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Friday, November 29, 2019

28 Peafowl here at P2 today, 28!

A new record max at one time

Monday, November 18, 2019

MAKING SLURM LOCO

It's the extremiest!

Thursday, November 14, 2019

CHOMPY MAMA
and her five babies

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

RINGO THE RACCOON PIGS OUT

RINGO THE RACCOON PIGS OUT

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Today at P2

Here's a quick video update.

Angel (our little wood duck) was here visiting, enjoying corn, swimming around with her friends.  We hadn't seen her for a few days so I'm glad to see she's happy, healthy, and hungry!


We stock SUPER LARGE marshmallows as a racon treat...  here's why!


Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Peep A Peep!

Peep A Peep at 0:18.  Naturally since I was recording them JUST to hear their sounds, they were quiet.  Usually it's non-stop peep-a-peep!




Male Peacocks Getting Long Feathers Now - Nov 1 2019

Early November is when the male peacocks start growing in their incredibly beautiful long feathers.  They're only half length, so not as impressive as a full set, but since they're brand new and compact, the depth of the color and the number of eyes is amazing. 


Four Banana Bunches on One Plant... New Record! 11/5/2019

Ho 2 has four banana bunches on one plant/mat.  Amazing!  These three Home Depot generic banana plants (probably dwarf cavendish) are incredibly prolific, but four on one is amazing.  And they're 35 pound bunches... not 50-100 lbs, but I'm glad because that would be WAY too big for me to harvest!



Smile for the Camera, Blacky!

I passed by a black racer snake this morning, and I swear he smiled real big for me...  or was he being aggressive...   He's cute either way!




Monday, November 4, 2019

Beach!

11/1/2019 - Beach temperature was 73 degrees, with wind out of the NE.  The cloud cover was just about 100%, and without the sun it just felt COLD.  We walked the beautiful beach for 20 minutes and called it.  It was a beautiful day, just too cold and windy to hang out for hours.

11/5/2019 -

Thursday, October 17, 2019

ANGEL FLEW TODAY

Our little wood duck, born and grown up on the P2 pond, flew for the first time today!

BANANA HANGERS

HANGING BANANAS UP TO RIPEN

We've struggled with ripening bananas. If they sit on a table then ants get on them. Opossums have climbed up the supports in our pole-barn to eat our delicious yummy fruit.

It takes a while for the bananas to ripen, sometimes a month or more. So what to do with them while we wait, we don't have space in the kitchen for several 30-35 pound bunches of bananas.

The solution, while simple, involves a little bit of backbreaking labor.

The short answer is, we embedded "Shepherds Hook" plant hangers in concrete which was poured in Home Depot 5-gallon pails. Each bucket has roughly 80 pounds of concrete in it to make it stable with bunches of bananas hanging on the hook.

A design trick I borrowed from the Butterfly Sanctuary in St Martin, I placed the hooks out away from the bucket side so that we can put two-inches of water in the bucket after the concrete set up. The water creates a barrier that ants hate. Mary and I have a $100 bet as to whether the ants will swim the short distance to get to our yummy bananas. Only time will tell.

Mary cuts the "hands" of bananas and then puts a long wire-tie through the hand so it can easily be added to a "Ripening Hook".

When we first started growing banana plants we never thought we'd ever be eating our own bananas. We're growing the best tasting bananas available anywhere. They are so flavorful and sweet, much more yummy than even the organic bananas from the grocery stores.

We're currently in the testing phase to evaluate how this system works.

Advantages: Portable, low cost, easy to use

Disadvantages: Heavy, not easy to move


Two Inches of water in top of bucket keeps ants away, they hate swimming :-)


Hanger post is 3/4" away from bucket, there is clear water on top of the concrete to create an Ant Free barrier
Without the water ants will find there way up the hook to the bananas above
The hooks are only rated for 10 pounds of weight but in this setup we've hung 30-35 pound bunches











Saturday, October 12, 2019

Bananas!

BANANAS WE GREW IN 2019
This is not all of them but WOW. At $2/pound we made $80 of organic bananas in this bunch alone

Monday, September 16, 2019

Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly

I've been watching these amazing spicebush swallowtail butterflies flit around the male papaya flowers and the tropical milkweed, and finally I grabbed my phone quick enough to capture them in action!



Sunday, September 15, 2019

September 15 - Magic Day - Change to Happy Outdoors!

Mark and I just agreed - today, September 15th, was the first day this summer that we could go outside and not get eaten by bugs, not be cooked mercilessly in the heat and humidity, and enjoy being outside!  It was still hot and humid, but NOTHING like July and August and early September.

We are SO excited to be able to spend more time outside now!  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Sneetches Feeding Time

They're HONGRY!!!!


Sunday, September 8, 2019

THE CARD SAYS IT ALL

THE CARD SAYS IT ALL

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

REMEMBERING HURRICANE ANDREW

What do we do when we're waiting out a hurricane? We study previous hurricanes to judge their effects and how they played out.

The BIG ONE came in 1992, his name was Andrew and he slammed into the Florida coast line at a reported 187mph, well over the speed required to be a Category 5. The destruction at the point of landfall was devestating, it went straight inland and flattened Homestead Florida. FLATTENED! Cat 5 is not to be played with, seek emergency shelter away from where the landfall is going to occur.

The good news from studying these storm disasters comes in the knowledge that the moment a hurricane makes landfall in Florida the intensity immediately goes down a lot. The size and speed of Andrew meant he went inland a bit before losing intensity but 20 miles away damage was minimal because the storm lost so much energy as it thrashed Homestead Florida.

There is complete information about Hurricane Andrew on Wiki.


Hurricane Dorian Top Wind Gust Speed: 23 mph

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Hurricane Dorian - Tuesday, Sept 3rd 6pm Wind Speed Actual vs Forecast

Forecast right now:  36 mph winds


Actual wind speed 6pm: 4mph




Monday, September 2, 2019

P2 Plants Pre and Post Hurricane Dorian

Here's Monday, 9/2/2019 at 8am EST before the hurricane.


Hurricane Primer - Cat-a-gories

A helpful reminder...


Friday, August 30, 2019

Baby Duck

Wait for me!  Baby duck zooming after the other ducks.  Can we play?


Bucket :D

This is why we fill bucket.  Bears in pajamas are so cute.


Thursday, August 29, 2019

Bird Tree

Yesterday we had a very odd lightning/thunder strike that didn't make visible contact but did strange damage.  Our internet modem was rendered "dead", and the staghorn fern (AKA flying spaghetti monster) was released from his 30 year place in the oak trees to a new location on the ground.  The southern oak branch just broke right off, and not even at the steel cord but at another place.

So, now we have a massive 12' long oak limb laying on the grass....   but why fret?  The peafowl and sneetches are in HEAVEN.  They spent the day roosting in the new "low tree", letting us know how they love what we've done with the place!  Hmmmm, this new bird tree will be in this location for a while so that our feathered friends can enjoy it immensely.



More Bird Tree Pictures

And More Bird Tree Pictures

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

NPR Joins Hurricane Hype

New headline as the models are updated to a "farther north" hurricane Monday.  Note, the prior impact was Sunday.  LOTS to happen between now and Sunday/Monday, yet the headlines are starting to get everyone ramped up.  My bet (Mary) is that it will fizzle at sea and be a breezy day for us.  Either way, we're ready!  It's fun to watch the models predict right now.  Thanks to Mike's Weather Page for keeping us informed with his spot-on analysis.




Tropical Storm Dorian 2019

On Sunday, we're either going to have a Cat 2 Hurricane, or a nice breezy Florida day.  It's amazing that it's Wednesday and we can't accurately predict.

FUN PHOTOS AS DORIAN HYPE RAMPS UP


Fox News is quickly ramping up the hype in spite of the fact weather scientists still can't accurately say what the path of the storm is.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Growing Kale Fall/Winter

I've been reading about which Kale grows well in central Florida, and I've decided to try Red Russian Kale.  It supposedly does very well here over the fall/winter months.

I'm going to plant the seeds Sunday 9/1, and it takes 50-60 days to mature.  So, I should be able to pick kale 10/20 to 11/1 and on.

Kale Links:
https://www.flgardening.com/how-to-grow-kale-in-florida/

Friday, August 23, 2019

Wood Duckling vs Motted Duckling

We have "baby duck" living on the pond now, a duckling with no mother, and we were debating this morning on whether he was really a Wood Duck baby or if he was a Florida Mottled Duck or Mallard type.

As a differentiating characteristic, it comes down to the stripe over the eye and whether it goes all the way past the eye toward the beak, or JUST up to the eye.  Mallard/mottled has a stripe that goes all the way to the beak, wood duck has a stripe from the back, ending at the eye. 

Our "baby duck"has a stripe that ends at the eye.  So he's clearly a wood duck.

Which is good, because we named him Warren:  Warren BD (baby duck), like Warren Beatty.  LOL :D

Mallard type duckling - Stripe past the eye

Wood duckling - stripe UP TO the eye

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Saturday, August 17, 2019

A Lot of Ducks in August

We've had large groups of ducks land a few times a day to enjoy the corn.  It's great to see them together, playing, swimming, and enjoying snacks.


Mary's Stand Up Paddle Board Maiden Voyage

I did it!


Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Otters and Sweet Potatoes

The morning after shows no signs of otter ravaging, so it seems that they visited, had a snack, and left.  Otter visit #1 final assessment:  No Problem.  (Whew!)

I braved the sweet potato cage this morning, thinking it was 90 days since planting some of the earliest sweet potato slips, so there might be sweet potatoes forming.  I used soft gloves to dig into a few of the fabric pots, and I found no sign of sweet potatoes.  So....  either something has gone awry, or it's just going to take a bit longer to see food.  I'm going with the latter, as all of my reading suggests that people plant the sweet potatoes late spring and harvest in time for the fall (October/November) so that they can have sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.  Even though Gurneys says 90 days for vining sweet potatoes and 100 days for bush varieties, I'm going to smile and be patient.  Besides, it'll be MUCH nicer to harvest in late September/early October when the weather cools a bit and the bugs subside some.  I'm really looking forward to having sweet potatoes to eat from the P2 farm, so I really hope they make some food!

Monday, August 12, 2019

Baby peafowl snacking

I accidentally hit the Slo-Mo button.... it's kind of fun to see the movement captured very S L O W L Y

"There's some kind of a big swim thing happening out there...."

We were warned...

It seems that three otters have come to the P2 main pond to feast tonight.  They're noctural, so we'll keep watch and hope that a few tilapia are left by morning. 

I should be alarmed, but darn they're cute, and there's nothing I can do to stop them, so we may as well enjoy the show!

We'll report in the morning. 

When Mark saw the swimming, his comment was precious.  "There's some kind of a big swim thing happening out there...."

Florida Coyote Visiting, Enjoying Corn

Today we found a local Florida coyote stopping by for a bite of corn.  Corn doesn't seem like a traditional coyote menu item, but when you're hungry you eat whatever is on the menu!

He looks just like a cute, fluffy dog.   He turns and smiles at 0:15.  Awwwww.....


Tuesday, August 6, 2019

First Baby Peacock 8-6-2019

Today, August 6th, we had a visit from mom and our first baby peacock of the year.  She's about the size of a duck or sneetch :D

Friday, July 12, 2019

Banana Count

This post is all about answering the question "how many bananas"?  But first a few things....

This week was an epic milestone... I got my first offer to buy some P2 bananas!

Plus our friend Bruce asked Mark "how many banana plants do you have"?  Mark's answer was "I have no idea" LOL.  I actually had no idea either!

On Thursday Brock of Florida Fields to Forks brought my delivery of produce share and fruit share, and asked me if I have extra bananas to sell.  I'll have to admit, I have been struggling for years to get past hobby banana grower and to a point where I could reliably have fruit to eat all year.  With the warm winter we had 2018/2019, the bananas at P2 are doing AMAZING.  We had some high winds in a storm yesterday, bringing a banana bunch to the ground so I had to go harvest this morning.  When I went to pick up the banana bunch, it was VERY HEAVY.  I used all my strength to lift it up into LEM's trailer and get it back to the screened in porch so it can ripen safely away from the deer and squirrels.  Once I got in back, Mark and I weighed it... 35 lbs!  Weeeeeeeeeeee.  This bunch is from Swamp Baby, which is an offspring from Swamp King.  Swamp King was once of my first bananas that I bought online.  I put the bananas in several different locations at P2 as kind of a science experiment to see how they did.  Poor Swampy got stuck in 100% water in a very wet location.  When I rescued him a year later, he was just fine, and spent some time in the pool cage before he got a place of honor in Palm Beach.  Anyhow, Swamp King's baby (Swamp Baby) has made some incredible bananas.  35 lbs!

So, how many bananas?  I did a walkabout and counted this morning.  Every pup counts as one.  We have 200 banana plants!  So yep, I think it's highly likely that I'll have some extra bananas to sell or barter very soon.  The banana log will help me to know when it's time to harvest them.

I did a bit of research this morning, and wholesale prices for specialty organic bananas are about $1 a pound.  Not bad!  


Thursday, July 11, 2019

One is Not Like The Others

A new duck family showed up today!

Mom, 3 black muscovy ducks, and 1 BRIGHT YELLOW muscovy duck.  Awww.  

This is Rock N Roll


Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Ringo Pingo Gets a Meatball

What can I say... we love Ringo.  He's a friendly little raccoon who came to live here when he was pretty young.  He sleeps in the tree and comes down in the morning for black oil sunflower seed and occasionally a meatball treat (Mark cooks for Ringo LOL).

Awwww!  He just started eating out of my hand this week.

Monday, July 8, 2019

P2 Food - Update on Tropical Tuesday 7-8-2019

I'm very excited about food here at P2, and how what is available evolves over time.  True, Mark and I couldn't survive right now on only P2 food, so Tropical Tuesday hasn't begun yet.  But we're getting closer!

The big challenge is protein, but I'm pretty confident that we could get our hands on some chickens if we absolutely had to and survive from eggs and chicken as our protein source.   Oh yeah, and tilapia!  In the meantime (pre-apocalypse LOL) I'm thrilled to have harvestbox.com providing us amazing beef, chicken and salmon.

Other than protein, we have gobs of great veg and fruit here at P2.  I am especially excited about figs right now, since the front drive fig tree has given me about 20 figs over the past few weeks.  This is the "breba" crop late spring/early summer.  There is another crop coming, much bigger, late summer/early fall.

Also, the food forest fig trees are excelling, and I expect them to be making fruit starting in 2020.  We have Ischia and LSU doing amazing, with the others like Celeste and Turkey right behind.

I have been studying when to propagate figs, and which trees can be propagated.  It turns out that new trees (like all of my figs except front drive fig tree) need another year before I start lopping off branches and propagating them.  However, this was the right year to find three non-productive pencil thick+ branches off of front drive fig and cut them off to propagate.  I did that Sunday... and I'm very excited to see how long it takes for those three cuttings to make roots.  I also bought a few cuttings on eBay which I'll get this week and plant.  If ALL of these fig trees make 20-50 figs 2x a year, I will be rolling in figs soon enough.

The sweet potatoes are doing great.  The sweet potato cage (see post in June) is stunning... the vines are rich and green and prolific, and I'm certain that the cloth pots are filled with young sweet potatoes.  If the regular sweet potatoes take 100 days to mature, I should be able to start pulling sweet potatoes out at the end of July, which OMG is only a few weeks away.  How time flies... it feels like yesterday when I got the first Gurney's sweet potato delivery on 4/24/19.  Those went right into the pots in the sweet potato cage.

I added new aluminum hanging tags to the flourishing fruit trees, as the wood stakes are kind of rotting over the last 2 years.  So hopefully the plain aluminum tags will last longer.  The dwarf mulberry didn't produce a lot of fruit this year, but the berries it did produce were SO good I ordered a Pakistan mulberry tree and got it delivered today.  The pictures for Pakistan Mulberries are amazing - the berries are long and sweet and are considered the world's longest mulberries (4" long).  I'm going to plant that beast (25' wide AND tall) away from the house, but not too far away so that the deer get all the good fruit.  "These ruby red-purple mulberries have sweet, raspberry-like flavor with low acidity that is good for fresh eating or making cobblers."  Can't wait!

So - that's the update.   As of today, here's what we have to eat on a regular basis.

  • Okinawa spinach (delicious and readily available)
  • Cranberry hibiscus
  • Malabar spinach
  • Bananas (LOTS)
  • Papaya (occasional)
  • Figs (2x a year)
  • Sweet potatoes (Purple now, all varieties in a few weeks)
  • Tangerine (the west tree is still prolific with about 200 baby green tangerines right now)
  • Star Fruit (Yum - ready to produce in a few weeks)
 

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Banana Flower Fruit Log

Now that the myriad of P2 banana plants are constantly making flowers and bunches of bananas, I need a better way to know when the bananas are done rather than watching for yellow colored bananas.  AND I've just discovered how delicious green bananas are (1 minute in the microwave - YUM), so it's time to track the appearance of the flag leaf and banana flower so I can know when a bunch is ready to eat.  I'm going to assume 3 months from flag leaf to edible bananas.

Banana Plant
Flag Leaf
Flower
Bunch
3 Months
Plantain (Banana Circle)
7-1-19
7-2-19

10-1-19 (cut down 9/1 due to Hurricane Dorian)
2nd Banana (Banana Circle)
7-1-19
7-2-19

10-1-19 (harvest 9-23-19)
Gran Nain 1 (North Banana Grand Prix)
7-6-19
7-6-19

10-6-19 
(cut down 9/1 due to Hurricane Dorian)
Lisa
7/1/19
7/1/19
7-10-19
10/10/19 (harvest 9-22-19)
Swamp King
7-1-19
7-7-19
7-14-19
10-14-19
Ho 2
7-24-19
7-31-19
8-1-19
11-1-19
Plantain (Banana Circle) - 2
8-2-19
8-3-19
8-15-19
11-15-19
Gran Nain 1
8-1-19
8-2-19
8-15-19
11-15-19 (harvested 10-12-19 due to bunch falling low...)
Ho 2
8-17-19
8-20-19
8-30-19
11-30-19
Ho 3
8-17-19
8-25-19
8-31-19
12-1-19
Gran Nain 2
8-15-19
8-20-19
8-25-19
11-25-19 (ripe 9-25-19!)
Banana Grand Prix Mystery Banana
9-10-19
9-15-19
9-20-19
12-20-19
Lisa #2
8/1
8/15
8/30
11/30
HO 2 (3rd)
10/1
10/5
10/13

Lisa #3
10/25
10/31
11/10
1/30/20
Ho 1
10/15
10/20
10/25
2/15/20
Ho 1
10/24
10/29
11/4
2/4/20