Post-Christmas at Dun Hagan

With the usual holiday family obligations I've been hard put to find time to get much done outside other than the "must be done right now" necessities.

Still, we haven't quite gone into holiday hibernation. Weekend before last I hauled the family down to St. Petersburg to visit with my wife's snowbird grandparents. They came early this year to avoid the New England early winter weather though the other migratory species that normally come to Florida have been slow to arrive. It's past Christmas and I haven't seen a sandhill crane yet nor can I recall having seen a robin. Neverthless off to St. Pete we went for our usual pleasant visit and afterwards made a quick stop by Jene's Tropicals way out on the Central Avenue in St. Pete to pick up a variety Flame grapefruit. I've been wanting one for some time but haven't managed to come up with a tree locally so I took advantage of the trip to buy the last one they had. It's in the greenhouse now until spring when I'll plant it in the orchard with the other citrus. If they don't get frozen out grapefruit trees can grow rather large so I'll probably put it on the north side of the grove so as not to shade the other trees.

About three weeks ago while at Lowes for plaster of Paris and big rat traps (weapons in the squirrel wars) I stumbled over a nice looking Eureka lemon in the three gallon size at a good price so brought it home. This now gives me two Eureka lemons, two Tahiti (Persian) limes, two thorny Key limes, two thornless Key limes, a Lakeland limequat, and a Meiwa kumqat that I'm keeping as a container tree. Looks like I'll for sure have to build a larger hoophouse for next winter!

The week before the St. Pete trip the charger for the electric fence running around the top of the henyard failed and a coon got in to kill several birds. I replaced the charger, put up new stand-off insulators and reran all of the wire. So far, so good. For something so simple in concept keeping that hot wire running properly has been a major pain in my behind. Managed to jolt myself good with it day before yesterday which gives one a confidence in its coon repellant properties that no amount of meter testing can give.

The coon mostly took Maran cockerels and a Maran pullet. I hated losing the pullet, but I have mixed emotions about the cockerels. They were slated for freezer camp so I hated to lose the meat, but I also hate butchering chickens! The losses did not disrupt egg production which has gradually improved these last several weeks as the Marans and Silkie come more fully onto line. I've come up with a temporary work around for their winter greenfeed by soaking alfalfa cubes overnight until they've softened up and become juicy again then feeding them. The birds seem to find them palatable and the yolk color has intensified nicely.

Usually I would be feeding greens from the garden for their greenfeed but with our El Nino winter this year we haven't had any significantly cold weather yet. It's now December 28 and we haven't yet had enough of a frost to bite back the peppers in the garden though we did get enough to bite the sweet potatoes. This means the garden bugs that like greens haven't been frozen out yet so between the bugs eating them and the hens getting into the garden once I'm not getting much greens production. It also means that the cold tender weeds haven't been frozen out either so this weekend I'll need to weed the garden then put down some fertilizer to see if I can get the greens perking along. The elephant garlic and Granex onions are doing well though. The multipliers it is too early to tell yet.

Weekend before last I got some chainsaw work in mostly cutting up deadfall as well as trimming tree limbs that get in my way while mowing. I also tore down the old dock that was falling down rotten then used the debris to burn an old stump between where the dock used to be and the pump house. That old live oak is tough stuff though so I'll to have repeat the burn a few times to put paid to it. Still lots of chainsaw work left to go unfortunately. I try to do my saw work in the winter time so there's plenty of it waiting still to be done.

Many of the container citrus are blooming now in the greenhouse as are the camellias that I need to transplant now that I've finally decided to give up the camellia row behind the retaining wall. Most everything else is winter dormant and in need of its annual pruning, dormant oil spraying, and mulching all of which are on my January and February chore list.

Hopefully I'll get them done in a timely manner. We'll see.

.....Alan.