I'm not dead.

I'm not dead and I haven't stopped getting stuff done. This last month though has been a combination of stressful, frustrating, and frenetic so I haven't had much time to think about the blog.

I'll try to rectify that this weekend with some photos of what I've been doing.

Until then here's a couple that I did take.
Yes, that's a pig. About a three hundred pound boar in my estimation and he's in my henyard. In fact before the situation finally resolved itself I ran him out of there THREE times in two days. The last time with a behind full of birdshot after he wrecked my feeder shelter (you can see the feeder laying on the ground). We've had the place for going on six years now and the first four years or so I'd see a single feral pig two or three times a year and once I'd run it off wouldn't see it again.

Until this year. They started showing up in groups. Then they started showing up in herds. Caught one in my garden which motivated me to fence it in as some of you may recall. I'd run them off and they'd come back. At their peak I counted twelve pigs one morning standing outside the newly installed garden fence. I could tell they weren't feral pigs but looked more like someone's recently escaped domestics. With the lake and all out there I could not determine where they were coming from for me to be able to contact their owner (if they had one). This boar hog was the final straw. A three hundred pound (or thereabouts) boar pig is no joke, especially when my children play outside so this had to be brought to an end. That last time as I was seeing him off the property I finally discovered who they all belonged to as the neighboring property owner happened to be driving by (he doesn't live on that parcel). He and I had quite the shouting match about his free-roaming pigs. Never did see any signs of his hog pens so I have no idea of where he was keeping the things. I suspect he was simply letting them roam and keeping them in the area by feeding them regularly. That ended after our discussion and he rounded them all up.

This is the first time I ran him off:

On foot he wasn't taking me too seriously but in the truck he realized I was much bigger than him so we had us a little race around the property then around the pond. Every time he'd slow down I'd bump him in the butt to encourage him to keep running. Finally lost him in some heavy brush and figured I wouldn't see him again.

Until he came back again that afternoon.

And again the next afternoon when I'd finally had enough of him and sent him off with his behind stinging.

I'd rather have the Mongol Horde ride across the property than a free roaming herd of pigs!

The vegetable garden has been planted. I got it in late thanks to our odd Spring weather this year, but it's in. Haven't had a chance to mulch it yet, but it's growing. Most of it anyway. Lost the entire first planting of sweet potatos and the row of sunflowers. I was blaming the squirrels for that seeing as how they've wiped out my corn and peanut plantings in the past. They may have had something to do with the potatos too but last night I discovered the real culprits.

The garden is fenced in 2"x4" no-climb so they can't go through the fence and they can't go under the fence, but this pair did a Peter Rabbit on me going under the gate which I had not yet put a sill under. They were in the act of eating the second planting of sweet potatos that I'd just planted last weekend when they were themselves harvested. I'd been spraying the plants with a hot pepper garlic spray to discourage the squirrels (which generally works) but apparently it only makes them the more toothsome to the lagamorphic palate!

If Old Mr. McGregor had had a shotgun instead of a rake he'd have been able to put Peter in a pie (Beatrix Potter was NOT a gardener!)

The Kinder Major needed something to cook for her 'prairie meal' to finish her Laura Ingalls Wilder badge for the Scouts and now she has it. In the words of Master Samwise "…there's only one way to eat a brace of conies…" so it'll be stew this Sunday!

Between squirrels, marauding pigs, and clever rabbits it can be hard to get a garden in sometimes.

Stay out of my garden! I'm getting testy...

.....Alan.

Home is where the hearth is.

It's been kinda chilly around these parts lately. Chilly for Florida anyway. Yesterday we hit 22deg F which we haven't seen around here for several years. My foolish pomegranate tree that had partially leafed out already was thoroughly zapped for its trouble as well about about two thirds of the citrus trees in the orchard. So far it just looks like some minor leaf loss, but it's too soon to say for sure. The heater in the hoophouse worked fine so the cold sensitive stuff inside passed the night untroubled.

Being a Florida boy I don't much cotton to being cold so this last week or so I've been getting stuff done inside the house. I did manage to finish the garden fence though.
I haven't been able to find a vantage point yet that allows me to encompass the entire garden in one shot so I cut off the same corner as I did in the first photo. I still need to trench around the bottom of the fence but it's pretty well pig proof as it is. And a good thing too as the latest porcine marauder was in my pasture again tonight. He's rather unusually marked as my experiences with pigs go with a gimpy left front leg. Still seems to get around OK just the same as he was able to make good time when I ran him off.

I stretched the fence wire last Saturday, most of it anyway. The wife needed to go into her office so I knocked off in the mid-afternoon to watch the baby while she was gone. It had been chilly and breezy all day so I didn't regret the lost work time too terribly much. I was pretty tired by then as well so naturally I developed a yen to do some baking! For a time there I had been making all of the bread the family ate, but gradually it became a time issue and I stopped. When the weather turns cold though something good hot from the oven is mighty attractive so I made three loaves of the Dun Hagan standard whole-wheat bread.

The loaves could have been shaped better, but for not having made bread in a year I was generally satisfied. They tasted just as they should and all three loaves were soon gone.

Like eating potato chips those first three loaves only made me want to make still more so several days later I made some cinnamon-raisin bread. Those really didn't last long and by Friday we were pretty well out of bread again. Diana had an overnight Girl Scout camping training thing this weekend and the Kinder Major had one of her friends over so Saturday I spent riding herd on three girl children and baking up a storm. No pictures here I'm afraid as Diana had taken the camera with her, but I made three more loaves of whole-wheat bread then three loaves of cinnamon/raisin/butter roasted pecan bread. Used some of the whole-wheat for making French toast for breakfast this morning which the kids went to town on.

Being modern twenty first century homesteaders we use electrical appliances like most everyone else does. A Bosch mixer kneads the dough for me and we have an impact type grain mill to convert wheat berries into flour. Twenty cups of flour takes about thirty minutes or so which is everything from measuring out the wheat to milling to cleaning the equipment and putting it away. Once in a while I do a loaf or two by hand to keep the feel for the thing, but even with the power equipment it's hard to find time to bake when it needs to be done.

There's just something about coming into a warm house redolent with the smell of rising dough and baking bread that really communicates that you're home. I recommend it to everyone.

.....Alan.

We're OK.

I've received several e-mails about us after last night's storm so I want to let everyone know we're OK. The big winds and the tornadoes were to the south of us where they scared some of my family down there but no one injured and no property damage that I am aware of.

We received better than six inches of rain in the night. The pond behind the house which has been dry for months now has water in it again to the level it had when hurricane Frances first filled it back in '04. All of the litter in the henyard washed away so the pasture downhill from the birds will likely be greener this year than usual.

Other than that we took no damage. I saw water standing this morning in places I haven't seen it stand since the '04 hurricanes.

I'll try to get a picture of the pond up this weekend.

.....Alan.

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.