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.

WINTER GARDEN

Two pots of radishes and a four foot planter that is half carrots (on the left) and half onions on the right.

These seeds were planted the first week of December.

KILLING ANTS WITH DIATOMACEOUS EARTH
As we're developing our fruit and vegetable crops we've become aware of how many ants there are in the agricultural area. Mary decided to try this since nothing else has been effective.

We don't want to use poison because we drink water from wells on our property. The ground is so permeable that pesticides get down in the water table very quickly.

We called the big mound The Matterhorn, we've never seen an ant mound 18" tall before. We are hoping this treatment will put a dent in our ant population.

HOOKY IS BACK
Last fall our favorite Peacock began spending nights in a tree behind our house. He makes his loud "Me-haaaaah" call throughout the night. At the end of May when the babies were born Hooky went back to sleeping with the tribe at night.

Now we're approaching mating season again, he's growing out his magnificant tail and trying to seduce a lady.

Tonight was the first night we were aware he is back in the tree behind our garage again, defending his turf. We went out to put away tools and heard his glorius Me-haaaaaah call for the first time this Fall.

Welcome back Hooky, we're sure glad you're here.

AUTOMATIC WATERING
Yesterday we completed installing the automatic watering system on banana circle #1. The artesian well provides enough water pressure. The half-inch black plastic pipe has a 1/16th inch hole to emit water at each future banana plant location.

The stakes for the black tubing are PVC half-inch pipe, the end in the ground is cut at 45-degree angle. We drilled two holes through each stake and used wire ties to attach the black tubing.

THANKSGIVING DINNER 2016

MMMmmmmmmm...
Delicious👍

SILLY YOUNG FLORIDA PEAFOWL
Here's a pair of youngsters nomming black-oil sunflower seed off the window sill.

Blue male on the left, green female on the right.

FRUIT FROM OUR FARM
We have orange and grapefruit trees growing in our agricultural area. A few days ago we harvested a test specimen from each tree. Mary reports they are ugly but delicious, a very sweet grapefruit.