It’s A Jungle…

July 30, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

With all the rain we have been getting, the oneacrewoods is turning into a oneacrejungle faster than I can tame it. Letting it go too far is a mistake that take twice as much work to correct. I broke down and got Joe to come help me today and we began cutting things back. You people who live in other parts of the world have no idea what I’m talking about. The vegetation that we remove gets hauled back to a corner of the yard where I hope it will eventually break down and disappear but right now it is a giant pile higher than my head.

I was working in one of my pineapple plots which had become a grass plot and suddenly I heard a curious squeaking noise. So strange, it seemed to be coming from under my feet and I finally located it. Two small critters about four inches long with big ears were panicking in the dirt where I had just pulled up a big grass plant.. They could barely move and were entirely at my mercy. I called Joe over to look. We decided they were rabbits. I’m not sure if they were just hidden in the grass or in a shallow burrow but I had evidently taken away their cover. Joe kind of camouflaged their little depression in the soil with some grass plants and we hoped Mama rabbit would come and fetch them to another home.

An hour or so later I was talking to Joe and he said ” di you see billow ge rabbage?” I am often clueless as to what he’s saying due to his unusual English dialect and rely more on gestures and pointing and good guesses when conversing with him. He pointed to the pineapple patch and repeated the cryptic message. I pondered and came up with “rabbits?” “Yes, big billow take them rabbages.” And since he was now pointing up in a tree I’m assuming he actually saw a hawk get the baby rabbits. Like I said, it’s a jungle out there and everybody has to eat. But I’m sad because they were so cute and had such a short life.

I raise lots of pineapples in the yard and can’t really eat them all when so many are ripe at once. The squirrels and rabbits help me out and I guess I don’t mind as long as they leave a few for me. But something I don’t want them to have is this nice bunch of bananas that is nearly the right size to come ripe. It’s only a few inches off the ground and I don’t know how to protect it. I’m glad I have a picture of the bananas, in case that is all I get. Because it is a jungle, and we all have to eat.

Proof that there were bananas in my yard.

A Small Gift

July 28, 2014July 28, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

It’s Monday morning. I’m dressed and sitting at my desk thinking about the day ahead. Last week I repotted a houseplant and brought it to live on my desk in front of the glass doors where it would get a lot of southern exposure. I noticed a large drop of water at the tip of a leaf. And then I saw that every leaf that was turned in the same orientation had a large crystal clear drop of water – the whole plant was decorated at the tips of these leaves only. The rest of the plant was dry. Such a beautiful thing… just sayin’.

I could have missed it. Thankful for eyes to se... — I could have missed it. Thankful for eyes to se…

Not Easy Being a Horse

July 26, 2014July 26, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

They really are beautiful animals, horses. When I think about it very long, it starts seeming strange to me what an network of industries has been built up around this one animal. Even though they are not used for work in average situations anymore, are not a common means of serious transportation, they are large, eat a lot and require a good amount of care – still people are so enamored with horses, especially women. You see horses standing peacefully in a field, or yard or stall and you naturally think “people ride those horses”. No they don’t, not necessarily.

I spent three days with Doc Julia last week. She hurt her back and needed a lackey to help lug her equipment around. I love watching her work and was glad I had the time to go. It was three days of meeting more horses than people. Horses with infected ears, horses with kick wounds, horses with bad skin and sunburn, horses with worms, horses, horses, horses… It seems being a horse in today’s world, especially in Florida, has a lot of hazards.

First of all, if you’re a horse, you had better belong to someone with a little extra cash because you eat like a horse. There is a good reason for that common saying. Horses eat continuously (except when sleeping). They are grazing animals and are most healthy when they can have a little bit of hay or grass going through their system all the time. My daughter’s horses live in a big pasture which appears to be green with some kind of plant but the reality is that the good grass is pretty scarce. Horses don’t like to eat most weeds. (They only like to eat the ones that aren’t good for them – that’s how smart they are.) Bales of hay cost from $7 -$15 and you get what you pay for in quality. And most horses down here also need to be fed some kind of pelletized feed, or oats – also costly in the amounts needed. There is also the supplement market which rivals the human supplement market in competitive fury and complexity. $$$$$

All this eating does amazing things to a horse’s teeth. They wear down where they rub against each other. If their bite isn’t perfectly balanced (and most of them aren’t) they get high places, points, and hooks where there is no wear. It can get difficult and painful to eat if these areas aren’t filed down and smoothed. Enter horse dentistry. $$$$ In the three days I spent with Doc Julia we did eight dentals. Think about your own experience with the dentist. Now try to imagine this happening to a huge, clueless animal who doesn’t like it any more than you do. Yeah, right.

Horses that eat the wrong thing or not enough of the right thing get sick. They get ulcers, diarrhea, constipation, stomach ache and bowel obstruction. Again, if you are a horse you had better have an owner who is willing to call the doctor for a house call because you could die quite suddenly in great pain and agony if you don’t.

If you are a horse, you are on the lookout for anything that could be preying upon you. If you get scared, you move fast to get away. You run into barbed wire fences and tear up your skin, you step in holes and break bones. You can hurt yourself in your own stall. Your life depends on being able to stand on your feet but your hooves are subject to all kinds of conditions that could disable you. You founder, you get eye infections, you get rain rot on your skin. You are a horse and you had better have an owner who loves you.

All this brings us back to the peaceful scene in the pasture – horses grazing on green grass, tails swishing, manes moving with the breeze. Many of these horses can no longer be ridden because of age or infirmity. They are there because someone likes to look at them, pet them and spend money on them. They are there because someone has memories of their better days and loves to see them happy and content. I’m just sayin’, they are the lucky ones.

The Desoto Date

June 30, 2014July 1, 2014 Shirleyjdietz4 Comments

A wonderful place to spend some together time.

We were challenged to go on a date every week for six weeks. The time is up now and we tried to remember if we had done that, done anything that was memorable, gone anywhere we could actually name. We came up with a few things.

But I decided we’d better do something quickly to add to the list. We went to a beautiful park we’d never visited before. It qualifies as a date because I walked slow and waited for the husband every time I got ahead of him. We read the historical information together. I took a picture of the husband. We connected with nature and each other.

Here are pictures of Desoto Park. It may have been the place where Hernando Desoto landed and started his trek to claim the New World for Spain. There used to be a local festival honoring him and his conquests – lots of men would dress up in conquistador armor and ride a float made to look like a sailing ship in a very noisy parade. Plastic beads and fake spanish coins would fill the air. I digress. Unfortunately the local native americans had a different version of that history and took offense at the festival being all about Desoto. Now it is simply called the Heritage Festival.

I love this park for its walking trail along the mouth of the Manatee River. Pets are allowed, boats pull up on shore while owners lounge in the water, there’s lots of shade over the path when it enters the mangroves. And if you have never seen a gumbo limbo tree, you will see one here – a very old and beautiful one. That does make it a date, doesn’t it?

I was only a little bit ahead of him... — I was only a little bit ahead of him…

lots of access to the river and intercoastal waterway

bridges take the trail through the mangroves

Do Tell

June 21, 2014June 21, 2014 ShirleyjdietzLeave a comment

The heavens do declare God’s glory, and I love to listen. I live in a flat land with lots of horizons, clouds, moisture in the air and water to mirror the sky. I am always seeing something that nearly takes my breath away, usually when I’m driving. I have to pull over and watch

Things I Put Off: Episode 2

June 6, 2014 Shirleyjdietz2 Comments

Busy people (like me) are able to procrastinate in ~~pretty nearly~~ every area of life. Cutting back on my work schedule allows me the opportunity to look for these “put off” things and experience the wonderful satisfaction of getting them done after months of having them on the “to do” list. If you have never gone through this cycle you are missing out.

Having made great headway scheduling my “every 7 year” physical exam, this morning I turned to the oneacrewoods, which has been… well, neglected at best. If you don’t love nature, gardening, dirt and sweat go read somewhere else right now because you won’t understand.

It’s the compost bin. The compost bin is where you can put all your vegetable scraps, lawn clippings, leaves, etc… in the hope of making new, rich soil. Presumably you are making this soil to put somewhere else where the ground needs improvement. However, if you never do anything but put stuff in the bin, there is not much point in doing it. Ideally it should be fluffed up, turned over and watered once in a while too but I never get around to that. And because I have such a big yard I actually have two compost bins to play with. Lately they have been looking full. I can’t remember that last time I emptied them. It’s a nasty job.

Did you know that cockroaches fly? Did you know that some of them are actually white like albinos? They love, love, love compost piles and when disturbed they take off in flying, jumping swarms to find some new place to hide (up a pant leg, under a shirt collar, in hair, aaaghh!) I have absolutely no cockroaches in my house and I think it’s because I provide this much more favorable place for them to live. I think of it as pest control.

I chopped and shoveled through both my bins (after the roaches left) and there was some pretty good soil in there. I added it to my small garden area which is fallow – fancy word for nothing growing in it – because we are already in the hot season here. Lots of things do grow in this season but not many traditional vegetables. I’m preparing for September when it cools off. One more thing off my list, and truly, it was so beautiful outside this morning that I didn’t even mind the roaches, much.

Compost bins after being emptied. No "before" shot - too gross. — Compost bins after being emptied. No “before” shot – too gross.

Pineapples are about the only thing growing now that we can eat. — Pineapples are about the only thing growing now that we will be able to eat.

Spring Up North

May 28, 2014May 28, 2014 Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

NOTHING compares to a fully loaded lilac bush

flowers seem more exciting and glorious after 6 months of winter

I’ve been “up north” waiting to see spring come, hoping I had my timing right. I think it’s here. The children have lessening interest in their schoolwork, rain has made greenness appear everywhere and swollen the ponds and marshes. The woods are full of trilliums and fiddle head ferns. Mosquitoes follow us in clouds and dandelion seeds float in the air like snow. The garden is 80% planted and the reliable onions and radishes are already making their rows visible. Tulips and petunias are in place. And the lilacs have purple buds almost to the point of opening up – one of the things I wanted most to experience. The sun brightens up the horizon at 4:30 am and it’s still light at 9 pm, reminding me that the longest day of the year is less than a month away. It’s spring, but only for a little while.

There are no days to waste, no extra hours in the spring. Last night the weather cleared after an all day rain. My brother had bought seed corn and potatoes and was not willing to wait until today to plant – after all, he had to work at his “other business” during the day and there was no guarantee that it would not rain again. Best to get at it. He could hardly sit still through supper. We planted 12 rows of corn and put up the electric fence to keep the deer from eating the tomato and squash plants. I know it works because I tested it accidentally. The gardens have a good start this year, almost two weeks ahead of last year’s schedule. Hopes are high. It’s hard to realize that it still could freeze and one cold night could set everything back.

But today is beautiful and sunny, alive with birds (and mosquitoes) and plant life. Spring up north, how I have missed it and how wonderful it is. Just sayin’…

garden, with precautions for possible freezing weather (No, no, no!)

A to Z Challenge: T for The Trail

April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 Shirleyjdietz3 Comments

At Springer Mountain after four days on the trail.

Back in the spring of 2002, I was desperately trying to think of something exciting to do – an adventure for myself and my teen age daughters. We also had an Italian exchange student living with us and she was graduating from high school. I just couldn’t see letting her go off to Cancun for the senior trip and needed something to dull the pain of being denied. So, I thought, let’s go on a hike. Let’s see if the Appalachian Trail is as great a place as they say in all those books… Surely if some 80 year old woman can thru hike in her tennis shoes with only a drawstring bag of supplies, we can survive a week on the trail.

Hiking newbies, we bought/borrowed backpacks and gear. We decided who would carry which supplies. I researched our options and hired a trail expert to transport us to our starting point. It was a lovely day and we were getting a nice, early start. My only reservation as I ~~hoisted~~ was helped into my backpack was “wow, this thing is really kind of weighty. I thought it was only 40 lbs?”. Yeah, well, we were pretty exhausted by the end of that day’s walking.

The AT teaches you to hate going downhill. It has some lovely flat stretches on high ridges just to keep morale up but mostly it is going down only to go up again. Every descent brings to mind all the wasted effort put into climbing the last hill. But after all, these are mountains. I distinctly remember as we were climbing one very steep series of steps carved into the rock, one of the girls was ready to quit. I was already maxed out on motivational talk so we just did a nice long rest after each step. No need to rush, we only have to do 10 miles of this today…

Each time we made camp it was a major victory. You have to do some thinking before you pick your spot. Where is it safe? Is there a good place to hang your food so bears don’t get it? Bears! Is there a place with no bears? Is there water?

Water is very precious when you are hiking and you can only carry so much of it. Water is heavy. Finding a stream or spring was always a relief and we learned not to pass them by without filtering enough to fill our jars. One experience with dehydration was enough for me. I was weak to the point of not being able to keep my balance, which is not a good characteristic to have on a mountain. I submitted happily to being trucked to that night’s camping spot by rangers. They set up the tent and put me in it for a recovery sleep. Hours later I woke to the sounds of the girls arriving.

We made it. From our starting point back down to the parking lot at Amicalola Falls. We gratefully fell into the car and went to a motel to wash off five days of grime and weariness. Although it may sound a bit like a bad experience, it wasn’t. I don’t think any of us will forget our time hiking, and I and the youngest daughter have even gone back for more

A to Z Challenge: O for Orion Nebula

April 16, 2014April 17, 2014 Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

Many times the husband and I would look up at the night sky while taking a walk and notice three bright stars, quite close together. One of us would always have to say “There’s Orion in the sky.” I guess because it’s one of the easiest for us to see it’s a favorite. I thought you might like to know some fascinating things about it. It is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOXm7W8f6wo

I don’t know why but the letter O has been the hardest for me so far. I’ve been thinking about it for days. O well…

A to Z Challenge: E for Eh?… Ecology?

April 4, 2014April 4, 2014 Shirleyjdietz8 Comments

This would have to be ecology of the yard, not the university classroom or workplace. And although this subject would seem to have nothing to do with my evolving theme of “family”, it does. It’s really meant to be a ~~torture~~ diversion for my family up north as they savor their 10 inches of new snow. (he he he, you could have stayed down here longer.)

Ecology defined: the scientific study of interactions among organisms and their environment, such as the interactions organisms have with each other and with their abiotic environment. Topics of interest to ecologists include the diversity, distribution, amount (biomass), number (population) of organisms, as well as competition between them within and among ecosystems.

In other words, looking at the yard to see what grows well and what doesn’t, and taking care of it so it doesn’t completely bury you in vegetation. I’ve been working on this for years in the oneacrewoods. And this is the time of year where I stage for the growing season to come. Plants aren’t mean on purpose but they are. Mean.

This morning I spent four hours and got about 1/8 of the way around the house, cleaning gutters of leaves and flowers from the oaks, raking, pruning, and washing dirt and pollen off everything. Everywhere I look there is a plant needing attention and I could just keep at it for days but for the sake of a more balanced life, I’m breaking it down into sections.

As I’ve said before, we do have fall in Florida – we have it in the spring. My oak forest drops tons of leaves on the lawn, house, driveway, and garden beds. Some people like to rake, bag and send their leaves to the landfill. And then they buy mulch to keep their soil moist and protect their plantings. I’m just not going to do that 1) because I don’t have that kind of money for labor, bags and mulch and 2) ecology tells me that there has to be something good about leaves falling on the ground around trees or the trees would all be dead by now. I use the leaves as mulch and most of the time it works.

Another ecological move on my part is to quit fighting nature and grow only things that like living in my yard. Ferns love my yard. Flowers, most of them, do not. They are slug food and it’s pitiful to see them disappear one bite at a time. I also have bromeliads everywhere because they multiply like rabbits and like to grow around trees where it’s hard for me to mow anyway.

Okay, northern friends, come in and have a look at my green, growing, sunny, warm Florida yard.