First Babies - Peafowl - May 27, 2016

WHY DID THE PEAFOWL CROSS THE ROAD?
So her babies could get away from humans taking video:-)

FAILED WATER PUMP
Here is my pond pumping and watering system, the pump (which only had three reviews) worked for about 3-hours before shutting down. I restarted it and it ran for about 15-minutes before shutting down again. I was able to restart it one more time for about 15-seconds before it died completely, never to restart again.

I have a fine mesh screen in the pond to prevent debris from entering the pump intake pipe. We're not trying to pull water uphill more than about a foot. When it ran we had great pressure, very disappointed it quit working.

We can't NOT water so I have ordered a much higher priced replacent model with over 65 reviews and 4.5 stars. Many owners said they've years of reliable performace from the replacement, we'll see :-)

I will put up a video of the new pump after it arrives tomorrow.

Unwelcome guests

She's a pretty horse, but she doesn't belong here scaring the birds away....  

Traveller Palm Seeds - Planted Saturday 5/21

I bought some traveller palm seeds online from Australia, and Mark and I put them in a high humidity germinating machine on a heating mat. I've read that the germination time is anywhere from 2 weeks to 18 months, so we're not sure what to expect, but we'll see how it goes. It would be amazing to have more traveller palms throughout P2 to go with our gorgeous traveller palm.

Some other updates from this weekend:

• Mark invented a better watering system with a high powered pump pulling water from the pond and going to the new plantings.
• We got 50 St. Augustine sod pieces to rebuild the grass in front of the pond by the house. It looks so plush and the ibis love it. We watered for hours today, and it was so fun to watch the ibis bathing in the showers.
• I planted the rest of the Awapuhi rhizomes around the perimeter and in the island by the house. The early batch of Awapuhi stalks has come up, strong and healthy after the last few rains. Now the 2nd batch should be up in a few weeks, and the stunning red Awapuhi flowers shortly behind.
• Saw our first raccoon babies about 30 minutes ago! A litter of 3 kits made their way down the oak tree while mom ate at the buffet. Three little cuties with the tiniest tails barely 3 stripes on the tails. Awwwwww! This mom was not "Eight", the mom we see every day (eight because her tail has an amazing eight stripes). So eight still has babies up in the tree somewhere.

EASTERN CORAL SNAKE
Here he is, the second most poisonous snake in the world, inside our porch and heading inside our old couch (which is leaving immediately), he left via the back door about 2-hours later, whew!

May 1st at P2

 These air plants are epiphytes...  just going for a ride on the tree, not hurting them.  They're hanging around everywhere!

Bamboo!

A drip from one of our wells...  

Always lava lamps... they're amazing to watch.

 Pelicans at Melbourne Beach...   gorgeous.

Today's snake encounter brings you the....  Yellow Bellied Water Snake.  Not poisonous, but we didn't know that until we went inside and identified him!  He looks beautiful floating around in the pond.

Deer and Coyote

Catching a glimpse of the wildlife in the night is one of our favorite things to do...  and it's been a busy week.  The deer is a young male buck, and you can see his short horns.  He was just enjoying a midnight snack of cracked corn.

The wolf was a bit of a surprise, and he was very nervous as he snacked on Ol Wolf.  A few searches told me he's a Black melanistic coyote, a rare color for a coyote.  I'm glad he doesn't come around often... this was a first.