MATTHEW HURRICANE PREPARATION KEPT US SAFE

Boarded up sliding glass door and the palms we left outside

50 pound sacks of dog food secured front door preparation

MATTHEW 10.7
The storm raged outside, power went out at about 3am. Mary was following the weather until the UPS on our router went dead, then all we could do was wait it out.

Power was back friday by 1:30 PM, good job FPL!

Uninhabitable?

We're going to be posting pictures soon of our prep and aftermath of Hurricane Matthew here in Melbourne, Florida.  We've had damage to the shed and carport, but the house is fine.  And the bamboo is fine!

One of the most memorable parts of prepping for this storm was the words they used to scare people into evacuating or at least preparing.  Free use of phrases like "uninhabitable" and "you will die" really make you think!  

We're quite inhabitable, I hope the coast did ok.  St. Augustine looks very hard hit with a lot of water.

NEW BAMBOO
- TODAYS COUNT
125 new bamboo canes as of today, that is UP from 103 on Sept 17th.

Today is the first day we noticed a new cane coming up on our "Baby" bamboo plant.

Here is Baby's first real cane coming up.

The "Overachiever" Award goes to Fluffy the bamboo plant, this beast grew at least 36" this week, it's going to be transplanted into bamboo area tomorrow before it bursts through the pool screen roof.

THE BAMBOO REPORT
I was just outside looking at bamboo in the juvenile area, all five plants show lots of new growth, leaves and stems.

Fluffy has shot up a foot this week on the large cane, he's gonna need a home in the ground very shortly or else he won't be able to get through the door.

BRING IN THE CLONES

We borrowed heavily from various gardeners on YouTube in building our Bamboo Clone Machine. Our water is from our own artesian well, we carefully balanced the PH to 6.2 knowing the 82 degree water temperature will rise in PH over the next week.

Today is day number one. We used Clonex for rooting hormone and the only cutters that would cleanly snip the hard bamboo cuttings were some new Xcylite flush-cut wire cutters I purchased recently.

The ART-dne interval timer is set for 50 seconds ON and four-minutes OFF.

Update March 2017:  None of the clone machine bamboo sticks rooted.  Bamboo is weird : )

Thoth!

ROSEATE SPOONBILLS AT ALLIGATOR FARM, APRIL 2016

Bamboo New Culm Count: 103

New count on the bamboo grove:  103 new culms!!!

On August 28th we had about 12-15 culms...   the bamboo has been busy!

Note to self:  fed all 10 bamboo (and T and Steg) with timed release fertilizer.

Feeding the Panfish

BABY-BABY BAMBOO & TIM
Last fall we began an experiment to root new bamboo from canes we harvested off our property. Out of 10 to 20 pieces that had visible growth happening only one plant sprouted a plant, I named it "Baby Bamboo". Subsequently while were preparing to dispose of the waste we discovered a second sprout had come up in another pot and it was quickly named "baby-baby bamboo".

Today we moved baby-baby to a three-gallon pot so it can develop fully.

baby-baby is closest to the screen, baby bamboo is next and to the right of it is our latest bamboo spieces which we put into a three-gallon pot, it's name is Tim as in giant timber five-inches in diameter and green in color. Mary ordered over the internet and received Tim by mail for a total cost of around $50.

It is a fun research project examining how each variety grows.

OVER 70 NEW CANES
This morning we examined the Emerald bamboo we had installed last March, we have over 70 new canes shooting up across the 10 clumps.

September 5th Duck Count: 24

24!

Mark keeps the corn mountain snack pile full, and the ducks are responding.  24 are swimming happily right now : D

This quote inspires me...

SEPTEMBER WEATHER CHANGE
August wrapped up the draught with Hurricane Hermine bringing much needed rain and unfortunate destruction North of our Space Coast location.

Outdoor temperatures also seem to have migrated down from 90+ into higher 80's at around 2pm on most afternoons.

We had 15 ducks visit yesterday, larger piles of cracked corn left on the ground seems to be their preferred eating platform.

The baby Peafowl are visiting more and more often, they are perfect miniatures of their adult parents, only their under-developed crowns give away their age.

And here is a blast from the past which was uncovered while updating baby iphone for Mary's new Apple Watch.

From our first visit to Florida Keys in May 2014, the Supermodel Meal In A Box 😎👍😎

Duck Count

The florida mottled duck count is up...  we had 15 yesterday, and we're at 10 this morning.  So nice to have them back!

NEW BABY BAMBOO

We have over a dozen new bamboo canes coming up in our bamboo forest that was installed back at the end of March.

The new canes are the same diameter as the original plant, just as Mary said they would be. The new canes are so big we mistook them for old growth. The more we looked the more we found.

BRUCE CROSS VISIT
Today is Monday and my old friend from 40 years ago is scheduled to arrive some time after 6pm today.

ANOTHER AUGUST WEATHER UPDATE
Draught has returned, the rain was short lived. It seems like it has quit raining in Florida all together.

Yesterday we saw dark clouds forming early in the day, we even had five rain drops on the windshield as we drove to Lou's for lunch, but alas, no real rain fell.

High of 92 degrees F with 68% humidity, a nasty day for power-washing the patio but a great day to stay inside and play music.

BABY PEAFOWL VISIT P2

Today is the first day the female peahens escorted this years batch of pea babies to P2. It is a ritual we saw last year and they repeated it this year, after raising the babies somewhere out of sight the mother(s) finally take the babies on a trip to show them all their favorite haunts for finding food.

We saw them as tiny chicks back at the end of May, now look at them, the baby peafowl look like adults but they are only 50% size, perfect replicas :-)

This year I noticed their tail feathers are a little different, a couple of the babies have the longer straight brown feathers that stick out further in a way similar to the adult male peacocks. This leads me to wonder if these that look like little females now but have these long tail feathers will really turn out to be vesty little male peacocks when they get older, it will be something to watch for.

AUGUST WEATHER UPDATE

The month of August had brought much needed rain showers.

July was extremely dry, hot and humid. We had to pump water out of the big pond to keep bamboo and baby plants alive.

Fortunately August kicked off with a series of afternoon rain showers that have watered all thirsty plants and refilled the aquifers.

Today we have seven ducks schwim schwimming around on the big pond.

MORE DUCKS VISITING

It has been a joy to see some Florida mottled ducks visiting P2.

The Ibis have been keeping the ducks at bay and making it harder for them to visit their favorite food, Corn Mountain.

DUCKS RETURNING

After a three month hiatus the brown mottled ducks have started visiting again.

Today we had seven ducks schwim schwimming around in the rain. They took turns visiting corn mountain.

WEBCAMS

We love a good webcam...  that way we can watch the gorgeous P2 wildlife out the window while our computers are covered with critters that don't live at P2.

Tropical Fish Reef
http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/exhibits/tropical_pacific_gallery/webcam_tropical_reef

Bears Eating Salmon in Alaska
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls

HERE'S THE BEAST LOADED ON TO FURNITURE DOLLY

This task looks worse than it actually was.   Here's the beast strapped on to a dolly.

THE PATH TO THE DRUM ROOM

I laid down spare packing blankets to protect the building entrance from getting scratched as I dragged the beast into the house. At one point I was sweating so furiously and running into my glasses, I ripped off my glasses and threw them in a bush. Later I retrieved them.

TESTING, TESTING, TESTING

This has been a difficult project to build by myself due to size and weight of the wall itself.

Before bringing it into the drum room for installation I tested it one more time to check the fit of the old Bose 802 speakers and the 39" LG flat panel monitor. Now it just needs rear access holes cut for the wiring and it wil be ready to install.

Not looking forward to transporting it from the garage to the studio but really looking forward to getting it installed and most importantly, operational.

DRUM ROOM WALL WITH FOAM GLUED ON

Here is the wall with the foam glued down, the TV mount screwed on and the angle brackets for the Bose speakers to mount to.

I used Auralex Foamtak spray adhesive for about half the tiles. I followed the directions to the letter and ruined the second tile I tried to install.

The can indicated I'd have a little time to place and adjust the tiles but that was not the case. I sprayed the wood wall surface in two directions and the back of the foam tiles, the adhesion is so aggressive it's very difficult to place tiles correctly. My second tile grabbed and would not let go, I tore it trying to move it.

After I ran out of FoamTak I switched to 3M #77 spray adhesive, this was much easier to work with and seemed just as effective for mounting the foam. I sprayed both the wall surface and the tile back then placed the tiles. Time will tell if it will last.

LAYING OUT FOAM ON DRUM ROOM WALL

I've been carrying around a box of Auralex acoustic foam tiles for 10 years, I figured it was finally time to use them.

Here is the drum wall before gluing the tiles to the wall. The foam squares are just laid out for testing arrangement.

NEW DRUM ROOM WALL PROJECT

Here is the wall in process after I redesigned it mid project. Note the glossy Polycrylic finish on the corner closeup.

First I sanded the wood with 60 grit, then 150 before applying the Polycrylic. I put on two coats then after waiting two hours I did finish sanding with 220 grit for a smooth finish.

Sanding plus Polycrylic makes plain 2x4s look and feel like furniture.

END OF JULY

Here is my favorite Peacock sporting his summer look, note that he has pulled out all his beautiful eyeball plumage. He has really dropped a lot of feathers to make the 92 degree and 80% humidity more bareable.

We've had very little rain in July, it's draught and plants are sad. We are hoping August will have wet stuff fall from the sky.

4TH OF JULY 2016
It was a beautiful hot humid Florida afternoon, we saw the movie Tarzan at iMax and enjoyed the evening together. The fireworks were not rained out, they were beautiful.