Florida in July

I took four grandchildren and a daughter–in-law to Florida for one week in the middle of July. The idea sounded great – we’d do some swimming in the pool, go to Busch Garden for rides, go to a water park and to the beach. And that’s what we did except the effective air temperature when you added the humidity was always over 100 and hit a high of 113 degrees. The kids didn’t seem to mind it but it sure sapped the energy out of me.

The pool was a great hit. They swam in it during the day and the hit was a night swim with the underwater lights on

I mentioned that it was humid and with the humidity came rain. This is our car parking area flooded. I took the garden tractor out to mow the lawns and got stuck in the back yard. Everyone had to come help push it out.

But they liked the pool.

This is one ride at Busch Gardens – they all seemed to have 30 – 60 minute waits – But Wendy and Kylie went on them all. Can you pick out Wendy and Kylie's feet - they are in one of those cars.

This is the peak of the summer and everything was in bloom. These are the Mexican Blue Bells.

This is a Bromeliad – just blooms once a year.

The Cactus we bought at a yard sale, a couple of years ago, was only a foot tall then. Now it has grown so much it collapsed. I replanted the two pieces that broke off – look on the bright side – now we have three cacti.

Several of the Citrus trees have fruit which will be ripening when we get down there in the fall.

The Citrus also have a problem called Citrus Leaf Miners. It’s a moth that lays its eggs on the new growth and as larva that eat the inside of the Citrus leaves. Got a spray and have now treated them – the heck with organic gardening.

When I was out pruning and spraying the citrus, I must have stepped in a red ant nest. They hurt when they bite but worst is the itching for the next week.

The bananas trees just keep on growing.

Oh, did I mention the kids liked the pool.

More Parking

The next door neighbor has put her property up for sale. There was a small wedge of land in between us that somebody else owned. Seeing that my neighbor had property across the street (not on the lake) and the buyer of her property might break that off and sell it and the little wedge of land could be used to provide lake access for that property - well you can see where I'm heading - to avoid anybody doing that we bought the little wedge of land. One of the first things we did was to increase the parking area next to our cottage. We got the guy who originally put in our tar and stone driveway to do the addition. He started in April saying he would have it done in a week. Two months later they come back to finish the job.

I gathered up every rock on the property and build this little retaining wall - I'm not proud of it but it serves its purpose.

They also dug a trench across the original driveway so we could run a wire for the invisible dog fence for Amy's dogs.

They put two layers of tar and stone in

and roll it in between each layer

Here it is all finished and it has room for three cars.

Now I mentioned that it was over two months ago that they started. At about the same time I had a guy come in and measure for a new glass shower enclosure that he said was going to take two weeks to get and I've been calling them for the last 10 weeks to see what was holding them up. So on the same day that the driveway guys were here doing the paving, who shows up but the shower enclosure guy - both late by 10 to 12 weeks and they show up on the same day.

Anyway the shower looks good especially when Polly is in it.

The Rope Swing

Dan and family were up the other week and he helped me put up a rope swing. I initially planned to use the boulders next to the lake for the take-off but we found, if you jumped from the upper boulder, the rope would swing downwards and would crash you into the lower boulder. So to fix that I built a platform off the upper boulder that gave you enough height to miss the lower one.

To do that I had to attach a 2x10 to two trees.

The 12 foot long beam was too heavy for me to hold in place so I rigged a rope to hold it.

I clamped it while I drilled and lag bolted it to the trees. Broke two bolts trying to get the 7" long lag bolts in - no problem except I had to run to Home depot each time to buy another.

But here it is all done. Nice view and it is high.

I also built a chicken plank and handrail to make getting out of the water a little easier.

I rigged up an old crab net to make a hook to catch the rope and pull it up to the platform.

I tried it and found that you had to hold your feet up so they didn't hit the water on the out swing and slow you down. I thought I was doing pretty good until Kylie and Bowen came up to use it - boy did they get some distance.

Kylie used it so much she got blisters on her hands.

Bowen got good distance too.

And had some great water entries. He got a 9.5 for this one.

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere

Despite the heat, humidity and bugs, I went out and weeded all the flower beds. Here’s a typical batch of weeds growing up through the stones.

The plants just love the rain and heat – everything that flowers is flowering. Here’s my best shot. It’s a Firebush with a Zebra Butterfly coming in for a sip.

Polly brought down a Hibiscus from Connecticut and this is the second time it bloomed this year. In a mater of two days and the flower will be gone.

Here’s another Hibiscus that was planted by the previous owner and it’s the first time I’ve seen it bloom. Also notice that its leaves are variegated – Never seen that before on a Hibiscus, in fact, I didn't know it was a Hibiscus until it bloomed.

Two years ago, at a yard sale, we bought this little cactus that looked like Mickey Mouse – look at the size of it now. That yellow flowered bush beside it is a Thyallis.

We dug up these Mexican Bluebells out of the woods and planted them along one side of the pool – they have really taken to their new home.

This was planted by the previous owner – I think it’s some type of Jasmine or at least it smells like one.

We transplanted this Peace Lily from a sunny location to this more shaded one and it is showing its appreciation.

The Walking Iris is so named because after it blooms the seed pod still on the stem falls over and starts growing a new plant – thus it seems to be walking – they bloom throughout the year whenever they get enough water.

Here’s a bunch more flowers in bloom but I’m not sure of their names.

The Orchard of Eden

Last summer we had planted all kinds of fruit trees and to keep them healthy while we were away we put in a drip water feed for them. So on this quick trip down to Florida, I was checking on the drip system to make sure they were all dripping on schedule, pull all weeds that were encroaching on the trees and give them some fertilizer to keep them growing. 

Let start on something positive – the drip is certainly giving them enough water – look at the banana plants

They were only a two foot tall when I bought them at Walmart – in about 6 months they have grown to 8 feet tall – they are only supposed to grow about 12 feet before they fruit – I’m going to have plenty of bananas.

Here’s a view of most of the orchard after I’ve weeded and mowed. Weeding wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the heat (high80’s low 90’s), the humidity (above 85 %), the thunderstorms (some everyday for the first 4 days) and those damn little bugs. Jumping in the pool helped with the heat and humidity – I’d go inside when is started to lightening but a light rain was better than the stifling heat and humidity so I'd stay out in the light showers – But nothing got rid of those little “no-see-um” bugs. There was always a ball of them flying around my head. The good thing is they didn’t bite like mosquitoes – they just wanted to fly into your ears, nose or eyes and get a drink or lay eggs. First you start swatting at them but quickly realize you can’t kill them and if you hand is dirty from pulling weeds it really makes a mess when you swat your head. So you just let them be – they sure tickle when they climb into your ear but at least they don’t bite. 

Only a couple of trees have fruit on them. There are some oranges.

And a lot of figs (Tony D. father would be envious).

But wait till next year – everything has grown – take a look at the pineapples – all started in the spring from the tops of pineapples we ate.

And here are the papayas – I’m growing them in pots since that reduces their height and makes it easier to move them inside if we get a bad freeze.

Ah, it’s a regular Orchard of Eden.

Green is the Color of My Pool

I decided this year to take a couple of trips down to Florida to keep the lawn in check, adjust the water in the pool and fertilize the orchard. This is the first of the trips – I fly Southwest and booked a nonstop flight out of Providence – only problem is it leaves at 6 AM – yawn.

So I get into Tampa at 9:15 and to get to Wimauma (about 40 miles away) I plan to use the HART Bus System. A guy at the Masonic Campground had offered to pick me up but seeing I was by myself and had plenty of time, I wanted to try the bus system. I found the HART bus stop right at the main terminal. I had looked up on line what the bus connections should be and it was a Route 30 bus to get me from the airport to the MTC center, there I get a route 8 bus that takes me to Brandon Mall and from there I use a route 53 bus to the Wimauma Walmart – Nothing to it. These buses seem to run pretty close to their schedule but they sure go some winding routes through the back streets of Tampa and Ybor City – I don’t think I want to do this trip at night. The route 8 bus trip had 60 – yes 60 - stops. I guess at rush hour they might use them all but at 10 AM we only stopped at every third or so. So that is the bad part but the good part is it only cost $1.80 for my all day seniors HART pass. Great deal.  Maybe when we are down here full time next winter we’ll use it to tour Tampa area and Ybor City (old Cuban cigar making town).

So I make it to Wimauma Walmart by 12 noon and John from the campground comes and picks me up and drives me out to my house. John and his wife have been using the swimming pool and he tells everything was fine until last week when the pool turned green. 

The next door neighbor, Rusty, came over and said it needed more salt (3 bags he suggested) because the chlorine generator only read 1200 ppm where it should be up near 3300 ppm. It sounded logical so I went to Walmart and bought 5 bags just to be on the safe side – after dumping in 4 bags and seeing that the chlorine generator still read the salt at 1200 ppm – I guessed that this wasn’t working. A quick internet search told me that I should unhook the chlorine generator and look inside it to see if the electrical plates were clean or if they had any deposits on them.

I did and they were so heavily coated that you couldn’t see the plates nor any gap between them. I got out the high pressure sprayer and so thin tools to scrap and blast the deposits – it got the bulk off but I finally had to use a muriatic acid bath to completely finish the job. Put it all back together again, turned it on and went to bed – it was a long day. Next morning the salt read 4700 ppm – way higher than it was supposed to be but it wouldn’t hurt anything (according to the pool supply store). 

Now after two days of scrubbing and cleaning all traces of the green are gone – splash – I’m swimming everyday with the temperatures in the high 80’s and humidity up around 90 % - I needed the pool.

I wonder if he has a bathing suit on.

We're Back Up North

We made it back. Left on Friday, stopped and saw my stepbrother in South Carolina and daughter in New Jersey and still made it home by Sunday. 

The New England weather tried to cooperate and give us what we were used to n Florida – it was in the 80’s for the first couple of weeks but it just couldn’t keep it up – so it let us know we weren’t in Florida anymore – a good ¼” diameter hail storm broke the Florida illusion.

Even though the cottage in Voluntown was vacant most of the winter it still wanted some attention. First think was the shower – I had ripped out the old one before I left, ordered a new base (wrong size –had to send it back to CA for a bigger one) and the tile so everything was ready for me when I got home. It was the first time I had installed the small glass tiles and it was quite an ordeal –applying mastic, cutting the glass tiles and getting them installed before the mastic set up -  but from a couple of feet away it looks pretty good. Son-in-law Dan came over to help me with the grouting – it had a very limited pot life before it set up so two people were a must.

Polly came up and helped me do the new drain plumbing in the basement – she slopped the primer and glue on while I tried to assemble them before they cured – only one leak and a little more glue fixed that. The red stuff on the shower trap is my blood – one of the flooring screws got me when I went to hammer a pipe joint together with my hand –ouch.

Now this all took a week and a half and my shower was either at Polly’s or in the hot tub on the back porch. So as soon as the grouting was done, I  got two companies to come in and give me an estimate on the glass enclosure for the shower – It was a lot more than I expected (low bid was $2165) and a lot longer lead time than I expected – 4 weeks. So to save the neighbors from having to look at a bare old man going out to the hot tub every morning, we rigged an old shower curtain that Polly had and the shower is now operational.

 

We just peck away at the jobs and pretty soon they are all done – carpets have had their once a year shampoo, the outside of the cottage has been power washer and the decks sprayed for mold. It’s just like the beaver that decided he’d tackle this tree. It’ll take him a while but it’ll be tasty when he gets it down – (This is in my son’s back yard in North Stonington)