Menace to Our Neighborhood

We've got a coyote on the loose, and he's getting very bold. Here is a picture of him. (Click on the picture to blow it up bigger so you can see him better.) In the middle of the day, he ran across the entire width of our property, across the property of our neighbor, and into a bunch of pine trees. He's been spotted several times, by many different neighbors. A couple neighbors are planning a hunt soon. This is because the coyote has taken down a couple goats, many chickens, and even a horse lately.

Out Our Front Window in the Morning

I have posted pictures before of the view from our property in the evenings. Here's a picture of what I saw when I got up the other morning. It was so neat. We've seen them before, where they passed right over the house!! That was exciting for the kids, to be sure.

Tonight's Sunset

This is what it looked like after the rain. It was taken from the front porch of our house.

Silver Lining in the Clouds

I am always hearing about silver linings in the clouds, and a couple days ago, I snapped this picture. It's the view from the front of our house. It was so beautiful. I really needed a panoramic or wide angle camera to get the whole thing.


I am trying to remember to snap a picture of a beautiful sunset also. I see them all the time, but forget to document it.

Tomato Mission

I am on a tomato mission of sorts. Our family absolutely LOVES good, flavorful tomatoes. You know, a tomato that really tastes like a tomato! Well, everybody but C love them. He says he only likes the ones we grew in our garden 3 yrs. ago. They were called Brandywine. Anyway, really good tomatoes are hard to find. And if you do find them, they will cost you your right arm to purchase some. Our local grocery store has heirloom tomatoes, but we have never purchased them before because they're so expensive. Well, today, we bought 3 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, one of each. They were on sale, but they still cost me $8.00!! I almost choked. So, I got to thinking. I need to save some seed from those golden nuggets and grow some myself! So I did some researching tonight online and it doesn't look too hard to do. I see a homeschool project in the works.....

In this picture, B thinks I'm getting a picture of her beautiful flower she found on the weed plant.

Back to tomatoes. We have 3 varieties planted in little pots. I ordered some heirloom tomato seeds online this year. I was upset though, when the variety I really wanted was on back order and still hasn't come in yet! We've had some near-frosts lately, or at least pretty low temperatures, so we keep bringing them in to the garage to keep them warm, just to be safe. Then we cart them back outside. Every time we cart them back and forth, we seem to drop one or two, or three! This last trip I nearly had a heart attack because we had a flat break on us. It was cracked and we didn't realize it until it was too late. I think we may have been able to rescue the seedlings without too much damage. I hope that's the end of the low evening temperatures. Florida isn't supposed to have weather like this!

So, these tomatoes we've planted. I am clueless as to what comes next. You see, we have a friend who is a professional horticulture specialist. He is going to tell us his secret on how to grow prize-winning tomatoes. He's swearing us to secrecy over this. Oh, the suspense is killing me! And he's too funny. He shows up to my hubby's shop every few days to get the "tomato report" and the "blueberry report". He keeps giving us incremental, step-by-step instructions on just what to do. I can't wait for juicy, tasty tomatoes. And I'm hopeful that C will like the ones we grow this year as well. Maybe that's why he liked the Brandywine so much a couple years ago, because they actually tasted so good, and not like the cardboard tasting tomatoes I can find for a decent price in the stores. I tried to buy Brandywine seeds again, but could not find the seeds in the local garden stores. I think produce gardening is a dying art. I haven't done much in my recent past either, so I'm not casting stones here! We had about 3 gardens right after we moved here, but we finally gave up because of poor soil and major pests: both insects and rabbits. Hopefully, we'll have learned a little more this time to make this project worth our while!

The kids can't wait for their favorite part of tomato gardening. One of the websites I looked up tonight about tomatoes stated it this way: "To kill the most destructive, ravenous tomato-eater, the Tomato Horn-worm Caterpillar, put a 10 cent bounty on their heads and turn your kids loose in the garden to hunt them down." My kids LOVE this activity, and search for them with vigor. They argue over who gets to stomp and squish them, when I find the caterpillars. Large smears of green goo in the dirt. Isn't that gross?!?

And here is a picture of the tomatoes as they look today, with their buddy the avocado tree. Before the Tomato Horn-worm infestation begins.

Rain Update

Well, we had 2 1/2 inches of rain from that storm. Our grass will certainly appreciate it. When I woke up in the morning, I looked out across to our neighbor's property, and found several places of standing water, not just the one I could see shining in the moonlight during the night. I got a picture of them, but not all of them show up in the frame of the picture. This is the view from the front of our house, which includes the kids' bedrooms, the office, and the dining room. I am using a new camera here (got it on a close-out special with a large coupon too, so it was pretty cheap. I'm just not sure yet what kind of pictures it takes.) I needed a camera of my own. I've been using one of the boys'.

Anyway, back to the storm. I found out when I got up that the tornado watch for our county had expired (!) and I didn't realize it. I'm always making silly mistakes like this. Could it be because I'm blonde? No, I don't think so. It's because I have so many different things on my mind all the time, that when I hear bits and pieces of the news, I get it put back together in my head, but all wrong! So, I stayed up to protect my family from something they didn't need protection from after all. That's the breaks!

I had to drive in to town to get some things for Ch. We are laying irrigation in our fields, in prep for planting. Well, on the way back home, I saw another Bald Eagle flying above the main road near the park that our homeschool group frequents weekly. It could be the same one our friends, the B's, saw at the park a couple weeks ago. And here is a wonderful picture of a Bald Eagle, sent to me by a friend. The picture was taken by somebody in Montana. But it's too pretty not to share. It definitely helps me feel better after missing my fantastic eagle photo-op the other day. Okay, so I am leaving you with 2 eagle pictures. I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

How to Remove a Tree

I guess that's a pretty dumb title for this blog post. You don't want to know how to remove a tree stump, do you? Really I want to talk about how much fun this tree removal was. The whole family got involved, yes, even me!! I promise, I did more than just snap pictures of it! Anyway....

I love how my husband is not afraid of hard physical labor. He actually craves it, I think. I just wish I could keep up with him a little better than I do. He is also one to expect the boys (in particular, since they are older than B) to help out with whatever family project presents itself at any given time. Most recently, it was removal of this Florida "cherry" tree since it was right in the way of our future blueberry field. (C is from PA, and he said this cherry tree is NOT really cherry.) It had to come down, and down it came! The stump was not as easy, and he had to dig it out with the back hoe attachment on the tractor. H helped him move the tractor around, while hubby did the back hoe digging. It took quite a while to remove. Even after the stump was out, it still required lots of manual digging by shovel to get the roots out. The boys spent a couple hours digging by hand with their shovels. B and I helped remove the roots to the brush pile, and then B got busy with a shovel as well! It was so cute to see her getting in there with her brothers. It's good to see her growing up as well, and she does not want to be out done (most times, anyway.)

Hard Freeze Update

Well, I have to say, I am in awe of my hubby's ability to see a need or a problem, and figure out some easier or better way to deal with it.

We have several other neighbors growing blueberries for commercial picking as well. This includes our friends J & L who have been doing it for almost 4 years now. The rest are newbies like we are. Well, all our neighbors were frantically trying to pull all their baby blueberry bushes into sheds, horse trailers (with heaters), and garages to avoid the freeze. They were finding that it took 2 people about 2 hours to move just 1000 plants. All 4 of us growers have 4000 plants to move. Our one neighbor started moving pots at 10 a.m. and it took him until 9:30 p.m. I think he said to get all 4000 plants indoors. Our problem was that we didn't have anywhere to put 4000 plants. We have our house garage, but it was certainly not big enough to fit them all in there. On top of that, I was home by myself with a vomiting little girl. I didn't want to move them all by myself, knowing how long it would take, when she was indoors and getting sick every so often.

Well, hubby said not to worry, and he'd figure out what to do. He came home about 5:00 p.m. and started tenting the rows of blueberry plant pots. He fixed it up with larger PVC stakes, with smaller diameter PVC poles bent over in an arch, and fitted into the holes of the stakes. He then ran plastic sheeting down the whole line. We secured the plastic down with wooden beams to anchor it, and turned the micro jet sprayers on under the plastic. The water coming out of the ground is at least 65 degrees, so quite warm compared to the freezing air and driving winds we experienced last night. It worked quite well! It took us until about 8:30 p.m. to complete this job, and another couple hours to keep checking on it to make sure the wind would not whip the plastic up over a period of time.

Now I am going to tell you more than you wanted to know about this whole freeze-protection business when it comes to the blueberries in particular. Normally, blueberries should be in their dormancy stage during the late fall and winter. This happens because of the slow decline in the temperatures over a period of time. The trouble with our baby bushes is that because they are so small, you want them to remain growing throughout our "mild" winter so they get big enough to plant them in the ground in late spring or early summer. This is accomplished by continuing to fertilize them throughout the cold season. This keeps them growing throughout the winter, and they do not go dormant. If they are not dormant, they are more susceptible to cold temperatures.

We're not concerned about losing fruit at this point, as we won't have a harvest this first spring. In fact, for the past several weeks, we have been plucking off the blossoms every other day, to protect the plants from killing themselves by fruiting. They only have so much energy, and when they're this small, they can either put energy into blossoming and fruiting, or growth. If they try to do both, they most likely struggle and die.

Another factor contributing to our trouble last night, was the severity of the cold anticipated, combined with the wind. Normally, if you expect a frost or mild freeze (higher temps for shorter periods of time) you just turn on the overhead sprinklers and water the plants all night. The plants can even freeze over with ice covering them completely, and the 32 degree ice is warmer than the colder air, and protects them from freezer burn. But with the wind blowing, there was no way the water would cover them sufficiently, and they would be vulnerable. We were expecting 23 degree temps last night, and it was just too cold to chance. Here's a neat website for checking Florida weather in your area. They have several "stations" and you can pick the one closest to you for current up to date info. http://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/

On a side note, somebody asked about our more experienced blueberry grower neighbor and what she does for a freeze. She turns on the water like explained above. But she has not had to deal with temps this cold before, and was taking her babies indoors as well. She took in about half of them and ran out of room. She was relying on her sprinklers to protect the rest (as much as possible because of the wind situation, but what else could she do?). The only trouble is, she turned the water on down by her house, which is quite a distance from the blueberry patch. She was so utterly exhausted from moving plants all day in the cold, and it was so dark and late by then, she never checked to see if the water turned on. It didn't, but she didn't know this until she got up at 3 a.m. to check, and found it not on. Oh, no!!! She turned it on at that point, but it was probably too late. We had seen 32 degree temps last night at 9 p.m. I think it was. She's crossing her fingers and hoping for the best. She'll be able to tell in a couple more days if she sustained damage or not, and chalking it up to a lesson learned the hard way.

I am proud of my husband though, as he is always thinking, experimenting, and fixing something to work no matter what is handed to him. He really rolls with the punches, so to speak. Our blueberry friend L even called him "innovative". That's a real compliment coming from the experienced one in our little "Blueberry Hill" community.

I should have pictures of us all out there last night working in the dark on the "tunnels" as L calls them. It was pretty funny! As I told you before, I am not very graceful (clumsy!). I went sprawling to the ground several times, having tripped on water pipes, and the forklift forks which I could not see in the dark. On top of that, we were hurrying pretty fast because it was so cold out. I guess strawberry growers freeze protect this way with tunnels, but C didn't know it. I'll get a picture this morning when it's light outside. I would have gotten one today, to attach here, but I was gone to work all day and couldn't take a picture in the day light.

Our Crazy Dog Charley

We got home from Thanksgiving dinner at C's brother's house and discovered that our beloved black lab was missing from our back yard. Our chocolate lab was home, but conspicuously alone. Now, I should tell you that our dog Charley was misnamed. We named her Charley because she was born on the eve of Hurricane Charley that hit the state of Florida. It also hit our old house pretty hard, shattering a window (what a mess that made!), downing some of our trees and branches, knocking down our fence, and messing with a few shingles. We were quite lucky, though, because many of our neighbors did not fair as well as us. So somehow, this dog received her name in commemoration of how God kept us safe in the storm. We will never forget that time in our lives. Why would we sometimes think that we should have called her something else? Because she's constantly getting out of where she's supposed to be. We jokingly call her Houdini based on her personality. It's been a constant battle for the 3+ years we have had her in our family.

Well, we all hopped on our Kubota ATV and drove around our property, and that of several surrounding neighbors. We kept calling for Charley, and searching for a black dog in sometimes dense shrubby land on a very black night. The Kubota is diesel and quite noisy, so we had to stop and turn off the engine while we called for her and listened for her response. Only trouble is, she's not much of a barker. Our chocolate lab Cocoa barks a lot. In fact she barks so much that we kept hearing her barking the whole time we were gone looking for Charley! Her voice really travels the distance. "You're not helping us find her, Cocoa!"

After about 45 min. of searching in the dark, we finally found her. She never did bark out to alert us. We ended up seeing her eyes shining in the light of the ATV. But we found her trapped! We live near a dried up lake (glorified pond!). There are a bunch of tall and thick cattails near the edge of our property. She likes to charge into them to see all the birds she can kick out of them. Evidently, she got through the cattails, and found herself in a fenced in open area, surrounded by cattails in every direction. She couldn't find her way out. It was dark outside so we couldn't see much either other than what the headlights of the Kubota would shine on depending on where we parked. Both boys had to climb over the fence and try and lift a 55 lb. wriggling dog up high enough that C could reach over the fence and grab her. They tried a few times and failed because Charley does not like to be picked up. She's her "own dog" and doesn't like people messing with her ears for cleaning, her toenails for clipping, or apparently her body for saving! The guys finally got her into the back bed of the Kubota, and we made our way home. But not without a scolding about how naughty she had been and why on earth couldn't she be a dog content to stay out of trouble? Instead, she remains, our Houdini.

Shocking Discovery

H discovered this 5 foot 1 inch Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake on our property Tuesday afternoon. It was coiled up and rattling his tail. H managed to run the 2 dogs back into the backyard to get them safe, then ran inside to tell us what he had found. He knew exactly what it was, so our nature study is paying off! Anyway, with the dogs securely safe in the garage so they wouldn't get out, we went back outside to locate the big guy. I have never been more thankful for our bright orange ATV until now. We didn't have to worry about stepping on him while we searched. We were able to find him, even though he had moved a considerable distance by the time we found him. We then took care of the situation. This picture of him coiled was taken after the fatal shot. (Actually, the pic. of hubby holding him was stone-cold dead too!!) We coiled him around for a better visual picture of what to look for in the brush. We don't want to step on one in the future! The kids also looked long and hard at what he looked like stretched out straight and slithery-like. Luckily, we have lived here 3 yrs. and this is the first time we have seen a rattlesnake. But we have certainly had enough excitement for a while.

Country Living

This is my first post on my first blog. I have been reading the blogs of several friends, and I thought I would give it a try too. It should be fun, if I can get it figured out alright. I am by no means computer literate.

We were very busy this weekend. My hubby and boys cut a lot of sod from the back of our property, and moved it up around the house. It's sure been a blessing to have access to sod for free. He estimates we have already saved about $2500.00 in free sod.

Meanwhile, we had to haul our goats over to a neighbor's house. They are going to live there now. We have to reclaim our land for agricultural pursuits. Pictured above, are our 2 female goats, Rosie, and her baby Petunia. Rosie is 2 1/2 yrs. old, and her baby is about 7 mos. old. They sure are sweet, and we will miss them in our back yard, but at least we can visit them everyday if we want.

I did my work inside the house this weekend. There is never an end to the piles of laundry, but I am quite caught up at the moment. I also made my 2nd batch of applesauce with the help of B, of course. At 4 yrs. old, she likes to help quite a bit. Hopefully she's learning at the same time. So now we've got 24 pints of applesauce in the freezer. The trick is to get it into the freezer faster than the kids can eat it! We also made 2 batches of gluten-free bread using a new recipe. It worked very well, and I think we like this recipe the best of any we have tried so far. I guess I was in the kitchen quite a bit this weekend. Yesterday we made potato leek soup for the first time. Boy was it good! Even the guys liked it and asked for seconds. I froze some, so we'll see if it thaws well. I really want to try and put away some things in the freezer for meals in the future when time for cooking is somewhat lacking. Thanks, M, for the inspiration!

The guys had their heart set on dove hunting this evening after working all day, but after their sod duty, it began to rain, and by the looks of the radar, will not let up for a while. (And thank God for the rain! We need it so bad....) They actually took it pretty well, and will try again this week sometime. Now, if I could only get them to put their camo, shotguns, and shells away! It seems like with guys, things just end up where they are cast off....we'll have to work on that. It's definitely a case of "Like Father, Like Son", only X 2 sons, not one.

C is so funny, though. He was hoping to "kick up the bobcat" as they trekked about for the doves. We believe there is a bobcat den on the line between our property, and that of our neighbor's land. We have seen the bobcat(s) several times. Everybody's seen them except for my hubby. He's still miffed about that. We have seen a panther just a 2 blocks from our house. We have also seen bald eagles, great-horned owls, red fox, numerous raccoons, coyotes, and various types of snakes, frogs, lizards, gopher tortoises, turtles, etc. C and my hubby saw a large coyote again this weekend. C thought it was a really big fox, because it had a tan-colored tint to it.

I read a book yesterday. It was pretty good: Brooklyn Rose, by Ann Rinaldi. I really like juvenile historical fiction. Even better, it was somewhat based on a true story; the grandmother of the author.

We are headed to another orchestra class tomorrow. This time it will be a lady playing her harp. It's a preview of sorts for string instruments, before our strings class in another 2 weeks. So far, we've been to 3 other orchestra classes in the series: percussion, wind, and brass. They have been very good so far.

Well, I guess that'll be all for my first post. It was actually pretty harmless. Of course, it's not posted yet. I don't know if I can erase something if it turns out wrong! It's such a learning experience. I guess I can learn in our homeschool, too!