The Golden Van

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Saddle Sore

I just got back from a quick round trip to Lake City, 1012 miles (1600 kms at least) in 20 hours and 51 minutes from my house. I hope the Iron Butt people are impressed when I send them all my receipts and log and witness forms and on and on and on. Check their website if you've not heard of them. They are maniacs and motorcycle nerds all rolled up into one, so what they will do with me heaven only knows.
http://www.ironbutt.com/about/default.cfm

I am in surprisingly good fettle but want to eat and sleep and not download pictures right now. The Bonneville was perfect, but I did learn that cruising at 75+ miles per hour (120km/h) sucks up the gas at the rate of 40 miles per gallon (16 km/liter) instead of my usual 43-45.
zzzzzz
zzzzzz
kiss my iron butt.

Golfing Animals

It was on College Road I got the idea that perhaps the golf course had more than one story in it. I parked the wife's Vespa on the shoulder and noticed a mallard duck enjoying the water overflowing from the abundantly irrigated golf course next door.

The duck was camera shy and ducked under the fence and waddled off before I could turn my squeeze box on.

Of ducks there were quite a few luxuriating in the thick grass around the course:

The inevitable rooster, one of Key West's free range birds that tourists love to photograph. http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2008/10/key-west-chickens.html , this time lording it at the edge of the golf course:

And iguanas, the vegetarians that eat vegetation with a rapacity that equals that of the most brutal lawn mower.

It is annoying to think that this infestation occurred when some bored pet owner released these lizards into the wild where they flourished and went forth and multiplied. Some people find them fascinating and charming, and while I don't wish them harm directly (though I have thought of getting an air gun to protect my crops), they are bizarre.

Iguanas are skittish creatures, always on the look out and ready to scamper off if they even think they sense the possibility of danger.

They do get run over from time to time but there are far too many of them to let natural roadway selection cull the herd. Then there is this Florida native and I can't remember if it's an isis, osiris or a member of the heron family, or even an ibis. I am not a naturalist by inclination.

They carry out the same insect eating functions as chickens but they do it with a silent delicacy and grace that chickens can only dream about. And here are more mallard ducks, ducks that don't quack bless them, strutting through the grass by Highway One.

Checking me out across the bike path.

while overhead I heard the cooing of a delightful mourning dove. It was apparently not as impressed by me as I was by it. It left abruptly:

Here is another shot of the bike path paralleling more or less, the Overseas Highway through Stock Island.

Which is home to other forms of wildlife:

Who needs changes of season and yellowing leaves when you have all this greenery and sunshine.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Earthbox

Sometimes it's worthwhile having friends, even if they live in New Mexico. Bruce (2009 Triumph Tiger) and Celia wrote to let me know that winter is closing in on Santa Fe and they are putting away their Earthboxes, which is about the time Key West residents start thinking about planting.

Bruce told me about these planters he had researched and I was keen to try them. However by the time he was planting his, our growing season was pretty much over as the heat of summer bore down upon us. It is actually possible to grow stuff in summer I think but it will take some more practice with judicious use of shade in the hottest months. My key lime tree did splendidly and we squeezed limes into our drinks all summer long. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I planted some broccoli seeds and bell pepper seeds and we decided it was time to try transplanting them. Into our brand new Earthboxes. The first thing was removing all the labels stuck to the boxes including the extremely difficult to remove label stuck on the screen that fits across the bottom of the box. There is a place in hell for whoever thought to stick an advertising label here:

My wife got the hair dryer on it and I peeled with my finger tips and a knife blade and eventually we got almost all of it off. Had someone from Earthbox been on my deck at the time they would have been lucky to have escaped with their scalp. Then I stuck the casters on the bottom so we can roll the planter around at will, and very nicely they work too, especially as tow of them have brakes to prevent ruanways...

We bought the planters from the helpful people around Mile Marker 100 in Key Largo, known as Holiday RV's (305 451-4555) and at around $65 a pop for the organic models we were glad to see they came with all necessary stuff, as we shall see, for a season's planting.

The Earthbox is a clever idea, as it supposedly waters itself from a reservoir in the bottom of the box. The screen keeps the earth from falling into the water and the whole shebang regulates itself thanks to a small hole drilled above the floor. When one pours in too much water the excess flows out here, indicating the reservoir is full. And that is that for watering, the plants absorb as much moisture as they need on their terms .

It seems the plants water themselves thanks to some form of osmosis where the piles of dirt in the corners stay moist in the water reservoir and wick the water up to the roots:

All the gardener has to do is keep the reservoir filled using the black tube wedged into one corner. And to start the process fill the bottom of the box with about one and a half watering cans to get the water to flow out of the overflow hole...

It's really no hard to assemble the Earth Box as long as you have a couple of gallons of water and one and a half large bags of potting mix (not, for some reason, potting soil). Don't ask me, I just do as I'm told. And there are easy to follow instructions on line at http://www.earthbox.com/
and my wife printed them out so we could follow them step by step the first time out.

With the screen in place and soil in the corners and all nice and wet we simply piled dirt on top of the screen not minding if some fell through into the water below.

And then there is a little white packet to open with something called dolomite which gets spread around like snowflakes:

It's all part of the Earthbox package and we spread it around, my wife and I before mixing some more dirt on top and moistening it down.

Once the box is full of nicely moistened earth one makes a little mound down the middle and fills it with the contents of the second packet which is fertilizer. The idea is that the fertilizer will propagate itself for the entire growing season and it sits in the middle of the planter where it won't get wet,which means you can't use water soluble fertilizers. Like I said, I prefer using the supplies that come directly from Earthbox on the theory they know what they are doing.

So by this stage we have a plastic Earthbox loaded with water and dirt and half a dozen seedlings planted and ready to go.

Here's the other trick part of the Earthbox, not only does it water itself, it also weeds itself. It comes with a plastic cover, white side out for hot climates, summer in Florida or Arizona, say, or black side out for cooler climates. With the cover in place and some dastardly difficult holes to cut for the plants to stick out you have one completed Earthbox planter:

The cover keeps the rain off the fertilizer an prevents weeds from growing and with just some water to to fill the reservoir from time to time the plants should grow on their own.

Earthbox recommends 6 to 8 hours of sun a day, but I am going to keep the box partly shaded to start with as the sun is hot but so far we seem to have lift off.

We filled two boxes with our first batch of seedlings and I have high hopes for them especially as they should be away from the deprivations of the iguanas which did huge damage to my summer beans, wrecking the bed completely. I hope that up here with some judicious application of anti-iguana repellent on the stairs leading to the deck, my plants will grow in peace. We have three more boxes to fill including one with a trellis supplied by Earthbox to grow some beans. I m looking forward to seeing this work.

Here is the completed box en route to it's alloted, partially shaded corner. and not one picture of a Triumph Bonneville included.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Mallory Preparations

Work continues apace (I hope) on the new docks at Mallory Square, looking out across the Key West harbor. I arrived rather early at Mallory Square for the sunset celebrations to have started so I wandered around taking pictures of the people gathered for what was to come:

These are all props for the various acts that entertain the crowds on the square as the sun approaches the horizon.

The material doesn't look promising but you might be surprised by the quality of some of the acts. The set up preparations entrance some visitors:

The sunset celebration is a curious thing in it's organization. The square is actually leased by a non profit organization which issues permits to the performers.

It's actually a very well orchestrated gathering, despite appearances to the contrary.

Many of the acts have been around for a while and the performers can earn very decent livings here. To the order of buying homes, sending children to college and all the usual middle class catastrophes.

Not forgetting Key west is where we are and there are always the usual insalubrious hangers on hoping for crumbs to slip off the tip laden tourist tables:

This guy was amusing himself singing Jimmy Buffet numbers. He couldn't have been all bad as I recognized the well worn grooves of a call to change latitudes and attitudes wafting over the square.

And I wasn't the only tourist wandering around taking pictures:

I snagged a picture of the ship without the good citizen's wife.

It's not just acts performing at Mallory Square as the sun goes down. they sell artifacts and dust catchers, food and (non alcoholic drinks. I was quite taken by this lady's flamingo:

Nothing to see here, m'bubba... just friends talking and hanging out.

Which doesn't I suppose, include the square, luckily:

I know it's a tourist gathering and we are all supposed to turn our noses up at such things but Mallory Square is worth seeing at sunset and deciding for yourself if you like the crowds and the acts and the stuff for sale.