The New Houseboat Row

It used to be that people chose to live on their houseboats in Cow Key Channel barely attached to the Key West seawall.


I have recently discovered a whole new community of floating homes a hundred miles north.


Cheyenne and I were traveling the 18 miles stretch to Florida City and I decided to pull off and stretch our half dozen legs. Across from the Anchorage Resort seemed ideal and that was where, to my surprise I found a whole new community.


The new 18 mile stretch, the primary road that connects the Keys to the mainland, was recently raised over the mangroves by a mile and a half long bridge. This has the unfortunate effect of cutting off the formerly roadside businesses so planners were required to connect the resorts to the now overhead US Highway One.


And there some boaters found a place to tie up to the columns and drop an anchor and live alongside the access road to the resort.


Not all the boats, I dare say, are full time residential homes.


But many of them show signs of being just that, with their dinghies and barbecues and potted plants.


It seems a slightly odd place to choose to live when you have the ability to anchor pretty much anywhere near a potential dinghy landing site.


Under the bridge means no hot sunshine beating down but it also means no sunlight to power solar panels, no refreshing rain to wash the boat and fill your water tanks, and above all endless rushing and roaring from the cars and trucks rumbling overhead.


Cheyenne liked her walk a d indeed we briefly passed an angler with his young dog heading back to the car. I marveled at the houseboats and their choice of location but all he could mutter was that it was free, with envy in his voice.


It wasn't the envy of a man planning. To do the same thing but the envy of a man lacking the determination to choose the same lifestyle, resigned to a life filled with modern conveniences shoreside and mutely resenting those with the nuts to choose a different path. He seemed sad and defeated so I chose not to ask for his picture.


I had as per usual managed to forget the repellent and the mosquitoes thought I was manna showered upon them from heaven. Luckily I don't get welts but my legs were black with sucking insects. And quite a few dead ones.


We strolled the bank till I could stand it no more,


...even distracting myself with the camera the bugs intruded on my serenity.


I pondered the life afloat I left behind seven years ago and...


...still fail to be sorry for the change. Good fellowship yes, but a life aboard a small boat tends to limit one's horizons paradoxically and standing around a camp fire tends to bring out the parochial in boaters.


I have heard it said that some people know the cost of everything and know the value of nothing. Sometimes boaters can get lost in where to find the cheapest hardware or the location of the free water spigot. It tends to make the philosophical man cringe in dread when the call goes out for a gathering of neighbors to get together and chat.


Yet in a world where alienation by television is the norm the is something t be said for the companionship of the boating world, the fringe dwellers who have to go further failed than the nearest mall for their shopping.


It may be "free" in terms of mortgage payments, if the boat is paid for, but there are lots of other costs involved in living off the grid on the water.


I'd rather I've out there than underneath the arches, but I like the night sky and the sound of rain on the deck and the silence of no cars. And I like philosophy more than I like pondering the cheapest possible cost of a widget.


Cheyenne would find living on a boat tedious. She likes grass and urban walks and riding in the car especially when I'm there to attend to her every need.


On the road again.


Nice views from the top of the bridge.


I usually travel Card Sound Road for a quieter drive but anytime I'm on The Stretch I'll be thinking about the houseboat row downstairs and wondering how they like the sound of my tires rumbling overhead.



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Flowers Leaves And Fruit

It's long overdue but I went out with my camera and took a few pictures of the plants around my house. These are a form of blackberry and are delicious.


I am fond of bananas but this little tree has a way to go before it will produce fruit. We rely on the kindness of friends at this time of year to produce locally grown bananas.


I've picked three ripe figs off the little fig tree. They are so soft and succulent I eat them skin and all. Which is why there were none left to photograph.


Avocado grown from a nut in a fruit I ate:


There is a certain satisfaction seeing all these plants sprouting leaves and fruit everywhere.


I've already harvested two ripe pineapples from my bushes with more to come.





This tree, below, I have grown from a seed I found in a piece of jack fruit purchased and eaten at Fairchild Botanical Gardens in Miami. I started with three and two died but this one has flourished.


More avocados but no fruit in sight.


My 800 square foot stilt house is buried in a jungle of plants, overseen by mature coconut trees.


One day I hope to harvest a custard apple, my favorite fruit, from this little shrub:


Cheyenne likes t stretch out in her grass box, a little the worse for wear, while I sit in the chair set up under the gumbo limbo. At night especially it's like sitting out in a forest.


Mangoes are showing up in ever greater numbers on my little potted tree:


They are looking good.


I ate one a little prematurely because it was infiltrated by insects and going bad. It tasted excellent, surprisingly considering how green it was.


I'm growing a new piece of frangipani that fell off the main tree.


Frangipani grows easily the say, like gumbo limbo, just stick it in the ground and up it comes. We shall see.


This one started as a naked branch stuck in a pot and it's doing nicely, as seen in the yellow blooms above.


The house is small enough that there is enough offset around the building to allow lots of greenery.


These bushes at the front are yielding flowers and fruit. I keep finding fragile ripe mulberries dangling off the little tree.


They stain my fingers and taste delicious, slightly tart and fresh.


It's all decoration with vines creeping everywhere can get them to grow.


It's a refuge from the glare of the sunshine outside, though in wonder what happens to these plants in the event we get hit by a hurricane in the summer...


My motorcycle is comfortably in the shade...


...as is my dog. Cheyenne loves the cement floor under the house.


This is how she supervises my gardening efforts.



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Deer Cudjoe

I took Cheyenne to the Spain Boulevard for an evening walk and noticed this sign for the first time. I wondered if I just hadn't noticed it previously, but I was sure it was new.


The date on the back from Monroe County Public Works was December last year so it is as new as it looks. Why the fascination? I knew key deer have been seen on the Torch Keys but I had no idea they have made it this far from Big Pine. Can it be true?


I like this spot, especially in summer when most of the residents and traffic are gone Up North.


Cheyenne rooted around as usual and stuck to the shady bits as ninety degrees is a bit warm for a small dog in a heavy fur coat.


The newspaper has carried a lot of comments from people outraged by idiots running their dogs on baking sidewalks in this weather. I know there are lots of imbeciles out there and some poor dogs have to suffer their stupidity.


Cheyenne is in honorable retirement with me, and she gets to do what she wants. While she did that I checked out the foliage.


Sea grapes Promising a nice harvest this summer. I really enjoy the fruit on my trees at my home, the grapes that the birds don't eat first and now I've also read about an infusion you can make with the leaves which apparently is a cure-all for whatever ails you. I'll have to try making sea grape tea when I'm bored this summer. What the leaves below are, I have no idea. As usual.


Someone made a doggy gesture in the little park once upon a time, but the drinking water bowl seems to have been dry for a while.


A happy dog in retirement looks like this.


And not a key deer in sight.



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