Date: July 23, 1899

From: L.J Anderson in Glen Elder Kansas

To: Freeta Young

Page 1

Mrs. Collier

(will be some day)

Taluga Okla Oct

the 28^th

My dearest sister,

I received your letter last week, and was glad to hear from you, But was sorry to hear that your dearest has gone away to stay so long.

My fellow said today that he would never leave his wife that long.

Well Freeta I don’t see how you ever made up your mind to get married

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it just seems to me that that is something that I can’t do.

I have not done one thing about getting ready. I sent for my trunk last week and it was the hardest thing I ever done.

Bob says it will sure have to be week after next. Well Freeta here I am all alone, I have not seen George for about three months. I don’t see why he don’t come over to see me, you know how lonesome it is.

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You don’t know how bad I feel, peoble down here are not your friends like they are up there. You don’t know how bad I want to see you. I could cry all night but it would not bring you down here nor me up there.

I have worked hard all summer. I don’t have any time on Sunday nor any other day. Court is here again. My how we have to work there is so many drunk men around.

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It does make me feel so bad to see them, I think you ought to be thankful that you have as good a man as Bete is. For I do think he is all right. I wish I could of stayed up there this summer. I never have cared for any man till I saw Bob and I do love him as hard as it is for me to marry a saloon keeper, I can’t give him up, ore I would have been up there long ago. I may not get to write again before I get married, but if I can put it of longer I will.

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I don’t see what John is going to do down here this winter, I told Fannie to give him the money. You ask him if he wants that place of mine ore not, I will have to go and stay on it again before long. I will take my old man with me when I go. I will have a nice home, and it will be our own.

I am going to ask Fannie to come down to see me this winter.

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I am coming up a week before Christmas that won’t be long. Tell Tena that I am sorry that I don’t write to her. But I don’t have no time. Mrs. Brownlee says hello to you. You know that Dick married Stella Black last winter.

I must go to bed.

Your loveing sister Pauline Yung

Write soon and a long letter.

I sent my love to Mother.

Date: July 23, 1899

From: L.J Anderson in Glen Elder Kansas

To: Freeta Young

Miss Freeeta Young

Taloga Okla.

Page 1

July 23, 1899

I am so lonesome without you

From – LJ to Freeta Anderson.

I am good        by by by

Well my Dear / I received your kind and welcome answer. I was so glad to hear from you. Every thing looks fine up here. There is going to be a large corn crop of corn. It looks like rain to day. I hope it will. I am helping Mr. Hartan thrashing. I get 18 cents a hundred. The grain has been pretty wet so we could not do much. I started 18 and worked 5 days and I made $7.50. I will make $2.00 a day when the grain gets dry. I don’t know how long I will help them. I expect about 6 weeks. We are in Center Township 18 miles south east of town. Here is a kiss rite on your lips. It is as sweet as I have. [Wally] Waters is working with Tena

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at the hotel. I herd that she thought that I am just about rite but wont do her any good. I would give a hole lot to see you. I have nearly forgot what you look like. I am in a great hurry, for it is late in in the forenoon. I will have to hurry and get to town to male this letter and the boys are going to leave at one O’clock out to where we are at work.

Well my Dear wife, or I hope you will be some day. I hope you will [ner] half to work out any more. Mr. Valettes would like to have you here to work for them. One of my ears is just afire. Is it the sine that you are thinking of me? Tina and Jalen is going to the [27]. But I will be thrashing. I would go if you was here. Here is another kiss. The mary garoulnd (Merry Go-round) has left. It did not

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much of my money. I tooked [Tony/Tena] to the show. It was not no good. You are the only one for me of all the girls. And there is lots of pretty looking girls. I have seened lots of them but you are the only one that I would hug or kiss I would like to be here. We would tear the hole town down. We would walk around the square.

Charlie [Misk] was over this morning and he seemed to be mad. I don’t no whether he was or not. He just spoke to me. I don’t care. He is not so much. We have had some pretty warm wether, cold nites to sleep out. I hope this is my last. If it is not I believe it will be your falt. I know you will not go back on me. I think as much of you as I do of my mother. You are as good as [fine] the best of [fine].

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So long my Dear.

I wish I could be bothered going and get up a team and take you out a buggy riding.

You told me to rite you a long letter. I want you to do the same. I love you with all my heart and joy. I will be glad when I am yours and we get to doing for our selves. We are all well and your folks was well the last time I saw any of them. The old man your old man wanted to sull me a team and harness but I would not have them. He says that I could not by nothing. I told him that he could not sull me nothing. Well my dear here is one more kiss. I would like read a letter from you every day. What ever you do take care of your self and some day maybe I can help you. Be good. I think so much of you. Good by my dear old girl. Answer soon.

Back History

In 1982 I moved to Florida to live with my father and stepmother. Until that time I had spent my childhood in Wray, Colorado with summers in Florida. I couldn’t wait to get out of that podunk town and live the “big city life” in Jacksonville. I came back to spend the next summer in Wray, fell in love with a boy who had just moved to town, and spent then next five summers hanging out with him on his horse ranch.

It wasn’t until more than twenty years after I moved away that I truly began to understand the time I had lost with my mother, stepfather, brothers and step-grandmother in Wray. Since I have strong family ties in both places and never enough time and money to travel back and forth, I believe that it is my destiny to be torn. In 1994 I got homesick and compromised by moving to Colorado Springs. With deep regret for missing out on so much, I traveled to Wray as often as possible and did my best to catch up.

My “Grandma Reenie” (Irene Parrish) was of special interest because she was getting on in years and had already gone through arterial bypass surgery. Grandma Reenie was a deadpan, opinionated, and sometimes cantankerous woman who could cook like nobody’s business and tell an off-color joke with the timing of a pro. She and my mother rubbed each other the wrong way, and I was caught in the middle. Since I loved them both, I listened to their rants and kept my mouth shut. I was finally at that age where I was beginning to understand the importance of family history, and Grandma Reenie wanted to share. The first thing I learned was that my little brother was the reason my mom and my stepfather got married when they did. Grandma Reenie adored and spoiled my brother as much as she resented the fact that my mother was married to her son.

I had developed an interest in antiques, and collectibles. Upon realizing this, Grandma Reenie decided to share a special treasure with me. One afternoon she said “Come here, I’ve got something to show you.” I followed her down the dark, narrow hallway and down the three steps into the cool, musty garage. She led me to a pile of dusty boxes beneath which was buried an antique trunk. It amazed me that over the many years of watching my stepfather work on cars I had stood just inches from this trunk, yet never once noticed it.

Within a few minutes we had unearthed the trunk and carted the contents into the living room. Grandma was especially interested in a sheath of old letters, which had belonged to her parents. As we looked through the letters she came upon some old love letters of her own, which she quickly snatched from the stack and glanced through while hiding them with her hands. For a brief moment her tired, wrinkled presence was replaced with that of a youthful, starstruck girl as she blushingly revisited the words written by an old lover.

The letters she did show me told a fragmented tale of romance between her parents. A couple of years later I found myself back in Florida, but so thankful for the quality time I got to spend with Grandma Reenie, as she passed shortly after I left. Her belongings were distributed amongst her grandchildren; and the treasure chest was given to me. Unable to transport the chest, I had to leave it in the care of my parents. I did retrieve the letters and have been waiting for the right time and inspiration to transcribe and preserve them. That time has come.

The Letters

The letters are written on small pages of yellowed stationery and crammed with unpunctuated text; as though to take advantage of every inch of space. Grammatical and spelling errors abound, bringing to mind the script of a spaghetti western. Grandma Reenie was from Glen Elder, Kansas, which is the central scene of the touching romance which unfolds on these brittle, hand-penned pages.

I have located the website for the town of Glen Elder. They seem quite interested in collecting historical data from the area; and I hope that they will be enthusiastic in both receiving digital copies of these documents and sharing anything they can to help me fill in the blanks. I will update this page as new details emerge.

They key players are Freeta (Yung?) and her suitor and eventual husband L.J. Anderson, as well as Freeta’s sister Pauline Yung and their brother George. There is frequent mention of a couple named Tena and John, as well as various other townspeople. Glen Elder was (and still is) a small farming town in northern Kansas. L.J. mentions a “thrashing machine”, which is actually a threshing machine which was used to separate grain from the heads. It seems that Freeta and L.J. developed a romance in their home town of Glen Elder and that they were sometimes separated as Freeta went south to Oklahoma for a period and as L.J. went to work with harvesting crews around Kansas and Nebraska.

I spent a good part of this weekend deciphering and transcribing these letters, and since I cannot possibly upload them all at once I have decided to present this story in the format of a series. As you will see by looking at the scans of these letters, they are not easy to read. I have bracketed anything about which I am unsure, and will change or correct these as I gain more information. All input is welcomed.

You can almost taste the parsimonious rationing of writing materials and postage. To make the reading less laborious I have added some punctuation and broken the text into paragraphs. However, In order to preserve the voice of the characters, I have done my best to keep the spelling and grammar as they are on the originals.

Date: July 9, 1899

From: L.J Anderson in Glen Elder Kansas

To: Freeta

Page 1

Glen Elder, Kans. July 9

Well my dear wife or I hope you will be soon. I received your kind and welcome letter the fifth of July. I looked for it three or four times. The 4 they had a pretty nice time. The 4 I worked all day helping John Marks in his store. We tooked in seventy dollars that day. Here is a kiss sweetness or sugar lump. I did not get to work out very much this summer. I helped 5 days in harvest and made 9 dollars. Wheat was not very good this year. Corn is doing well. We have lots of rain up here. My corn is doing fine. It is silking. I worked it our 2 the last time. I had five teames hired helping me. It cost me 10 dollars a day for the two days. I could get 73 dollars for it now. My potatoes are very large.

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I expect I will have 75 bushels of potatoes. I think they will tast you and me all winter. Here is a kiss. I had lots of fun out of [Lidy Daller’s]. Thought I would throw her a kiss for fun and she throwed me one back and her mother saw her and she asked her who got that and she came to the door and seened me. She gave me lots of jokes. There is going to be a show here next Friday. I expect I will go. I will have to go alone. If you was here to go with me it will take 25 cents. There is a [mary garond] (Merry Go-round?) here. It came here today. It will not bother me very much. This is Sunday night and I am lonesome. I wanted to go to church to nite but had to work to day and had to write to nite. Marks and Tena was up here and she wanted me to see all of my letters. I told her I guess not. She told me to tell you to rite to her

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or she would brake your neck. I told her I would be in her [wool?] if she did.

They had a nice dance the 4 of July. [Terry] was sick the 4 and went and danced nearly all nite. She is nearly all the time getting her teeth filled. She wants to look fine for [Marks].

[Ward/Maud] and Trey stays in John’s store for him part of the time. Here is a kiss my sweetheart. I will have to work out home this weak and after that I will be with a thrashing machine $1.50 a day for two or three months. That will be pretty well.

Daller wants me to move in that old store house north of the church that you used to live in and farm sum grain for him. I am watching for a place all the time. Here is a kiss. Among all the girls or ladies you beat them all. You are the only one that I truly love. I love you will all my heart. I got your picture out the other day and kissed you. It seemed natural. Mr. Frankan’s

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You mean thing.

are going to start for Oregon Thursday and Mat Sutton is going to start for Denver Wednesday. She says she wants to stay till October. I will be so glad when December comes. It will be nice to see you. Well my girl I am good and I know you are for you always was. I feel pretty good this summer. Here is a kiss. Send me several of them in your letter for thar are nice. Well sweetheart I hate to to close my letter but half to so rite soon and come and see me. What ever youd don’t forget me.        Answer soon.

From LJ A. to Freeta Anderson
Be good to yourself and me
By by Dear o Dear

Once again, weeks have slipped away. It’s been hectic with work and having company (both of which take priority over blogging).

I’ve been busy boiling water and sterilizing my soil. This is a laborious process.

Today I got to talk to my photographer pal in Utah, Doug Havens, who is coming to visit in November. AJ found the idea of talking on the phone and gardening to be humorous; so much so that he snapped a photo. So, in case you are wondering what that looks like, here you go. If not…please continue on to the butter beans. If you haven’t checked out Doug’s blog “Who I’ve Met”, you must do so (after you have read mine, that is:) I can’t wait for Doug to come visit so that he can interview some of  the people in the park.

Butter Beans

Today I learned something about Butter Beans: Pick them the day before they look like this:

For some reason, I was expecting the pods to turn buttery yellow when they were ready. Fortunately, they were just fine, with only a few casualties. This batch was the yield of two vines, which were planted on the old compost heap. I got just enough for a nice pot of Cajun beans and rice. Guess I’ll plant more next time! They were scrumptious.

Oh No, Smokey!

Ahh, poor Smokey. I found him by the road…

It’s one of his favorite nap spots. Good thing the speed limit is 5 mph. Silly Cat!

Llami earned the title “Devil Eye” when she was mysteriously injured earlier this year. We have been trying to keep her inside at night, but this is easier said than done.

Well, she’s inside now, because she’s been attacked again. This time something got ahold of her foot. We set up a kitty hospital on the couch and got her convalescing in style. Too bad I threw away the collar she got from her previous vet visit, but there was a Natural Light box available (imagine that); so I rigged up something to keep her from pulling off the bandage.

She’s actually been a model patient and only needed the collar briefly. She understands “Llami, No!” and has already figured out that chewing on bandage = thing around neck. We trusted her last night, and she did us proud by still sporting the bandage this morning. “Good Llami’.

She is in a lot of pain, and the abcess on her foot is pretty nasty. Unfortunately, we cannot afford another trip to the vet, so we are keeping it sterlized and wrapped up, and hoping for natural healing. It is draining and getting better each day.

AJ and I are both enjoy fishing and cooking. I have added some new pages featuring our fishing adventures and some of our best recipes.

Fish Stories

Recipes

Literally!

After searching long and hard for a horse manure supplier, I finally got smart and called

Kempfer’s Feed & Seed
2728 Malabar Rd.
Malabar, FL
32950

(321) 723-6433

They were extremely helpful and actually went out of their way to put me in touch with

Pat Riley of  J Bar E Ranch in Malabar.

Pat was glad to hook me up with as much horse manure as I wanted, and is officially my new supplier.

I also learned that he boards horses and has availability in his barn. From my vantage point, his property is beautifully kept and his stables are ample and immaculate. If you are looking for horse boarding in Malabar, FL please give Pat a call. You won’t find a nicer guy to look after your horses.

His number is (321) 427-0839.

The park manager was so kind as to provide me a space for my new compost heap on the back lot. It is unloaded and beginning to compost as I write.  Yay, horse manure!

Hello Dear Readers,

Up to now, I’ve kept my posts on this main page. I thought I’d try something new and make you click around a bit more. Keep an eye on the tab marked “Blips”. The additions I make there will not show up in my regular posts. If they interest you, please check out my blips and feel free to share your own in the comments.

BLIPS

My short term memory for day to day events does not behave as I would like. I often forget the important things (like birthdays and things I said I would do) and have “Blips” of past experiences on a regular basis.

Recently these blips have centered around the time I was a pest control inspector in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, right before we moved to Jensen Beach to work in construction with AJ’s father. Incidentally, today is Allan Sr.’s birthday, and I have forgotten to make sure he gets a card.

It can be strange and somewhat disconcerting to have a memory invade your regular thoughts, like an unexpected visit from a neighbor dropping by to return a borrowed item that doesn’t belong to you. The most confusing part is why I am so frequently taken back to a specific moment when I was pulling up to a person’s house to look for termites or climbing through a particular attic in search of rat droppings.

The only explanation for these frequent, impromptu recollections is that the moments were surrounded by a charge of human emotion. People experience a lot of extreme feelings when their house is being chewed away from the inside out or when they discover cockroaches homesteading in their microwave. Perhaps the energy of these experiences burned the blips throughout my mind like random kilobytes of data onto a hard drive. Bits of information that don’t reappear until you run Scandisk.

They are not all about that brief period of my life. They cover the complete range of adulthood. And they aren’t just memories of events. I frequently blip dreams from years past, that had long since been forgotten.

It’s strange and unsettling; and therefore, I have decided to share some of these with you.

The Cleaning Lady

I knew I was in trouble when I received this fortune cookie with last week’s indulgence of Chinese take out.

Chinese take out is bad for you and this week just proves it.

Writing has long been my favorite form of therapy; and (unfortunately for my readers) I have readers. Otherwise, I would scribble this stuff down in a notebook and tuck it away in some dark corner.

But paper notebooks don’t upload pictures, and I have pictures. I am reminded (by that annoying voice in my head) that every cloud has a silver lining. I am taking this post to review my most recent clouds and get busy looking for the linings.

These are in no particular order, except the most depressing part at the end because I don’t want to give you bum-out whiplash.

Cloud #1: Root knot nematodes

The name sounds like I’m talking about cartoon characters, doesn’t it? And these bulbous root growths I discovered when unearthing a tomato plant even look like something you’d see on Adult Swim. But, trust me, there is nothing funny about these little monsters! I thought the caterpillars were annoying, but they have nothing on these microscopic beasts.

I was digging up the expired plants in my garden beds in preparation to infuse my soil with a nice helping of composted road apples (that’s horse manure to you city folk), when I discovered my worst gardening nightmare. Up to this point my gardening woes have ranged somewhere between moderate annoyances and fascinating learning experiences. Mother Nature has upped the ante’ and bestowed upon me the wormy devils of the horticultural world: Root Knot Nematodes! I won’t bore you with the details of their biology, but if you are interested, you can go to The University of Florida IFAS Extension and learn all about them.

“Why are these tiny roundworms such a scourge?” you might ask. Because there is nothing on the market to kill  them. Right away I had a brainstorm and hopped online to see if it had been done. The idea was “Maybe I can cook these little suckers out of my soil with boiling water”. Lo and behold, this is the oldest treatment in the book, and one of the most effective. If one can saturate the soil with hot water, the nematodes will die. Manure also helps to deter them, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

So, off I went to grab the propane boiler, which I set up next to the Oasis and prepared to douse my soil with boiling water. Since my garden is divided up into various containers, I figured that I could get a good kill on in the empty sections and boil off each adjacent area as the plants died off. This all seemed like a great idea until I went to get the propane tank.

Cloud #2: Project aborted due to empty propane tank

The fact that this rusty old tank is empty might actually be a silver lining, since AJ was certain it would rust through and blow us out of the park the next time it was lit.

Cloud #3: No Horse Manure

No picture needed for this one. Just look around you. If you don’t see horse manure, that’s what it looks like here, too. If you do see horse manure, please call me. I’ll be right over to pick it up!

I’m sure that were you to consult my astral chart for this week you would discover that my planet of communication is transiting the house of the planet where chainsaw exhibitions and tractor pulls take place.

I found a pile of horse manure for the taking by placing an ad on craigslist.org. Turns out it was available, but only if I could swoop in with a bobcat and get it without causing inconvenience to the owner. I made attempts to put together a horse manure party by organizing a group of people to come take it all at once. That didn’t work. Next, I suggested to the owner that Mike (my boss/friend/sometimes-nemesis) and I could come with two pickups and a trailer to get it. The email replies ceased at that time, so I guess the answer was “No”.

I’ve suffered a week-long inability to communicate properly (especially in writing). I have managed to unintentionally confuse, piss-off and annoy a good handful of people, one result of which being that I have no free fertilizer for my garden.

Cloud #4: Spaced Out Keyboard

Literally. The space bar has broken and constantly gets stuck in the down position. This causes the cursor to run off faster than Karl Rove from a congressional subpoena. Once I chase it down and start backing up, I end up deleting some of the characters of the previous word.

AJ tried to fix it by banging down real hard with his fist and then whacking the keyboard on the desk. I am officially starting a list of things that AJ can’t fix. So far, this is the first and only. Taking a more creative (and less hostile) approach, I popped out the space bar and taped the little springy wire part back in place with some pretty blue electrical tape. Now the cursor only bolts every once in a while. The silver lining here is that it helps me self-edit by reminding me that every superfluous word brings me that much closer to the next unsolicited space.

Cloud #5: Dropped Green Peppers

This one isn’t quite so bad. My amazing volunteer green pepper plants have been manufacturing some promisingly giant peppers. We have been watching and watering in anticipation of picking a bunch once they get really big and making a big batch of stuffed peppers.

This morning we discovered that the branch holding these two could no longer do it; and had dropped them to the ground. The silver lining is easy to find on this one. Two gorgeous, free, organic green peppers and many more maturing on the plants.

Cloud #6: My Beloved Stepmother spent the weekend in the hospital.

Judith went to the emergency room with edema and spent the weekend and all day Monday in the hospital. We have both discovered one silver lining on this one. She got a wake-up call that she needs to start taking oxygen and get back to using her CPAP machine for sleep apnea. Her heart is healthy and she can get better if she follows the doctor’s orders. She is also receiving some help at home. Still, this cloud is an especially dark one, since I live so far away and cannot afford to go up there when she needs me. She has always gone above and beyond the call of duty for a stepmother and I regret that I cannot repay her as I would like.

No picture here either, for the above mentioned reason.

There are a whole lot more little clouds, but I’m done dwelling on the bad stuff. I’m ready for the success for which I have apparently been rehearsing. I have great friends and great family, good health (mostly) and a wonderful life in comparison to so many unfortunate people in the world. With the exception of Cloud #6, my hopes are that we can all find some light humor in my misfortunes and missteps and look forward to a time when you don’t have to read so much griping from me:)

My friend and creative inspiration, Doug Havens, has invited me to collaborate on a brilliant creative project, which I hope to reveal in a future post. For now, please take a look at his wonderful imagery at “What I saw” and writing at “Who I met” and try to forget about all of my doom and gloom.

This weekend I learned about “Splogging”, which is short for Spam Blogging.

Here’s how splogging works:
A scumbag thief steals your content and posts it on their “blog”, which is loaded with advertising.

I have moved the post that was here because a Splogger stole it and is illegally using my content in conjunction with Google Ads.

If you are reading this on http://florida-fishing.ultimatefishingvacations.com/weeks-in-review-working-painting-gardening-2/

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS!

Any clicking activity on this bogus fishing vacation site will pay them ad revenue for stealing content.

Since commenting is locked and WordPress takes no responsibility for intellectual property theft, it is virtually impossible to stop this.

If a search brought you here, please look below for the actual post that relates to my tags.

Update: It worked! Now this post is on their site. Ha ha, take that you scoundrels!

Working

As my dear friend Dori reminds me, I’ve only made three posts for August. I had hoped to make smaller, more frequent posts over the past few weeks, but my brain and body have been too exhausted to do much at all.

Here’s a bit of trivia for you: A full keg of beer weighs about 165 lbs.

Over the past two weeks AJ and I have hoisted approximately 65 open kegs (averaging 83 lbs. each) and have shoved around at least as many full kegs. AJ has a back injury, so I do as much of the lifting as I can manage, on my own. I estimate that I have moved at least 16,087.5 lbs of beer since I last posted. In addition, I have weighed thousands of bottles of liquor and hoisted dozens of cases of beer and liquor. Then, I sit down and do some brain taxing math and detective work for two to three hours per day. All the while, I am wishing that I could just take pictures and write about fun stuff; but I’m so drained by the time I get home that I promptly fall asleep by 2:00pm. Then I wake up, figure out what to do for dinner, surf the net and hit the sack again.

That’s my excuse for being so remiss. It’s also about as much as I’m going to make you read, because the bulk of this post is comprised of pictures.

Thanks to Dori and her coworkers for keeping me motivated to post. You are a true inspiration!

Things are happening so fast in the garden that most of these photos are already outdated. I do plan to get out there and do some major overhauling tomorrow. I’ll do my best to post an update afterward.

Painting

AJ has been working diligently on our little Boston Whaler in order to make it a user-friendly flats boat. He built seats with rod holders as well as a new hatch cover. Combined with some mechanical improvements and a good cleaning and waxing the boat is ready for anything. As a matter of fact, he is out fishing right now. Last evening he caught a giant trout (which he claims measured at least 30″). I have put in a request for a slot-sized fish that he can actually bring home and cook up on the grill.

He “commissioned” me to paint an anchor hatch cover containing certain subject matter (namely a snook with a bamboo border). About halfway through the painting, we both decided it should have been less complicated. Too late, I was under time constraints and already sick of painting that piece, so it is what it is. He has already prepped a backup cover so that I can paint a redfish on it and he can change it out depending upon the season. He is now telling people at the boat ramp that his wife is “A local artist”. I love that man (even if he does take unflattering pictures of me when I’m not looking).

Finished, and clear-coated by our neighbor.

Installed

Ready for fishing. (Wish AJ would have cleaned out the leaves before shooting.)

Gardening

Today was the first time we’ve gotten any real rain in ages. The past two weeks have been extremely dry and I have been watering every day.

Our first wild bananas.

Beans

Hoverfly

Poblanos

“Pocket Pepper” almost ripe.

Sunflower

Amaranth or “Callaloo”

Seminole Pumpkin Squash that I planted. This poor plant has suffered severe insect and caterpillar attacks.

This Seminole Pumpkin Squash sprouted from a discarded seed in the compost heap, turned garden bed. Notice how green and healthy this one looks? I also have beans, bananas and some mystery cucumber or melon vines growing here. Either the soil is toxic and repelling pests or so rich that the plants can fend them off.

View of our lot from the road.

Papaya tree growing in leaps and bounds.

I seem to be an expert caterpillar rancher. Here is a tomato horn worm finishing off what’s left of the tomatoes. I gave up and let the bugs have these, since they are all but gone. I do plan to save a small section of the plant and see if it will pick back up in the fall. Hopefully, I will have some organic, bacterial caterpillar killer by then (B.T. Kurstaki).

The Oasis

O2

Here is “Tomato Alley” on “The Back 40″. I built this nifty trellis from bamboo. The tomatoes are all but dead. However, I have buckets of basil. When it cools down I hope to have tomatoes etc. covering the trellis.

As illustrated by my prolific compost heap volunteer tomatoes and the vibrant volunteers sprouting there now, I seem to have the best success with things I don’t try to grow. Here is another example:

I bought the biggest, most beautiful green pepper from the local produce stand. I tossed the heart, only to realize later that the seeds were sprouting. I planted the thing in a pot and didn’t hope for much. The seedlings have subsequently been moved and replanted many times. when I got them into O2, they went wild. Someone told me that store-bought peppers were not likely to produce viable seeds. These seeds didn’t know that because I’ve currently got five plants with 7 or 8 good-sized peppers growing up fast.

This is unequivocally the greatest success of my summer gardening efforts! If anyone wants seeds from this (or any other of my plants) let me know. I’ll be happy to share.

Please read the text before scrolling down.

Something I’m about to tell is you not true. Read the next paragraph, look at the next two photos and try to figure it out.

I rescued a dear little squirrel this week. AJ found him, separated from his mother, emaciated and inches from death. Although we were working, I scooped the little baby up and fed him some half & half. Once he got a few drops of liquid in and got warmed up (he was cold to the touch), he began to move around and look for a place to hide.

I brought him home, and inside (despite AJ’s directive that he remain outdoors). He was so cute and helpless that I couldn’t imagine letting him fall prey to cats or fire ants.

Isn’t he adorable? Although I didn’t give him an official name I did call him “Little Sweetie”.

He stayed with us for two days, as I arranged placement with a person who does small animal rescue and rehabilitation. Although I would have loved to raise this cute little squirrel and release him in our yard, I knew this was impossible with my schedule, and the fact that we live in an RV. Not to mention that the cats would make short work of a tame squirrel.

He is quite smart and quickly learned the routine. I taught him to drink baby formula from a dish. Although he was very shy and preferred to stay tucked away in his washcloth nest, he would wax brave and assertive when it was time to eat. When rousted, he would run around in my hands, sniffing and nuzzling in an attempt to nurse. Once I got him used to drinking from the dish, he would go straight to it and excitedly lap up the formula. As soon as he was finished, he would try to snuggle up in my hand or his washcloth, where he would begin bathing himself until he was all clean. How adorable it was to watch him rub his tiny little paws over his face, pushing his ears forward and fluffing up his fur.

Next, I had to help him go to the bathroom with a damp piece of tissue. He was still so young that he hadn’t learned to go on his own, yet. What a way to start a life! After this routine he always went to sleep. Many times I watched him doze off in my palm as I marveled at how tiny, soft and delicate he was.

OK, I hope you don’t hate me for the fib I have told you. Just like “Little Sweetie” washed up after every meal, it’s time for me to come clean.

AJ did discover this baby rodent on the brink of starvation. I did rescue the helpless creature and nurse it back to health. And the description is accurate, except for one detail:

Little Sweetie has a secret…

He’s a baby rat!

Does the fact that he has a bald tail make him any less endearing? I don’t think so. After all, a squirrel is just a bushy tailed rat with good PR.

When AJ told me he had found a “mouse” trapped in a bus tub in the stock room of one of our accounts I knew that I would be the one to rescue it. I truly expected to find a healthy mouse and release it out by the dumpster. Although I worked in pest control, and am responsible for putting contracts on the lives of many rodents, I still don’t have the heart to take their lives. My philosophy is to make your place impenetrable to creatures and deny them the opportunity to enter. AJ’s philosophy is “It’s a frickin rat!”, only he didn’t use the nice version of the word. He has since vowed to stop bringing creatures to my attention. This is one promise I hope he breaks.

When I found this little guy stretched out in the bottom of a bus tub I knew there was no way I could sentence him to death. He must have been trapped for days and seemed to have given up all hope of escaping. He put up no resistance when I picked him up and actually looked at me with such pathetic eyes that I had no choice but to help him. Although he was the size of a mouse, I knew that he was actually a baby rat. I’m fairly certain that he is a Roof Rat (Rattus rattus), also know as Tree Rat, Ship Rat, Brown Rat or Black Rat.

The sleek agile Roof Rats and their chunky, slower cousins the Norway Rats are both commensal rodents; meaning that they have evolved to live alongside humans. Although they can carry disease, smell bad and can be quite destructive, I can’t help but admire them for their intelligence and ingenuity. Lab rats or “Fancy Rats” (bred as pets) are actually the same species as the Norway Rats which cause such a nuisance when they make their way into your home uninvited.  But rats also serve a valuable purpose to the human race. Think of the millions of lives saved by these creatures and their service in medical testing. It’s all a matter of perspective.

Roof Rats are quite capable of surviving in nature, and since they are well established and are not going away any time soon, I plan to release Little Sweetie once he is big enough to live on his own. Perhaps he will make it, perhaps he won’t, but at least I can sleep easy knowing that he didn’t die a long and miserable death trapped in a plastic tub.

“Little Sweetie” washing up.

For now, he is staying with Jessica at Angel Rats Rescue in Palm Bay. I was fortunate to find her nearby and willing to take responsibility for him until he grows up.

Here is a video I took of him eating, right before I dropped him off:

Jessica Botts (founder of Angel Rats Rescue) is devoted to rescuing rats and other creatures. She provides them with clean, ample accommodations where they get plenty of socialization and handling. I am certain that my tiny friend is in good hands and look forward to the day when I can pick him up and release him with more of his own kind. Don’t worry…I won’t let him go near your house:)

Follow Up:

I have been in contact with Jessica, and she has decided to keep him as a permanent resident. She has named him “Jack”.  I’ve since heard some good news that roof rats can make very fine pets. I look forward to watching his progress.

Also, if you are a fan of domestic rats or have a rat question check out RatFanClub at yahoo groups.

Follow Up #2:

Jack is a girl!

“Week in Review” has been out the window for a while. Let’s make this a catch-up post and see what happens from here forward. I’m making no promises.

AJ and I work together auditing liquor for bars. We save the bars many times the value of our audit fees in saved profits. Despite the fact that the service pays for itself, there are always accounts who fail to realize the value of the service, or just don’t have the gumption to use the management tools we provide. (Yes, I said “gumption”). Not long ago we lost three bar owners, for a total of 5 accounts, in a single week. Since we work together and this loss was more than half of our business, it was the equivalent of one of us losing our job. We are independent contractors, but the owner of the auditing company treats us as though we are partners. He has jumped in with us and done an intensive sales push to rebuild the client base. Things are slowly picking back up, but it has been a tough road.

The reason I even mention this is that I ran out of Atomic Grow™ right about the time we had our financial crisis. The garden budget was slashed; and even though Atomic Grow™ is very affordable and lasts a long time (due to being so concentrated) I had to put my next purchase on hold.

My blog service shows me what people search to arrive here (some pretty amusing stuff, by the way), and one of the most common searches is “Atomic Grow™”. My guess is that you’ve heard of it and wonder if it will solve your gardening problems. It’s not magic, but it’s pretty darned incredible. My best results have been with plants becoming healthier and happier overnight. After a single application they start flowering and fruiting like there’s no tomorrow.

I’ve also had remarkable results with fungus. Leaf spot fungus seems to be stopped in its tracks with Atomic Grow™. “Leaf Spot” and “Tomato Disease” are two more common searches that lead people here; and I can verify that my tomatoes are still hanging on because of Atomic Grow™.  Since I’ve been out, they have gone into a steady decline. However, I think they will prove (once again) the amazing properties of this stuff, once I get back on my application schedule. I will dedicate some future post to tomatoes in particular. Aphids and other hard-bodied insects are defenseless against the direct application of Atomic Grow™. It’s not a pesticide, but it affects their exoskeleton after which they die of dehydration. Jim Shellenback of High Yield Industries (Parent company of Atomic Grow™) told me that “People get addicted to the stuff”. I agree completely, and have been anxiously awaiting the day when I could replenish my supply.

The one (and only) shortcoming of this product is that caterpillars seem to get the upper hand. I love butterflies and moths, but I do not care for most of their children! Over the summer I have fought a constant battle with Pickle Worms (Diaphania nitidalis (Stoll)), Cabbage Worms (Pieris brassicae) and Leafrollers. They do not like Atomic Grow™, but many seem to shake it off or avoid contact with it.

I have been researching bacterial control of caterpillars and was planning to get some Bacillus Thuringiensis (B.T.) to take these buggers out once and for all. Up until now I have been fighting a losing battle of smashing lepidoptera eggs, caterpillars and stems infested with Pickle Worms.

I turned over a brocolli leaf the other day and found these guys fat and happy!

Cabbage Worms (Pieris brassicae)

The good news is that I got a call from Rita Curry Porter at the Atomic Grow™ test gardens, yesterday. She was bursting with excitement over a product that complements Atomic Grow™ to eliminate insects once and for all. I have done some research and am bursting at the seams to give it a try. For now, I am going to leave an air of mystery until I have a chance to document the effects in my garden. One way or another the caterpillars will soon be gone!

AJ has been busy, despite excruciating back pain. The VA clinic assures him that his lower back damage is minimal and reversible. I don’t buy it. I get to see him suffer, and there is more going on than some minor glitch. I am pushing for an MRI and some real answers.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the photos of the process, but he tore out the old bamboo fence and built this one, using cured timber poles and a reed screen; all treated with water seal:

I like the way it jogs at the halfway mark. It gives us plenty of room to access the car, and additional space for the grill and smoker. He worked hard on this, and it turned out gorgeous.

He also finished and treated the bamboo wind chimes. They are “tuned” and sound great.

It would be a full-time job were I to document all of AJ’s activities. Over the past week he has been busy building seats for the boat. To date, we have been sitting on coolers placed on the floor. This is neither safe, nor practical. The seats he built are sturdy and user-friendly. I will take some pictures of the finished product for a future post.

Here is one of the seats showing the heavy-duty Velcro that holds them to the inside of the boat:

Our friend Jay has a veritable orchard in his yard. We stopped by his place last week and received an abundance of mangoes, avocados and limes, all of which were delicious. Thanks Jay!

This eggplant has me stumped. At some point in its development it became “frozen in time”. The plant next to it has produced a single, gorgeous, dark purple eggplant. Shortly after that one appeared, this specimen began to grow. It got to this size and then ceased development. The skin was streaked and had a leathery patch on the other side. When I finally plucked the thing and cut it open it had dark colored seeds, but the meat was green and smelled unripe. I don’t know what to make of this.

I guess I’ll wrap it up for now, as I’m on my way to pick up some more Atomic Grow™ and the exciting new miracle product.

For now I leave you with cats…indifferent, intimidating and uninhibited.

It must be obvious by now that I’ve completely dropped the ball on my “Week in Review” posts. Not that I don’t want to keep up with them, just that I have an intention vs. initiation ratio imbalance. That’s fancy talk for “lazy”.

I’ve got a few photos in the camera and a couple of updates to write. Nothing earth shattering.

Right now I’m thinking about some of my dear friends who are not having happy times. I wish I could fix all of your problems and make the world give you only that which is wonderful. Instead, I will pass along some smiles, compliments of Mother Nature.

The Poblanos have been producing some fine specimens.

“Screamy”

“Puppy Pepper”

If this one doesn’t make you laugh, then your mind is not sufficiently in the gutter.

Best suggested name, so far: “Pocket Pepper”

I know it’s not much help, but it’s the best I can do on short notice.

Remember, you deserve the best and nothing less.

All in goodness.

Mike (my employer) recently gave me an unexpected compliment. He told me that I was such a good auditor because of my analytical nature. In thinking about my thought processes over the course of a day I realize that he is right. Sometimes being analytical is a boon, like when it comes to solving a problem. It can also be a curse, like when I want to explore alternative angles in a conversation and come across as “argumentative” as AJ recently reminded me.

Now that I’ve gotten that little self-analysis out of the way, I’d like to get to the meat of this post. That first paragraph is relevant because in order to be analytical I must first be observant. A theme that has been on the minds of so many people is illegal immigration. The level of anger and, dare I say, hatred towards our fellow humans who weren’t so fortunate as to be born in this country, is swelling like the belly of the “Octomom”.

The Nationalist sentiment has taken a stronghold with people in my circle. Whether via chain emails or in person, I get almost a daily dose of immigration indignation. The messages are crafted to stir up resentment towards those who are perceived as stealing away that which we hold so dear (namely our jobs and social services) without reciprocation in the form of taxation and citizenship. The idea seems to be that if we could just wall off our country and keep those dirty immigrants on their side of the fence we could continue to exist in our Utopian States of America.  Since I’m so analytical I find myself with a lot of unanswered questions about our immigration dilemma.

What I do know is that many of those, who complain the loudest, are far removed from the actual immigrants. It is so much more difficult to harbor ill will towards another human when you are in direct contact with them. I was raised in the Nazarene Church. One of the things I really appreciated about the Nazarene teachings is that there wasn’t a whole lot of fire and brimstone. The overwhelming theme was one of compassion and acceptance. The verses “Love thy neighbor as you love thyself ” and “Judge not, lest ye be not judged” were commonly quoted in the sermons I attended.

It wasn’t until later (when I came to live in the South, actually) that I found out that religion wasn’t all about love and kindness. I read the Bible, from cover to cover, when I was 13 and became confused by the contradictions; but I believed my Sunday School teacher when she said that we must choose to live by the good parts. So, even then I began to see that the practice of Christianity is a highly subjective process. What it seems to come down to is that you can justify a great deal as long as you put forth a good amount of effort trying to convert others. As I grew older I found that other people put as much stock in the negative teachings as I did in the positive. While I was practicing “Turn the other cheek” I was dealing with those who practiced “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.

The South seems to have a special talent for discrimination, and so many of the Christians down here are often full of venom towards those they consider inferior. Granted, this is a sentiment that transcends religious bounds. Plenty of “heathens” express hatred towards selected groups as well, it’s just that they haven’t made a commitment to be nice, so they are “excused”.

I’m composing this post in the “stream of consciousness” style, and while surfing the net I found an article that former President Jimmy Carter wrote: “Losing my religion for equality”. It appears that he has defected from the Baptist Church in disgust with their discriminatory treatment of women. I found his words to be quite apropos to my own thinking.

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasize the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world’s major faiths share.

The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

This sums up my perspective fairly well. Unfortunately, Christianity is often used to manipulate and control the masses. Because the teachings of the Bible are so antiquated and full of contradictions, anyone can tease out the scriptures that suit their purposes, while abandoning the rest. Honestly, this doesn’t work for me. I just can’t force myself to believe that I am going to burn in an eternal lake of fire because I didn’t follow some modern day man’s interpretation of an ancient text. And that is what it boils down to. Furthermore, if I were to try and force myself to believe something I just can’t believe then I would be headed to the fiery lake anyway, because I’d be an unrepentant liar.

So, I’m going to take my own route (incidentally based on my early Christian training) and say that I don’t resent illegal aliens and I don’t will them back to the hopeless, squalid conditions from whence they came. I don’t believe that God roped off this big patch of land so that we could live our lives of excess and wastefulness while condescending towards those who have been born under less fortunate circumstances. If this were the case we wouldn’t have had to take the country by force in the first place. And let’s not forget that all of our ancestors might be considered “illegal aliens” had the Native Americans believed in the concept of the earth as a possession.

The irony that strikes me is that Jesus was the ultimate liberal. The Bible would have us believe that he wandered around associating with social outcasts and sick people. He was quite busy helping and feeding the disadvantaged while compelling others to give up their belongings and follow him on this path. I have to imagine that not only would Jesus support the idea of helping the illegals, but would encourage his followers to go across the border and make a hands-on effort to improve their situation. At the very least he would inspire us to stop supporting the corporate entities and government policies which are heavily responsible for this crisis.

Now, before I continue to fuel the uproar I may be starting, let me say that I do believe in equality of responsibility. And that’s what we are really talking about when it comes to illegal immigration. We want them to follow the rules we have set up for getting into the country. We want them to pay taxes and not be a drain on our welfare system; the system that was set up for the unfortunate few who are not able to get by in this “Land of Plenty” that we now “own”.

In order to address this point I am going to have to trample all over the false religion we have all been raised to worship, “The Cult of Growth”. The concept of prosperity through growth is just a big, fat, reeking lie. A “Growth Based Economy” is nothing more than a one way street from our resources to the landfills. If you don’t believe me, look around you and tell me how many of those items do you truly expect to have in a week, in a year, in ten years? In order for the rich to continue getting richer (and ultimately more powerful) it is imperative that we live covetous lives of continuous consumption. This is an unsustainable system, and in order for us to constantly acquire more than we have earned with our labor we must pave this one way street with the blood, sweat and tears of our neighbors.

Although we are to believe that we live in “The Land of the Free”, we are being led to slaughter by our corporate masters. We have been tricked into thinking that life should be cheap and easy and that we shouldn’t have to worry or think about where anything comes from, or how it got to us. I challenge you to look around you, once again, and try to guess the true value of each item you see, had it been manufactured here in the US, by legal US citizens. Use your imagination. Assuming you had the skills and materials to produce a given object, or grow a particular vegetable, would you be willing to work a 12 hour shift making that object for just enough money to put a roof over your head and some rice or tortillas on your plate? Would you volunteer to do it with no health care and while putting your health in danger? Would you ride a bus or a bicycle to that factory or to the fields and everywhere else you needed to go? I’m going to stick my neck out and guess that you wouldn’t do these things unless you had no other choice. Yet isn’t that what we are asking of these people, these fellow humans, who simply had the misfortune of emerging from the womb in the wrong place, at the wrong time?

We are so smug as to sit onour throne as a (current) world superpower and expect others to suffer in silence so that we may continue on just a little longer with our Grand Deception. Did you know that a portion of your precious tax dollars goes towards corn subsidies which flood the Mexican markets with corn priced below market value, thus forcing millions of Mexican farmers out of business? Do you care?

How would you feel if Canada suddenly dumped their wheat on us in the same fashion? I have family in the agriculture business, and I can guarantee that if we were faced with starvation, while the country that destroyed our livelihoods prospered, we would find a way to get work and feed our families. I would break the rules and do whatever I had to in order to survive. It is especially hard to respect the rules of a nation that doesn’t play fair; and if you look closely, we don’t play fair.

To make matters worse, our injustices are not relegated to beyond our borders. If you dig a little deeper, you will see that many of the U.S. corporations, that you patronize, knowingly and willingly employ these illegal aliens in order to produce their cheap goods services. I’d collect a bunch of examples and post links if I thought I had to convince you, but I suspect that most Americans are very well aware of this fact. If you really want to make a stand, walk into the kitchen of your favorite restaurant and demand to see the documentation all the kitchen staff. You may not be surprised to find that there is a work visa for an immigrant. What you might not realize is that the documents may be forged; and if they are legal, there may be a few of his friends or relatives working under the same visa. Next, you should go to the restaurant owner and demand that they hire only American citizens and raise their prices accordingly. If you follow this process through the source of every food item in the restaurant, you will have successfully priced yourself out of dining out (and dining in, for that matter). It may be uncomfortable and you may have to start growing your own food, but you could easily solve the illegal alien crisis by simply putting your patriotic energy to work on your own buying habits.

Another pinnacle of irony is the fact that the same people who are pissed about the illegal immigrants seem to be thrilled to send their tax dollars off to destroy and “rebuild” Middle Eastern countries based on a huge lie told by their beloved former leader. When this man was leading us down the path of financial ruin the overwhelming sentiment was “We must support our president, no matter what”. Funny that I’m already hearing a different tune regarding our current figurehead “We must respect him, but we don’t have to support him”. Isn’t that convenient? Honestly, I’d prefer that my tax dollars went to help out a Mexican family who came here looking for a better life than to bomb out a city in Iraq so that U.S. oil companies can take control of the oil fields (which they have now done, by the way). I’m still mad about the billions of dollars lost (and by “lost” I mean “stolen”) at the hands of U.S. defense contractors in the Middle East. I’m still disgusted that we are attacking just about every other country except the one from which the supposed 9/11 terrorists were from, namely Saudi Arabia.

Isn’t it convenient that we are embroiled in this immigration debate while the money we are wasting overseas could be used to rebuild the economies in the hometowns of the immigrants, thus giving them a good reason to leave on their own accord? It is much less difficult to exact hatred towards a nebulous bunch of people than it is to go directly to the source of our problems and convict our criminal leaders of treason.

Really want to solve the immigration problem? Call your representatives and inform them that you will no longer be paying taxes until they stop taking money from all corporations which benefit from the use of illegal immigrants or even legal immigrants who harbor illegal friends and family members. Voting along party lines will get you nowhere because representatives of both parties are beholden to their corporate sponsors. So, it’s back to the corporations which run this world. Stop patronizing them and the immigration problem will be solved on its own accord.

Well, I’ve gone and let weeks go by without any proper updates. Nothing much has happened that would pass for exciting, so I guess I don’t feel too bad.

The Oasis is looking lush and tropical.

Screamy the Pepper has ripened. AJ thinks I could sell him as a Michael Jackson likeness on ebay. I’m letting him dry above my desk to see what he looks like when old and wrinkled.

This is “Feisty” the Cuban Anole. How these miniature dinosaur replicas have escaped extinction is beyond me; because they are none too bright. Every day, without fail, he takes his post on the grill lid handle, puffs up his crests and struts back and forth in an attempt to intimidate his perfectly matched opponent.

Every day, he gives his best fight, only to be equaled by the foe with the steely  bites (which leave both of their noses battered and raw). Neither will relinquish their territory in this daily ritual. This is one neurotic lizard!

Talk about neurosis. I got a little obsessed with this eggplant. As it grew larger and more regal, I began to get paranoid about its well being. My research warned that eggplants lose their goodness once they get too ripe. They grow tough and seedy. They are meant to be picked while young and shiny.

This is the first eggplant I have ever grown, and with all of the dangers of over-ripeness, insects and critters I gave in and picked it. AJ chastised me, saying that they were meant to be much larger before harvesting.

I sliced it up to find firm, seedless meat. I marinated in Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar with fresh chopped garden herbs. Then I grilled to perfection. Captain Kym came over for dinner. This is when I realized that eggplant (especially my version) is not for everyone. AJ and Kym politely nibbled on the vegetable, while we all devoured AJ’s roasted, stuffed pork tenderloin. Oh well, I thought the eggplant was good.

AJ’s pork tenderloin was delicious. However, just as in everything he does, he immediately criticised his recipe and began planning for the improved version. We still had half of the large cut in the freezer, so a few days later he set about perfecting his stuffed, smoked pork tenderloin technique.

Here is his recipe:

AJ’s Smoked Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Sautee Italian Sausage.

Butterfly tenderloin lengthwise to flatten.

Spread Cream Cheese as bottom layer.

Add a layer of fresh Baby Spinach

Next layer: Prosciutto

Sprinkle with Grated Cheese.

Spread the browned sausage.

Layer on Ricotta Cheese.

Roll up and tie with cotton string. Season with Rosemary, Dill and Ken’s Greek Salad Dressing.

Smoke uncovered, spraying with mixture of Olive Oil, Pineapple Juice and Ken’s Greek Salad Dressing until internal temperature reaches 150°

Remove from heat, wrap in foil and let rest for 10 minutes.

Unwrap, slice and enjoy!

The mystery guest’s children overran the garden, eating up all of the dill and most of the parsley. I moved at least ten ravenous caterpillars to the carrots, where they quickly matured and went on “walkabout”, looking for places to pupate.

This one chose a green onion. Hope the wind doesn’t blow too hard.

How’s this for camouflage? I found this fellow on the broccoli. The next day was a perfectly hidden chrysalis that I would have never seen had I not known where to look. I have been aching to try broccoli greens, and carefully harvested the most tender leaves, while taking care not to disturb the sleeping beauty.

Roxanne’s Broccoli & Collard Greens

Harvest a bundle of tender Broccoli and/or Collard Greens.

Wash thoroughly, taking care to remove all insects and insect eggs. Cut into medium-sized pieces, removing central vein from larger leaves.

Blanch by submerging greens in boiling, salted water just long enough to tenderize, and then plunging into ice water. This preserves the bright green color.

Chop bacon, onions and peppers (I used a red pepper and Poblano from the garden). Once the bacon is almost cooked, add pressed or chopped garlic.

When bacon is cooked and onions are tender, toss in blanched greens. Drench with white wine, cover and simmer until greens are thoroughly wilted.

AJ, who had previously stated his reluctance to try broccoli greens, enthusiastically ate his portion and raved about how good they were. We enjoyed this dish as complement to his scrumptious smoked chicken. All in all, a week of good, down-home cooking.

And as if on cue, Smokey the Silly Cat has found yet another way to chill while looking ridiculously uncomfortable.

Hope everyone is enjoying life with peace and happiness! See y’all soon.

Lots of goodies coming from the garden and the Universe over the past couple of weeks.

The tomatoes are still on full bore. I’ve been picking an average of ten to fifteen per day.

Here are a couple of harvests. This is not nearly everything I gathered over the past two weeks, just two of the bigger days. I collected the muskmelons because the vine was mostly dead. They could have ripened a few more days, but they were OK. The middle melon is the one I did not protect with the pantyhose. In retrospect I don’t see the value of doing this. The skin was thin and split on the protected melons, and the netting did not develop normally.

I made salsa for the first time. I didn’t realize how large the green onions were getting until I cut this one! These were store onions that I just stuck in the ground. They grow back each time I cut them. I also picked a puny red pepper and a smallish Poblano. The salsa is still a work in progress.

The past week has been very active for the eggplant. It grew…

and grew…

and grew! Since I’m not familiar with what these are supposed to look like, I am not sure when to pick it. I’m thinking I’ll pick it this weekend, since the consequences of waiting too long seem to outweigh the risk of picking too soon.

Here is Super Eggplant’s sidekick. I don’t know why it looks so different, but I think a bug got ahold of it.

The second batch of bananas is looking good. First batch is also coming along nicely, too. They sure are taking a long time, though.

This is the string lily AJ brought back from the river. We keep it in a container under the AC condensation drip. It is going great, and bloomed this week.

The blooms were short-lived, but very delicate and pretty. I can’t say my husband doesn’t bring me flowers! The kind he brings are much more interesting and thoughtful than those bought in a store.

Not only that, but he can smoke a mean pork tenderloin! Yum!

Yesterday was a special treat. We stopped in at John Roger’s to pick up some bamboo. John is a local horticultural guru and, as I’ve said before, one of the most knowledgeable and unassuming guys you could ever hope to meet.

Even though he was on his way to run errands he took the time to give us another tour of his property to show us some of the things he has growing, as well as some nice mounds of mulch and compost. Had you told me, a year ago, that I’d get a thrill from compost I would have looked at you askance!

Nor did I even know of heirloom and heritage varieties, about which I am now quite excited. John Rogers is a true steward of the land and cultivator of native and unique plant varieties.

As we headed to the compost heap we stopped to admire his massive watermelon and squash vines. He promptly plucked this little jewel and bequeathed it upon me. What’s the big deal? This is a renowned, historic gem of the squash persuasion: A Seminole Pumpkin Squash (Cucurbita moschata), to be exact.

At the recent Funky Chicken Farm seed swap, John Rogers encouraged me to get some Seminole Pumpkin Squash seeds. I had never heard of this variety, but have since learned that it is a true heirloom, indeed developed by the Seminole Indians. They planted these hardy, natives at the base of palm trees, and allowed the vines to grow up the trunk and fronds. Considering how robust the plants seem to be, I imagine that this was quite a sight! Wish I had brought my camera to John’s place!

I cooked the squash in the smoker, using my father’s recipe for acorn squash: A chunk of butter, a sprinkling of brown (raw) sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. It looked beautiful, and tasted much like sweet potatoes. AJ, didn’t take to it, since he is not much for sweet food. Strange for the guy who can devour ice cream and candy bars like they are going out of style, and who is currently drinking a Pina Colada! Oh well.

I’ve got some seeds and will be planting Seminole Pumpkin Squash this weekend.

Here they are in the smoker, which was still hot from the pork tenderloin.

The original reason for going to John Roger’s (AKA Bamboo John) was to pick up a cutting of the lovely striped bamboo (Bambusa Vulgaris), which I managed to kill last time. I think we will get it right this go round , and hope to have a stand going soon. Thanks again, John!

So far, a good two weeks. I will try to get the wrap-up posted on Sunday evening.

Have a Happy 4th of July!

Why should these last two weeks be any different than the rest?

There are two things I can always count on around here.

1. AJ will be fixing something or researching how to fix something at all times. Here he is preparing to replace the radiator on the car:

He also helped the neighbors work on their broken stuff and is now working on the broken computer that has a devastating virus (thanks to me). When he isn’t fixing, he’s doing something else like smoking a pork loin. Yum. I’ll post photos of this (as well as a great gift we received yesterday) in my next edition.

2. The other thing I can always count on is that our neighborhood cat, Smokey, will continue to nap in entertainingly silly postures.

How can any of this be comfortable?

Smokey follows me around on all of my garden inspections, and (as though to demonstrate his cat prowess) he runs up the palm tree and hangs there for a brief few seconds before jumping to the ground.

Good times.

Too many things have happened to allow for a “Week in Review” post. And now it’s almost time for another. So, I’m breaking form and posting everything in smaller chunks. That way, you can skip right to whatever (if anything) interests you.

If you recall from my post “The day I vacuumed the garden”, there have been some changes around here. I have been on the lookout for an attractive, organic and (more importantly) free mulch solution to replace the limestone.

Now, keep in mind, I’m not bragging about how great my idea was. In reality it was very time consuming, and hard on the blender. However, it works great and looks nice.

Here’s what I did:

I had gathered dried ficus leaves from my neighbor’s yard and used them to temporarily mulch my beds. They were too big and messy, and had soon blown all over the place. Last weekend I finally found enough time to work out a solution. Again, the neighbors must think I’m bonkers; as I set up a workstation in the garden and began running leaves through the blender. That’s right, I spent the better part of two whole days making batches of chopped leaves to mulch my garden.

Yes, I am aware that nature would do this for me, if I were to compost said leaves. However, I wanted the mulch now, so I had to kick nature into high gear.

Mulcharitas, anyone?

In addition to the mulching project, I also pulled out the old lettuce and cantaloupe plants and cut back the tomatoes. I planted a cactus and some baby papaya trees on The Back 40 and did my weekly application of Atomic Grow™. By Sunday night I was sunburned and exhausted. But the results were worth the pain I felt on Monday morning.

Closeup of new mulch in O2

O2, with new mulch

Closeup of the Oasis

The Oasis

Remember the Mystery Guest? Well, no one offered an ID. Guess y’all have better things to do, LOL.

Let’s have a review.

The Mystery Guest has already grown up and returned to start her new family in the Oasis.

Here is an egg which she deposited on the Italian Parsley.

In this shot a baby caterpillar investigates an older egg (which is about to hatch).

Here is one of a slightly different color.

They grow up fast. These two are likely only a few days apart in age.

Out with the old skin, in with the new and improved striped skin!

Here’s one with the next size up striped suit.

This is our Mystery Guest right before she went on walkabout to search for a place to pupate.

I moved her to a potted plant on the steps, where she ate a little bit more and then built her silk harness.

The next morning I found that she had made a green chrysalis. They make both green and brown. I first thought it had to do with camouflage, but I have seen both colors on the same plant. Perhaps the color is pre-programmed, allowing a 50% chance that they will end up on a matching colored stick.

I checked my calendar and planned to keep an eye out for her emergence in two weeks.

Six days later I went outside to check something, and was surprised to see that she had wasted no time in her transformation. I rushed to grab my camera, and manged to fire off a few shots as she dried her wings.

Within moments (and probably to get away from me), she opened her wings and fluttered off.

This lovely gal posed for me before flitting away to find food and a mate. She has returned to the garden, every day, to deposit her eggs on all of the host plants. When I pick my herbs I must be on the lookout for the little visitors, and sometimes have to sacrifice a few unhatched eggs, in order to harvest for the kitchen.

Here she is today. The wind has taken its toll on her wings, but it doesn’t seem to defray her mission of laying eggs. She was tired, and seemed to pose for over a minute as she rested on the dill plant; then she was off to deposit more mini-pearls of the next generation.

You have just witnessed the life cycle of Papilio polyxenes Fabricus, 1775, otherwise known as the Eastern Black Swallowtail.

Those colorful caterpillars (once they change from mimicking bird poop), are also known as “Dillworms, Celeryworms, Carrotworms or Parsleyworms”. I think the names adequately explain their diet. Although they seem garish and conspicuous, the caterpillars are actually quite well disguised when they are on their host plants (sort of like zebras on the grassy plains).

The adults do little more than consume nectar, mate and deposit their eggs; all of which they are welcome to do in the bounty of my little garden.

I’ll warn you in advance, this post is long. But if you hang in there you will find a veggie creature that gave me a chuckle. I think it’s worth the read.

I don’t know how I’d ever keep up with this if anything really happened. Every time I step outside I want to take more pictures, then I have another post on my hands. Now that I have some readers (thanks to all of you), I feel the push to keep it going. Special thanks this week goes to my dear old friend, Dori. Your comments tell me that you are just the same thoughtful, encouraging, beautiful person who took me under her wing that first day of school in a new and frightening place. Thanks for still being there!

I’m ready for a change from the garden doom and gloom and happy to say that I have some verdant hope to offer. Most of the past two weeks has been spent problem solving. AJ is working like a full-time mechanic to keep us on the road with our “pre-owned” vehicles. Personally, we prefer to think of them as “future classics”. We like the older cars because…no car payment; also because they are more durable and easier for him to work on. When he takes a break from fixing and maintaining, he isn’t happy unless they are also clean. I know it sounds obsessive, but it’s essential to keep us rolling.

Yesterday, as I did more garden triage, he washed the car. Lookin’ good! (and the car ain’t half bad, either)

Yesterday was “Atomic Grow™ Sunday”. This is the first season that I’ve had a substantial garden. I could have taken a class or read some books and done it right from the start; but that is too easy and I would certainly have lost interest. I’m more of the “test the water by jumping in” type person, so I just planted anything and everything I could squeeze into the small space, with little regard to planting or growing season guidelines. As I am learning, summer in Central Florida is a challenging time for gardeners. Most of what I am trying to grow is supposed to be done or winding down. Heat, and insects become overwhelming for most gardeners this time of year.

Well, as long as a green leaf survives, I’m not giving up on these plants. It sounds kind of crazy to say it, but I feel as though I know them personally. Yes, I even talk to them! I know the feel and texture of each plant. I think that if you blindfolded me and handed me a cutting, I could identify most of them by touch. I know where to look for the most troublesome pests, and spend a good deal of time exposing and eradicating them. I imagine that I can hear a soft whisper of “Thank you” from my green friends.

The pickleworms, cabbage loopers, squash bugs and aphids are causing me the most grief. Atomic Grow™ is not a pesticide. Although it is said that insects can’t handle the sugars created by the plants, the aforementioned critters seem to have no problem munching on mine. I have resigned myself to my twice daily “critter patrol”, but the aphids are the most troublesome. Fortunately, Atomic Grow™ works wonders when directly applied to aphids.

You’ve got to respect ants. They are brilliantly designed and organized. I’m in awe of the “Rancher Ants” in my garden. I don’t know what kind they are, really; but they are bonafide ranchers; and they are raising herds of sweet, juicy aphids on my vegetable plants! The ants drink the aphid excretions or “honeydew”, sometimes actually milking them. They carry their livestock from plant to plant and protect them from predators; even going so far as to destroy ladybird eggs. In the winter, the ants carry aphid eggs into their nests where they are nurtured in optimal temperatures.

These ranchers have been doing a fine job on my cucumber plant. I know that when a plant is swarming with ants there will be plenty of aphids sucking the life out of it. Yesterday I shut down the Cucumber Ranch.

Here is a shot of the underside of a typical cucumber leaf, yesterday (minus the ants, which scurried away):

Here is a closeup, showing the adults and babies. They look so cute and fresh. I almost wish I were an ant so I could enjoy some aphid honeydew; but since I’m not, they must die.

I mixed up a batch of Atomic Grow™ and went to work. Atomic Grow™ affects their chitin layer (skin), and causes them to dry up. In order for it to work, you must apply it to all areas of the plant; with special attention to the leaf bottoms and new tips, where aphids congregate. The ants went crazy and took off. The spray has an effect on ants, too; but there are so many that it doesn’t take long for them to return. Jim Shellenback from Atomic Grow™ recommends spraying every five days when pests are so active. I can see why, because it is a constant battle.

The good news is that it works! Here are some shots of the same plant this morning:

Most of the aphids are gone. Of the ones remaining, most are dead and drop off with the brush of a finger. I did find a couple still alive, and I suspect that the ants have begun bringing them back. Still, a huge difference! I think that a couple of applications is all it will take to deplete the ants’ backup stock. I have used Atomic Grow™ to eliminate aphids on my peas and beans with great success.

In addition to aphid control on the cucumbers, I applied Atomic Grow™ to the entire garden. I also watered everything with a vinegar solution to work towards balancing the soil pH. Looking back at the abuse I have given this garden, I am more and more convinced that Atomic Grow™ is a main factor in keeping most of it alive. As always, I awoke to find things looking better after the spray. Take a look.

This celery was croaking two weeks ago. The pale leaves you see were much worse, and many were actually white from chlorosis. The foliar applications of Manganese Sulfate, Iron Sulfate and Atomic Grow™ have made a marked improvement. The color is starting to seep back into the leaves.

Here is a closeup of a celery plant. The mottled leaves were white before the treatments.

Ditto for this red pepper plant. Still showing chlorosis, but many times better than before.

The Italian parsley never got very pale, but it has sent out a swath of new growth this week.

Attention: Veggie Creature coming up!

The Poblano plants are responding especially well. See that dark green? That’s all new.

Boo!

Does it remind you of this?

or this? 

OK, enough of that silliness. Check out the watermelon vine!

Two weeks ago this thing was completely yellow and brittle without a hint of a surviving female flower, let alone a fruit. I was seriously planning to scrap this plant and wait for next season. If you recall, it was the watermelon symptoms which ultimately led me to the Manganese deficiency diagnosis; and it is the same vine that is now responding the best of all. The new growth is lush and green, and even the old (once hopeless) sections are showing improvement. What is pale green in the upper section of this image was once whitish yellow and so brittle as to crack in your hands. And the best part…

Baby watermelons! After the spray treatments, the watermelon sent out spurts of new growth, covered in male and female flowers. I have learned that it takes an average of eight visits by a bee to pollinate a female watermelon flower. Because they are nondescript and only open for a single day, the chances of pollination are very limited. I have recently begun experimenting with hand pollination by picking a male flower, removing the petals and rubbing the pollen onto the female flower. It really works. In addition to this little beauty, I have two more which I believe may come to fruition.

The carrots are much greener and putting out new growth.

At the seed swap I heard it told that tomato season is coming to an end. Apparently it is too hot. Please don’t say this out loud in my garden. I just counted 55 tomatoes on these plants in The Oasis, and upwards of 100 cherry tomatoes on the plant in O2. Stepping outside to count them was like walking into a pizza oven, but I’m keeping them watered and crossing my fingers.

Oh, and by the way…the leaf spot fungus is all but gone; thanks to Atomic Grow™.

Here is my latest project: “Tomato Alley”. Eight heirloom plants (two each of Cherokee Purple, Indian Stripe, Black Krim and Brandywine ) from seeds given to me by Suzanne Malone. The end bucket has two Okra seeds (again, fingers crossed). This is an experiment in growing delicate tomatoes under the worst of conditions. I have chosen the smallest of each type to treat with Atomic Grow™. It will be interesting to see the difference between the treated and control plants, and if any of them survive at all.

Smokey now accompanies me on my morning and afternoon rounds.

Here is the papaya that Mike Whitlow gave us. It is also responding well to the treatments.

I was happy to discover a new predator on the Cherry Tomato plant. I moved in for a closeup and didn’t see this Green Lynx Spider, Peucetia viridans (Hentz) until I was very close. Trusting her camouflage, she didn’t budge, as I grabbed the camera for a couple quick shots. The wind was blowing, so I’ll have to find her on a calm day and get some better photos. These spiders are a mixed blessing, as they eat destructive moths and beneficial bees and wasps, alike.

Here is how The Oasis looks today (overgrown and somewhat messy).

And here is O2.

The muskmelon vines are barely hanging on. It’s a race to ripeness for these three melons. And then I wonder if they will taste OK. Time will tell.

Remember the baby bananas? They are slowly growing.

And here are their counterparts from the other stand. This flower is much larger, and appeared immediately after the spray treatments. This first hand has eight bananas and we hope there are more to come.

Well, there it is! I’m finally caught up on my regular posts. The next thing you see from me will be all about Atomic Grow™ and how you can get some for your own garden, lawn or even house plants.

For now I leave you with Silly Cat:

See ya’ very soon!

This is really a bit of catching up for the last two weeks. When I finish this post I am going straight to the garden to do some more stuff. Changes have taken place, and I will share them later.

Garden

When we got back from Jacksonville I couldn’t wait to check out the garden. This is an outdated shot, now; but the Poblanos were getting bigger.

We needed a salad so I did a mini-harvest. I selected one of the carrots I had transplanted. It had a nice big top, but when I pulled it up, this creature was revealed. Sorry for the bad focus. Lesson learned? Don’t transplant carrots.

The salad was good with Chives, Cilantro, Cherry Tomatoes, Celery, Carrot and Carrot Creature all freshly picked.

Mr. Fix-It

This is what AJ has looked like for the past two weeks. That is, when he hasn’t been on the phone dealing with insurance companies, parts stores and our financial matters.

Here he is fixing the battery tray on the truck.

Here he is changing the brakes on the Mercedes. He has fixed so many things that we can’t even remember them all. I’m sure he has sweat at least five gallons worth in the hot Florida sun.

Smokey the cat, does not work so hard. He just finds various ways to look silly.

Mystery Guests

Remember the little bird poop look-alikes?

They got more interesting…

And much bigger.

This one ate up the whole dill plant it was on. I caught it going for a stroll as I was vacuuming the garden. Lucky thing it was so colorful or I might have accidentally sucked it up.

When they go for a stroll, that means only one thing happens next. I relocated this one to my potted dill plant, where it nibbled a little more and then built a silk hammock. It stayed like this for the entire day.

The next morning I found this lovely green chrysalis. I’ve raised a number of these beauties (sometimes right on my desk), but I’ve yet to capture the moment they transform from caterpillar to chrysalis. Maybe next time… The fun part is what follows. In a week or two the chrysalis will turn transparent. This is the signal to get the camera ready for the emergence. Afterward I’ll post a specific page for this guest and disclose its identity to those who don’t already know.

Here’s another guest I discovered last night. Wish I could give some perspective as to how huge this thing was. I saw it from halfway across the yard. My heart jumped at the thought of being invaded by two inch monster mosquitoes. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, but it was at least 1.5 inches tall.

I got closer and was relieved to see that it was a Robberfly; so named because they often mimic their prey and attack when the victim unwittingly approaches. I had never seen one like this, before.

After moments on the internet I discovered that it is Diogmites sp., or “The Hanging Thief”; known for hanging by its front legs while eating its prey. These crazy looking flies are predatory and eat a number of intimidating insects, including bees, wasps and dragonflies. Here is a site with some great Robberfly shots, including the hanging behavior.

Seed Swap at the Funky Chicken Farm

This past Wednesday I went back to the Funky Chicken Farm for a seed and  plant cutting swap. Suzanne Malone gave a great tutorial on growing and collecting seeds from your garden. I met a lot of great people and saw a couple of whom I had met before, including Carol (who was at the previous meetup) and John Rogers, AKA “Bamboo John”.

I explained to John that I had killed the bamboo cuttings he had given us. He generously offered to let us come get new cuttings. This time I won’t subject them to lime overdose.

I got a lot of seeds and some cuttings, which you will see in my upcoming posts (provided I can keep them alive). I am still working towards a page listing all of my seeds.

Etc.

Allan Sr. and Barney the poodle came to stay with us last night. They brought steak and booze; so we had a pre-Father’s Day celebration. Good times and good company!

There’s a good chance I will get caught up on my writing goals, as we just lost over half of our income over the past week. Three of our clients canceled our service, due to the financial downturn. It’s depressing, but I do believe in the saying “When one door closes, another one opens.”

AJ has become “The Pina Colada King”, having perfected a Pina Colada recipe that helps dull the pain. It just takes two of these tropical delights to brighten things up for a while.

I’m sure I’ve got a lot more to say, but the garden beckons…the garden and a “Rum Punishment” as AJ has named his new favorite cocktail.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of the Week in Review.

One of the recurring themes of this blog is “Creative Solutions”.

One of the solutions to our hot, sandy, weedy yard was the Gravel Project (Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4). That was a huge undertaking, and a remarkable transformation.

We went from this:

To this:

Instantly, everything was better. The yard was cooler, no more tracking in piles of sand on our shoes, and the garden held moisture and kept the plants from getting overheated. It also discouraged the armadillo who had been leaving dozens of holes every night. The gravel had telltale craters the first couple of nights, and after that the nosey nuisance moved on to greener pastures.

We even had a great time “beachcombing” our yard for the most interesting and complete fossilized shells. Little did I know how much trouble those shells were about to cause.

I planted things, and things grew. However, a lurking problem slowly reared its limey head. A common theme began to appear in many of the plants. Leaves were turning pale (sometimes completely white), beans and peppers had strange spots on the older leaves. As more and more leaves yellowed, I began to notice that the veins were still dark green.

Using this clue, it was easy to find the most likely cause of these symptoms: Manganese deficiency.

I’ll be honest with you. Heretofore, I haven’t given much thought to soil science and the importance of proper pH. When we spread the limestone gravel, I did briefly contemplate the consequences of alkalinizing the soil; but didn’t imagine how much trouble it could cause.

Although I didn’t have the soil tested (I plan to do so in the near future), it seemed fairly obvious that if you put down a layer of alkaline limestone, and you get extreme symptoms of high soil pH, that there is a correlation. I had spent hours researching the various maladies in my plants, only to find that most of the symptoms, fit the description of Manganese deficiency to a “T”.

Take a look for yourself:

Cucumber with yellowing leaves and dark green veins. This is an older leaf that also has insect damage.

Watermelon with same symptoms. Actually, the watermelon with its cracking, brittle, yellow leaves is what finally clued me in. I found a website showing the exact problem in commercial watermelon with Manganese deficiency.

Various tomato leaves, with dark veins and crinkled new growth.

Muskmelon

Sweet Pea

Pole Beans (I think).

Poblano Pepper. Leggy and droopy, in addition to the mottled leaves. Another symptom of Manganese deficiency.

Red Pepper. New growth was all white.

Cilantro

Celery. It appears wilted because it is wet. Outside growth was pale yellow, almost white.

Once I found out what was happening I had to devise and schedule a plan of action. Manganese and Iron deficiencies occur when the soil becomes so alkaline that the plants are unable to absorb the minerals that are present within the soil. It’s like going to an “All you can eat” buffet just after having your jaw wired shut.

With very little money in the budget and a busy schedule, I devised the quickest and least labor-intensive way to salvage the garden. Chances were that if the plants were deprived of Manganese that they were also low on Iron. The quickest fix is a foliar application of both Manganese Sulfate and Iron Sulfate. Walmart didn’t even have such products and Home Depot only had them in large bags, totaling  over $40.00.

A look at the liquid combination fertilizers revealed a couple of brands with some Manganese and Iron, along with a bunch of other things I didn’t really want (including Nitrogen). They were also fairly pricey. “Come on! All I want is a small container with two things.”  Imagine a beam of light shining down and illuminating this bottle. It didn’t exactly happen, but that’s what it felt like at the time.

A quick glance at the label showed that this had the two ingredients I was looking for, in higher concentrations than the other fertilizers. From what I had read, Magnesium deficiency wasn’t likely a problem, but adding Magnesium wouldn’t harm anything.

The best part was that this bottle cost less than $6.00. I paid up, and crossed my fingers. Before I could apply this treatment, I had to remove the gravel from around all of the plants. Enter the handy-dandy Shop-vac!

That’s right folks. I’m sure the neighbors thought I had finally come unhinged as I spent the next three hours vacuuming up all of the gravel from around the plants. I can assure you that putting it down was much easier!

The plants appeared battered and confused. As the sun went down, I assured them that it was for their own good.

The next day I hurried to finish my work and got busy spraying the Chelated Palm Nutritional on everything. All the while a secret doubt nagged me that I may be committing herbicide. There were more steps to correcting the damage caused by the limestone, but I didn’t want to overdo it, so I waited until the next morning to see the results.

The following morning I was greeted by some very happy plants. I kid you not, things were already greener. The carrots had greened up so much that I was actually shocked. This was no instant cure, but the results looked promising.

The foliar application was like triage. It didn’t solve the problem, it only gave the plants a good dose of what they desperately needed. The long-term solution is to acidify the soil. My research pointed to infusions of organic material and applications of the liquid solution to the soil, in addition to the leaves. I knew this needed to be done, but I was still looking for a quicker fix. Vinegar seemed like a possible solution, so I googled around and found that, indeed it was.

First, I did my overdue application of Atomic Grow™ and then I added a cup or so of white wine vinegar to a gallon of water and sprayed that into the soil. Another restless night was followed by another green morning. The plants looked even better, and many of them (including the seemingly dormant carrots) had sprouted new growth.

Now I had a mulch problem. I have a long-term solution (which I am still formulating), but I needed to get something on the soil to hold in the moisture and continue acidification. I raked up some dried ficus leaves from a neighbor’s yard and mulched around the plants. It is messy and not particularly attractive, but it does the job for now.

A day or two later I added the Chelated Palm Nutritional to the soil. Things have improved greatly, as you’ll see in my next “Week in Review” post.

Here we are, almost two weeks gone by, and I am only just getting around to wrapping up the Jacksonville trip.

I wanted to go back to the Palmarosa on Sunday morning, but there was no way we could make time.

AJ and I stayed with Karen/Mom and Mark (her partner and love). Although our visit was brief and they were busy, Karen still managed to keep everyone fed with her outstanding cooking. There was spaghetti left for me when I came in late Saturday night (early Sunday morning) and she got up and cooked us a breakfast to rival any gourmet restaurant. We even had farm fresh eggs from the Palmarosa, with Alan’s homemade Datil Ketchup. Yum!

AJ had worked on Judith’s computer and glued together the broken cabinet door. As much as we wanted to lounge around and let that phenomenal breakfast digest, we had to get on the road. Karen and Mark made a perfect picture as they stood in the doorway waving goodbye. No way could I get the camera out fast enough, so I’ll share another photo of them from a visit earlier this year.

If you are buying or selling a house anywhere in Florida check out the Greenwise Team.

Next, AJ and I headed over to Judith’s to put things back together. We got the computer up and running and the cabinet door put back on.

Judith got dressed up so pretty on Saturday, and the only pictures I got were of her standing out in the rain. Doesn’t she look cute with that polka-dotted umbrella, though?

Next time, I will do better at remembering to take pictures of people.

I did manage to get a picture of Granny Smith as AJ and I stopped to visit her in the nursing home on the way out of town.

We had a nice visit, although AJ didn’t say more than three or four words. Granny told us some great stories and modeled her new glasses for us. She was an interior designer by profession and her sense of style still shows, even though she is bedridden. I wanted to stay and talk with Granny longer, but it was raining hard and we had a long drive ahead.

It rained most of the way home, only letting up as we made the final stretch. A full rainbow arched across the sky, as if to guide us along. As we approached the trailer park, the rainbow appeared to end at our destination.

Tired and glad to be back home, we unloaded the truck and inventoried the culinary treasures we had been given. From Alan & Chris we had fresh, happy chicken eggs, a big bag of datil peppers, and three of Alan’s canned treats: Palmarosa Datil Ketchup, strawberry preserves and chow-chow. Although they explained what chow-chow was, I still had to look it up for ideas of how to eat it. A few days later I had it atop some beans and bacon. I’m hooked! There are many ways to make the relish, and I can’t quite remember how Alan said he made it. Maybe I’ll get a confirmation on that from him.

The eggs were straight from under the chickens. Mud washed right off, and they were delicious!

Alan Palmrose’s homemade Chow-chow, Datil Pepper Ketchup & Strawberry Jam; all of which have been sampled and are deemed delicious.

Karen and Mark bestowed upon us a great selection of Asian foods including Dried Shitake Mushrooms, Chanatoon Rice Sticks, Lemongrass, Soy Beans, Rice Sticks and Dried Beancurd Sticks. All cooking suggestions are welcomed. Please, somebody give me some ideas.

The problem with trying to get caught up with two weeks worth of blogging is that my memory aint’ what it used to be, and it didn’t used to be worth a dime. So, please forgive me if I left something out.

I’ll admit it, I love to be right. Nothing compares to the rush of knowing the correct answer to a question or problem. This traces directly to my being an awkward bespectacled girl in a small town, where everyone knew your business. With little chance of being popular, I sank my energy into the pursuit of knowledge. Of the thirty some kids in my grade school classes I was the girl with the highest grades; matching those of the smartest boy. My brain never seemed to shut off, and when we were given a reading assignment I would jet through it in a fraction of the allotted time and then drift off into an imagined fantasy world. I remember a particular teacher who was incensed with this behavior and constantly chided me for “daydreaming”. I caused her endless frustration because when she quizzed me on the reading assignments I could always produce the right answer. Perhaps she took it personally that one of her best students found the class incredibly boring; because after a few of these episodes I was usually overlooked, no matter how frantically I waved my hand. I’ve read studies proclaiming that boys get called on a significantly higher amount than girls. I found this to be true in my schooling, and it motivated me to compete with the boys in order to upstage them with my better grades.

I don’t believe much has changed since I was that annoying, nerdy know-it-all in fourth grade. The hard part is to accept that I am not always right, and that I don’t have to be. This rang true when I recently told my friend Christy that she should try all natural Stevia to sweeten her coffee because the sucralose in Splenda is a chlorocarbon just like some pesticides, and that the manufacturer claims of its safety are highly controversial. To this statement, her husband nodded in agreement, as he had been trying to convince her of the same. Her answer? “But you are the one who convinced me that Splenda was the best, because it was made from real sugar. I just bought a huge bag of it the other day. I told Chris that it couldn’t be true because Roxy is always right.” Ooops! I had my words for breakfast that day, and the Stevia didn’t help to sweeten them at all. I had to admit that I had been fooled by slick corporate advertising and had promoted an alternative to Aspartame (which I also believe is terrible for the body) without doing thorough research. Of course, when I was introduced to Splenda the information wasn’t so readily available as it is today.  I explained that my promotion of Splenda was in my pre-conspiracy theorist days.

Everyone who knows me will testify that I am a devout student of human nature. I have reason to believe that my primary job on this planet is to observe and understand the behavior of my fellow co-inhabitants. Understanding is an active pursuit and requires practice. I once considered becoming a psychologist, but opted for the armchair instead. Despite my lack of proper education and my rate of fallibility, people still choose to confide in me and ask my advice.

The past few weeks have been especially intense for most of the people in my life. Thus, I’ve been fast and loose with my amateur psychology. These conversations have given me a chance to congeal my philosophy about the pitfalls of having to be right. By nature of the definition of conflict, both parties believe themselves to be right. Our tendency is to enforce our belief or opinion upon the other party. We think that if we could only just get them to do what we want, then things would be fine. Although this may be true, it is most unlikely to happen. If we truly desire a positive outcome, then all parties must be satisfied. This cannot be the case if we are attempting to force others to behave in a manner inconsistent with their viewpoint. The key to harmony is bringing the viewpoints together. It is often possible to bring another person around to your way of thinking, or at least to a reasonable compromise; but you must be willing to do something that most of us find excruciatingly difficult: Abandon the quest to be right.

Sounds crazy, I know. You may ask “How in the world can I be happy if I am willing to denounce my convictions?” And I pose the question “How in the world can you be happy if you subjugate those who contribute to your own happiness?” Vindication is cold comfort. The good news is that there are ways to help others be right without being wrong yourself. This is the “Win/Win” situation that Stephen R. Covey describes in his book “7Habits of Highly Effective People.” Here’s how it works, in a nutshell: People have an intense need to be heard and understood. We get so wrapped up in the pursuit of fulfilling this desire that we often overlook that others have this same need. Winning by forcing your wishes upon the other party precludes that they must lose. When they lose, you lose by default. Therefore you have defeated the purpose by insisting upon being right. However, if you refrain and allow the other to express themselves, you may very well find out that they were clinging to their concept for the same reasons you were yours. You may also learn something that causes your previously held convictions to change. The sheer act of honestly listening and caring about the other person’s feelings can often resolve a seemingly irreversible conflict.

Here is an excerpt from the Quick MBA website:

Habit 5:  Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of interpersonal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of one’s own experience. Rather, it is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person, listening empathically for both feeling and meaning.

This article by the Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA gives a good description of Active  or Empathic Listening, with links to examples. I believe that everyone can benefit from this technique.

Let’s all swap moccasins and take a stroll.

Peace and happiness to all of you.

I’m at a loss as to how to wrap up this surreal week. Chris Dailey made a suggestion reinforcing something I’ve been mulling over; and that was to break up my posts into a more manageable format. The challenge becomes how best to organize them. Because of the volume of information I have to share I think I will give this idea a go. I plan to go back and archive the old posts in chronological order. The posts associated with this week will be placed in chronological order with links added below. Feedback is much appreciated.

Speaking of feedback…I really love the comments. I learned a lot this week; one thing being that people are passing this blog around to friends and family, and that I have some readers I didn’t know about. So, I encourage anyone who is lurking about to chime in and give me some constructive criticism as to how I can keep from boring you to tears.

I have slapped these posts together, although they are most certainly full of errors and omissions. My hope is that the parties involved will contact me with some more details. I would really like to have the names of the animals featured on the Palmarosa post, as well as anything else I left out. Help!

Here we go with the events of this week:

The Garden

The Dailey Bunch

Stepmother’s Day and the Crash

The Palmarosa

Wrap Up (Better late than never.)

How quickly we can go from drought to deluge. It has been raining almost every day; and the garden is showing both the positive and negative effects of this.

Let’s go ahead and cover the “challenges” first:

Gardening Challenges

Spots on Cherry Tomato leaves: I have no clue. Nitrogen issues, Blight, Over-watering? I haven’t had time to delve into it; but I did cut off most of the damage. The plant is still cranking out cherry tomatoes, so we’ll watch and wait.

The stem has a white fuzzy growth, which screams “fungus” to me. Since these photos were taken, things appear to have improved. I’ll focus on this more when I get a chance.

Pale Celery. I’m pretty sure this has to do with the haphazard transplanting I did. I did fertilize last week and after last Sunday’s Atomic Grow™ application they greened up considerably.

Pale Red Pepper leaves. Possibly root-bound, over-watered or underfertilized. I’ll try to help this plant this week. It is still making peppers, so I think it will be OK.

The pickleworms are back, and are now attacking the broccoli. The advice that I have found is to either poison with pesticide or give up the idea of gardening in the summer. Well, I’m too stubborn for that. The unfortunate part is that by the time I find them, they have destroyed an entire stem. I have begun to alternate between pinching them to death, and leaving the leaf intact and dousing the entry hole with Atomic Grow™. Atomic Grow™ is not a pesticide, but it makes insects pretty miserable, so it’s worth a shot.

Entrance hole with frass (poop).

It’s not all bad news. When I first discovered these little monsters, some were already dead and rotting inside their hidey holes. I hope they died from alcohol poisoning as an effect of the increased sugars the plant produces on Atomic Grow™. I sprayed everything today and will update when something happens.

Squash Bugs. Shown here on the cucumber plant. I suspect they are responsible for the sick watermelon vine that is not doing well at all. In honor of their name I have been busily squashing them. Feel free to drop by and stomp to your heart’s content. We’ve got plenty to go around!

Harlequin Bug. Isn’t she Pretty? Pretty evil! See that shriveled up broccoli leaf? Thanks a lot you little six-legged piece of abstract art with sucking mouth parts! She is now a “Mashed Bug”, too.

Are you impressed that I knew it was a female? It wasn’t hard, since she left her Beetlejuice-looking eggs under another leaf. I did a lot of squashing that day.

One more downer and then I’ll move on to the good stuff. The three baby cucumbers I got excited about all shriveled up like this. Yes, that really sucks. However, I did some research tonight and learned that female cucumber flowers do this when not properly pollinated. Even though it looks like a cucumber, it is still waiting to snuggle with a bee as long as the flower is there. I figure that since these babies were buried under the big, lush leaves they didn’t get to meet up with the pollinators. I have since learned how to pollinate with an artist’s brush whenever I find one of these little gals. Speaking of sex…don’t go away. There is some sex at the end of this post.

Good news and bad news: The bananas are still doing their thing; but there are only going to be six. All of the following flowers have dropped off. AJ has done some research and learned that the bananas are formed from female flowers, Usually there are multiple hands and then many rows of sterile flowers that drop off along the stem. I’m pretty sure I jinxed them by expecting a huge bunch of bananas. We figure this puny output has to do with lack of fertilizer and/or water. AJ is on the job and we will be working to ensure larger families in the future.

Gardening Victories

The muskmelons are doing great. Nothing would irk me more than to lose these to the squash vine borers (pickleworms). I learned online that covering the fruit can prevent the moths from laying eggs on them. Paper bags were mentioned, but seemed to be messy and to fall apart when wet. Not a good option for rainy Florida.

Then I found a blog by someone using pantyhose to protect her melons. Best use of pantyhose ever! I have covered a couple of the largest muskmelons and will track their progress in relation to the uncovered ones. So far, so good.

Despite the pest problems, the broccoli is still going strong. I don’t know whether or not I will get any broccoli, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The baby heirloom tomatoes are getting big. I have got to get these things planted ASAP!

Pole beans are finally starting to climb. So far, these are the most perplexing of all my crops. They have taken off this week, so maybe there is still hope.

Here is a detail of The Oasis last night, showing the Poblanos, Tomatoes and Carrots.

This is the Poblano on the left before we went out of town. It grew quite a bit while we were gone.

Despite the issues, the Cherry Tomatoes continue to proliferate.

The regular tomatoes also continue to thrive. I counted over sixty on this trellis today.

June 3rd’s Harvest

The Oasis as it greeted us on Sunday.

O2. Both beds are looking a bit overgrown, as the lettuce is going to seed and the tomatoes are completely out of control. I’m formulating the next phase, once the lettuce plants are removed. Be sure to read the Palmarosa post for some great news about seeds I was given by my cousin Alan.

The mystery guests are growing up fast. One day soon, you’ll be looking back and reminiscing about how it seems like only yesterday that they looked just like bird poop. They will move past this awkward stage within a week or so.

And last but not least…

“Birds do it, bees do it, lizards on the trees do it.” Or something like that.

On Friday afternoon AJ and I arrived in Jacksonville. We had a full schedule including my trying to make good on a promise to spend time with Christy and lend a helping hand. I started out by helping her drink a bottle of wine. Next we got busy eating pizza and solving the problems of the world. If only those darned things would just stay solved!

Chris arrived home much later from picking up precious Mady from his mother’s. I snatched her from her daddy and got busy getting my shoulders all slobbery. Finally, she started to get tired and cranky. They demonstrated her reaction to soprano opera singers by playing a video of one. I’ve never seen a child so mesmerized by anything as Madeline is by opera. The surrounding world and her exhaustion ceased to exist as she strained to absorb every note. She already coos in perfect pitch, so I’m pretty sure we’ve got a future star on our hands. I hope she remembers Aunt Roxy when she hits it big!

I only realized after the fact that I should have gotten some shots of Christy’s newest artwork. Those pieces in the background are some of the most interesting and creative mosaic wall art you will ever find. Next time I will remember to get some photos and do a feature post on the astounding talent of Christy Dailey.

Chris has his own talents, the least of which is putting up with two dear old friends and their wine. Thanks for being so great, Chris!

Chris, Christy & Madeline Dailey (What a handsome family).

Darling Madeline and her gorgeous mother Christy.

The wine wasn’t so great the next day, and I woke up dragging. I can think of no better hangover cure than The Wagon Wheel breakfast at Famous Amos. Thanks for treating me Christy and Chris.

Since AJ dropped me off Friday night and headed out to see his parents in Orange Park, I was left to borrow a vehicle from Christy for the next leg of my adventure. To sum it up, I came to offer Christy some assistance and ended up drinking her wine, letting her feed me and borrowing her truck; all of which was greatly appreciated.

On Saturday morning I jumped in Christy’s truck and headed over to Judith’s to Celebrate “Stepmother’s Day” and then to The Palmarosa for a cookout with my cousin Alan and his fiance’ Christine.

Little did I know how much adventure this day had in store!

The day after Mother’s day has been deemed “Stepmother’s Day” in our family. Since we are far away and can’t always make it to Jacksonville when we’d like, Stepmother’s Day gets shifted around. Judith is very understanding about this and graciously allows us to announce the occasion on short notice. Saturday’s schedule was loaded. Since AJ was in Orange Park with our truck, I borrowed Christy’s truck and headed over to Judith’s house. We went out to lunch, solved problems and had a good time. We were looking forward to the cookout at my cousin Alan’s farm, The Palmarosa.

After lunch we returned to Judith’s where I changed some light bulbs and rounded up a broken cabinet door and her malfunctioning computer to take back to AJ for repair. The time passed quickly and it was soo time to get on the road to The Palmarosa. We were passing through Orange Park on the way and planned to pick up AJ. First I had to ask Judith to follow me to Christy’s so that I could drop off her truck. As we hit the road, AJ called and warned of a terrible thunderstorm in our path. He was caught in it and reduced to driving 4mph due to zero visibility. When we got to Christy’s AJ called again. This time he was borderline hysterical.

AJ: Some bitch just hit the truck!!!

Roxanne: What?

AJ: Some woman just hit our truck so hard that she knocked it into the next parking space. Her car is totaled and the truck is probably totaled, too!

The next call lent more detail. He told me that the woman had been drinking and had resisted arrest by giving the police a false name. The parking lot was full of police and he had to go file a report.

It wasn’t until Judith and I arrived at the scene, about 30 minutes later, that we got the details.

Here is our truck, knocked into the adjacent parking space. Strangely enough, it hasn’t a scratch on it. The damage was much different than I had envisioned from AJ’s description. The person who hit our parked vehicle managed to catch theirs on our receiver hitch with enough force to move the rear portion of this extremely heavy truck completely into the next parking space.

Here is Judith thinking that this may be the most exciting part of her day. Little does she know what is in store!

At first, the offending vehicle was nowhere to be seen. Then, AJ directed me to a parking space on the other side of the road, which they had rolled into after hitting our truck. He and his father were eating lunch when they heard a deafening crash. The sound was so loud that they thought lighting had struck the building. They looked up and saw the offending vehicle rolling into the parking space. AJ ran outside to confront the driver and found a woman standing next to the open passenger door. He yelled at her and she responded by saying that it was his fault because he was backing out and hit her. Considering the fact that he was inside the building, this statement further infuriated him.

The phrase “They don’t make ‘em like they used to” became instantly apparent. They had been moving fast enough to catch their right, front bumper on our hitch, relocate our truck and demolish the entire passenger side of their Isuzu Ascender. AJ posted these photos on a Chevy truck forum and some witty member pointed out that their vehicle should be renamed the “Ass-Ender”, considering the nature of the crash.

After I had taken these photographs we realized that the woman was still inside the Isuzu. Rain was pouring down and I guess the officer asked her to wait there while he completed the report. We wondered why she wasn’t in the back of the police car, considering the fact that alcohol was involved and she had resisted arrest.

The officer stood in a downpour for the next ten minutes explaining the accident report and his theory of what had taken place. This is when we learned that the woman’s husband had recently been convicted of a DUI. The officer believed that he had been driving and had run from the scene of the accident, leaving her to hold the bag. AJ could not confirm that he had seen her get out of the vehicle.

Once the damage had been surveyed and everyone was thoroughly soaked, we went inside Allan Sr.’s condo to regroup. The cookout at the Palmarosa was on standby because their “hill” had washed out, the farm was under water, one goat was giving birth and two others were sick.

Many phone calls back and forth resulted in a reinstatement of our invitation.  They wouldn’t take no for an answer. AJ was too stressed out to have fun, so he opted out. Judith and I got in the car at around 6:00 and headed for our next destination: The Palmarosa in Middleburg

As Judith and I drove out of the parking lot we passed police officers speeding in and towards the scene of the accident. We alerted AJ and asked him to keep us posted on the drama as it unfolded.

Thanks to proximity and good directions we found The Palmarosa without further event. The only problem was that Judith’s car has begun to leak terribly and the passenger side filled up with water as we drove through unavoidable puddles. This was yet another problem of hers that I was unable to solve.

As per instruction we parked in the drive of my cousin Alan’s friend (the cattle rancher). There, we found Alan waiting to transport us in his Jeep to his place. Judith is a trooper and at the point when any other lady of her stature may have refused, she climbed into the Jeep without complaint. I rode on the floor, in the back, with the multiple bottles of wine and 12 pack of beer we had brought. A few random items and an Icehouse bottle rolled around to keep me company. This was my kind of fun!

Up until this point we had traversed upon paved (albeit flooded) roadways. That was all about to change.

(Alan, I trust you when you told me you read this blog, so I implore you to refresh me with all of the details (such as distances, animal names, story corrections etc. For now I will work with my fleeting impressions.)

We immediately departed from the paved road into a swirling, muddy river that could have easily been a head water of The Amazon. Alan managed to give a running commentary as he adeptly yanked on the steering wheel and changed gears. “It would figure that the one time we get four inches of rain in a day is the same day you come to see the place!” More than once, chocolate colored water cascaded over the hood as we plunged through the washed out sections of the dirt (mud) road. Judith didn’t say much as she hung on for dear life.

About midway Alan pointed out a particularly waterlogged section and explained that this was “the hill” that had washed out. He had just finished repairing it with his trackhoe. The repair was hard to gauge since the muddy water obscured almost everything, but we took his word for it.

After I had thoroughly gotten my mud-bogging fix, we arrived at the gate of The Palmarosa.

The rest of the way was a breeze, and within moments we were picking our way over partially submerged stepping-stones onto a well-fortified deck. Inside we shed our wet footwear and converged around the kitchen bar for the beginning of a fun and entertaining night. Robie (Christine’s son) came in with a container full of freshly gathered eggs. Robie (who graduated from high school this week) has taken to the agrarian life quite well, and I think he will miss it when he leaves to join the Navy.

First we got the many bottles of wine and beer into their proper places, and within moments I had a full glass in my hand. This glass remained full throughout the night, and is the reason I give for my inability to recall certain details. That being said, I challenge a seasoned stenographer to record the events at the Palmarosa without error. We had but a few hours to get up to date on everything about the Palmarosa since they had acquired it; and they were up to the task.

The light was fading fast and the rain wasn’t about to stop, so the first order of business was my inspection of the property. Christine entertained Judith while Alan gave me the grand tour. I was provided with rain boots and a heavy-duty rain jacket.

We  stepped outside, where the light was beautiful and the animals were wet and bearing pathetic expressions. Despite their condition, each creature expressed enthusiasm at our arrival and approached us asking for something to eat. All I had was an empty hand. Some snubbed me while others settled for a good scratching. They all had names. When I asked Alan if he had a problem eating animals he had named, he said that it didn’t bother him much. They need names so that he can instruct the kids as to which animal he wants them to attend to. I got the impression that there isn’t a whole lot of eating these animals going on. Both Alan and Christine are animal lovers and although he wanted to BBQ the “banded” Nubian goat, she wouldn’t allow it. Once I met the goat I understood. He was the friendliest of the bunch, and pushed his way through the crowd to greet us.

This is not him, but it may be his mother. They were all quite tame.

Nubian Goats

Pygmy goats

Herford/Angus mix calf.

Disenfranchised Pygmy Billy Goat

Potbellied Pigs. Marshmallow (the white one) is pregnant.

Some of the cattle. On the left is a Hereford cow, then a Brahma cow, the calf in the middle belongs to the Limousin cow on the right and its father, the Black Angus bull, is on the right. Alan spent a good deal of time explaining the different breeds and the names for each hybrid mix. For example, the offspring of a Brahma and an Angus is called a “Brangus”.

Forget what you think you know about black bulls. Some of them are downright friendly. This one came right up to us and asked to have his head scratched. I could have stood there in the puddle and scratched his massive face for an hour, but the sun was going down and we still had more to see.

Next, Alan took me to the huge garden, where he has just about everything you can imagine growing and thriving. He and Christine have configured trellises, irrigation and a plant protection system utilizing plastic cups. He confirmed that the cups were put in place to protect the plants from pests.

As we toured the garden, Alan discovered his first squash. I was proud to document this gardening landmark. It was a perfect squash that later found it’s delicious way into our dinner salad.

After the garden we waded over to the hog pen. The hogs were just as friendly as the rest of the livestock; and the boar even tried to leap over the fence to greet us. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that they smelled pretty bad; but pigs always do. Even so, they were the most enthusiastic pigs I’ve  ever met. I think they could detect the squash in Alan’s pocket!

The light was fading fast, so we bid the hogs “adieu” and moved on to the chicken coop. The chickens had great digs and seemed glad to be protected from the rain and mud. Alan described the different breeds and pointed out the smattering of roosters that had been sold to him as hens. Although they weren’t earning their keep, they were allowed to stay. I didn’t hear any crowing, but I imagine there is a cacauphany when the sun comes up. In the adjacent section of the coop I noticed that there were some guineas. I think Alan told me that they were there to keep the chickens calm.

By the time we got back to the house it was almost dark. The porch doubles as a nursery, and is packed with healthy fruit and vegetable plants.

Here is a pepper. Can’t remember which one it is.

This strawberry was very yummy!

After the tour we went back inside where it was decided that another mud-bogging trip was in order to take Christine to pick up the truck and to take me to get the tea bags I had left in the car, as well as some of Judith’s pills.

Back from that adventure, we eventually got around to eating. I was having so much fun that I almost forgot that we hadn’t eaten for hours. Christine and Alan bustled about and produced a delectable feast consisting of a homegrown garden salad, sweet potatoes, green beans and locally grown beef ribs. It was all superb, and I’m sure I forgot to chew with my mouth closed.

As we ate, the show continued. Throughout the evening Alan shared his growing wisdom and experiences. I learned about pressure canning and got jars of the things Alan had canned, including an amazing chow-chow, strawberry preserves and Palmarosa datil pepper ketchup. He also bestowed upon me a very unique and practical device for recycling newspapers into starter pots. It’s called the Pot Maker, and I can’t wait to try it!

I know we weren’t the first and only visitors to The Palmarosa, but they treated us to such hospitality and story-telling as if we were. There were tales of chicken-eating bobcats, neighborhood dogs which killed their beloved goats, pet cats running away and reappearing months later and a number of other exciting events that don’t happen in the suburbs. I visited Alan’s daughter (Farah’s) room which she was sharing with two adorable new  rabbits. I sat on the floor and scratched the ears of a terrified looking bunny until he gradually calmed down. Farah held the other sweet rabbit like a stuffed animal and explained to me that they were called “Lionhead” rabbits; a breed I had never heard of. I would have taken some pictures, but I didn’t want to scare them with the flash.

The next thing I knew it was already midnight and I was sitting on the living room floor surrounded by packets of seeds. Alan produced his massive seed collection and proceeded to load me up with countless things I didn’t have. One of my upcoming projects is to start a page listing all of my seeds. Until then, keep an eye out for new plantings as I gradually find room for more things.

Chris and Alan begged us to stay the night, but Judith needed to get home. It wasn’t until after 1:00am that we had mud-bogged back to her car. About 30 minutes later we had to admit that we had gotten thoroughly lost and found ourselves almost 13 miles south of where we had started. Judith didn’t make it home until after 2:00am.

What a night!

This week has been ugly for quite a few people we know. Considering the scope of other people’s problems, ours in hardly worth mentioning.

AJ and I work together auditing liquor for bars and restaurants. On Tuesday we finished up a particularly long and strenuous audit and were anxious to get home. AJ went out to open up the car while I packed up our equipment. He came storming back in when he found this:

The parking spaces at this restaurant are small, and the person who had parked beside us swiped our car.

The white mark wipes off, but Eagle Eye AJ spied a slight dent, which got him hot under the collar. We spent the next hour and a half reviewing the security video to identify the perp, and speaking with the police to find our recourse.

The person who hit us owns a local kayak rental company. Over the course of the day he came and went multiple times, parking on either side of our car. His truck is too large for the small parking spaces and the video showed him having difficulty getting in and out of the spots.

We got his brochure from the bait shop where we also got wind that he is not known for his integrity. We had hopes of receiving an apology and possibly an offer to pay for paintless dent removal.

Today is Thursday and we have heard nothing back. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that he does not intend to respond to our call or that of the police officer who went out of his way to put us in touch. We could contact his insurance company and cause a stink, but the negativity that would release into the Universe seems disproportionate to the aggravation.

I sent an email through his business website to express my disappointment in the way he chose to handle this situation. I will not smear him online, but I will be sure to use the power of “Word of Mouth” anytime I have the chance to recommend another kayak rental service.

OK, maybe he’s really more of a teenager. But isn’t he adorable?!

This afternoon AJ came running in to tell me that he had cornered a baby opossum. I grabbed the camera, raced over to the cottage and saw this little guy. We started to rescue him but decided to let him go. After checking the internet I found out that opossums this size are just fine on their own. We brought him over to our place and let him go, so now we will have one more midnight visitor to the cat food dish.

Found this baby muskmelon hiding under the vines today. More like another teenager, really. I’m guessing 30 days ’til melon time.

Here are the new guests to the garden. Anybody want to make a stab at an ID? Here’s a hint…that’s the mammoth dill. These little critters are one of my favorite photographic models, so you will get to watch them grow up; provided the invasive lizards don’t eat them up.

Baby collard didn’t take well to the transplant. It was so happy in the nice Miracle Grow soil of the nursery; but I decided it was time to graduate to the garden. I think it will be fine and soon on its way to becoming a Collard Tree.

Perhaps I’m overdoing it on the bananas, but isn’t this thing gorgeous? I have been standing underneath it, mentally willing the bananas to ripen. AJ tells me that he expects it to be even bigger than previously stated. If it is one of his grandma’s trees then the clump of fruit could end up weighing 150+ pounds. We’ll see, soon enough, if that is an exaggeration.

I harvested a couple pounds of tomatoes this afternoon. Sorry, the photos were too blurry to post. Next, I sprayed everything with Atomic Grow™.

I was working towards rolling out some news about Atomic Grow™, and my part in the company; but I haven’t gotten my ducks in a row just yet. I’m sure that you can tell that I’m very thrilled with this product and am anxious to be a part of its ascent in the world of gardening!

And finally…If AJ would make himself a blog these things would get better coverage. Of course he went about fixing things again today. This project started out as a simple truck wash. His eagle eye caught the clouded headlights, so he dropped what he was doing and sanded and buffed the headlights and tail lights. They look great, don’t they? If you want to see more of this stuff leave a comment and tell him to get on that blog!

Everything is green. The yard is packed with baby grass, and the garden is growing fast.

If you read Things are a bit Spotty, you may recall that I was having a fungal issue with the tomatoes. I’m calling it Grey Leaf Spot until someone tells me otherwise. Last year this stuff completely ravaged my tomato plant to the point that I had very little yield.

Last week I treated the plant with Atomic Grow™ and trimmed off the terminal branches. I left a few of the branches with the initial stages of yellowing to see what would happen. One week later, the leaves are virtually unchanged and it appears that the fungal invasion has been stopped in its tracks. The new growth is green and healthy. I’m not going to go overboard with excitement, but things look promising!

I know I said I would make my next Atomic Grow™ application yesterday. I reserve the right to change my mind, and so I have declared Sundays to be “Atomic Sunday”. I will make the application this afternoon and post some quick photos. There are some new guests in the garden (one for which I have planted a specific herb), and I will not be spraying that plant because I want to encourage the guests. Sorry for the vagueness, but I think I’ll let you watch them progress and see who can guess what they are. Their momma dropped them off on Friday, so stay tuned for some baby pictures this afternoon.

Here is the Oasis this weekend. Doesn’t everything look happy?

A closer shot of some of the herbs. This is my first year with celery. I’m learning about self-blanching and how celery needs to be grouped together. I had thinned out the clump and moved some plants to outside areas. They are easily identified because they turned pale yellow. The central clump is still green. I guess we will wait and watch to see how they turn out.

The cherry tomato plant has officially reached tree status in my book. It is upwards of 5′ tall and growing by leaps and bounds. If it didn’t make those yummy tomatoes I’d think it were a weed.

Time for a salad.

The succulent garden is doing great. Notice that green grass in front?

Over the course of the week our banana flower has opened up and exposed the first hand of six bananas.

AJ explained to me that this is only the beginning. Each layer of the pod will open up in succession and reveal another hand. He estimates five or six more to come. This has been the highlight of my week.

The poblano peppers got off to a rocky start, but now they are loaded with babies.

Can I have more than one highlight? The Marketmore 76 cucumber has exploded in size.

And I found three new babies on a single branch. I’ve got to keep my eye out for those pickleworms. They are not allowed to eat our cucumbers.

The muskmelon took a beating from the winds this week. The older leaves are fairly shredded, but there is so much new growth that it hardly matters. This plant is loaded with babies.

Dead frog walking. Yes, here is another Cuban Tree Frog. This one has set up housekeeping inside one of the bamboo stakes. The stake has filled with water, thus forcing froggie to poke out of the top in the daylight. These are nocturnal frogs, so you can see its determination to stay home. I was able to get extremely close and the frog didn’t budge. I’m still building the fortitude to round up and kill these invasives. I even bought some Benzocaine to put them gently to sleep before popping them into the freezer. AJ is promoting the idea of just stomping on them. Is he mean or what? Actually, it would probably be the most humane way. I just don’t think I could do it.

For now I am building a collection of photographs for their memorial. Eat up little froggie; your days are numbered!

Mr. Fix It is still at it. This week the rains exposed another problem with the car: leaking tail lights, which allowed water to get into the trunk. AJ took them apart and found that they were both crazed and that one was cracked in various places. Here he is trying to salvage the blasted thing until we can afford a replacement part. Anybody want to buy a 1985 Mercedes 300D?

I’ll leave you with “Gravel Cat”, Jorgi.

Check back later for a harvest update and some shots of the baby guests.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

I guess it can’t be all goodness and light. I have so many fun things to talk about, but I must purge this bit of ugliness, in order to clear my mind for nicer things.

Four years later, the hurricanes of 2004 still haunt us. The monster in the closet (literally) was Toxic Mold. Florida, still recuperating from the Asbestos Scare (and Radon Gas before that) was caught off guard by the onslaught of this furry fungus and the mold treatment companies that mushroomed up in its wake (pardon the terrible pun).

Mold and mildew have been a fact of life for Floridians since the first human set foot on the peninsula. “Toxic Mold” recently became the catchphrase for a few strains of the fungus that have always caused respiratory illness and even psychotic behavior in people. There seems to be no shortage of crazy in this state and perhaps the fungus among us is partially responsible.

The Toxic Mold craze took hold when the storms passed through and so many damaged homes began to rot from the inside out. With no regulations on the books, the mold remediation companies were left to their own devices. Anyone could start up a mold cleanup business with a few dehumidifiers and employees from the labor pool. We saw our share of these companies, ranging from those with sterling reputations to the downright fraudulent. Patrick Bock and his company Registry Services presented as the former but resulted as the latter, long after the job was done.

As representatives of AJ’s father’s construction company, we were always on edge when mold was in the mix. As I have mentioned in previous posts, all contractors were painted with the broad brush of corruption and conspiracy. Many times, the people we were trying to help were working against us at every turn. This was compounded by the fact that we were forced to depend upon so many subcontractors, scores of whom squarely deserved the mistrust homeowners so broadly held.

Despite the tension of rebuilding, one of our projects was a surprisingly pleasant one. We were hired to do some small repairs at an extravagant beach-side condominium complex. While we were negotiating the work, their roofer dropped the ball and we took on the challenge of roofing the entire compound. Because of materials shortages and undependable subcontractors, this project became as difficult as most of the other jobs we had. Despite the long delay, we finished the roof to the customer’s satisfaction. The president of the association was one of those affable, unassuming and easygoing millionaires you swear you’d be like if you had so much money. The original rebuild had been holding for the year it took to re-roof the place. It was moldy before we got there, but they had cleaned it and aired the place out. They did not have the funds to do a formal mold remediation, so we were asked to do a standard demolition while the maintenance man (also a down-to-earth resident millionaire) would deal with any mold or mildew.

Enter Patrick Bock. At some point I had come into possession of his card. As per our standard demolition agreement with the customer, we could have used anyone to do the work. However, we wanted it done right and thus shopped around for a reputable mold remediator.  Smooth talking Patrick Bock seemed to fit the bill. When we asked for referrals he provided a heap of literature, including newspaper write-ups and testimonials from satisfied customers. Impressed with his credentials, we asked him to get started right-away, which he did. Our job was to oversee the work and stop anything that wasn’t being done properly. Of greatest importance was the subcontractors’ proof of liability and worker’s compensation insurance. On these fronts, Patrick Bock readily gave us the documentation we needed to ensure things were legal.

Ironically, he even offered to provide mold testing before the job. This turned out to be his ultimate downfall. Since the word “mold” was not to be mentioned in this project, we hired him strictly for demolition whilst taking the same precautions he would in a contaminated environment. He and his crew did an excellent job, on time and for a great price.This is why what happened next was so unexpected.

A CLOSE CALL

Two years ago we heard that Patrick Bock and his wife had been arrested for faking mold test lab results.

The investigation was initiated when Travelers of Florida Insurance Co. received a bill for $2,987 from Registry Service. Before remitting payment, Travelers requested records from a lab company to confirm that the lab had prepared the report for Registry Services.

Upon review, the laboratory company said the report submitted by Registry Services was fraudulent and alleged that they may have submitted other fraudulent laboratory reports.

DIF then found other homeowners in Vero Beach who had been customers of Registry Services. The Bocks are suspected to have obtained a total of $15,569 from their fraudulent mold remediation services. (Insurancejournal.com)

We were stunned. They had risked their freedom and careers for a meager $15,569? It didn’t make any sense. A single, legitimate mold job could run in the tens of thousands of dollars. $15,569 was hardly a fortune to be gained by the lengths they took to defraud homeowners.

Now out of construction, AJ and I breathed a sigh of relief that we had dodged a bullet. Certainly, had we used Registry Services to provide mold remediation, the specter of the construction business could come back to torment us again. As nice as our client was, they had lots of money for litigation should they see fit to hold us accountable for the fraudulent actions of a subcontractor. We were confident the job was done well, but the whole issue was a can of worms were glad wasn’t in our possession at all.

AN UNLIKELY CRIMINAL

Fast forward to earlier this year. I got a call from Assistant State Attorney Lev Evans asking us to testify against Patrick Bock. We learned that Bock’s fraudulent behavior went beyond falsifying mold reports. When his computers were seized they found copies of falsified Worker’s Compensation Certificates, one of which was issued to us. The scope of his scam was far reaching. It seems that nothing about Registry Services was legitimate. I found it very strange that he had gone to all of the trouble to put forth such a professional front, with little effort to preserve the facade. How could he not know that someone would eventually check up on one of the documents he so eagerly provided?

Even more bizarre was Patrick Bock’s history. Lev Evans was the first to tell us that Bock had been a decorated hero for his counter-terrorism activities during service as an Air Force Officer and CIA agent. He was a likable, soft-spoken man; and I would have never pegged him as an ex-spy. In retrospect, his ability to seem nonthreatening and forgettable was most likely his greatest assets in his line of service.

We felt betrayed and torn at the prospect of having to testify against this man who had not caused us any direct harm, and had actually helped us in a time of need. Still, we knew what we had to do and Evans reinforced this when he said “This man has put a lot of people in danger through his fraudulent activity, and he needs to be brought to justice”. We agreed that either AJ or I (depending upon our work schedule) would appear on a witness subpoena. In the meantime I searched for the documents Bock had given us, and felt sick as I accepted the fact that they were false, including the certificate of liability insurance (of which even the Assistant State Attorney was unaware).

PATRICK BOCK’S DAY IN COURT

I had to work, so AJ went to the hearing. He returned with the remnants of “Deer in Headlights Syndrome”. Unsure what to expect we had hoped his testimony would consist of providing the documents in the Judge’s chambers and filing and affidavit. Instead, this was a full-blown trial, in AJ’s words “Just like you see in the movies”. There were many witnesses before him, who moved in and out rather quickly. His testimony took much longer. He was very nervous to be the center of attention on the witness stand while forced to testify against the nice bad guy. The documents we provided were of great interest to the prosecution and they displayed each on a large screen while asking AJ to verify their contents and source.

The trial was a media event, and the courthouse was swarming with reporters. AJ is not a fan of the spotlight and crowds, so he got out of there as fast as he could. He was visibly glad to return home, and we both hoped that he would not be called back to testify again. We were relieved when Lev Evans called a few days later to inform us that Patrick Bock had been convicted on six counts of making false statements of coverage to an employer. He was also convicted of racketeering and organized fraud of over $50,000.00 between 2004 and 2007. Apparently he scammed homeowners out of over $250,000.00, significantly more than the $15,569 mentioned in the article. It seemed that the saga was over.

Still, I had a lingering suspicion that there was more to this ugly story. My greatest fear was that Patrick Bock would retaliate by trying to dig into our job history and somehow bring us down with him. Although we did our level best to do everything to the highest standard, there always seems to be that one person who is looking to be wronged so that they can justify litigation. The houses we worked on had mold before we started and certainly have mold today. When you open a door in Florida mold spores float in and waft about. They are present in the most sanitary of conditions; and all they need to reproduce is a warm, moist host. Although I am confident that we would come out squeaky clean, I dreaded the thought of being dragged through the courts by some litigious homeowner who has been convinced that we are the cause of the mildew in their shower. I hoped that Patrick Bock would quietly accept his fate and do his time gracefully. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

DEADLY ENDING

Here’s where things get very strange: Yesterday AJ’s phone rang and he had a brief conversation with the person on the other end. When he hung up he had a faraway look on his face, a look of combined shock and fascination. It had been the Assistant State Attorney, Lev Evans, calling to warn us that we may be receiving a mysterious envelope in the mail. AJ explained how Evans told him that Patrick Bock had committed suicide, gotten himself cremated and had his ashes mailed to those involved in the trial. We were to be on the lookout for any such correspondence.

What? How the hell did he do that? I barraged AJ with questions. When it comes to such things, my curiosity seems to far outweigh his. Who could have done that? Isn’t mailing a dead person illegal? Aren’t they investigating who his posthumous accomplice might be? Fed up with my inquiries, AJ reiterated the content of the conversation and clarified that he knew nothing else. I simmered in frustration that I had not been the one to take the call. I wanted the details!

I searched the internet and found out more:

Former spy commits suicide outside courthouse (ABC News)

Treasure Coast businessman facing prison kills himself (Sun Sentinel)

Within a few minutes the phone rang again. This time I answered. It was an Indian River County Sheriff’s deputy, and the call went something like this:

Deputy: I’m calling in regards to the Patrick Bock case, in which your husband testified. I want to warn you that you may be receiving a letter in the mail from him, and to ask you to take precautions when you receive it.

Me: I heard that he killed himself and mailed his ashes around to people involved in the case. Is that true?

Deputy: (chuckles) Not exactly. He did commit suicide, and apparently sent out some letters beforehand. Today, one of the jurors received a letter with a picture of him and a note that said ‘You killed me’. We don’t know how many people he sent these to, and are calling to ask you that if you do receive anything from him to place it in a plastic baggie and call us.

I agreed, and jotted down the detective’s number. AJ checked the mailbox and found nothing. Later in the day Lev Evans called again. I was not home and had to rely upon AJ’s summary of the conversation. Once again Evans told him to expect an envelope containing Bock’s ashes to arrive in the mail. Things had escalated and were potentially dangerous. We could expect another call from the detective with information about how to handle anything we received. Once again, my plethora of questions went unanswered. The detective has not called again, and I know nothing more than what I have found online about his suicide.

This tragic episode has given me pause for thought. It also serves to remind that those we consider heroes are just ordinary people, with the same problems and issues we all face. Perhaps Patrick Bock’s work in the intelligence field served to harden him and allow him to justify his illegal activities. Or maybe he had an underlying instability that allowed him to do things that most of us would find unquestionable.

I have a real problem with the way we view our warriors. We glamorize our trained killers (and let’s be honest, the military is all about training average men and women to kill without reservation) and feel that we are doing our “Patriotic Duty” by “Supporting the Troops”. What we don’t want to take responsibility for is the fact that so many of these people return to civilian life irreparably damaged. These heroes so often descend into mental illness and substance abuse, where they are ostracized and forgotten by the “Patriots” who so gladly sent them off to war.

I don’t know what broke Patrick Bock’s mind to the extent that he felt his actions were acceptable. Nor do I know the forces at work in his mind which caused him to believe that blaming others and taking his own life was the best way out. I do suspect that his heroic service demanded actions of him that forever shifted his perspective and placed him in an emotional and ethical reality quite different from our own. Regardless of the cause, I am deeply saddened by the entire incident and hope that Patrick Bock finds peace on the other side.

UPDATE

New details have been revealed about this case. In this article “Facing prison, man kills himself”at PalmBeachPost.com, there are suspicions that Bock may have also forged documents claiming to have worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Lev Evans was quoted as saying that someone from that agency had planned to testify on Wednesday that Bock had never worked there.

Storms

The last two days have graced us with some exciting thunderstorms.

This was yesterday’s front, although today and just about every other Florida afternoon thunderstorm looks much the same.

The clouds looked ominous and we got about 1/2″ of rain; but the lighting was minimal and the whole thing passed within a few minutes. The most interesting part was the smoke in the clouds. Apparently the storm brought remnants of a fire that it may have whipped up on the way.

Today’s storm was much more impressive. The NOAA weather radio went off and mentioned Micco (which it never does). The clouds rolled in fast with a good display of lightning. We got 3″ of rain within one hour. The yard turned into a temporary pond and the road was transformed into a river. We even heard some hail tinkling on the roof. Another quick mover, the storm was gone and the sun back out in just over an hour. Within a few more minutes the puddles had dried up.

We unplugged everything during the storm, but got a good show by looking out the windows.

AJ’s anemometer clocked the biggest gust it has ever measured:62.6 mph.

Beetles

Grapevine beetles (Pelidnota punctata) have been visiting my blacklight. They are common, but their size and mellow demeanor makes them fun to capture and inspect. I enjoy them because they look as though they are made of wood.

And last but not least…

Smokey the Silly Cat

Edit: For an update on this post, see Week in Review – Ready, Set, Grow.

After all of this rain one of the volunteer tomatoes is looking grim. The ulcers on the leaves look just like Gray Leaf Spot which I have seen on grass. Now that I think about it, the plant that was in this area last year had the same malady.

Here is a closeup of the spots.

I drenched the plant with Atomic Grow™ and trimmed off the damaged branches. I thinned out all of the tomatoes considerably to allow more air circulation.  Although the spotted leaves are beyond recovery, I am curious to see how the rest of the plant reacts to the Atomic Grow™. Much of the plant had the yellowing associated with the early stages of the fungal infection. It rained more today, so I may be fighting a losing battle.

The Poblano Peppers have a different kind of spot on their lower leaves. The upper leaves do not seem to be affected, so I’m hoping this damage is something like sunburn from being watered in the heat. The rusty spots do concern me, though, as they look very much like whatever took out my first crop of beans. Again with the Atomic Grow™ and the wait and see.

Poblano Pepper leaf (back).

No sense in focusing too much on spots. Now for some stars and stripes.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!