Finally got a look at the lake after the cold snap and lots of pumping by the fern growers. Can’t believe how far they pulled it down, maybe 2′ in the last two weeks. The lake surface area is approximately 60 acres, so that would be 120 acre-feet of water pumped out or evaporated in that period. For those who have been on the dock, the area under the new addition is mostly high and dry. So unless the winter turns out to be wetter than usual, we could be seeing the lowest levels since we’ve lived here by March or April. The only silver lining to that is I’ll be able to install a few wave boards under the dock to help eliminate shoreline erosion in the future. Couldn’t do that when we did the original job because the water was a few feet deep there.

Bought all the bits and pieces for my PVC erector set project and started cutting pipe. I want to have it all or mostly all done by the next cold spell – starting to look like the day after Christmas. The pic shows a few structures I’ve built and placed in the garden for measurement purposes – just randomly placed for now to test the concept so don’t pay much attention to actual placements. I want to be sure I can do all I want with 24”, 30” and 60” pieces. These are all nice multiples in a 10′ pipe section. When I laid out the rows, I wasn’t particularly fussy about row width so each row is different. In the future I’ll try to standardize with the frost supports in mind. I draped one of the smaller pieces of frost cloth over a set of supports to verify what spacing I’ll need to keep the cloth elevated without drooping down onto the covered plant. Wherever the cloth touches a plant, there’s a risk of leaf burn so that’s something to avoid. With this design I’ll be able to put smaller pieces of cloth over particularly sensitive plants/rows and then a top blanket covering the whole garden. Right now the forecast gives me at least the next 7 days which should be plenty of time to complete the job. Nancy repaired the two large cover cloths so we’re good to go on that front. I will be surprised if we experience another stretch like this last one which set all kinds of records. I heard on the tube that in 2010, so far, Orlando has experienced 14 hard freezes. That means we’ve probably had half again as many. There were 7 such events in 2009 and 0 in 2005. Nice trend. Supports my new Ice Age theory.

I now have lots of empty space in the garden where the tomatoes, peppers, and squash resided up until about 10 days ago. I’ve planted 4 dozen onion plants, half a dozen cabbages, beet seeds, loads of lettuce plants and cauliflowers in the last few days so it’s approaching maybe the halfway point again. Over the next couple of weeks I should get quite a few more items going, peaking at about 75% capacity. I won’t go to 100% by design because I want to have room for early spring starts. I always like to start some things way too early just in case the weather is more favorable than expected. The worst that can happen is that the early stuff doesn’t make it but the upside is nice – tomatoes in April or May. I might also give a try at using some of the frost cloth full time over a few things even after the frost danger has past to see if I can hold off the bugs longer. Usually the bugs can’t bother a full grown plant but can be devastating on young stuff. Always something new to try and now that the soil is well balanced, I can turn my attention to these finer details.

The pumpkin flag has been replaced by Santa so we’re seasonally correct.

The cold weather finally broke and we have seasonably warm (mid 70‘s) weather forecast for the next week. So the covers came off the garden. Recall, in the last 10 days we’ve had five below freezing and three with what the meteorologists call a hard freeze. I think that’s temps below freezing for more than 4 hours. The only really sensitive crops under cover were the tomatoes and peppers. Gone. No surprise there. I ended up with a 5 gallon bucket full of green tomatoes, some of which will ripen, others that will be fried or baked green. The bushes were full and the roots clean so no question, I have broken the code on growing tomatoes.

Some particular areas of the garden were covered with a single layer of frost cloth, other areas with a double layer. It would have all been under double cover if I didn’t have the tall tomato plants to worry about. With the tent pole affect they create, the individual covers are not large enough to do the whole garden so around the edges, there’s only a single layer.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the lettuce, spinach, and parsley planted in the side garden – an old fire pit – made it just fine. No signs of any damage. This side garden is located closer to the jungle and is much more protected from the NW winds than the main garden. So the combination of a more protected area and cold tolerant plants resulted in 100%survival, even with only a single cover.

In the main garden, kind of a mixed story. Celery, carrots,radishes, peas and Swiss Chard, no problems. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collards and brussels sprouts – not so sure. They definitely are alive but looking like they’ve had a tough fight. Some of this might be a lack of water. It’s been very dry for a week with no way to water things under the covers so part of the problem may be just that. I watered them all well and perhaps a day or two of water and sun will revive them. I’m calling them “on life support”. Some of the cabbage is pickable – not full size but large enough for a meal.

Wonder what’s going on under the frost blankets. According to the weather folks, we’ve been below freezing for hours and hours for three days – a record stretch – so conventional wisdom has it that I will join the ranks of Florida farmers who have lost the whole crop. Looking at the fruit trees from the warmth of the house, they seem to have made it so far. You can tell if a tree’s been hurt because the leaves curl up and these haven’t. I really don’t know what to expect. I mostly have hardy veggies which, in years past, have survived temp’s on this order so it’s possible that it won’t be a total loss. Looks like things will return to normal on Thursday after one more record shattering night and I’ll remove the garden blankets. No matter how things turn out, we’ll have a bit of repair work to do on the blankets themselves. The wind has been howling for a few days and caused a few rips and tears but this is the third season for them and they’ve more than paid for themselves with saved veggies. The gov declared a state of emergency which I think means we get some kind of fed money to help cover the lost crops. Wonder where I sign up and will it cover some new frost cloth?

The inside of the house has taken on the look of a plant nursery. Anything that could be moved inside, has; Lots of new veggie starts that would normally be out on the porch are inside. That’s the stuff going into the garden as soon as it looks safe to replant. The guest bathroom is now a full blown arboretum.

Now that I’m convinced we’re entering an ice age, I need to do something a bit more aggressive with the garden so I’m designing a system of PVC pieces that will allow me to set up a variety of structures within the garden depending on exactly what crop needs what level of protection. And to make the whole job of covering, easier and less subject to ripping. My concept is to cut 1/2” schedule 40 PVC pipes into 30” pieces and then to use combinations of elbows, T’s, connectors, and caps to create a wide variety of shapes and functional pieces. Sort of a garden erector set. I’m going to start with a dozen or so 10′ pipe sections and 50 each of the various connecting pieces. In addition to use during the winter, I’ll be able to make tomato cages, pole bean trellis, and cucumber support structures during the warm season – different configurations for different seasons and crops.

I’m getting nervous that 2010 is going to go down in history as the start of the next ice age. I’m waiting for the more subtle signs, such as elephants starting to grow hair as their tusks get longer and more curved. Or the front fangs of tigers growing noticeably longer and more saber like. I can see me trading in my 0.5 oz garden cover cloth for the 1.0 oz grade.

Went out and made one last rescue harvest on the citrus and created an incredible blend of juice. It mixed red and white grapefruit, tangerines, and satsumas. The result looks like a light orange juice but tastes as good as it gets, maybe better. We’re having company for dinner tonight and I can see a few vodka and juices starting the evening off. And probably finishing it as well. It’s like that last batch of spaghetti sauce Nancy created – this blend of juices can never be duplicated. Even by me since I didn’t write down the exact mix. One fear I have is that it’s scheduled to get so cold tonight that it could take out one or more citrus trees. What a heartbreak that would be.

Sometimes I think my bride has a screw loose. When you come down our driveway you are greeted by a flag hanging off a tree mounted pole. We (she) have different flags for different seasons. Nancy loves to buy them but then it becomes my responsibility to change them as the time dictates or to repair it when the UPS guy loses it careening down the driveway. She got a new Christmas flag last week so I guess that means it’s time for the pumpkin and scarecrow flag to come down. So this morning, as is my custom, I headed up to the road to get the paper and about halfway down the road I hear Nancy yelling and waving the flag. That’s a clue that she expects me to come back, get the flag, and hang it. Trouble is we’re experiencing 35 degree temps and gale force winds. That means the wind chill factor is -1000 degrees. Is it sane to expect me to get involved with a flag hanging project under these conditions? I think not. I’m really just fine with pumpkins; it is still fall you know, frigid temps notwithstanding.

I did manage to get out spec fishing for a few hours Saturday between cold fronts. Got four keepers, a gar, and a mudfish. It was too cold for me to mess around with cleaning fish so I let the specs go and kept the rough fish to become fertilizer in the garden. The good news is that the spec’s are on the move and back in the same spot I nailed them big time last year. Now if I can get a day on the lake without whitecaps…………….

I’m getting great blog material from Simon now and again. He’s my eyes and ears in Gainesville. He called me right after Urban Meyers had the team meeting where he announced his resignation but before the official press conference and was first to break the news (to me) about the replacement announcement. Simon’s roommate is a Journalism major specializing in sports journalism and maintains a blog called Gatorraid. That sort of makes him a member of the press, doesn’t it? So he, Simon and Julia hatched a plan to get them into the official press conference. Julia photo shopped a realistic looking press pass which they encased in plastic to make it official. It got them past the front door but they were nailed at the dreaded list desk where they somehow had not made the official list. Good try guys, very creative. I’m impressed.

On the Gators – Will Muschamps was certainly a surprise pick to the general public, me included, but the more I read about him, the better I’m feeling. If he was next in line for the Texas head coaching job, how bad can he be? And I’ve always liked the idea of defensive coaches becoming head coaches; don’t forget, two former Gator defensive coaches were named early on as possible Meyer successors. Personally I think this process was started last year when Urban resigned the first time and bet there were discussions with Muschamps as far back as that. I still wonder why the resignation was announced so early and not after the bowl games? It does give Will an opportunity to jump on the high profile recruits before they start straying. Why did Meyer’s really resign? My guess is health and constant pressure from his wife. I just can’t buy that you would quit coaching the Gators to see your daughters play soccer. I have trouble buying that you’d quit anything to see your daughters play soccer. I guess you might quit mowing the lawn or something.

Got my first patch of potatoes going in the few warm days between the arctic blasts. Last year’s potatoes turned out successful so this year I’m pulling out the stops. We bought 3 varieties; the little red ones (no idea what variety); Yukon Golds; and a variety called Klondike Rose, which are a red skinned fingerling style potato with a gold flesh. So far only the little red ones have developed eyes so that was the first variety planted. In a perfect world, the other’s will start sprouting in 3 weeks and 6 weeks respectively so that the harvest is spread over a couple of months. In a hard, cruel world, none of these will sprout eyes. The experience last year was that each piece planted turned into about a pound of potatoes. I got two or three pieces with eyes from each potato, a total of 15 pieces, so that could yield 15-20 pounds of potatoes in March.

Nancy made the best spaghetti ever the other night. All fresh tomatoes – a combination of Viva Italia, San Marzano, and Napa Grapes. There’s almost a 100% chance that we’re the only people in the galaxy that have ever had that combination and it’s unlikely that we could ever duplicate the exact mix. Too bad. What made it even the more incredible was that she used the special pasta Chris sent us from the small deli in Montclair which, if I haven’t mentioned it before, is hands down the best pasta we’ve ever had. It’s a brand called Pastificio Riscossa and labeled “special cut” just in case you ever happen to stumble on it. It doesn’t get any better. And I think we’re qualified to make that judgement since we routinely experiment with new pasta brands and varieties, searching for perfection. We’ve got to be close.

And you’ve probably wondered if you can use San Marzano’s to make fried green tomatoes. Wonder no more – you can and they’re great. We came up with a recipe for baked green tomatoes and tried it on the Holland Grill. Really good. I mentioned in an earlier posting that I lost one tomato plant to the cold. Well technically the plant was killed but it was loaded with green tomatoes, about half of which were big enough to eat. And we did.

Global warming – read an interesting article in the local paper concerning manatee deaths in 2010 through Dec 5 – that means it didn’t count the deep freeze last week. The grand total was 699 with 244 definitely linked to cold stress and another 269 most likely cold related. This is the largest number of cold related manatee deaths since records have been kept – 1974. 2010 isn’t over and we’re expecting more record colds in the next week or so. Interestingly the enviro wackies, who for years have jumped all over the power plants that dump warm water into the rivers, are now rethinking that position. May be a little late for that. Wouldn’t it be ironic if this critter, identified as endangered, is finally done in by the green weanies shutting off the warm water?

It’s so cold and nasty out I actually watched the Army – Navy football game this year.

This week we broke low temperature records dating back to 1937 and now we’re hearing that next week is really going to be cold so I’m not going to bother removing the covers even though we’re warming back up into the low 70’s with night time lows over 50 for the next few days. It’s not only unusually cold for so early in the season, it’s also unusual to have a series of cold snaps so close together. You’re probably wondering how the garden made out under the blankets. So was I; so I lifted up one side enough to let me crawl under. What I found was that the two tomato plants that had triple covers look fine but the plant with only one cover was hammered. That gives me a hint that we probably did get below the freezing point but not dramatically so. The winter crops did great which was expected. I was actually surprised to find that it was downright toasty under the double covered areas. I’ve got some onion starts and potato chunks that I’d like to get in the ground but will probably wait until this next cold spell passes. Both can handle cold but why get them off to a chilly start when it’s not really necessary. By then I might also have some new cabbages, cauliflowers, and lettuce plants ready for the garden.

The seed catalogs are rolling in so my thoughts automatically switch to next season’s crops even though there are still plenty of winter crops to go. I actually start some of the warm weather stuff indoors in January for garden transplant in March so this is the right time to be selecting seeds. Since it appears that maybe I have the garden soil under better control, I’m going to stretch out and try a couple of new items that would have been impossible a year ago. How about Tomatoberry’s. These are cherry tomatoes shaped like large strawberries – according to the catalog, this is the latest rage. The newly enlarged garden has me ready to give corn another try. Corn takes a large chunk of the garden so it really hurts the whole program if you have a crop failure. I tried twice earlier with poor results and decided not to waste my time or space last summer. I had such great success with the Butternut squash this past season, that I’m going to plant a few within the corn patch so that space will have a double shot at producing – if one crop crashes, the space can still be productive. I’m also buying a different variety of Okra than I’ve tried in the past. My problem has been that the okra I’ve grown gets woody too soon and after three attempts, still near zero success. I talked to the horticulturist at one of the seed companies to find out what I’m doing wrong and he suggested using a particular variety that I had not tried, Annie Oakley II. It’s a no brainer to try because Okra does well in the extreme heat that kills most everything else and the worst thing that can happen is that we do without okra again.

The Urban era is over – again. My biggest concern is that the incoming recruits hold tight so it’s important that a new coach be named quickly and that it be a recognizable name. My first choice would be Bob Stoops, followed by John Gruden, followed by Bill Mullins, followed by Simon. It would be fun for tweaking purposes if the Missouri or Utah coach got the nod but with the big 12 conference falling apart, my money is on Stoops. He was a great coach at Florida before and certainly has done well at OU. Kind of interesting that both Florida and Miami are in the coach hunt at the same time.

Simon and I have this common love of funny commercials. Our taste is very similar so if I see one that tweaks me, I know it will tweak him. Over the weekend I saw a Bud Light commercial called Sticky Fingers that I knew he would love. I almost called but hate to interrupt his studying. But last night he called and said he wanted to tell me about a commercial he saw over the weekend. I said “say no more” and asked if it was the Sticky Finger Bud Light commercial. Dead on. We analyzed the subtle points like a couple of professionals. I love it that we both thought of each other at the same time. Great minds…………………

The other thing I thought about immediately when he called was that Chris and I had that exact same connection when he was a kidling. Every year we would go to the Planetarium in Salt Lake to watch the Cleo awards – those are the Academy of Awards for commercials. It was a big event for both of us and we looked forward to it. Some of the European commercials were a bit risque but we laughed sometimes till tears flowed.

I’ve always paid enough attention to commercials to see if there’s anything special going on. It’s fascinated me how creative a production has to be to get a message across in just a few seconds. People who skip through commercials miss some of the most creative moments in a day. Granted, most are pure drivel but sometimes it’s worth wading through the mess to find that gem that makes you laugh. And while on the subject of commercials, I have to confess to being hooked on one in a strange way. You’ve seen those little shoebox looking Japanese cars, I think one is called the Soul or something. The commercial shows one being driven around town by a couple of giant hamsters. Very stupid but every time I see one pass, I just have to look to see if the hamsters are driving and I’m always surprised when it’s just a human at the wheel. Yesterday Nancy and I were sitting in Publix sharing a sandwich and one drove by. I cracked up when she said that she always expected to see a hamster driving. I bet Simon and Chris do to.

One last word on this cold snap – picked bushels and bushels of fruit just before dark. I’m about 50-50 whether it will get cold enough to freeze the fruit on the tree but hate to lose it now. Nancy sends most of it to friends outside of Florida and we squeeze gallons of juice with the rest. We walk that fine line where the fruit sweetens if exposed to cold weather but just a bit too much ruins it. The forecasters used the feared and dreaded term “hard freeze” and that spurred me on to action even though I seriously doubt it will happen here on Carbone Acres. The term “hard freeze” refers to the duration of freezing temp. I think anything longer than 4 hours is a “hard freeze”. Looks like the old time country folk are right about this winter being a tough one. They were saying a month ago that it would be bad based on an over abundant acorn crop. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them totally covering the driveway and the word is, that portends an extra cold winter. At least it’s bright and sunny out so with the right clothes, it can be downright pleasant to be out in it. Now if the wind will only stop, the water should be cold enough to have the spec’s chomping.

We’ve got a 3 day stretch of serious cold coming up so I have to move to defense in the garden. The media says this is the earliest, longest stretch of cold weather ever. Ever’s certainly a long time and I kind of doubt the accuracy of that estimate but it’s for sure waaaayyyyyyy too cold. A couple years ago I bought a roll – 150‘x50′ – of light weight thermal covering and it’s done a pretty good job so far. I cut the roll into 2 large pieces that can cover the whole garden and 3 smaller pieces that can cover a 4 x 10′ row or wrap around a large tomato plant. My game plan is to protect 3 tomato plants and 6 pepper plants with a double cover and the rest of the garden with a single layer. I could literally do a double cover over the whole garden but don’t think that will be necessary. I really hate to lose the tomatoes since they are loaded with green fruit and are just now starting to turn. I’ve picked most of the peppers so losing those plants will not be that big a loss. I’ll give them a large drink before covering them and then just keep my fingers crossed for a few days. The cloth is very light so it does allow good light transmission and supposedly gives me about 4 degrees of temperature protection. Doesn’t sound like much but it’s been adequate so far and I’m not hearing of any lower than the upper 20’s. Being so close to the lake, we’re usually a few degrees warmer than most locations especially with wind coming over the water. The tough part is spreading a 30′ x 50′ sheet in windy the conditions which usually accompany a cold front as it moves in. The forecast is for 15 mph NW winds which turns the cover into a parachute. That can be a real challenge. The pic’s show the tomatoes covered and then the whole garden. In the end, the forecast became even more dire so we did put both top covers, giving us a triple cover over the tomatoes.

Finally finished off the cherry/grape tomatoes. It’s hard to imagine how many tomatoes we got from just two plants since September but in closing them out, we picked two large bowls full. I saw them in Publix the other day in clear plastic packages, maybe 4” x 8” x 4”. at $4 per box. Based on that, we picked about $40 in this closeout action and have no idea what the season total could have been. What do you do with that many grape tomatoes – put them in the blender along with the Viva paste tomatoes and convert it all into spaghetti sauce. That is all the tomatoes except the ones set aside for salads over the next two weeks. Best news of all was that when I pulled the plants up to examine the roots, they were healthy and clean – no nematodes worth mentioning. That wasn’t a big surprise because they grew so healthy and for such a long time and also because I planted them in a new garden section in 100% home made compost – no native soil at all. I actually would have been surprised and totally bummed if somehow the nematodes had cracked the code and successfully invaded the area.

I’ll grow them again next season but with some changes in the support structure. These guys simply get too big and sprawling to stake in the traditional fashion. They need to be grown along side something like a 6-8” section of fencing and then trained both vertically and horizontally. As many as we managed to pick, I would speculate that we lost that many simply by them being hidden deep inside the bushes of falling over onto the ground. I’ll do two plants again but space them 6′ apart instead of the 3′ spacing I used this time.

Finished the path cutting and it almost did me in. Took 3 full days and half of Sunday to complete the cleanup. It took 2 solid hours of chipping to get through the pile of fronds and I ended up with an overflow in the burn pile for the stuff too big to chip. These pic’s are proof that the job is done. If you notice the green color of the pathway, that’s the shredded fronds.

Global cooling came hard and fast this year. I actually have frost kill in the garden – the zucchini finally gave it up – and we lost power this morning for a few hours. The power outage was very local – our house and our two neighbors. The power fixers showed up about 2 hours after the event. Turned out to be a tree-power line problem. Not a tree falling but rather the cold weather tightened the lines to where one touched an overhanging tree limb. It literally burned about halfway through the limb before breakers popped. To fix it, they added a splice that lengthened the line, creating sag. My guess is that come July when we’re back in global warming, it will sag so much it will hit the limb beneath it. When I suggested that to the fixer guy, he said he was in the line fix dept. not the tree trimming dept.

Can’t wait to try a grapefruit now that they’ve had the requisite shot of cold weather.

With Nancy out of the picture for 4 days, I have enough time to complete her Christmas present. As of Friday, I’m about 3/4 finished so unless I run into a snag, I’ll meet the deadline. It’s not a present I can hide so she’s getting it a few weeks early which is always dangerous. She could say something like, it’s nice but not what I wanted for Christmas. Then what? It’s not like I can take it back. For years she’s been asking me to clear a wide swath through the palmettos so she can have a view of the lake while sewing. She also requested one so she can see the lake while sitting on the back porch or laying in bed. Clearing a wide swath through palmettos is not something to be taken lightly or done without a chain saw but I decided to give it a go, at least for the porch view cut. My plan was to do that job and calibrate on how long it took and how much juice it took out of me. It took most of one day and I was still able to walk afterwards and better yet, was able to get up out of bed the next day with no particularly troublesome aches and pains. Thanks Bigeloil. The chain saw behaved and I have all my limbs intact.

So I charged into the second swath the next morning. For those of you who have never cleared jungle, sometimes it really goes smoothly, other times not so much. You can’t tell when you start just what you’re going to run into because you can’t see more than a couple of feet ahead of you. Turns out the second job was a booger bear and took two full days. And that doesn’t really complete the job. I have a humongous pile of palmetto fronds still to deal with. I’ll run this through the chipper which will take most of a day and then spread the shredded fronds on top of the newly cut swath to level it out and fill in the deeper depressions between the roots. The last time I got into this sort of work was 10 years ago when we were clearing the property for the first time. I guess it’s possible that this particular section is tougher than average but then again it may be that I’m 10 years older.

My recuperation plan includes a hot bath in the jacuzzi, liberally dosed with a muscle soothing bath salt Chris sent, two large glasses of cab, two Aleves, and a major slathering of Bigeloil. When I was doing this same job 10 years ago, I would retreat to my friends, Pat and Bill, who had the hot tub and wine on standby. I would enter the hot tub knowing it was probably my last soak and leave totally ready for another jungle day. Here’s hoping my 2010 version of the treatment is nearly as successful.

Let me see if I have the sequence of events right. A couple weeks back Obama goes to S Korea expecting to come home with a free trade agreement but gets stiffed. A few days after that the NK’s bombard the SK’s. The US sends an aircraft carrier to the region and flies around with the SK air force. Within a couple of days, the S. Korean’s agree to a free trade deal. I guess if that’s what it takes…………………….

I’m really trying to understand why we still have this Congressional lame duck session thing in this day and age. I understand it historically but seems to me that there’s not a really good reason not to start with the new guys the day after the elections in this day and age. I guess if you’re a psychologist you get a good time to study humans in an end game strategy.