This is going to be a long posting since I’ve fallen so far behind and have so much to report from North Carolina.

Back from the big Anniversary bash in Franklin NC and I can’t recall ever having a better family gathering. The accommodations were fabulous, the weather was fabulous, and the company was fabulous. We were there for a full week with a base group of 9 that swelled to 21 for a few days. The youngest party goer was 3 and the oldest 73 with 4 generations represented including 2 great, great nieces. I think Fred and Martha traveled the farthest from Staten Island with little Tommy a close second, coming from Chicago. Simon was the closest, winding out his summer job in the Smokies less than 100 miles away. Franklin is located in south west North Carolina, close to the Georgia border and the Tennessee border and close to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. And about a 2-3 hour drive for the Sheronik’s, Yearta’s, and Edwards’. The little Tennessee River runs through it flowing north to Cherokee NC. The cabin was located about 5 miles north of Franklin, a miles or so down a dirt road and directly on the river. Very isolated and private.

The cabin was large and luxurious. Because it was made of logs and out in the wilderness you have to call it a cabin but get any thoughts of primitive out of your head. None of us live in accommodations as nice as these – cable TV, wi-fi and heated toilet seats that had special plumbing and sprays attached (or so I’m told). Not counting couches, blow up beds and floor space, there were comfortable sleeping arrangements for 10. There were three social gathering areas – a large living room with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the river; a large deck out from the living room; a patio area down by the river complete with a gas log fire pit, a gas grill, and a wet bar. A typical night would find a monopoly game going on in the living room, a beer and wine social happening on the upper deck and a marshmallow roasting, wine event down on the river patio.

Aside from catching a few smallmouth bass from the deck, one feature of the cabin that particularly appealed to me was a couple of rows of blueberry bushes, 20 plants, out the front door. They were loaded with berries and we picked them as needed on a daily basis. Still, there were more berries ripening than we were eating everyday so we did a large final picking and have them in the freezer here already. I can assure you that the next group to occupy the cabin will have just as many to deal with, there were that many red berries and blossoms on the bushes.

Insofar as other activities, during the day there was nominally a group floating tubes on the river; a group playing some lawn game; a group at a local U-Pick vegetable farm; a group trying there luck at one of the local gem mines; a couple fishing; or a group taking a generic sight seeing trip in the mountains to local eateries, antique shops, or souvenir hunting. One trip was particularly memorable for me. We were on a windy mountain road following a white water creek when right in front of us a kid jumped off a cliff into a pool below. We stopped immediately and Simon said it was “butt buster falls” and that he’d jumped it before. So he stripped down to his underwear and gave us a breath taking demo off the cliff 30’ above the pool. I flashed back about 15 years when he did the same thing during a camping trip at Starvation Reservoir in Utah.

The fishing could have been better but only because the river itself was running fast and muddy from heavy rains a few days before we got there. By the last day it had dropped a foot, slowed a bit, and was much clearer so I managed to catch 4 bass including one pretty good one just fishing from the deck. Tom had gone off hiking while I caught the fish so he took his rod with him on the next float tube trip and hooked two bass. Think about trying to land a nice bass while floating in a tube downstream about 3 mph. Maybe next time we go we’ll catch the river at a better time and get quite a bit more time fishing. There’s a place close by that rents canoes for a 7 hour float. I did that trip a few years ago and we caught a grundle of fish so I know it’s a productive area.

We took a small detour on the way home to stop at a place Tom recommended called Mercier Orchard. It’s in Blue Ridge Georgia and they had stopped there on the way up and purchased some fresh made fruit pies and other goodies. It was well worth the extra time. We ate breakfast there – excellent biscuits-then picked up peaches, nectarines, apples and assorted fried pies, a house specialty. And while on the topic of food – we all ate out one night at a place called the Dillard House in Dillard Ga., about 10 miles from the cabin. It’s home style, all you can eat Southern cooking. If you’re into southern style vegetables, it’s worth driving 100 miles out of your way. I don’t know if it still is or not, but at one time, it was Tom’s favorite restaurant in the galaxy.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful – just what we wanted. We had a 4 car caravan going for 90% of the trip and split up just south of Gainesville. We did nothing but unpack last night and then crashed but first thing this morning I got started cleaning up the garden and Nancy started cooking the stuff we’d picked in NC. That means a dozen or so large stuffed bell peppers and a few peach/nectarine cobblers and crisps.

I observed one social factor that I call the I Phone circle. That’s when a small group, 4-6 maybe, sit around with each other but are digitally communicating with others not in the group. So they are physically with one set of people but mentally with another. Several times there would be 3 such independent groups doing their thing, one in the living room, one on the outside porch and another down on the patio by the river. There could even have been another in a bedroom that I didn’t see. It reminded me of my college days when you’d go to the library and there were students clustered around tables, each person doing his own thing-reading, writing or whatever but there was zero communication between those around the table; total silence. A couple of times I thought about the old song that has the line “Love the one you’re with” and thought a more appropriate line for this generation would be: “be with the one you’re with.” There were 4 of us super senior citizens – 70+ and electronically deprived- and we would naturally cluster to have conversations among ourselves the old fashioned way; you know with facial and other body gestures and with verbal ramblings that could extend beyond a fixed number of words.

I’m going to post this but I’m sure there are loads of anecdotes that I’m not including.

The lake came up another 3” in the past few days so I’m gaining confidence that we’ll be able to host a summer lake event in August or maybe Labor Day. Another foot will cement it. The fish must have some kind of broad band communication system because the number and size of the fish showing up at feeding time is increasing every day. The last to show up are the giant bluegill/bream. I guess it could be that with the water rising they’re moving closer to shore but a large part of it has to be me spreading a pound or so of the fish feed around the dock every day. Plenty of turtles too although I haven’t seen any of the softshells yet. I haven’t lowered the boat into the water yet but I could for sure. Probably do that when we get back from NC.

You may be surprised to learn that bluegills can see through lily pads. If one of the little food pellets lands on top of a pad, in short order one will spot it (from underneath) and poke through the bottom of the pad to get at it. That’s pretty amazing since the pads are not transparent and are fairly thick so it’s surprising that they can see there’s something on top of the pad and even more surprising that they have the ability to poke a hole in the pad to get at it. Even when I’m not feeding them, you can hear bluegills popping holes in the pads to get at insects that have landed on a pad.

Well I got thru my gauntlet of doc’s with no problems at all; good numbers top to bottom. The final hurdle was the dentist for an annual cleaning and checkup. Got thru the cleaning and then the dentist came in to do a final check. Sure enough he spotted a little something that turned out to be a dead tooth under a cap which would need something like a root canal. Our guy doesn’t do such things but made a referral to a compatriot in Daytona – Nancy had some special work done by the same guy a few years back and was ok with him. There’s no emergency but something that should be addressed before too long – I think Nancy already has me set up for a visit the day after we get home. They said I could take up to 8 advils a day if necessary. That made me feel much better! Honestly, I am not hurting at all and wish I didn’t even know about it.

Nancy is making the last batch of sauce for a few weeks. This batch will be used to make the lasagna for the NC trip this weekend. Speaking of the trip – wouldn’t you know it that a tropical storm, Dorian, has formed and is generally heading in the direction of the East coast. The current projection has it in the vicinity of Puerto Rico next Tuesday which makes it a possible issue for us toward the end of our trip. We’ll just have to keep our eyes on it and act accordingly.

The fish feeding project is paying dividends. When I started a few weeks back there were virtually no fish to be seen. Within a few days little bluegills were showing up and after a couple of weeks, the onslaught of shiners and larger bluegill mentioned in the last post. Today the first large bass showed up and made a couple of slashes into the feeding shiners. There were two bass I would guess to be in the 3-4# range. The speed of their charges is unbelievable. I’m guessing these guys will be in the 5-6# range in short order based on the ready availability of choice shiners.

Not much going on in the garden these days in terms of actual harvesting except for tomatoes which are on their last legs. There are baby eggplants forming and the cuc’s are putting out little mini guys. The plants are climbing the trellis really nicely so that’s working out as planned. The late planted pole beans are likewise climbing the trellis and reaching 10’. I still have doubts about actually getting any beans or cuc’s this late in the summer but we’ve had lots of overcast days and not the usual swarms of butterflies and the resulting caterpillars. If we do have success, we should be picking right after coming back from North Carolina in a couple of weeks.

I think I mentioned that July is normally a bad month because all my annual checkup things happen. It’s really a drag because each visit also involves two trips – one to get blood tests and one to review the results. This year it’s even worse because somehow the dental visit also happens. So on Thursday I go to the doc then to the dentist. That’s just not right. I need a new scheduler.

As I said, the case should never have been brought to trial. It was a political decision, not a law enforcement decision. And, also as I said, there was no rioting. This is Central Florida, not Detroit or Cleveland. Certainly there would be emotions on both sides but Seminole County is populated by rationale citizens. I hear the Rev Al is coming to town to stir the pot. What a surprise. I had to laugh when the Rev Jackson said that a jury that was all female was not fair. That should have caused a few lib hearts to flutter.

Update – I’m at the 6 month point and 55 shaves into the Shave Secret product test and still not at 50% on the juice. The stuff is amazing but what’s really amazing is that I haven’t dropped the 18 ml container and messed up the test. I probably missed a drop or two when trying to measure out 3 drops each time but at this point, I can say that for sure it would last me a year and give me 125+ shaves.

Another update – Add Illinois to the states that will be represented at our 50th. I mentally caught it a few hours after posting but wasn’t sure Tommy was onboard 100% and didn’t want to put him under any pressure. I love that he picked it up by reading the blog!!! I can use it as a readers’ test.

The lake is rising about 1/2” a day. That’s how much rain we’ve been getting daily compared to everywhere else in the state that’s been getting 2”. Even so, it’s now up to the 3rd rung in the ladder -swimmable when it gets to the fourth rung. Not sure it’s related to the water level, but for the first few years we were here the lake was loaded with shiners. Shiners are a shiny, carp like fish that are a bass’s favorite dinner. They are easily caught with a small hook and then rehooked onto a giant bass hook. Several times I caught a dozen or so, kept them in a cooler with a portable circulation system, and went off to some other lake. Often with great success. But for some reason a few years back, the shiners virtually left the lake or found some secret hiding space off in the middle somewhere and I had to switch to using baby bluegills when I just wanted to lazily bait fish. No more. The shiners are back big time. After cleaning up the dock area last month, I started feeding the fish again and have been blown away by the shiner population. We’re loaded with small bluegills, not seeing any of the giants from a few years back yet and not seeing any big bass cruising in looking for a quick lunch, but they will and I’ll be ready.

Gator gone. I got a report that it was almost 4’ long and that the tail is now residing in a freezer. I also heard that it was lured to it’s fate by – get ready for this – an Iphone App that mimics a Gator call. I never gave that app a thought but I bet there are duck calls, turkey calls and all manner of hunting aids. There’s something obscene about that.

Looks like perhaps the storm season is starting in earnest with a weak tropical storm, Chantal, projected now to ride up the east coast. If it follows the current forecast, it would pass a couple hundred miles offshore from us. That’s perfect because we not get much in the way of wind but would be on the juicy side of the storm and maybe pick up some substantial rain. We could start feeling it by the weekend – or not. Really looks to to me like it’s going to fizzle out long before it gets this far.

Here’s a tip. If the bluetooth on your computer ever dies, you can get an external USB bluetooth module. A year or so back we replaced our mouse with a bluetooth connected track pad. Last week it wasn’t working. Changed the batteries in the track pad – still not working so I called Apple. The support tech told me it was probably the internal bluetooth module and that I’d have to leave the computer with them for 3-5 days and pay $150+. Hello mouse. (an aside – when I called Apple I was having trouble getting out of the automated answering system which had started by telling me it understood complete sentences. I was frustrated and told it to get me connected to a human and it did.) I called a private but authorized Apple repair shop in Deland and got the same story except the guy added that I could go to Radio Shack or equivalent and pick up an external device that would do the same thing for $30. Radio Shack turned out to be a dud but Tom ordered a device from Amazon that worked like a world champ. Plug and play; $13. Hello trackpad.

We head up to western NC towards the end of this month for a 50th anniversary celebration. Not sure what the total head count will be but right now we’re expecting family from here, NY, South Carolina, and CA for a weeklong party on the Little Tennessee River near Franklin. Really looking forward to a break from the heat and just being together there. That plus the smallmouth bass fishing on the river. They’ve been having the wettest spring and early summer ever so maybe the fishing will be only a dream. I’ve fished it before and did very well but it was always when the river level was down.

Simon is already in the area working in the Great Smokey Mountains on the NC/Tenn border. He’s a camp counselor at a nature preserve there inside the park, Tremont Institute, and will be finishing up his tour of duty the same time we arrive. So he drives about an hour and vacations with us. Poor guy. After the 2 months in the Smokies and the week with us on the river, he goes to the Grand Tetons for a 10 day certification program for first responders. That’s what I call a fun summer.

Looks like the Zimmerman trial is winding down. Watching lawyers in action raises my blood pressure to near popping. I keep waiting for one of the witnesses, getting ravished by a lawyer, to snap and pop one of them.

Some excitement last night. Our neighbor, Barbara, had cataract surgery a couple days ago then went back for the next day check early yesterday. I noticed she hadn’t come back home by about 2PM and wondered if there were any problems. About 6 she called and said all was well and after her checkup they had gone to George’s infection doctor to check on the status of his post op infection problem. She said they changed much of his medicine and he would be on this new regimen for 6 weeks but all was well. About 5 minutes later she called back and said she had just called 911 for George, who’s heart was doing wheelies. Nancy boogied over there and I went up to the main road to wait for the ambulance and guide them down to their house which is difficult to spot from the road. Seems that George was likely having a major reaction to the new meds. The EMT’s came, lights and sirens and were on site within 5 minutes and loaded him onto a stretcher and into the vehicle within another 5. Barbara called about 9 and said they had him stabilized and sleeping at the hospital in Ormond. Home at midnight. That poor guy is on so many different meds that it would seem impossible to forecast what interactions might be going on inside him.
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Take a close look at the photo. That’s a rat snake crawling horizontally along the side of the house, about 8’ above ground level. Can you believe that? It’s about 2’ long and maybe as big around as my pinkie finger. The surface is rough, stucco like finish, but I never would have guessed that a snake could do that. Rat snakes are good guys so seeing one around is a positive. Another little critter story. About a month ago I went out early to get the paper and walked up on a set of 3 baby armadillos. The babies are tiny miniatures except they are pink as compared to gray brown when mature. As soon as they realized I was on them, they scattered into the brush. The next morning, they were back on the gravel driveway only this time instead of scattering, they started following behind me ,like I was the parent in their life. They did that for a few days and then I guess an older ‘dillar told them I was not one of them. I still see them every couple of days and they are growing rapidly but still retain the pink shade. They scatter off into the brush when I come within about 10’. My biggest nemesis around here are fire ants and these guys eat fire ants so I’m fine with them, even when they’re digging up the lawn or what passes for a lawn.

This week’s batch of spaghetti sauce was 20 quarts. The photo shows most of the process with some in the blender, some in the pot, and some still on the hoof. The greens you see are basil and oregano. That’s an 8 quart pot shown, (I think) so we had to break out the bigger 12 quart model to finish off the batch. The end is not in sight so far as the tomatoes are concerned but we’re not eating fast enough to clear space in the freezers to hold it all and I’m not buying another freezer.

It’s unusual to have a president who is equally inept at domestic and foreign affairs, Jimmy Carter comes to mind, but Obama’s doing it with ease whereas Jimmy had to struggle to achieve it.

I’ve mentioned several times how well the tomato crop is coming this year and that includes cherries, plums and traditional round varieties. By far this has been the best year for tomatoes across the board. So I was surprised when several folks who visited George in the past week or so were amazed to see my plants and related that nobody was getting any tomatoes this year. And these folks came from several different areas. Apparently everyone is suffering from fruit rotting on the vines. I didn’t personally talk to them but George and Barbara told me about it and they honestly had to tell their friends that they had no idea what I did differently. If they had asked I would have told them it was just luck – but it isn’t. One guy that I did talk to about two weeks ago had the same story and I asked him what variety he was growing and he looked at me like I was wacky. He didn’t seem to know there were different varieties and just said that he planted whatever looked best at Lowes. Over the past 5 years I’ve probably gone through a dozen or more varieties to find the ones that seem to perform best in my garden so at this point the lion’s share of what I plant are one’s with a good history here. I also spend quite a bit of time planting each one and have developed a set of techniques that seem to be working – some bizarre enough not to discuss for fear of being labeled as a quack.

You’d be amazed at the amount of advice I get, relative to the garden, from visitors who had just before told me how nice it looked and how poorly their’s was doing. One gal came out when I was picking some weeds and pitching them in the compost pile. She told me what a bad idea that was because I would have weeds growing in the garden from the weed seed I was adding. I asked her if her garden was weed free and she said that she had plenty of weeds which was the hardest part of the gardening process. Somehow she didn’t put it together that she was providing advice on solving a problem that she hadn’t really solved. I explained to her that I pulled the weeds before they seeded and that even if they did have seeds, the heat generated in the pile would cook them. I don’t really think it sunk in.

The pole beans I planted as an experiment and to try out the trellis have mostly germinated and are starting the climb up the poles. I’ll be very surprised if we get any beans – typically veggies won’t set properly in the heat. The cuc’s too have germinated and are looking surprisingly healthy. Same comment regarding eventually getting a crop.

Great rain yesterday, almost 3”. We’re within 18” of having a swimmable lake so if July proves as wet as June, we should be swimming by August. Starting to see lots of smallish bluegill around the dock so we need to replenish our stock of fish food and start fattening them up.

Joey and Mark came up Sunday to honor their obligations relative to my birthday and Father’s day. I traded off any gifts for some labor which was mostly on the dock and the jungle leading up to the dock. Although the dock is only 8 years old, some of the deck planks are rotting-so much for life time warranties. When we built the dock I considered using a composite decking, trade name Trex, instead of wood but went with the old standby when I learned that the Trex was three times the cost. That was several thousand dollars that didn’t seem necessary at the time. Fast forward to now and I’m replacing bad planks as they happen with Trex. Along with that, the pump hadn’t been working in over a year because the water level had fallen below the intake and the pump had lost it’s prime. That meant no fish cleaning station on the dock and no way to pressure wash getting the pump going was on the list. There was a dead bay tree hanging over the dock and a couple along side the entrance path. Those had to go but were not ones I could get to myself with my wimpy saw. Finally, the dock roof gutters were full of leaves that had decayed to the point where pine trees were actually growing in the gutters. In a few hours Mark and I accomplished all those tasks and I was able to do a good power washing the next day. So the dock is event ready – all we need is about another 18” of water in lake to get something going. Joey mowed the lawn, much appreciated, but was captured by his mother for all the honey do’s that I’d been dodging. So she horned in on my Father’s day/Birthday action. They were treated to one of my now famous, (here at the house), cherry tomato pizzas.

I’m hooked on watching the Zimmerman case on the tube. It’s covered from gavel to gavel on all local stations. From what I heard from the media when it all happened, it looked to me like the prosecution never had a case and only pursued charges because of the pressure exerted by the black and lib community in Seminole County and elsewhere around the country. They were basically afraid of riots which is why it took over a month for Zimmerman to even be arrested. The result is that the State’s case is non-existent and every witness they put on, ends up supporting the defense. The one real State’s witness was barely intelligible and caught in flat ass lies several times. My guess at this point is that the judge could throw the whole thing out after the State has put on it’s case. If they don’t just ease out of it, the defense will make them look like jerks. I will be really interested in seeing them go after the family’s attorney – the guy who stirred the pot from the get go. I’m guessing that the prosecution is trying to figure out a way to finesse themselves out of this whole thing without totally embarrassing themselves. Like maybe offering a plea down to a misdemeanor

A couple posts back I speculated that perhaps the smaller number of bugs inhabiting the garden this year was connected to the high number of cardinals that are flitting about. I don’t recall ever seeing so many around here. I mentioned it to Simon who has an ornithologist friend at Tremonton. According to her, cardinals are nominally seed eaters but when nesting, they feed on insects to feed their young – insects being much higher in protein needed by the newly hatched birds. So I guess it is possible that the cardinals are helping keep the bugs under control this year.

Back in January, one of my favorite casting reels broke. Actually it wore out – the part that works the level wind had just worn down. I’ve had that happen in the past and was always able to fix it myself quickly by getting a new pawl. At my advanced age, I can no longer deal with these tiny parts so I took it to the Tackle Box in Daytona where I’d had reels repaired in the past. About 6 weeks later they called and said the reel was old and no longer supported with spare parts. Luckily I had picked up a card for a guy that repairs reels and decided to give him a try. He also told me (over the phone) that the reel was old and out of production for quite a while but that he maybe had a source for the part. A week later he called and said the reel was fixed and ready to go. Cost $10. I tried out the reel today and it works like a world champ. To replace that reel now would cost $200+ and that is way outside my pass band for a fishing reel. Interestingly I never saw the guy who fixed the reel. He lives in the high rent district, on the Halifax river in a big buck house where he hangs a cardboard box beneath his mail box. You drop off the reel in the box and then retrieve it from the same box when he calls and says it’s done. He just charges for the parts, no labor. I got his name from another small tackle shop and he mentioned that the repair guy used to have his own tackle business but retired and just repaired reels for the fun of it. Looking at his house and the location, I’d say his tackle business was quite successful. I couldn’t just pay $10, so left $15 and still felt a little guilty with that.

Nancy outdid herself the other night with a batch of 10 stuffed peppers. She used the sauce from the season’s first spaghetti sauce along with green peppers straight from the garden. With all the peppers and tomatoes in our future, I’m sure this will be repeated several times this summer. Update – in the past three days we created two cherry tomato pizzas and another giant batch of spaghetti sauce. I rate 2 gallons as a giant batch. Looking at the plants, it looks to me like we’ll be able to do a giant batch once a week for quite some time. In fact if all goes according to plan, we’ll be whipping up the last batches just after Thanksgiving. I’ll start the fall seedlings in September for harvest in November and December.

Oh, by the way. I measured the cutting board holding the fish in the last post. It’s 16” across so it looks to me like that fish probably fit within the 18” to 27” slot, especially if you measure from the fork of the tail and not the tip.

Tom and I went fishing on the Tomoka River the other day. It started out under a cloud when we forgot to check if the plug was in – it wasn’t – but turned good fairly quickly with a few nice fish and a pleasant breeze that made fishing easy. I caught a small snook and a nice redfish; Tom got a nice bass and a few smaller ones plus a micro snook. We kept the redfish simply because it had literally swallowed my zara spook lure. Luckily it was within the 18-27” slot limit (we think) so it was a legal catch. Turns out it was the hardest fish to clean I’ve ever encountered. The fish is covered with large scales that are like armer plating. It took almost an hour to do the deed; about 45 minutes to fillet it and 15 minutes to retrieve the lure. The carcass is now residing in the garden where I suspect it will remain almost intact for the next 50 years.

Tom came up to the lake the evening before the trip mentioned above and brought the latest addition to his fleet – an inflatable pontoon boat. He got it at a “can’t pass it up” closeout price at Costco and wanted to do the initial testing at the lake. We launched it and away he went – using a combination of flipper power and oars. The boat can support an electric motor and battery but this was a man powered voyage to test how well it handled and fished. According to Tom, it’s going to take a little getting used to but was great to fish from. I’ll probably give it a try one of these days but I’m pretty much a poke boat kind of guy. Oh, by the way, Tom had a small gator chase his lure so I guess we’ll be on gator watch duty until the local belt and wallet maker takes care of the problem. The neighbors across the lake in the trailer home also spotted it by their dock so it’s for sure living here.

I experienced the most thrilling storm of my life on Thursday. About 2PM I went down to the dock with a new book and the XM radio, leaving Nancy with her afternoon TV shows. It looked like a light rain in the offing so I took the umbrella down with me. About 30 minutes into it, the rain did come. Nothing special just a light sprinkling. Which got harder and harder; which then brought on some serious lightning striking several times within hundreds of feet from me; which then brought hail; which then brought very strong linear winds shifting direction 180 degrees several times within a few minutes; and finally bringing the feared and dreaded “train sound”. I wasn’t sure that being out on the dock was the best place to be, all things considered. I was getting wetter and wetter as the rain came down almost horizontally. Which is the bigger worry – trees blowing down onto the dock? Lightning striking the dock? or a tornado carrying me off to OZ? It crossed my mind that maybe the best move would be to lash myself to one of the dock pilings to keep from being blown out to sea! It lasted about 30 minutes before it let up enough for me to make a run for the house. We got only 1.5” of rain, had only a few downed limbs and lost electricity for almost 4 hours. Turns out a small tornado crossed the main road about a half mile from us and tore down several power poles. That must have been the train I heard. I counted 10 power company trucks with large booms extended on a half mile stretch of US 17 putting up new poles and restringing power lines.