P2 PICTURES FOR TAWM

Photos from around P2, Saturday April 29, 2017

We have a two foot ditch that separates our two plots of land. I installed a big 12" piece of PVC in the ditch and put dirt over it. I'm letting everything settle real well before we start driving over it with the mini bikes and lawn mowers. We refer to this as my bridge.

These papaya plants don't look so impressive right now but they will be 10 feet tall by fall

Date Palm

I love Date Palm. She was totally covered with overgrowth and shitty weed trees that I had ripped out. Date is slowly but surely filling out with new limbs and leaves, she's gonna be huge and beautiful in a few years.

Melons and cucumbers in raised bed

Four baby Hedo palms sprouted from seed this spring

These two big pots are filled with the Hedo palms I sprouted a year ago in March, they're really growing fast now.

The swimming pool grow-cage

The canal behind our property, looking East

The canal, looking West

Note the mini bike road that runs along side the canal on our side.

Van in our carport

The Pole Barn where Lem lives (LM-500 lawn go kart)

Our $285 Harbor Freight generator

We got the generator back around beginning of December. I put Stabil gas additive in our gas cans as the manual instructed.

At the end of February I thought "I wonder if it will start?" It started on the very first pull of the rope.

It sat until last weekend when were harvesting bamboo and needed plug-in power to run my Skil Saw. The generator started on the first pull of the rope, incredible.

Here is Phil, he was a tiny Home Depot plant back in January, now he is taking over the world

Here is Phil's cousin Phillis, she's growing out in the wild without any water

Sabol Palms

Date Palm

Mary's banana circle, the center is rotting stuff that feeds the plants

This banana plant is going to be Big

I love the way they add new leaves, a cigar unrolls out of the middle

Mary gives the plant size reference

Our outer pond, the drain pipe is usually underwater, that's how dry it's become

Outer pond water inlet, we leave it on this strong all the time and the pond gets no higher it's so dry here

Mary posing by our first 10 clumps of field grown bamboo

See the neighbors house behind the bamboo? What a great wall :-)

Closeup of a clump from first 10 clumps we bought

A clump of field grown bamboo weighs over 1000 pounds including the dirt ball

See what a good job bamboo does of hiding our next door neighbors house?

Here is bamboo propagating in buckets between the planted field grown clumps

Carrots in pots, growing between the bamboo clumps

More carrots

Bamboo propagating, note the leaves, that tells us it's alive

It might look cut off but the green color means it's fine

This bamboo came with our house, some is over 50' tall

Mary should give you an idea how big this is

SNEETCHES, have you ever watched the Dr. Seuss cartoon about the Sneetches? The Ibis look like Sneetches, but their beaks turn down instead of up and they have wings instead of arms. Otherwise the Ibis are like living in a cartoon. There are always 10-15 of them hanging around. I throw them a cup of dog food twice a day so they're always hoping for a hand out.

Note the legs back while they fly, we call them "Flying Rubber Chickens"

Com'n In Hot

Here is our Friend, "Huge" We named him that before we were friends. He has an incredible tail this year, it is Huge

Huge nested next to the pool cage while were swimming, he likes hanging out with us

Huge followed us around while I shot these pictures

Yep, it's Huge again

He holds his tail up while he walks, here he was posing for the picture

Bamboo Feeding April 2017

Fed all of the bamboo with earthworm castings on April 15th 2017.  Ok bamboo... time to get excited about spring and shoot out some canes!

Raccoon Dance for Mark's Birthday

As I was blowing up balloons this morning to surprise Mark for his birthday, I was delighted to see a little girl raccoon climbing our "enrichment" gym to sneak a bird food snack.  Enjoy!

Jumps up at 2min2sec

Update: Piro (that's her short easy name) has taken to coming at night with her two young kits. They've learned to "hunt" at P2. The babies can't reach the buckets or climb on the PVC pipe yet but they manage ok getting into the other feeders.

I bought a bubble machine to entertain the raccoons but the motor noise scares them and they are confused by the bubbles.

P2 IS NOW CERTIFIED

Our little 5-acre agricultural farm is now recognized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat and we've got the sign to prove it!

PEACOCK DISPLAY

Our peacock friend "Big Tail" put on quite a show on our patio this morning. Perhaps he was trolling for a hot chick, not really sure what brought this display on since he was the only guy here. 

A very pretty tail, almost time to rip it out for the year lol

Bamboo Propagation Study - March 2017

I spent a couple of hours in early March using the reciprocating saw to cut out Emerald bamboo canes that had been cut short in the back of the 10 original clumps.  They were cut when FPL came through and decided that they were too close to the power line in the back, which goes over Drew's property.

That's fine, we turned lemons into lemonade!  I cut out the 4-6' canes at the rhizome/root level, cut them down to 2-3 feet, and put each of them in 3 gallon pots with potting mix.  The objective, of course, is to create bamboo that could be sold to someone (or planted all over P2's new ag zones that we're pondering).  There are about 10 pots which are now in the process of propagation.

Here's the timeline I'm going to be watching for:

NEW BAMBOO PHOTOS

This is Fluffy, he is the gatekeeper to the back of the A-J Emerald Bamboo clumps.  Fluffy is a Timber bamboo.

Here's the twins, two of the 3 large Seabreeze bamboo we got earlier this year at Beautiful Bamboo.  The 3rd is "six-ish" who lives now between 6 and 7 of the original 10 Emerald clumps.

Here's today's planting at the end of the bamboo forest line.

On the left you see Tiny.  Tiny is a propagated Emerald bamboo who is VERY tall, and since he sprouted tall green leaves at about 10 feet, we couldn't cut him shorter.

After Tiny is Skeeny, he's an original bamboo propagation who also sprouted green leaves.

Then follows Baby Baby and Spike, our successful original bamboo propagations from cut canes.

Another view of the happy bamboo kids.

This is one of our Majesty Palms, in his new spot on the ag lot. 

This is a view of our lovely home from the other end of the pond.  We're considering planting a papaya tree here, so we were checking the positioning.

Here are photos of our latest plantings.

First Seabreeze Bamboo Culm Baby! March 15, 2017

We were out in the bamboo forest today planting a few more bamboo from pots into the ground:  Spike, Baby Baby, Fluffy, Skeeny (propagated from original bamboo patch), and Tiny (an Emerald that was sawed out of the ground and insisted on shooting out green leaves 10 feet in the air before we could cut him shorter).  While out there, we noticed the first bamboo culm of the year!  One of the Seabreeze bamboo from Beautiful Bamboo is already making a culm mid March.  It's going to be a very prolific year for bamboo culms, I'm betting.

DAYTIME RACON

Enjoying the Racon playground gym (formerly known as Fake Tree)

RACCOON BABY ALERT
It's Feb 26 and we had more than 10 babies here last night. We saw the first babies of the season this past week but last night they all showed up, tiny, fluffy, cute as can be.

No Possums

We have noticed this year that there are no possums.  The last possum we saw was late summer 2016.   Not sure why there's a possum shortage, but I expect they'll be back this summer.  It's just odd to not see their cute little pink toes and long odd ratlike tails outside int he dark...

BAMBOO CLUMPS - Round 2

Last year early April we asked Clay of Valkaria Gardens to give us 10 clumps of field grown Emerald Bamboo.  They are huge, full, plush, green, thick, and exceptional, so we bought 10 more of the same this year.  Clay installed them a couple of weeks ago on February 8th, and Mark is doing an amazing job of watering them a couple of times a week (while we wait for rains to return...).  Then, a couple of days ago on Sunday, February 19th, Mark and I dug a trench and planted 10 Seabreeze Bamboo (3 gallon containers) that we bought in December from Beautiful Bamboo in Homestead, Florida.  So the amazing Wall of Bamboo is filled in, and we're going to be seeing some stunning culm growth this spring.  I'm buying an extra 25lb bag of earthworm castings so I can make sure those underground rhizomes are developing happily...

Bamboo is very fun, and when it forms a plush wall like our April 2016 Emerald clumps, it's nothing short of stunning.  What other plant can produce a 30' green wall in a year?

Peacock Feather Peak - about February 1st 2017

Every year we watch the growth and removal of the most magnificent feathers in nature... the male peafowl display feathers.  And every year I try to remember when the peak is; and I believe it's February 1st.  They start to grow late fall, and are short but growing in January, but by February 1 they are HUGE and magnificent.  In fact, other than Hooky (our favorite), we name the male peafowl names like Big Tail, Huge, and Mega...  because the feathers are really that amazing!

Why do we note a peak of the feathers?  Because after the peak (this year, over the last couple of weeks) we notice a feather or two here and there.  After the peak, they fall our during normal grooming from now until the summer when they're all gone.  Peacock guys, time to impress the ladies is NOW!

Baby Raccoons Feb 17 2017!

We saw our first baby raccoons this week on February 17th .... a  pack of 3 running around together.  One of the three followed mom closely, and the other two were adventurous, staying within 20 feet but not worrying too much about being beside her.  The one close to her ate Ol Racon, but the other two weren't hungry and probably drank all of the milk earlier.

So, for the future, we'll remember to look for babies early to mid February.

PLANTING TODAY FEB 18, 2017
Today we planted cantaloupe in two different locations on the raised bed platform, these will stream on to aerial tracks above the ground and ants.

We also planted Honey Dew and Sugar Baby watermelons in a ground based pot on the black fabric.

WEATHER UPDATE

Temperature dipped into lower mid 40's Feb 15

NEW T-12 MICROPHONE
Hand made in USA by Weemurtone

using the finest parts available 😎

Planted Carrots 2/12/17

Planted a LOT of carrots - two large pots, and 8 10" pots using a grid system (30 seeds per pot).

Bamboo feeding 2/12/2017

Today gave the emerald bamboo timed release fertilizer.

Banana Circle Planting Day! 2/12/2017

The banana circle is loaded with bananas, finally.  I waited until the waning moon (2 days since the full moon) so the little guys get all the help they can from the moon.  They got earthworm castings and bone meal in the hole, along with a lot of planting mix mixed in with native sand.  Then they got a bucket of fish emulsion water.... they love that stinky stuff.

Now, we watch and wait.  The middle of the circle is filled with wood, leaves, cardboard, manure, and all kinds of kitchen waste and "stuff".

NEW RACK LAYOUT

In the dark

NEW STUDIO
Plants are not the only thing we grow here at P2.

Music production on our horizon, happy new year!

PEAFOWL PLAYING BY POND

This is an area at the far end of our pond, we're in the process of clearing out a bunch of overgrowth there and preparing to plant new tropical looking plants to replace a bunch of average looking non-tropical plants.

I had the 400mm lens mounted up from shooting other faraway images when I noticed a flock of wild peafowl hunting for lizards and playing among the plants. Their blue and green feathers look like live plants roaming around, nothing like them, we are so blessed to have them spending their daytime hours at P2.

Good bye 2016!

BABY HUEY THE HERON

This big guy mainly fishes in the pond at night. He stands over 48" tall when his neck is fully extended. At night he intimidates the raccoons, he is so big that they are afraid of him even though he has no way to inflict pain on them.

We call him Baby Huey to keep him separate from the other herons that come to visit, Huey is a very unique bird and he prefers to fish alone (note to other herons, stay away when Huey is here, Hero, be cool!).

HAWK, ANNA AND KINGFISHER

Mr. Hawk has been hanging around a lot lately, probably eating rats and squirrels (horror rushes over the faces of woodland creatures). He has our Ibis all freaked out, they're afraid of him and they fly away when he makes a swooping pass over the pond. 

We hear the Hawks screechy call sometimes. A Hawks gotta eat!

Anhinga is a very strange bird, this one is female (we can tell because of the colors), we call her Anna. She is an excellent fishing bird who swims completely under water for up to two minutes at a time. Several times I saw her come up with a fairly large fish in her beak, then she began the task of reorienting the fish so she could swallow it whole, nom nom nom.

The Kingfisher has been an elusive bird to photograph. We don't know he's here until he dives at full speed and crashes into the pond with a big 

S P L A S H ! ! !

By then it's too late to get a picture of the King. One day I was looking out the window and there he was sitting on a branch, fortunately I had the 400mm lens already mounted and I got these pictures of him right before he dove into the pond.

RACON, RACON, RACON

Had to have one last cute raccoon photo to close 2016.

Here is a fat little guy who broke into a bag of Ole Roy (he has a very sensitive palate), he is enjoying himself and is very comfortable. 

Dog? Dog? Dog?

BAMBOO PHOTOS FROM 2016

Here are a few photos of bamboo to close out 2016. We recently acquired three large 5-gallon pots of Sea Breeze bamboo and ten 3-gallon pots of Sea Breeze to fill out our inventory of plants. 

Also some photos of Mary in front of our mature Emerald bamboo which was moved here at the beginning of April, 2016. Fall, 2016 brought us over 60 new canes that are well over 25 feet tall. 

With the 400mm Canon telephoto lens on my Canon DSLR camera I could not get Mary and the full height of the bamboo included in the picture, I did this to give a reference of just how tall this bamboo really is.

Six-ish Bamboo Planted New Years Eve

We love our bamboo wall...  and we're planning to extend it south very soon.

More on that later, but I wanted to make a note that "Six-ish", a 7 gallon Seabreeze Bamboo from Beautiful Bamboo, was planted 1/31/2016 between Six and Seven of the 10 Emerald Bamboo clumps.  So we named him "Six-ish".  He really fills in the blank spot with plushness and happy greenness.