AND THEN THERE WERE EIGHT! EIGHT CHINESE CLONE ENGINES!

OUR LATEST CHINESE HONDA CLONE ENGINE, PREDATOR 2" WATER PUMP

Big green hose is intake, red hose is output

Our eighth Honda clone engine came attached to a 2" semi trash water pump from Harbor Freight. I'm not a fan of Harbor Freight tools but their Predator brand engines from China have been very high quality and easy to start. This influenced my decision to buy this pump a lot, if these engines were hard to start I would not have bought this many of them. This new one literally started on the first pull of the rope, amazing.

I wire tied a piece of plywood so it sits over the engine to protect from sun and rain

We could not acquire enough of the 2" red output hose so I bought 2" PVC pipe at Home Depot and glued together the new drain pipe.

At first we just pumped water towards the drain but quickly created a swamp

Overall I like the 2" pvc pipe much better than the flexible hose which can flip around and be pretty unruly due to the extreme pressure this little pump can deliver.

The swamp, in process

The pump in action viewed from the house.

Look at the arc on that water output, don't get in front of it LOL

As the pump ran it seemed to pump better and better.

100 feet of 2" PVC

The 2" pvc pipe from Home Depot got excess water all the way over to the drain that feeds the canal.

The output from this pump is pretty amazing, that's a 2" column of water that will arc 12-feet into the air.

The pump spec's say it pumps 158 gallons per minute.

At 150 gallons per minute we're talking 9000 gallons per hour. We ran the pump for 4.5 hours, it runs 1 hour and 10 minutes on a full tank of gas. We estimate that we pumped 40,000 gallons out of our big pond, it lowered the pond about 2" total. Wow, that pond holds A LOT!

COLEMAN CT200UA MINI BIKE

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE!

The new Coleman mini bike arrived yesterday in a very dilapidated carton. In spite of the damage to the carton the mini bike itself was basically undamaged except for various small scratches and scrapes. For enduring the minor damage Amazon refunded me $100 toward this purchase to buy a replacement footpeg and touch up the paint job. This lowered the entire purchase price to under $390.

Mary took the Coleman for a ride and named him "Titan" because it blasts off like a rocket, of our three mini bikes Titan is by far the fastest and most powerful. Do to the seating position it's easy to pop wheelies on the little red Coleman. After riding Titan around for an hour today I can't imagine even greater power and acceleration from adding a torque converter CVT transmission but we're going to find out.

Lunch!

Fresh from the P2 garden:  Cranberry Hibiscus, Okinawa Spinach, and Malabar Spinach (plus a few Cherry Tomatoes).  Mark and I are eating "leaves" now, chopped into a salad for a delicious lunch.

BUGS ARE BITING

THEY'RE HERE......THE BUGS HAVE RETURNED

The month of December brings much cooler nights and the bugs crawl into tiny little houses where they curl up on little soft blankies where they'll sleep quietly for months. Outside blistering cold winds may blow with low temperatures regularly dipping into the upper 30's but in there little houses the bugs are warm and safe.

Finally after months of restful napping the little buggers wake up, they stretch this way and that way, and finally, they venture outside for the first time to bite ..... M E and M A R Y !

Bugs, we hate you now!

Middle of May is the time of their return..... . . . . . and they're H U N G R Y

P2's First Alligator - May 14, 2018

It was bound to happen eventually.... today we had our first alligator sighting.  He is probably 4-6 feet long, and right now a member of the P2 pond.  He's got to go - we made the phone call.

TODAY ON PALLET FUN, FLOATING TURTLE ISLAND

HOW TO MAKE AN ISLAND FOR TURTLES OUT OF AN ORDINARY PALLET

We made this attractive floating island for turtles in our pond out of a standard shipping pallet. We stuffed it full of ten $1.00 swimming pool noodles, lashed them into place with wire ties, attached a piece of twine for an anchor and SS Turtle Island was set afloat.

During initial testing we're just evaluating ease of boarding and float-ability. In future updates we'll locate the island using long twine which will hold the island in the center of the pond for easy viewing.

We've also read that ducks like these sorts of islands, we'll see, time will tell!

Bugs 2018

Just a quick post to note that our perfect weather with no bugs is over... yesterday evening Mark and I went for a walk, and we each have 20-30 bites on us, from whence we know not.  Could have been flying or crawling, but we now need to "suit up" for our evening walks of bravery.

TODAY ON PALETTE FUN, FENCES!

HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE STURDY FENCE TO KEEP OUT DEER

MADE FROM ORDINARY SHIPPING PALLETS

THIS FENCE WAS EASY AND FAST TO ASSEMBLE

We have this banana plant named "Deer Snack", can you guess why we named him this? Actually we have several former Deer Snack banana plants too that are currently in recovery after being munched by marauding deer.

Finally we came up with the ideal rugged protection, a heavy wood fence made out of those pesky wood pallets that big shipments of lawn products inevitably bring to the yard.

DEER SNACK INSIDE HIS PROTECTIVE DECORATIVE FENCE MADE OUT OF PALLETS

Mary had been researching clever uses for pallet wood since we've accumulated a fair number of them from Spring lawn renovation projects. Then, a light went off and the pallet fence was born. It took 12 of our 11" wire ties to bind it all together but now we've got this attractive, protective, planter-like border around little Deer Snack (who has a baby that was very exposed before we installed the new fence). Take that you mean old deer.

CHILI A GREAT SOURCE OF PROTEIN EVEN WITHOUT BEEF

HERE IT IS BEFORE COOKING

We've been having a blast making chili once a week in a large crock pot. Three cans of tomatoes, three kinds of beans, a whole yellow onion, two packs of magic seasoning, all simmered together for four hours on high and one hour on low.

READY TO EAT WITH A BIT OF FRESH RED ONION ON TOP, YUM!

R A I N . . . .F I N A L L Y

CHECK OUT THIS RAINFALL

It mainly all fell in an hour, it was a downpour. After it ended we walked the entire property and all the plants were rejoicing and singing, their leaves lifted up unto the heavens, and there was happiness among them.

TOMATO PRODUCTION IN MODERN-DAY FLORIDA

Baby tomatoes start out in the nursery area. We had to separate the tomato plants from all the others because you should NEVER EVER water tomatoes in Florida from overhead because it will promote fungus and rot, we know this from experience.

16 feet long x 8 feet high x 8 feet deep, it's strong enough for Mark to climb on

We've been working hard on the tomato cage and it's looking good. The plants seem to love it. Mary made the plants and Mark made the industrial watering system that is making plants all over P2 happy. It's amazing what water does for P L A N T S ! We're currently awaiting a second shipment of 30% shade cloth to install over the left (southern) side of the cage. It is amazing how a 30% reduction in sunlight reduces heat dramatically.

Note the difference in sun brightness, the closer side is reduced by 30% shade cloth overhead

The drip irrigation system can flood all the pots in just five minutes

Each pot is fed directly by the water source so waste is minimized, so is time spent watering LOL

Here's a great story about commercial tomato production in Florida. Read it and learn why tomatoes in the store have no flavor, also why they're covered in toxic chemicals.

https://grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-06-20-the-indignity-of-industrial-tomatoes-florida/

Newly expanded water distribution system

Planning for Tropical Tuesday

I read on a blog (I'll add the reference some day....) about a lady who once a week on a particular day only eats what she grows in her garden.  I am planning now to do that soon.  Lets just say its motivation to grow some type of delicious food variety that's harvestable all year, every day of every month!

I'm waiting for the tomatoes to start to ripen before I start...  but I'll be doing Tropical Tuesday.

I'm going to keep this post updated with the foods available on P2; when the list is big enough, I'll start Tropical Tuesday.

As of 5/4/2018, foods available are:

• Okinawa spinach (daily)
• Malabar spinach (daily)
• Katuk (daily)
• Calamondin (one a day)
• Bean sprouts (daily)

• Seminole Pumpkin (rarely)
• Bananas (rarely)
• Papaya (rarely)

Not enough food quite yet!

Future foods:  Sweet potato, and all of the fruit from the fruit trees

Banana Fertilizer - Potash

All banana plants got potash (potassium fertilizer) this week.  I have been reading about how banana trees have high potassium requirements, so my generous feedings of manure have provided lots of nitrogen but not enough potassium.  I'm going to supplement every couple of months with Potash from now on and see if I get bigger, happier bananas!