We had a bit of a scare the other day when Tom called and said that Simon had crashed his bicycle and was in the emergency room at Shands in Gainesville. Simon has a job at a sub shop delivering sandwiches. It wasn’t clear exactly what had happened since he suffered a concussion and had no memory of the event. Luckily he was wearing a helmet so it could have been much worse. His face was scraped up and cut a bit but nothing that will be long lasting. As it is, he’s back home recuperating and will hopefully be back in Gainesville soon. While Tom was telling me what had happened my head moved back 15 years to another crash incident with Simon. I had taken him and Tommy on a camping trip and while I was setting up the camper, they broke out their brand new scooters and went up a short distance to the campground manager to pay for our spot. I kept my eye on them to make sure all was well and saw that on the downhill trip back to the camper, Simon was passing Tommy and picking up speed. In just a few seconds he was really moving fast and I knew he was out of control and would never be able to stop or make the turn he was heading for. Sure enough he crashed and slid, face down, along the asphalt road until he hit a concrete curb. He was a mess. We were about 15 minutes from an emergency room – that would be 15 high speed minutes. I knew he hadn’t broken anything, was completely coherent and talking to us about the ride but his face was a mess with lots of blood. They cleaned and stitched him up while I called Tom to break the news and get insurance info. He wanted to stay and continue our planned one week camping trip but I knew he’d be a sore pup when the pain meds they gave him wore off and headed back home, a 3 hour trip. We stopped for a shake at our favorite shake shop where he was applauded by a motor cycle gang then on to return him to Tina. She and half the neighborhood ladies were waiting on the doorstep when we arrived. I assured her all was well and made a quick exit. Tina posted some pictures on facebook that show his face after that accident alongside pictures of the current event. The big scrapes were on opposite sides of his face so nature balanced it out.

Finished moving the wood chips down onto the path to the lake and it really looks good. Like our own private park. About 5 years ago Tom bought me a garden wheelbarrow, large capacity with bicycle kind of tires, which is great for moving light mulch. From the chip pile to the path down by the lake is approximately 1000’ so each load I move represents nearly 0.4 miles, half with an empty wheel barrow and half with a full one. It took 13 loads to finish the job – you do the math. It’ll probably take about the same to do the other area I filled but I’m going to take off a day or two in between. With all that, I didn’t put much of a dent in the chip pile. The last time the power company did this much brush cleaning, we got a pile about half the size of this one and it lasted us several years. If we bought and had this much delivered, it would have cost as much as $500 so all in all, this has been a great week. I talked to the job supervisor and he’s going to drop another two loads on our property which will save me about 500’ per round trip. Turns out dumping here where they’re doing the trimming, is beneficial to them since otherwise they have to drive the load all the way to Deland, 15 miles. He said anytime we wanted more just to call. They’ll be working in the vicinity for the next several months. I’ve got plenty of areas where I can use the chips and with this infinite supply, I don’t have to dole them out sparingly. Also I can work at a slower pace.

Now that all the hard labor is done, I switched to a job some may consider recreation. We’re going to the beach at the end of the month and I need to be sure that I have enough frozen shiners to use for Bluefish bait. It took about 20 minutes to bag half a dozen really large shiners. I already have a couple frozen earlier so that should do it. I’m soaking them in brine for 12 hours and then popping them in the freezer. The brine soak step is intended to toughen them up a bit since I noticed last time I used them that the surf beat the cut pieces up to the point where they didn’t hold up as well as mullet on the hook.

A couple of the dead bay trees that were too far in the jungle to get to have started coming down on their own. We had a storm with a bit of wind yesterday and it knocked the tops off the trees and onto the pathway. I keep the chain saw at the ready and the path was cleared in about a half hour. You might be surprised to learn that it’s a rare week that goes by without me breaking it out. It’s only a small, 14” electric saw but it does a good job at limbing out trees where the branch diameter is under 6”.

I’m pretty sure, or at least can speculate, that the deer in the neighborhood don’t have prostate problems. When I mention that I’m clipping palmettos, those are actually Saw Palmettos. They’re called Saw palmetto because the stem has a very sharp, serrated edge and they cut like a saw blade. In the fall they put out a stalk of seeds/berries which start out green and turn black as they mature – the same size as kalamata olives. If you check the non-prescription area in your pharmacy you’ll find Saw Palmetto as a medication for enlarged prostate. What I didn’t realize is that the deer feed heavily on the berries. When I did the recent major clearing, I opened quite a few palmetto to grazing so that’s why all of a sudden we’re seeing signs of deer and why I make such an assumption about their health. If you look closely at the pic, you’ll spot the berries. In past years we’ve had guys come by and ask for permission to pick them. Last year they – the pickers – were getting $.85 per pound. This year the deer are picking us clean.

We lost power this morning for a couple of hours. Turns out the power company is doing a large scale tree trimming in the area and somebody dropped a branch on the power line down the road. That caused a major disruption for Nancy because today’s her quilt group meeting and with no power, no hair dryer. It ended well because they restored power with time to spare and with a silver lining. As the tree trimmers create piles of brush,the last truck is a chipper truck and converts it all into mulch. We asked them if they would mind just piling all the chipped brush off onto George’s property. It yielded 3 truckloads, probably 15 yards per load. The pic shows the first load so multiply that by three. I’ll be able to completely cover all the newly filled areas with this tree mulch and thereby eliminate the problem I now have with dirt on my shoes. Nancy will be such a happy camper. I have to break out the wheel barrow again and spend a few days hauling and spreading. The mulch is lighter than the dirt so loading it will be easier but the pile is about 1000’ from the spread point so much more walking involved. Ironic, isn’t it, that a few days back I’m thinking that it’s the end of my chip days and now I have a multi-year backlog. At this point I’m wondering what gives out first, the wheelbarrow or me.

The reason Obama is getting nowhere with Congress is that he lost all credibility in terms of negotiating when he was rolled by Putin and Assad.

I may have lost another old friend today. This one I killed. I hadn’t checked the oil in my chipper in quite some time – bad mistake. It ran perfectly, started on the first pull and then suddenly died after about an hour of chipping palmettos. I went to start it and the engine was locked up tight. That can happen if something gets jammed inside but I knew I hadn’t been running anything through it that would cause a jam. I checked the oil and found it dry. It wasn’t smoking or smelling bad so maybe it can be brought back to life. I put new oil in and will let it cool down for a few hours and then try again. After that I’ll pull the spark plug and squirt some WD-40 into the cylinder and see if that helps. At that point it will either be carted off to a repair place or to the chipper grave yard. I checked to see if I could just get another replacement engine but sadly Tecumseh is no longer in business and every site I checked said they were nearly impossible to find. I have to have a chipper. I wouldn’t have felt so bad if it had just died of old age but to have contributed, if not caused it’s untimely demise, is a real bummer. This happened right at the clean-up end of the project. As I had cleared the paths, I was cutting palmetto and underbrush and building a pile to be chipped and converted into cover or compost. What a way to end. I did get 13 years out of it with some really hard use in the first few years of lot clearing.

This day is quickly becoming an official dumb ass day. All week long as I’ve worked on the filling project, I passed by and noted a large fire ant nest. Instead of stopping what I was doing and dealing with it…………….
Today I’m doing some close clean up was down on my hands and knees crawling along clipping low palmetto fronds, and put my hand down smack on top of the nest. Luckily I was wearing gloves and a long sleeve shirt but I didn’t realize what I had done until the first bites. By then I had hundreds of those nasty little guys crawling on my arm and doing their best to get through the shirt and crawl down into the gloves. I managed to sweep them away after a few dozen bites. Needless to say that mound is now loaded with fire ant poison. I washed my hand and arm with alcohol, took a Benadryl within a few minutes and caught it before it really caused a problem.

Hold it, late breaking. George to the rescue. I told him about the chipper and that my idea was to try pulling the plug and spraying WD-40 into the cylinder. He agreed that was worth trying but it didn’t improve the situation. He used a pick handle to pry the cutting mechanism and it moved. I had tried that myself but only using my hands and not any mechanical leverage. I thought about it but was afraid I would break the shaft with too much force. It broke loose enough that I could turn it over with the pull cord so we decided to give it a try – after making sure it was full of good oil. After spraying starter fluid into the air filter, it started on the first pull. What a relief. I had convinced myself that it didn’t make any sense at all to buy a new one – $1299 for the same size and make. Even a 5HP model (mine is 10HP) is $799 and much wimpier. George’s has a 5HP engine and he really can’t feed it palmettos like I can. Mine will chew them up as fast and as thickly as I can stuff the chute whereas his takes them one or two at a time. When I’m doing a major cleanup, I can easily cut 100’s so that extra HP means I do a job much more quickly.
———————–
I think the politicians are getting nervous that the gov’t can shut down and nobody will even notice. The same as when the sequester happened.

Finished filling the view area and ended up with about a yard of fill dirt left over. I wanted that so I’d be able to fill depressions and pot holes as it all settles. For sure I don’t need another load. My neighbor has a small, garden tractor with a blade attachment for moving dirt. It’s a really old Murray, not even sure they still make them, from the 80’s but it got the job done. I was making great progress with the wheelbarrow approach but the beauty of the tractor is that it packs the soil down while moving it and automatically levels the whole area. Look back to the last post and you can see the difference.

I attended a memorial service for Judy yesterday and was asked to give a eulogy at the First Baptist Church in Lake Wales. Based on comments afterwards, I think it went over well. I had told a few of my friends that if the hair on their arms raised up while I was at the podium, there was probably a lightning bolt headed my way. The pastor was on the front row and I kept glancing down to see if he was ok with what I was saying. I figured he’d give me a knife throat slash signal if I got on thin ice but he seemed absorbed and laughed a couple of times. I’m guessing he picked up on the fact that I don’t spend a lot of time in Church.

Nancy comes home tomorrow and I’m ready. Everything is in good shape here so no rush to get things righted as there was the first couple of times she made the Utah trek. I’ve done this so often now that I have it down to an absolute science. The place barely looks lived in and all my big project yard jobs are done. The fact that Nancy had frozen dinners for me during the past month really made a difference – microwave and paper plates all the way so no kitchen mess. All I use is a cereal bowl, coffee cup, and wine goblet and one set of utensils. I use them, wash them off and set them on the counter over a sheet of paper towel, ready for the next meal. I’m usually out working in the garden and/or jungle before 9AM and back in, dirty and sweaty by noon. I head directly for the washer, strip down, pop in a soap pellet, hit start, head for the shower and then change into my casual afternoon shorts and T shirt. Move the clothes from the washer to the dryer – I have the clothesline area loaded with my fill gear right now – grab the paper and head down to the dock. The next morning I stop by the dryer and switch from my sleeping clothes to the work clothes and start all over. I guess some folks would think this is boring – same clothes every day – but it’s perfection to me.

Our weather here at the lake is exactly opposite of the forecasts. All week long they were projecting heavy rains and actually the area received 5-7” collectively over 3 or 4 days while we received maybe 1/4”. Yesterday and today the forecast was dry – less than 20% likelihood of rain- and it rained all night and into the this morning. It was raining lightly when I went to bed and it rained hard enough this morning so that I awoke to the rain.

This rain is welcome since I did some landscaping along the path yesterday. Landscaping doesn’t mean going to a nursery and getting plants – it means moving some wild plants from one jungle location to another. We have loads of Bromiliads so I thinned them out and filled in areas that I recently filled with dirt. I count trimming the palmettos and raking away 10 years worth of pine needles and oak leaves as landscaping. I also count pulling out thousands of Boston ferns landscaping – so my definition is loose.

Trying a new variety in the garden this year and got a surprise. I read about a cross between broccoli and Kale which the seed company called Brokali. It’s a cut crop, which means you cut it when ready and it grows back, providing a steady stream of goodies. The tops and stems are touted as sweet and delicious. To me it sounds like Broccoli Raab, something I planned to put in the garden in November. Anyway, I got a surprise when I decided to start it indoors for the season a few days ago and saw it germinate in 3 days. Conventional broccoli does germinate quickly, 5-7 days, but I’ve never seen little plants pop out this fast. In this case that may not be a good thing since they’ll be ready to pop in the garden in October which is still fairly hot here. I’ve got plenty of seed left so if this batch cooks in the garden, I’ll have a follow up crop ready to go.

If you are into greens, you can really satisfy your need with very little garden space by focusing on cutting crops. A cutting crop is one where you cut off the leaves as needed while the plant continues to produce more. This year I’ll have a few Kale plants, two varieties; swiss chard, 2 varieties; spinach, 2 varieties; broccoli, 2 varieties not including the Brokali and Broccoli raab, both of which will be there; collards, and several varieties of leaf lettuce. I guess I should throw parsley into that category too. I’ll end up with only 2 garden rows of these items which will provide all the greens we and our neighbor can handle with plenty left over for Nancy’s bridge and quilting ladies from November through April. Two garden rows is less than 100 SF. I’ll mix that up with the one time pick crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, celery and all the roots – carrots, beets, onions and parsnips.

Really making good progress on the filling project. The path to the dock is completed as is the wide area along the lake front and I’ve started filling the view area. I’d say I’m at the 2/3 point on using up the fill dirt and am fairly confident now that I have enough dirt to do the job-at least with a shallow level of fill. Since the dirt pile is positioned adjacent to the area to be filled, it’s going much faster than the dock path. I roughly estimate the area to be 800 SF but it’s tougher to estimate the depth because of the many pot holes and roots that need to be dealt with. Just putting an eyeball on it, I think it will be close and I think I can complete the job by the end of the week – before my bride gets home.

Really made great progress on the dirt project today. I finished down to the dock and then the few low spots along the lakefront to the picnic table. The pile is down to slightly more than half which could be enough to finish the total job – if not finish, get very close. I hope to be finished by the end of the month. The good news is that with all that dirt shoveling and moving, I’m not hurting at all. In past jobs, I was hurting – back, legs, neck, and arms – and I think I know why. This is the first time I’ve done the whole job myself with no help and that’s allowed me to set a comfortable pace and to mix the job. With two people, one guy is stationed at the dirt pile and fills wheelbarrows, two or three usually, and the other guy wheels the dirt down to the dump site then turns around and comes back for another full one. So it’s non-stop doing one job or the other. By myself, I fill a load, walk it down and dump it, then rake it in and then walk the wheel barrow back to the pile and start the process again. I think that mixing it up like that is much easier on the body. That plus I control the break times. If I get too tired, I just stop at the dock and feed the fish or cast a line. You can’t really do that if you’re working with a partner.

I’m not working against any particular schedule but I wanted to get it done before the holiday season, before we go to the beach for our fall break, and all ready for the coming graduation season. We have no graduation parties scheduled but with as many as four possible, the lake could certainly be a candidate for the party(s).

One thing interesting, after completing the path, any animal that walks it leaves tracks. Today there were bear, deer, and raccoon tracks. The raccoon was no surprise but the bear and deer were. I knew a bear was lurking about since it nailed my trash can last week but have never actually seen a deer that I remember. Based on the number of deer track on the path, there were either a full herd or one dancing around quite a bit. I have my fingers crossed that they don’t find the garden.

I’m a bachelor again. Nancy left Thursday for her annual trek to Utah and will stay until the following Saturday – 10 days. The freezer is loaded with little plastic containers labeled “dinner for Joe” or “lunch for Joe” so I guess I’m covered in the eating department. There are at least half a dozen containers labeled soup and enough boxes of cereal to last till the end of the year so I’m covered from every direction. On thing I notice right away is just how quiet it is with her gone. The phone never rings, no sewing machine chatter, pots and pans banging, closets opening and closing, dishwasher noises – loading, unloading, or running; the TV is never on during the day, no reminders to take my meds, eat lunch, take the trash out etc etc etc. It’s just eerily quiet.

We lost a friend of more than 40 years this past weekend. Judy had a heart transplant about 12 years ago but succumbed to cancer within a week of it being diagnosed. Jerry had spent a few days here last month so this is all quite sudden and unexpected.

I am working the fill project by setting daily objectives rather than holding to a time limit or wheel barrow load count. After three days I’ve got roughly 3/4 of the path down to the dock completed and will finish that part of it tomorrow, weather permitting. Then maybe a day leveling the area down by the dock. I’ve been spending about 3 hours a day but some of that is clearing brush, not just moving dirt. It’s too soon to say but I think I’ll have more than half of the fill dirt left after finishing the path and dock area. I’m hoping that’s enough to do the job on the view area but I’m thinking it will be close. The pictures show the dirt base but that will be covered with pine needles etc to restore the natural look.

I never believed the Jack and the Beanstalk story. Anyone who’s grown pole beans know the vines would never support Jack, let alone the giant. That was before I grew the Smerelda beans. I pulled those down a few days ago and trust me, they would support me and a giant. I put down a layer of new compost and then planted peas in the same space, a heritage variety named Alderman which traces back to 1835. I also put in a 15’ row split between cabbage and broccoli, 12 plants total. I had planned to wait another two weeks to put those in but we have a 4 day stretch of wet, cool weather which is perfect for setting out new plants.

A little nostalgia – the last VW van comes off the assembly line Dec 31. We’ve had one in the family since 1979 so a moment of silence is in order.
—————-
Anyone notice that the media has totally dropped Syria from the news. After Obama was so badly punked by Assad and Putin, they put that hot potato down. Is there any doubt that both of these characters have briefed Iran that this is the best time to get sanctions lifted and pay nothing for it? I smell pile on for the next couple of years. Mean time, the press has moved on to Clinton and hope we forget all about the mess in the middle East.

The lake is perfect – perfect level, perfect temp. We swim almost every day for an hour or so and my only complaint is that the fishing could be better. I’m doing lots of manual labor in the jungle and being able to just strip down and dive in makes it all workable.

What manual labor would that be? I just had another full load of fill dirt delivered after swearing I would never do that again. A full load is 20 yards or about a jillion wheel barrows full. What’s happened over the past years is that the fill I did on the path to the dock has slumped such that the path is now rolling and there are too many exposed roots just waiting for someone to trip over. Think Nancy. I also cleared a major swath of jungle a year or so back to improve the view of the lake from the house and that needs to be filled. I wasn’t concerned about that because it was only to enhance the view but it turned out to be a tempting pathway which is a bit dangerous because of the stumps and roots. I’m going to set myself some daily limit, either a number of loads or a time but I’ve promised myself not to overdo it. We are coming up on October so it will be cooler or not so hot and we don’t have any big social event scheduled that would force the issue. I even borrowed my neighbor’s small wheel barrow so I can’t shovel a load to big to move without risking a hernia. If things hold true to history, the only muscle discomfort I’ll endure is a sore neck. I must have weak neck muscles and rolling a heavy wheel barrow stresses it. The other thing that will make this load easier to deal with is that I’m having it dumped quite close to the paths. The last load was about 300’ from the target area and that wore me out.

I’ve mentioned several times that one of the risks with growing cucumbers and squash is that both are prone to infestation by butterfly larva – aka little worms aka caterpillars. The butterfly drills a micro hole in the fruit then deposits an egg which hatches and finds itself born in a food source. This year has been very mild from a butterfly attack standpoint but still occasionally one finds it’s way in. I’ve been trying to examine the fruit more closely while it’s still small and pick the ones that have been breached first. Cleaning around the critter is easy if you catch it early, before it’s really eaten too much. Yesterday my neighbor told me about his solution and I tried it on today’s harvest. I picked three zucchinis and noticed tiny pin holes in one of them. His solution is to soak the zucchini in ice water, literally a bowl of water with ice cubes, and the worms are supposed to come out on their own. Sounded like it could work and sure enough it did. Out came half a dozen or so small white worms about 1/2” long and a little bigger around than 6 pound test fishing line. I’m sure they wouldn’t have lasted a few seconds in the frying pan but getting rid of them before cooking seems so much better.

You may recall that a few months back I officially gave up on Tomatillos for this season and cut them up for the compost pile. Three months later, the stems have shown no signs of decomposing so the pile is just too rough to even think about using. I normally expect usable compost within 3 months of stopping new input to the pile. That led me to a decision to break out the chipper and run it all through. The problem with that path was that it has been at least a year and probably closer to two years since I’d cranked up the chipper and my history with gasoline engines is that the likelihood it would start was slim to none. It had been cantankerous the last time I used it and I nearly wore myself out pulling the starter cord. Amazingly it started on the second pull and never missed a beat for the next hour. The tomatillo branches are now chipped into micro particles. One of the wheels did fall off when I was walking it back to the shed but that looks fixable and this is like having an old friend back.

I mentioned a few posts back that I had put my tomato plants into the main garden. After a week it’s looking like I had 100% success with the transplant. Usually transplanting this time of year is problematic because it’s so hot and the sun is so intense but I’ve learned to create sun shades from palmetto fronds and that seems to have done the job. It may be an old wive’s tale but planting basil next to tomatoes is supposed to improve the taste of the tomatoes so I decided to plant some basil seeds, but that wasn’t going so well – probably too hot. Surprise! Today when I was weeding, I spotted a newly sprouted basil plant. Upon closer examination, I spotted half a dozen. They were very close to where a couple basil plants spent the summer and went to seed so it shouldn’t have been that big a surprise but I really don’t recall ever seeing them reseed before. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention and pulled them out generically with the weeds. Anyway, I dug up a couple and moved them over next to the recently planted tomatoes.

Picked the first zucchini. It was perfect – no little worm holes or soft spots. There are four more on the bushes and loads of new blossoms so perhaps we’ll actually get a decent crop. The foliage and plant stock are really looking good with no signs at all of the mildew or fungus I usually see as the plants mature and no signs of heat distress. That means no nematodes working on the roots.

Also picked what may have been the end of the pole beans, or at least this particular batch of pole beans. No complaints at all. My plan is to wait until the end of this month and replant the spot with snow peas or green peas. The trellis I put up a few months back worked perfectly. At one time I had a third of it supporting cucumber vines and another third, the beans. Both were really dense with foliage and, while the load was evenly distributed with the cucumbers, the beans were top heavy so there was quite a load on the whole trellis during storms with no sagging on leaning. Nice job Joe. It now has new cucumbers, new pole beans, and new melons just starting to climb so by the end of this month, the trellis should be 100% planted. I plan to add another 20’ to the trellis, using the remainder of the 50’ wire mesh roll I bought a few months back. It’s clear I can use all 50’ for at least 9 months a year and going vertical is a real space multiplier. The goodies are easier to pick too – bye bye bush beans.
—————–
Kerry and Obama are the Laurel and Hardy of Foreign Policy. I don’t know which of them is the worse embarrassment but as a couple, they’re unbelievable. Even after giving up the evening national news, somehow I still can’t avoid hearing about them. I read one comment which made the analogy that Putin is playing Chess while Obama and Kerry play tic tac toe.

Chris sent Nancy a new cookbook and for the last two nights we’ve had something new (to us). He had been using the book for a while and described various dishes to Nancy who then asked for the recipe. He claims it was easier for him to just get her a book of her own than continue copying and sending. The meals come out looking like a picture from a 5 star eatery – Big Rig on steroids. The dishes included 3 vegetable products that, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never eaten although there’s a good chance they were buried along side or inside something I knew – Parsnips, Arugula, and fennel root. I knew what they were but had never eaten or had any desire to eat them. Now I’m trying to figure if I can find some room in the garden to try growing them. Just to be on the safe side, I ordered some seeds for all of them.

I started the winter veggie seeds today. That may seem early and it could be a few weeks ahead but it’s generally 6 – 8 weeks from when I start the seeds to when the plants make it to the garden so that puts them out to the end of October. Among the seeds started are two varieties of broccoli, cauliflower, Jersey Wakefield cabbage, two varieties of Kale, collards, onions, leeks, and three varieties of lettuce. I’ve never tried leeks before and one variety of Kale is also new to me. It’s called black dinosaur and is an Italian heirloom variety. How can that be bad? I’m holding off on things that need to be directly planted in the ground such as carrots, beets, radishes and spinach until the soil temp drops at least 20 degrees. One more garden note – there are a couple zucchini’s forming on the bushes. That just seems so fast to me. I’m going to track them daily and make sure I pick them before the critters get to them this season. If I can just save half!

About 20 years ago we took a trip to London, doing all the normal touristy stuff. It seemed like every evening we would end up at some old Anglican Church worn out from walking and looking for a place to sit down and relax. Turns out they have a service called Evensong, I guess every day or at least every day in tourist season. It was always peaceful and enjoyable music. Last week Nancy spotted in the paper that the local Episcopal Church was having an Evensong recital and suggested we go. I wasn’t interested in whatever NFL game was opposite the service so, in a weak moment, agreed to go. So we ended up in a church, Sunday night, with no wedding, funeral or Baptism involved. It was certainly warmer than London and the church was smaller and no doubt newer, but it was just as relaxing. The music was excellent with most of the musicians being part of the faculty in the Stetson U Music Dept. The other thing we noted was that the average age there was probably 100.

Super Shave update – almost at the halfway point with 75 shaves and 8 months into it.

Hurricane update – we’ve now passed or tied the latest date ever without a single hurricane. Even the “named” tropical storms have only lasted a few hours before being downgraded back to depressions. I thought the supposed warmer water was going to make this the most active season ever. What that tells us is that the Hurricane Center can’t forecast a season in advance and also, assuming they can accurately measure water temp and that it is actually warmer, that warmer water does not lead to more storm activity. Personally I never thought there was a connection in terms of activity but do suspect a link in intensity once a storm forms. It’s an energy thing.