Wednesday, November 17, 2010

We got plenty done today. And plenty of company throughout the day. It seemed at times as if the entire Town of Palmdale showed up to welcome us home, and to convey their condolences. Beverly showed up at 6AM to begin the reception line, followed closely by Ethan and sister Kiley. Todd showed a bit later, followed closely by Junior and a little while later Jim Sharky. It was hard to get done what needed to get done, but it was great to see everyone. Somehow we managed to finish most of the unloading and set up, in spite of my jabber jawing. We began the task at hand by getting all of the yard furnishings in place, the swing in the Live Oak, the rope chairs, the hammocks, the deck furniture, and all of the accouterments. The yard is shaping up. We went in town at noon to get the truck back from the garage. While in town, Sherry picked up potting soil, and planting pots. I had seeds from last year, and got my plantings started. Pole beans, bush beans, Florida spotted beans, lima beans, sweet corn, and sweet peas as well as a tomato plant and potato starts. I love getting my hands dirty, preparing starts. Other good news is the offer from Ethan of a shoat (or baby pig). The shoat was trapped along with its' litter mates last month. This will entail building a pen and shelter and trough. Sherry also agreed to a coup for chickens. It looks as if we may be in the small farm business. I am going to think this through, as it is a lot of work and money. However, once the infrastructure is in place, year after year we would be able to raise a little of our own food, and recycle some of the normal household waste we generate by feeding it to the hog and chickens. I would really like to do this, but we must see where this takes us.

We walked down to the old abandoned homestead in the scrub this afternoon, and than down to the shell road the whole way to the creek. The sweet oranges at the homestead are not yet ready, but there is a full crop. My guess is close to 10 bushels. The grapefruit on the shell road are making. It should be good fruit this season. Between the vegetables, the citrus, and (hopefully) the chickens and the hog, we should be able to go pretty far towards feeding ourselves this year. We returned home and continued to move the last of the glass. We should finish tomorrow. Sherry fixed a wonderful dinner; tossed salad, baked sweet potato, bratwurst, and sour kraut. Now it is time to turn in, and prepare for tomorrow. We have to start to get ready for our show, and yard work. I have to bait the fire ants, and tend to the fruit trees.

I got these shots of a Red Shouldered Hawk, and a Barred Owl. The birds out in the scrub and in the old growth cypress swamps are pretty tamed, as they have little contact with humans. The birds cooperated, and waited until I got some good shots.










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