a great excuse to get back inside and rest.

Last night was Wacky Wings Wednesday at the Pier. We sat there dripping after running in a torrential downpour to the Funky Pelican. It was probably less than 50’ from where we parked to the entrance but that was enough to drench us. After we sat down, it actually started hailing and blasting out some serious lightning so we had a real nature show while munching on the wings and quaffing happy hour brews. Fish and chips at the Golden Lion next.

George called to tell us that we had a couple of trees come down in, what he described as a microburst. No damage but some cleanup work ahead of me when we get home Saturday. They lost power a couple of times, once for about 3 hours so being here is not so bad. He also reported over 2” of rain since Monday so I don’t have to worry about him watering the garden, that’s for sure. The forecast is for more rain on Friday and Saturday.

The right side of my body is probably in an over developed state or soon will be. I’ve got a surf casting outfit that would be considered light by surf gear standards but heavy otherwise. It’s a 10’ rod with sufficient heft to handle 3-4 oz weights and an accompanying reel that handles a couple hundred yards of 30# test line. The whole outfit probably weighs in at 3-4 pounds. To cast it a couple hundred feet into the surf with a 2 oz lure requires a full body effort with every ounce of strength I have available. When I got here on Saturday, I would start to wear out after a dozen casts and felt it the next day in my shoulder and arm. By the end of the week I was casting non stop for an hour before my body said quit. Last night I gave up running out of sunlight, not arm strength and didn’t need even one aleve to quell the aching. Too bad the trip is ending just when I’m getting in shape.

I’ve got a candidate for the endangered species crowd. There’s almost never a time when I’m on the beach that I can’t spot at least one school of bottle nose dolphins and that’s anywhere on the beach in Florida. When we were fishing the Matanzas river earlier this week we were almost always within a few hundred feet of a pod and several times were within 50’. It didn’t matter where we were and we covered quite a lot of water – often a couple miles between fishing one spot to another – and it was always the same, a substantial pod of feeding dolphins. It would seem to me that the manatee crowd should add dolphins to their list of endangered critters and have more slow speed areas added to the rivers. This is flipper we’re talking about.

Doesn’t it make perfect sense that if two people are going away together for the same amount of time and to the same place that they should have equal space in terms of luggage, gear, eating material, reading material etc etc etc? Fishing gear = sewing gear; clothes = clothes; adult beverages = other beverages. If the two suit cases are not of equal size, shouldn’t you flip a coin or do rock, paper, scissors to see who gets the larger one? I think all this is covered in the Constitution – which it appears does not apply in Pierson.

At the beach – Tommy came up to the lake on Saturday and helped us make the move to the beach. Joey came up shortly after we arrived so we had a nice afternoon that was topped off with 2 bluefish. I took that as an omen that the fishing was going to be great but as of Monday evening, those two fish comprise the total catch. We topped Saturday off with an awesome burger at the Turtle Shack then hit the pier, my favorite breakfast spot, Monday AM. Clearly I’m a beach person. I must revert to my teen age years mentally because everything on the beach is better – better food, better music, better happy hours etc etc. One thing different this year is that we are here later in the season and the weekend crowds show it. The weather was awesome and the crowds responded. By Monday all was well and the crowds dissipated as hoped for.

I got my birthday present from Tom a month or so early. He got me a Ninja bullet juicer so that I can start taking advantage of the garden greens right away. I had fairly well convinced myself that I was going to buy one soon so this is a much welcome gift. A fair number of the people who we provide with garden goodies use juicers and swear by them. Nancy has not been too high on the idea because she thinks I don’t eat enough now and this is going to exacerbate that concern. The concern I have is along the same lines but more has to do with my wardrobe. I sized up to XL back in the mid 80’s, the Utah period, and stayed there until nearly 2010. I dropped back to L after all the prostate procedures and my closet has gradually transitioned from XL to L. I don’t ever recall being an M but not sure I’m mentally prepared for an L to M conversion which I can see happening if I start drinking Kale smoothies.

Joey decided to plunge into gardening and is close to picking his first crops. The advantage to me is that between us we can try different varieties and compare results and techniques. For example he’s taking a course of pruning his tomato plants whereas I let mine grow with as little interference as possible. I’ve thought about pruning in the past but this will give us a great opportunity to compare results. I also just took the plunge and ordered half a dozen new varieties of lettuce said to be extremely heat tolerant. We’re going to split the cost of the seeds which makes a wide experiment worth while.

One thing that keeps knocking on my door is the need for a juicer. Now that both Joey and Tommy have them and swear by them, I guess I have to take the plunge. The recommendation is for one of the small, 8 ounce varieties that chew up everything and spit out smoothies. They cost between $75 and $100 based on which coupons you find so not much of an investment compared to the $500 Vitagreen I had looked at before. Apparently these cheaper ones have another really large advantage – it chews up everything so there is no residual fiber to clean up. I’m given to believe the cleanup issue is not one to breeze past. I certainly have all the raw material, basically year round. I think I’ll wait until after the beach trip to make the purchase.

It was my night to cook so I decided to move to the wild side and make broccoli raab pasta. It’s a really easy recipe and the raab is looking great in the garden so I had no doubts I’d be able to pull it off. The whole process takes 10 minutes and that even includes picking the raab. It ends up being a really colorful meal since the raab cookd out bright green. It cooks down in volume but I started with a pound or so, to go with a pound of pasta (per the recipe) and that seemed like the right amount. My taste buds have long since been fried so to me, it had very little taste. Certainly not bitter as I had feared. Nancy loved it and confirmed that the flavor was very mild. Joey picked his today as well today but he planned to convert it into a smoothie using his new blender. For sure I’m going to plant more next fall but will do a much better job of spacing out the plantings over the whole winter season.

Next week is the bi-annual beach week at Flagler. We’re staying at the same place we’ve used for years. The long range weather forecast looks favorable and I’ve been reading that the surf is full of fish although I noticed there was not a single mention of bluefish. I was kind of afraid of that when we booked the place a couple of weeks later than in past years. We plan it around Easter which was much later than usual this year. Nancy has bridge partners lined up for two days (so far). So the next posting will be from the beach, maybe with some nice fish pic’s.

Had something interesting/surprising happen on Thursday. On Monday afternoon a friend of George’s was fishing off his dock and came to my back door holding a fair size mudfish. He didn’t know what it was and also whether or not it was edible. I told him I’d never heard of anyone eating them but if he wanted to unload the carcass, I’d give it a decent burial and memorial service in the garden. I dug a nice hole between two squash plants, said a few words, and planted him. On Wednesday, I think I mentioned, I covered the squash plants for insect protection then on Thursday when I did my morning garden scan, I noticed that the cover was pulled down in the center. On closer inspection it was ripped and I found the fish wrapped in a flap. So it was alive when I buried it, hung out for 2 days, and then gave a final flop out of the hole.

I rarely take issue with the Wall Street Journal but something in this weekend’s addition tweaked me. Turns out cargo pants are a new fashion statement with folks like Ralph Lauren etc getting in the business. That screws up the real people who never, ever, ever want to be making a fashion statement. Cargo pants are something you buy at Dollar General for $10 not at Neiman Marcus for $250. To make it even worse there was a 2 column discussion, pro’s and con’s of whether you should actually put something in the pockets. One school said that you should put something in the pocket to show the utilitarian nature of the garment whereas the other side said they should be perfectly smooth to retain the lines of the pants. Why the hell would you ever be wearing cargo pants if you had no intention of using the pockets? If I’m fishing, I carry fishing tools or bait or maybe even a fish in the pocket; if I’m gardening, I have garden tools or seeds or weeds in the pockets. The fact that they even have such a discussion says they have no business in that business. WSJ – but out. There wasn’t any mention of camo cargos so maybe I get a pass on that particular style if I’m ever challenged at the feed store.

We had a great Easter with the Yearta’s, Lindsay, Charles and Grace, staying with us for a couple of days. Nancy made Grace a new princess dress so between that, the garden, and the dock she was a busy little bee. The only pick and eat in the garden was broccoli which you wouldn’t think would be very appetizing for a 4 year old – but you’d be wrong. We picked the last of the parsnips I had been holding back on and planted the last row of corn. It’s possible the Yearta’s will be back in July and that last row of corn, Grace’s corn, should be loaded at that time. On Sunday the crowd increased to include Tom’s family, Joey and Mark, and the Ragusa’s. The weather wasn’t cooperating, too cold, so we ended up eating in the house but other than that, couldn’t have gone better. Great food, great company. Simon stayed over with us Sunday night and we took him back to Gainesville Monday morning. Nancy’s friend Wilma is still in rehab in Gainesville so we got to visit her again and hit Trader Joe’s for emergency supplies. It also gave us another shot at Pearl’s Country Store and Barbecue in Micanopy.

Well I finally got the tetragonia planted in the garden. Never heard of it? Neither had I but it popped up in one of my most reliable seed catalogs touting it as the summer salad green. Supposedly it’s just like spinach except it does just fine in the heat. I’m thinking of tetrogonia pasta, tetrogonia pizza topping, tetrogonia omelets – endless possibilities. I only planted a few seeds, saving most for a fall planting simply because I don’t believe it will live up to it’s heat tolerating billing but I’m giving it special attention by planting it between the pole beans and corn, as an edge row along the pole beans. The corn should block much of the morning sun, the pole beans the afternoon.

We have a big Easter party planned with special guests from South Carolina, our great niece and great great niece are visiting. Grace had lots of fun last year helping me in the garden and I’ve been holding off several jobs so she can help. I have carrots, parsnips, lettuce, celery and numerous greens that are overdue for picking and an almost empty row waiting to be the last row of corn to be planted. I think I have enough to hold her interest for a few hours.

The last of the zucchini plants has germinated and we’ve moved onto phase 2. I planted 2 each of 2 different varieties, each plant time staggered by 2 weeks. Interestingly as the last one planted popped out, I spotted a baby squash on the first one planted. My computer says I should be picking squash in a week so it’s right on schedule. Phase 2 is to cover the plants with a very light weight insect cover. Done. Just so happens I have an 8’ x 20’ cover cloth that weighs just 1/4 oz per square yard so it will block insects but not sunlight. The broccoli raab is also right on schedule. It’s supposed to be a 35 day crop and my calculation puts that at April 18 and sure enough, I’ll be able to start picking then. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it all but it’s coming whether I like it or not.

If you’ve been reading or viewing about the bears in Lake Mary and know that Tom’s family lives in Lake Mary, rest easy – they live a couple miles from the bear zone. Bears would have to navigate quite a heavy traffic pattern to get to their house; not impossible, but not likely either. I like that the wildlife officials are now killing them off at a great rate and saying they had no idea there was a big bad bear problem there. Wonder why they thought bears had long ago been killed off? ditto wolves, alligators and tyrannosaurus Rex.

I just watched the funniest commercial I’ve seen in a long time; Belly laugh kind of funny; Cleo material kind of funny. It’s a KFC commercial and I honestly can’t tell if it’s a serious product commercial or a catch your attention spoof. It’s for a chicken wing corsage for proms. The actors are teenagers and the guy shows up at his date’s house with a small box. He opens it and pulls out a corsage featuring a chicken wing as the center piece. She looks at him and you can just read in her facial expression that she doesn’t exactly know what to say. She doesn’t want to make the guy feel bad but not sure if she should wear it or what. They take a quick shot of the parents who are equally nonplussed. Then forward to the dance where she’s wearing the wrist corsage and gives the appearance that she’s closing in on the guy to give him a good night kiss but instead, takes a big bite of the corsage. Can you really buy a chicken wing corsage at KFC? What an incredible marketing idea.

Got a notice from the mortgage company saying we no longer need flood insurance. I thought global warming meant higher water levels. The interesting thing about it is that our original mortgage, 10 years ago, first required flood insurance then about 5 years into it they notified us that we no longer needed it based on new flood plain maps. The research I had done along with an article in the local newspaper indicated that we were the only people in Pierson with flood insurance so we cancelled it. When we refinance da few years ago with a different bank, back came the requirement for flood insurance. We fought it showing them the documentation from Chase but to no avail. Now, out of the blue, comes the letter saying we are now in an area not designated for flooding. It would seem like flood plain maps would be fairly stable but somewhere out there is a gov’t agency reclassifying flood zones. Wouldn’t it seem that with all the concerns about rising sea levels, they would come to a conclusion that I’m in imminent danger of flooding along with the rest of Florida?

I had a really big day on the dock yesterday. My normal routine is to get all my gardening done in the morning, have lunch and then retire to the dock to read the paper and/or the novel du jour. I catch a small bream, hook it to my line for bait, cast it straight out then sit down and start the read. I’ll be out there a couple hours and usually have some action – maybe a bass attacks the bait, maybe a turtle but it’s certainly not intense action. I think in the past month, I’ve had half a dozen on and landed two or three. Yesterday I made the first cast then turned around to the chair when I heard a loud splash. I looked out and the splash was at my float and down it went. I gave it about 10 seconds then set the hook into a five pounder. Landed. I caught another small bream, hooked it up, and made the cast. Within a minute I was onto another large bass and landed the second five pounder. Another bait, another cast but this time a two hour wait before the third five pounder was on the dock. Over the years I’ve caught plenty of bass in this fashion but never three that size in such a short stretch. Guess where I’ll be today. All three are back swimming in the lake with instructions to come back when they’re ten pounds. The ironic thing is that I use all the proper stealth tactics, timing, super lures, excellent tackle and fish the most inviting areas of the lake and never have a series of catches like this – using the same approach I used when I first learned to fish for bass in 1952. Come to think of it, I caught some really big bass then too. As an update – two days more of fishing the dock has yielded only one large mudfish so apparently the feeding frenzy was short lived.

This morning I got something Nancy needed out of the freezer in the shed. All seemed well. She had another request 8 hours later and it wasn’t so well. Mostly, but not completely thawed. She somehow managed to cull through the porch freezer and the freezer in the fridge and get most everything back in control while I tried surgery on the dead one. I tried a power reset but that didn’t work. I then did a turn off using the temperature control which has an “off” position. I let it sit for about 5 minutes and then turned it back on. The compressor started right up. I didn’t spot any filters or anything that looked like it needed servicing so I’m suspicious that my fix is not permanent and this kind of freezer is not one where a service call is more than the cost of a replacement. I am encouraged that the next day the compressor did shut off on it’s own when it reached the appropriate temperature and even more encouraged that it started again on it’s on a few hours later. If it stays working another day, we’ll reload it with low dollar value stuff.